What is Needed to Make a Level

So I have decided to make a modular level, similar to what I had been doing with the road pieces.  I looked at my ideas for levels and decided the one I could probably piece together quickest is the space ship cargo hold.  So with the level picked, I had to decide dimensions.  This was fairly simple since the last time I was deciding on a level to make I had a rough idea of the size.  For the cargo hold, I am thinking something like a square with a side of two kilometers.  This would make a four square kilometer box with twenty-five possible points of contention.  While this may seem sparse, I want the game to flow in more small skirmishes than full team on team which I think this size and distribution may provide.  Of course the big test will come once I get enough done to start assembling the level.

With the level picked out, the size chosen and key points selected, I then began to think of how I wanted the level to look.  Since I am going for fairly quick and many of the pieces will be repeating right next to each other, I am going for a cleaner look.  So the only thing left is what actually needs to be made, which I have listed at about twenty pieces.  I am sure this is not a completely list as it has no unique pieces on it, but I think the main modular set will include about that many.  Below is a brief listing of how those are divided.

Floor tile: one piece; probably the most repeated unit in the map.

Ledge: two pieces, either a corner or an edge; used with raised platforms mostly.

Ramp: three pieces; one to go up, one to go down, and an optional mid piece.

Supports: four pieces; a base, a top and an optional mid section as well as a whole section; these are needed not only because floating platform drive me nuts but can also provide some more covered areas.

Walls: six pieces; all are either a corner or an edge, and either a base, a top or a mid section; mostly to wall in the map and the base.

Windowed Walls: two pieces, corner or edge; I want to use these on the north and south walls to break up the way the walls look.

Note that any pieces used for flooring (floor, ledge and ramp) I want to display the current owners colors.  These will be shown by lights in the floor which will change when the sector changes hands.  This means each of those will need five versions of each texture (one for each team and a  not captured color).  I have actually started on the main floor tile and hopefully I have something to show for next time.  Until then,
~gunnah

Not much done

As I believe I had previously mentioned two weeks ago, I spent that week reading up for my upcoming exam.  I even spent most of the weekend also to study.  Then last week, I worked more overtime then I ever had.  I was lucky to get sleep let alone study.  That means that most of the modeling was put on the back burner for this weekend.

I was going to try to get one or two original tanks blocked out.  However, every time I began to get somewhere, I really did not like where it was going.  So then I was going to write the background story, explain the technology and such.  However, I also did not like how that was turning out.So by the end of the night, I was just fooling around trying to make a material library, when I made a camo pattern.  These are likely to be the matte base in the game, and I made one for each team (yellow, green, red, grey).  The desert and jungle camo are staples while the red desert and arctic camo I though cam out nice.  This means, I think, that the blue team I had initially said when laying out team will be replaced by desert camo (yellow).

Hopefully, I will have something more substantial in the coming week.  Until next time,
~gunnah

What I need to make a demo

Well, first off, sorry I missed Friday's post; I know, I am a terrible person.  Secondly, next Friday, I am not sure if  there will be a real early post or if I am going to miss that one also.  I am busy Friday night and most of Saturday, no where near my computer, so it is likely I will miss that one unless I got quite a bit done a feel it is enough to warrant the early post.  Now, with that out of  the way, I will start talking about the game and how I am hoping it will move along.  Currently I am finishing up the four base models from Tanarus: the chameleon, lightning, mag rider and devastator/vanguard (the models are near identical looking beyond the texturing).  I am hoping to turn each model into two versions, much more detailed than the basic model.  One tank, probably the mag rider or chameleon whichever is more intricate, will need only one model since I am planning seven tanks at release, each with slightly varied stats.

So with the vehicles discussed, we need a level to use the vehicles on: and I am thinking the one which will go together the quickest will be the military base.  Because a majority of the base will be segments of hallway underneath the surface, I am hoping to get away with two dozen of so varying pieces underground.  Once those are finished, I will probably make three or four pipe sets to add a little variation into the halls and finish the underground section with a few chambers.  Above ground will be fairly sparse.  I am planning outside of the base for each team, six entrance ports which will lead to reconnaissance points as well as a fairly large central building leading to the central reconnaissance point.  Beyond that, I am thinking that there will be four installations (north, south, east and west on the map).  East and west will be shorter sides and hold only two reconnaissance points.  North and south will be larger installations and hold three reconnaissance points.  Note the map will be rectangular with twenty-one total reconnaissance points.

Now the only thing left to do is go over the opening screen again, but since I feel that I already have described it previously in enough detail.  That covers everything I need to do for the demo.  Since I am probably going to try to get the demo out with the least amount of coding, I may ignore the opening screens as well as the multiplayer functionality, just letting users go around and blow up pre-spawned or re-spawning enemy tanks.  How long will it take me to finish all of this?  That is a good question, my guess would be several months, mostly because I am finding it hard to get time to work on this project on top of school and work.

Now, on to my 3D art which I have ignored thus far into the post.  I made an ArmaLite AR-15 assault rifle over the weekend.  I could have worked on some of the previous projects or started to think about how to move forward, but I wanted to do something I would get some enjoyment out of and which would be done quickly.  Each picture is just a re-skin of the others and all of them use the built in materials provided by the 3D modeling program.  I would really love to see this in a demo since each og the paints is metallic, even though it is hard to see from these pictures, and the way the light catches them, particularly off of the gold plating, would be fun to look at - I had to settle for rotating the gun and then redrawing the scene.

Well, sorry for the long post, but I think this is the first time in a long while I had some kind of direction as to what I need to do to get something playable released.  Well, until next time, again I will only post early Friday if I have done something useful, not a filler post,
~~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 new month

Since this is the first post of a new month, I figured I would use it to plan what I would like done during the month.  While the last two months had some high points, I feel the programming end has been stalled for some time now.  So my top priority is to get the 3D shooter tutorial back to where it was before I destroyed it, then continue to build.  If all goes well, I will have that project done fairly quickly.  Once that is done, I want to piece through the Advanced Framework tutorial at which point I will be done with tutorials.

My secondary concern is getting some models ready to use in the game.  I have decided I will begin with the five original tanks from Tanarus and build them into something new.  After looking at the models carefully, I realized the majority of the detailing was in the texturing - a neat trick to make fairly detailed tanks using only 50 or so polygons.  Right now I just want a base model to use as a place-keeper.  Once the tanks are ready, which should not take that long, I will finish up the level map.  Neither the tanks nor level map have that big of a rush since neither will be utilized before I finish the Advanced Framework tutorial.  Once I finish the level map, I can start working on itemizing all of the building and objects I will need for the map, but this is still some distance off in the future.

Finally are my goals with my 3D modeling.  The biggest goal is learning how to texture my models.  While a decent model is a great place to start, even a mediocre model can be saved with a good texturing job.  After all, almost all of the detail in the original tanks were in the texturing.  I would also like to start finishing some of my open projects, but there is almost no rush on that happening.

Just a little note: after working on a few models and seeing where difficult portions lie, like getting the right roundness while preserving a poly count, you do begin to see it in video games.  Not so much in CG scenes or movies since those are entirely rendered and do not have poly constraints like games.  Well, until next time,
~gunnah

A little more about my level design

Okay, so life strikes down another post in its prime.  I had a fairly busy weekend with little time to play in front of my monitor.  So the programming I was hoping to have done will likely wait until the next post at the end of the week.  As modeling goes, you can see the lack of pictures, so nothing major happened in that department either this weekend.  What I did do is pick up a few tips about level design.  Of course their was for a humanoid walking in an Action/Adventure or RPG style game and I am looking to make a multiplexer FPS, it did give some good tips.

The biggest tip it gave was to block out the scene before adding little decorative bits.  While another plan it to make all the little decorative bits then compile them into a level, I think this blocking out and seeing what needs to be made system works best for a single person project.  Once I finish blocking the entire level out, I will include a list of buildings I need on the "3d Modeling" page.  The map is going to be very varied in terms of terrain from city to small forest.  My hope is to keep a large number of the buildings fairly generic in structure, for example only use six or eight generic buildings in the city-scape in addition to the few unique pieces.  Then closer to release, create several additional textures for each building to vary them.

Now, onto more game background.  I needed to pick a unit to work in and normally it would be meters, but they have the same problem as yards.  Both work well under certain applications, but to keep fairly whole numbers, which is my goal for the moment, feet work better.  The map I am working on will be a 1000 foot square.  I divided the map into 9 regions (4 300-by-300 regions at the corners, 4 300-by-400 regions at the edges and a 400-by-400 region in the middle)and then decided what generally I want to add where.  The northwest will be more sparse with more trees and larger houses while the southeast will be a suburban zone.  This leaves a central band which I want to make more built up like a city.

So I started laying out the building for my city when I realized while the main avenues are twenty feet across, I was adding alleys between buildings which were narrower.  This could pose a possible problem if some tanks are larger than the alleyway (giving some tanks an advantage over others) or worse all tanks were wider since that would reduce the playable area (these alleys are similar to capillaries in the human body, while they do not take up much space, because of the amount of them, they provide a significant surface area).  Luckily most alleys should be about 15 foot across (I am assuming in buildings I mark as 30 by 30 for example will omly be 20 by 20, but will include the sidewalk in front, dumpster on the side and anything else in the five foot buffer area around) and most tanks should be under 12 foot wide.  I was doing some background work finding dimensions of large vehicles like SUVs as well as tanks.  I found a small tank is slightly larger than a large SUV, so my smallest tank will likely be about the size of a large SUV.  Width is likely eight to twelve feet, height is seven to nine feet, and length is the big variable at between eighteen and twenty-five feet.  None of these are set in stone, but the level I am working on now is being designed wit the upper values listed in mind.

While not really much to talk about, I hope this gives some insight into my thought of what are going into the level and tank design.  Hopefully more concrete progress in the next post,

~gunnah

A little distraction

Look a picture!  Actually it is not that impressive since I cannot think of when I would need a meat grinder in a video game outside of a scene in a deli or supermarket.  But if the need ever arose, I do have the perfect item for it.  Actually, in my opinion, it looks a little cartoon-y, and could probably be helped with a better background, I am still learning how to best frame items.  I mostly made it because I wanted something to show and it had been a while since my last picture.  I had been working on the mech, but the process of UV mapping over twenty thousand faces is going to take some time.  Also I have started on a second 3D modeling program, just picking up the basics, but the more I learn the more marketable this all may become.  My problem with the new program is it is a lot more artsy than the one I had been using and low poly is more or less non-existent in that program, but it is capable of rendering extremely photo-realistic images.  So the trade-off is while completely unusable for the game I am making, it may prove useful in future exploits.

Now, on to what should be my main focus.  Since the Shoo 'Em Up tutorial was in utter chaos from trying various ways of merging the two systems together, I am in the process of restarting the tutorials.  This was the easiest option since I only got to the second tutorial.  So no progress there really, outside of making a whole new project to repeat what I thought I had done but royally messed up.  But there is a bright spot, not in the previous bits but in the fact I continues with the network programming book and made a program which returned the IP address of a given website.  That may not sound like much, and actually the program was not very intense, but what was key was that I completely understood the entire program.  The next couple of programs in the book are a server and a client so that should be fun to get together.

Finally, a small change has been made to the Progress page changing when I think I will start coding the actual game from late November to mid December.  I am trying to be honest, but life has a way of making a liar out of me.  So I hope for a little forward progress next time.
~gunnah

Good and Bad

Well, I am going to start out with the bad, no picture. Restoring everything after the reformat is taking a little longer then I had hoped, and I have not really gotten around to playing with my 3D modeler again. As for the techniques, they are still as much a mystery as last post since I did not have any time to see how to accomplish those goals (movement and painting). The model is almost done, I had been working on some ideas before I reformatted, but it does need a final touch or two before I feel it is how I want it, at least fr now. Hopefully in the future I get better at adding little parts to it to make it look that much better.

Now, on to the good news: in some ways I am further along then before I reformatted. After a bit of work, I got OGRE back up and running. Of course I got all the way to the end, when to compile the Tutorial Framework just to make sure it all worked and realized I forgot to compile the final OGRE project. So OGRE is back up and ready to use. Additionally, I managed to get CEGUI not only installed but compiled as well. I found out that last time when trying to get CEGUI to compile, I downloaded the wrong dependencies file. There are apparently two on the page for Visual Studios, and I overlooked the first link only seeing the second. Problem is the second only has one of the dependencies. So now I should be back on track and hopefully I have a few more tutorials done by the time I post next.

I could go into further additions to the game, but I am thinking I will talk more about the screen after log-in but before entering the game. In a much earlier post I have already described most of the functions that I want included into the page, these are summarized in the Game Overview page I created a week or so back. I believe in the earlier post I described the page as being two-dimensional. This description is what I remember the screen being like, which was nice, but while I want to make a similar game, the goal is only for similar, so this could be an area for change. So, this original layout is not what I am going to use, but how the new layout will function. After a bit of thought, a three-dimensional screen may be a different look, and after going beyond a certain point on the map, the desired screen would pop up with the options. The user would start in a depression in the center of the map. Each part of the page originally described would have its own ramp, with the areas between the ramps being fenced in. Above each ramp would be a sign for what screen the ramp will bring up, like Game, User, Friends, Options, News, et c. The two-dimensional screen for most of the will still be the same, though those that were initially built into the overview page now need their own pages, but that is a small task.

~gunnah

New Direction

So I have decided to give this blog yet another try, third time is the charm or something like that. Well, my overall goal is to document the progress I am making on my newest project. Not really sure what to call it yet, then again, I do not really have much done. Without beating around the bush anymore, I am just going to give the basics:

The Inspiration:
A few days ago, me and a friend from high school started talking about a game we played online around the turn of the millennium. It was a 3D online tank shooting game called Tanarus, which we would waste countless hours on after getting home from school. That was until it became pay to play and neither of us had a credit card or could convince our parents. So time lapses, and I check on it every once in a while and the only real change is I become a poor college student who cannot really afford the $10 a month plus the time to play the game. As it turns out, the game has been offline now for a little over a year, after a thirteen year run which I would consider a success for any online game.

The Project:
While not wanting to tamper with anyone's rights, even though the game is offline, I would like to create a game with a similar play style. All of the code/models are going to be made by me, though it will be clear from where I draw my inspiration. I hope they, like I, consider imitation the highest form of flattery. Most of the models will be fairly square with lots of sharp angles, this is not because I am not learning the modeling software, but because I want to preserve some of the nostalgia I hope to eventually create.

Project Details:
The following is a very rough breakdown of what I will need to do before the game even begins:

• Game opens to a log in screen which sends the username and password to the server and can either send the client to a log in fail page where the user can try again or go to the server select screen.
• The server select screen is the main page for the game. A list of news/updates should appear on the one side. A link to option page(s) on the bottom. The tutorial and/or practice campaigns should also be a link on the bottom. A link to the user stats page should also appear on the bottom. Finally, counter to the news/updates should appear a list of all games currently going on, listing the match type, the map, and number of friends/people playing on each of the four teams.
• Option page(s) should include any video and audio options, as well as an option to re-key the game and credits.
• The tutorial and/or practice maps will be run solely from the client-side and include basic information on how the game works.
• The user page includes any stats which may be of interest, primarily the kill/death ratio, hit percentage for each ammo type, most used tank, kills, assists, points (used towards ranking), points in each match type and a list of friends the user has made, and an input field to add another friend. Clicking on a friends name will send you to their stat page, with a special table row that will be labeled status showing the match they are currently in, in the color of the team they are on. Clicking on that will join you to that game on their team, with a popup appearing if their team is full with a link to join teams which are not full, or an error that the match has no open slots.
• Possibly included above or below the news/updates is a ranking list for overall and match type by kills, points, kill/death ratio as well as maybe a drop down list to limit to only users of a certain rank.
• Finally, the table of matches. The arrows at the head of the match column will sort by alphabetical (-), increasing rank (^) and decreasing rank (v). Additionally there are four symbols above the team breakdowns: (^) for most people in a map, (v) least people in a map, (F) friends in a map (sorted by which has the most friends), and (All/Limit). This final button does not sort but chooses whether to display only those available to your rank (Limit, which is the default), or all of the maps (All). Clicking on match will join you to the team with the fewest number of players, whereas clicking on the team column in the team breakdown section will join you to a specific team.

More details of actual game play will be given at a later date, as this post is getting too long as it is.

~gunnah