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December 09 Torque 1.5 : The Return to TorqueI am Not a modeler, although I would love to learn more. After previous unsuccessful attempts at making Blender 3D accept the DTS Export tool for the Torque Game Engine, TGE... I have returned with success! Most of my problem was due to version updates, maybe even compatibility issues with Blender updating and not having the most recent exporter. I had been away from Torque for a little while working in C#, XNA and homework. I was shocked to have missed the big update to the game engine at the end of October and jumped at the thought of getting more tools. The other big plus everything works great, the DTS Exporter and Blender are playing nice together. I completed my first Torque 3D game model, it is a crate and has no collision at this time. I grabbed my sketch pad and drew a board, scanned it in and began tweaking it in Paint Shop Pro. I successfully made a crate using the Material Export tutorial from http://www.users.on.net/~symes/gamedev/videotuts/videotuts.html The scene from image 3 and 4 are from the FPS Starter Kit, not my original work however, the crate is mine. Lighting is next... October 31 Skybox texturingI have been playing with skybox texturing for use with an
XNA project. With practice the seamless flow will work when connecting all four
boxes. My first attempt was just grabbing the digital camera and heading for a
clear shot of the sunset. For the first run I took 20 or more pictures it took
some time to line them all up. The second image is a panoramic from photography. The problem with this is it
doesn't wrap well, the left side has to meet the right as if they were one
night sky. August 29 Torque Test Drive part IIIts been one month since the initial test drive with the game
engine and some big announcements have made their way forward. XNA was announced as well as Torque X, the Torque extension for XNA. Plus the
XNA beta hits this week, August 30th for those that signed up.
What happened in a month's time? Well aside from Torque I jumped into C#, I
have a class starting next week and wanted to make sure I had some hands on
experience. I sat down with an old friend and jumped into what may have been a
bit rough of a place to start, a Tic-Tac-Toe game. It works! That was a lot to
take in but I am getting the hang of it. The game still needs more code, in debugging
many cheats were found.
So that brings me to structure with QuArK. Things seem to be working here. I
can get the meat of the level done and then return to Blender to add the
details. I am still reading tutorials at this point and making progress. The
texture is not taking yet but it shouldn't be long as I have an idea as to what
went wrong. July 25 Taking the Torque Game Engine, TGE for a test driveI just purchased the Torque 3D Engine and sat down with some texture creation. During the creation of my own textures I either just found a way to layer the old and the new or my original save is a layered .png file.
I just started a development group and we are jumping in with a couple of resources and some experienced talent. This should be a great ride for a bit of industry experience.
*Apparently there is a bumpmap texture in place this will take a little more looking into. May 11 Revised 3D SmileThe initial version was following the text book example lesson on how to export a 3D model from 3Ds to Unreal 2k4. That was also the very first 3D model I had ever attempted. I decided to revise the first attempt. Even though I am not working with the sculpting of the model a little skin fine tuning can't hurt.
I plan on tweaking the eyes and nose to just as well. The following was all done in Paint Shop Pro. April 27 UT2004 ScriptingThere have been some aspects of Unreal Ed I had not touched on, but I am making progress. After finally getting around to watching the scripting tutorial, hitting the message boards and starting from scratch a couple of times...my model and sound file make their way into the game!
After learning that my sound file itself could be a problem I started over. Found a fitting sound online to use for this sample run. Pac-Man. I dropped the sphere in and run over it to hear the munch, munch beeping sound!
Once I learn how to fully package the quick mods I will add samples.
Tour de Pac: March 11 Assembly Language StudyThe level design document is on hold for the moment as I look into upcoming subjects of study. This semester a lot of things are changing for me. I will be swiching to part time for school and working full time again. In the mean time, I will be looking into the next few courses of study ahead of time. Notice the books C# and C++ books below these classes will be coming up later. I am unable to attend the Assembly Language course at this time but have been doing research on the materials. I found the following link and a few books on amazon.com as well. This looks to be a really good resource, I will be spending some time with it in depth very soon. http://www.drpaulcarter.com/pcasm/ As for the library, I was unable to find anything on topic. February 23 Documenting the Level: Part IICreating the Document Quite a bit goes into pitching a game. For class everyone wrote a ten page document the the details, if this had been a real pitch for a game the document would be two hundred pages long. The details include story, rules of play, characters and how they work into the story or why they are important, sound effects and soundtrack and how they will be used. This all comes from my text book refrenced. 3D Modeling  
I have my friend Ian to my disposal for modeling, I plan to learn as
well even though it is not part of my curriculum. I have the tutorials
that came with the Unreal 2k4 Special Edition DVD. The engine here
works well with Maya. The tools provided by 3DBuzz. This is a great
learning tool if you plan to create your own 3D level or game. Another
tool I have been trying to learn is Blender 3D.. They have added a game
engine to drop your work into from what I am reading here too. The
training videos have just been released on this now and are currently
free. I believe this is done by the 3DBuzz crew, or at least one of
them.videos: Blender 3D Tutorial download: Blender 2.41 I hope to have more screens for the next post as the vines will be added to give this arena some life. Hopefully it will not take me a month to post. January 31 Documenting the Level: Part IThis will be the first entry of hopefully a four part series or more.
This is where I am starting from. Everything you see is work I had
already begun. As I mentioned in yesterday's post I need to add a
catwalk and meshes along with an outside zone. And I still have not
found that tutorial disk. I am not about to pay $39.99 to Buzz 3D when
I already own the material somewhere. I ran through this morning and shot screens of what currently exists. The first screen for those unfamiliar with the editor, this is Unreal Ed 3.0. (Not to be confused with Unreal Engine 3 as this is engine version 2). The other three shots are the sewer tunnel leading to the elevator. The elevator I made mixing two existing UT meshes and texturing them as a whole unit. Lastly the elevator shaft from the top down. More to come.. January 30 Game editing isn't forgiving to moving.I get to present what I have learned over the last year with the Unreal
2.0 Engine. Unfortunately, it has a been a while since I have used it
as I still have a level in progress. It has been a year since we moved.
Everyone knows boxes and things you really need tend dissappear in
packing and unpacking. Or in my case leaving things in the garage. I have a level that I was designing for our guild, EvL, which in no more. I sketeched it out on paper ahead of time to later chiseling it into Unreal Ed. There are currently three tiers to the level with plans to expand it to the outside. I have a working elevator, lighting and a sewer tunnel. I have two weeks to get my level ready for a class presentation. I will update pictures here. This coming monday I have to have a plan and screens of my level ready to share. As I begin to retool I will have to try and find that Special Edition disk with the 3D Buzz tutorial on it. I also need to come up with some Ivy and Wheat static meshes. |
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