Alright, more updates you say? Here is a big one
Super awesome...how did you do the dynamic shadows ?
They are a little rough, as you can see in some of the screens. Basically, there are two different things going on. For the "land" shadows, I am generating shadow "cells" that match the general shape of the object, and then stretching them and changing the transparency based on the position of the sun. Some of these are still out of position a bit, and I may shrink them and increase how many I use to get more accurate shadows. It is all about how fast it will be. The tree shadows (and eventually, the shadows for all the sprites) are a "shadow" version of the object, rotated and stretched to match the sun position. I then apply a pixel shader to the shadow layer to blur it a bit, and set it to the equivalent of Photoshop's multiply.
You mean you rendered 16 rough versions of the RV and painted over them or did you render it directly as we can see it in the game ? If the latter, can i have an idea of the technique you used ? I don't do 3d but i'd love to make simple 3d sprites with a 2d look like yours.
I used Blender to make a VERY simple 3d model, and then painted a texture to match my sprite style. The trick is to paint all the shadows onto the texture, and render the object with no lighting. (well, full lighting i guess). It lets it match the style of the sprites pretty well.
Would look better as sprites that are semi-3d (meaning they'd stand out from the backround plane).
This isn't really possible to do well in MMF2. (Actually, I'm sure there is a way, but not using the methods I am using for the rest of the rendering.) Maybe in the sequel. <shrug>
Oooh what's that status indicator there? Is the abdomen red because he's anticipating wrestling some steaks out of that ox, or is it because he's just been kicked in the guts by one?
This is more clear in these new shots. It is your hunger indicator
Speaking of new shots:
Sorry mister ox man. Hunting rifle is up and operational, as you can see here.
This is a zoomed out shot to show the size of the actual area of the map loaded into the game at any one time. Anything in the world not in this area is "frozen" I am thinking about making some simple algorithms to shift things around in the frozen zone as well, so that it simulates things moving around a bit and they don't stay just as you left them. The red thing floating in the purple area up by the HUD is actually some ox steak I was testing out
Here you can see I painted "looted" versions of all the plants, so you can see what you have picked or not. Or what the oxen have "picked" -- They will stop to chow down on plants that they come across.
Also- the "40" in these screen shots is the frame rate. I have it locked at 40 right now to keep everything the same speed. If I take off the lock, it runs at about 150 fps on my computer. Eventually I will probably write a timer so the game speed isn't locked to the frame rate.
Next update: Steak, Knives, and Automobiles.
(I'm busting ass for IGF)
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