Blog for Radoslaw Marcin Kurczewski at GarageGames.com

Salome- textures (at long last)

Radoslaw Marcin Kurczewski — 2008-04-05T05:02:45+00:00

It took hell of the time to get her to this stage. I guess it's a sign I should quit one of my jobs. Anyway- as you can see she got a bit more "fleshy". All base textures apart from metal parts and crown are there and seem to be working fine. I am a bit worried if color scheme I picked up is not a bit too mild but I do not want to judge as yet- metal will change a lot and I'd rather add color when needed then try to remove it. After trying to find proper shoes for her I've drawn some funky ornaments, traced them in Corel and applied to texture. IMO it seems to be working, although it moves me away from "serious" oriental theme. She still needs to have some large ornaments (maybe similar ones) applied on pants and bra and I am considering a huge tribal tattoo as well- just for a good measure. Two days left... I hope I will manage to get her in engine without any troubles, otherwise I'll be in deep... problem.

Ah- one more. Blender works like a dream. I hope it will not let me down on export phase

Salome- UV mapping and shader planning

Radoslaw Marcin Kurczewski — 2008-03-26T04:10:49+00:00

Ok, I think I have base mesh (at least parts that are going to be symmetrical). Character got seriously re- designed: bracelets with blades added, hair replaced by this "tiara" or crown, no dress etc. I am actually sorely tempted to give her glowing "wings" - I will add some detail later on, as separate, non- symmetrical meshes but I promised myself to do it only when I will know that my base is working as I want it to work. Previous character gave me so much head-ache...

So- for now I've marked all seams in Blender - orange lines- and after some tweaks I got quite clear base layout

As you can see it's rather "clean" at the moment- I do not have any distortions or overlaps and yes, you guys are right, it's not particularly well done in terms of economy of texture usage, I mean- face is relatively small, other less important parts are larger... and you know what ? At the moment it's unimportant, because now entire character is going to get divided into separate parts. Parts sharing one shader (i.e. flesh, cloth, metal) will be grouped on one texture and only then they will get scaled and tuned for proper texture usage, at this point in time it was not important- main task was to have UV's right. Now- thanks to such a division I will be able to use few separate effects on single character. Shine/ cubemaps on metal, soft rendering on cloth and flesh, glow on details and so on.

... errr... or so I hope it will be.

Thank you very much for reading.

Salome goes TGEA

Radoslaw Marcin Kurczewski — 2008-03-23T05:41:17+00:00

A friend of mine asked me to make a low poly version of this character and after toying with this idea for some time I've decided to give it a go. I guess main reason was fact that living out of games I got habit of starting each and every model, no matter if it is going to be 1 mln poly or 100, with low poly version and only then gradually adding details and smoothing it. In case of Salome I had base mesh saved somewhere on my drive so most of the job is already done, although there are a few problems- side effects of specific design requirements, different for each purpose.

Character as it was, wasn't really designed to use standard Torque skeleton- it had no legs to speak off so first thing to do was to remove skirt (wasn't half as entertaining as it sounds) and add something that would work with more traditional setup, namely baggy belly dancer trousers. I want to keep the "oriental" feeling after all. There is one more thing that requires serious modification, namely hair. She can't really have original dreadlocks, no matter how much I like the idea as it would require adding additional bones and animations and increasing costs so at the moment I am browsing through XIX c. gravures to get the feeling and build something that would work. Probably some scarf with jewels above ear will do the trick. Arms still require optimization of edgeloops to make shoulders bend right but in overal mesh should not change too much. As it is it contains 1920 faces- way below limits and I am not planning having it heavier then 3500- 4000 polys in final version. Here's what I got at the moment:

Collisions- how design might change approach to tools

Radoslaw Marcin Kurczewski — 2008-03-19T06:10:00+00:00

There is one good thing in being in this business- you got to play a lot and you call it "work". Recently I've been making quite extensive research on close combat systems. During night session with Prince of Persia "Sands of time" I had one of not-so-common "designer enlightenments".

As some of you know I am quite often working with levels for various engines and various types of games. Hammer, Quark, Constructor, Max, Maya, Blender- you name it. Each of those tools enforces certain approach, has it's own pros and cons. You can divide them into two large groups- dedicated level editors and 3d packages. Now- take a look at your Torque. In 95 % of cases your level designer will be using one of dedicated editors because it gives you two very important advantages: ideal (and rather fast) collisions and streamlined workflow, checked by thousands of others that did the same thing. I'll not deny both things are important but stop for a moment and think: what's trade off.

Everybody working with those editors knows they will produce shapes that can't really be called "modern looking"- and in fact that's to be expected, I mean: take a look at history. They are tools that appeared with development of FPS shooters- very, very specific games (or clones of one game to be honest) with heavy emphasis on fast and very accurate collision detection. Torque (with all TGEA versions up to now if I am correct- unfortunately I am not a member of their dev team so I have no idea about latest relases) still shows some of traits of design foundation laid down during times of "Tribes", legacy of a fast- paced shooter made for relatively small groups of players playing by lan. Did anything changed in type of tools provided through those... 8 years ? Do not take me wrong- i am not trying to say that GG is not evolving- exactly the same can be said for many many other engine developers. "Traditional" level editors are suitable for that kind of gameplay... and for that kind of gameplay it makes sense to use them. Now- if you are looking at other genres situation is quite different. Trading off good looks for THAT precise and THAT fast collisions hardly makes sense if you want to make any other type of game. Tomb Raider or Prince of Persia action adventure (I will not even talk about puzzle games like Siberia) ? Hell, you will NEVER want to allow player to get to certain areas. Sure, you will want to give them an IMPRESSION that they do have freedom but their choice will have to be limited (or your storyline will get down in no time), same goes for their interaction with environment and it means that last thing you will want will be precise and fast collision in those areas. Collisions- sure, they got to work without any doubt, exactly as you want them (and where you want them) but certainly they do not have to be so exact, thus your choice of tools and techniques can be much wider- if you will dare to try going your own path, instead of blindly following footsteps of - no doubt- great designers that had a wonderful idea streamlined for certain type of gameplay... 10 years ago.

To cut my ranting and show something different- here's a small progress pic on Salome character. Slowly getting there...

Salome and swords

Radoslaw Marcin Kurczewski — 2008-03-07T03:38:31+00:00

Working on yet another Blender character, this time in my so called spare time (or stolen time should I say- I cut on sleeping). Somehow sculpting females- even so stylized and cartoony as this one- is very relaxing. Maybe just because they can't talk...

... anyway, recently I am watching cloak and dagger movies all the time, particularly "Le pacte des loups". Yep, I know, Iroquois kung-fu in XVIII c. France is not something VERY believable but if you will take a look at all those frock coats and tricorns... they are just lovely. A pitty that that setting is so rarely used in games

Once, long time ago, when I was still working with Maya, I've tried modeling something in style of begining of XIX c (above is the only preview I have after disc crash) but looking at it now I am not particularly proud with result. To be honest I am sorely tempted to make some kind of stylish "musketeer" character for TGEA just for fun (and to play around with new fencing system I am designing, too) and guess what ? I am going to do it. I've noticed that after all that pain I got to go through at work, helping customers, converting and such, modeling just for myself in my free time (usually when my wife sleeps), following craziest ideas I can think about is most relaxing and relieving occupation known to me.

Dragonbane... and some mumbling

Radoslaw Marcin Kurczewski — 2008-02-20T05:05:58+00:00

It has been a really- really hectic time. Apart from health problems (no trainings for me for quite some time) I got rather tough situation at work plus- to add to my daily 16 hrs workload- some interesting gigs going on. I've learned Blender to degree of feeling comfortable with it, no matter what's subject of work so at least when it comes to my software needs I am save for some time- no money leaking for constant upgrades

Now- there is a thing that keeps bogging me since I've joined GG community (ancient times of blue man and Tribes). You can see many projects starting here. It's one of more active communities when it comes to projects started- and it's all fine, I mean- there is nothing bad in starting some project to learn (actually there is hardly better way of learning then getting hands dirty) but tell me- how come there are so many people here that are bent on FAILING before they even start. You do not know what I mean ? Well... think for a while. What is in your opinion a hardest to design and manage, most expensive, requiring most incredible amounts of work of all gaming genres. One... two... three...

...yep, you're right- MMORPG. In gaming industry there is nothing more complicated... and yet if you will look at project announcements what you will see on our forum ?

"I have no working experience but I am going to make a killer RPG in my spare time (I got school you know), work for me for royalties. Oh- is this engine good enough for me ?"

What is wrong with you ? You are so inexperienced you cant estimate what your needs really are or judge scope of work ahead, you do not have a real team and you want to make an RPG game ? And if that wouldn't have been enough- an online one ? How pathetic is that ?

Sit down and consider this: can you make a working single player GUI first - and I am not talking about fully fledged game but "just" an interface that will be fully functional and at least "decent" looking. Can you do that ? Do you have enough resources to make a single character move around with working inventory, map, health bar and to do that on quality level that will not look inferior compared to very first Tomb Raider ? No ? Then by all means start working on foundations of the game but please, stop wasting your own time talking about project of scale thousands time superior to that not-so-simple task.

It's good to have a dream. For creative people- it's vital. But to make them come true some day it's much better to treat them as any other tasks and approach with just the same attitude you would have planning your very own house construction.

Constructor... and levels

Radoslaw Marcin Kurczewski — 2007-10-05T19:56:07+00:00

It took some time but finaly I am allowed to show screens from some levels I've been working on for Gameflood check out additional screenshots from that project here. All below have been made in Hammer/Constructor for TGEA.

This one comes from "Biodome" level by Oliver Hobbs. Why am I showing it ? Well- my task was to optimize it, texture, create shaders and- last but not least- re-build parts of level to make it look better (one I am showing here was most painfull) and lit everything.

Here's second one- this time with layout designed by Oliver (he is really good when it comes to designing gameplay when my strong point is making things look good) and built by me from top to the bottom. Kind of "Flying Castle" thing, with lot of jumping (heavy use of forcefields)

Last one made together with Oliver- this time it was other way around- idea was mine but 95% geometry is made by him, then level got in my hands for lighting/ texturing. Kinda funny, considering fact it's still pretty much traditional FPP shooter.

Now here are two shots from level I am quite happy with (although I stil wish I had more time to play around with it). I am a big fan of japanese culture- I am training kendo, collecting swords (no, I said swords, not pants) and such so I wanted to make an FPS level set in that type of environment. Yeah, I know- it stinks of Kill Bill. Can't help it- it's a pop culture after all ;)

So- that's about it, a minor update on "what I've been doing all this time". I hope I will have a chance to do more of that kind of stuff soon- it's good to work with Torque again ... . Thank you very much for watching

Levels... and other stuff

Radoslaw Marcin Kurczewski — 2007-08-16T01:47:28+00:00

If there is something you do not like to do you might be sure you will get just that thing as your major occupation. At least for me it's been always like that. I hate to animate and I do not really enjoy designing levels (my favourite tasks are concept and modeling) and just guess what are most common requests from customers... right, like "20 horse death animations" or yet-another-fantasy- temple. My most recent task is combination of nightmares- I got to correct levels made by somebody else so it's not only "just" level design (which is bad enough) but additionally it's not even creative. Finding missing textures or polys, fixing portals... sheeesh.

Yeah, I am complaining. What would you expect ? It's a "blog thingie" after all. On brighter side I managed to put my hands on some more rewarding projects. One is (or was) quite challenging. I got to cut costs of my studio so I am not using Maya anymore. I could not afford just hanging my hat on rack and slowly learn new package so I had like 2 weeks or so to learn a Blender - here is my first model made in this package. Its still quite far from completion but I feel more confident by now (and I got free package instead of one that costs 6 K $).

Other thing that makes work at least a bit more interesting is newly discovered passion for giving Constructor REALLY hard drive. Levels containing 100 000 plus brushes in single leaf are interesting thing (especially when you have to find just this ONE, single poly that's not right). I must say I am getting used to this tool, it improoves smoothly and each version seems to be more realiable and simply better then previous one (although texture application sucks as it sucked at very begining).

That would be it... enough complaining. I'll have another glass... or two...

Apocalypse now...

Radoslaw Marcin Kurczewski — 2007-05-10T01:00:42+00:00

I know it happens but it hurt quite badly anyway. I got my hard drive busted. Some files have been archived but some of them- actually almost all made during last two years, mostly "private" ones like galeon ship from previous blog entry or anime characters for games are lost without any hope. Good thing in entire affair is fact that none of my customers got hurt (I am enjoying what you can call "vacations") but still- it was a bad day. Now I got to wait for Autodesk to renew my licenses (had to buy new computer), install all 2d/3d applications (not to mention resetting all gaming engines editors and texture libraries). Royal pain.

Napoleonic ... something 01

Radoslaw Marcin Kurczewski — 2007-05-02T00:46:32+00:00

Another project- FPS shooter set in napoleonic era. Again- nothing serious, just something for fun (actually- to avoid getting rusted). Two characters, three weapons, one village in winter scenery. First preview.