New Year, New Packs and New WIP...and a lot of Screens...
by Alan James · 01/10/2010 (7:09 pm) · 29 comments
Hey Everybody! Happy New Year!
Thought it was about time to let everyone know what I've been up to and what's planned next.
Kyle was home from the Navy for a couple weeks in late December, so that was great to have him around and spend some time with him. I'm very proud of him and he's doing great.
He has lofty plans of being involved with the space program or advanced AI research, and as motivated and singular in drive and purpose I really believe he'll reach his goals.
We picked up the binary version of T3D for Joshua, since I'd believed the offer to be expiring the end of December, it's a little heavy for his system, but we'll get him all upgraded soon enough. I really want set him up with T2D, but that'll have to wait 'til next month. I think he'll take to that much better and do some cool stuff. I've got my own ideas in the back of my head regarding some content work for it also, so that ought to work out well.
I'm just hours worth of work away from completing actually three different content packs. The first one is the "Flower Power" Pack. It was originally intended as a add on to the "Sticks & Twigs" Pack, but it evolved into a companion piece with something like 28 flowers models, nearly 40 plant models, 28 new trees, vines, moss, rocks, all with 3-5 LOD levels and ambient animations (at least the plants...the rocks just sit there). Should work fine with all three flavors of the Torque engines since it's all DTS objects, but probably only the T3D level will have a half dozen to dozen demo levels. It is just WAY too much work for one person to manage supporting all three flavors.
The second I've been working on for a while, I've finally settled on naming it the "Gold Mine" Pack. It's a bunch of interconnectable mine sections with companion assets (explosive crates, barrels, lanterns, barricades, lamps, etc). I really like how it's turned out. It's primarily for T3D, but there's actually no reason it shouldn't work with TGEA either (it will include DIFs also, but for TGE there's no guarantee).
The third is a "Destruction & Damage" Building Pack. It's one of the ones that I don't have any screenshots of today, since the models are complete, but I haven't set up any demo levels yet to show them off.
I'm part of the way through work on the "Caves & Caverns" Content Pack. I don't have a solid ETA for it, but I have included a few screens below. I think it will turn out well.
For those of you who are interested, I haven't forgotten about the "SciFi Construction Kit". I began some conversion tests back late last year and have discovered that I have the proper tools to convert from a .MAP to LOD'd DTS objects in about a fifteen minute process. Now it's just a matter of time to get all of the assets converted and exported to a proper scale for TGEA & T3D. Stay tuned for more info on that in Feb. or March. I'll be utilizing the process on some of the smaller assets for the "Ancient Empires: Persia" Pack, although I'm pretty happy with the LOD setup on the main models, and I've not gleaned any great performance with the new pipeline anyway.
So without further ado, I though I'd post some screens of this stuff. I had a lot of trouble deciding which ones, so...as usual there are a lot! =)
What can I say? Thanks again if you've read this far, and watch very soon for these new packs! (Like this month, almost for sure...) They'll be available on www.monsterpacks.com, so be ready to check them out!
Alan
So I figured I'd start off with the "Flower Power" Pack:
Next are a few from the "Gold Mine" Pack. I'll try and post some videos at the time of the release of the packs, but stills of this one in particular don't really do it justice:
Here are a few from the WIP on the "Caves & Caverns" Pack:
Here are a few from stuff I've done using the "Ancient Empires:Persia" Pack:
Finally here are a few from the updated DTS/Collada Models in the "SciFi Construction Kit":
Thanks for checking it all out and I'll post soon as the Packs go up! Yeah!
Alan
Thought it was about time to let everyone know what I've been up to and what's planned next.
Kyle was home from the Navy for a couple weeks in late December, so that was great to have him around and spend some time with him. I'm very proud of him and he's doing great.
He has lofty plans of being involved with the space program or advanced AI research, and as motivated and singular in drive and purpose I really believe he'll reach his goals.
We picked up the binary version of T3D for Joshua, since I'd believed the offer to be expiring the end of December, it's a little heavy for his system, but we'll get him all upgraded soon enough. I really want set him up with T2D, but that'll have to wait 'til next month. I think he'll take to that much better and do some cool stuff. I've got my own ideas in the back of my head regarding some content work for it also, so that ought to work out well.
I'm just hours worth of work away from completing actually three different content packs. The first one is the "Flower Power" Pack. It was originally intended as a add on to the "Sticks & Twigs" Pack, but it evolved into a companion piece with something like 28 flowers models, nearly 40 plant models, 28 new trees, vines, moss, rocks, all with 3-5 LOD levels and ambient animations (at least the plants...the rocks just sit there). Should work fine with all three flavors of the Torque engines since it's all DTS objects, but probably only the T3D level will have a half dozen to dozen demo levels. It is just WAY too much work for one person to manage supporting all three flavors.
The second I've been working on for a while, I've finally settled on naming it the "Gold Mine" Pack. It's a bunch of interconnectable mine sections with companion assets (explosive crates, barrels, lanterns, barricades, lamps, etc). I really like how it's turned out. It's primarily for T3D, but there's actually no reason it shouldn't work with TGEA either (it will include DIFs also, but for TGE there's no guarantee).
The third is a "Destruction & Damage" Building Pack. It's one of the ones that I don't have any screenshots of today, since the models are complete, but I haven't set up any demo levels yet to show them off.
I'm part of the way through work on the "Caves & Caverns" Content Pack. I don't have a solid ETA for it, but I have included a few screens below. I think it will turn out well.
For those of you who are interested, I haven't forgotten about the "SciFi Construction Kit". I began some conversion tests back late last year and have discovered that I have the proper tools to convert from a .MAP to LOD'd DTS objects in about a fifteen minute process. Now it's just a matter of time to get all of the assets converted and exported to a proper scale for TGEA & T3D. Stay tuned for more info on that in Feb. or March. I'll be utilizing the process on some of the smaller assets for the "Ancient Empires: Persia" Pack, although I'm pretty happy with the LOD setup on the main models, and I've not gleaned any great performance with the new pipeline anyway.
So without further ado, I though I'd post some screens of this stuff. I had a lot of trouble deciding which ones, so...as usual there are a lot! =)
What can I say? Thanks again if you've read this far, and watch very soon for these new packs! (Like this month, almost for sure...) They'll be available on www.monsterpacks.com, so be ready to check them out!
Alan
So I figured I'd start off with the "Flower Power" Pack:
Next are a few from the "Gold Mine" Pack. I'll try and post some videos at the time of the release of the packs, but stills of this one in particular don't really do it justice:
Here are a few from the WIP on the "Caves & Caverns" Pack:
Here are a few from stuff I've done using the "Ancient Empires:Persia" Pack:
Finally here are a few from the updated DTS/Collada Models in the "SciFi Construction Kit":
Thanks for checking it all out and I'll post soon as the Packs go up! Yeah!
Alan
About the author
#3
great work as always Alan
01/10/2010 (7:29 pm)
Wooo ya there are some great packs in that lot i will be diffently gettinggreat work as always Alan
#4
01/10/2010 (8:05 pm)
EPIC! I thought I was looking at Crysis on those last couple of jungle screens :p 
#5
01/10/2010 (8:23 pm)
I agree with scooby! Amazing art job, keep up the great work! 
#6
01/10/2010 (8:23 pm)
Amazing stuff Alan! Love it!
#7
allt he pakcs look good i just like that one the best. :P
01/10/2010 (9:14 pm)
i like the fairy type flower imgs with the blue and green glowing plants looks real cool. :Pallt he pakcs look good i just like that one the best. :P
#9
01/10/2010 (9:44 pm)
haha, those green lit jungle shots remind me of Avatar XD 
#11
01/11/2010 (3:55 am)
Videos required! 
#12
01/11/2010 (3:57 am)
Wow Alan, as always your work is simply stunning. 
#13
01/11/2010 (6:42 am)
Great stuff as always, Alan! Wow, Kyle's plans are very cool too! 
#15
01/11/2010 (10:29 am)
Very nice! 
#17
01/11/2010 (10:57 am)
very good as always !! 
#18
01/11/2010 (11:44 am)
I'm impressed!
#19
Really appreciate the positive encouragement around here!
It's gotten more competitive in some ways out there, but I always figure that if folks know stuff works in the engine and can see that it does, there will always be a place for that kind of content. =)
Oh, and yes...I was thinking a bit of Avatar when I was messing around with the materials script and some of the textures on that one level. =P
@Konrad
Yes, Kyle will hopefully be able to accomplish even a portion of the many goals he's set out to reach.
What's funny is a couple of years ago we'd been discussing what would be necessary to produce a autonomous "thinking & learning" program and so I sketched out a flowchart of a distributed collecting, compiling and cataloging program using as a backbone the internet and dispersed computing power and archiving. Similar to the Seti program. It was based on giving certain sources greater relevance in an accuracy percentage grading, i.e., straight encyclopedia sources a bit higher that wiki sources...with forum sources being lowest on the chart =). The program would be designed to compare sources, associations and content and weigh the results, while being able to access the various distributed "nodes" and formulate an "opinion" based on the data.
Then about a year and a half later we read an article describing virtually the same design, that noted the only real limiting factor in it being implemented was the speed of the internet itself.
Kyle became convinced that very strong AI was within the realm of possibilities within his lifetime, so he's headed down that road with an electronics technician training and saving/making a bunch of money for college later on.
The greatest think a parent can see is their children accomplishing more and reaching farther than they ever did or could.
Thanks again all!
01/11/2010 (1:43 pm)
Hey everyone! Really appreciate the positive encouragement around here!
It's gotten more competitive in some ways out there, but I always figure that if folks know stuff works in the engine and can see that it does, there will always be a place for that kind of content. =)
Oh, and yes...I was thinking a bit of Avatar when I was messing around with the materials script and some of the textures on that one level. =P
@Konrad
Yes, Kyle will hopefully be able to accomplish even a portion of the many goals he's set out to reach.
What's funny is a couple of years ago we'd been discussing what would be necessary to produce a autonomous "thinking & learning" program and so I sketched out a flowchart of a distributed collecting, compiling and cataloging program using as a backbone the internet and dispersed computing power and archiving. Similar to the Seti program. It was based on giving certain sources greater relevance in an accuracy percentage grading, i.e., straight encyclopedia sources a bit higher that wiki sources...with forum sources being lowest on the chart =). The program would be designed to compare sources, associations and content and weigh the results, while being able to access the various distributed "nodes" and formulate an "opinion" based on the data.
Then about a year and a half later we read an article describing virtually the same design, that noted the only real limiting factor in it being implemented was the speed of the internet itself.
Kyle became convinced that very strong AI was within the realm of possibilities within his lifetime, so he's headed down that road with an electronics technician training and saving/making a bunch of money for college later on.
The greatest think a parent can see is their children accomplishing more and reaching farther than they ever did or could.
Thanks again all!
#20
01/11/2010 (2:57 pm)
Best wishes to Kyle. Strong AI research is cool, although thinking about it always ends up making my brain hurt. As a sci-fi geek I want it to be possible, but when I think about it being possible I somehow end up convincing myself I have no free will, so I decide to stop thinking about it, but if I have no free will how can I decide to stop thinking about it? At this point some safety sub-routines take over and I end up at the fridge getting a beer!
Torque 3D Owner Rapid Fire
Rapid Fire Studios