Lore Aftermath Preview - the MAV Lab
by Logan Foster · 08/20/2008 (3:29 pm) · 14 comments
One of the downfalls of working on bigger projects is that you do not always get the opportunity to talk about all the cool things that you are working on or have done. Thankfully though with Lore Aftermath winding down we get a chance here at MaxGaming to begin to showcase some of the cooler work that we have done on the project.
As such I present to you one of the cool features of the game that you Mech fans out there will be dieing to hear about... the MAV Lab, where you can do a plethora of customizations to your Mech (MAV)...
As such I present to you one of the cool features of the game that you Mech fans out there will be dieing to hear about... the MAV Lab, where you can do a plethora of customizations to your Mech (MAV)...
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#3
08/20/2008 (4:35 pm)
That's really cool. First time I've heard decal pronounced "deckell" though :) 
#4
Loved the idea of nose decals, and the colour picker is just great.
08/20/2008 (7:35 pm)
That's customization-tastic!Loved the idea of nose decals, and the colour picker is just great.
#5
Its a Canadian/British thing... theres no long drawn out drol in our pronunciation of vowels hence why it sounds different though technicly correct :)
@All
Glad you guys have liked it though. There's plenty more to showcase in the coming weeks, not just features but also some of our design logic and some neat tips, tricks and things we discovered along the way.
08/20/2008 (7:37 pm)
@JaimiIts a Canadian/British thing... theres no long drawn out drol in our pronunciation of vowels hence why it sounds different though technicly correct :)
@All
Glad you guys have liked it though. There's plenty more to showcase in the coming weeks, not just features but also some of our design logic and some neat tips, tricks and things we discovered along the way.
#6
08/20/2008 (7:44 pm)
Nice video, great idea!
#7
The colour picker is a part of a really cool Pixel Shader that Tim Newell wrote up. Aside from allowing the user a wide range of choices for the base MAV colour it also has a huge technical benefit.
Previously we only allowed for the player to have their MAV as one of eight different colours and we did this via a texture swap (not much unlike the whole base.texture.file swap resource from TGE). Unfortunately doing this texture swapping resulted in a good 35mb of additional DDS files! This obviously not only bloated the download size but also ate up additional VRam.
Using a Pixel Shader to do what you are seeing we simply need our base texture, and a black and white mask texture which tells the shader which pixels can and cannot be affected by the colour. From there it some math and other HLSL stuff to make it all happen. So the end result is a smaller download footprint, the ability for us to ship more base textures as time goes on (ie. Camo, other styles and patterns), and provide the option for a lot of cool possibilities in the long run for us to stay in step with IA as it continues to grow and expand.
08/20/2008 (7:49 pm)
@SteveThe colour picker is a part of a really cool Pixel Shader that Tim Newell wrote up. Aside from allowing the user a wide range of choices for the base MAV colour it also has a huge technical benefit.
Previously we only allowed for the player to have their MAV as one of eight different colours and we did this via a texture swap (not much unlike the whole base.texture.file swap resource from TGE). Unfortunately doing this texture swapping resulted in a good 35mb of additional DDS files! This obviously not only bloated the download size but also ate up additional VRam.
Using a Pixel Shader to do what you are seeing we simply need our base texture, and a black and white mask texture which tells the shader which pixels can and cannot be affected by the colour. From there it some math and other HLSL stuff to make it all happen. So the end result is a smaller download footprint, the ability for us to ship more base textures as time goes on (ie. Camo, other styles and patterns), and provide the option for a lot of cool possibilities in the long run for us to stay in step with IA as it continues to grow and expand.
#8
I'm thoroughly impressed! Awesome work.
08/20/2008 (8:05 pm)
Holy crap that is sweet!!!!! I love mech-centric games.I'm thoroughly impressed! Awesome work.
#9
Really impressed with your customisation options. Good work
08/20/2008 (9:11 pm)
WOW L Foster, i was just about to post on the tgea forums about how todo a texture color picker . Dont spose you ever plan on selling that as a resource ? Its an essential part of my prototype.Really impressed with your customisation options. Good work
#10
08/21/2008 (12:57 am)
I'd be also happy to spend some cash on that shader based color swapper technique, if you ever plan on selling it at all. Please let us know! :) 
#11
08/21/2008 (2:07 am)
I like the game 
#12
cool customising system... very close to starsiege and mechwarrior games...
i like it..
08/21/2008 (3:23 am)
omg! looks awesome!!cool customising system... very close to starsiege and mechwarrior games...
i like it..
#13
08/21/2008 (11:57 am)
I really love my job. 
#14
08/21/2008 (1:54 pm)
Lovely video, very nice. 
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