Blog for Mark Pilkington at GarageGames.com

Normal map tutorial

Mark Pilkington — 2007-08-28T17:48:46+00:00

Hey guys.

I've just wrote a very simple normal map tutorial for any artists that are still in the dark about normal mapping. I use Maya 8.5 and go through the modelling process for a level prop and and go over the normal map settings for maya to bake out a successful normal map.

The link to the pages is:
Normal maps for beginners in Maya 8.5

I wouldnt say this is the cast iron way to do things and no doubt there are mistakes and alot better ways of doing things but I hope it helps some folk using TGAE.

On a side note I still need DTS/DSQ exporters for Maya 8.5!!!!! if anyone has any!!!!! with extra !!!! on top and I also need some help doing with my torque project 'Animal' so get yourself down to the help wanted part for the forum ;)

Cheers guys.

TSE and the long rocky road

Mark Pilkington — 2006-10-16T12:09:16+00:00

Virus my TGE game has taken alittle back seat while I try and get my head round the engine more and moving to TSE has been interesting.

Getting my head round shaders all over again has had some highs and some lows but as always the community has done a stirling job.

A TSE project I;ve been working towards called ANIMAL has pushed me into learning the engine alot more from a TSE perspective. I don't want to get into any real detail about the game as theres not been a great deal done and things have a habit of just falling through.

(The front end I knocked up - my first ever front end by the way. Look ma! I'm really learning)

(A place holder environment with some tasty glow maps - built in 3DWS)

My first ever animated character - a place holder that still needs the full set of animations I plan on the player doing)

This is the player head - low-poly with normal map. The place holder guy has a changable head as the player will be able to wear masks and other head gear which will swap the head out for another)
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OKay What have I learnt:

	new Material(bigblocks)
	{
	mapTo = bigblocks_d;
		baseTex[0] = "bigblocks_d";
		bumpTex[0] = "bigblocks_local";
		
   pixelSpecular[0] = true;
	specular[0] = "1.0 1.0 1.0 0.1";
  specularPower[0] = 38.0;
	};

This is a basic material for a diffuse map and normal map. I always use an _d or _local to tell the textures apart...its a doom3 habit. and I also use _g for glow textures now. The higher the specularPower the less noticable the specularity is - no idea if this is right its just what I've noticed and the parm above is the spec colour.

mapTo = I think is your base diffuse texture that your other texture effects will get applied to or if they are in another location....I think. I've found if I'm not using a texture effect like a glow or normal map then I don't need to use the mapTo parm, it all seems to work fine.

Things I don't know and need to learn:

1) Can you use a specular map texture to specify the specularity of a material rather than using an overall spec.

2) I have no idea how to get textures with an alpha to work; either on a dts model or in a dif model - I'm pretty despirate for this one haha. I read somewhere that alpha textures aren't supported in shaders...if this is true then how the hell is that set up?...maybe I dreamt that.

3) I've been playing around with lights and at the moment I want to make a strong shaft of light for the windows and at the moment I have no idea how to do this.

4) Like 2, I need a shiny transparent sheet of glass material but again..I have no idea how to ahcieve this.

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Sorry for such a long plan here but its all new and I'm excited. I still need a programmer that can devote some time to this project and I'd love to shift this over to TorqueX once released. Well this is the level where I'm at in TSE so its going ok
Hope you enjoyed the screenshots.

Virus: SC Screenshots

Mark Pilkington — 2006-08-06T18:01:25+00:00

Hey

well its about that time again when I should show people what I'm doing for thoughs that are interested. I've been working alot with 3D world studio and working on a test environment and really just sat down and played with the lighting kit trying to get a mood I like - and I think I have.

The original plan was to just build everything as separate elements and just building the world up in the Torque world editor but I've just been building the whole skeleton of the environment (buildings and roads) and dressing the level with detail in the environment builder.

Sadly I lost my Technical Torque artist dude (James -problems out of both our control sadly) so its fallen back to just me but things are moving artwise as you can see and its looking ok although its abit disheartening when you see someone posting nice screenshots of beaches and water effects haha...kind of makes you want to jack it all in but I know my idea is strong.

Well heres some screenshots of the environment in Torque.
www.hsf-games.com/games/torque_1.jpg
www.hsf-games.com/games/torque_2.JPG
www.hsf-games.com/games/torque_3.JPG
(if the screenshots are abit too dark just turn your brightness up a tad)

--latest 3D world studio model---
www.hsf-games.com/games/diner_front.jpg
www.hsf-games.com/games/diner_sign.jpg
www.hsf-games.com/games/diner_back.jpg

I still need to start looking at getting some of my characters into the game but I know thats going to be a pain in the back end for someone thats not done it before so I'm putting it off till the bitter end haha.

I also have a indie games co. style site up with some contact details if you can help and abit of info on the game itself. www.hsf-games.com

Oh I just want to say Thanks again to a guy called RPullen. He's been giving me a few drips of advice and has helped me get textures with an alpha channel working with .DIFs which really makes the environment what it is.

Cheers.

Virus: survivor chronicles update

Mark Pilkington — 2006-06-25T21:08:43+00:00

Hey people

Now I've established the fact that I'm making an Xcom/UFO style game I want to start referring to the project as it's propper title from now on. Thanks for all your kind comments on my first blog post aswell guys your all great.

Well we are still after a good Torque programmer but this isn't stopping the artwork. Here are some models I made using 3D World Studio and are now in Torque as .DIF files. Theres also an apartment building done, a tilable road and some tilable brick walls that are half collapsed. As it stands things are going ok, we have an SVN repository set up for the project and even though I'm lacking in the programming department I'll keep going - the worst thing I can do is stop probably plus I still need to learn Torque so its all good.

(images at 1024x768)

www.blacktreeuk.net/deadzone/environment/derelit_building1.jpg
www.blacktreeuk.net/deadzone/environment/factory_render.jpg
www.blacktreeuk.net/deadzone/environment/garage.jpg

Still missing a website for the project but I don't really have enough done to warrent a site yet I think.

Well cheers guys.
Marcus

UFO/Xcom style game hits development

Mark Pilkington — 2006-06-13T18:22:44+00:00

Hello!

This is my first blog here as I'm pretty new to Torque and the community. I am currently working on a game in the style of the old UFO:enemy unknown/Xcom style games with base resource management aswell as tactical missions. The game follows survivors after the world is turned upside down by the walking dead...yes this is a zombie game - but with a twist.

You control a group of survivors that are held up in a safe haven set deep in a huge city. Here you must find food, weapons and other survivors to help survive the ordeal. While some missions maybe rescuing other survivors, others maybe finding vital food, munitions or the car parts you need to make your new vehicel go so you may move to a more secure safe house.

Will your survivors live in bliss or will paranoia take over your camp? Will the walking dead find where your hiding? or even enemy survivors hoping to take what you have? These things will all make it a new and exciting game I think.

Currently we have alot of character models finished, some test environment stuff, some GUI designs aswell as a 15-page design document that almost reads like the game's instruction manual (very detailed).

We still require a good programmer that really jump on board and make this huge vision a reality.

www.blacktreeuk.net/deadzone/2d_renders/player_screen_idea.jpg

www.blacktreeuk.net/deadzone/2d_renders/city_screen_idea.jpg

www.blacktreeuk.net/deadzone/2d_renders/base_map.jpg

www.blacktreeuk.net/deadzone/2d_renders/scaling.jpg
(Now being made in a mapper program)

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Ah, I thought the Blog entry would treat them as links unlike the forum...but it doesn't

Some more bits aswell

www.blacktreeuk.net/deadzone/2d_renders/survivor.jpg
www.blacktreeuk.net/deadzone/2d_renders/zombie.jpg
(Characters are the tactical in-game characters that are 500 polys each and supplied in association with Mere-mortals games developers).

Cheers for the kind comments.
Marcus