next »

[JobLeonard]

A little update: I had been prototyping particle FX but some of it wasn't really going to be suitable for Infinitesimals. So rather than waste it I had a thought about simply completing the set of weapon impact/destructions particles and releasing a ballistics impact/destruction pack for UE4 - Here's a couple of WIP videos:





And the demo map: I thought I'd have a bit of fun with the narrator...





Clearly this is entirely unrelated to Infinitesimals but I'm hoping if it brings in even a small amount of cash, I can work full time on Infinitesimals for a while.

Very nice FX, good demo video too!

EDIT: Paged, so quoted the comment I'm replying to

[cubit]

Geoff, JobLeonard: Thanks guys 

[io3 creations]

@cubit,
It's good to know that there are lots of options for customization.  As you mentioned, considering bullet speed could be a useful feature.

To me the difference is similar to using decals vs actual destructible environment in a firefight.     Much like in Crysis, environmental destruction added an extra level of realism and perceived fun.   I did 2d slicing before with Flash but now I'm working on a similar thing in Unity where I want to have similar things.  For example, in many games, slicing characters is already pre-determined and you can only slice at certain "points".  I know a slicing asset is already available for Unity (and there's also one for models with bones to maintain proper skin relationship after slicing) but I still want to learn how it's done.  Both how Unity handles the various aspects and also when I need to customize it for some ideas that I have.  While having the visual aspect is nice, I want to use it for actual game mechanics.

I haven't really played PC games for a few year now but mainly watched a few walkthroughs/playthoughs and it seems like games will take some time to reach "my ideal".    The 80-20 rule comes to mind.  It took about 20 years for video games to reach 80% but it'll take about 80 years to bridge that 20%.  Full physics based environmental modification/destruction (brick-by-brick) on a large scale will need a lot of processing power.  But are other things that could be (and probably will be) improved before that.  AI that can traverse that terrain and move realistically is such an aspect as well as truly photo-realistic images.   By that I also include character animations - especially facial expressions.  It's kind of amazing to me that still many games use the "balls-to-the-face" technology to motion capture facial expression.  The issue with that is that a lot of the emotions are displayed with the muscles around the eyes and those techniques tend to miss out on that.  I first became aware of this when I watched Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.  The environmental visuals looked great and so did the motion captured movements.  However, the characters looked a bit frozen/stiff and were missing something.  As I was thinking about it, I noticed that characters in traditional animations and even digital animations such as Toy Story had very expressive characters and I noticed the difference around the eyes.  I've seen some people's comments that they find video game characters strange/creepy.  My guess is that is one of the reasons.  Also that's why the Mona Lisa's smile is a fake smile.  The muscles around the lips are in a smiling pose but the ones around the eyes are in a neutral state.  Actually, that's one way to detect fake smiles.

Did you do the narrator (likely distorted) in the trailer?

[cubit]

io3 creations: pretty spot on there I think. That next 20% is not as easy as a lot of people assume :D I've not done any skelmesh destruction yet, in either unity or UE4 but let me know how you get on! :D The voice is synthesized, but I spend a bit of time processing/monkeying around with it to make it not sound as fake as it does out of the box, so to speak :D

Feature creep reared it's head for the VFX pack... I added a bullet time mode and now shrapnel for the explosions... The shrapnel also has ricochet functionality, so I would imagine it could be unlucky but entirely possible to be murdered by some deflecting debris from around a corner...

[io3 creations]

If bullets that ricochet on open doors in Counter Strike can kill you then all is fair!

By "the voice is synthesized", do you mean something like text-to-speech or it's based on your voice?  Did you use a software to do that?

Speaking of progress again, back when I first heard synthesized voice on the C64, while it was rather coarse, it was still really exciting that something like that can be done.   Sounds like (pun intended) a lot of progress has been made since then.

About slicing: first, I'll tackle the "watermelon effect" - i.e. how to create proper texture for the sliced area/surface.  If you slice near the center, the middle should be red and rind green.  If you slice closer to the outside, then the outside of the sliced area should have more and more green for the rind. Near the outside, it should be completely green.   For elongated objects, cylinders, blocks, etc you need to create different types of texture based on the inner content.  For example, slicing a zombie arm would have a circle for the bone if the slice is perpendicular to the bone but a long rectancular-ish shape is the slice is along the bone.  If the slice is in between those two, then the bone slice should be an oval.  It doesn't seem that difficult but needs a few extra considerations.  Keeping track of the original center is one aspect.  As a first guess, it might be possible to get reasonable approximation just from the slice location and angle but if might also be possible to have 3d models for the internal parts and slice those as well to get a better values of exact size.  Depending on overall CPU use, that might actually be better to get a good consistent look.

As for the skelmesh, to keep things simple, I'll probably start with games that use separate objects for the body parts and have my own animating system move them.  Since that's what I do in Flash, I imagine it being easier to do than moving objects/meshes with skeletons.  That could avoid some of the issues that skeleton (and proper animation) might have.  But I'll see how things go.  I would've like to see such things for a long time.  Dead Space and Lost Planet had some specific target locations but not partial destruction that I'm looking for.  The chainsaw cutting in the latest Doom seemed to be cutting near the head from left or right.  There may be some other directions but my guess is that it's pre-scripted/animated.  Of course, I want to implement slicing not just eye candy but as a game mechanic.  If say a limb is partially destroyed, that would change how the character moves (speed) and attacks (e.g. range).   If a character is truly debilitated, just to keep up the challenge, I'm also thinking of implementing various survival/berserk modes where the character could still put up a fight.  This would of course depend on many factors but would add strategic elements for the player in terms of how to attack.   

That reminds me, on the Unity skelmesh asset thread someone commented using it in games but haven't posted links.  I'll try to contact the person and see what he/she came up with.

[cubit]

Proper reply coming tomorrow io3, 3am here so posting this video and running to bed :D

Launched the VFX pack:




https://gum.co/BallisticVFX

[io3 creations]

Looks good.

Looks like the skelmesh asset that I mentioned is no longer available for purchase in the store.

Unfortunately, Limb Hacker is no longer available.

This package has been deprecated from the Asset Store. This means that new purchases of the package are not allowed and that only users who already purchased or downloaded the package before it was deprecated, are allowed to download it.

In most cases, package deprecation happens because the publisher is unable or unwilling to support the package anymore."

Maybe there were issues with the updated Unity or perhaps issues arose in some specific situations.  Oh, actually, it seems like after the slice, the model is replaced with a ragdoll so it may not be a full skelmesh slicer in terms of being able to keep processing or transfer animation related into.   It does't matter for my current approach but if I do encounter it then I'll just have to create my own. 

If you have Unity browser plugin, you can see the demo: http://noblemuffins.com/?page_id=205

[cubit]

Ok, so it's been a while! I'll have a more substantial update coming in the next couple of months or so. Rest assured this project is getting into full swing, including a wonderful C++ coder who's creating some great custom UE4 editor tools for the project (more on that next time). However, for now - I'll give you a very brief little teaser of some 100% procedural/physics sim animation (work in progress!) for one of those pesky hunter gatherer's (Who's been down the pub)...

[JobLeonard]

The radial symmetry looks so freaky

[io3 creations]

@cubit Good to see to project continuing.   By "Who's been down the pub" you mean drinking too much grass juice?

[cubit]

Job: agreed we are changing the stepping rules soon to allow more variance, definable via our custom editor.

Io3: yes, fermented grass juices are surprisingly potent!

[io3 creations]

Io3: yes, fermented grass juices are surprisingly potent!

Especially, for various alien species.

[jambri]

Stunning VFX, if it were a unity pack I'd get it for sure!

[cubit]

Stunning VFX, if it were a unity pack I'd get it for sure!

Thanks I might try and get a unity version done at some point, but it's hard to find the time at the moment.

[cubit]

Ok! So we are on track to having a playable prototype in the next couple of months... but in the mean time, here's a couple of captures of work in progress POD procedural/physics animation.









James

[JobLeonard]

Gorgeous as ususal!

I was about to say "it looks like the body would float in the air even if the legs weren't there", but then I saw the disclaimer

[bauer]

This looks so fkin good, that's the coolest spider robot I've seen in a very long time

[cubit]

Gorgeous as ususal!

I was about to say "it looks like the body would float in the air even if the legs weren't there", but then I saw the disclaimer

Ah yes, so although it can already stand and move around with full body physics applied (each leg applies a force depending on it's state) we need to refine the gait systems and fix a couple of bugs before it'll look correct. Next update should be full sim

bauer: Thanks a lot!

[cubit]

Update dump:









https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h3Ys7DAQNU

[JobLeonard]

I love the big drops! But unless you're going for ultrahydrophobicity I think they should splash if the drops fall above some yet-to-determine critical speed (as in: if the impact is great enough to overcome the surface tension) - so more the first big drops should splash, and then the splashed-off droplets would bounce.


Also, will the game feature this?