Always Learning.
by Graham Evans · 03/07/2006 (6:56 pm) · 4 comments
I bought TGE in December 2005, having spent a lot of time just looking round the market and dreaming of finally starting my own game. I was somewhat jaded and despondant about the state of the market, but having said that, the dream never dies. Finally, I decided.. I don't care if no-one ever comes, at least I will know that I built it :)
Anyway, I sat down and planned and planned. I had a game design document, and I knew what I wanted it to look like and the feel and style. I also knew what I didn't have, and that was the ability to program or do graphics, but hey that's not a problem right? :)
I also knew that there was no way I could jump in and create "my game" on day one, so i carried on planning.
Eventually, I set out a timetable and a set of goals.. the goal was ultimately to make a demo, not the actual game, just a demo with all the functionality of the final game, and this was to be completed over a three year period.
Year one was to develop some basic skills, scripting, learning to code, and learning to make some basic models and how to make the world look good.
Year two was to be the year when all the basics were put together into a shell of what I wanted to do.
Year three was polishing, testing, bug fixing, streamlining and making it look just wonderful.
So where am I 3 months into the grand plan. Well, it's actually been much easier than I thought so far due to the wonderful community, and content packs and resources.. not to say there haven't been moments of abject frustration, over things so silly that an experienced coder or artist wouldn't have solved it in seconds, but already I can see my skills improving.
I have a basic engine, I have character select, and I have persistance. I have tradeskills working and an inventory system. I have learnt to make DIF's with Quark and simple DTS's with gamespace. I have added working doors, switches that move things, I have implemented health packs and energy packs like those found in half life. I have implemented a system for adding bionic implants to my character to improve stats by making them from harvested resources in game. I have started to learn how to do multi-layered textures and have reskinned my first player character and have learnt about lighting and decals to make the world seem more real... odd thing is cyberpunk/scifi needs a huge quantity of "grunge" factors, and decals make this much easier.
I am waiting to implement psionics/mindcontrol until Arcane-FX is released.
But I guess the biggest thing I have learnt is that sometimes, theres a much better result if you look at what the engine, and you personally are capable of and use that, then fret needlessly over the n'th degree of what you were thinking, that will take years to do.
Guess I should add an image as no blog post is really finished without one, and if you look carefully in this pic, you'll see that 90% of this is content packs, but you know what? I really don't care, because every day I am learning new stuff and whatever the final state of the game, that's a reward in itself.
Regards to all
Graham
Anyway, I sat down and planned and planned. I had a game design document, and I knew what I wanted it to look like and the feel and style. I also knew what I didn't have, and that was the ability to program or do graphics, but hey that's not a problem right? :)
I also knew that there was no way I could jump in and create "my game" on day one, so i carried on planning.
Eventually, I set out a timetable and a set of goals.. the goal was ultimately to make a demo, not the actual game, just a demo with all the functionality of the final game, and this was to be completed over a three year period.
Year one was to develop some basic skills, scripting, learning to code, and learning to make some basic models and how to make the world look good.
Year two was to be the year when all the basics were put together into a shell of what I wanted to do.
Year three was polishing, testing, bug fixing, streamlining and making it look just wonderful.
So where am I 3 months into the grand plan. Well, it's actually been much easier than I thought so far due to the wonderful community, and content packs and resources.. not to say there haven't been moments of abject frustration, over things so silly that an experienced coder or artist wouldn't have solved it in seconds, but already I can see my skills improving.
I have a basic engine, I have character select, and I have persistance. I have tradeskills working and an inventory system. I have learnt to make DIF's with Quark and simple DTS's with gamespace. I have added working doors, switches that move things, I have implemented health packs and energy packs like those found in half life. I have implemented a system for adding bionic implants to my character to improve stats by making them from harvested resources in game. I have started to learn how to do multi-layered textures and have reskinned my first player character and have learnt about lighting and decals to make the world seem more real... odd thing is cyberpunk/scifi needs a huge quantity of "grunge" factors, and decals make this much easier.
I am waiting to implement psionics/mindcontrol until Arcane-FX is released.
But I guess the biggest thing I have learnt is that sometimes, theres a much better result if you look at what the engine, and you personally are capable of and use that, then fret needlessly over the n'th degree of what you were thinking, that will take years to do.
Guess I should add an image as no blog post is really finished without one, and if you look carefully in this pic, you'll see that 90% of this is content packs, but you know what? I really don't care, because every day I am learning new stuff and whatever the final state of the game, that's a reward in itself.
Regards to all
Graham
About the author
#2
Don't give up. It sounds like you have come along way.
Looking forward to seeing more.
03/07/2006 (8:31 pm)
Hey I recognize some of that art :O)Don't give up. It sounds like you have come along way.
Looking forward to seeing more.
#3
If possible, always bake in at least a little bit of lighting because even a crazy Pixar-quality shader cannot create totally aesthetically pleasing shading on its own. If you add a little bit of human touch, it really brings out the depth in your texture.
Always add a little bit of texture to something. It is a good habit to take photos of rocks and other dirt and in your graphics program, put them over all or part of your texture at a very low opacity (5-10%) as this also give the image a little more depth and distracts the eye a little bit so it is less likely to notice other areas.
The human skin tone does not stay consistent across the entire body. Even on a person's face, you'll notice that some areas are a little more red and others are a little more pale. The solution is to in addition to shading, add saturation to your texture. Another thing about human skin often overlooked by texture artists is that the skin is porous. There are little holes and folds all over the skin that many artists totally ignore. The effect is subtle but achievable. It tends to really add to the texture and it also lessens the effect of JPEG artifact.
Please don't give up on this. Your project does look promising.
03/07/2006 (10:17 pm)
Hmm... I'd just like to give a little bit of advice regarding your textures. If possible, always bake in at least a little bit of lighting because even a crazy Pixar-quality shader cannot create totally aesthetically pleasing shading on its own. If you add a little bit of human touch, it really brings out the depth in your texture.
Always add a little bit of texture to something. It is a good habit to take photos of rocks and other dirt and in your graphics program, put them over all or part of your texture at a very low opacity (5-10%) as this also give the image a little more depth and distracts the eye a little bit so it is less likely to notice other areas.
The human skin tone does not stay consistent across the entire body. Even on a person's face, you'll notice that some areas are a little more red and others are a little more pale. The solution is to in addition to shading, add saturation to your texture. Another thing about human skin often overlooked by texture artists is that the skin is porous. There are little holes and folds all over the skin that many artists totally ignore. The effect is subtle but achievable. It tends to really add to the texture and it also lessens the effect of JPEG artifact.
Please don't give up on this. Your project does look promising.
#4
@Todd.. WTG, your pack is stuning, I just hope I can do it justice :)
@Brian.. Brian TY:) It took me ages, but I determined how to make what I called a noise filter, very fine and very subtle but the effects in game are stunning:) its amazing what a difference it makes. I applied it to the character and it 100% improves (to my mind) the way the character looks and almost has a blending effect across all the tones and details, making everything look much smoother and yet more random at the same time if you understand me. On the electrical unit which was a plain color texture, it just totally transforms it, both from a distance and close to. I think it may be a tad too even though for that, but we will see. Then I added some saturation as well.. ermmm to much first time, but yes, I see what a difference it makes when done subtlely.
Again TY for the advice:)... now, back to playing with my new toy.. I bought a small Wacom graphics tablet today... helppppp another distraction on my route to trying to get passable results:)))))
Regards
Graham
03/08/2006 (5:56 pm)
@Travis.. TY :)@Todd.. WTG, your pack is stuning, I just hope I can do it justice :)
@Brian.. Brian TY:) It took me ages, but I determined how to make what I called a noise filter, very fine and very subtle but the effects in game are stunning:) its amazing what a difference it makes. I applied it to the character and it 100% improves (to my mind) the way the character looks and almost has a blending effect across all the tones and details, making everything look much smoother and yet more random at the same time if you understand me. On the electrical unit which was a plain color texture, it just totally transforms it, both from a distance and close to. I think it may be a tad too even though for that, but we will see. Then I added some saturation as well.. ermmm to much first time, but yes, I see what a difference it makes when done subtlely.
Again TY for the advice:)... now, back to playing with my new toy.. I bought a small Wacom graphics tablet today... helppppp another distraction on my route to trying to get passable results:)))))
Regards
Graham
Torque Owner Travis Wood