The Shining Source

Hi Devlyn,

click on this link, and everything shall be revealed

http://www.economicsoftsol.com/index.html

I have the tree-editor AND the map-editor.
There are a couple of images that show what you can do with it

Looking cool dude! I guess it's a good start for the project. I really wonder what you'll make of the sprites in due time .

well,... there are no sprites involved actually.

I plan to do the characters in GameSpace 1.5 ( http://www.caligari.com/gamespace/default.asp )

SO, everything is in 3D.  

I already have GameSpace Light (which is actually GameSpace 1.5, except you can have models with a low poly-level)
but it's great for learning

GS 1.5 comes at a wallet-busting $ 299 ( yowzer   ) , so I really have to wait for the end of the year (that's when I get my pay (and a few financial extra's heheheheh  )

That's a painful price. Perhaps rearing the Electronic Mule is an alternative?

Bwahaha    Don't worry , I've been saving up lately, and I'm almost there.

I consider this as an investment though, as I have plans for a few other games ( an arcade game (FISHDISH 3D) , and a Strategic Sci-Fi Shmup called AIR SUPPORT ). So GameSpace will come in handy for those games as well.

And maybe, ..... just maybe.... if these games work out well, why not sell them?     :roll:  :wink:

Hmm... well, you can always give it a try and sell it. After all, you had to pay stuff to make it too .

Wahey, I finally have Gamespace 1.5  (and just for $ 199, instead of the usual $ 299 ) AND with the prospect of acquiring version 1.6 when it's released .

Now I can finally make some models (characters,houses,wells,carts,pillars,.... anything you can think,really).
I'll start browsing GS and learn the tutorials, make some basic models, and improve on them, and see how they behave in Blitz.

Oh, and I've finally sussed the Addvertex and Addtriangle commands. I can use these to make some basic walls,fences and/or structures.

(I also have programmed a waterfall, AND it has?. erm.. moving water  (  0_o )  using only AddVertex and AddTriangle , EntityTexture and PositionTexture    )

Also 100% comprendre for:
INCLUDE , CURRENTDIR$,RETURN,POSITIONMESH,SCALEMESH,
POSITIONENTITY,SCALEENTITY,TURNENTITY,HIDEENTITY,SHOWENTITY,
ADDMESH,COPYMESH,FREEENTITY,CREATESURFACE,CREATETERRAIN
LOADMESH,LOADTERRAIN,LOADTEXTURE,COPYTEXTURE

(pfffffff)

More progress concerning the following software:  

Geoscape3D: 75%
Tree Editor:    90%
Blitz3D:          45%
PSP:              60%
Land Editor:   100%     (bring the champagne!)  
Blender:         1%        ( :oops:  )
Gamespace:   10%      (oooh, the buttons  :shock:  )

Sorry for not putting up the screenshots   :cry:  .
The maps weren't very good to look at, and progress on creating goodlooking maps comes in leaps and bounds.

Well, that's all peeps
I wish everyone a happy new year  

Happy New Year to you too!

So do I see it correctly that you're using 7 different programs to make the graphics for the game? O_O

Yes, it's quite a list,isn't it?   :lol:

Geoscape3D is used for making the environment (roads,mountains,rivers)  

The tree Editor is used for ...errrr.... making trees  

Blitz3D for programming the whole kaboodle.

Paint Shop Pro for editing/finishing textures (and converting colordepth of some textures to 8-Bit, when appropriate)    

Land Editor: mainly used as backup for Geoscape3D (there are some things even Geo can't do )  

Blender is the backup-proggie for Gamespace (for making VERY simple models, rocks and other road-side based fluff))  

Gamespace (my flagship ) is used for making character-models,enemy-models,houses,benches,lanterns,barrels,
chests, and anything else you can think of.

Sounds like major graphics galore to me . Nice going .

Actually, I might try and use Geoscape 3D for myself, as I'm still in need of battle backgrounds .

Hey Devlyn,

Why not try TERRAGEN for your backgrounds?

it's virtually free  

http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/


have fun with it.  :lol:

Indeed a sound idea! I'll be sure to give it a try.

Thanks a lot dude .

Hi everyone,

It's been a long time since I've posted something about Dark Res.
The project has come a long way since then. I've learned a lot more about Blitz3D, Geoscape3D, Cartography Shop, TreeMagik, Plantlife and

GameSpace.

progress so far:
- I know now everything about Types (finally :O ).

- Maps are made in Geoscape3D and exported as a texture and as a heightmap

- Maps are loaded in B3D and scaled 20 times its original size
   (imagine starting on one edge, walk to the    opposite edge:  this will take you 3 minutes, and that's in a straight line. 0_o  )

- All X.Objects have EntityAutoFade enabled.

- The game also has fog - combined with EntityAutoFade mentioned earlier, this makes for some smooth screen-build up

- The program is now able to read and write files to harddisk.
   These files are used to place objects on the map ( trees , bushes, grass, mushrooms, houses, wells, ruins etc etc).

- I've programmed an editor that can set up zones where the player can or cannot walk
  Each map has an accompanying file, which is automatically loaded, that will handle the placement of the zone.
  The program will read the file and places the values into a fixed DIM array. After that, the zone is placed according to those values
  in the array. This may sound like more work than there is to it, but it isn't.
  You see, when writing a file to harddisk you first need all   these values in memory, before writing them to disk.
  The editor keeps track of how   many zones there already are on one given map.
  So, there's no fear of overwriting existing data when adding new data.            

- There's a second editor that's used for my waypoint-system that's going to be used for NPC's
   In this editor you can set up a grid. The only thing you have to do, is to set the number of gridpoints and where those points must be.
   Each point (a custom type) that's created will have it's own unique ID-number, and 4 empty fields.
   It will check where the nearest points are and assigns the ID-numbers of these points to its own fields.

   Each NPC can now walk on the grid, and when it comes to a junction-point, it will check the 4 fields of that point,
   takes a random number between 1 and 4, takes the value from the corresponding field,
   and it will plot its new course to the point that has the same ID-number. Sounds easy huh ?

   the loop for each NPC will consist of a Select/Case structure, so the main loop only has to work through a section of the code for each NPC
   Also I'm programming everything in such a way , that it will only tackle the code for one NPC each loop .
   Before the main loop starts, I let the program search for a certain custom type

   ( example: IF (MODIFY.NPC <> NULL ) Then ....... )

   If the example above is true then I'll let the pointer  <cough> point <cough> to the first NPC type in the collection
   and at the end of the loop I move the pointer to the next NPC type in the same collection.
   If it comes up empty then I simply move the pointer again to the first one in the list.
   (with a lot of npc's, this saves a lot of processor-time)    

-  Cartography Shop is real easy to work with. Once you know how, you can have a decent model up and running in no time.
   To show you my progress with Cshop, here are a few screenies:



















You'll notice that buildings do not have doors/windows (yet).
This is because I need to figure out the exact scale of each building, in relation to the map it is placed on, and the surroundings on that map
Once that is out of the way, I can start adding doors and windows.
It is my intention to open doors automatically when the player is near it.  

Also a number of textures are just placeholders. I've noticed that some textures are a bit too real in relation to other textures that are a bit umm.. shall we say.... cartoony (?)     

 (yikes... my fingers are getting numb from all that typing)

- Gamespace is a tough nut to crack, but I'm getting there, albeit very slowly. :/
   (the video tutorials made by 3DBuzz are a great help though).
   From the first series on how to build a game-character, I'm halfway through lessons that tackle "adding arms and legs"
   (lessons 4 and 5 if I'm correct)

   Furthermore: I can set up reference panels, move & modify primitives, modify vertices-faces-lines, extrude geometry from a model,
   paint faces, use the UV-editor , to name a few.    

- TreeMagik and Plantlife are the icing on the cake (yum.. cake).
   You can have grass,mushrooms,weeds,trees,bushes,rocks and a few others in all shapes, sizes and colors.
   You can even mix a few of them up.

Okay, that's it from me so far. Hope you like the screenies.
See you soon with more screenshots.

OMG!

Hi Peeps,

Here are some more screenshots from a model of a castle I'm working on. This model is actually made up from 5 different segments ( tower , wall & entrance , closed wall , wall & ramp , wall & stockade ).







With these segments I can make different types of castles in all sorts of shapes and sizes.
And when I create even more segments, the possibilities are unlimited (grin).

In an earlier post I mentioned following video tutorials for GameSpace.
Well, everything went ok and I've completed the first series. Below you can find the result

This one has its faces not painted and has one garbeled texture



This one has its faces painted



Please note that this model only 50% complete.
Next up is: Skinning , Rigging , Animation , Exporting to MD2 (pffff)

So, there is still a lot to do.
Soon I will post screenies about the different maps I've made so far.

S'all for now

LLAP      [/url]