Work-in-Progress: HRT (Part I)

I had been work on my wyvern, but I ran into a bit of a snag.  I decided to play around trying to just sculpt the face a bit to get more accustomed with the sculpting tools and left the detail on a bit too fine.  Fourteen million polygons later and my computer was trying to kill itself.  I know there are ways around displaying that many polygons, but to do the whole body would probably be on a similar order of polygons.  I will continue to make a decent starting base mesh for the sculpt, but there is no rush if I need to replace my computer, which I do not have the money to do, just to make the sculpt possible.  I can say I learned a bit, probably most important was I need a lot more work with the sculpting tool set.  Also, I know the base mesh will be extremely detailed, but for the larger detail elements, I wanted the polygons to the same size or a set amount different which I did not feel I could do through sculpting yet.

I know I berated Unity in a post about a year ago, and at the time, from first hand observation, I stand by my observations.  However, it seems that Unity has overhauled their system at least once since then.  While I still like Torque, I would feel remiss if I did not at least attempt to use the remodeled Unity engine.  While both have their catches, I still feel I like Torque's layout better.  But this is a discussion for a later time.

Now on to the post's title: the HRT.  Left is the blocking out, lacking a few details I want to add but overall fairly decent.  The model, just like it is, is closing in on three thousand faces.  I could probably drop it to closer to 2,000 without a lot of difficulty (circular objects are the bane of low poly modeling) but I wanted to have a high enough level of polygons in the mesh t make a detailing pass easier.  It is much easier to have the circles have more edges then try to add more edges at a later time.While I do not mind the main canon's shape, the side guns I feel need a bit of work yet.  The other major remodel will probably be the front end engine area where I would like a lot more detail.  Areas not visible but lacking at this juncture include the undercarriage (something hooking the wheels to the frame), an exhaust ( I would like pipes coming from the engine, I think it would be an interesting touch) and a rear bumper (but probably lacking in spikes).

I am not going to make any predictions since they never seem to work out.  So, until next time,
~gunnah

And the Torque Tutorials are Wrapped Up

I have finished the Torque tutorials, which is a nice plus.  I do not feel I learned everything I need, but I do think I got a good start on the basic layout of the development kit.  Of course, there is nothing to show.  As I mentioned before, I was trying to get through the tutorials as fast as possible and this precluded making models and things of that nature.  Hopefully in the near future, I can get something like a mock up level made.  But I would not hold my breath since that may take a while.  On the plus side most of the tutorials worked.  For some reason the weapon models did not load properly, but that was not a big concern of mine.  They behaved as they were intended to, and the models came with the engine.  My only other problem was I could not package the tutorial.  Apparently their old code was written poorly and they have not made the time to correct it, so the button does nothing.  When I went to do it manually, it said my PhysX engine was either not installed or I needed to set a environmental variable.  I did not feel like doing either, so I have not worked through packaging a game yet.  To be honest, I am hoping the graphics version is up and running by the time I am ready to package a game since it looks much easier than the command line version available to me now.  That about wraps up Torque for the moment.  I seem happy with it, though who knows where I will be blown by the time I am ready to release.  Unreal has a new version coming out, I may want to look at that - at least the UDK version of it.

I also want to apologize for missing the Friday post.  Long week and I just forgot.  Actuially I fell asleep which is almost the same as forgetting.  But it was not like I had that much to say.  Next week looks to be filled with overtime, so my post for next Friday may be skipped if I have nothing new to say.  Until next time,

~gunnah

More work with Torque 3D

Most of the time I had to work on this project went into learning the new engine.  It was a real short week to start with so I still have quite a bit left of the tutorial to finish in their series.  So far I have covered basic syntax, which is fairly standard object oriented notation, and how that syntax can be hooked into the world editor.  So far it does not seem very difficult, however, I have only created the most basic of triggers so far.  While there are still several questions about various aspects of the engine which I am thinking will be answered as I go through the tutorials, I seem happy with this engine.  Of course a week ago I was happy with UDK, so the final decision may still be in the future.

There was mot much to show so far since most of the tutorials use either features built into Torque or are just writing to the command line.  My guess is that I may not really be showing any progress off until I finish all of the tutorials ad start a game on my own.  I may be wrong and by the end may start adding my own elements into the tutorials to keep them interesting, but even then 95% of what you would be seeing was someone else's work.  Hopefully more to come in the next post about my progress and hopefully something a little more tangible.  Until next time,

~gunnah

Rough Week

During the previous week I got nothing done just like I was guessing I would.  My day was pretty much get home, go to sleep, get ready for work, leave, and then work all day.  Saturday I had a test in the morning, so any free time I had during the previous week was cramming just that little extra bit.

Now onto what I actually did relating to the project: Not much.  I know my scene is almost finished and I probably should have just worked on that, but I kind of wanted a bit of a break.  Also, I am now up in the air about what kind of floodlight I am adding to the scene as I got a different idea for what I think it should look like.  Once the lights are in the actual modeling and texturing end should be finished, save for any details which I do not like after looking at the scene as a whole - like the post texturing.  Then it is just a matter of post-processing to give it the right feel and I should finally have something done, albeit not actually part of the project proper.

Now, enough about what I did not do.  I have begun looking again at engines.  Do not get me wrong, so far UDK is looking the most likely, but I want to get a feel for some other environments before settling on any one engine.  I was actually hoping to have a review of the engine ready for this post, but it is taking me a while to get it set up.  Right now I am looking at the Torque 3D engine, which is nice because it is an open source engine.  It looks similar to UDK, but does not have the fee UDK does which is a plus for someone who is completely broke.

Working a bit of overtime this week and then there is the holiday at the end of the week, so I may or may not post on Friday.  Until next time,
~gunnah

I really need to find where my weekends go

So another weekend passed and I am left trying t figure out what I did during it.  I suppose I should be use to very short weekends by now, but it never ceases to amaze me just how fast they fly by when the week seems to drag on forever.  But I always have been bad at judging time and that is not what this post is about despite the title.

I have begun work on a little distraction, nothing big just something to have a bit of fun with, though I am leaving it at that until I have something to show in case that project goes nowhere.  I have also began a game-relevant tutorial which I am hoping will make one or more of my meshes when all is said and done.  Again, I will have more when the project is further along, but that should be within the next week.

And finally, I am looking at engines again.  I found one that has a royalty-free license until distribution, so I will write more about that once I get it installed and running.  Hope every had a good weekend,
~gunnah

Small steps forward

Sorry this is very late.  I have continued my work on getting the repeatable pieces done for my map.  To the right is the T-intersection and below is the 90-degree turn.  The 45-degree turn is modeled, I just have not textured it yet.  Once the is finished I will move onto the walls, which will be a little more numerous, as most pieces will need multiple walls around it.  Once those are made I can move onto the ceiling which will finish most tile-able parts.  After that I will probably make a light - more as a placeholder than a finished product, letting me get back to it later when I can make a few different ones so it will not be as monotonous looking.  Once the halls are in place, I will build the custom rooms in the same manner - floors, walls, ceiling - and then the basement of the level will be almost done.  What will be needed is a ramp or two, I am thinking two different widths, and then just small materials to make the level more interesting, but those can wait.

As far as the engine discussion goes, I have decided on a test for UDK.  If I can build the demo, than it is my choice of engine and I will get the license.  But this is still a little while away.  What I did do over the last week was check how I could import the objects and materials, and after a bit of work I have found it is not that bad.  Once I am happy with how the level is built, I will move onto making the moving models - tanks, missiles, mines, satellites, et c. - and then making four textures, one for each team, for each.  Once all of those are finished, it will just be a matter of programming the demo.  Now of course, I made that sound as easy as possible and the demo is probably a decent way off still.  I am unsure if I will add small details to the map or just leave it as empty hallways, I am tempted to do the latter to keep construction time down and save something for the actual release.

So again, sorry for the late post, I hope this makes the direction I am moving in clear.  A lot of modeling and texturing in the coming posts, though I am hoping they level pieces at least go together fast.  The other pieces, the non-permanent tanks and missiles, will probably have more detail and take a bit longer to finish.  My post tomorrow will probably be early since my shift at work changed for next week.  Until then,
~gunnah

An Oasis in a Void

Shockingly, I actually have a bit to talk about this post. I will start out with my modeling plans for the base in the near future.  My early goal is to get a tile set of roadways together.  Left is an example of the one roadway I have made which I happen to be fairly proud of.  Besides this straight piece, I need to make a t-intersection, a bend section and an elbow.  Some other pieces may follow, but with those four most of the basement area of the base can be completed just to get an idea of what the map will feel like.  Once I finish the roadway, I will probably move onto the side-walls since the sidewalls will have a similar set to the roadways: A straight piece, an inner and outer bend, an inner and outer elbow, a straight and two bent pieces for the t-intersection.  So that is three more roadway and 8 sidewalls.

Now, onto something more fun, over the week I got around to buying my first computer art hardware: a USB tablet (not one of those over-sized phones, but the things which were originally called tablets).  I had wanted one of these for a long time, though never really had much use for it since I did not do much in terms of drawing on the computer over the last decade.  With the amount of texturing I am hoping to get done over the next year or so, the ability to draw on detail will improve my workflow, I hope.  It is not an overly elaborate model or anything, just something for me to play with, if I made it into an actual game art position or something along those lines I would probably upgrade but for a project that has not made me anything, this is a fun investment.

Finally, after much consideration and deliberation, I think I am going to use the UDK engine.  I just like the overall feel of the editor, though I do wish there was a little more control over source code.  I probably will not get the actual license until around the beginning of May, but that is partially because I will not really have much to demonstrate before then.  I am hoping by the to have a decent amount of the base's underground set finished and to possibly start moving into some of the more elaborate underground pieces.

Not sure how much I will get done for the next three post, but after that my work shift will be different which may accommodate a little more work on getting this demo made.
~gunnah

Some direction

Well it may be a little while before I get much else done.  Hopefully I can start making small progress in various minor aspects of the game, but that depends more on how life decides to play and it does not always play fair.  Probably the quickest topic I want to discuss is my progress with the Source engine.  In short, not much.  They way the tutorials for the engine recommend setting it up involves setting up the source control early on and I just have not had time to sit through and set up all of the preliminary work (I have been looking to check the engines as quick as possible and this may take a little more time than I was hoping).  So in short I have not done much, but I have read through how to set up the engine and when I get some time I may get around to actually going through and getting it up and running.

Another quick note is that I have added a new column on the 3D art page for small items I want to make.  Some of them were described in the previous post, like the garbage and recycling cans.  I have been looking around and have a few other ides, but I am not sure when I will get around to making a long list of things which should get done (There will never be such a thing as a complete list, but there are numerous things which I would eventually like to make for the suburbia map).

Finally when I was describing the levels I would like to make (I will save you the work of looking, it is in this post) I talked about different maps.  I know I have had tunnel vision on the Suburbia map but that is because at the moment it is the most detailed of the map and the one with which I would like to make the demo.  After a bit of thinking I have thought of the fourth map I wanted but could not think of at that time, a Top-Secret Base. The uniqueness of this map is the overall layout.  The cargo hold I am thinking will be entirely exposed.  The suburbs will be mostly exposed except for a few exceptions (Parking Deck and Mall in the middle of the map). The castle will also be mostly exposed but have a little more enclosure (I am thinking it might be fun to have a map with a different scaling, so on this map the tanks would be scaled models and the castle extend out as though it were the size of a large town).  The Top-Secret Base on the other hand I am thinking will be about half enclosed with a large subterranean area including the central point.

That about covers everything I wanted to get out there, hopefully Friday I have something more to show.
~gunnah

A Look at Unity

So I went ahead and looked at another possible engine over the previous week (sorry I missed Friday, long story I may get into another point).  The engine is Unity, which comes in two versions much like UDK: Free and Expensive.  Of course, from what it looked like free was really free, where UDK was one hundred dollars.  Unfortunately though, this is not enough of an incentive to use this engine.

Let us start with the basics.  Unity can be written in JavaScript of C# or some combination (though each language needs to be kept in separate files) and has an environment to view the work inside.  What that means is instead of compiling the entire program each time when only one or two little things were different, you can compile the files specific to the changes and run that.  This should theoretically speed up workflow and enable multiple people to work on a project simultaneously without needing to have access to the continually updated files.  The latter happened to be the circumstances of the person I was watching work in Unity, where he was working on the UI and only needed a skeleton framework for the rest of the game areas.

Now the downsides.  While this engine is a fairly strong possibility, there are a major flaws that I know would drive me crazy before I finish this project.  The compile button does not always do what it says.  The person I was watching needed on some occasions to hit compile six or seven times before the new information he wanted updated would appear in the work area.  Whatever needing to only compile small areas or single files to check the program would save in time is lost when you need to flip back and forth three or four times checking if the file compiled and then going back to hitting the compile button again.  My only other complaint is my JavaScript is weak and I have not done anything in C#, which I could probably learn, but that would add more time to an already very delayed project.

So I know I am not using Unity.  I was hoping to also have my review of the Source engine but it is taking forever to set up and get to where I can change actual code, right now all I seem to have access to is a map-builder.

Again, I apologize I missed Friday, I was cleared for work which I start in the morning, so I went out with a few friends and did not get back until the next day.  Hopefully I have some more modeling done for the next post and the texturing for the Sunday post after that, though who knows how much time life is going to give me now.  Until next post,
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Row-House (Part 1)

Initially I was going to use this post to discuss other engines I have been looking at and discuss the merits of each system.  Unfortunately, at least for this post, I ran out of time to fully look over each engine to do it justice.  The two I am currently looking at are the id Tech 4 and Source engines.  The Source engine is proprietary, and I need to read over the licencing very well before I look at it, but I already have several Source SDK packages available on my Steam account.  The id Tech 4 took me a little while to figure out where to get it since what I was reading sounded like all games made with the engine were just total conversion mods.  I have since found the download but I need to look over it thoroughly, but it is open source pretty much so that is one aspect in its favor.

Now, onto something that is more than just my musings, some 3D modeling.  This is my next building for the suburbia set, a row-house.  There is still quite a bit to do, but I felt I was far enough along to talk about it.  When it is done it will be four units combined into one building (this section of the building duplicated four times with various changes).  The current model is up to about 450 faces, so the finished front section will probably be around 600, though it can be higher if I decide to add some finer details.  Some of what I have done might be baked done in the final project which will save me a large number of faces in my polygon count.

So I will start off by naming what is missing.  Opposite the door will be a first floor window, this window will be the largest in the building.  On the second floor I am missing two types of windows, a standard window and one with an air conditioner sicking out (this is an object I can move around to make each section a little more unique).  Finally the top molding is missing.  Once those are done the front would be for practical purposes complete, though there are a few things I would like to add, though I am not sure if my polygon count has room for them.  I would like to fence in the small property including a rail up the stairs and a gate in front of the stairs.  I have also been thinking about if I want to bar or add something else to the basement and first floor windows.

Okay, that is everything to add to the front, moving to the sides is much easier.  Each side is going to have a continuation of the top molding and a billboard, both of which should be fairly low in the polygon count.  The back is going to be a little more demanding, since I want to repeat the first and second floor windows from the front into a similar spot on the rear.  I also want to bring over one of the basement windows and finish off the top molding.  The only new piece (repeated once per unit) will be a cellar door.

Once all of that is done, the modeling is finished and some of the finer details which are eating up my polygon count right now can be baked into the texture.  This probably includes the doorknob, mailbox, house number and light, as well as some of the detail on the cellar door.  I may not bake all of it since it will be closer to eye level and somewhat noticeable, but if I add the fencing, much of the detail on the front will be kept some distance away.

~gunnah

Work in Progress: The Courthouse

I could easily go over what features I like about Ogre and which I like about UDK and which I would like to see and which I find annoying.  I have gone over this already pretty much as far as I want to, so unless a new contender pops up I am not going to say much more besides small status updates about what I am learning in which engine.  This week was nothing, I forgot about Friday night's post since I was real rushed with Christmas Eve being the next day.  On the up side, since I will not be talking about engines and the like for a little while, I will focus more on the game art, which at least looks like more progress than just saying this or that was programmed, I promise.Another thing I did not notice is that many 3D objects are not modeled in a sitting or two but spread out over the course of months, so I will be doing a series of work-in-progress updates.

To the left is my current piece I am making for the game, the courthouse entrance way.  Obviously I am missing most of the building, but this will be the focal point of the building so I wanted to give it my attention before moving onto the rest of the building.  My goal is to make it as low poly as possible, but since this will be a unique building, and I may want to reuse some or all of it in other projects eventually, I am giving it some extra polygons (polygon face count is currently about 2100 for just the entryway).  Now this is more of a status report than a final release and much of this model may change between now and the model which I will include in the game.

Going from top to bottom I am going to give some of my own critiques of what I would like to change or aspects which may be altered.  I am fairly happy with the scales on the top of the building and because in no game I can really think of the player could get close enough to tell me which polygons are out of position, I think it is fine.  Next is the parallelogram roof.  During texturing the circle in the middle will likely be turned into a texture to save on faces.  There is a star in the middle but the star is very hard to see since there is very little way to light it and cause shadows.  Along the bottom edge, I would like to make a molding which I could possibly reuse as the roof's molding.  The columns are fine, but base just do not seem right to me, they may look better once everything around hem gets filled in, but they just do not seem right to me.  I am fairly pleased with the decorations above the doors and the flagpole and holder on the wall, though obviously I am going to need to add a flag.  As for the doors themselves, they need handles of some form.  The stairs may need a little beveling so they are not quite as straight and a handrail in the middle to break up the long straight lines going across the stairs may also help the scene.  Finally on the base of the entry way, on both sides I want to make a high molding which I will then use throughout the base of the building to mark out the perimeter.

Now onto what still needs to be designed.  Two kinds of windows.  I want a large and a small kind of window, which will be spread around the building to take up most of the wall space.  At the corners I want to make a nice decorative piece so all of the detail is not focused at one point.  The molding at the roof and around the base have already been discussed but would be the last elements to build the lower walls.  On the roof I would like to put in a clock tower.  This will involve another smaller window, the clock piece itself and a molding separating the building from the dome.  Then once all of this is modeled, texturing can begin

Until next time,
~gunnah

Taking this decision slow

While I would really like to just breeze through this decision and go this or that is going to be my engine, my mind is made up and I am done with all of this discussion, that is not going to happen.  Moving from an open source to a licensed proprietary engine has both advantages and draw backs and I will probably be looking over several other engines before I decide on a final choice.  One of the big problems is with Ad Sense links listed, despite not being really generating revenue, I would be required to get a license since it is considered an alternate form of income from my product (I read and re-read most of the legal and business pages to make sure I am not going to get in trouble with anything).  Since I do not really have the money for the license at the moment, buying it and declaring the Unreal Development Kit my engine is not really an option.  Also, I would like to make sure that the UDK is exactly what I want before I spend money on it.  So I will probably check out a few other FPS and 3D engines to see what they are like and work from there.

In the meantime, I am going to keep working with the UDK.  Most because if I do choose it as my engine, to be able to jump right into programming will make the project advance quicker.  Also, while I cannot afford the license, as long as I am using the engine as an educational tool and not making any profit off of it, I can use it without a license.  One of my biggest problems with Ogre was how poorly worded some of the tutorials were.  UDK hosts hours on end of tutorial videos showing exactly how to do what.  One of the biggest problems I had with run-time errors was changing names of strings which Ogre needs in a particular format, but were not commented or explained as being necessary how they were presented.  While I would like to keep playing in code, the UDK is not distributed with its source, so I do not need to worry about these strings.  Now, UDK offers a built-in coding area, but this is nothing like what I would need access to in order to replicate the problem from Ogre.  One other plus with UDK is having a built-in level designer and not need to worry about the DotSceneParser, which gave me so much trouble a month ago.

While not a very comprehensive comparison, I am just listing some of my observations where UDK seems easier to use than Ogre.  Of course, UDK being in a GUI and not several thousand lines of code does help with coding problems, so I guess the adage you get what you pay for may have some validity.  Most likely I am just going to keep on fooling around with UDK for the next few weeks, then look for another engine to try out, or take some time and go 3D modeling to reappraise the project.
~gunnah

A big decision arises

While I had more or less figured out what I was going to do for the weapon system in the tutorial I had been working on, I am not sure if I am advancing in Ogre any further.  I had been talking to a few friends whose major deals with networking and computer programming, and they told me Ogre was not the best way to go.  While I have not completely given up on Ogre, I do have a few issues.  Te biggest advantage of Ogre is it is open source, so anyone can go in and really customize any aspect of the engine.  Other things I like about Ogre are the speed of compiling, my familiarity with the conventions used in programming and the relative ease to change levels using the DotSceneParser, one it is working.  But Ogre is a 3D engine, and every other aspect of the game needs its own engine: sound, networking, physics, and GUI.

So the recommendation to me was move over to the Unreal Development Kit, the free for non-commercial use version of the Unreal Engine.  Since I have not made a cent off of this game yet I am not real worried , though if I ever make any money off of people clicking on the Ad Sense links on the side of the page or I ever get a donation page up I will definitely need to go over their legal requirements to see if I need a license, though I am thinking it is only if I am actually selling the game.  That is my only big worry right now since the UDK has the financial stipulation, another problem I have is the engine is not open source.and with the UDK I do not even have access to the engine (they allow access to the pre-built binaries for free).  Right now those are my big complaints, though I am not real worried about them.  I cannot really comment on how it is to program or design a level or anything since I am still making it through a lot of the introductory documentation.  Though having all of the aspects integrated into the engine does seem like it would be easier.

So, I do not have much to show for the previous week, and probably will not have much for the weekend since I think most of my free-time will be spent reading the UDK documentation.  I will probably make the decision n whether to switch or not once I have read most of the documentation, made a level and imported a mesh or two.  My guess is in about I week I will decide if using the UDK would be advantageous for my project, because this is big and something I do not want to rush.
~gunnah