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Soul Wars (Update 6)...

Name:	Quinton Delpeche
Date Posted:	May 27, 2008
Rating:	3.0 out of 5
Public:	YES
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We have been testing some of the scenery and maps in order to check FPS and visual appearance of the game. There is quite a lot of work still to do on the maps but overall the tests are looking pretty good and I am quite happy with the results.

EDIT: Currently the basic client is in place and needs the additions of Combat and Character Creation as well as the Play GUI before it will take on a life of its own. We also are working on our own maps but I needed to see what we could put in our own maps before we started going overboard with foliage and stuff.

None of the maps here will be in the final release of the game ... these were merely a TEST. The maps are straight out of the Twigs and Sticks content pack and the models are straight out of the Villager pack.

So here are a few of the screen shots of these tests and I'll let you all be the judge of it. :)

We are busy working on some creatures for the game so that we can start testing the combat system. The guys have also been hard at work testing the 0.1 release of the game client.

Recent Blog Posts

List:	09/18/08 - Soul Wars (Prototype) 08/03/08 - Soul Wars (Update 8)... 07/18/08 - Soul Wars - Nebula Toolset... 07/03/08 - Soul Wars (Update 7)... 06/13/08 - Soul Wars Website Updated... 05/27/08 - Soul Wars (Update 6)... 05/23/08 - Soul Wars (Update 5)... 05/11/08 - Soul Wars (Update 4)...

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Ross Pawley (May 27, 2008 at 22:32 GMT)

Nice screenies! Are you using the GroundCover there? If so, I'd say make a second pass on your ground textures or the textures for your GC billboards, and make them match up in color a bit more. It works best as in your Foliage-004 screenshot, where the colors blend together such that the elements up close and especially farther out aren't too noticeable where they meet the ground.

J.P. Berry (May 27, 2008 at 23:04 GMT)

These screenshots are straight from the demo missions included in the sticks and twigs environment pack.

I do not see any alterations at all, except for your own player model.

Craig Fortune (May 28, 2008 at 00:02 GMT)

Isn't that just from the villager pack anyway?

*confused*

Quinton Delpeche (May 28, 2008 at 07:28 GMT)

@Ross - Thanks ... we need to apply the foliage to our own maps. This was a merely a performance and visual test.

@J.P. - Correct ... as mentioned these are foliage tests. To test the performance on a low-end machine with no fancy graphics. The idea is to see how the game will perform with this type of foliage in place.

@Craig - Yes that is correct. We are using the standard Villager model for now as we have not implemented the character creator/customiser aspect of the game yet and we have not implemented combat. Basically the Villager model has some nice walking/running animations so we are using it.

Currently the basic client is in place and needs the additions of Combat and Character Creation as well as the Play GUI before it will take on a life of its own. We also are working on our own maps but I needed to see what we could put in our own maps before we started going overboard with foliage and stuff.

None of the maps here will be in the final release of the game ... these were merely a TEST. My apologies for the confusion. :(

Mikko Lintunen (May 28, 2008 at 07:31 GMT)

Looking good, some of the views are quite attracting and gave me a lot of ideas to think about. Thank you.

Steve Flowers (May 28, 2008 at 17:07 GMT)

No shame in using any content packs in your own game:) Particularly not if they are of the quality that I've seen Alan post and is reflected in your tests. Wouldn't throw those out IMO:)

Alan James (May 29, 2008 at 01:37 GMT)

@Quinton

Glad to see you finally got them (blush)....How did they do on your test machine(s)? I've got a middle of the road machine and Kyle's is better than mine so I was hoping that everyone would do well.

I'm obviously with Steve F. on this one, and as you move ahead I think you'll be amazed how quickly you can change the entire look of the levels with just lighting changes, swapping out one or two models with another, and a little bit of terrain work/texturing...but that's the whole idea behind what we were shooting for, get working in the game, get in quick and get a running start at a sense of what you can do -- and take off like crazy from there...

Quinton Delpeche (May 29, 2008 at 07:26 GMT)

@Mikko - Thanks.

@Steve - Thanks. The only reason why we aren't using the maps provided in the content pack is that we have already created the entire heightmap for our initial game world which is based on the initial story line created by Rick and Matthew. We will however be using all the foliage and textures provided and definitely all of the skyboxes. :)

@Alan - Yeah ... thanks for sorting it out for me so quickly, much appreciated. They perform exceptionally well and I was extremely impressed with them. The screen shots you see above are from a shared memory graphics card and I got no lag or stuttering when running through the maps. :)

Basically the following few weeks will see us start texturing our heightmaps for the game world and start populating all the areas with Foliage and Settlements. We are also going to start finalising and implementing the combat system as well as the encounter spawning system. :)

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