MMORPG Contest - Week 2
by Tony Richards · 11/15/2006 (1:12 am) · 7 comments
I took the weekend off to go up-state for a bit of relaxation, so I didn't get as much accomplished as I'd like, but we all still made some decent progress.
I've made a decent amount of progress on the first character models and first couple of buildings... I'm spending more time on them because I'm still trying to set the tone for the rest of the game. Once the first models are finished then it'll be pretty easy to copy / paste / modify the rest of them.
The art pipeline is pretty much finalized... Quark for buildings, using content packs as a source of textures, then using Blender for item and character creation. Some items we'll be taking from content packs, but mostly we're creating them from scratch.
For character models, I'm using MakeHuman, then running the models through some scripts that I've written that automatically take the MH .obj and converts it into a Blender model with the appropriate LOD / model heirarchy for exporting via Torque. It takes a few hours to convert a model and clean it up (the LOD creation isn't perfect), but the result is as good looking as a professional modeler could do in a few weeks.
Animating them is a bit more, but I'm using armatures that I've already created some animations for a different game, so hopefully those will be a drop-in.... crosses fingers
For characters, the only two things I've not finalized the pipeline is clothing creation and texturing... rigid items like armor and helmets are easy enough, but the cloth-based items aren't quite as easy to create and have them look good.... we'll get it figured out soon enough, though.
I'll post screenshots once they're closer to being finalized... hopefully next week for buildings and the following week for a couple of main characters.
In the mean-time... we're developing a website that will allow the game designers to start entering the data portions of the data-driven world. This will allow even the non-coders to add content, tweak settings, etc.
We're also in the process of switching to a new database schema (not the MMO Kit one... it's not bad, but it doesn't exactly fit our game) and creating the code to utilize the new data structures.
Anyways... back to the fun stuff....
I've made a decent amount of progress on the first character models and first couple of buildings... I'm spending more time on them because I'm still trying to set the tone for the rest of the game. Once the first models are finished then it'll be pretty easy to copy / paste / modify the rest of them.
The art pipeline is pretty much finalized... Quark for buildings, using content packs as a source of textures, then using Blender for item and character creation. Some items we'll be taking from content packs, but mostly we're creating them from scratch.
For character models, I'm using MakeHuman, then running the models through some scripts that I've written that automatically take the MH .obj and converts it into a Blender model with the appropriate LOD / model heirarchy for exporting via Torque. It takes a few hours to convert a model and clean it up (the LOD creation isn't perfect), but the result is as good looking as a professional modeler could do in a few weeks.
Animating them is a bit more, but I'm using armatures that I've already created some animations for a different game, so hopefully those will be a drop-in.... crosses fingers
For characters, the only two things I've not finalized the pipeline is clothing creation and texturing... rigid items like armor and helmets are easy enough, but the cloth-based items aren't quite as easy to create and have them look good.... we'll get it figured out soon enough, though.
I'll post screenshots once they're closer to being finalized... hopefully next week for buildings and the following week for a couple of main characters.
In the mean-time... we're developing a website that will allow the game designers to start entering the data portions of the data-driven world. This will allow even the non-coders to add content, tweak settings, etc.
We're also in the process of switching to a new database schema (not the MMO Kit one... it's not bad, but it doesn't exactly fit our game) and creating the code to utilize the new data structures.
Anyways... back to the fun stuff....
About the author
I am the founder of IndieZen.org, a website dedicated to the Indie 2.0 Revolution where a number of Indie game development studios and individuals collaborate and share a suite of custom built open source game development tools and middleware.
#2
11/15/2006 (5:32 pm)
I like the screenshot. That is very easy to understand and should allow you guys to get alot accomplished. Good luck. 
#3
When I have free time I'm trying to learn how to model people in blender from 2d images and still plan on doing that so I can know how but am interested in makehuman as well
11/15/2006 (9:25 pm)
I would like to hear more about make human, I was lookign at that last week and was wondering how exactly it worked. If my quick read was right it loads up a model and you can then tweak it so you can make them all look as different people. How easy is it to get a handle on for making one and putting it in torque?When I have free time I'm trying to learn how to model people in blender from 2d images and still plan on doing that so I can know how but am interested in makehuman as well
#4
11/16/2006 (4:23 am)
I tell you what J, I really like MH, especially the newest version .09. If your press for time. You can come up with some unique characters in no time. unLike Tony-(whos method sounds better than mines) I use a entirely different method to convert those high-poly models to useable game models. I load them into Milkshape as Obj. and rebuild them using Ben Mathis technique. I use 8-sided cylinders primitive and wrap and shape them around the limbs. In about a hour of decent wrapping, tweaking and shaping I have a new body built from low-poly cyclinders. Then I delete the high poly obj model and rig it the old fashion way. Slow maybe but it works for me.
#5
I'ld be willing to pay good money to learn that trick.
BTW I'm watching this blog carefully and it puts a big smile on my face to see you making so much progress.
Incredible work man!
Regards,
Dreamer
11/16/2006 (5:06 pm)
Holy cow! You found a way to get MH into TGE/TSE?I'ld be willing to pay good money to learn that trick.
BTW I'm watching this blog carefully and it puts a big smile on my face to see you making so much progress.
Incredible work man!
Regards,
Dreamer
#6
I jsut brought the TGE 1.5 and MMokit last friday, and have played with it the hole weekend. This engine and the MMo kit is really nice and very easy to use it seems :)
But i just wanted to tell you that i have your blogs on my RSS feeds og my desktopsidebar so i follow close :)
Keep up the good posting :)
11/20/2006 (8:08 am)
I like to follow our weekly posts too, very interresting.I jsut brought the TGE 1.5 and MMokit last friday, and have played with it the hole weekend. This engine and the MMo kit is really nice and very easy to use it seems :)
But i just wanted to tell you that i have your blogs on my RSS feeds og my desktopsidebar so i follow close :)
Keep up the good posting :)
Torque 3D Owner Rodney (OldRod) Burns
Look forward to each week's installments :)