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Pancakes

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Blog Comments posted by Pancakes

    Josh

    Leadwerks at Cereal Hack 3

    in Ultra Software Company Blog

    A group blog by The Ultra Software Team in General

    Posted

    Look at civilization in progress. Mankind researches perceptual virtualization technology. You know the gathering may not look so glamorous but this is probably what gatherings between the founding fathers looked like. Important stuff happening! One day every human in the world will be their own game designer. I say in 30 years there will be as many game developers as their are people on Facebook, currently.

    AggrorJorn

    Posted

    Part of a competition is understanding what you are working with. If the physics were something you weren't sure about, then you probably shouldn't have made a physics based entry. You could have worked with a part of the engine that you felt more confidence in.

     

    Don't get me wrong. It's great to test things out and report them to Josh, but I'm not sure why you would choose a competition to do that.

     

    Edit: What else I wanted to add is that the entry seems less like a game and more like a Leadwerks stress test. Which I'm not sure if the purpose of the competition is to try to showcase problems with Leadwerks, but I would think it isn't.

     

    I don't get any pleasure out of being critical. But I don't see the game in this demo. Jenga is nothing without the physical, tactile element - 50% of Jenga is preventing your hands from shaking.

    Josh

    Posted

    I want to see flowgraph nodes that

    1)iterate through node input with option to enumerate/assign specific variable

    2)iterate through node output with option to enumerate/assign specific variable

    3)compare specific variables in connected input/output

    4) I want a specialized node that can drive animation on specific entities as well as a node that can drive animation globally for both gameplay and cutscenes (Entity1 dramaticanimation @ 1:45-2:08, Entity2 walkanimation @1:32-2:10, cameraswinganimationA @ 0:29 - 0:30)

    5) a generic camera node for controlling the camera during gameplay

    6) Also it wouldn't hurt to improve the font on the nodes as well as to apply a bit of a background as well as some borders to the nodes themselves or something. I would be spending a lot of time in that area.

    7)Basic math nodes (add, subtract etc, less than greater than, equal, average, square root, as well as some of the lua math functions being available such as smooth and so forth)

    8)Variable nodes that handle property conversions between the int, string, etc.

    9) Tables/lists nodes etc.

     

    In other words it seems you are going for the C4 approach to flowgraph, I'm not sure if C4 included the basic math and logic functions that make cryengine and UDK such a pleasure to work with. Also, I'm not expecting the in editor animation tools of Matinee, however it would be nice if direct access to our assets' animation that we import can be accessed with nodes so that we can choreograph our cutscenes from within flowgraph editor.

    Josh

    Posted

    You're probably going to want to have an "amateur" or "education" license that is cheaper than $999. I also find it strange that in the past whenever I asked for info on Leadwerks 3 that there were times I'd get completely ignored. So it's good that there are plans for a public roadmap so you won't have to ignore your paying customers' questions anymore, at least not as much as in the past. Even now I want to say, "Show me more about the flowgraphs, they are very important to me", but I hesitate to because I feel I won't get an answer.

     

    Anyway if the flowgraphs really are the 'Holygrail" I intend to buy.

     

    I want to say something else to you though. I wrote to you a long time ago about Blade3d which was the best game engine I"d ever used. Most of the moves you've made are Blade3d-esque. As I said earlier you should think of getting in contact with the 2 founders of Blade3d and ask them for their advice as you are entering the marketing phase. As the marketing/investing end of Blade3d was the thing that destroyed them. I'm sure they have some words of warning for you.

     

    Personally I'm looking forward to Leadwerks 3 as the second coming of Blade3d (albeit with a much more powerful renderer), only this time I want to see it succeed.

    • Upvote 2
    Josh

    Posted

    At the end of the day it all comes down to user skill. I'm still not convinced about CSG. Trust me, if it I thought it were more effiecient/easier for me I would embrace it.

     

    For starters every student of game design is learning 3dsMax anyway or blender. I also don't think CSG is faster because I find that actually designing the environment is what takes the most mental effort, pressing the keys to actually model it is generally much simpler even without CSG.

     

    There are tools within the modeling apps these days that make CSG seem redundant too. For example, there is no need to wrestle with geometric volumes when modeling a basic floor plan, instead u use only planes to define and then you press a button to add thickness to everything at the very end.

     

    But I'm sure you'll do a dynamite job of it

    Josh

    Posted

    I have to take issue with some of what Josh says in response to Red O - I think most people don't mind complexity in building their games. I think what people want to avoid is the arbitrary language barrier of programming. Lots of people can think and solve programming puzzles. They just don't want to have to deal with the 'weird' syntax of solving the puzzle.

     

    It's not really a barrier of intelligence or willingness to apply effort. It's just that to some people dealing with programming syntax is the equivolent of going shopping with your sister for shoes. It's just not something you want to be involved in. It's not that you can't do it. It's just, if there is a way to avoid it, you will take that path. :lol:

     

    I would like to avoid programming syntax. But I actually have a ton of fun solving logic puzzles and programming puzzles with cryengine flowgraphs. Have you spent some time using cryengine flowgraphs? You can really do a lot with them and there is a lot of freedom of how to approach programming puzzles.

     

    So in essense we all want the freedom to work on our games. To some people that freedom == to coding everything with words in a programming syntax. To others, that freedom == to having the thoughts in their head transfer into their game unfettered by programming syntax, which to some acts more like ball and chain, than the wings of freedom.

     

    Just be careful not to underestimate the level of control everyone wants with their freedom. I guess. Unless I just misread what you said.

    Mumbles

    Posted

    Do you mind if I call you Mumbly-chan? Okay Mumbly-chan, here's my suggestion: Lower the scope of your project. Let's just get something done, no matter how humble.

     

    I won't actually be able to incorporate RPG gameplay until Leadwerks 3 so for now the scope of my project is less than it was before. Now my goal is just to have a character run around and interact with the environment and to basically collision test whack a monster into oblivion. No inventory, no save system, no cut scenes. All extremely simple stuff.

     

    Because that's what I'm capable of right now even when I try my best! ;)

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