Blog for John E. Nelson at GarageGames.com

Tribulation Knights and Torque Tech used

John E. Nelson — 2008-11-03T21:10:47+00:00

As the game development progresses for Tribulation Knights I have received a few questions concerning what technology I am using.

TGEA
The engine is TGEA 1.7.1, and I have to say that it is so much faster that previous versions.
My prerequisite was that it had to work for mid range computers and above.
I actually develop/test on a mid-range computer running XP and then test it on a higher end computer running Vista. If it looks good on my mid range, then it looks and plays even better on the higher end.

AFX: Core Tech for TGEA 1.7.1
Have been working on reworking the default AFX interface and customizing it for the game.
The AFX documentation is very good, and now I am working on some new effects.
There are different versions of the GUI graphics being tested. Here is one version below.

Yack Pack
The Yack Pack is great for all of the NPC communications in the game.
As seen below the Yack Pack works well.

Green-Ear
Learning how to use this new product. The plan is to have online meeting areas for the players to discuss the game, and many other things. Their avatars will be visible to each other, which will all be based on the various game characters. This is in works and I will release more information when it is ready.

SSAO Kit (Real Time Screen Space Ambient Occlusion Shaders)
The developer has release 1.2 which is the version we will inlcude in the new game build.
I am looking forward to seeing how this will change the game for those people who have Shader Model 3.0 support. For those that do not, then SSAO disables itself. So this is a bonus for those higher end players.

Tools I use in development include:

Torsion
I enjoy using this tool to edit my TorqueScript files. Before this I used notepad!

ShowTool Pro
Its a breeze to look at my shape directories and examine the models.

Overlord
You don't realize how much work there is to do on a game till you organize it, identify what needs to be done, detail it, then assign it, and track it. Wow.

Photoshop
The ultimate image program, and my personal favorite. Have been using it for many many years. There are other alternatives out there too that work like Photoshop now.

3DSMax
I do not have the newest version, and I have been considering getting Houdini Apprentice HD.
Do not have have experience with it yet, but I may just jump in with both feet.

Milkshape
I use this program to convert models all the time since I use a variety of modeling tools, programs, and formats.

FRAPS
I use this capture program for my videos I post. Also I use the videos to show other team members what issues I may be seeing on a test machine.

SketchUP 5
I have used this 3D modeling program to build models fairly quickly.
It works well.

CrazyBump
I have been testing this program and it works fantastic!

Plastic Tweaker
Just bought this and will give it a try.

Tribulation Knights and Green-Ear SDK

John E. Nelson — 2008-10-31T04:33:30+00:00

I purchased the Green-Ear SDK product, and the 10 slots, which with the promotion is now 20 slots.
The 20 slots can serve an online community of more than 700+ players according to the developers

The Green-Ear website dashboard and settings is pretty easy to use.
My only comment to the developers would be that they want to have a server available all the time for people to connect to in the Stronghold demo. It might increase sales.

Since I have an immediate project to use this product in, it will interesting to see how quickly we can implement it.

The main game is single player, but the plan is to have a virtual MP meeting area where people show up as an avatar from the game. Using the Green-Ear we plan on having online community events for players.

Tribulation Knights Interiors

John E. Nelson — 2008-04-22T19:14:57+00:00

The work on the interiors for Tribulation Knights are moving forward.
The goal is to have a look that is very much in the traditon of Deus Ex.

With that said, here are a few test shots.

Tribulation Knights working on TGEA 1.7

John E. Nelson — 2008-04-14T18:29:57+00:00

The Tribulation Knights game has moved to the newest release of the TGEA engine.

The previous 1.0.3 engine was giving us low frame rates on older cards, but that has since changed with the new engine release.

Video Card Testing
My base customer video card is an ATI X1300 , and I am shooting for the game to run well on it with higher number double digit frame rates, and on everything newer.

Of course on an Nvidia 8600 card or newer it runs a lot faster, with triple digit frames rates.

New Game Models
Creating new props for the interior levels. What is a cyber punk RPG if you don't have computers.

Here is a computer terminal model I am still tweaking.

A holographic statue.

Tribulation Knights TGEA 1.7 Beta Testing

John E. Nelson — 2008-03-20T23:42:26+00:00

Well here is a video of the engine testing we are doing right now with our game levels from Tribulation Knights. The new engine is much faster, and the game is running visibly better.
See for yourself in this test of the unfinished (work in progress) bunker level.

I posted it on our "you tube" site...

www.youtube.com/mproducer

Or if you perfer "my space" instead.

myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=30704105

An interface design

A Prototype Loading Screen

Tribulations Knights Enforcer Upgrade

John E. Nelson — 2008-03-01T03:54:37+00:00

As mentioned before in a previous blog, we are taking advantage of the capabilities of TGEA to make the game look even better. Enormous advancements are being made daily.

Here is the evil Enforcer before TGEA, and after adding an emissive texture in TGEA.

Tribulations Knights emissive texture test

John E. Nelson — 2008-02-23T06:13:05+00:00

We have been taking advantage of the capabilities of TGEA to make the game look even better. The goal today was to use an emissive texture on the main characters visor. It was successful as you can see in this snapshot. There will be more tweaks of course but we are making headway. We have a large number of characters, and props that will be tweaked to take advantage of shaders in TGEA as we migrate the game.

emissive[0] = true;
glow[0] = true;

Here is a YouTube video of the early testing.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSErl49sAKc

Tribulation Knights

John E. Nelson — 2008-02-19T18:39:38+00:00

Well the word slipped out about which game I was porting to TGEA, so here is the information about it. I will start posting additional screen shots very soon.

Image is from the TGEA prototype built recently.

Tribulation Knights
The game project Tribulation Knights (TM) is now being moved to the Torque Game Engine Advanced. Seen here are some of the unique main characters already ported from 3DS Max, and working in TGEA. The game is a sci-fi themed single player RPG, that requires the user to use stealth while navigating a very large city environment. Based on a time in the future when religious persecution is everywhere, and a one world government tries to rule with an iron fist. It has been compared to a cross between GTA and Deus Ex by the news media at GDC last year.

The open, non-linear environment allows a player to explore and choose how they wish to play the game. There are many storyline missions which reveal the back story of the game. Players can free-roam but need to avoid unwanted and dangerous attention from the authorities.

The game features more than 60+ different NPC models currently, this is to keep the player from having to look at repeated characters. For RPG enthusiasts there are a large numbers of conversations with NPC's, black market shops, and secret missions to accept. The element of FPS in the game will appeal to the action oriented players.

What makes Tribulation Knights unique is the rules of engagement. As a Knight, you have a moral code to follow, so there isn't any killing of humans allowed. The player can freeze enemy human NPC's briefly, use smoke to hide a getaway, or simply hide in a dark place to avoid detection. The robot NPC's are open season and can be disabled with EMP weapons.

The initial team that is building the game framework on the "TGEA" engine is an experienced Torque group that has members from around the world. All were hired because of their expertise. The team has integrated the Faust Logic's AFX CoreTech for TGEA, and Filament Game's Yack Pack which is all operations in our inital prototype. The Overlord Management System has been used to organize and assign the tasks for the past month, and it has worked quite well for us. For tools we are using Sickhead Game's Torsion, Torque Constructor, and Torque ShowTool Pro.

Note: All existing Tribulation Knights(TM) videos and screen shots found on the internet were done in a different game engine. Those will be replaced with new ones from the TGEA version of the game over the next several months.

Starting a TGEA Project

John E. Nelson — 2008-01-15T18:35:26+00:00

Well I decided to use TGEA for a new prototype game, along with Faust Logic: AFX:CoreTech for TGEA. The combination of these products make my art assets sing. I am an experienced producer, and 3D Artist, but not a hard core programmer. So I am looking for contractors to take up some of the tasks so that I can get the prototype put together quickly. I already have a large inventory of 3D assets for this game, so I just need to export them from 3DS Max to the Torque format. By next week I plan to have a few screenshots of the initial work, and continue adding them to show progress. I license many engines, but I feel TGEA is ready for my next project. It is very exciting.

Update!
I have also purchased Yack Pack to be included in the prototype.
The team is now 7 members strong, and include programmers, multiple artists, music composer, and producer. We are using Overlord for the management of assignments, which is working well for us. Also I have an svn for the source code, and a file storage site for all the asset management with security. So after the first four days we have accomplished quite a bit. It is moving along and starting to take shape.