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DarkBASIC Professional Discussion / DBP General Questions and Announcements

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 12th Sep 2014 00:08 Edited at: 12th Sep 2014 00:09
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Quote: "Nice! Clever"


Thanks!
I'm probably just trying to reinvent the wheel, but I do have fun experimenting.

My "ADD" brain is playing around with an animation mapper today. It will eventually allow the user to name & save character animation frames. This has been done before, but I wanted my own app.

I'll release the code when I get it working properly.



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chafari
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Posted: 12th Sep 2014 00:51
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Quote: "I'm probably just trying to reinvent the wheel, but I do have fun experimenting."


This is the most important thing, having fun with our own app . It looks like a comercial app.

Cheers.

I'm not a grumpy grandpa
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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 12th Sep 2014 02:52 Edited at: 12th Sep 2014 03:05
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Quote: "This is the most important thing, having fun with our own app . It looks like a comercial app"


Fun is job #1!

Thanks! I used the box command to make a gradient image and then did TEXTURE BACKDROP. I think that's why it looks decent. Plus Colonel Z is a Mack Daddy, as the kids used to say.

By the way, does anyone know why Miko and Colonel Z have like 153,000 frames? Is that for smoothness? LoL
I'm trying to map his walk animation, but it seems to be slightly glitchy. Best I can get is 26800-32200. Anyone else??


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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 14th Sep 2014 04:16 Edited at: 14th Sep 2014 04:18
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I've decided to release my animation tracker as a trial version app.
The source ended up around 600-700 lines, and is reeeal sketchy.

[DBP] 'FootWork' - 3D Animation Mapper (demo)



Feedback/criticism is welcome.

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wattywatts
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Posted: 14th Sep 2014 04:53
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Quote: "Miko and Colonel Z have like 153,000 frames"

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 14th Sep 2014 06:15
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Lmao!

Strange but true.

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Green Gandalf
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Posted: 14th Sep 2014 13:53
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Quote: "Strange but true."


Strange certainly.

I guess you need as many frames as that to get such high quality animation.

I smell a rat somewhere.

@wattywatts Thanks. First good laugh of the weekend.

On a more serious note, is there a simple way of finding out how many frames there are? Unfortunately my copy of colZ.X is a binary file and I don't seem to have anything that will read it and tell me. I tried converting it to a text file using the MS SDK meshconvert program but that destroyed the animation data. Is there a simple DBPro command somewhere that I've overlooked?



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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 14th Sep 2014 15:51
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Yes! TOTAL OBJECT FRAMES!

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Green Gandalf
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Posted: 15th Sep 2014 14:52
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Quote: "Yes! TOTAL OBJECT FRAMES!"


Thanks! Don't know how I missed that.



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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 15th Sep 2014 15:39
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Quote: "Thanks! Don't know how I missed that. "


I hadn't used it myself until recently!

I think what these animated models need are an internal index of the individual animation sets. I'm wondering if ADD MEMBLOCK TO OBJECT might be an easy way to store the names and frames of the animations into the model itself..?? Hmm...

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Green Gandalf
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Posted: 15th Sep 2014 17:13
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Certainly worth a try. I haven't used that command myself but I seem to recall there was a discussion about that recently.

There's a lot of useful overlooked commands in DBPro.



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chafari
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Posted: 15th Sep 2014 19:37
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Quote: "Yes! TOTAL OBJECT FRAMES! "


Quote: "There's a lot of useful overlooked commands in DBPro"


I'm agree.

In old Darkbasic Classic, we didnt't have such command, and we could do it with:


In the case that Total_f was equal to 1000 then we had to increase the FOR/NEXT .....

Quote: "For i= 1 to 5000 "


Cheers.

I'm not a grumpy grandpa
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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 19th Sep 2014 03:20
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A cheap and simple blur+fade for splash images.
(If the image doesn't show then I compiled it wrong!)

Uses 10 sprites with alpha, slightly offset then gradually moving closer together to come into focus. 4 black boxes keep the edges clean in this demo.

Not a new concept, but I wanted to make the routine just to see if I could and for future use.

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 22nd Sep 2014 04:41 Edited at: 22nd Sep 2014 04:42
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New updates to the Animation Tracker for anyone interested.




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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 1st Oct 2014 23:08
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Quite a long shot, but does anyone happen to have Cinema 4D?
I just need a couple of cheap models converted to 3DS or X.

(I had never even heard of C4D before today, but I thought I'd ask.)

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wattywatts
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Posted: 2nd Oct 2014 17:37
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Is c4d the extension? None of my modeling programs support it surprisingly, maybe you could download the c4d demo and convert it?
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Chris Tate
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Posted: 2nd Oct 2014 21:22 Edited at: 2nd Oct 2014 21:29
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I used to learn Cinema 4D modelling in the 90s. It is a product by Maxon. The cheapest version is over £1000. It is inferior in depth compared to 3D Studio Max, but is known for being easier to learn whilst having a shorter motion graphics production turn around.


The most difficult to learn tool, let alone 3D modelling tool I have used is Blender; which happens to be the free one. Compared to blender Cinema 4D is much easier for the beginner, I think if your life depended on creating a cool movie in 1 week; I would opt for Cinema 4D, otherwise Blender and Max all the way for me.

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 3rd Oct 2014 20:47
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Quote: " Blender and Max all the way for me"


Blender is also my preference..

I just happened to purchase a couple of models in the C4D format before I realized that was the case - was hoping someone could convert them for me because I couldn't find another program to load them.

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 3rd Oct 2014 20:48
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Quote: "Is c4d the extension? None of my modeling programs support it surprisingly, maybe you could download the c4d demo and convert it?"


I thought about it but the download is like 1GB... I may have to eventually though.

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 3rd Oct 2014 23:08 Edited at: 3rd Oct 2014 23:10
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I was messing around with making statues out of models via altering their textures with a typical paint program.
I feel this is a great way to create more game assets without tedious modeling or spending money.

My initial results look like this:



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Ortu
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Posted: 4th Oct 2014 04:04
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Nice man looks good

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 6th Oct 2014 17:22
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Quote: "Nice man looks good"


Gracias!

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 8th Oct 2014 18:08 Edited at: 8th Oct 2014 18:10
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After trying both the Dark Occlusion and Dark Impostors plugins, I have to say that Dark Impostors totally takes the cake.

The Dark Occlusion demo seems rather choppy even with minimal objects, but Dark Impostors runs smooth as silk considering how many polys are onscreen!



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wattywatts
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Posted: 8th Oct 2014 19:58
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I'm a bit curious how that works, do you just load your objects and it handles the occlusion automatically?
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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 8th Oct 2014 20:33 Edited at: 8th Oct 2014 20:34
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Quote: "I'm a bit curious how that works, do you just load your objects and it handles the occlusion automatically?"


I think so... they don't include any source code, but I would imagine the setup is simple like with sparky's collision. I assume there is a command to set the distance at which the objects are swapped for plains.

Either this or the enhanced animation plugin will be my next purchase... character load times are insane without enhanced animation!

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wattywatts
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Posted: 9th Oct 2014 02:53
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Quote: "character load times are insane without enhanced animation!"

I haven't noticed anything like that, I always limit my animations to 10 frames max per action though, like 10 frames for a run cycle, etc.
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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 24th Oct 2014 01:53 Edited at: 24th Oct 2014 01:56
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Well my cheap Chinese pc game controller just died.
Now I can't continue testing my character speeds because the keyboard doesn't allow for precise analog movement.

Has anyone by chance had success with using an XBox 360 controller on Windows? Sadly I'm still running XP and the software offered by Microsoft doesn't seem to detect the controller at all.

(I will never go without a backup controller again!)

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Rudolpho
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Posted: 24th Oct 2014 02:10 Edited at: 24th Oct 2014 02:16
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Quote: "Has anyone by chance had success with using an XBox 360 controller on Windows?"

I am and I'm having no problems with it at all. Even works with the DBPro joystick functions.
Are you sure you've installed the drivers properly?

Edit: didn't see you're using XP, that might be the problem if they haven't made any official drivers for it. Or worse yet, set them to time out now that it is "unsupported" as is evidently done by lots of programs, claiming non-existent security as a reason to go buy a newer OS. Obviously the security cannot be any worse than it was the last day XP was supported though... at least if it weren't that the AV companies purposefully made their programs reject running on it after that date (which I'm not sure whether it's the case but looking at how much of this junk my mother has been getting with most any programs and even websites on her Windows XP PC lately, it wouldn't surprise me).

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wattywatts
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Posted: 24th Oct 2014 03:02
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Quote: "didn't see you're using XP, that might be the problem if they haven't made any official drivers for it."

The analog should still work though, right? I think without drivers the trigger buttons are the only thing that doesn't work right. Assuming we're talking about a wired controller.
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MrValentine
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Posted: 24th Oct 2014 08:51
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Trigger, shoulder or the pressure triggers? Those are Z-Axis...

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 27th Oct 2014 06:51 Edited at: 30th Oct 2014 00:11
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Howdy peeps!

I was attempting to mimic the "detect life" spell in Skyrim and thought I would share my results..

I used Watty's free zombie as my test subject.
Just touch the gem item and the spell will be activated!


[EDIT: GIF has now been changed to AVI
I didn't include the source because it's pig slop.]

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 27th Oct 2014 06:52
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[pic post]

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wattywatts
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Posted: 27th Oct 2014 07:09
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Quote: "I used Watty's free zombie as my test subject. "

Somehow that gives me quite a bit of satisfaction.
It's a bit hard to tell from the pic, I'm assuming that's a wall with the zombie on the other side?
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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 27th Oct 2014 15:11
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Quote: "It's a bit hard to tell from the pic, I'm assuming that's a wall with the zombie on the other side?"



Yes, I just used DISABLE OBJECT Z DEPTH and of course he shows through everything. Not exactly clever on my part, but I wanted to see the effect in action. Looks very creepy!

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Green Gandalf
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Posted: 28th Oct 2014 13:50 Edited at: 28th Oct 2014 13:51
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I get "Could not load animation at line 3" .

Are you using a plugin?



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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 28th Oct 2014 14:58
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hmm... i'm just using LOAD ANIMATION and it's the "magic.gif"

all the files must remain in the same folder. other than that i don't know why it wouldn't load.

did anyone else happen to try it?

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 28th Oct 2014 21:29 Edited at: 28th Oct 2014 21:30
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Hey GG,

Wild guess here, but I think the problem is that you didn't actually extract the ZIP file contents and just tried to run it while still zipped.

Was that it?

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Green Gandalf
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Posted: 29th Oct 2014 13:18 Edited at: 29th Oct 2014 13:25
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No, the problem is something to do with my machine. For some obscure reason it won't load GIF files correctly into DBPro. I have no idea why. I vaguely recall having the same problem with one of Chafari's demos. Unfortunately I've forgotten how or whether we fixed that. I'll see if I can dig out his demo. It might remind me.

Edit Found Chafari's demo. Unfortunately the problem wasn't resolved. Definitely seems to be a quirk of this laptop.



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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 29th Oct 2014 15:43
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is there another video format that works for you, like AVI?
i can easily convert the GIF to something else.

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 29th Oct 2014 21:29 Edited at: 29th Oct 2014 21:30
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Working on my texture painting skills in Blender today, and thought I would share this low poly rock made from an ICOSPHERE mesh in Blender, then I manipulated the vertices in DBP (the code in my Rock Generator thread), sent back to Blender for texture painting and exported/converted back to .X, then finally saved as a textured .DBO file for quick loading.

The normal map was generated with Smart Normal and I've included a bit of code just to view it.

Any suggestions are appreciated...
Working on modeling, texturing and animating all at once is a daunting task!



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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 29th Oct 2014 21:29 Edited at: 29th Oct 2014 23:53
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I see some repetition on the side of my rock now, oh well.

If anyone is new to texture painting in Blender, I will be happy to give a rundown of everything to click to get going. I've never tried it in another program, but Blender is very forgiving!

Likewise, if anyone is an "old pro" at texture painting and can offer advice, I'm all ears.

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 30th Oct 2014 00:20
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Hey GG, I updated the code to AVI instead of GIF, now you too can laugh at the horrible lighting in my demo! LoL

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Green Gandalf
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Posted: 30th Oct 2014 00:26
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Quote: "is there another video format that works for you, like AVI?"


AVI files seem to work OK. Thanks.

I've no idea what the problem is with GIF files - they open fine in Windows and open fine on my other machine (which is broken at the moment ). This is weird because I usually find that DBPro supports more media formats than many other applications.



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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 1st Nov 2014 04:22
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Happy Halloween ya'll!

I posted more of my useless stuff in the code snippets because candy just isn't enough. It's possibly good for reasonably quick heightmaps.



Here's an .EXE of the code for those who prefer...

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 3rd Nov 2014 15:09
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The Winter Bundle does look nice... I may have to go for it!

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 3rd Nov 2014 19:28 Edited at: 3rd Nov 2014 19:29
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Finally learning a bit about texture splatting after finding an old shader by DaveC900.



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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 5th Nov 2014 18:38 Edited at: 5th Nov 2014 18:59
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Well it's far from perfect, but finally I know how to texture splat a terrain object that will still take light well enough to emulate some fake shadows. I'm only 5 years behind the curve.

Ideally, a shadow pass could be added to the splatting shader (I think) but that's a bit advanced for me.

This example is just using a point light and low ambient light to emulate a day/night cycle. Cheap, but I like it. Sorry for the poor vid capture quality.





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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 5th Nov 2014 19:48
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[attached .EXE of the above]

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 6th Nov 2014 19:52
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Wow, AdrenalineBump is really nifty!
Don't know how I missed this up until now as much as I'm on the forums.

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Derek Darkly
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Posted: 6th Nov 2014 21:51 Edited at: 7th Nov 2014 01:06
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Having a go at my own normal mapping technique today.
Normal maps aren't exactly hard to come by with all the free apps out there, but I still want to get a better understanding of how they work.

This tutorial has been very helpful because it isn't a bunch of geek-speak, it's down to earth and in plain English.

I finally got off to something of a start with the attached code... probably not true normal mapping, but not bad looking either.



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