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Work in Progress / RPG - Geisha House. Image intensive!!

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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 23rd May 2008 13:54 Edited at: 23rd May 2008 13:57
@Indie Rock 13 -
Just place the weapon at the LIMB POSITION X/Y/Z at the angle of the LIMB DIRECTION X/Y/Z. If the handle of the weapon is correctly positioned at 0,0,0 at the right angle then it will be placed comfortably in his hand. If not then you'll be stabbing yourself as you run. You could glue the weapon to that limb, but then you lose collision detection, and there are some other weird issues with it.

Glad you like the boss editor

Quote: "I just made a test sample where i loaded a character and an item, and then i could shuffle through possible limb positions and finally i found the correct one"

That's nice? You could download my model viewer and it will take care of stuff like that for you.

Thanks for the support guys. Fear not, Geisha House isn't going anywhere. I've just been so busy. I've changed jobs, I'm teaching Microsoft Office courses. The courses are starting from scratch so I've been working to get all of my curriculum together. I'm about halfway done. Geisha House has been crawling while this has been going on.

So that's the bad news. Good news comes in two parts: I've made significant progress on Geisha House since I posted last. I've nearly completed a complete recode of the resource management and entity loading systems. The coupling in my project is rather high so it's been difficult. Whereas the game used to take a ridiculous amount of time to load, something like 5 minutes I think, it completely loads in less than a minute on my system (which isn't all that fast). I turned all textures into entities, so any object that has the same texture as another object will share the same image rather than loading it twice when you load the objects.

It also takes less memory because it's loading less stuff. And every texture is in DDS format now. PNG files take a retarded amount of time to load, I've posted the speed comparisons on the forum before. Especially a 1024x1024 image. I used to think that Psionic's models were just always going to load slowly. Not the case. With DDS textures they load almost instantly.

Geisha House is stable with all of the changes. I did break the items and weapons though. That's my second order of business.

The other good news is that once I get all of my curriculum together the classes will be on auto pilot. They'll be paying me to code (ha ha). So get this - Geisha House will be federally funded. Who would have thought? I make fraud, waste, and abuse look good

I've pretty much cut the forum out of my day, I was using about half of my free coding time on here tormenting dumb people and helping the cool ones. Since I have less time and I don't watch TV anyway, I had to free up some time. Sorry TGC

I'll check on this thread every now and then. Real updates won't be posted in here though. When I'm ready I'll start a new thread - Iteration 3 of the big GH. Later!!


Come see the WIP!
tha_rami
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Posted: 23rd May 2008 14:46
IT, IS, ALIVE! (And as usual, using fraud, abuse and the like).

Nice to see you around, Cash. The improvements sound good and I, and I think with me a lot of others, can't wait to see iteration 3.


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Diggsey
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Posted: 23rd May 2008 18:51
Nice
I just hope I'm not one of the dumb ones

Inspire
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Posted: 23rd May 2008 19:01
I am psyched to play this!

Great to hear from you.

Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 6th Jun 2008 00:36 Edited at: 6th Jun 2008 00:58
This isn't a real update, or even a very good one, but I'm very happy about it. Items and weapons are finally fixed!! That was the catalyst of this entire bloody update. Thing is I ended up changing almost everything. Sound, animations, particles, items, etc. were all changed to entity systems rather than numbered lists. The sounds and animations are still a little screwy, but stable. The weapons and items have been combined into one sexy entity group and they almost work right, I just have to fix the damage calculation.



Combat works perfectly though, I can kick some skeleton ass with my bare hands.


Come see the WIP!

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Guyra
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Posted: 7th Jun 2008 00:13
Looks great, do want to play it!
Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 9th Jun 2008 11:06
I'm unbreaking everything one system at a time. I've finished items and weapons now and everything works beautifully. Before the cross functionality between weapons and items was complex, so each lacked the other's specific functionality. For example, I'd coded a well designed system for holding weapons in your hand. However, if you wanted to hold a regular item (e.g., a cup) there was no system in place. I had a crazy buggy work-around that created a dummy weapon and placed it in your hand. It was buggy because I hated it and didn't want to code an identical system for item holding.

Now everything works as it should. Also, NPCs can put things in their pack. If they knock you down and you drop your sword and shield they'll pick them up, the same will go for any object of value. If they are unarmed they'll arm a weapon from their pack. Now I can assign newly created objects to a gump, character or static, so an NPC can start with whatever items I want. Before I'd manually assign weapons to NPCs but it was static in nature, until they died and their weapons fell to the ground.

I know it seems like all of this should be in an RPG already, but it wasn't. I'd coded myself into a corner in a number of ways because I didn't foresee how extraordinarily complex this would become especially without planning my entities better.

No video, but think of it this way - all the time I'd have spent making a presentable video has been spent on coding. We all win!


Come see the WIP!
TechLord
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Posted: 9th Jun 2008 13:59 Edited at: 9th Jun 2008 14:02
Hi Cash,

Are you using BlueGUI for creating your custom tools?

TechLord
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Posted: 9th Jun 2008 13:59
Quote: "I'd coded myself into a corner in a number of ways because I didn't foresee how extraordinarily complex this would become especially without planning my entities better."

I'm guilty of this myself. Which is why I'm taking time out to design a lot of the engine on paper. The design has changed so many times I cannot count, and I have yet to start coding any major engine systems. Your work and progress is inspirational.

flickenmaste
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Posted: 9th Jun 2008 18:29
well it keeps gettting better..keep it up!

What you know wont hurt you- except me
google merxitygames so join our forums!
Bizar Guy
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Posted: 9th Jun 2008 22:15
What you're working on sounds far more important than a vid. This all sounds really nice.

Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 10th Jun 2008 19:04
@TechLord -
I've been using Blue GUI for my custom tools, but I'm going to drop it in favor of something else for the editor. I'll be combining all of my tools into a tabbed Office 07 style interface. The problem with Blue, besides resizing problems and having the worst editor ever, is how unresponsive the controls become when the framerate drops below 30. My editor wouldn't necessarily run that slow, but you never know. There's going to be a lot going on.

I've done experiements linking a DBP window with a PureBasic executable. That's worked well. However, now that Mistrel has created his PurePlugin DBP library I think that I'll use that. I just need to buy it now. That would be even better than using DGDK because I'll still have access to every plugin.

Planning is so important. I did plan the engine out in some detail before I started coding, I don't think I'd have been able to get this far had I not. When I first started by 'RPG Engine' thread I didn't plan the engine and I eventually got to a place where I couldn't do much. But, even having planned it out, there are just some things you don't realize until you start coding. The changes have also included some technological additions, including Dark Physics, Barnski's LUA, and shaders.

@flickenmaste -
Thanks

@Bizar Guy -
I'm glad that you agree. I like making the videos, but that's a mini project all on its own. I will make more, but not right now.

*************************************************************


I've still been fixing things, and adding to my NPC inventory management system. Now an NPC will pick up a weapon, and they'll arm a weapon if they aren't holding one (I already said that). The problem with that was that if I hit someone with my shield and caused them to drop their weapon while they were down on the ground someone else would steal their weapon. Now if someone picks up a weapon and their partner (of the same alignment) is missing theirs then the unarmed NPC can take the extra weapons/shields from the other NPC and use them. That smoothed things out a bit, I'd end up with two out of three skeletons completely unarmed during a fight and the last one holding all of the weapons.

I'm also going to make a default weapon, for instance if you attack a completely unarmed character and there's no weapon lying around then they'll be able to produce a knife from thin air and use it. I'll limit it to one knife per character though, it would be pretty silly if you kept knocking it out of their hand to be mean and they kept producing new ones.

I'm also allowing non standard items to be used as weapons. If there's a bone, for instance, an NPC can grab it and attack you with it. They could do the same with a bucket if they wanted to, though the damage that you can do with it will be next to nothing. The only thing that will be compromised is the character's paperdoll. I'm not going to make graphics for anything except proper weapons, so they paperdoll character just won't be holding anything.

Well, time to cook, then to program. Later!


Come see the WIP!
nackidno
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Posted: 10th Jun 2008 19:44
Very nice, that a NPC can pickup items to use against you is a very good idea. I'd like to see a video demostration for this.

- Elias, Damezean, Nackidno, Wonderboy

AntocGames - http://antocgames.se.nu/
Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 11th Jun 2008 19:23 Edited at: 30th Aug 2008 18:32
I'll release a video eventually, I just need to fix everything that I broke first. Next on the to-do list: speech and RTS structures. RTS structures are just destructable objects, such as a building, fire ring, or even a fighting practive dummy (which is indestructable).

The speech is broken because I switched from Unity to Barnski's LUA plugin and Barnski's handles nested tables in a different, and much more intuitive way, than Unity.

Today I'm going to expand on what I've implemented with the NPCs grabbing weapons. My thought is this - if someone was trying to attack me with his sword and I knocked it out of his hands I'd do my damndest to remove that weapon from his use. Anything else is just dumb braindead NPC behavior. They'll be using a stick and a sword can be lying at their feet and they'll never know.

I've implemented a system that allows an NPC to look for a type of item. I might have 1000 items in the game, so cycling through the items to find a particular one would be bad. Instead I've added 'item classes', just a way to group items. For instance, an NPC job can be to turn on 'lights'. Every light needs a unique handle and can share display names but won't necessarily. There could be a 'table lantern' and a 'street lantern'. Both are classified as 'light'. Using LUA's named tables I can tell an NPC to 'findItem(char,distance#,class$,exclude$)' and they'll locate the nearest item of that class. So if their job includes keeping the lights on every time they see that a light has been turned off they'll turn it back on. Same can be applied to anything - keeping doors closed, opening windows, etc.

I use this system for the NPCs as well. Every now and then they'll scan the area for certain items. They see it, they'll grab it. If they have it, they'll use it.

One behavior I added was when the NPC grabbed a weapon, if the damage it dealt was better than the weapon they are holding they'll switch to the new weapon. So if you lose your sword in a fight, tough luck. Time to run away and regroup.

The only thing I'm missing is ragdolls. I want you to knock someone down and watch them flop on the ground like you just zapped them with a tazer and steal their weapon. I feel that it adds a strategic element to fighting. You can fight an enemy that's more powerful than you by potentially disarming them. The only thing is that it's harder to disarm a higher level enemy than a lower level one. In a fight your shield is your friend.

I just need to add some behaviors to the item grabbing to make it visible to the user. Right now when you drop your sword the enemy scoops it up immediately. They might arm it immediately as well, but not always. After I fix speech I'll have each enemy say something when they steal or share something to that effect.


Come see the WIP!

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castek
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Posted: 22nd Jun 2008 01:04
Wow this is really cool! ( i know that it was started a long time ago but i just found it) well keep it up! also do you know when this might be done?

"The Beginning is the end."
Alucard94
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Posted: 25th Jun 2008 00:44
This is so awesome it isn't even funny

Awesome, as always. Have been following this for a while.

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Michael S
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Posted: 16th Jul 2008 06:01
So if you where to guess, when do you think we will see a demo of the game out?

Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 16th Jul 2008 22:16 Edited at: 30th Aug 2008 18:32
That depends. I'm dangerously close to finishing the engine, I've just finished coding the final flag system now I just have to make it work right.

After that it just comes down to how much help I get making the game. I created a thread in Geek Culture on the subject but there was surprisingly little interest and no follow up by the potential participants. We'll see.


Come see the WIP!

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Alucard94
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Posted: 16th Jul 2008 22:55
Quote: "After that it just comes down to how much help I get making the game. I created a thread in Geek Culture on the subject but there was surprisingly little interest and no follow up by the potential participants. We'll see.
"

That seems very odd, although I haven't really seen your thread, will look for it.


Michael S
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Posted: 17th Jul 2008 05:58
I never saw a thread. Must have slipped under my Radar.
Anyway I am really looking forward to your game.
If you need any help just ask and I will see what I can do.

Green Gandalf
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Posted: 18th Jul 2008 02:18 Edited at: 18th Jul 2008 02:19
Quote: "I never saw a thread. Must have slipped under my Radar."


Yes, I wondered which one he meant as well. Perhaps CC2 could point to the one he means?

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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 18th Jul 2008 08:45 Edited at: 30th Aug 2008 18:31
Sorry, I wasn't clear. It's the send thread on the list 'Dialog writing for Geisha House.'


Come see the WIP!

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Yusaku
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Posted: 30th Jul 2008 02:59
Wtf, a good looking game in DarkBASIC? Bloody hell, it looks brilliant!

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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 5th Aug 2008 03:55 Edited at: 30th Aug 2008 18:31
Quote: "Wtf, a good looking game in DarkBASIC? Bloody hell, it looks brilliant!"

You discredit the community. DBP is very capable, it just comes down to our individual skills and the amount of work that we put into something. There are lots of good looking games made with
DB and DBP.

I've been in Amsterdam for the past several days. I can't even tell you about what I can't tell you but it was a lot of fun. If you're going I'll tell you where you need to stop while you're there.

I've got a week off of work, starting tomorrow I'm going to invest some serious time into GH.


Come see the WIP!

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jason p sage
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Posted: 5th Aug 2008 04:50
AMSTERDAM + VACATION = ...OmG - WOW - AWESOME!

Good for you man!

Darth Kiwi
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Posted: 5th Aug 2008 14:24
I had a go at dialogue writing in that thread. Though the conversation was a little on the long side...

tha_rami
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Posted: 6th Aug 2008 11:33
Amsterdam is nothing special for a Dutch guy, lol. Why didn't you drop by?


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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 30th Aug 2008 18:49 Edited at: 31st Aug 2008 16:23
Hey all, I know this thread seems dead. The thread is more or less, but GH is just fine. I hate having to say that, but I just haven't had the time to properly keep this thread up. Plus most of my work has been with coding and as such there isn't that much to show that you haven't seen already.

I've fixed everything that used to work plus I've added much more. The scripting system is solidly in place - now the game can be controlled entirely with Lua script. I've exposed every function in my engine to the scripting language. Most of the functions aren't useful, such as initialization functions, but I figured it was best to expose it all. No sense in limiting the power of the scripting. Plus you have access to every DBP command and plugin command. Barnski's Lua plugin took care of the DBP commands for me, it was a nightmare to get all of the functions exposed properly. Any event that can happen can call a game flag, and the game flag can have commands that execute when the right conditions are met. The command can be a Lua function which can do anything at all that you code it to. You don't have to script if you don't want to, the game can be built enitrely with automatic behaviors.

There is one very last coding thing for me to do - to add NPC merchants. I've got the framework started, it's just a matter of putting it together.

I've been working on the rest of the game assets as well. I've nearly finished the village and one of the dungeons. Here is one of the dungeons, a catacomb of tombs.









The fires are missing, clearly. Lots of the objects were purchased from the FPSC store, others were made by me.

I'll likely show the village when it's done. Other than that I'm gunning to have the demo done before the convention.

There's big news too! I've found a private investor for Geisha House. I'll be able to contract out any assets that are not finished once I get the money.

Later all.


Come see the WIP!
Xenocythe
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Posted: 30th Aug 2008 18:52
Looking good Curtis.

3.11 We do not tolerate posts made for the purpose of putting down another forum member, group of members, religion, our company, our staff or any of our moderators, past or present.
Alucard94
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Posted: 30th Aug 2008 19:00
That's sweet, although I'd suggest darkening the texture of the chest in the second screenshot to make it blend in better.


Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 31st Aug 2008 16:24 Edited at: 1st Sep 2008 03:22
I'm going to repost this, as a new page has begun and there is now a problem with this thread. The demo will have a new thread, once it gets too big it just doesn't work correctly.

****************************************************************


Hey all, I know this thread seems dead. The thread is more or less, but GH is just fine. I hate having to say that, but I just haven't had the time to properly keep this thread up. Plus most of my work has been with coding and as such there isn't that much to show that you haven't seen already.

I've fixed everything that used to work plus I've added much more. The scripting system is solidly in place - now the game can be controlled entirely with Lua script. I've exposed every function in my engine to the scripting language. Most of the functions aren't useful, such as initialization functions, but I figured it was best to expose it all. No sense in limiting the power of the scripting. Plus you have access to every DBP command and plugin command. Barnski's Lua plugin took care of the DBP commands for me, it was a nightmare to get all of the functions exposed properly. Any event that can happen can call a game flag, and the game flag can have commands that execute when the right conditions are met. The command can be a Lua function which can do anything at all that you code it to. You don't have to script if you don't want to, the game can be built enitrely with automatic behaviors.

There is one very last coding thing for me to do - to add NPC merchants. I've got the framework started, it's just a matter of putting it together.

I've been working on the rest of the game assets as well. I've nearly finished the village and one of the dungeons. Here is one of the dungeons, a catacomb of tombs.









The fires are missing, clearly. Lots of the objects were purchased from the FPSC store, others were made by me.

I'll likely show the village when it's done. Other than that I'm gunning to have the demo done before the convention.

There's big news too! I've found a private investor for Geisha House. I'll be able to contract out any assets that are not finished once I get the money.

Later all.


Come see the WIP!

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Roxas
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Posted: 31st Aug 2008 16:55
Wow really good looking!

zzz
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Posted: 31st Aug 2008 19:14
Magnificent! Nice to hear that you have found a private investor, keep it up!

Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 1st Sep 2008 03:25 Edited at: 1st Sep 2008 03:26
Thanks guys

Here's a couple pictures of the gambling hall...





That's an antique slot machine against the wall, I spent a good portion of my day making that thing.


Come see the WIP!

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Deathead
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Posted: 1st Sep 2008 14:16
The FPSC models look out of place. But it looks good.


"Your greatest teacher is your harshest critic"-Butterfingers
Inspire
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Posted: 1st Sep 2008 19:01
I think all the models fit well together besides the stone ones (the fireplace, the bridge earlier on in this thread). It looks like the texture was just thrown on there.
Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 1st Sep 2008 23:59
Thanks. One problem with the models is the lighting, they use vertex lighting which isn't nearly as accurate as it needs to be. Shadows are only received if the vertices are blocked or receive light. I bet I can improve the lighting by increasing the resolution of the lightmap. On my new laptop it's super fast, so I'll try that out.

The bridge is weird. I'll fix that, that's just some box brushes I put together. I'll need to create a fireplace from scratch. That's a junk model from Arteria games.


Come see the WIP!
Inspire
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Posted: 2nd Sep 2008 03:45
This game looks excellent, by the way. I failed to mention that in my last post...
Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 2nd Sep 2008 19:15
Still looking great .


Alfa x
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Posted: 9th Sep 2008 16:18
Great indeed.
Have you planed any release dates?
Alfa x
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Posted: 9th Sep 2008 16:18 Edited at: 9th Sep 2008 16:21
Duplicated
DarkBasic Pro Guy
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Posted: 13th Sep 2008 03:59
I just checked this out as I was in the wip board, it was near the top and it had a large number of posts. The pictures all look fantastic and as for the video, awesome.

I'll check back every now and then to check progress. Good luck and great job so far!

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