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I will probably spend the next several days working on the particle systems, and commenting all of the code ive written so far (some 4500+ lines of it).
We NEED a texture artist, someone who can do the models, and someone who can put the textures on the models.
Also, if you guys want, dynamic terrain is pretty easy to implement right now...
Z.
True, Sas. I always forget that =(.
Z.
What does "dynamic terrain" mean?
Exactly what it says. If we want, we can have spells that make craters, or such like...
Z.
I think I have decided on an animation system. Feedback on this is REQUIRED by more people then Sas...
Basically, each part of the model (Head, Torso, Upper Arms, Lower Arms, etc), everything that moves, will be in a separate model. Then, all that needs to happen is to just rotate each model into the correct position in each animation frame, and render. I can implement this, if someone can model it.
Z.
That would destroy the need for model animation, lowering the size of the model dir or whatever by a sufficient amount...
Good thinking!
Sas,
When do we get to have a look....?
Well, Im here and as soon as I can Ill send the 270 peasant drawings to Sas, I'll see if he likes it, they will be small and low
detailed at least compared to what Im used to drawing I will scan them in black and white and change them to 16-bit bitmap. If it is all aprooved I will send that to everyone as long as your e-mail checks. Then Ill move on to the other units. It will take me a while to do all the units, and Im moving to a newhouse soon so I wont be online for a while and Ill have other responsabilities. But as long as you guys need (or want) me here (the only none programer) Ill try my best. :)
Psy: We shall see whose looks better =P. Too bad we cant have OGL particle systems in D3D, and vice versa. I need to comment all of the code ive written so far, but when i do that, Ill get it all over to you to take a look at. If you want, you can rewrite the D3D specific rendering code in OGL as you learn it, and we can do what Sas suggested. It should be fairly easy, because i imagine that 99.9 percent of my code uses a wrapper on the D3D Device, that can easily be replaced with OGL stuff. My only problem is that I dont know how to write DLLs =(.
Sas: It wont actually reduce the size of the model directory, but I have been thinking on it for a few hours now, and ive come up with an improvement already. In D3D, at least, you can split a model into different Subsets, and render them separatly. This way, each body part becomes a model subset, and i can render them in order, move them, rotate them, whatever. So, we can have arms fly off, heads, etc... whatever you can think of.
Also, As I as looking over the list of units, I saw that we will have magic users. Ill need a list of probable spells that they will use so I can think of effects, and how to do them =).
Norman: Hopefully you can do model textures =).
Everyone: I recommend using Milkshape 3D for model creation, you can download it from http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/ . It is fairly easy to use, but it's shareware. All we really need is a base mesh, and I can write an animation program.
Z.
I have done a whole lot of work on that map editor, as it seems it is what we will be using. I have implemented a terrain generation algorithm, an erosion algorithm, a smoothing algorithm, and a Caldera Inversion algorithm (volcanos). Terrain can be created in a few minutes. You can now load terrain textures directly onto the map for viewing as well. What else would people like to see?
Z.
I'm aiming for Triggers! (EEK!) but I would like water, and maybe a graphical 2D layer specified to go above it (clouds, etc.)
Spells
Fire
- Cone, Ball, Stream
- Ball - Magi hold hands outstretched in front of themselves, and the particles come from all around the mage, until the fireball is pretty big. Then the fireball is launched. The fireball can go to a target. This goes in just one direction and doesnt turn/change direction.
- Cone - Ball created in same way as stream. The particles then shoot off to the top of the screen and then come down in a specified target range (large radius)
- Stream - Magi hold hands above head and create a fireball, particles coming from themselves (arms). Then they take this ball and put it in front of them hands outstreched. Then a stream of fire shoots from the magician's hands and stays there for a predetermined amount of time.
Also Zaei I would like it if there was a death spell that centered where the magician was and drained life from anyone in a 2 tile radius. Like on a hot summer day when everything seems to be rippling because of the heat. That's the effect I would like.
Also thank you Jorj for the list of jobs that you posted earlier. :)
I'd like to congratulate you all on the hard work you've been doing recently. Arbiter, be patient and look at the stuff that we've got (the screens)
Those of you who have seen my Art, know my limitsn and what I can do, (Sas, Psyvisionman, wassupguys), You know its ) 0% programing, sorry. Well for those of you who have not seen what can I do heres the link to my artistic page.... http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/lothlo...oelnomein.html
There is nothing of times of war there but soon there will be. This Job is hard for me but something like a cover, a logo, anything thats what Im best at.
Noel,
Could you please send me all of your Times of War pictures? I will send you some of my own and Jorj's. I'm getting anxious because I've seen the quality of your work....
Please email ASAP.
Thanks
Noel, If you like Terry Brooks, and Tolkien, I recommend Robert Jordan, and the Wheel of Time series.
And on to other things....
Sas: Is that all you have so far, or is that all? Those should be pretty easy once I get a generic particle system running. Ive got water so far, with animated textures, I need to add in the ability to set the height in the map editor though. I was also thinking along the lines of triggers, but they will have to wait to be implemented in the "engine" first. Which means they have to wait for me to comment code... ugh =(. Clouds are possible, they will just have to be pre-rendered. It will look as if the player is looking down through the clouds, so they will be alpha blended. Both are just big textured Quads =). I dont know if i can do the rippling effect for that death spell.
Again, the animation system should allow for us to attach Particle systems to the bones in the model, and we should even be able to let users assign different weapons to different guys (ie, basic footman can use spear, swords of various sizes, bows, etc, while sharing animations with other units). This should cut down on modelling and character texturing a bit.
And, another screen shot. I was working on this lightning effect before, but which one do people think looks better?
Z.
hey zaei, i can do things with dll's lol but well not p systems so we can use your particle system, i can convert some of the code if you want, Plz let me know whatcha want doing dll wise :D
I need to make another request.
Whenever I say that i need feedback, PLEASE post something... if you dont have an opinion, at least post "No Opinion". I need to know that people are reading what im typing, and Sas has posted several times about the lack of posts every once in a while. Just post something every once in a while, even if its just an "I'm Still Alive" message. It's vital. So, please, Please, PLEASE! =).
Z.
Psy's just about to post something.
Sorry to say the lightning looks a bit wierd...
it should be bluish and should be a warped billboard, with an alpha-channel texture.
The MAGIC system:
Magi start out with one spell, which depends on their civs (fantasy). One of the civs will give the rain spell. It slows down units 30% and makes crops give 50% more food in the area. To get other spells, they must be researched and the mage must be trained in that area.
Magi get their power from all around them. They sap magic from the trees and terrain, etc. and it destroys them a bit. You can also get magic from 'Magic Traps'. These are either natural or made-through-ritual phenomenons, that take magic but dont destroy the environment. They regenerate magic very slowly.
These magic traps glow brighter and brighter when the magic is more, and less when the magic is not a lot. Anyways, the magi are linked to these things. When the mage dies, the magic there is lost and travels back to disrupted terrain, and restores it a bit. If the mana trap is destroyed the mage dies as well.
You can always perform magic, but how much magic you have changes what happens and how well it performs. There will be no magic meter, but the mage will glow not at all/slightly/a fair bit depending on how much magic he has.
Some spell ideas:
- Plague: Infects target unit with a disease. I think we have a disease model around here somewhere... Sastraxi?
- Tree: Creates a tree. Simple, no?
- Bounty: Creates fish or game, depending on the location.
- Petrify: Unit turns to stone. (for limited time or permanently, can't decide)
- Summon Hero: Creates a unit with a name and slightly better abilities than a normal unit. (like monsters with names in Diablo)
- Mold Mountain: Raises terrain.
- Delve Valley: Lowers terrain.
- Fortify: Raises building armour.
Any comments/questions/suggestions/monologues welcome.
Ok. So we will have several different "classes" of magi (Fire, Water, etc, etc). Thats easy enough, just a different texture on the model.
The magic traps are pretty easy too. Just a model with a billboarded, alphablended circle thing that glows.
Yes, I know the lightning effect looks weird, but thats only because I havent really worked it out fully yet =).
And, my contribution of the day, the current source to the map maker. Have fun. I can play with it for hours myself =).
Z.
Sas, dont worry I will e-mail as soon as posible, and you would speed my work up by alot if you would send me pics that you have done, please hurry because I am behind my own schedule in this project, When you agree on the magic send me the final result, so I can get to work on that too, If I can.
Thanks for the suggestion on the author Ill look him up right now online then on the library
How come my computer cant ready any of your attachments? I feel so......... left out....... clueless......ect.......
http://www.winzip.com/ for the ZIP files....
And also I will send you two dev. pics (not sure about names so far)...
Zaei!!
I MUST ASK YOU to look at this page... GO NOW!!!
http://www.visualweather.co.uk/
I already had Winzip its what's in it that I dont have. Dont worry about it.... Nice weather site I hope the graphics are like that in the actual game.
Yeah, take a close look at the lightning effects, it looks really cool (ZAEI!) Did you get the pictures I sent you?
A: I got the images.
B: That lightning effect is pretty much the same as the second one in the image I posted, with a pointlight at the base of the bolt. I can do that if you want. Those trees are billboarded sprites, but if we are going to have a spell that grows trees, I suggest using actual models for trees.
Z.
But the lightning in that engine was FORKED. Yours was straight
down. In the word doc available they gave a C++ routine that gives back the points of the lightning.
Do you like the images?
Bah, forked lightning is easy =).
The second image looks all ghostly and cool =).
I am working on implementing the super-generic particle system. Ill post details later, with a screen shot or two.
Z.
Ok. The Particle system is operational. FOr those who want to details (probably just Psy...) the system is completely generic. All that needs to be written is the behavior of the system in a function, and that function can be passed into the system to be called on each update tick. Here is just a quick test sample that i did, with 3 flames coming out of the ground =).
Z.
Lol ok i got the map maker, will look at it in a tick. The particle system is nice. Thoooooooooooo, i was perhaps thinking of something like (http://nehe.gamedev.net/tutorials/lesson19.asp) with the particles in a yellow-ie orange. The weather thing on the link u sent is just several lines with a lightmap at the bottom of where each light hits the ground, thats all.
Since Zaei said it was generic, [I think] he means that you can change the size of each particle and the shape and the colours. Zaei, does that use billboards or point sprites? It's sweet ;).
I love neon helium cuz it's got like 10 different ports to different languages, it's great.
Psyvision, take a look at this:
http://nehe.gamedev.net/tutorials/lesson32.asp
Zaei said we should be using Milkshape3D to do the models, so it would be helpful! Although if you want, we can export them to X files... (for DX)
I think we should use the M.3D files because then they can be implemented for both D3D & OGL
By Generic, i mean that i can create a snow effect, and a fire effect, by only writing a single function, and using a different texture. It uses point sprites. Here is a snow effect that I cooked up in about 15 minutes (it required annother method of rendering so i could render 650 particles in an accepable amount of time =).
Z.
And another snowy shot.
Z.
Lol ok, the only prob with milkshape is the 30 day trial has run out and so i need a crack / serial number.
Here is a shot of nehe's particle sys.
Ok. The landscapes are textured again, we have a new mouse cursor, Particle systems now alphablend. Still working on getting fog and dynamic lighting to work on the map. Here is the newest screen shot.
Z.