Project Gert Turret and Lighting
by Will O-Reagan · 08/07/2010 (5:16 pm) · 2 comments
Its been a busy month this past month. Project Gert continues to gain headway for AI, and Lighting, we are definitely getting our ducks in a row, spending 3 days a week consistently for the past 2 months. The team tends to grow and shrink, as we find our ally's in this trail blazing adventure. I'm thinking about purchasing additional licenses, but honestly, we mostly do pair programming, and art, so its sort of a moot point, for this 5 man core operation, 3 of the key players just do art, don't even touch the editor!
Now that we have some interesting stuff to show, were looking to show off our stuff a bit. Go TorqueX!
The first thing I'd like to talk about is spawning lights. We are using the platformer kit's spawners to basically spawn lights in any area of the "Alien Ship" that we need it. This goes a long way, in making sure we have enough lights for any scene, while staying under the 8 light DirectX cap. The current scene is just red, but we are experimenting with all different colors, trying to come up with the right design for the ship itself.
The Second thing is the turret you find in the scene. This thing was a monster! Took about 2 weeks to get this together, and many iterations of art and programming to get it right. We eventually decided that he needed to bend in two places to get the right angle on the target, without it looking too hokey. We are pretty happy with how he turned out, but he's still likely to be changed quite a bit, as he's the first of many bad guys employed by the alien race. You'll notice he also has some unique abilities, in that he can walk in one direction, and fire in another, ala the "retreatState" this is really one of my better runs at programming the state machines in the platformer kit, and I must say, I like it. Of course, it was also all done via pair programming, which I think in itself can be an accomplishment.
Our next video is likely to feature more wisps, and interesting audio. So far Project Gert is really looking like a strong project, which gets better with each passing week.
Now that we have some interesting stuff to show, were looking to show off our stuff a bit. Go TorqueX!
The first thing I'd like to talk about is spawning lights. We are using the platformer kit's spawners to basically spawn lights in any area of the "Alien Ship" that we need it. This goes a long way, in making sure we have enough lights for any scene, while staying under the 8 light DirectX cap. The current scene is just red, but we are experimenting with all different colors, trying to come up with the right design for the ship itself.
The Second thing is the turret you find in the scene. This thing was a monster! Took about 2 weeks to get this together, and many iterations of art and programming to get it right. We eventually decided that he needed to bend in two places to get the right angle on the target, without it looking too hokey. We are pretty happy with how he turned out, but he's still likely to be changed quite a bit, as he's the first of many bad guys employed by the alien race. You'll notice he also has some unique abilities, in that he can walk in one direction, and fire in another, ala the "retreatState" this is really one of my better runs at programming the state machines in the platformer kit, and I must say, I like it. Of course, it was also all done via pair programming, which I think in itself can be an accomplishment.
Our next video is likely to feature more wisps, and interesting audio. So far Project Gert is really looking like a strong project, which gets better with each passing week.
About the author
I have a degree in dramatic art, and literature, from UC Santa Barbara. I've worked for a few studios, also at Animax Ent in 2008, and some smaller studios. Currently studying Computer Science at CSU Channel Islands.
Torque Owner Chris Sargent
Glorious Software
The lighting in that video is outstanding! Definitely looking forward to the next video.