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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsDruids of Gemini - RPG/Adventure Game
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Author Topic: Druids of Gemini - RPG/Adventure Game  (Read 22208 times)
Radnom
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« Reply #60 on: March 17, 2014, 03:05:36 PM »

This is looking fantastic, Josh! The new temp tree assets obviously aren't as fancy looking as what is in the original post but it's real cool that you're working on what is required from the ground up. The ice cave looks really nice with the outline effect, I think that makes it really stand out and look great. You could quite happily release the game looking like that cave.
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JoshuaSmyth
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« Reply #61 on: March 24, 2014, 04:10:06 PM »

This is looking fantastic, Josh! The new temp tree assets obviously aren't as fancy looking as what is in the original post but it's real cool that you're working on what is required from the ground up. The ice cave looks really nice with the outline effect, I think that makes it really stand out and look great. You could quite happily release the game looking like that cave.

Thanks for the encouragement!
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JoshuaSmyth
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« Reply #62 on: March 24, 2014, 04:15:37 PM »

Moving away from tiles has caused us to completely rethink our art techniques and pipeline.

Here is Lianne's latest background. (Some shadows missing)


Full size link http://i.imgur.com/MlWylR1.png

720p is very time consuming, but our new technique does allow for some more interesting backgrounds and larger set pieces.

I've worked out a load on demand system for the maps. Can't have too many 2048x2048 textures sitting in ram now can we? Performance on my laptop is really good. Not going to test it on the iPad until the next time I feel like doing an iPad build.

I've also been thinking about moving the controls to be mouse, rather than keyboard based. Which should also translate better to touch. Keyboard is fine if you are used to playing console style RPGs in an emulator, but our non-grid movement feels a bit awkward with keys. I'll probably also prototype some xbox controller input to see how that maps, esp. given the fact that the PS4 now has a monogame port. That would be cool to see!
« Last Edit: March 24, 2014, 04:27:10 PM by JoshuaSmyth » Logged

JoshuaSmyth
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« Reply #63 on: April 13, 2014, 01:47:44 AM »

I spent the last week on waterflow.

(Some detail lost due to gif artefacts)


Inspired by flow maps in Portal2
http://www.valvesoftware.com/publications/2010/siggraph2010_vlachos_waterflow.pdf

I wanted the ability to use flow maps in engine. But for a top-down 2D game, after further research I came across:

How to go with the flow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdcvPegJ1lw


Which was getting closer to how I was thinking my implementation would work. You can't just have tiles with scrolling uvs because the tiles wont match at the seems. It took me 2 days coming up with a weighted blend algorithm (Based on neighbouring UVs.) I then produced a blend mask texture and got the result above.

Source Water Image




The implementation is pretty cool as it allows for arbitrary flow directions. Would also be neat to see this in more dynamic tile based games, maybe some that are more roguelikey or minecrafty.

When I get around to setting up a company dev blog, I'll go into more detail on the specifics of how this works.

PS I haven't tested it on the iPad yet, but the pixel shader uses 21 instructions which should be acceptable. I also have an idea for a cheaper alternative solution, should it prove otherwise.
« Last Edit: April 13, 2014, 02:29:44 PM by JoshuaSmyth » Logged

karlozalb
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« Reply #64 on: April 19, 2014, 12:43:24 AM »

Can I see that shader code?? just curiosity, it looks amazing Shocked
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« Reply #65 on: April 23, 2014, 01:50:03 PM »

Can I see that shader code?? just curiosity, it looks amazing Shocked

I'll do a more in-depth write up on it, once I get a longer-form blog when the main Maglev Studios website is up.
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JoshuaSmyth
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« Reply #66 on: April 23, 2014, 01:57:14 PM »

Worked on the combat transition effect. I always liked the broken glass transition from Final Fantasy X so I worked out something along those lines.



(Note: The frame rate is slowed in the gif)
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karlozalb
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« Reply #67 on: April 24, 2014, 12:56:38 AM »

Can I see that shader code?? just curiosity, it looks amazing Shocked

I'll do a more in-depth write up on it, once I get a longer-form blog when the main Maglev Studios website is up.

Nice! waiting for it.
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JoshuaSmyth
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« Reply #68 on: May 16, 2014, 03:25:30 PM »

A few things have been going on since the last update:

I've been working on pathfinding. More detail on that in a more in-depth post. (I've been saving a few of those up it seems.)

I've just got a new 3D modeler to help out with some of the first person dungeon sections, so that's going to be awesome. Pretty excited to make some progress there.

Lianne has been working on monsters for the combat section: We are using Spine to animate, I will post some animations at a later date.


I've made an imgur album at http://imgur.com/a/nZEfZ if you would like to see more.

I've also written the abstract for a talk I want to present at the New Zealand Game Developers Conference in September. All to do with various challenges in coding when creating the game.

I would also like to get the playable demo done by September. Which is just a little more than 3 months away.
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JoshuaSmyth
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« Reply #69 on: June 01, 2014, 03:21:12 PM »

One thing I did not anticipate when moving from tiles to large image maps was cardinal movement using the keyboard would feel wrong. So The last two weeks I have spent implementing pathfinding. Which means the game will now have mouse input. (Which coincidently makes it easier to port to iPad, no virtual control stick HAHA!)

It's been a long time since I've done any pathing code (Since Uni -5 years ago?) so the first thing I did was try out A* in a new project. This was ok, but A* can be quite slow. I just wanted to implement the algorithm to get a feel for the problem.

Then after that I tried computing the Dijkstra table and getting a little man to run around a map I had created.



The next task took the longest, which was working out how to generate a navmesh. This needs some tweaking still, but it's good enough for now. It's important to minimize the number of nodes required to cover the space as the dijkstra table generates n^2 minimum spanning trees, so reductions of n will be important later. Currently the test map uses approx 1000 nodes (off the top of my head)

Then we can ask the Dijktra table for paths and apply smoothing algorithms to the result.


The next thing to do is to get the players party to follow these paths.

I've also got to experiment with dynamic obstacles, which will either be steering behaviours or bringing back A*, or some combination of both.

Until next time!
« Last Edit: June 01, 2014, 03:35:34 PM by JoshuaSmyth » Logged

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« Reply #70 on: June 01, 2014, 04:59:18 PM »

this is lookin grrreat!
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JoshuaSmyth
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« Reply #71 on: June 05, 2014, 01:35:26 AM »

Finally got around to integrating the combat transition code.
Still needs tweaking but it's getting there.




Also it's probably time we started revealing our band of unlikely heroes.

« Last Edit: June 05, 2014, 11:54:30 PM by JoshuaSmyth » Logged

karlozalb
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« Reply #72 on: June 07, 2014, 01:15:58 AM »

A question about pathfinding, how do you generate the meshes-nodes for navmesh? Some kind of algorithm? manually?

That broken glass looks amazing BTW.
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JoshuaSmyth
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« Reply #73 on: July 01, 2014, 03:04:05 PM »

A question about pathfinding, how do you generate the meshes-nodes for navmesh? Some kind of algorithm? manually?

Its an algorithm that I'm still working out. I'll write up the details (Along with a whole bunch of other stuff, closer to when I've finalized it.) The short of it is that it uses a mask texture to represent the walkable area, then splits the walk area into a quadtree which then is linked by neighbouring quads which is then weighted depending on the number of walkable neighbouring quads (so actors don't hug the sides) Then a dijkstra fill is applied to obtain the pathtable.

It's not bad but I think I can reduce the number of nodes by at least 50% by applying some additional LOS tests to cull nodes from the graph.

That broken glass looks amazing BTW.

Thank you. I hope to have a few more variations so it's not the same everytime.
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JoshuaSmyth
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« Reply #74 on: July 02, 2014, 07:12:52 PM »

Some infinite dungeoning. Will probably make a slightly better version for Screenshot Saturday

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« Reply #75 on: July 02, 2014, 09:29:50 PM »

This is looking simply fantastic man.  I love the new art direction you've been going in.

Any new news on a composer? I saw a post further back in this thread..
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karlozalb
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« Reply #76 on: July 15, 2014, 01:07:11 AM »

Some infinite dungeoning. Will probably make a slightly better version for Screenshot Saturday



That effect is amazing
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JoshuaSmyth
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« Reply #77 on: August 01, 2014, 08:43:02 PM »

Latest Environment.
We've got a concept artist doing some map sketches for us now who is way further ahead than we are, so we have a backlog of maps to create:

Lianne is working on a snowy environment next.


In programming news: I have implemented the Spine runtime into the game, so our combat animations are going to be skeletal based. This is really cool as it allows us to create many more animations without gobbling up a huge amount of memory.

I've implemented a portal system in the first person sections of the game which cuts our draw calls down by 50% now that our overworld workflow and style is starting to settle down I need to turn my attention to the dungeon aspects of the game.

Until next time!
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karlozalb
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« Reply #78 on: August 02, 2014, 07:33:01 AM »

Good choice! Spine is a great tool! We're using it in our game and recently they've added meshes, skinning and IK. With patience (and experience) the results are amazing!
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Savick
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« Reply #79 on: August 02, 2014, 07:35:26 AM »

Just a heads up, but a lot of your images on the first page of the thread aren't there any more. Must have run out of hosting or something.
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