221 replies to this topic

[knighteyes]

Ok, I'll do that. Don't panic if I shout for help

[Chasarsis]

Workin on the main character guy. I did a couple thumbnails and found a few ideas that I like that I'll combine for him. From left to right (mebbe a combo of 2, 3, and 5. With maybe something from 4) Still lookin into how I need to break up the model for unreal. Depending on how that goes, I might just make multiple parts to interchange for players


And quick zb sketch of the head.



More to come!

Edited by Chasarsis, 24 June 2008 - 06:26 PM.

[Darknet]

Wow it look good. Nice Face design.

[xiongmao]

It looks really good !! good job
the face sounds familiar, looks like one in Metal Gear Solid ?

[Chasarsis]

Ha, wouldn't surprise me. I've been seeing raiden alot lately

[ambershee]

Looking pretty sharp. Definitely heading in a good direction. As for breaking the mesh up, I don't believe this may be necessary at all, so long as it fits the correct skeleton. We don't have any plans on implementing a custom character system, although it may be possible if we look into it - I should imagine it is and we might have time for it. UT3 players are broken down in a fairly simple manner. I believe Geodav has written tutorials governing this system someplace.

[ambershee]

Alright then people - had enough time off after the 3 week project? We'll probably give DataRun a good kick back into action in the next few days. I am currently in the process of assessing the current design, and trying to both mature it and make it more coherent by more closely tying features together.

What are our current thoughts on the design?

How can we tie the features together?

I'm currently thinking we need to tie in the scoring system, to ensure that it's not just a time attack - but also allows the player to keep scoring points as they progress through the environment; a solid scoring system that the player will have increased by keeping multipliers from bonuses, and when the level is completed, results in a scoring screen, accompanied by all the statistics, cumulated into a proper final score.

I'm also looking more into the visual / audio side of things - I've not gone too far, but I think we'll need to remove the physical weapons, and instead animate the character to use his abilities personally; which makes more sense in the context of only being able to use certain tools in marked areas.

I also want to expand the dynamic evil system, as this is a very strong visual system with a lot of potential to be tied into the game more strongly. My current thoughts are to keep the dynamic sky and the post processing, as these are obviously critical to player feedback. I think we should implement a stronger fade up / down system to used timed ramping up and down so that we have smooth transitions. I've also been looking into adding in audio post processing and dynamic ambient noise; so that when the player is doing well, we'll have very little ambient noise save for some light wind and perhaps birdsong when appropriate, over the top of the music track used for the level, very mellow, and all game audio would be very clear and easy to hear. As the player starts to do worse, the backing music will begin to give away to a stronger ambient noise, preferably more unsettling with a much harder processing; lots of reverb, distortion and muted noises. I'll knock up a prototype as an experiment for that soon.

[xiongmao]

Hi, I'm back
I take a look at the Dynamic Evil System video, it's sounds great (the video is a bit long ) anyway atmosphere changing according to player health is a really good idea !!
As the mod takes place in a Tron like world, we could create some futuristic gauges for health and some graphs. We should also implement a radar (something like sonar in submarine showing Firewall, enemies, tables, etc, ...).
I like the idea to remove all weapons (does it mean, that we "only" remove weapon mesh and replace them by some pawn animation and keep weapon firing mode and effects ?)

We need to update wiki, see what has to be done, to be finished and what is done.
I'd like to work on physics (weapon + pawn movements + world interaction + CustomActors) and on the radar (if we keep this idea).
If we consider Modb as the front page of our mod, it could be interesting that everyone with a new working feature update Modb with a picture or a video.

Last Thing: Phase 2 October the 17th

Let's go guys

Ps: My girlfriend is on holidays so I don't have much time the evening ....

[Darknet]

great! I hope we can get started a bit. I am working the some basic models for on ground building and some other stuff. To improve more stuff.

[ambershee]

As the mod takes place in a Tron like world, we could create some futuristic gauges for health and some graphs. We should also implement a radar (something like sonar in submarine showing Firewall, enemies, tables, etc, ...).

I was thinking that there would be no HUD or similar information available - we should use visual cues in the world only to confer information to the player; Dynamic Evil System confers health / time remaining in the level, and can additionally be tied further into the gameplay by means of critical or environment objects that may potentially only be present in the evil or good worlds.

I like the idea to remove all weapons (does it mean, that we "only" remove weapon mesh and replace them by some pawn animation and keep weapon firing mode and effects ?)

This is correct; the weapon meshes are removed, and the third person animations are created suitably. I hope this is feasible. Additionally, it'll still be context based on world location through volumes; indicated visually by the emissive part of the player material; parts will glow the correct colour dependent on what weapon / tool is available.


As it happens, my girlfriend is about to move in with me for a few weeks, so she'll also be on hand to do any photography, graphic or texture work we might need, if possible.

[ambershee]

As an update, the video system is all working nicely. I was going mad, because it turns out that if you use a bink video file with sound, it actually plays the sound when the material is loaded. Very confusing - and totally uncontrollable, as there is no way to control the movie texture file in the code. Put an audioless video in and a simple stock sound file, seems to work nicely.

I've spotted an issue with the blasted dynamic evil system that I'm having trouble tracking down. The system works perfectly with the test tool, scrolling up and down through various states - but when you let the player take damage conventionally, or gain health through pickups, it's not quite right; it's losing or gaining a few points somewhere, which isn't being accounted for, and as a result, the system is darkening too quickly, and when healing back to full health, it can't go all the way back to the 'perfect' state.

Humbug.

[ambershee]

I've uploaded source and example content packages that I used to make the little demo map in the video.

The important classes are the DynamicEvilMesh, which is used the same way as static meshes, but it has materials that have a dynamic property, called 'Evil' that the code looks for. You can see loads of examples in the content packages on how it can be used, such as with volumetric shaders for fake lighting cones, interpolating between different textures and such like. It's a very flexible and powerful system, and I'm sure there are shit loads of things more you could do with it!

There is also the DynamicSound, which can be dropped into place as an ambient sound. You can then specify the minimum value at which it kicks in, and the maximum when it stops. It will play at full volume between those two points. IIRC, it uses a number between 0 and 100, so if you always want it to play until it is evil, or only want it to play when it is; use values higher or lower than this.

Finally, there is DynamicVideoMesh and DynamicVideoTrigger. A DynamicVideoMesh is a static mesh, but you can specify which material index will play the video (for example, John's billboard has two materials, but only one wants to play the video). The DynamicVideoTrigger is a volume, when the player enters it, all videomeshes will play the associated audio (soundcue) and video with that trigger. It can also be set to only work once.

http://rapidshare.co...ontent.zip.html

[ambershee]

A progress update, I'm currently working on dynamically evil volumes for affecting movement, for example to represent liquids, wind and such that may appear and disappear as the world changes. I'm nearly done knocking together a simple system, then I'm going to move on and look at the grapple again, as this is probably important for player movement.

Can someone look at the pawn wall-dodging, and find out why only the first wall dodge animates, and dodges after that don't, until the player hits the floor? Might be an easy fix, but will probably take some looking into.

[ambershee]

As requested, the original map I used to demonstrate the dynamic evil system in the video. Let me know if you still have issues with it John.

Attached Files

•  DM_DynamicTest.zip   283.37KB   224 downloads

Edited by ambershee, 06 August 2008 - 06:33 PM.

[Darknet]

Sweet it work in game mode ^^)>.

[Chasarsis]

Slow but going. High res version of the character so far.

Edited by Chasarsis, 08 August 2008 - 10:56 PM.

[Darknet]

That is nice. ^^ still need to work on the leg that is bit off some reason.

[ambershee]

And I'm back.

Storyboards are attached - this is a loose representation of the final script to demonstrate how the player progresses through the game and story.

Notably, for MSUC phase two, we'd be only looking at the Prologue - so there's not much to worry about; a simple interface room (which I can do), a tutorial level and the DATA-Structure challenge map.

Should have some new code coming soon. I've modified Evil; it's now part of the game and can be also set using kismet - as the non challenge levels demand scripted sequences, and not the constant countdown we see in the challenges.

I've also been working on camera effects in kismet. Hopefully, we'll soon be able to do a lot, lot more with special effects and the camera. I'm also working on a 'fire system' for employment in game puzzle sequences.

Attached Files

•  dr_storyboards.doc   110KB   226 downloads

[Darknet]

Good story plot still not sure which area lead to the next plot.