Warscale - Equipment Editor (w/shots)
by Guimo · 08/07/2008 (5:59 pm) · 3 comments
Hi all you enduring people reading these blogs!
One more week, more progress made.
This is the blog number 14 in this series. Considering that I was working for a month before starting and there was a week where I didnt write a blog, about 20 weeks have passed since I started this project. This means that I only have 4 weeks remaining for the 24 weeks I projected for the first version and there is still a lot of work to do.
What was planned
Equipment Editor
Well, this week I focused on the Equipment editor and it came along nicely. A lot of the code written for the Army editor was reused for this one. I had a bad time trying to decide how to present the objects. On the end I decided to show the avatar at full body and allow the users to rotate the model by using the mouse. That way you will be able to see how your avatar will appear in the game. Also you get the list of all the items so you can see all your bonuses gained from the different magic items.
The Equipment editor allows you to select the items you will use and mounts and unmounts the objects in the appropiate nodes. For example if you pick a sword it will get mounted in the right hand. If you pick a second sword or an axe it will get mounted in the left hand. If you pick a third weapon, the one in the right hand will get changed. If you pick a shield it will drop the weapon in the right hand and so on. This editor will get more refined as new equipment is added. For now it works.
In-Game avatar equipment
With a working equipment editor, I needed to update the network code so it supports loading the selected equipment and place it on the avatar. This was already supported for the army units but the behaviour is different for the avatar because while the models have a fixed number of equipment, the player can select his own equipment for the avatar. This equipment selection is handled by the server and passed to all the players so that each client knows about the equipment and abilities of the opponent avatars.
What wasnt planned
Bye bye Kork... I will never forget you...
I decided to drop the good old Kork and use the awesome MACK pack from BrokeAss Games. the pack has everything I need and it allows me to customize any portion of the avatar clothing by showing and hiding meshes and changing the mesh textures. That way I can setup robes, armor, boots, gauntlets, and other armor portions. Add to the mix a really vast number of nodes and I can mount helmets, crowns, swords, rings. A really wide number of choices. Amazing.
Enhanced guiObjectView control
In order to make the MACK work with the editors, I needed to implement new features in the guiObjectView control. The objectview control now supports the meshon/meshoff functions allowing to show or hide meshes (or making a mesh completely invisible while still being loaded) and supports the improved setSkinName function allowing to change the textures on mesh groups. In the future I have planned to add particle emitters to this control.
Miscellaneous
Another thing that wasnt planned were various minor corrections and enhancements to the Army Editor, like sorting the grid controls, better behaviour when clicking the units and when the mouse moves over the grids... all those minor details that make the game polihed.
Screenshot!
This screenshot shows the current state of the editor. You can see your collection of items, the selected ones and the avatar with the current equipment.
The funny startrek-style colors in the habit are the result of forcing the orc shield texture on the habit just to try reskinning. It works perfectly.
This second image shows the model with a plate.
Everthing is WIP so expect better shots in the future.
The plan for this week
More equipment
Now that the equipment editor is falling in place, I need to add more and more equipment. I plan to add at least 20 equipments this week including boots, swords, shields, leg and arm protectors, robes, cloaks and more.
Model store
Even when the army and equipment editors allow for buying models, I need an straightforward way to buy and sell models and equipment you no longer need for some cash back. The model store will allow for this kind of transactions. Basically you get 75% of the item price each time you sell a model back to the game. (Yes... the remaining 25% is the way to cover server expenses). I was considering item prices to range from 50 gold pieces (about US$0.05) to 20000 gold (US$20) but I'm still ballancing the game economy.
Action tracking system
I need to print all the actions executed by the players in the small box in the game so when a player plays or moves something it gets as a history of the game.
Thats all for this week.
Luck with your projects!
Guimo
One more week, more progress made.
This is the blog number 14 in this series. Considering that I was working for a month before starting and there was a week where I didnt write a blog, about 20 weeks have passed since I started this project. This means that I only have 4 weeks remaining for the 24 weeks I projected for the first version and there is still a lot of work to do.
What was planned
Equipment Editor
Well, this week I focused on the Equipment editor and it came along nicely. A lot of the code written for the Army editor was reused for this one. I had a bad time trying to decide how to present the objects. On the end I decided to show the avatar at full body and allow the users to rotate the model by using the mouse. That way you will be able to see how your avatar will appear in the game. Also you get the list of all the items so you can see all your bonuses gained from the different magic items.
The Equipment editor allows you to select the items you will use and mounts and unmounts the objects in the appropiate nodes. For example if you pick a sword it will get mounted in the right hand. If you pick a second sword or an axe it will get mounted in the left hand. If you pick a third weapon, the one in the right hand will get changed. If you pick a shield it will drop the weapon in the right hand and so on. This editor will get more refined as new equipment is added. For now it works.
In-Game avatar equipment
With a working equipment editor, I needed to update the network code so it supports loading the selected equipment and place it on the avatar. This was already supported for the army units but the behaviour is different for the avatar because while the models have a fixed number of equipment, the player can select his own equipment for the avatar. This equipment selection is handled by the server and passed to all the players so that each client knows about the equipment and abilities of the opponent avatars.
What wasnt planned
Bye bye Kork... I will never forget you...
I decided to drop the good old Kork and use the awesome MACK pack from BrokeAss Games. the pack has everything I need and it allows me to customize any portion of the avatar clothing by showing and hiding meshes and changing the mesh textures. That way I can setup robes, armor, boots, gauntlets, and other armor portions. Add to the mix a really vast number of nodes and I can mount helmets, crowns, swords, rings. A really wide number of choices. Amazing.
Enhanced guiObjectView control
In order to make the MACK work with the editors, I needed to implement new features in the guiObjectView control. The objectview control now supports the meshon/meshoff functions allowing to show or hide meshes (or making a mesh completely invisible while still being loaded) and supports the improved setSkinName function allowing to change the textures on mesh groups. In the future I have planned to add particle emitters to this control.
Miscellaneous
Another thing that wasnt planned were various minor corrections and enhancements to the Army Editor, like sorting the grid controls, better behaviour when clicking the units and when the mouse moves over the grids... all those minor details that make the game polihed.
Screenshot!
This screenshot shows the current state of the editor. You can see your collection of items, the selected ones and the avatar with the current equipment.
The funny startrek-style colors in the habit are the result of forcing the orc shield texture on the habit just to try reskinning. It works perfectly.
This second image shows the model with a plate.
Everthing is WIP so expect better shots in the future.
The plan for this week
More equipment
Now that the equipment editor is falling in place, I need to add more and more equipment. I plan to add at least 20 equipments this week including boots, swords, shields, leg and arm protectors, robes, cloaks and more.
Model store
Even when the army and equipment editors allow for buying models, I need an straightforward way to buy and sell models and equipment you no longer need for some cash back. The model store will allow for this kind of transactions. Basically you get 75% of the item price each time you sell a model back to the game. (Yes... the remaining 25% is the way to cover server expenses). I was considering item prices to range from 50 gold pieces (about US$0.05) to 20000 gold (US$20) but I'm still ballancing the game economy.
Action tracking system
I need to print all the actions executed by the players in the small box in the game so when a player plays or moves something it gets as a history of the game.
Thats all for this week.
Luck with your projects!
Guimo
Torque Owner Charin