Pandora Tincs - Multiplayer Shooter For Pandora (video)

[Muzz]

Put a few hours onto of the original sketch painting .

The main thing im aiming for is mood in this painting.

Though in retrospect it is kind of useless, as with the platform we are going to need fairly well lit scenes to make it playable. Also i would want to put a bit more of the old style cars into the car in this scene. I might work on it a bit more later.

 

[Butterman]

I'm not sure if I like the idea of giving pitches. We want to choose and art style from look alone. All we're choosing is a look, not the ideas behind it. We're looking at concept work, trying to imagine how it would look in a game and saying, hey that would look awesome. If we have each artist spouting their propaganda, then people aren't going to be choosing the ideas they think look the best. I don't even think I'm going to show the names of the artists who made the concept, or the name of the style. I'm just going to say, "Art Style Number One" with some images to back it up.

Muzz, if an artist draws up one sketch putting no effort into it and everybody thinks it looks awesome. It's no longer just their lazy idea. It's a style an idea that everybody likes, then that's the direction we're taking. We can expand on that work he started. I don't think it matters how much work they put into their idea, I don't want ideas to be chosen because "Oh this guy obviously put a lot of work into it" so I'm going to vote for him. We want. "THIS LOOKS SWEEEEEEEEET".

I'm thinking you really want your art style to be chosen. So you're putting lots of effort into it . Fair enough man. You've probably got the best shot because you've got some of the best art. But, again, I wish it wasn't chosen on artist skill alone. But it will be.

 

[Muzz]

In the end you have the final word, but i still think that pitches are a good idea.

as you say "But, again, I wish it wasnt chosen on artist skill alone. But it will be. biggrin.gif", that is why i like the idea of a pitch, is allows those without the skill to illustrate their ideas to still show what they mean.

Also picking an art style solely off badassness isnt the best idea imo, as an art style isnt just how badass a game looks, it affects playability in a huge way, for example that sketch that i just posted i respect that it would make a completely unplayable environment for a hand held fps. (also how many other artists that we have that can do quality 2d art? i honestly dont know)

The reason why i like to do it this way is it gives the intended players a complete overview over the style. That being said i have seen some badass styles come from a single sketch.
Probably the best idea would be to have the best of both worlds, have it anonymous, but at least allow a blurb of say, 300 words about the art style.

Ill make sure to discuss ideas with you before posting in future.

EDIT: oh and check out this sweetness. just thought it was cool while surfing polycount for 3d shizz.
CODE
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v138/Syama/?action=view&current=sh.flv

 

[Butterman]

You've convinced me in that I now think that a small pitch is a good idea.

I suppose a limited art capability shouldn't hold back an idea. Knock yourself out

Whoa, that's awesome. Terminators are frikkin sweat.

I don't think we need fairly lit screens. The Pandora screen will be able to give us a perfect image in a pitch black room. Equal to the LCD you're using for your PC right now.

 

[Muzz]

glad we could come to an agreement .

I have started building a map for testing purposes, as well as practice.

There is a lot of low poly mapping techniques that i don't yet know, so i need to do a fully finished map before we start doing real assets.

This is the blocked in model, about an hours and a halfs work, just to establish scale and placement. Ill be remodeling pretty much everything.
I'm going to try and keep the whole level under 10000 tris.

 

[PSyMastR]

That model looks like a totalitarian government setting then anything. And right now, that theme is way overplayed

 

[Butterman]

That model looks like a totalitarian government setting then anything. And right now, that theme is way overplayed

I'd love to know how you got that from a few blue cubes?

 

[Muzz]

i lol'd.

Don't worry about the art style of the enviro, it is only for testing and practice purposes.

Also guys stop worrying about avoiding every cliche, it is an impossible task, so its best to start something badass and FINISH it. (if you haven't noticed, the groups that ignore user input at the early stages are the ones that usually get finished, not saying its a bad thing, but it can cause a lot of distractions). Would you guys rather have a game or a cool concept at the end of this?

 

[gruso]

That model looks like a totalitarian government setting then anything. And right now, that theme is way overplayed
I'd love to know how you got that from a few blue cubes?Well, Mirror's Edge does it with a few white ones.

 

[Butterman]

That model looks like a totalitarian government setting then anything. And right now, that theme is way overplayed
I'd love to know how you got that from a few blue cubes?Well, Mirror's Edge does it with a few white ones.

Gah. Got me there.

I should be releasing a new version of the model viewer with animation and texturing support tonight. This will be the last release of it that uses the current model format, I'm working on upgrading it, so we can use it for maps. (Yay?). After some long discussions with Muzz, we're adding this:

-Multiple Mesh Support
-Multiple Texture-Per-Mesh Support
-Ability to use more than just diffuse textures, (bump mapping, specular shizzle, etc).

This should be the final format. It (hopefully) won't change. I've written up preliminaries here:

http://tincs.jottit.com/jmodel_expansion

 

[Butterman]

Latest version of model viewer. :lol:

Supports texture viewing, it also rotates the model so you can see the whole thing has exported correctly.

Download here. Instructions are in RAR file.

CODE

http://www.mediafire.com/file/yczzdn1mony/JModel Viewer.rar



If it won't run, you need this:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en

(Various libraries, they should be installed when you install most modern games, but some people just don't have them!)

Oh yeah, I wanted a screenshot of Giovannis model working in it too. But it wouldn't, It didn't display properly at all.

If you're around Giovanni, could you upload the .blend file so I can export it myself to try and work out why this is happening? Cheers.

 

[GPSchnyder]

I've played around with google Sketchup a few Month ago and found it rather easy to build easy Stuff, like Bricks or so (no, it really isn't that bad). Is there a Way to export their stuff to use as Levels? Or maybe as base for the final modeling? This way someone like me could build easy levels and someone that is skilled could finish it?

Don't know about this Stuff yet, so it's just a Question of being doable. I think Sketchup is so easy to work with that even untrained People could use it to build some stuff.

 

[Butterman]

As far as using modeling programs goes. If it can export to a format readable by Blender. You're fine. In the case of Sketchup, I think the best format to use would be .3ds, then import the .3ds into Blender and then export it to JModel.

That said. Blender is really easy to use. I'm retarded when it comes to art, like, seriously retarded. But I can even make a few things in Blender, it's not much harder than SketchUp. There are lots of tutorials on the net, it's really intimidating at first, but once you understand it, it's not that bad.

But yes. Just download Blender, export from SketchUp into a .3ds file, load that with Blender, then follow my JModel export instructions on the Jottit site.



EDIT: Yeah, I'm hoping that everybody will be able to make maps, regardless of skills. That's one of the reasons I choose Blender as our program of choice. It's free, easy to learn. You can start making levels in it without problem, just put a giant cuboid down as the floor, put some walls in, some crates, done!

 

[fusion_power]

EDIT: Yeah, I'm hoping that everybody will be able to make maps, regardless of skills. That's one of the reasons I choose Blender as our program of choice. It's free, easy to learn. You can start making levels in it without problem, just put a giant cuboid down as the floor, put some walls in, some crates, done!

Can I also use a grid to make a smooth Hill landscape? I don't know how smooth the engine sets a rough grid but with the right textures and some smooth shading and the correct lightning there could be some interesting Environments, even with low-poly settings.
...I hope someone can do the texturing when I try some basic Levels...I only have some experience with blender materials-settings but this is useless for the game engine (needs UV Textures).
Here, my try for something like an Island made with blender a while ago. Simple grid, deformed and subdivided for smoothness, Skydome and a flat water sheet. Procedural Texturing with Blender Material settings.
CODE

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4193/insel3.jpg

 

[giovanni]

I tried to draw my idea for the game: a cartoony steampunk FPS.
I don't know why but in this period I like to decontextualize everything and so my project is to make a war violent game with cute cartoony soldiers slaughtering each other...

Here is my draw with an example of a charachter (don't laugh):
http://digilander.libero.it/giov_lol_92/Draw.jpg

Before you do I want to make clear that I suck at drawing, I suck in general, I don't have a graphic tablet, this is my first draw using only the brush and it looked much better on the screen of my old PC.


At least I tryed

P.S: @Butterman: If we decide to get that damn cannon in the game P ) here is the new texture (I have to admit that I didn't work too much on it):
http://digilander.libero.it/giov_lol_92/Fux.png

Now it should look like this:
http://digilander.libero.it/giov_lol_92/Preview2.jpg

The next step will be the animation... I'm trying

 

[Butterman]

EDIT: Yeah, I'm hoping that everybody will be able to make maps, regardless of skills. That's one of the reasons I choose Blender as our program of choice. It's free, easy to learn. You can start making levels in it without problem, just put a giant cuboid down as the floor, put some walls in, some crates, done!


Can I also use a grid to make a smooth Hill landscape? I don't know how smooth the engine sets a rough grid but with the right textures and some smooth shading and the correct lightning there could be some interesting Environments, even with low-poly settings.
...I hope someone can do the texturing when I try some basic Levels...I only have some experience with blender materials-settings but this is useless for the game engine (needs UV Textures).
Here, my try for something like an Island made with blender a while ago. Simple grid, deformed and subdivided for smoothness, Skydome and a flat water sheet. Procedural Texturing with Blender Material settings.
CODE

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4193/insel3.jpg

Yeah, if you can make it in Blender like that, we can run it in the game. Supporting transparency whatever.

I don't understand what you mean by the Blender Materials settings being useless?

Giovanni, do you have a .blend file for that model? Read my post about 5 posts up about the new model viewer

 

[giovanni]

I read it. When I finish to post I will move it (New Jmodel viewer) to my PC (with this one I can't use photoshop, blender or any other program... family rules ) and then I will export it again.
I have the .blend file but for the same motivation I gave above I can't post it immediatly...


EDIT: .blend?

http://digilander.libero.it/giov_lol_92/Fux.blend

 

[fusion_power]

I don't understand what you mean by the Blender Materials settings being useless?

I think you can't export the procedural generated Textures from Blender in your game. In my picture, there is not one "real" image texture onto the Island, just colours and Material settings, manipulated with sliders and numbers.
But it doesn't matter as long someone with Texturing skills can "paint" a nacked, untextured Level.

Oh, what are the useful measurements? 1 Blender Unit = 1 Meter or can you later scale the Level like you want?

 

[Butterman]

I don't understand what you mean by the Blender Materials settings being useless?

I think you can't export the procedural generated Textures from Blender in your game. In my picture, there is not one "real" image texture onto the Island, just colours and Material settings, manipulated with sliders and numbers.
But it doesn't matter as long someone with Texturing skills can "paint" a nacked, untextured Level.

Oh, what are the useful measurements? 1 Blender Unit = 1 Meter or can you later scale the Level like you want?


Right now we're not really thinking about it. I'm scaling everything in-game. It's probably best we come to a decision on that stuff sooner or later. 1 Blender Unit : 1 Meter sounds good.

 

[Muzz]

cant you just set the scale in blender to actual meters? i work in max, so i have no idea, ill just be using blender for exporting.

But if it was meters it would mean that working across is so much easier.