First blog entry...?
by Daniel Buckmaster · 08/07/2007 (9:50 am) · 4 comments
This isn't actually my first blog entry. You see, I wrote one last night. It was the blog entry to end all blog entries, and it was so damn long that my eyes bled when I looked at it. Then I hit 'Submit', and it got eaten by the computer. Now my computer has taken responsibility for its actions and suffered duly, and I am revising my first-blog-to-end-all-blogs to something more short and less eye-straining.
So, this is my first submitted blog entry. Whoopdedoo. Hi, I'm Daniel, I'm a student in Antwerp and I use Torque in my spare time. Now enough of that. Let's get to the fun bit!
As some of you who frequent the forums here may have noticed, I just posted my first resource (whoopdedoo). It's a new class, BasicShape, that is what ShapeBase should have been. You see, when you want shapes in your world that are static, you have two options. You can use StaticShape, which carries around a huge amount of overhead inherited from ShapeBase, or you can use TSStatic, which can't use datablocks, can't process ticks, etc. I figured there has to be some half way, a measure between functionality and performance. Turns out there wasn't, so I created one.
As I'm just beginning to code in the engine, it was implemented pretty simply. I read through fxRenderObject (exceedingly useful), TSStatic (not so useful but still instructive), and figured out which elements were needed for each. BasicShape is the result of these efforts, incorporating code from both classes. So it inherits from GameBase, can display a simple shape, will collide with things, and uses a datablock. Awesome.
What's the downside? Well, it was coded by a noob, so it's not perfect. About five minutes after posting the resource, I had some help optimising it - which I appreciated, don't get me wrong. I want to learn all I can, and for other newbies like me, I highly reccomend diving in there and doing stuff.
In other news, I also hacked up the GuiCrossHairHud code. The default crosshair will, when pointed at a ShapeBase object, display a cute little readout showing you its precise health level. This is a bad thing. I'm all against hardcoded functionality, and this is hardcoded functionality at its worst. Especially since my current project (see below) is going for a 'realistic' feel - which does not include knowing the precise health of any object you care to look at.
So I cut out the bits that rendered the health, and then I had an idea. After looking over the advanced crosshair resource, I added in some of my own modifications - namely, a system that fires off script callbacks when different objects come under the crosshair. Think of Morrowind, when you point your crosshair at an object and you get a little message box telling you what it is. That's what I'll be using this for. Wrench your mind out of Morrowind and remember Halo's system for taking weapons - when you get close to one, you get a message at the top of your HUD saying 'Press E to take whatever'. Now picture a merge of the two systems. I want to do all interactions this way - taking weapons and ammo, opening doors, boarding vehicles, the list goes on. All wired through my handy crosshair system. Whoopdedoo.
Now, I mentioned above that I had a project going. Indeed I do. The long and short of it is that it's going to be a FPS based on the Warhammer 40,000 IP. Fire Warrior was lousy, IMO - not the game itself, but the way the IP was portrayed. I mean, come on, is it plausible that a single Fire Warrior, on his first day out no less, is able to take out hordes of Chaos Marines and Daemons? Please.
So we (myself and a few buddies doing artwork) are going for a more true-to-tabletop game. Battles will be just that - not a standard FPS romp where you shoot everything in sight except your legs (when they aren't invisible...), but an actual engagement between opposing armies. Scores of infantry, tanks, and monsters; artillery barrages and air strikes; psychic powers and special abilities. Wholesale destruction like nothing you've ever seen. Well, maybe you saw it in DoW, but that's another bone to pick. Is it plausible that, after being hit in the face with a Prism Cannon and tossed twenty feet through the air, a lowly Ork stands back up and keeps running?
The hell it is!
So, upon this concept we based a few gameplay features. I won't disclose them unless you ask really, really nicely, but they're awesome. Six playable races, six playable campaigns, create characters that gain experience and rank, take orders or command your own squad, pilot vehicles, become a powerful psyker, you name it and we want to include it!
Anyway, that's what's been going down. See youse all next blog. If you computer doesn't get hungry again.
So, this is my first submitted blog entry. Whoopdedoo. Hi, I'm Daniel, I'm a student in Antwerp and I use Torque in my spare time. Now enough of that. Let's get to the fun bit!
As some of you who frequent the forums here may have noticed, I just posted my first resource (whoopdedoo). It's a new class, BasicShape, that is what ShapeBase should have been. You see, when you want shapes in your world that are static, you have two options. You can use StaticShape, which carries around a huge amount of overhead inherited from ShapeBase, or you can use TSStatic, which can't use datablocks, can't process ticks, etc. I figured there has to be some half way, a measure between functionality and performance. Turns out there wasn't, so I created one.
As I'm just beginning to code in the engine, it was implemented pretty simply. I read through fxRenderObject (exceedingly useful), TSStatic (not so useful but still instructive), and figured out which elements were needed for each. BasicShape is the result of these efforts, incorporating code from both classes. So it inherits from GameBase, can display a simple shape, will collide with things, and uses a datablock. Awesome.
What's the downside? Well, it was coded by a noob, so it's not perfect. About five minutes after posting the resource, I had some help optimising it - which I appreciated, don't get me wrong. I want to learn all I can, and for other newbies like me, I highly reccomend diving in there and doing stuff.
In other news, I also hacked up the GuiCrossHairHud code. The default crosshair will, when pointed at a ShapeBase object, display a cute little readout showing you its precise health level. This is a bad thing. I'm all against hardcoded functionality, and this is hardcoded functionality at its worst. Especially since my current project (see below) is going for a 'realistic' feel - which does not include knowing the precise health of any object you care to look at.
So I cut out the bits that rendered the health, and then I had an idea. After looking over the advanced crosshair resource, I added in some of my own modifications - namely, a system that fires off script callbacks when different objects come under the crosshair. Think of Morrowind, when you point your crosshair at an object and you get a little message box telling you what it is. That's what I'll be using this for. Wrench your mind out of Morrowind and remember Halo's system for taking weapons - when you get close to one, you get a message at the top of your HUD saying 'Press E to take whatever'. Now picture a merge of the two systems. I want to do all interactions this way - taking weapons and ammo, opening doors, boarding vehicles, the list goes on. All wired through my handy crosshair system. Whoopdedoo.
Now, I mentioned above that I had a project going. Indeed I do. The long and short of it is that it's going to be a FPS based on the Warhammer 40,000 IP. Fire Warrior was lousy, IMO - not the game itself, but the way the IP was portrayed. I mean, come on, is it plausible that a single Fire Warrior, on his first day out no less, is able to take out hordes of Chaos Marines and Daemons? Please.
So we (myself and a few buddies doing artwork) are going for a more true-to-tabletop game. Battles will be just that - not a standard FPS romp where you shoot everything in sight except your legs (when they aren't invisible...), but an actual engagement between opposing armies. Scores of infantry, tanks, and monsters; artillery barrages and air strikes; psychic powers and special abilities. Wholesale destruction like nothing you've ever seen. Well, maybe you saw it in DoW, but that's another bone to pick. Is it plausible that, after being hit in the face with a Prism Cannon and tossed twenty feet through the air, a lowly Ork stands back up and keeps running?
The hell it is!
So, upon this concept we based a few gameplay features. I won't disclose them unless you ask really, really nicely, but they're awesome. Six playable races, six playable campaigns, create characters that gain experience and rank, take orders or command your own squad, pilot vehicles, become a powerful psyker, you name it and we want to include it!
Anyway, that's what's been going down. See youse all next blog. If you computer doesn't get hungry again.
About the author
#2
08/07/2007 (2:03 pm)
Agreeing with Gareth, it would be smarter to just borrow ideas that you like from Warhammer and put together your own original setting. 
#3
So in all likelihood, get permission before hand or create a similar unique world.
08/07/2007 (2:44 pm)
Most definitely would be. I use to run a gaming network about 8 years ago, and in addition to running our own sites we offered free web hosting to people who wanted to dedicate a site to any of the games that we covered. We had three different hosted sites who tried to do mods for existing games using commercial IPs. In two of the cases they were shut down by the parties who owned the properties. In one case one of the parties (Universal Studios) threatened to sue us as the hosting provider, and they stayed on that for a couple of months, even after we cut the other sites hosting they still were threatening to sue us. The only mod that wound up being given permission and going on was the Star Wars mod for Total Annihilation. So in all likelihood, get permission before hand or create a similar unique world.
#4
And if this falls through, I have a great idea for a Tribes-style game!...
:P
08/08/2007 (7:18 pm)
Yeah, should have mentioned. I checked GW's policy on games/mods at the very beginning, and I also emailed them. It was fine with the guy I talked to, so I just went from there. But there seem to have ben some changes in GW's handling of IP (Damnatus...), so I might have to double-check.And if this falls through, I have a great idea for a Tribes-style game!...
:P
Torque 3D Owner Gareth Fouche