Times of War Development Team

Last night I figured out how to do an orthographic projection matrix, to see how it looked. It looks like crap. Instead, I took a look at my perspective settings and realized that they were a bit off, thus causing the distortion that I mentioned earlier. You would be amazed at how much difference there is between a 2 and a 4 =). Here is the new camera angle:

http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.p...postid=1154749

Much better, in my opinion. The camera needs to be moved back a bit, but that is easy =).

Z.

Much better! But the trees still are an unreal green colour. They should be more brown.

Hey, what do you expect from MS Paint? =).

Z.

You did that in PAINT? Hahha, ... erm, sorry. If you send over the texture I can work on it...

Just start over =). All I did was draw a green circle, made the edges a bit jagged, and then used the spray paint tool to add some darker green speckles =).

Z.

heh, that looks kewl.

i think the trees need a stump.

the windows look kewl although im not so sure on having the gradient on the actual body of the window itself. maybe just the caption ?

for the trees do u think you could just use some alpha blended quads to acheive a better look ?

I was planning on putting an alpha channel into the tree texture, but remember... these are just test models, and crap textures =). And the tree does have a trunk... you just cant see it =).

Z.

Spent the evening getting the Uninstall setup. i got to make the installer generate an uninstall script but that shall be easy. then i gotta make the app uninstall the files - again easy.

Each thing installed is classed as a "Module" and u can select which to uninstall. Uninstalling the Times of War module removes the others.

I made two new textures today. Let me know what you think.

And grass:

And I'm making one for the pine trees. I can then make some for the other kinds of trees, but they'll be done in a different way, no? :)

Nice textures, Sas! I will use them! I will see if I can come up with another tree model.

Z.

I need a good imaging program, free. I dont want to go and download PhotoShop, or some such program, but it needs to be able to open and save in any format that you guys are going to be sending me images in. Any suggestions?

Z.

http://www.flydragonsoft.com/GraphicConverter.htm

How about that? It seems pretty nice, has context menus and everything...

Or, if you have a Linux machine...
http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.p...ht=linux+corel

Hell, ill just go get the Gimp =).

Z.

Sounds good! Post a screenshot of the terrain with the new textures, will you?

Here you are =).

http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.p...postid=1155206

When you create a texture that needs an alpha channel, be sure to include an alpha mask when you send it over. A simple greyscale bitmap works, where black is full transparent, and white is full solid, and anything in between is translucent.

Z.

Zaei, I know how to program with alpha maps :) I know what they are ;)

Oh, and that's looking great :)

I know, but I have heard of alpha maps going the other way around, so I was just laying down the law =).

By the way, do you want the camera zoomed out a bit, still? The more I look at that picture, the more I like it =).

Z.

I can't really decide from that picture because there's really no context, but in other news, MAGNVM OPVS, Zaei and Sastraxi.

Here is something to give some reference.

http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.p...postid=1155231

Between the two pictures, the camera is the same. The REAL difference is actually the subdivision on the terrain itself. In all of these screen shots, I have one 35x35 meter terrain patch. In the above picture, each "tile" is 1x1 meter, while in the previous (seemingly zoomed in) picture, I am subdividing the 35x35 patch 15 times (each "tile" is ~2x2 meters). Given this, we are going to have to pick a subdivision, and stick to it thoughout.

Z.

Me gusta! I definitely like the second one, but my opinion is swayed by the fact that I'm probably missing some technical information in deciding which would be better. Um, yes.

Nope, its all in the look. Do you like larger or smaller tiles? Smaller tiles will be a bit slower to draw (more vertices to transform), but I will do my best to alleviate that.

Z.

I've got to tell you, Zaei, I think it's just as good either way then. Uh... language thing... Si! There, did it.

Whatever way is easier, unless the team has any opinions...

Nope, no opinions here ;)
I agree with Jorj. I think the look outbalances the performance issue.

It is a matter of changing a single number =).

Psy, here is something nifty. I dont know how much work you have done with the STL, or if you have ever encountered a truncation of Debug info warning, but I found a sweet little solution. Take a look:

Code:

---

class TOW_GameObjectManager
{
...
private:
  struct OC
  {
      ...
  };
  std::list<OC> objects;
};

---

The list will generate a whole lot of warnings... pain in the arse, cuz they dont mean anything. Here is my solution:

Code:

---

template<class t=TOW_GameObject, class f=TOW_GameObjectFactory>
class TOW_ObjectManager
{
...
private:
  struct OC
  {
      ...
  };
  std::list<OC> objects;
};

---

No more warnings =). I can also change the default Object to be managed, and the default factory to create those objects =). Pretty damn elegant =).

Z.

I wish I could understand that :( I've always wanted to learn C++...

Anyway, I've made the image. Unfortunately I can only make semi-transparent alphamaps look good (I failed horribly doing this a number of times), so I couldn't do the alphamap. Here it is, though.

Let me explain it to you then, Sas =). Templates are what makes C++ the king of languages =).

Code:

---

template<class t, class f>
class TOW_ObjectManager

---

Simple enough, this is the class declaration. From now on, you could create an object of this class like so:

Code:

---

TOW_ObjectManager<int, std::string> o;

---

I use int, and std::string just as examples. What that type of instatiation does is actually compile a completly new class that contains all of the methods and such of the original TOW_ObjectManager, but whereever it sees a data type of "t", it will replace it with "int", and whereever it sees an "f", it replaces it with an "std::string". Essentiall, it allows you to write a class once, and use it for any conforming data type.

The rest of the code is fairly simple. A structure declaration, OC, and a template instantiation of a standard class, std::list, using OC.

If C++ was as slow as VB, I would STILL choose it because of templates.

And I will post a shot of the trees with the new texture in a second =).

Z.

Here is the new texture. Needs an alpha mask, for sure =).

http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.p...postid=1155269

Z.

Yeah. I especially liked how your texture gets dark at the bottom-left, making it look more complex then it really is. That could be done with alpha masks too I'd suppose :)

Those trees look a lot more like they belong there, with the darker shading =).

Z.

Yes, it's very nice now :)
Could you upload you old tree texture? I want to work on getting that effect (the shading) :)

Zaei, yes i have used them and those warnings are very annoying, cheers! =)

okies, my two cents, i prefered the old ground textures. the brown in the new one i think looks too odd. the greyish brown marble thing that was there before i think looked a lot better.

The trees are looking a lot better with what ya did to em. to get em that final way i guess they need to cast a shadow on the terrain and each other.

Is it just me or, coz, i thought with alpha stuff, especially in OpenGL u dont need a mask you can just load the alpha channel from the texture and set the blending based on that. or, u can just load the texture pixel by pixel and if its thetransparent color just set the alpha channel to transparent if not set it to solid ??

That is what the alpha mask is for, Psy. I take the images you guys give me, and send them through the texture converter. If there is an alpha mask, I process it into the texture, so that I can load the texture back into the game. Bitmaps dont hold alpha data, which is why I do it this way =).

Actually, this dirt texture is far better then the one I had. But in the other shots, I was actually using a rock texture, which is why it looks different. I like these new textures a lot =).

I dont think that I am going to be making the trees shade each other, it just doesnt seem to make sense. I would like to have them shade the ground, though, using a blob shadow.

Sas, I will upload it in a few hours (on a different computer =).

Z.

And plus, those textures were from half-life, they were only temporary.

Any 'chance' of some more game types that we could fit into a story?

We've got:

Crusade


I have an idea:

The Feud (or something)

It takes place in a big city. Players could control noble families, and they could influence town guards (who would attack them if they committed crimes), extort money from shopkeepers, loot things, acquire property, assassinate people, hire henchmen, train family members, etcet.

What do you think?

I think it would be a great idea - the only thing would be we'd have to morph it around a little until it fits into the RTS theme. Great idea, once again!

Here it is, Sas =).

Z.

I'm pleased with the outcome of this pine texture here :)

It looks good, though there is a lot of distortion. That is the texture mapping (need to fix it, though I dont know what is wrong...)

http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.p...postid=1156752

Z.

I know what'll fix that up! Be back in a jif with the new texture.

Here it is... the old one looks like we are attempting cel-shading or something :)

Ok, the circles show the texture distortion. The shaded areas nead the bottom of each cone is distortion, and shouldnt be there.

http://www.vbforums.com/attachment.p...postid=1156784

Z.

I wonder why it's doing that.... Do you have any clue?

God, you saw the image before I got back to the page! Thats fast!

Its texture coordinate distortion from 3DSMAX.

Z.

Jorj, I have a neat idea that I am not yet ready to share (it has NEVER been done in an RTS, and i want to be the first). When we start implementing the game styles, Ill bring it up again =).

Z.

Hmm. I'll look up a plugin to fix that if you want :)

...

http://www.cadalyst.net/plugins3.html
Look there. They've got some great ones. And 2 down on the left side... :)

You know, If you could find me some source that could load 3DS files into memory (with or without bones, I dont care), in VB or C++ (C++ is more likely), I could write a better converter. For now though, I am going to leave it as is.

Maybe take a loko at cal3d ( http://cal3d.sourceforge.net ).

Z.

Something like this?
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/art...rticle1259.asp

That was one of the ones I was thinking of =). I will see if I can implement a new processor tomorrow (Ill have more time =).

As for right now, I am off to bed (good god, its only 11 15! =).

Talk to you all in the morning!

Z.

Yeah, I am going to bed myself now (isn't that a coincidence?) and will also talk more tomorrow :)

But I want to know now! (cries) (sniff) Sorry.

Oh, if you insist =). PM coming your way =).

Z.

Muchas gracias, Zaei.

hmm, okay Zaei, i get that problem too when i used to use it. u have to set up the texture mapping in 3d max properly using a UVW Map setting it to Face.

I have loader code attached for 3ds files (objects and materials), C++ code.

I still like the older ground texture. i think the brown in the current one is far too promenant. too brown almost.

Thanks, Psy. I will take a look at it later. For now I am trying to get units set up. Probably by tonight =).

Z.

okies, i got loads more donw on the uninstaller. its pretty much finished. i have got the registry (install/uninstall) working at all yet tho i can stick it in whenever.

For some odd reason it seems that sometimes when i think uninstalling, it runs the virus checker lol erm, not too sure whats going on here :s

I found this floating around my pc, in case you ever wondered.