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[io3 creations]

With the addition of terrain height changes required us to solve the problem of our Dino feet not sticking to the ground. Designated mesh now keep our Dino feet planted, mostly stopping the "air walk" if a hill or ravine is encountered. This is working in tandem with the animation of the walk cycle, and so far we haven't seen too much fighting between the two 

I like the low poly visuals.

What engine are you using?

Also, if you don't mind (or it's not a "super secret" ) how did you solve the "air walk" issues?

[Tyomklz]

With the addition of terrain height changes required us to solve the problem of our Dino feet not sticking to the ground. Designated mesh now keep our Dino feet planted, mostly stopping the "air walk" if a hill or ravine is encountered. This is working in tandem with the animation of the walk cycle, and so far we haven't seen too much fighting between the two  

I like the low poly visuals.

What engine are you using?

Also, if you don't mind (or it's not a "super secret" ) how did you solve the "air walk" issues?

That's Unity. Air walk fix is IK system (positioning and rotating bones by checking their children, raycasting down and positioning and rotating feet to meet underneath meshes normals).

Also holy crap, that editor and water stuff. You guys did great job so far, hopefully it'll get finished.

[Taky]

I like the low poly visuals.

What engine are you using?

Also, if you don't mind (or it's not a "super secret" ) how did you solve the "air walk" issues?

Thanks!
Yes - so we're using Unity as mentioned earlier.
For the air walk issue we went to the store! We try to solve most of our own problems (1 we like to keep control over 100% of the code 2 it saves us money because we can barely pay for electricity) BUT we used "Final IK". (dirty secret?)

At a high level, navmesh dictates rotation, and we use root motion for translations (for dinos), with Final IK helping air walk issue.

[Taky]

Also holy crap, that editor and water stuff. You guys did great job so far, hopefully it'll get finished.

Thanks. We're hoping it gets finish too :/

Mayuran has promised to writeup a little tutorial for the shader/water he made; I'll try to get that up here if you're interested.

[Fuzzy Branch]

Looks cool!

I'm curious what gameplay reasons you have for requiring a dynamic grid water system? I love simulation stuff, but I'm unclear what role or function it's serving in the context of the bigger game. For example, Is it supposed to affect plant growth? -- serve as a risk of flooding (which would ruin exhibits/harm dinos)?

Looking forward to watching this develop

 

[Pixel Noise]

Just wanted to drop in and say how cool this looks. Really like the concept/gameplay you are going for. 

[io3 creations]

I like the low poly visuals.

What engine are you using?

Also, if you don't mind (or it's not a "super secret" ) how did you solve the "air walk" issues?

Thanks!
Yes - so we're using Unity as mentioned earlier.
For the air walk issue we went to the store! We try to solve most of our own problems (1 we like to keep control over 100% of the code 2 it saves us money because we can barely pay for electricity) BUT we used "Final IK". (dirty secret?)

At a high level, navmesh dictates rotation, and we use root motion for translations (for dinos), with Final IK helping air walk issue.

Yeah, sometimes it's fine to use assets from the store as long as it actually work for you and doesn't cause issues.  We won't tell!

[Taky]

I'm curious what gameplay reasons you have for requiring a dynamic grid water system? I love simulation stuff, but I'm unclear what role or function it's serving in the context of the bigger game. For example, Is it supposed to affect plant growth? -- serve as a risk of flooding (which would ruin exhibits/harm dinos)?

2 reasons, soon to be 3 for dynamic water system.
1) certain plants can only exist surrounded by a certain amount of water. If one is designing a desert biome, then desert plants will require little if any water. Your added water might have to be a certain distance from the plants themselves (we have heat maps showing ground moisture to demonstrate this)

2) adding water will push your current biome into another biome - ie. humidity of your exhibit is dictated by added water. If you click on any exhibit you've designed - information will pop up describing humidity, dinos in exhibit, current elevation, etc.

3) We're also looking to get water involved in a 3rd way, and very open to suggestions from y'all

Added a pick to make it more clear.

[Taky]

Update #5 : Dino Work Flow

We finally have nailed down our dino workflow. To me this means how we make a new dino, start to finish to be ready for Early Access. If I had to give any un-solicited advice on determining workflow it would be a) don't commit to a workflow too early, you really need to flex it out over time. Better options often come along b) Identify your advantage, and use them! Also, identify your disadvantages and work around them.

Brain dump on our Dino workflow:

• since there are only 2 of us on the project we need to be ultra laser guided efficient
• every new dino needs to fit into a family/class, this was we can reuse that family animations
• work off a polished dino mesh - this increases the changes the species bones/animations will play nicely with the new final mesh
• every species should reference a single skinned mesh; this may seem obvious but it is very easy to reference the mesh that is imported with your animation file, instead using a common avatar
• when adding "weight" to a family's animation set, focus on our list of 3 traits - saves time. Also makes it easy to make each family animation set seem more unique and different from each other. (see image)
• we discovered dinos can move like cars – ie. In straight line where the entire body rotates in order to turn. This is in contrast to how a bipedal human could move in the 9 cardinal coordinates (ie, move forward, move forward right). This saves a ton of anim work; only really need walk/run cycle
• connected to the above point is all head turning needs to be done in code; this did have some up front time but scales really well as we add way more dinos (reduces having make anim for every dino species)
• by pushing a lot animation to code we’re able to remove species dependency on avatar references in Unity, enabling us to use Animation Controller Override. This is amazing. It allows us to have a single Animation Controller for all our dinos.
• make a single UV to ensure you can do it properly with above workflow, but don’t add these until the end. Any tweak (for us) on the meshes usually requires a re-work on the UV.
• save out every family animation set into individual animation files for Unity. ie. TRex_Eat, TRex_Sleep as opposed TRex_Action. Normally this would be unmanageable for a large team, but it is doable with only 2 of us. Advantage here is that it is much easier make quick small adjustments instead of working with a single scary anim file (which for most people is ok, but this is our week area)

[Taky]

Holidays means spending time with family? No! It means waking up early and getting hats onto Millie and Holden.

Already had wearable glasses tech, so head tech wasn't too much more (sorry for huge pics)

[Taky]

Happy holidays everyone!

A little secret, I love OUD...O U what? Orthogonal Unit Differentiation. If is probably my favourite GDC talk ever, and I find it is a great starting area when doing game design. If you google "OUD GDC Doom" you can watch it. Basically, it is a slick way of ensuring units/items/enemies being made for your game feel & are different. I'm applying this to fences in Parkasaurus...this is the exercise I did this morning.

Now, I'm a bit wary about chainlink fence being stronger as a concrete wall - so if you have a thought on this please let me know! But essentially the wall design of your Dino exhibits is a push pull between cost<-->strength<-->viability of guest (and also privacy of dinos).

[Taky]

I was stuck this morning on a code problem re: these fences... so decided to take a break and make a spiral made up of all our fence types. (should we add a new fence type? Will take suggestions

[Taky]

Adding a new option for your employee navigation around the park. You can now create waypoints to create a circuit. I'm finding this very handy to ensure my janitor walks the busiest routes for trash pickup

If anyone has a cool idea as to how a "strategic" setup for a waypoint scheme could be rewarded in game, post away. For example having your janitor patrol the fence of a dino that has a tendency to break a fence, etc.

[Hoj]

Posting to follow. Reminds me of Parkitect graphic, I love RTC and Zoo Tycoon etc. Looking froward to this.

[Sundrop]

With the addition of terrain height changes required us to solve the problem of our Dino feet not sticking to the ground. Designated mesh now keep our Dino feet planted, mostly stopping the "air walk" if a hill or ravine is encountered. This is working in tandem with the animation of the walk cycle, and so far we haven't seen too much fighting between the two 

That's a nice touch. 

[paulsoaresjr]

Adding a new option for your employee navigation around the park. You can now create waypoints to create a circuit. I'm finding this very handy to ensure my janitor walks the busiest routes for trash pickup

If anyone has a cool idea as to how a "strategic" setup for a waypoint scheme could be rewarded in game, post away. For example having your janitor patrol the fence of a dino that has a tendency to break a fence, etc.

Very nice! Not sure how many employee types you'll have or what the engine is capable of but I'd have janitors stick to cleaning duties and leave fence repairs (and maybe landscaping chores) to maintenance crew. Maybe grass needs cutting, bushes trimmed, stone pathways fixed, etc. Also a security detail with staff carrying stun guns and animal catchers for little escaped critters and maybe breaking up the occasional argument when guests get rowdy in long lines

[mechaniac]

this project looks amazing!
Love the terrain editing. The general idea is very sound and the execution looks very professional.

I also like the design a lot. Simple shapes and focus on fun and interactivity.
If I may, theres only one thing I would suggest. The bright white cobblestone texture for the paths pops out very much. I would suggest using the nice brown colorTone of your surroundings for the paths as well. (leaving the structure of the texture as it is.)

I think this is not so much a matter of taste, but readability. White tends to jump to the front. And even more so if you've got very little shading. You would also see the effects of your lights and toches way better on a darker background.

Ive attached a small gif to illustrate my point.
(because Ive only used a color search here the outline is very jagged and ugly, but try seeing beyond that)

[Taky]

If I may, theres only one thing I would suggest. The bright white cobblestone texture for the paths pops out very much. I would suggest using the nice brown colorTone of your surroundings for the paths as well. (leaving the structure of the texture as it is.)

Huh, that's a really good point. Consider this a point of discussion for our morning monday meeting.

My gut reaction was to give the player a choice for the "colour" of path tile being placed, white vs. brown colorTone; but maybe as designers we should be making the best choice or the players with regards readability. I'll let you know how our conversation goes But that's a great suggestion, something that hasn't crossed our mind (outside views often bring up topics we're too deep in the woods to wonder about.)

[Taky]

Very nice! Not sure how many employee types you'll have or what the engine is capable of but I'd have janitors stick to cleaning duties and leave fence repairs (and maybe landscaping chores) to maintenance crew. Maybe grass needs cutting, bushes trimmed, stone pathways fixed, etc. Also a security detail with staff carrying stun guns and animal catchers for little escaped critters and maybe breaking up the occasional argument when guests get rowdy in long lines

Ok I added a few of those to our "potential duties" list. Yes re: security detail - escaped dinos at the moment can be handled by security, or yourself jumping in FPS with a stun gun to help out. I love the idea of also using security w/ stun guns to handle unruly guests. Our system is pretty flexible and I could whip that up without too much of a problem.

[Taky]

My partner is vegetarian so I obviously made a healthy delicious eating stand. Any suggestions for a name? "VeganSnacks" isn't that catchy.