Clackdor

Thanks Ken. I'll be watching these. Networking is way way down on my to-do list, but I'm somewhat excited to dig into it. I find myself thinking about step 301 despite being on step 7. Rick,

This is what I'm thinking, too. This is my first experience with animations and the code you see is my first attempt. Read my blog post over in that section of the website to see what that code results in. Instead of trying to code something from scratch right now, though, I'll probably just read and research (I spend a lot more time reading than coding anyway). Also, I'll want to add audio events into the animations (grunts, sword clashes, unsheathing, etc.) in the animations control. If I can just put Player::Die(); or Player::Skill1(); that would be awesome. Links to examples would be very much appreciated.

I am not blending between animations. The blending argument to the Animate() function is constant. I don't ramp it up or down between animations. It actually hadn't really occurred to me until I read your response to my question on the forum yesterday to do that. It's definitely something I will revisit later on. But I consider it more of a polish step and I really want to work on guts. One gameplay aspect that I like is to give the person behind the keyboard the feeling that the game is not lagging on their commands. That is, when W is pushed, the character is running full speed almost immediately. There is an argument to the UpdateController() function that is max force or something like that. I have it set at like 50 where Josh recommends 1. It really gives the character good response to the keyboard input which is good for gameplay and bad for realism. From that point of view, the rough transitions of the animations don't really bother me. I guess thats what beta tests are for. The other animation bit I want to work on is to enable my character to swing her sword and run at the same time, which doesn't seem like it should be that hard, just animate the spine and up with animation 1 and pelvis and down with animation 2.

Here's a look at what I've been working on. The games I'm interested in making will resemble World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot, and Warhammer Online, so the look and feel will mimic those as much as possible. I've been working out the programming kinks. Had a 20 minute headache the other day when I suddenly realized that I was mixing up radians and degrees. The animations look pretty good. I don't know that the video clip does them justice. I will probably revisit them later on as I add audio, but its time to move on. Models and animations are from Dexsoft Games. Next steps: GUI An actual outdoor world At least working with the editor gets me away from the coding for a little bit. Also, it should be a lot more interesting to look at than the prototype platform in the video. My son likes for me to fall off it. And he wonders where the bad guys are. If I miss coding (yeah, I miss coding sometimes) I'll start working on a primitive GUI. Let me know what you think, if anything. And if anybody is really that interested in looking at the code, message me. Thanks for reading and watching.

Thanks Rick. I changed to an iterative method and it's behaving. Any links to examples of the blending method? I assume that each animation would be its own sequence so they could be played at the same time.

So, I'm trying to get it so that when I hit key 1, my chick swings her sword 1 time and is ready for another attack. Unfortunately, he behavior seems somewhat erratic, sometimes not completely the animation. Sometimes starting the beginning part of the animation, then stopping. if (KeyHit(KEY_1)){ //Attack 1 if (state == 0) { state = 1; starttime = AppTime();} else {nextstate = 1;}} animationlength = (100*(frameend-framebegin))/animationspeed; if ((AppTime() - starttime) > animationlength) { state = nextstate; nextstate = 0; starttime = AppTime();} frame=animationspeed*AppTime()/100; frame=fmodf(frame,frameend-framebegin)+framebegin; Animate(mesh,frame,0.40,0,true);

From a business standpoint, Josh, are you more interested in using the physics engine to differentiate Leadwerks from other low cost game engines? Or would you prefer to pick a popular physics engine and differentiate Leadwerks in other ways? I've explored 3 engines. Unity uses Physx. Esenthal uses Physx and Bullet. I picked Leadwerks because I liked the editor and think the community is knowledgeable and responsive. I didn't pick it because I prefer Newton. Granted, I'm a noob. I voted Physx for the marketing power of Nvidia. Gamers know who Nvidia is.

Thanks!

That's my question. Which of the above code is more optimal? I guess using "better" is kinda unclear.

So, I'm playing around with player animation and I have what I think is a style question, but could possibly be more. When accessing bones in a model, would it be better to create a variable to store the bone and then access the variable: Load { TEntity headbone = FindChild (mesh,"Bip01 Head"); } Run { Animate (frame,headbone,0,0): } OR Just use the FindChild function all the time. Run { Animate(frame, FindChild(mesh,"Bip01 Head"),0,0); } OR is it simply a style question and my graphics rendering will dominate resource cost?

What methods do you recommend for keeping players from falling off of the map that you create with editor? I was just making impassible terrain, but I'm not liking how the map is turning out using that method. Is there a command for limiting the field of play that will stop the player cold?

Ok thanks!! Makes sense. Fixed. Thanks. Space, not underscore.

I got it from here: http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/Documentation/LE2/tutorials/_/programming/cpp/leadwerks-c-tutorials-r25

Ok, I didn't double check with model viewer. I was just using Dexsoft's documentation. But wouldn't CountChildren() count all the limbs regardless of name? Getting 1 as a result is the confusing thing for me.

OK, next question. I'm trying to add attach models to bones, and the animation tutorial gives this piece of code: TEntity head=FindChild(mesh,"Bip01 Head"); However, that code fails to load anything into "head". Tried count children on the body mesh and it came back with 1. Guess its not counting all the bones as children. Please help. FWIW, this is a mesh bought from Dexsoft. It had gmf files in the download so I haven't converted anything.

Are animations embedded in GMF files? The answer appears to be yes. How would I extract the animations from one GMF to use in another? I bought 1 character from DexSoft and I want to apply the animations to the free peasant model they offer as part of an exercise where I'm playing with attaching armor, weapons, hair, etc. Hoping to create several unique characters out of two, something Dexsoft seems to encourage, reading their FAQ. I suspect that I'll get told that what I want to do is made a lot easier with Ultimate Unwrap3D, which is totally fine. It's on my shopping list.

Well, I like your samples. I can tell you what I would like to see: Group the textures into logical packs of about 50 each (ground, dungeon, building, etc), complete with bump and spec and sell them for $10 each on the asset store. Come on, seriously, who doesn't want money?

Hmm, zaphos, this is really interesting stuff you want to do. I like it because you want to do a major part of game design that I DON'T want to do. I'll have to keep you in mind for this stuff. I'm just not ready yet. Neat stuff on your website! Of course I'm biased because it's all Star Wars.

Hmm... I wonder if I misrepresented what my goal was by calling it a multiplayer RPG. It is NOT going to be an MMO. I recognize that very few companies get that right. And me, by myself, starting from scratch, has no chance. The game I want to make is the scenarios, warfronts, whatever they are called in your favorite MMO. I think it would be doable in a couple of years. No major AI. No huge worlds, or anything else that involves the word "massively". Load up 20 guys, let them fight it out in some creative levels, keep score, fight the next group. I agree with the statement about the polish. Who would play a game where you only have 1 character choice, the only skill is a sword swing, and the GUI looks like Windows 3.1? I guess we'll tackle that as they come up. There's lots of work to do here, and breaking it down into attainable milestones is something that is definitely necessary. And getting advice like I'm getting is one of the primary reasons I'm writing down my thoughts in blog form.

I'm reading that, and yeah, it hurts. I get you. It's hard. If it were easy everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great. You gave that advice once before in the forums and I really want to take it to heart. I really want to do things that build on each other: Make text game -> Make a 2D game -> Make a 3D game Make a GUI game -> Add GUI to 3D game. Make Chat system -> Make simple network game -> Add multiplayer to 3D game However, your pac-man statement struck me. You know what would make a really cool game? 3D Medieval Pac-Man with swords, scenery, etc. I can take the 3D world that I have in progress, populate it with sprites of coins (the pellets) and sprites of swords (power pellets) and crawlers (the Pinkys!) . Collect all the coins, smash crawlers with 1 hit of your sword that you only have for a few minutes. Boom, 3D Medieval Pac-Man where Pac-Man is a hot chick with red hair and purple skin wearing some awesome armor.

Thanks for reading Lazlo. I am definitely not above asking for help. In fact, I never anticipated this to be a one-man-only job. However, I do intend to dabble into everything a little bit myself just to get the experience. Also, i would feel it necessary to have "something" other than talk to convince people that I'm serious. I can barely convince myself that I'm serious yet. So, if I can take a stock character from Dexsoft, create a level with the editor and free/cheap resources, and throw together a primitive alpha all on my own, I can present that to a number of interested parties who may be willing to partially fund (hahaha, I just thought I would throw that in there) and participate in the development.

Greetings all. I'm going to use this blog to document the process as I embark on the harrowing journey of a gaming enthusiast who dabbles in indie game development. The desire to do this stems from my utter disappointment with multiplayer RPG games that are available out there. Also, it serves as a project to help me develop my C++ skills and better understand "under-the-covers" networking which is useful in my professional career as a, well, not a game developer. I was amazed at how much free or inexpensive resources were available online for game development. That plus the online community support network gave me the nudge to start investigating how I might go about pursuing the nerd dream. Thinking about what sort of work would need to be done for a multiplayer 3D RPG. I broke it down into 2 categories. Technical Challenges Examples include networking, including dealing with lag and cheaters; game logic, and just about anything that is doable with C++. Artistic Challenges Examples include 3D graphics, animation, website design, etc. I am not scared of the Technical challenges. I am scared of the artistic ones. I'm not a very good artist. Luckily, I discovered Blender and the outstanding community over there; and Dexsoft-Games, whose resources should allow me to develop all kinds of characters and environments for not too much money invested. (Un?)Fortunately, 3D graphics will be one of my first obstacles. I will either conquer it early or decide to abandon the project without too much wasted investment. I'd be interested in any tutorials, articles, experiences any of you have to offer. I think I know what I'm getting into here, so I'm not looking for discouragement. Advice is always welcome.

Good answers here, thanks!

Why would I choose to pay $50 for 3DWS over using Blender? Is the learning curve less in 3DWS? Is the fact that it is designed with Leadwerks in mind beneficial and a time saver? Would buying UU3D still be a really good idea? Take note, I haven't even downloaded the demo yet and my ability to create organic 3D graphics from scratch is suspect. Mostly I want a tool that has as small a learning curve as possible that allows me to customize assets I buy from dexsoft or other sources.

Update worked. But I'm sure you knew that already. +1