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Marleys Ghost

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  1. Marleys Ghost
    After the first hour and a half I spent on this little exercise, I followed it up with another couple of hours. The basic integration now has an animation FSM. All still pretty crude and basic but a template to build on at some later date. The NPC's Entity script controls the models animation routines and gun attachment, the c++ application interfaces with the Dark AI library, and then uses messaging to communicate with the NPC Entity via lua script. Again this was just more experimentation and practice for me using c++ to build up techniques that will be beneficial later. Special thanks to Pixel Perfect for pointing out the error in my ways with regard to text strings in c++. Anyway this is the result, I just threw in some values for speed and animation blending off the top of my head just to test the FSM functionality, it will need those tweaking, thats for sure.
     




     
     
    I'd have posted some pictures, but I seem to only have 7k of space left in the blog section, not sure why, as it was over 200MB last time I did an entry here and not just a link to an entry on my off site blog.
  2. Marleys Ghost

    Scale to the chief

    By Marleys Ghost,

    With the basic texture workflow pretty much sorted for the modular level design (see here), I have turned my attention to getting a scale I am happy with. When this is done then after each section is modelled and then UV mapped it should be just a simple case of converting to .gmf format (famous last words). Scaling seems to be an issue that crops up across all the engines I use. But truthfully it matters not what others scale to, but that the relative scaling used in a scene is consistent for all static and animated meshes from props to scene to characters. LE has a scale of 1 unit is about 1m, I simply use 1 unit as 1m, therefore a character needing to be 6 foot tall would simply be a "metric" 6 foot.. or 1.8 units. This is the rule of thumb I use for all scenes and corresponding code. But sometimes its also good to check how it looks by eye. In a 3rd person situation its not just the scale of the level and the characters but having to remember the camera offset and how this would be effected. I normally do two tests, a simple static scene with characters and props placed to get a simple overall picture of the scaling.
     
     

     
     
    And I like to knock up a quick app with a basic 3rd person collision cam and have a quick walk through (HD available):
     
     


     
     
    So far I am happy with the results which means when time permits I can get on with creating the rest of the sections/rooms ect. I have also checked the scaling to make sure I can easily "block out" the level and run it through my pathfinding mapdata generator app which I had some success with in earlier tests of A* pathfinding (see here).
     
     
    Source
  3. Marleys Ghost
    Well, it has been a while since I made a blog entry, let alone done any work in LE. But I do keep an eye on the forum and Leadwerks in between Daily life and working on my project(s).
     
    I have also been going through my Blitzmax code archive, where I stored all my Blitmax/LE projects and code snippets (finished and not completed). One idea I had been playing with before, was basic NPC AI. I had some small success with some Bugs using autonomous logic.
     
    See Here
     
    In my "treasure trove" of unfinished and messy development code I found what was going to be the next step (for me) with AI functionality. The dreaded "pathfinding". I have read that Naughty Alien said he will be doing a two part tutorial on this and I am looking forward to that, having followed his work with Hidden Dawn I expect the tutorial to be top notch. But I wanted to get to grips with the in's and out's myself. So I started with the basics. I spent some time looking for code snippets and A* lib's in any language that had them to see of I could follow along what was being done ... Not a good place to start, in the end I spent some time reading "A* Pathfinding for Beginners", very helpful.I decided it would be best to start with a "2D" approach and maybe use nodes. Most 2D implementations use a grid based on the X and Y co-ordinates of the screen and tiles to represent an "unwalkable" tile. So I thought I would translate this approach to a 128 x 128 flat terrain with some primitive models to define the "unwalkable tiles". As this was a time limited "side-track" in LE from my other projects, it was all going to have to be quick and dirty. I wrote an app to calculate which "tiles" of the 128 x 128 terrain did not have an obstruction and then squirted this data out to a text file to be read into another app as a 2D array. The map data loads in a few milliseconds so this eliminated having to wait for the same data to be generated by the application I wanted to use to try and get the pathfinding working. One problem I did encounter was that I ended up trying to reconcile three different centre of origins for the co-ordinates. The map data had 0,0 at the top left, the terrain of course has 0,0,0 in the centre and my maths managed to get the A* to read 0,0 at the bottom left, after some profanity meditation I used some quick and dirty and hastily constructed math functions to bring them all into focus, thus as per usual the dev. code was a complete mess, atleast on that score I am consistent lol
     
     

     
     
    This version of pathfinding is very limited, mainly due to the way I created the node info. But for a first attempt I was quite happy.
     
    I have uploaded a demo App to the showcase , the picking can be a little temperamental and sometimes the quickest path is not always found and some "sightseeing" seems to find its way into the route. But on the whole I think it is definitely a platform on which to build.
  4. Marleys Ghost
    Following on from "On The Right Path, A* Pathfinding In Leadwerks" I thought before I archive the code, I'd have a little "dabble" with a basic function to get an NPC reading the path data and then following it to the "target" I had a couple of ideas on how to do this but as time for playing in leadwerks was running out I opted for a basic idea.
     
    1. Target Position Selected
    2. Path from NPC to selection calculated.
    3. Path transfered to a temp storage array for that particular NPC
    4. An NPC Pilot reads that data.
    5. NPC follows the pilot.
     
    Think of the "pilot" as the plastic stick thing on the underside of a scaletrix car .. it follows the groove in the track and the car follows right along. This was the quickest and dirtiest method but solved a variety of issues in one. Plus I just wanted to get the NPC moving and the sands of time were running out.
     
    So an hour later and I have not only the NPC following the generated path but the path is updated with a repositioning of the target and the pilot takes the NPC off onto the new track.
     
     

     
    This is all still quick and dirty, when I can remember what the code does and does not need, I will up a small demo.exe to the thread Pathfinding With A*
     
    EDIT: I have uploaded a demo.exe here : Hide And Seek Demo
  5. Marleys Ghost
    Last April, I blogged about the news that Crytek might be releasing a free version of the CryEngine, much in the same way that Epic did with UDK and the Unreal 3 engine and also Unity licensing the indie version of their engine as free. Well, it seems that this will happen with CryEngine 3.
     
    According to Crytek co-founder Anvi Yerli, "The barriers for entry will be very low, and perhaps [it will be distributed] for free." Details and a release date for this CryEngine 3 Lite SDK have yet to be announced. It seems resonable to speculate that such a release could be similar to what Epic Games did when it released its UDK tools in 2009.
     
    Full Article Here
     
    Sean Tracy also mentions this at the end of an interview recorded at GDC 11.
     


     
    It is turning out to be an interesting year for indie developers.
     
    Source
  6. Marleys Ghost

    Meet The Flockers.

    By Marleys Ghost,

    To prevent non Leadwerks Engine specific/Related entries from my Blog being automatically published here via the Blog Feed, I have removed that functionality, and will simply add a new entry title and link here for all Leadwerks Engine specific/Related entries.
     
     
    Leadwerks Related Blog Entry.
     
     
     
    Meet The Flockers.
  7. Marleys Ghost
    Well that was a nice surprise, having resigned myself to the fact that even though it was the 23rd today, the time difference between myself and Pacific time meant I would have to wait until 8pm tonight to upgrade to 2.3
     
    But on awaking I found Josh had already sent the emails for upgrading .. Having today off means I can now spend it in its entirity "playing" ..
     
    Leadwerks Editor 2.3, New forum, Blogs, gallery, file storage, customizable profiles, videos...
     
    Who needs Christmas?
  8. Marleys Ghost

    5 Hours !!!!

    By Marleys Ghost,

    5 Hours ago I started "playing" with the road feature in the new editor .. 5 hours ago !!! no, not because there is a problem its just been way so much fun if you recall the video Josh did of this function, let me say its way more fun driving than being the passenger, but that aside this feature is simply great, and will suit a project I have in mind down to a tee. Took a while to figure out a few things I was doing wrong but the end results have been exactly what I was after. Top marks for this, I think I will need a few more days off to try out all the other features, oddly I feel a bout of flu coming on <coff coff>
  9. Marleys Ghost

    Happy New Year!!

    By Marleys Ghost,

    Nothing much to report at the moment, still tinkering with some ideas, but thought I would take this opportunity to wish everyone, a happy, safe and rewarding new year.
     
    Happy New Year Everyone.
  10. Marleys Ghost
    Actually I don't hate AppTime() I just don't like using it in some instances. Its extremely useful and from what I can tell a more accurate mechanism to use than AppSpeed().
     
    Whilst working on Furious Frank, one thing I noticed and it always caught my eye, was what I term “Chorus Line Syndrome” where using the basic AppTime() frame incrementing code for looping animations results in a regimented animation playback for like models/characters. I have ignored this issue thus far as it was not such a big deal in the early stages. However I decided it needed to be sorted, rather than just left as this issue will no doubt crop up again and its always handy when problems do arise again to have a basic template solution. First I took the lua entity script for the bug and removed all dependence on AppTime() completely using AppSpeed() to adjust for running speed variations. This worked fine but still broke down under high stress tests. The only way I can simulate high stress is to run some background applications and Fraps. Of course some breakdown would come about when the stress is heavy. I then switched to using a mechanism that relied on AppTime() as the base, but not in the same way that it was used for the basic AppTime() frame incrementing code for looping animations. There was still some breakdown under heavy load but not as much as the AppSpeed() based script.
     
    Utilising this script with other aspects to add extra randomness to same type character animation playback I made a few tests. The results are in the video below, in the first part the “Red Bugs” are running the original script and the “Blue Bugs” the new one. In the second half of the video I applied the template to some “Fast Horde” zombie AI I had been working on previously:
     
     


     
     
    Some synchronisation still occurs but that's just inevitable given the constraints of the character models used, that is, how many frames per loop are used in a cycle of animation and indeed how many animation types per action there are. Even slightly interrupting the “Chorus Line Syndrome” has much nicer results. I added some small mechanisms to the “Fast Horde” zombie script to continually mix things up over time. But all in all I am much happier with the results than not having addressed it. There is still some translational movement patterns, like the "flying V" the Zombies exhibit in the video now and again, but I already have a solution involving types of same entity types to add a few extra parameters to help limit the occurrence.
     
    As for Furious Frank, I'd like to say a big thank you to Paul Thomas for his contribution to this little side project. Paul kindly integrated into Furious Franks source code one of his older basic cloud and ToD (Time of Day) systems. It will need tweaking for the project but it was most generous. Heres a little look at the current stage of integration:
     
     


     
     
    When more time is permitting I will continue with working toward a release of Furious Frank V0.03
     
    The current version of Furious Frank can be found here:
     
    Furious Frank V0.03
     
    Previous entries for this project:
     
    MAGIA .. Monday
     
    MAGIA .. Monday ... and a little bit.
     
    MAGIA .. Monday .. a little bit .. and beyond
     
     
    Source
  14. Marleys Ghost

    Textures

    By Marleys Ghost,

    I recently asked one of my nieces who is currently doing media and photography courses at college to keep an eye open for some "Gnarly Wood" textures. She emailed with a few images she had remembered to take. I spent an hour or two playing with them and quickly knocked up a place holder model in 3DWS to try out the two textures I had made from the images:
     
     

     
     

     
    I then placed the model in an island scene I had built to test post processing effects using an application I have written in C++ using Leadwerks Engine 2.28, I was quite pleased with the result.
     
     

     
     
    Whilst my texturing skills still need development (as with everything else), I found it a very interesting exercise.
     
     
    Source
  16. Marleys Ghost
    I was informed yesterday that the terrain hole functionality was working in Blitzmax, so I did a quick half hour test. This is a feature I find very attractive for level design. The ground cover (small bushes and ferns) is just place holder art, and all the foliage was just "slapped" in for effect. The concept is a simple, hole in the ground which gives access to (eventually) a large underground modular bunker system. A simple hole cover/access/room model was knocked up in 5 mins in 3DWS. The terrain is something I have been working on and have yet to finish.
     
     
     


     
     
     
    Source
  18. Marleys Ghost
    Firstly, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a belated happy new year. I hope you all have had a great start to it.
     
    I have not been doing much on the coding front for the last few weeks. I decided to get some assets created and try and develop my texturing skills a little further.
     
    I also purchased Silo 3D Pro over the Christmas period as it was on offer. I had used the demo and was impressed at how "comfortable" it was to use. I now use this package as my main modeller but in conjunction with AC3D and UU3D. Basically Ultimate Unwrap 3D is the junction where all my modelling and art packages meet. Not only for Leadwerks with its .gmf export for both static meshes and animated assets but for all the engines I use, for me its an invaluable tool and a good investment for the minimal cost.
     
    I have need of a modular corridor/room set, and decided to set about seeing just how low you can go with the poly count and how much you can offset the inherent "flatness" of a low poly environment with normal mapping and "hand painted" textures. This would be moving on directly from a previous flirtation with texturing which can be found here. Some more incriminating evidence can be seen in the gallery as well, fairly obvious I am no artist.
     
    Another aspect of texturing I have been playing with is bump mapping. I use ShaderMap Pro which is great but making bumpmaps from diffuse textures can have horrible "side effects" when creating panelling.
     
    Diffuse only:
     

     
    Diffuse and Normal map created directly from the Diffuse texture by ShaderMap Pro:
     

     
    Not really the effect I was after. After a few ideas and some testing I found hand crafting a Normal map "template" from which a Normal map would be generated by ShaderMap Pro gave much better results for this exercise.
     

     
    I then made the first test section of the low poly modular level pack:
     

     
    The textures were then UV mapped onto the section in UU3D and then converted all over to .gmf .dds and created the .mat files using ADN ... I love ADN truly one of the most useful tools written by a community member ever!!
     

     
    I Lined a few of them up just for show .. 480 polys not bad .. considering the default rusty oildrum is 256.
     

     
    Encouraged by the result thus far I moved on, making the section bigger but retaining the tilable nature of the textures
     
     


     
     
    Unfortunately real life commitments caused a pause in my endeavours until a day ago so I have spent the last few hours refining some aspects and making a few more test sections:
     

     

     

     
    The overall effect of the technique I am developing can be seen better in this video (HD available):
     
     


     
     
    This is currently the point I am at, With some preliminary drafts for doors/doorways rooms and elevators/elevator shafts ect. I am trying to reach a point where variation is only a texture change away on standard section low poly models. I am still getting my templates organised and fine tuning the work flow and still very much a WIP, but so far I am quite pleased with the results.
     
    Source
  19. Marleys Ghost

    MAGIA .. Monday

    By Marleys Ghost,

    Feeling the need to finally start sorting through my storage HDD's I came across my Blitzmax code library. I needed to test the code snippets and sort through what was worth keeping and what was broken. I found a FPS framework I had been working on but the code got broken with the release of 2.32, so before I binned it I thought I'd have yet another go at getting it at least to run. This was about 6.00 am monday morning, well I did have the whole of the day to myself, quite a rare occurrence. At around 11.00 am it was up and running, took an hour to locate all the assets it utilised lol. Still full of bugs and problems, I thought what the ... Heck .. and sat down with a gallon pot of coffee and tinkered with it ... and tinkered.. and tinkered a little more .. by the afternoon I was down to two issues, both to do with parenting objects in the transparency world. I left this and started looking through other code and slowly began to add different proof of concepts I had worked on over the last year or so...
     
    Don't you just hate it when that happens ...
     
    OOP's I did it again ....
     
    I continued to tweak and tinker and add ..at around 10pm .. I had an Idea how to tackle the original transparency/parenting problem whilst chatting with Paul. At around 11.30pm I realised, the makings of a game had been born ... that game is currently known as:
     
    Furious Frank
     

     
    Well, its quite an easy "game" at the moment with infinite ammo and infinite life even if the HUD is telling me its running down .. but not a bad days work I felt .. hopefully next monday I can wrangle some more time and tweak it and add to it.
     
    If I get time today, I will upload a demo to the showcase under the title, MAGIA Monday (as I Dont have time to spend a month on it).
     
    Source
  20. Marleys Ghost
    Time is proving to be a most scarce commodity at the moment. So having a few hours spare I set myself some tasks and as usual did something completely different I started work on a room and ended up on a new 90 degree section, corridor doorway section (with separate reusable door frame / doors and simple placeholder keypad switch box all to need textures), a few WIP scripts for the doors and some hashed together sound FX for them to and a short corridor "Door Plug" section to allow the standard sections to fit the door frame. Part of the plan for this modular approach to the level is that as many sections/parts as possible will be able to "plug" into each other. I also wanted to test out some new base metal textures to try and break up the "monotone" look. The door keypad switch would also require some sort of 3rd person object interaction functionality which was hastily coded and again as with everything else, still very much a WIP.
     
     
    Simple keypad switch prop:
     

     
    Development in Silo PRO:
     

     
    A quick medium resolution video to show the "worksite" test scene. I can't take credit for the blue and yellow textures they are curtesy of Paint.NET's floodfill tool..
     
     


     
     
    Hopefully next week I will be able to free up more than only a few hours to get fully back into this "adventure", but I was not unhappy with the progress I made in only two hours.
     
    Source
  21. Marleys Ghost
    Furious Frank V0.01 came about from my requirement to have a simple application in which to test code in my code archives from the last year. It What was supposed to be a simple cleaning out the harddrive exercise got a little side-tracked. This version was achieved in about 14 hours on a Monday.
     
    MAGIA .. Monday
     
    MAGIA .. Monday ... and a little bit
     
    Furious Frank V0.02 is the 10 or so hours I have worked on it since. With the prospect of a whole 3 days ahead with nothing to take up my time, I wanted to get Furious Frank V0.02 uploaded and start on Furious Frank V0.03. It has so far taken the best part of 3 hours to wrestle out that which was required for this demo from my oh so tidy development folder.
     
    I have coded the settings to make this still an easy "game", but as its still in development with feedback on the functionality and performance being more important, if you died in a few seconds then there would be nothing to report, except maybe "its too hard ".
     
    When you die you die, so keep that health topped up.
     
    Not had anytime yet to code and develop a spawning system for the Bugs so I kind of just drop them in on the player, so, wear a hat.
     
    Showcase Page & Download Link Here.
     
    Source
  22. Marleys Ghost
    Just a little update, I have managed only to grab a few hours here and there to spend on this since last Monday, and its now looking like it will not be until thursday when I can get into it like I did last monday. So heres a quick low quality video of how it stands at the moment.
     
    Have a good week all.
     
    I hope to get V0.02 uploaded by the end of the week.
     
     


     
    Showcase Page
     
    Source
  23. Marleys Ghost
    "We're pleased to share the first ever in-game trailer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the next installment in The Elder Scrolls series from award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3, Bethesda Game Studios. "
     


     
    You might find you need to log into Youtube to view the trailer for age verification.
     
    It seems Skyrim will be released world-wide on 11.11.11 on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC ... so something to look forward to at the end of the year other than the cold weather. If they release another instalment of Fallout at the same time ... then hibernation this coming winter will just not be an option
  24. Marleys Ghost
    To prevent non Leadwerks Engine specific entries from my Blog being automatically published here via the Blog Feed, I have removed that functionality, and will simply add a new entry title and link here for all Leadwerks Engine specific entries.
     
     
    Leadwerks Specific Blog Entry.
     
     
    A* Pathfinding MapData Generator.
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