(CLICK FOR LARGER)
Above is the light Space Merc armor chest piece.
Good stuff! I am now attaching al the wires and cables for comvbat into RAIN etc…. kinda boring stuff but getting closer every step to the goal. I hope to get some good worktime over the next three days with me taking a day off from the day job tomorrow as it has been killing me…..SO as usual more later =)
I will be working on the preb system for weapons today…. So if it is a skeleton then it is asswembled into one mesh and one texture if it is a regular mesh then it will be made out of prefabs REALLY freeing up some creative items with awesome stuff.. Excited and it should not take to long I just need to alter the database really.
I currently do a lot of complicated things to get weapons assembled from pieces. That is what I did in ME 1 to keep draw calls down. However with the power of unity I think I have more room and want to assemble the weapons from pieces and not assemble a texture and a model into one for one draw call. This opens up prefabs. I can really make ANYTHING this way. I am not limited by shaders, load times drop, and the only negative is more draw calls. Of course enemies and armor items will still be congealed to save a ton of calls but items in both hands add a minimum of 4 exta calls far worth what I can do with it. So I will take a moment while wiring these guys up to replace the strings for the texture and model with one prefab. Then I can have animations on the weapons also which these days is a big thing. If nothing else the ability to have multiple shaders for cool effects not to mention the ease of adding effects makes it worth it big time. This should only tak about 3 hours of work so maybe tonight but we will see I have a busy night. =)
The RAIN guys are extremely helpful. They have the best API support I have ever experienced. Rarely have I had people write usable code I can use as almost drop in. The link below has links that explain the trees and their node behaviors.
http://rivaltheory.com/forums/topic/documentation/#post-35308
The plan now is to tie together my combat code and the new nodes I wrote for RAIN.
I need the node to take the AI and go through the steps.
Attack start
Attack charge
Attack fire
Attack finish.
This is using an item. The item is made of up to 3 mods. Each mod has a “use” effect prefab.
The weapon effects have scripts. They are prefabs that are smart and know what to connect to. There will be a script that knows to connect x effect to the muzzle and fire a y effect down field. etc.
To Do:
Mods need a use effect list (can be multiple). And Use Stage. (attack start,attack charge,attack fire)
When the item is going through its stages it looks at the mod effect lists and triggers any effects of that stage. When it triggers it passes in the AI and the item from which you can get the the game object and all items an effect may need.
Then the effect prefab itself does the rest.
The effect prefab detects hits and passes in the attacking AI and the hit AIs and the attacking item. The combat ensues, death or damage. Buffs are calculated to effect the damage then the damage is applied.
Here is more on the system plans
Update: Great news… after reading some articles re3comended to me I think I have it all under control .I have an ai that patrols random points and even random areas then when it sees you or you get to close it will chase you down and attack you. Now I need to wire in the attack code to make combat work! Good stuff..
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Totally awesome B-Day party for our friend took my dev time this weekend =) It was TOTALLY worth it =)
Now that’s a friend you want! Back to the grind today though and I think I will be done with the RAIN issues today.. At least enough to get some gameplay going =).. I also want to add in events like things standing down long hallways then disappearing around a corner or something =)..
More later!
The lack of documentation is really the achillies heel of RAIN. I like the ease of use once I learn it but I am fumbling through it like crazy..more later
I did not get to much time to work this weekend due to a birthday party in Fort Worth for a friend. It was pretty awesome. We all sat around a bar with peddals and peddled our way bar to bar while having beer on the trolly. VERY cool =)
Anyway back to working on ME2
Rain is so far great BUT takes aLONG time to figure out without any documentation… Pretty much have to rely on your experience in coding AI to learn how it works…The forum support is great but the docs are non existent for the behavior tree nodes… So I hope to have more later =)
Keep them flowing..the latest is downloadable levels thus saving space on the devices. Especially on the iphone 6+ as most people had to settle with the 16gig version. I KNOW the 16 gig version was a corperate wig thinkiong well make a 16 and a 64 so everyone has to go for 64 instead of a 32… and its a bit more money for 4 times the memory… THEN they cannot keep up demand for the 64 gig and guess what millions stuck with the 16 gig which is 8 games these days with some games hitting a gig… sheesh =)
I am workign with RAIN currently and its behavior trees learning as I go. The only complaint with rain so far is a REAL lack in documentation. … So I will fill in more when I discover how it works =)
I have finished the first armor mesh and rigged it. I am REALLY happy with it in game =).. and I cannot wait to make the much beefier tank like meshes later =)… What I need to do is add the Rain AI as a child I am not expecting it to be to difficult but we shall see… After that I will animate the blood zombies correctly. Then I will need to get the elevator working in game and start putting the game together!… Wow amazing how fast this is going… Once I get the overall game working as far as going from the port into the base and back out I will start the other items I need for the first level. A boss, 2 more types of enemies. Some weapons, etc… fill out the game and the story! It is going great!
Back to work… click for larger…
This is the very first armor set you start with.. I am sure I will tweak it more later but it is time to move on for now =)
After the first suit is done as in all other assets things move much faster. I only have to finish the normal map and rig it to the skeleton now. Not to much left really on the armor. I had to adjust and create a new shader. So I should get some pretty stuff up later today when I get time to post it.. The day job is pretty busy right now.
Update:
Color almost done..I have to do the hands and then I have to get the normal map done for all the fine details and seams =)
I like it..This is the starter armor set you land with… as you progress there will be two looks strong beefy and light and fast..
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I do have to change the oil in the wifey’s car but that will be a nice break…
Here is where I stand I still need to finish the chest, paint the legs, hands, and feet. Then I need to tweak the normal maps and specular maps… good stuff!
More later as this is just a progress shot..
Update:
A shot I found where I was getting the base color together for the suit.. next would be detail painting.. then the last seteps ofnormal map matching and rigging.
Ok Got a project at work back to it.. I will try to get images later tonight if I get time if not then on saturday I plan on working while my boy practices baseball…
Update:
As I get time during the day job for breaks I will update with some in progress shots so you all can see how I put together my assets..
This is the normal mapping/occlusion culling step and hard contour. The color is a grid system to see where I have the most resolution for the texture maps. That is NOT the color he will be that is the next step I will try to get up later really busy at work..
Update:
Here is the model of the first armor suit before texturing the second to last step. After texturing Rigging occurs where the model is bound to the pre animated skeleton.
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Major milestone here. 90% of the code is done. Now I just need to load assets into this puppy. The armor, rooms, enemies, story events, etc… May sound like alot but with my processes and lego-like design of using pieces to make a whole I am half way done wit the game in just 2 months of after hours work time!!!! =) WOW… ME 1.0 took a year and a half because I had to make EVERYTHING like physics,loaders, exporters, importers, AI, gameplay, assets, etc… crazy undertaking Unity is the perfect situation for me and my skill sets.. =-)
Anywho I hope to have the first armor suit pic up here today or tomorrow. More later
Update:
Took a few moments in a break to adapt some of the example code from Sigil at RAIN and omg it worked first try… I now have on the fly combined nav meshes and its FAST… no added load time!!! IT WORKS!!!! …now back to making the first armor set and then back to AI and making them smart!.. The behavior trees in RAIN are SUPER easy to learn and SUPER strong =).. I will be able to add tons of new gameplay with it!
More later!
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BUT today we will be shipping the major project… WEEEE!
As far as ME2.. I have rain working AI chasing me and stopping to attack me. It also is walking waypoints etc. The AI is going to be so much improved!.. I will have them take cover some of them etc…FIRST I have to get the nav meshes combining to form one large nav mesh. And the EXTREMELY helpful RAIN team has even provided me example code!
here:
http://rivaltheory.com/forums/topic/navigate-over-navmesh-gaps-with-waypoint-routes/#post-25691
and
http://rivaltheory.com/forums/topic/custom-nav-mesh/
I hope to be combining nav meshes soon!..
But for now its the day job! More later!
Update:
I have AI running around again with RAIN… I really like it so far. it is very simple to learn after you figure out how it works =)…
I now need to get a real model in there, get it fighting, and then do that all in code as the characters are generated. The hard part might be next with the navigation mesh combination. However, as always I can re-use all of this code =),.. Also working in C# over C is a absolute CAKE WALK… =)..
More later….
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Good stuff so I need to get rain running in a level. Then move on to generating my own level using pre-generated meshes.
This will be the last hard time consuming part of making Mission Europa 2… The rest will be all asset generation which goes very fast… =-)
But I am still waiting for more so I will get the first armor set done today. I am going for a space mercenary look for the first set as it is what you start in and you are a space merc searching for your brother (mission europa 1’s hero). Anywho not much to say but work to do! More later tonight when I get to work!
O here is a shot of inspiration art for armor sets… They will go from space suit like to bad ass war machine like the ones in here.
These are just inspiration…I collect a lot of inspirational art prior to creating assets..
It was a CATCH with a football move… but o well Good Job Cowboys amazing season!
Now back on the ranch I am still trying to find a way to generate my own nav meshes at runtime with RAIN or some other 3rd party AI system to save time. If not I will be writing my own again. Hopefully I can pull out my old Mission Europa 1 nav mesh code. I have a question into the forums to see if it is possible.
http://rivaltheory.com/forums/topic/custom-nav-mesh/
In the mean time I will start creating the first armor set so I do not waste time spinning my wheels.
More later!
Welp gave rain a go and its generator is WAY WAY WAY to slow to use in realtime with generated levels so it looks like I will have to roll my own nav mesh argh!… Although it will give me an easy to use map situation. This could take a little time =)..but it will be REALLY fast to load and custom. They way mission europa is set up it would be really easy to make it. I may have to create my own in game mesh generation system I am not sure…. as my levels are built in unity I cannot create a mesh and import it to easily…. BUT I have an exporter that will export the level I can then build it in blender and then re import the finished mesh. The meshes will be loaded and attached at runtime… no generation required… =).. Here goes a week… =/ but maybe when I am complete I could sell it on the asset store and recoup some losses I have cash wish paying for assets and unity.
Back to work!.
Update:
Current to do:
– I need to remove the double door problems I have by only using one set of doors at each side so the N,E always erase doors if there is a door behind..easy
– I will be looking into RAIN. I want the AI to start working again in the generated levels.
– I want to look into “slenderman” type moments of walking into a room and seeing things to add to the atmosphere and make them also random.
– Lots more but the above will keep me busy for many hours…..
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Here is a movie of the rooms working. AI was yanked as I am replacing it with RAIN.
Check it out!
Ryan Mitchell Games - Mission Europa 2 