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[cykboy]

Yeah totally true. They are indeed different then the Mechs.
The idea is to implant them in the map construction. So they match the map art. 

[ChrisN]

Sick artwork! Going to stalk this thread

[cykboy]

ART DUMP!
Some more artwork that we didn't release to public yet
Do note there is old artwork included which eventually got updated and replaced. We're too busy to re-create the animations at the moment.

Mech colours and angles



Walk animation


Random WIP mech design



Upper torso rotation


Pickup-able Boosts


Weapon presentation



Mech damage


Impact Animations



Random map animations

      

Ingame user interface

[cykboy]

The mechbay is where you refit your mech with (new) gear.
This image represents a first step into what has to become the Mechbay.

[gunswordfist]

Damn the art is great. Will follow!

[marcgfx]

the amount of art work is just absolutely insane. Have you ever regretted the choice of style? I use rendered art myself and I sometimes regret not going for 3D.
the question popped into my head after seeing one of the images with accurate looking shadows (I was wondering how you did it).

[cykboy]

the amount of art work is just absolutely insane. Have you ever regretted the choice of style? I use rendered art myself and I sometimes regret not going for 3D.
the question popped into my head after seeing one of the images with accurate looking shadows (I was wondering how you did it).

2D isometric images are converted into 3D on the fly, we take a tile sheet for map objects:




Then we create cuboid geometry and do some black magic UV math...



ofcourse we're keeping it in the isometric perspective.

Leendert Edit:
Its still a lot of work creating the art. Especially because you have to create all the angles with pixel art.
For the 3D tiles and shadows we're set with Sams engine as he explained above.

It all comes down to what you want to achieve. I mostly dislike 3D on the size we're going for right now. And I love pixel perfect. Fell in love with the idea, the project and everything around it. And that all makes up for the time it consumes!

[cykboy]

Spent alot of time recently reworking the core engine code, converting it to ES6 (the next evolution of Javascript) and separating components - basically a big clean up. Managed to get some time to improve ambient shadows, can play with the inclination and the azimuth of the "sun" (shadow caster) to achieve the desired effect. Also, shadow map quality scales with map size. For a small map like this, a 512x512 shadow map works perfectly:



However, for a larger map we'll need to scale the shadow map resolution and the shadow camera's render plane. All handled by the map loader now. We also support a choice of per pixel or per vertex lighting (depending on performance requirements). Been working with lighting some more and creating a robust system to handle it. Another feature that has received quite a bit of attention is the elevators!

They go up and down when your team mate, or you, activate a button. Still a bit of work to do here though...

[cykboy]

A short update from our side:

There is a big company that is claiming we may be infringing their copy trademark.
A week ago they've convinced Facebook to block our page trough their lawyer.
We have also received various letters. Al tough there shouldn't be a actual problem we are in negotiations with this company.

It is about the use of our name "META4".

More news, updates and info will follow.

[Gargoyle440]

Man this game looks awesome!

With this kind of artistic style, what direction are you going to go with the audio?
Somewhere in the region of Sega Genesis?

[cykboy]

Thank you for your reply.
We are sure about having sound FX.
As for ingame music we are unsure yet. Defenitly a theme on the mainmenu.

Its hard to tell what suits the game at this point.
We do like uptempo stuff (noisia drum & bass / neurofunk). But no decisions have been made yet.

[marcgfx]

just call the game MET4, the 4 can double as the A
thanks for the tech explanation, clever!
I'm not so sure I like those soft shadows, hard edges would require a different approach I guess. will probably look better, when you fix the brighter edge artifacts where the shadow connects to the shadow casting object.

[Gargoyle440]

Thank you for your reply.
We are sure about having sound FX.
As for ingame music we are unsure yet. Defenitly a theme on the mainmenu.

Its hard to tell what suits the game at this point.
We do like uptempo stuff (noisia drum & bass / neurofunk). But no decisions have been made yet.

Yeah, I hear you.
I always hear complaints about a lot of musical content in games that are primarily multiplayer focused (I can't remember the last time I watched someone on twitch play League of Legends with the in game music on).

Having said that, with a game as thematically mechanic as this one, the SFX are going to be super important for making your weaponry and impact go OOMPF!

Like this guy here:

[Quicksand-T]

This art style is unbelievable.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

just call the game MET4, the 4 can double as the A

Meta4 --> Metaphor--> Met4phor

Kind of sucks when you have to change your game name.

[cykboy]

I'm not so sure I like those soft shadows, hard edges would require a different approach I guess. will probably look better, when you fix the brighter edge artifacts where the shadow connects to the shadow casting object.

I agree here, the shadows look terrible because this was before we implemented a scaling solution for shadow maps. The one you mention had a really low resolution. Hard shadows are also implemented, it's just a case of what looks/works best (hard may be more efficient). Also the position of the shadow caster was out of place, but now this is adjustable per map. Edge artifacts are improved too.

[cykboy]

More.. info.. will.. follow..

[cykboy]

WHAT.. HAPPEND.. META4?

As of last week and the year 2016 the game META4 will continue in progress under the name 'Antraxx'.
The reason for doing so is that we have been in touch with intellectual property counsels for META4 SPAIN, S.A.

META4 SPAIN, S.A is a Spanish worldwide known company within the Human and Intellectual Capital Management field. They where concerned of the use whe where doing of the sign 'META4' since it may be infringing their client rights.

Their request was to immediate cease and desist in your inclusion of the META4 SPAIN company name,
trademarks, domain names and any other rights in the name of META4 SPAIN.

After a long e-mail discussion with these 'property counsels' they've denied the fact that we where in no harm for them.
Threatned us, have had Facebook to remove our page and our complete fanbase, ended up willing to buy our domainnames and made a bid of €100,- for our .com and .online domain names (wich is €10,- and €50,- a year). Wich obviously is rediculous.

We ended up resting our case for this multinational and went for it: the future!

Antraxx was born and we are here to stay!

WHAT ABOUT 2016?

Glad you ask! But let me start with saying: happy newyear! Now to answer the question:

This year we are moving ahead. We've made our choices and plans. It is time! We have set our deadline and release date for fall this year!
Comming fall we will be in live beta - open for public!

You might be wondering how we are able to make such a statement. We calculated the bits and pieces that are neccessairy to release a fully functional game and put it into a time schedual. Since our servers are allready live and rolling (and allready alpha testing) we are a 100% sure we are going to make the deadline.

DONT FORGET TO..

Support us by liking us on our new Facebook and following us on Twitter

Leendert & Sam
Antraxx.com

[surt]

I don't see how there could be any trademark infringement here. Human Resources and Game Development are not quite the same industry.

[cykboy]

They claim to have CTM rights over all "software". Considering that Facebook closed down our page and the fact that we weren't 100% set on the name "META4", we just decided to rebrand ourselves. Its never easy to change the name of your project, no matter what state it is in. After all is said and done though, we're much happier with our new branding and name.  

Oh, we got teleportation now too..