August 04, 2005
Progress
Yesterday I made some more editor fixes and had two good meetings with my partner, where we knocked out several design and interface decisions.
I also submitted a talk to GDC 06. Wish me luck.
Today I have been fixing up the AI navigation system. I got it pretty close to working a few weeks …
Yesterday I made some more editor fixes and had two good meetings with my partner, where we knocked out several design and interface decisions.
I also submitted a talk to GDC 06. Wish me luck.
Today I have been fixing up the AI navigation system. I got it pretty close to working a few weeks …
August 03, 2005
Progress & Water
Last night I added some new features to the level editor, including 'Select All Tris with Material'.
There already exists a pretty good smart selection routine that will travel through a connected mesh in order to find other tris to select. You can use this to select all conne…
Last night I added some new features to the level editor, including 'Select All Tris with Material'.
There already exists a pretty good smart selection routine that will travel through a connected mesh in order to find other tris to select. You can use this to select all conne…
August 02, 2005
First Shot
I need to get some work done today, but I will post about the water, hopefully starting tomorrow or Thursday.
I have been dealing with a host of technical problems, including my Treo 600 losing its mind and having to be restored from scratch, and my UPS backup system going haywire this mor…
I need to get some work done today, but I will post about the water, hopefully starting tomorrow or Thursday.
I have been dealing with a host of technical problems, including my Treo 600 losing its mind and having to be restored from scratch, and my UPS backup system going haywire this mor…
July 31, 2005
More Progress
Yesterday I fixed a bug where directional lights weren't matching between the level editor and the engine. In the process, I fixed the arrow that represents the light direction to visually match in the editor.
Once I got that sorted, I noticed that several of the character shadows were…
Yesterday I fixed a bug where directional lights weren't matching between the level editor and the engine. In the process, I fixed the arrow that represents the light direction to visually match in the editor.
Once I got that sorted, I noticed that several of the character shadows were…
July 30, 2005
Inventory & Item Grabbing
This morning I implemented entity -> item collision, so that if your character runs over an equipable item,
it removes the item from the world, puts it in the character's inventory, and notifies the item of its new
parent object. It also plays a little sound to let y…
This morning I implemented entity -> item collision, so that if your character runs over an equipable item,
it removes the item from the world, puts it in the character's inventory, and notifies the item of its new
parent object. It also plays a little sound to let y…
July 29, 2005
Morph Shapes
I've been wanting to do a pyramid-type level, and some better outdoor hills, so I added some features to the level editor in the last few days to help.
Basically the idea was to take a set of selected vertices, and morph them towards some pre-defined shape. So far I have added hemispher…
I've been wanting to do a pyramid-type level, and some better outdoor hills, so I added some features to the level editor in the last few days to help.
Basically the idea was to take a set of selected vertices, and morph them towards some pre-defined shape. So far I have added hemispher…
July 28, 2005
So, per-vertex shadowing was out, and real-time depth shadow maps were having bias & speed problems. I decided to try object id-based shadows. These eliminate depth bias problems, but they have problems of their own that can make them slower & lower quality then depth-based shadows.
Doing …
Doing …
July 27, 2005
More on Vertex Shadows
One of the cool things I came up with when doing the per-vertex shadows was something I called
'Averaged L Bump Mapping'. I have been working on bump mapping and per-pixel lighting since 1999,
so I knew I wanted it in the engine.
But I also know that 7 per-pixel lights might b…
One of the cool things I came up with when doing the per-vertex shadows was something I called
'Averaged L Bump Mapping'. I have been working on bump mapping and per-pixel lighting since 1999,
so I knew I wanted it in the engine.
But I also know that 7 per-pixel lights might b…
July 26, 2005
I just got back from my trip last night, and am still recovering. I don't have any new development news to report at the moment - I'm still researching physics-related subjects and adding a few more primitives to my shapes library, including capsules and non-axis-aligned ellipsoids.
I thought it mi…
I thought it mi…
July 20, 2005
Contrary to my previous post, I didn't work on the AI after all. Did more physics research and worked on the level editor instead.
However, my partner and I did decide this morning to make the AI have less information about the player. What I'm thinking is that the AI will track the last time, pla…
However, my partner and I did decide this morning to make the AI have less information about the player. What I'm thinking is that the AI will track the last time, pla…
July 19, 2005
I have taken a break from figuring out the potential physics re-write for now.
Right now I am looking at using a system similar to oliii's cube3d demo, using SAT to find overlaps. I would need to change a couple of things in order to support spheres & ellipsoids with that system, but it shouldn…
Right now I am looking at using a system similar to oliii's cube3d demo, using SAT to find overlaps. I would need to change a couple of things in order to support spheres & ellipsoids with that system, but it shouldn…
July 18, 2005
When I said I wanted balanced weapons, this wasn't what I meant!
You can see the dagger from yesterday. I made its handle non-shiny, and added the option to do overbright reflections on things, up to 2.0.
The new weapons, the throwing axe and the scimitar aren't embedded in the ground, they are re…
You can see the dagger from yesterday. I made its handle non-shiny, and added the option to do overbright reflections on things, up to 2.0.
The new weapons, the throwing axe and the scimitar aren't embedded in the ground, they are re…
July 17, 2005
Just a quick update, as today is my day off, after all. I added specularity to the entities & characters.
Right now it's just a per-vertex reflection vector into a cubemap, then modulated with a per-material reflection term, and the alpha channel of the diffuse texture for a gloss mask.
Next is …
Right now it's just a per-vertex reflection vector into a cubemap, then modulated with a per-material reflection term, and the alpha channel of the diffuse texture for a gloss mask.
Next is …
July 17, 2005
Well, today is my day off, but I may just do some stuff anyway. I've been wanting to put a throwing dagger in the game as a weapon, so I grabbed this model & texture from Outhouse Software, and put it in a test level.
My entity system right now is more set up for humanoid actors, than inanimate…
My entity system right now is more set up for humanoid actors, than inanimate…
July 16, 2005
Well, after working on this since about 5 am ( it's 12:30 now ), with about 2 hours of slack in there, I am going back to the old ray casting technique.
It matches the world perfectly, and when I do about 9 raycasts in circle around the characters and average them, I get a smooth response.
I will hav…
It matches the world perfectly, and when I do about 9 raycasts in circle around the characters and average them, I get a smooth response.
I will hav…
July 16, 2005
I added the ambient voxel grid to the level object, and it definitely helps the character look registered in the scene.
The entity lighting is still not quite as smooth as I would like. I adjusted the math a bit when clamping the distances, and this helps a bunch.
Instead of doing
weight = 1 / ( max…
The entity lighting is still not quite as smooth as I would like. I adjusted the math a bit when clamping the distances, and this helps a bunch.
Instead of doing
weight = 1 / ( max…
July 15, 2005
Working Entity Game Lighting
Well, I implemented my voxel bitmask class, and use it to create a shadowed/unshadowed value for every 1x1x1 meter area near a light.
Here's how it works :
For each light, if the light is directional, use the bounding box of the level's static world geometry.
Otherwise, u…
Well, I implemented my voxel bitmask class, and use it to create a shadowed/unshadowed value for every 1x1x1 meter area near a light.
Here's how it works :
For each light, if the light is directional, use the bounding box of the level's static world geometry.
Otherwise, u…
July 15, 2005
The static decals are now appearing properly in the game engine. They are created at level load time, unlike in the editor, where they are re-created frame-by frame.
That's how I used to do the in-game shadows - make a frustum from the shadow caster to the light's max range, and gather all triangle…
That's how I used to do the in-game shadows - make a frustum from the shadow caster to the light's max range, and gather all triangle…
July 14, 2005
Well, the decals are now officially working in the editor.
You can create, remove, size and rotate the decals, and change materials on them as well.
Here are two shots, one with one decal selected ( in blue ), and the sizing boxes displayed. The second shot is with the sizing boxes turned off.
I imp…
You can create, remove, size and rotate the decals, and change materials on them as well.
Here are two shots, one with one decal selected ( in blue ), and the sizing boxes displayed. The second shot is with the sizing boxes turned off.
I imp…
July 14, 2005
Decal Preparation
Yesterday was spent doing some preparation for the decal system.
If you look at the screenshots from yesterday, and look at the stairs, you'll note that in the level editor, the stairs look like they are made from a smooth material, wheras in the game, it looks cracked. This is bec…
Yesterday was spent doing some preparation for the decal system.
If you look at the screenshots from yesterday, and look at the stairs, you'll note that in the level editor, the stairs look like they are made from a smooth material, wheras in the game, it looks cracked. This is bec…
July 13, 2005
Decals
Next, I'll take a break from the navigation, and I'll add decal support to the level editor. My engine has fairly advanced support for decals right now. I am using a variant on deferred shading, where you composite your diffuse textures first, including any terrain layers, decals like scorc…
Next, I'll take a break from the navigation, and I'll add decal support to the level editor. My engine has fairly advanced support for decals right now. I am using a variant on deferred shading, where you composite your diffuse textures first, including any terrain layers, decals like scorc…
July 13, 2005
Navigation Progress
Yesterday I made more progress on the navigation system. I made changes both to the level analysis and the steering code.
The last version of the level analysis used to find navigable areas was only approximate, which caused problems on unusual geometry, like small 3/4 meter tall…
Yesterday I made more progress on the navigation system. I made changes both to the level analysis and the steering code.
The last version of the level analysis used to find navigable areas was only approximate, which caused problems on unusual geometry, like small 3/4 meter tall…
July 12, 2005
I have been spending the last few days working on allowing the enemies to track & follow the player. For the past few months, they had collision, but no real AI. I made them move around the level randomly, which worked out really well for prototyping aspects of the gameplay without actually h…
July 11, 2005
[ From the comments section ]
Well thanks for the feedback so far.
Some details on the project :
It's targeted at windows, using Direct3D under dx9.0c runtime, and FMOD for sound.
Yes, I am working on this fulltime. I am somewhat in demand for 3D graphics consulting, so may do a bit of that on the side…
Well thanks for the feedback so far.
Some details on the project :
It's targeted at windows, using Direct3D under dx9.0c runtime, and FMOD for sound.
Yes, I am working on this fulltime. I am somewhat in demand for 3D graphics consulting, so may do a bit of that on the side…
July 11, 2005
Well, after 7 years at NVIDIA, I have left to start my own independent game company.
My partner and I last produced a shareware game in 1996. It was a action/puzzle game called Hubie, which was very similar to ( but shipped years before ) Dweep, and the recent Professor Fizzwizzle. Hubie was rat…
My partner and I last produced a shareware game in 1996. It was a action/puzzle game called Hubie, which was very similar to ( but shipped years before ) Dweep, and the recent Professor Fizzwizzle. Hubie was rat…
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