New DirectX9 DM clone - entombed

[zoom]

makes perfect sense. I could even imagine 4 square monsters! good luck in getting worms!
Sadly I do not have the full skillz to create one atm, maybe at a later time.
I could, probably accomplish the side and front view on paper then trying to make a good looking mesh object
from that. If someone would need it? Mapping is new to me, also bones system for movement.
(how monsters should move is a topic that should be discussed. I agree with ultramarine that the movement of the party
should be similar to the monster movement(step by step). For game play.
Immersion is probably better in an fps mode, but believablility is created in consistency (considered moving).
furthermore, a game is a game and it does not have to be realistic to be good. Therefore monsters should make steps.
again, this should be discussed, but not now.)

What I wanted to add to the dm "side aligning":
Creatures will not tend to postition itself in the middle, but after some time
(hope I got the grammar correct here: They do position in the middle, takes time however)

imagine you have 3 creatures on a square. 2 die, probably because of the player.
The remaining creature stays (for some time) left or right side.(until attack or something)
Then moves middle
Gigglers are an exception, I think. Maybe because they did not group in dm?

advantage for the creature to be not in the middle
can dodge fireballs if the player is not careful )cast at on wrong "lane"(

disadvantage for the creature to be in the middle of a square:
spells will surely hit it

advantage for the creature to be in the middle
can prevent party to collect items off of the very square it is standing on

[Erik Bauer]

@DSE: I've just seen your new fireball and... YEP! That's for sure the way to go! Just add Yellow&Red, make the smoke gray-orange, add a nice explosion effect and here we have!

Reading Zoom's comments about inside-square-positioning... all good ideas!

[zoom]

erik bauer,thanks. but it is only observed from original dm, not an idea per se- an analysis maybe.
whatever, In entombed actually the monsters would kick the items around rather than standing on them !
hmmm.
#dse how would you like to have this behave like?
status,plans/concept?

[Erik Bauer]

Yes, they are original DM Ideas (tm), but since nobody else noticed that looking at the videos, your idea to notice it is good (ok... climbing mirrors here )

[cowsmanaut]

any news with the flames I sent? have you been able to add them to the fireball? and can you send me a wall as an obj? to my email. cheers

[DSE]

I am doing stuff at the mo but work has gone nuts so it might take a little longer. Not too much longer now though. The walls are 150 high by 100 wide with the bottom at zero. Can I ask why (just curious) ? If you still need the object I can send it tonight :O)

I have updated the video for the fireball and it looks a lot better now. I dont know if the gfx you sent are going to fit in, but I will give it a go and see.

[cowsmanaut]

the unit size in maya will be different from the unit size in 3DSMax. so your suggestion of height could instead produce something massive, or tiny. also I wanted to see if it's centered on the grid in all axis or not.

My reasoning is to potentially provide with environmental elements and perhaps one creature currently. Something with limited animation, so a screamer or worm. This all depends on free time which as you know I don't have much of, but dungeon elements take little time. I will likely first make you a lions head fountain to start. Normal map and all..

[DSE]

ok. I have just got in from a 14hr day and I am off to bed. My meshes are on my other machine which has decided it doesnt like the mouse that is attached anymore. I will sort it out tomorrow night when I am less video blind from work. Sorry for the delay, especially because you are trying to help me :O(

[Tom Hatfield]

Unit size isn't going to matter at all if they're both using generic units. Both programs will export the same numbers. The problem is with the coordinate system: Maya uses a Y-up system; max uses a Z-up system. You'll need to rotate the model about the X-axis and possibly mirror it (not sure of the handedness after rotating, and I'm too tired to look it up).

[Tom Hatfield]

One thing, I have noticed that occasionally when I load PNG files they are darker than the original. Not sure why and I have never bothered to find out.

The alpha is pre-multiplied. If you're rendering against a dark background, this means the edges will be darker. You don't get this problem using Targa, provided you separate the alpha and color channels. This is exactly why I wrote a utility to merge separate TGA channels into a single image, instead of using "flawed" PNG's.

Your demo is looking very nice, by the way.

[cowsmanaut]

Tom, I know all about that. I just don't like Max much so I'd rather have it in maya and while I could download max and make a wall at that size after a long install.. I'd rather not There are a number of things I would be able to avoid by him simply sending a mesh already working in his engine to use as a reference.. matching vert by vert. Also, as I said, I have no idea if it's centered to the grid or aligned to the base of the wall or or or or.. positioning of those elements is just as important to my being able to align these things.

As for the Z Y thing it's possible to swap them on export and import of OBJ objects in max. It's in the import export options. Remember this has been my job for the past 9 years I have to transfer meshs from XSI to Max, to maya, to zbrush, and all around and back again.. to many 3D softwares and now they're all owned by autodesk.. well not Zbrush.. but they have mudbox which is nicer in a lot of ways so they don't care ... but I digress

[DSE]

cows - You have mail !

[DSE]

Tom - thanks :O)

[cowsmanaut]

finally loaded them, and all the info I needed was there.. the are aligned to each others edges and to the base of the grid which is great. All stuff that I wouldn't be able to tell from 150 vs 100 units I'll also assume that you are wanting everything in triangles not in quads. I know that triangles is a sort of max default so that's why I'm asking. Also any object triangle limits you want to impose?

Also Tom, I wasn't thinking clearly because I should have guessed that DSE might be using standard units.. there is the option of converting your measurements which can alter the preceived values. I see this kind of issue for objects created for architecture where they'll tell you it's five feet, but their measure unit is set to CM.. It's left me cautious especially when you already have students making 50 foot characters on one computer to bring over to their partners environment which was built for 5 foot tall people

[DSE]

Good job. Make them as light as you can but so they look cool. Sorry for the 'no help whatsoever' comment. See what you can do.

[DSE]

New video posted showing my attempt at a port cullis and added fire to the camps.

[ian_scho]

I loved:
* Watching the barrel fall down the pit - the drop seems bottomless now.
* The way the portcullis shadow ominously rises up.

[zoom]

eye candy! And quite some hectic in your dungeon recently with all these fireballs and lights.. really does make a difference.
good work there.

Interesting lever operation mode.
is this the intended way of interacting with all wall related things,like keyholes, niches, buttons ? etc
(-->i.e. standing sideways to the lever and being able to pull it; in contrary to having to be facing the lever in
order to be able to operate it)

[DSE]

Because all the items are physics driven you can press them if they are in reach/view. I think its a little more flexible than being forced to view things straight on to click them, etc.

Glad you like it. It looks even better in the 'flesh' so to speak.

[zoom]

you mean it looks better when you actually play it?

hmm. could you introduce physics (like a glue effect) to the lever operation?
, like you just do not only point and click, but
drag sometimes, too.

So the lever might be a bit hard going(rusted or stuck) so a weak character should have problems
operating it fast.(struggle with the mouse to force the lever down or something-grappling)

would be leader sensitive, of course, so if the leader of the party would have more muscle, the lever leverage would be
piece of cake and not such a struggle.
why? could make the first few moment while the champions are weak more interesting(frustration?) or at least would be ultra
rewarding to the later phase in the game, where you could accomplish these tasks much more easily(with a single click or quick skip/ move of the mouse.)
Do not know if it would add to the game ultimately or not.
--> probably much fuss to implement, too.
example:
world of goo.
(thought the whole goo would be stretching to your mousedrags, but it isn´t the case
-so the operation would be similar : imagine a rubberband between the mouse cursor and the lever.
video
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XePUhRGE ... re=related]

[DSE]

Yes, it looks better at full res when you play it.

Not sure about that idea. To be honest I have 10000000 things still left to do and making a lever sticky is not on the list at the mo. Not sure what it would add to the game play really, people would probably just think its awkward or a problem with the software (if you didnt tell them). I will give it a go when the other jobs are done and dusted and see what it plays like. Its easy to do.

[zoom]

ok, I get back to that- and more to it - when the time is right.
(could introduce some riddles and extended attack modes maybe with this or
change item collection altogether[if it does not turn out to be total crap or too wii-like])

It´s clear you have other more pressing and crucial things on your list(quite many!). Good luck to tackle them sucessfully. Got any monsters yet for testing?
Cannot wait for the new E N T O M B E D demo...probably would not be able to play it then, because I do not have access to this computer all times , lol.

[cowsmanaut]

is that using the fire sprites I gave you? they look rather pale and lack in form :/ I just did a test in maya and they seemed to be ok. I've also cut them into transparent sprites instead of on black, just to make life a little easier inside maya (doesn't transparency sort well when in high quality mode and can't display alpha luminence in regular mode ). I'm having issues with particles playing the correct frame at the correct time, but barring that, they look fairly detailed here.

or have you not really played with them yet?

The way I have it set up here is that they rise away from the center and go from full opacity to transparent over their life and play their frames 1-12 during that time. works ok for a camp fire sort of idea. The other possibility is using the particle illusion method with singular sprites rotating and fading out.

http://www.wondertouch.com/showiel.asp
you can download that for free and view some of the different particle effects they have and try to find something you can do with that. There is also the super flames one which is just a singluar image growing and fading very quickly. there are just a lot of them which makes it look like a big raging fire. We could do something like that?

[DSE]

Its not using your textures at all yet. I am up to my bits in work at the moment so I am only getting brief moments on my computer. I am typing this 200 miles away from my dev machine. Hopefully next week will be better. Just want to crack on and get the engine finished and running at 60fps on my slower machine (ati x800 thingy gfx card) but not getting the time at the mo. Then it will just be art assets required and it can actually be released and played as a proper game. Fingers crossed.

[DSE]

zoom - keep the ideas coming. Once I have the engine stable and working on a number of mid range gfx cards I will be happy to indulge any ones ideas and give them a go.

[cowsmanaut]

No worries, I've got plenty to do myself.. I'm hoping to find some time to breath within the next few days.. I've stuffed myself at home today just to catch up on a few tasks that needed to get done.. it's that time of year

[cowsmanaut]

tried to dl your entombed file twice now and twice it's come up corrupted wanted the wall texture so I can match my fountain to it

[DSE]

which file my friend ?

[cowsmanaut]

the entombed demo, where it says Download and I get Entombed.zip, which turns out to be "corrupt can not unpack file"

[DSE]

I have just tried the zip and it works ok for me. what is it you would like to get the job done, do you just need the texture or a screenshot or .... ?