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

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Steve J
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Posted: 25th Feb 2007 03:57
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any lady model yet?

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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 25th Feb 2007 16:08 Edited at: 25th Feb 2007 16:33
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@Kieran -
Quote: "as i said im offering tips to improve the game not make it look bad "

Constructive criticism is great, I definitely need it in order to make a quality game. The snake does need a touch of work, no doubt about that.

@Bizar Guy -
Hey, what's up! Glad to have you back in the Geisha House

Quote: "Nice vid and I'm really liking the new main character. The run animation looked pretty silly though, mostly because he was swinging his arms so much."

Are you talking about the gold knight? He's not really the main character, he's a placeholder until Psionic finishes my Colin Farrel guy. He'll be elsewhere in the game.

The run animation is a bit weird. The real main character won't use that same animation rig, so he'll look much better. I've got 5 different animation rigs to choose from for this game. I have to simplify because of my shadow casting system. That particular rig suits the average male warrior pretty well, except for the run animation. When Psionic finishes I'll have a 6th to use.

Quote: "Also, I noticed the sword seemed to lag behind his arm a bit when he swung it repeatedly. "

Yeah, it does that when I record video. Theoretically it shouldn't, but my theory isn't panning out, so I'll have a look at that. Ah, wait, I know what's going on!! I'm making an animation call directly after I position the weapon dummy cube!! Thanks for getting me thinking about it

Quote: "And why did the fire explode?"

Haha Magic?

Quote: "I liked how so much was destructible, but I know at least that my camp fires never come closer to exploding than a few sparks, until some moron tries to pour gasoline on it."

I'll probably just tone it down. I like how it looks, pretty impressive and all, but not very realistic. That was originally coded as a Warcraft 3-esque RTS building destruction system, for which it is more appropriate.

One thing that I definitely want is for everything to feel very dynamic. Most things will be destructible. Objects can be smashed, weapons will fall apart, certain enemies will be reduced to bones and rubble. I have a pretty freaking awesome debris management system in place right now. I just need to balance things so that they look right. It is probably much the same as having the main character smash a mop bucket and fireballs shoot out

Quote: "The amount of... everything is really impressive. There seems to be a big graphical update over the previous vid as well."

There is actually much more, I just haven't gotten around to properly integrating it into Geisha House yet. I will soon.

@Steve J-
Quote: "any lady model yet?"


Of course! I just have to add them. I have my old Bath girls, Chenak's awesome Asian girl, and the old hideous Geisha girls. I'm going to fix those hags though, with their weird squinty chalk white man faces. I'll replace their heads with something a bit more attractive.

@TEH_CODERER -
Quote: "Liking the PC! Will his armour be changeable? Like through buying new armour or looting corpses."

No, I'm afraid not. You'll be able to change weapons and shield and hold other items in your hand, but not armor. IF I make some money off of this game then I'll definitely put a system like that in place. I know exactly how I'll do it, I just don't want to do the work necessary right now.


Come see the WIP!
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Steve J
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Posted: 25th Feb 2007 19:35
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haha, so do fight them in the game? I dont exactly get the purpose of that, lol. And Do you have any lady poser model you said I could get for the render...? I have an awesome idea on making it look spooky (10% Transparent, with a glow effect..., would be ghostly, while you could still see details...)

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Kieran
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Posted: 26th Feb 2007 05:16 Edited at: 26th Feb 2007 05:17
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since you like constructive criticism, heres a little more tips

the game system looks too complicated, and maybe you can walk with something other than the mouse?

then again thats personal preference so its up to you

other than that its looking really good, especially the models i wish i could model that good, or at least get ones that good lol

anyways, hehe good luck with geisha house

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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 26th Feb 2007 08:23
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Quote: "the game system looks too complicated, and maybe you can walk with something other than the mouse?"

It's pretty easy to use. He walks wherever the mouse is pointing, as well as attacks. I copied the interface style from the Ultima 7-8 games. It really feels right to me. Plus, I added a GUI menu, so people won't have to learn any keyboard shortcuts if they don't want to.

Anyway, I'll add arrowkey control, but I don't think it will be very good for this type of game. Combat and movement will likely be a bit clunky.

I'm glad you like the models. I've done a lot of work and spent a lot of money to bring this all together


Come see the WIP!
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Kieran
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Posted: 26th Feb 2007 08:32
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sorry if my posting is getting irritating... but anyways, its no problem. I thought you were using a difficult arrow following interface where you have to click and the arrow keeps changing to tell you what to do etc, anyways the GUI sounds nice, as does the rest of the game. You should make a small menu inside your GUI that lets the player switch between arrowkeys, WASD and mouse follow modes.

anyways good luck

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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 26th Feb 2007 08:53
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Quote: "You should make a small menu inside your GUI that lets the player switch between arrowkeys, WASD and mouse follow modes."

Np at all

I'm not going to use WASD because it will interfere with my keyboard shortcuts. I'll also make it so that arrowkeys and mouse work together without having to switch.


Come see the WIP!
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Kieran
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Posted: 26th Feb 2007 18:15
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ok sounds good cash but if you use the arrowkeys while click on things to pick them up etc, isnt it going to move you somewhere?

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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 26th Feb 2007 18:18 Edited at: 26th Feb 2007 18:25
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Here is a short video showing some cool stuff...

High res, 9mb...

http://www.cashcurtis.com/videos/gh3.wmv


And the YouTube clip...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbLTwel4Wy0




Here is something crazy - normal mapping was broken in video 1. More specifically, it only worked for characters created that were not the first character of that type. Normal mapping for weapons was okay. I noticed it because I created two skeletons on the bridge. They are normal mapped, unlike the orcs. The difference was quite noticable. I'd done this because of my fancy culling system, when I moved offscreen and back on, my knight would end up getting normal mapped twice, or more. For each time he'd get normal mapping applied, he'd grow huge ghastly winglike appendages. It was terrible. So, my fix disabled mapping on the source object.

A testament to my awesome textures? Not sure. Anyway, sorted now!

I've added some other nice stuff, especially enemies falling to pieces. You'll notice some other things, like all of the green names popping up. That happens when you press the 'Control' key. That shows the name of every character and item on screen, in case you have trouble locating something. Control also allows you to pivot the camera. You never actually need to use it, but it is there for your convenience.

My next big update likely won't produce a video, but will allow for much more freedom in my video production. The two things I'll add are multiple shadow casting rigs, and multiple sound effect events. For example, when you get hit, it won't just play the hit sound. It will query the 'Human Hit' event, and will play a random sound from that resource. It could be a single sound, it could be one of 10. That will give wonderful variety to hit and impact sounds, as well as weapon swing sounds. I love LUA, it makes it all possible.

Until then my friends!

@Kieran -
Quote: "but if you use the arrowkeys while click on things to pick them up etc, isnt it going to move you somewhere?"

Yes it will. However, I assume that if someone has their hands on the keyboard moving the guy around they probably won't want to use the mouse at the same time.

What I'm going to do is have the Spacebar act as sort of an "action" key. It will primarily be used to open doors. It will also let you get up if you've been knocked out. And, if you are standing next to an object spacebar will pick it up for you. It will notify you, of course.

People might like that better than dragging things around. Totally up to the player, of course, and both systems will work fine together.


Come see the WIP!

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Alquerian
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Posted: 26th Feb 2007 19:04
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I like your interface how it is Cash, I wouldn't mess with it. The only thing that I didn't like is how touchy the bottom popup menu is. I think everything else is great, moving around and attacking etc.

Quit planning to make a game and make a game.
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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 26th Feb 2007 23:49
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Great vid. I love seeing the skeletons fall apart, and for once actually being able to pick up what they actually have on them. Oh! Does that mean coins will say spill out of the pockets of coin carrying individuals?

I'm sure you've noticed, but the bones kept wriggling around while they were on the ground.

About before, I was talking about the wip model you'd showed when I mentions the main character's looks. The placeholder's nice and all, But I much prefer the new one even in wip stage.

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Cian Rice
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Posted: 27th Feb 2007 00:12
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The combat looked a bit stiff in that last video but the other than that... daaamn...

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DrewG
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Posted: 27th Feb 2007 00:53
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Well, based from what I've seen, you've come a long way from when you first posted your original thread "RPG Engine" into a massive amount of script/code/ and the integrations of programs constantly being released from TGC. From what I read, every single program that costs (or is freeware) appears to be used in your game. I am hoping that your game will never be completed due to new softwares always coming out. Anyway, from a constructive critism point, if possible, I'd throw in some smoothing of the objects, that way your game looks neater and more professional from what it already is.

As you've heard thousands of times, keep up the good work.

-Drew

please forgive me about my forum name.
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DB newbie
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Posted: 27th Feb 2007 01:27
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good job.. you owned those bags of bones.


Come see the WIP!

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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 27th Feb 2007 02:59
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@Alquerian -
Quote: "I like your interface how it is Cash, I wouldn't mess with it. The only thing that I didn't like is how touchy the bottom popup menu is. I think everything else is great, moving around and attacking etc."

Cool I think it is pretty intuitive and easy to use. That bottom menu is a bit touchy, I'll probably fix that by adding a hover delay. You'll have to hover the mouse there for say 300 ms for it to pop up.

@Bizar Guy -
Quote: "Great vid. I love seeing the skeletons fall apart, and for once actually being able to pick up what they actually have on them. Oh! Does that mean coins will say spill out of the pockets of coin carrying individuals?"

Coins can definitely spill out, but at this point you can't pick them up. It will take me about 5 minutes to add the ability for people to drop items, which I'll promptly do. I think I'll just have enemies drop everything they're carrying when they die, that will look cool.

If you watch the high resolution video, you might notice that when the second skeleton dies, some of the first skeleton's bones vanish. Right now they drop debris, which is set up as an automatically recycle old pieces once you reach a certain number.

The bone wiggling problem should be easy to fix. Dark Physics has a serious scaling problem. I scaled the head and body to the right size in my modeling app, and they seem to play right. The bones are still being scaled way up, so I suspect that is the problem.

The new character should be done soon, Psionic works fast, and he should be finished with the mesh and on to animating it.

@Cian Rice -
Quote: "The combat looked a bit stiff in that last video but the other than that... daaamn..."

Hopefully things get a bit more fluid with the new main character. I'll see if I can add a bit more variety too.

@Sarcasm Stealth Squad -
Quote: "I am hoping that your game will never be completed due to new softwares always coming out. "

I do use a lot of plugins. That's what makes DBP good, plugins give DBP a lot of power. The plugins that I'm using allow GH to exist. From scripting to physics to particles to music, and many more, the plugins give GH the functionality necessary to look and work good.

I'm done upgrading though. Upgrade 6.4 would kill Geisha House, so I can't use any new products from TGC. It's a shame, really, but it is okay.

The only other plugin thing I will do is to rewrite my animation handling system in PurePlugin. I should get an instant FPS boost when I do. It is a rather intense block of code that gets called a lot each loop.

I would like to make the game do everything ever invented in the history of RPG games, but that's just not possible. I've decided where to draw the line, any more would just prevent me from finishing the game. And finish it I will

Hey Drew, you can use the GH sig, it's on the first page of this thread. It is what DB newbie is using.

@DB newbie -
Quote: "good job.. you owned those bags of bones."

Haha, for now They're really going to be level 8, but for the sake of the video I dumbed them down to level 3, which is much easier to deal with.


Come see the WIP!
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Ron Erickson
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Posted: 27th Feb 2007 03:21
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Very nice looking project Cash!

Quote: "I'm done upgrading though. Upgrade 6.4 would kill Geisha House, so I can't use any new products from TGC. It's a shame, really, but it is okay."


What happened in 6.4 that would kill the project?

EZrotate! TextureMax! Enhanced Animations! 3D Character Maker! (coming soon....)
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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 27th Feb 2007 04:53 Edited at: 27th Feb 2007 05:17
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Thanks Wolf!

Quote: "What happened in 6.4 that would kill the project?"

There are several bugs that have resulted from the update to the shader / camera systems. One of them is the clone object shutdown bug, in which you must first delete all cloned objects to exit your program. However, deleting objects is really slow, slower than with 6.3. There's also a bug with fog and shaded objects that didn't exist in 6.3. There's also a bug that affects transparency on some objects. I'm not sure if it would adversely affect the project, but it is possible.

It probably wouldn't kill Geisha House, but it would definitely cripple the project. 6.5 will probably fix it, so I'll wait and see.

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


I sorted that jiggly bone problem, and the bones look better now. DBP scaling is just ugly, and it has been that way since I start using DBP. I'll just continue to manually scale everything in Ultimate Unwrap.




Come see the WIP!

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DrewG
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Posted: 27th Feb 2007 16:20
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@ Cash
Alright, I changed my sig, and I posted my words wrong. OH well.

-Drew


Come see the WIP!
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Ron Erickson
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Posted: 27th Feb 2007 17:39
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Quote: "There are several bugs that have resulted from the update to the shader / camera systems. One of them is the clone object shutdown bug, in which you must first delete all cloned objects to exit your program. However, deleting objects is really slow, slower than with 6.3. There's also a bug with fog and shaded objects that didn't exist in 6.3. There's also a bug that affects transparency on some objects. I'm not sure if it would adversely affect the project, but it is possible."

Well, hopefully TGC is on top of this! I know that you were interested in implementing Enhanced Animations in one of your projects (I'm not sure if it is this one), and I'd hate for you not to be able to do that because of other bugs

EZrotate! TextureMax! Enhanced Animations! 3D Character Maker! (coming soon....)
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Lucifer
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Posted: 27th Feb 2007 22:47
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this game really looks great!! good work! i really like it..


i like pancakes..
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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 28th Feb 2007 17:20 Edited at: 28th Feb 2007 17:21
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Here's an update. It isn't so major visually, but a lot has happened.

(This link might not work for a bit, I'm going to bed...)
High Res video...
http://www.cashcurtis.com/videos/gh4.wmv


YouTube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6IzPBxaJDQ




If you pay attention, you might notice that sound effects aren't as repitious as they used to be. There used to be a single sound per event for each character, like one hit sound for humans. That was pretty annoying. I totally revamped the system so that you specify a group for an event. So now, a human getting hit has 20 sounds to choose from. The awesome thing is that I can add as many as I want to via script, and because I dynamically create the data structures with LUA, I never have to iterate through the lists to get a random sound. I use a similar system for the music.

The result is that you probably won't notice the sound effects because they won't be annoying.

I did very little coding otherwise in this update, mostly media. I made new debris and set up new characters. I even brought a Dark Matter 1 character back to life (haha) with a new texture and animation rig. He doesn't look half bad, and he's great as a minion of the undead. I have Psionic's dwarf back in the game. I mug him for his lunch money and his hidden stash of rubies.


Come see the WIP!

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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 28th Feb 2007 17:35 Edited at: 28th Feb 2007 17:35
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I couldn't resist a double post...




Come see the WIP!

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Peter H
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Posted: 28th Feb 2007 17:46
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everything looks really good on that knight except his skin... which looks disgusting (looks like the skin you'd find on a dead guy, pale and shiny)

One man, one lawnmower, plenty of angry groundhogs.
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wildbill
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Posted: 28th Feb 2007 17:47
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This is truely coming along nicely. I wish I could make myself dedicated to a project, like you have been.

I have one question though. Is that the hero bleeding or the skeletons? Skeletons bleeding seems strange.
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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 28th Feb 2007 23:51
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Woohoo! Coins!!!

I love the sounds now that they're not repedative, and it looked very... profetional. Every time you unpdate, this looks better and better.

And the new main character looks really awesome. I agree that his skin is a bit too dark, but I think the main problem is that weird squigly line between his eyes, whatever that is.

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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 1st Mar 2007 01:50
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@Peter H -
Quote: "everything looks really good on that knight except his skin... which looks disgusting (looks like the skin you'd find on a dead guy, pale and shiny)"

Yeah, that is pretty gross, I'll fix it. That was the very first DBP test run.

@wildbill -
Thanks!
Quote: "I have one question though. Is that the hero bleeding or the skeletons? Skeletons bleeding seems strange."

That is the main character. It was a bit confusing looking though. I need to have a look at where it places the bood, it is all over the place.

@Bizar Guy -
I added the coins for you I'm glad you like the sounds, it really does help the game.


Come see the WIP!
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Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 1st Mar 2007 05:33
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Looking great Cash . Your a very talented programmer with a lot of dedication to make and keep a project like this .


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Kieran
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Posted: 1st Mar 2007 05:48
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ooh every day i check its updated very nice.

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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 1st Mar 2007 19:51
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@Gil Galvanti and Kieran -
Thanks guys, I really appreciate it!

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


Well, I've had quite a day today. I didn't have a lot of time to work on Geisha House, I got sent to the ER for a diabetic hypoglycemic episode. I spent about 4 hours there, very unpleasant. When I got discharged, I was already in my workout clothes so I jogged home, about three miles. That should bring balance back to the force.

I finished the things on my immediate checklist. I added the ability for the engine to support multiple shadow casting rigs. It went off without a hitch, and I'm almost done building a shadow model for the dwarf. I also fixed some other things that now make all weapons compatible with all characters, and I fixed one of my last collision issues with some of the bushes.

I've made a new checklist now, and I'm very close to being finished with basic game mechanics. Then I'll go on a modeling kick for a week or two and flesh out the existing areas and create the new areas. Then another month and I should have the story integrated, if all goes well (it won't, does it ever?).

This wasn't supposed to be this hard. This was supposed to be a silly and sexy RPG to showcase my system. Well, my RPG engine is 1000x better now, definitely, and this game has become 1000x what it began as.

The engine itself can still be very simple to use. You can still fill it with old DM stock models, or people that are skilled modelers can take it to the next level and take advantage of all the advanced functionality.


Come see the WIP!
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Deathead
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Posted: 1st Mar 2007 21:18
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Wait sorry if it's a stupid question...but how does the combat system work...LIKIN it the detail on models are nicccce!

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Silvester
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Posted: 1st Mar 2007 21:26
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OK,this begins to look better ever update

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Shadow Coderer
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Ah, Geisha House. I remember downloading the interface demo for this project many months ago. Good to see your still at it, and might I say that the general quality of media has increased drastically! Normal maps for every character, excellent texture and sound effects... The only issue I would mention is the animation during combat seems to get a bit jittery and it looks like they could do with a bit of variation or maybe even a combo for each enemy. Nevertheless, I'm sure that you are an inspiration to many users of DBPRO.

"If I die, tell my wife 'hello'"
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el zilcho
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Posted: 1st Mar 2007 23:18
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everything looks really tasty! i love the knight, and the physics look interesting.

i just have one request.. please make the run cyle better on this knight! the current one runs like his arms and legs are in casts.

-EZ-
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Kieran
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Posted: 2nd Mar 2007 05:26
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hehe i just noticed that u based this game on memory of a geisha? am i correct? because your old sig had the top of that ladies face

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Osiris
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Posted: 3rd Mar 2007 06:48
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Man, this is the best example ive seen in dark basic...ever!

Questions tho:
1. Are you thinking about any type of magic system?

2. How large is the games world? Like towns, cities, sq. mileage.

Your signature has been erased by a mod because it's larger than 600x120....
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Bizar Guy
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Posted: 3rd Mar 2007 15:54 Edited at: 3rd Mar 2007 15:54
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Heh, Cash! You need to show the magic system for those who haven't seen it!

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Alfa x
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Posted: 3rd Mar 2007 18:46
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Hi, what is LUA?
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Crazy Ninja
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Quote: "Hi, what is LUA?"


Lick Up Ants

No just kidding, its a scripting system. Whats a scripting system? Well i'll let Cash tell you because he could tell you better probably.

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Steve J
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Posted: 4th Mar 2007 03:51
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@Cash: Err, any info on the Poser girl model you talked about 1 week ago, that I made another post on, lol?

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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 4th Mar 2007 17:50 Edited at: 4th Mar 2007 17:50
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@Deathead -
Quote: "Wait sorry if it's a stupid question...but how does the combat system work...LIKIN it the detail on models are nicccce!"

Not a stupid question at all. You enter combat mode by either clicking on the weapon on the menu or by pressing 'a'. Then, the character will face wherever you point the mouse. If you hold down Left Mouse Button, he will attack whatever he is facing. Pretty easy to use. You can still walk while in attack mode, you just can't run.

Glad you like the models!

@Prince Of Darkness -
Thanks! I should have many more very cool things to show soon.

Quote: "@Shadow Coderer -"

Thanks for stopping by! I'm glad that you like the changes, I definitely want Geisha House to look as good as possible.

Combat might still be slow whenever I record video, but it has improved now, I fixed a problem that was consuming too many resources.

Combos for the enemies is a good idea. I really like the combos for the main character, I'll see how they look for everyone else.

@el zilcho -
Don't worry, that is not the main character, nor will that be his run animation. The new character is nearly done.

@Kieran -
Quote: "hehe i just noticed that u based this game on memory of a geisha? am i correct? because your old sig had the top of that ladies face"

It actually has nothing to do with it. I used her face because it fit with what I was trying to convey about the game. Plus, finding a good picture of an attractive geisha is REALLY hard, modern geishas tend to look a little rough around the edges.

@Osiris -
Quote: "Man, this is the best example ive seen in dark basic...ever!"

Thanks, I appreciate that!

Quote: "1. Are you thinking about any type of magic system?"

Absolutely. In fact, it is totally ready, I just haven't made any new videos of it yet because there are some extra things I'm going to add first. If you want to see how it works then check out the old Geisha House thread, I've got several videos of spellcasting.

Quote: "2. How large is the games world? Like towns, cities, sq. mileage."

The entire game takes place in one area, rather sparsely developed. There is a small village near the harbor, and a larger orc village. There are some other encampments and and buildings and of course the Geisha House. The entire place is fairly large and takes a while to walk across. I'll get a better measurement.

@Bizar Guy -
Quote: "Heh, Cash! You need to show the magic system for those who haven't seen it!"

Yeah, I sure do. I have a couple of additions I need to make, including equipping the spellbook and the spell casting animation. Soon!

@Alfa x -
LUA, like Crazy Ninja said, is a scripting language. David W wrote a plugin called Unity that interfaces LUA with DBP. LUA has been used in Warcraft III and several other huge commercial titles. It has a low overhead, is very fast, and very powerful. You can create complex arrays on the fly, dynamically create new variables (which you can't do with DBP), and you can even reference arrays by both index number and name. LUA can not only be used to script the loading of your game, but it can run processes in the background, allowing you to code all of your AI outside of your EXE. I use it in everything that I do, so worth the money. Torrey made a free version that I understand is very good, as well.

@Steve J -
Sorry it's taking me so long, I've played with Poser a couple times, I'll get on it

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


I managed to fix a really annoying problem with the engine. I profiles all of my code, measuring how many milliseconds every function took to call from the main loop. I found an offending piece of code, my water tile management system. Every time a body of water crested (about every 2-4 seconds) I'd get a delay of 250 ms. That would cause cyclic lag in the game, and would crap up the videos pretty badly. I just divided the tile processes over 4 loops, and problem solved.

Like I mentioned above, the magic system will soon make an appearance. I just made an animated spellbook that can be equipped. I just need to get my real main character now, as he has a spellcasting animation. Now you'll be able to equip the book, and it will open when you open it. I'm setting up all containers to support an opening animation, so chests will open, drawers, etc. I'm quite pleased with my spellbook, it works nicely.



Much more soon!


Come see the WIP!

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Shadow Coderer
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Posted: 4th Mar 2007 18:29 Edited at: 4th Mar 2007 18:31
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That main characters looking great!
You've unwittingly taught me alot about what Dark Basic Pro is capable of: Ive adopted your strictly 2.5K poly rule for main characters and I had know idea that it could handle normal mapping on enemies and npc's. Out of interest, how are you including your normal maps; DARK Shader or...? Thanks for your unintended assistance!
What is the storyline for the game? I can't remeber if it was mentioned on the last thread
Is a demo looking likely anytime soon?

"If I die, tell my wife 'hello'"
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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 5th Mar 2007 01:08
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@Shadow Coderer -
Well, there are a couple of things you should know about DBPs limitations. The 2.5k poly limit is just as important as the filesize. For example, Dark Matter 2 models are extremely low polygon, but they were exported in such a way that increased the number of frames, and the file size, by 160x. The extra frames were useless, and just consumed resources. The bigger a model is the worse it is handled by DBP. Some of those models were 8mb in size. If you put several on screen at once, DBP would start to choke. Correctly exported they are 250k, with 13 different animations. So, in addition to your 2.5k main character limit, you should never have a model that is bigger than about 1.2mb. On average, a medium poly character should run around 800kb, and a lower polygon model (like a DM model) should run in the range of 250k-300k.

Normal mapping a character model causes it to have to be rendered twice, three times if you use normal+specular mapping. You have to take this into consideration when you plan your game. In those videos, I'm not normal mapping the skeltons or orcs. I am normal mapping the less common characters, such as the skeletal warrior and dwarf, and of course the main character. If you use a 3x shader on an 8mb mode, God help you.

I'm not using Dark Shader. I can't upgrade to use DS yet because of new bugs introduced into DBP with the mandatory upgrade. Maybe that will be fixed soon, but right now Evolved's normal mapping shader is doing the job nicely for me. It isn't the fastest, but looks really nice and has an excellent light position control system.

Quote: "What is the storyline for the game? I can't remeber if it was mentioned on the last thread"

I'll reveal more about it soon, right now I'm keeping most of it under wraps. A bit of it is on my homepage though.

Quote: "Is a demo looking likely anytime soon?"

I think that in 6 weeks I can have a demo done. We shall see!


Come see the WIP!
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Kieran
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Posted: 5th Mar 2007 05:05
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oh ok, never mind then. but yeah good luck

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Steve J
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Posted: 5th Mar 2007 06:50
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Hey Cash Upgrade 6.5 is out, try that and see if it helps!

pleading and needing and bleeding and breeding and feeding exceeding..where is everybody? trying and lying defying denying crying and dying..where is everybody?
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The Core
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Posted: 5th Mar 2007 16:50
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Sorry i've been away for a while doing degree work, and saw your work cash looks great.

what version of DBP did you use and what modeling software, i tend to use maya and gamespace.?

keep up the great work and good luck!

i'm E.T i have so much tech but yet i dont have a mobile phone! where is a land line when you need one
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Shadow Coderer
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Posted: 5th Mar 2007 17:29
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You mention file restrictions for models. Enhanced animations, the new plugin claims to seperate the animations and load them seperately. I'm hoping that this would make a big difference on characters that will have many different animations, like the ones I plan to use. Will you be encorperating ths package? As steve J says, 6.5 was released with it.
Fair enough about the storyline and looking forward to the demo. Be sure to keep us all interested over the 6 weeks with vids and other such goodies!

"If I die, tell my wife 'hello'"
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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 6th Mar 2007 12:12 Edited at: 6th Mar 2007 12:15
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@Kieran -
Thanks

@Steve J -
I'll be watching the bug reports, definitely. I'll need to upgrade eventually, so I always prefer to do it sooner rather than later.

@The Core -
I'm glad that you like it, I appreciate it!

Quote: "what version of DBP did you use and what modeling software, i tend to use maya and gamespace.?"


I'm using 6.3. 6.4 has some slight issues at the moment, so I'm going to wait before I upgrade.

I have Gamespace, but I feel more comfortable with Milkshape's interface. I use a combination of Milkshape and Ultimate Unwrap 3D for most things that I do.

@Shadow Coderer -
Wolf's enhanced animations plugin is completely amazing. I saw a demo of it, and it does every single thing that it is supposed to. It transforms animated models from procedural to organic. It was awesome to see the character point his gun while he was walking and running. After Geisha House I'm going to make a 3rd person shooter game, and I can't wait to use that in it.

Another amazing thing with this plugin is that you can load all of the models without animation, and apply the animations to all of them. That will do two things - drastically decrease loading time, and drastically increase the efficiency of all the models running in DBP. I can't wait to try it out. Basically, I'll have tons of models that take up very little memory being animated with his plugin.

The key though is that your models must be properly rigged and modeled to begin with. Models with crap animations will still be crap. Also, different models must be rigged with the same bone structure to take advantage of shared animations. This is great for Geisha House because all of the models are properly set up and share 6 animation rigs between them all. Sharing animations should have great results.

So, I'll definitely be using it. TGC just needs to hurry up and fix what they broke in 6.4.

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


Slight update, still working on various things and waiting on the new character model.



Adding animals is a pain because all of their animations are screwed up. To add this boar I had to manually edit 250 frames of animations. No problem, it just sucks to have to do.


Come see the WIP!

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Bongadoo
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Posted: 6th Mar 2007 15:34
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Just wanted to say how I've enjoyed watching the development of this project; I'm working on something very similar, of which I hope to have a WIP up soon.

Quote: "I have Gamespace, but I feel more comfortable with Milkshape's interface."


I couldn't live without Puppeteer in Gamepsace! Or do you model in Milkshape and then rig in Gamespace?

Keep up the good work, it keeps me motivated on my project
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Cash Curtis II
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Posted: 6th Mar 2007 16:03 Edited at: 10th Mar 2007 06:11
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Can't wait to see your project. I have a special place in my heart for RPGs.

I need more experience with Gamespace. Milkshape is very straightforward, and I appreciate that. Every model you've seen so far in my videos I've rigged in Milkshape.


Come see the WIP!

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Bongadoo
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Posted: 6th Mar 2007 18:12
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I've done some modelling in Milkshape a while ago, but never any rigging so not sure how it works in Milkshape.

If you load Gamespace then on the bottom left main toolbar, third from the right, is the Puppeteer button. Load it and have a look. If you go to the second tab 'Skeletons' then click on on the top image it will load the default rig into your project. Now if you go back to 'Joints' you can click on the different joints in the image and move them with the sliders. This is all a named heirarchy in the 'Object Tree' tab which is extremely useful aswell. This is the best bit though: go to 'Skeletons' and click 'Load...' under Keyframes, then choose something like 'Run.mkf'. Click yes to apply to all joints, then yes to use stored location. Now you have an animated skeleton. You can add extra animations to the end of the first to give you a fully animated rig. Then you can just scale it to your mesh, attach mesh to skeleton and you have a fully rigged animated model in about 2 minutes. The best bit though is you can load the default rig, or make your own (but naming the heirarchy is a pain), and then save a custom animation. Now this can be loaded into any previous models. I'm rubbish at animating models, so when I first learnt about Puppeteer it was like a dream come true.

I've got the same love for RPGs, mainly due to Ultima VI/VII! Maybe one day I can create something even half as genius, though I doubt it. Even something as good as Pagan would do I like all the UO symbols in the magic system, I think you should keep them, Origin will never know I stopped playing UO a few years ago, had a 7 year account! Just seen the new engine overhaul they've given it, looks fantastic.

The new hero model looks really good by the way. Now he just needs an Indestructible Viking Sword of Vanquishing.

I haven't failed. I've just found ten thousand ways that don't work. - Thomas Edison
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