Plan for Justin Mette
by Justin Mette · 09/08/2001 (6:54 am) · 2 comments
How exciting! The first week of development on Myrmidon has passed and the crew at 21-6 Productions has made great progress. On the organizational side of things, we have posted ads for artists and designers and received some great responses in just the first week. We are proud to announce that Derek Halvorsen and Jim Perry have been added to the ranks of 21-6 to help realize the Myrmidon project. We are still looking for another artist and writer, so please keep the responses coming! We will be deciding on the final two positions in the next week.
Now that we have a schedule to work from, I will be reporting progress on the scheduled tasks for this phase.
Camera System
Justin has pretty much wrapped up the first and third person cameras (pending any bugs). This week, he added the following features:
[+] Ability to use the mouse for updates to the camera orientation. This "camera mouse mode" can be toggled on or off.
[+] All new "head" camera, whereas the head of the player model is controlled by the player and the camera follows the head around as it rotates hence the ability to "look around". The player can toggle between the "head" and "orbit" camera.
[+] Fixed the camera animation routines to use the engine "simulation time" instead of real time so that the camera movements will work in recorded demo's or journal's. Thank Tim Gift for the suggestion!
[+] Fixed the "editor (drop) camera" which was broken when the new camera system was integrated last week.
Compass HUD Control
Dave finished up the compass control this week. The big change was how the offset into the compass bitmap was being calculated. This change eliminated the "slow down" effect experience near quadrant edges in the older algorithm.
Design Forums
Topics discussed this week include more detail on how a Myrmidon looks, the timeline for the game, and some ideas for weapons. We expect design to pick up when the new designer/writer position is filled.
Development Environment
A great deal of time (and pain) was expended this week on getting our SourceSafe database securely centralized for all script and engine developers. We had been evaluating SourceSafe Offsite (Internet front-end for SS), but the cost of $250 per developer seemed a bit excessive. So, we are trying a more unconventional approach and it seems to be working well (and will only end up costing $30 a head).
Of course, the Visual Studio 6.0 IDE is what we use for engine development. Tribal IDE is mostly used for scripts. Since the first artist position has just been filled, we are still deciding on a some of the tools to be used for the visual aspects of development. We will most likely use the popular set of tools: 3D Studio Max v4, Worldcraft, and in-game editors.
Dynamic Mission Elements
Justin has been assigned to this task and has started to investigate how missions are defined and where in the engine dynamic modifications can made.
Inner Lobby
Ryan updated the look and feel of Myrmidon this week with updates to the main menu, loading screen, an all new Inner Lobby screen, and a player list HUD control (activated with F2). How refreshing it is to see "Myrmidon" and new graphics instead of V12 Test App!
Updates to the main menu and loading screen included: new background image, new button graphics, new color scheme, always start a multiplayer mission, and join by IP address. Features of the new Inner Lobby include: F3 to activate, general mission information, player list, and chatting (shared with HUD chat messages).
Mission: "Research Station"
A new mission was created based on the Scorched Earth mission provided with the V12 Test Application. All "interiors" and water elements were removed and the terrain was flattened. This acts as a starting place (and playground) for building the first Myrmidon mission, called Research Station.
Options Dialog
Ryan has been assigned the task of implementing the options dialog for Myr. He is going to start by looking through the T2 options dialog for common elements, like graphics options, that can be quickly ported over. There will also be new options available that are specific to Phase One of Myr, like camera control (speed, mode, etc).
Player Model
Derek has started visualizing and sketching up some ideas for the Myrmidon Soldier class. We are all very much looking forward to seeing what a Myrmidon looks like! After a general look is established for a Myrmidon Soldier class, Derek will start the process of modeling the character and incorporating it into the game.
Player Selection
Dave made some great progress this week on the ability to identify which player (if any) was underneath the cursor when the left mouse button is clicked on the PlayGui (3D view) screen. This technology will be used to "select" objects in the game using the mouse pointer. The remaining steps to complete this requirement include tracking object selection, visually identifying the 3d model that is selected, displaying the name of the selected object on the HUD, and implementing keyboard selection: next, previous, and closest player.
Now that we have a schedule to work from, I will be reporting progress on the scheduled tasks for this phase.
Camera System
Justin has pretty much wrapped up the first and third person cameras (pending any bugs). This week, he added the following features:
[+] Ability to use the mouse for updates to the camera orientation. This "camera mouse mode" can be toggled on or off.
[+] All new "head" camera, whereas the head of the player model is controlled by the player and the camera follows the head around as it rotates hence the ability to "look around". The player can toggle between the "head" and "orbit" camera.
[+] Fixed the camera animation routines to use the engine "simulation time" instead of real time so that the camera movements will work in recorded demo's or journal's. Thank Tim Gift for the suggestion!
[+] Fixed the "editor (drop) camera" which was broken when the new camera system was integrated last week.
Compass HUD Control
Dave finished up the compass control this week. The big change was how the offset into the compass bitmap was being calculated. This change eliminated the "slow down" effect experience near quadrant edges in the older algorithm.
Design Forums
Topics discussed this week include more detail on how a Myrmidon looks, the timeline for the game, and some ideas for weapons. We expect design to pick up when the new designer/writer position is filled.
Development Environment
A great deal of time (and pain) was expended this week on getting our SourceSafe database securely centralized for all script and engine developers. We had been evaluating SourceSafe Offsite (Internet front-end for SS), but the cost of $250 per developer seemed a bit excessive. So, we are trying a more unconventional approach and it seems to be working well (and will only end up costing $30 a head).
Of course, the Visual Studio 6.0 IDE is what we use for engine development. Tribal IDE is mostly used for scripts. Since the first artist position has just been filled, we are still deciding on a some of the tools to be used for the visual aspects of development. We will most likely use the popular set of tools: 3D Studio Max v4, Worldcraft, and in-game editors.
Dynamic Mission Elements
Justin has been assigned to this task and has started to investigate how missions are defined and where in the engine dynamic modifications can made.
Inner Lobby
Ryan updated the look and feel of Myrmidon this week with updates to the main menu, loading screen, an all new Inner Lobby screen, and a player list HUD control (activated with F2). How refreshing it is to see "Myrmidon" and new graphics instead of V12 Test App!
Updates to the main menu and loading screen included: new background image, new button graphics, new color scheme, always start a multiplayer mission, and join by IP address. Features of the new Inner Lobby include: F3 to activate, general mission information, player list, and chatting (shared with HUD chat messages).
Mission: "Research Station"
A new mission was created based on the Scorched Earth mission provided with the V12 Test Application. All "interiors" and water elements were removed and the terrain was flattened. This acts as a starting place (and playground) for building the first Myrmidon mission, called Research Station.
Options Dialog
Ryan has been assigned the task of implementing the options dialog for Myr. He is going to start by looking through the T2 options dialog for common elements, like graphics options, that can be quickly ported over. There will also be new options available that are specific to Phase One of Myr, like camera control (speed, mode, etc).
Player Model
Derek has started visualizing and sketching up some ideas for the Myrmidon Soldier class. We are all very much looking forward to seeing what a Myrmidon looks like! After a general look is established for a Myrmidon Soldier class, Derek will start the process of modeling the character and incorporating it into the game.
Player Selection
Dave made some great progress this week on the ability to identify which player (if any) was underneath the cursor when the left mouse button is clicked on the PlayGui (3D view) screen. This technology will be used to "select" objects in the game using the mouse pointer. The remaining steps to complete this requirement include tracking object selection, visually identifying the 3d model that is selected, displaying the name of the selected object on the HUD, and implementing keyboard selection: next, previous, and closest player.
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#2
09/08/2001 (6:41 pm)
Tim, thanks for the encouragement! The team is really making great strides early on and we owe most of that to Garage Games. For the first time in years of attempting to build a game, do we feel we actually have a solid chance at success. 
Torque Owner Tim Gift