Pandora Tincs - Multiplayer Shooter For Pandora (video)

[Username]

Did you finally get it working? Nicely done.

 

[Butterman]

Still can't get animation working. The verticies for all of the frames are identical. I've tried about 5 different ways to extract the verticies and still nothing. This is really annoying me. I could be spending this time doing something important. It doesn't help that Python is such a bad language to be working in.

 

[Butterman]

Animation is all working now.

I've started making tutorials on the Jottit site for modelers to follow when they want to get their models into the game.

http://tincs.jottit.com/

Once the script is definitely finalized, I will upload it and quickly put together a model viewer.

 

[PSyMastR]

Steampunk FPS! Yes!

Capture the tophat instead of capture the flag.

 

[fusion_power]

Important question for a Single-Player Fan like me: Will the game have good Bots so I can play against them like a real Multi-Player Game? I just ask because there are not much good Bots in Homebrew-Shooters or often not even bad bots. \^_\^
I love the Unreal Tournament Bots, they are fun to play with and they can act good enough to simulate Multi-Player Mode.
I really would like to see such good bots in a Open Source Shooter.

 

[Butterman]

Right. I've made a video showing the modeling system and animation working. The gun is animated in Blender to move up and down, not in-game. We really need some arms .

The video is here:
CODE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgEwi2FP4f8

It's taking ages to process, I cba to wait much longer.

Important question for a Single-Player Fan like me: Will the game have good Bots so I can play against them like a real Multi-Player Game? I just ask because there are not much good Bots in Homebrew-Shooters or often not even bad bots. \^_\^
I love the Unreal Tournament Bots, they are fun to play with and they can act good enough to simulate Multi-Player Mode.
I really would like to see such good bots in a Open Source Shooter.

Bots will be an after-thought. There is a lot more to be done first. I'm planning on release the first version of TINCS without them and there will definitely be more features that I want to add before bots. Vehicles for example. They may be far on the list, but bots is WAY further.

What we will have is portal style gun turrets, this idea has been talked about on the Jottit site here:
CODE
http://tincs.jottit.com/single_player_mode

It will be good, so you can practice offline and get a hang of the game before joining a server. I'm hoping to get this in, after I have maps in. On that note, I've got a lot of ideas I want to put forward about mapping.

I'm thinking of having a very basic map editor, that you will be able to run on the Pandora itself. You will get dropped into the gridded world in a first-person view. Then, will be able to build the map around yourself, putting walls, floors, ramps down. Testing them out straight away. You will be able to texture stuff, maybe with a texture gun, so you can just shoot whatever texture you want on to the walls. Technologist wise, this will be insanely easy to implement. As in, I could probably do it in a few weeks. This will limit map complexity, but I think, with enough work, it could make very complex maps very quickly and easily, and anybody could do it. We could have a contest, the best 6 maps go into the release of TINCS or something like that.

Also, I've been thinking about ranking and stuff. Like, in Battlefield 2, how you unlock stuff. (COD4 style, but I hate COD4). I'm going to run a master server from home that will list all of the game servers online, so you don't have to mess about typing in IPs and stuff and I could easily implement this kind of system on that server.

I'm going to put these ideas onto the jottit today so I can get some feedback. The Jottit is getting big too, well done guys, we have to go through one of these days and link all of the ideas and clean it a little, I'm going to get an IRC chat up today, so I can start talking to some of you guys who've been putting all of these great ideas up.

Oh, it's been two weeks since TINCS was started. I've done networking, models, animation and basic shooting in that time. Pretty fast eh? Considering I've been doing this around college. I've got a week off now, I'm gonna make it count .

 

[Butterman]

UPDATE: IRC is up. Connect to irc.quakenet.org

Then join the channel #TINCS

 

[Hollenderster]

I am not a good modeller, but here are a few weapon/gamplay ideas that might help to distinguish your fps from others:

- Tactical squad laser
This one should work well even in a steampunk setting. It is a heavy weapon system, thus significantly slowing down the player. Based on real world CO2 lasers, no pew-pew and no visible beam. Instead it has a focussing optic that needs a short while to train on a target. Temperature rises exponentially while the target is illuminated by a focussed beam, damage is a function of temperature. First few degrees are not causing any damage, but above a certain point damage also increases exponentially. When the beam looses its target, the victim will cool down rapidly, although he might still be taking some heat damage. Special reflective armor can protect you against the laser but is not as effective against conventional weaponry.

- Artillery
Weapon system to be operated by two players. One uses a beacon or small laser (only one per team) to paint a target, the other has to load and fire the artillery gun. Artillery ammo is large, unwieldy and stored away from the gun, so the operator has to run a small way for each shell, two shells if he drops his sidearm and carries another one in his arms. The gun fires straight up, the ammo is looking for the target on its way down from the apex. If there is no target marked, the shell will impact close to the gun, probably killing the operator.

 

[bakawhite]

I am not a good modeller, but here are a few weapon/gamplay ideas that might help to distinguish your fps from others:

- Tactical squad laser
This one should work well even in a steampunk setting. It is a heavy weapon system, thus significantly slowing down the player. Based on real world CO2 lasers, no pew-pew and no visible beam. Instead it has a focussing optic that needs a short while to train on a target. Temperature rises exponentially while the target is illuminated by a focussed beam, damage is a function of temperature. First few degrees are not causing any damage, but above a certain point damage also increases exponentially. When the beam looses its target, the victim will cool down rapidly, although he might still be taking some heat damage. Special reflective armor can protect you against the laser but is not as effective against conventional weaponry.

- Artillery
Weapon system to be operated by two players. One uses a beacon or small laser (only one per team) to paint a target, the other has to load and fire the artillery gun. Artillery ammo is large, unwieldy and stored away from the gun, so the operator has to run a small way for each shell, two shells if he drops his sidearm and carries another one in his arms. The gun fires straight up, the ammo is looking for the target on its way down from the apex. If there is no target marked, the shell will impact close to the gun, probably killing the operator.

I'll get these on concept. Scans up in late pm. What's a good site to put them on the upload?

 

[PoisonedV]

if you do steampunk, please at least make it 'goofy steampunk' or 'cartoony steampunk'
every time a non-adventure game tries to do serious steampunk setting, they just screw it up

 

[Butterman]

if you do steampunk, please at least make it 'goofy steampunk' or 'cartoony steampunk'
every time a non-adventure game tries to do serious steampunk setting, they just screw it up

I think goofy steampunk is one of the popular art directions. Everybody liked that steam rifle and I would easily call that goofy steampunk.

Again, I'm not making the decisions, if in a few weeks time, everybody has made a bunch of goofy steampunk renders then that's the direction we're going to take. If somebody else brings up a different art style (hopefully, the more the better), then we're going to vote. If the majority likes goofy steampunk, then that's the game we're making.

Personally, I like this style the most
CODE
http://tincs.jottit.com/mafia_-_tf2_style_art_theme


Just from those three images, I think a game with that art style would be cool.

 

[PoisonedV]

Like i said on IRC, i actually meant that goofy steampunk would work much better than a serious gritty steampunk style. also, i like the mafia tf2 one also, since frankly i love lupin the 3rd's style

 

[giovanni]

I'm modelling a steampunk cannon (tes, it's not that much, like my previous hut, but hey... I'm a beginner... ).
This cannon comprise two object with differents UV maps and textures... How can I convert it with the Jmodel script?
In your tutorial you said that the script exports only one object at a time.

Thank you

P:S: Should the pivot point be at the origin? Or it must be the physical center of the object? How can I automatically move it at (0;0)? (because in your example picture the pivot point is not exactly at the intersection of the axes...)

 

[Butterman]

I'm modelling a steampunk cannon (tes, it's not that much, like my previous hut, but hey... I'm a beginner... ).
This cannon comprise two object with differents UV maps and textures... How can I convert it with the Jmodel script?
In your tutorial you said that the script exports only one object at a time.

Thank you

P:S: Should the pivot point be at the origin? Or it must be the physical center of the object? How can I automatically move it at (0;0)? (because in your example picture the pivot point is not exactly at the intersection of the axes...)

That's going to be a problem. What you can do, is export them separately, a mesh is only exported if you have it selected, so only right click one mesh, export it. Right click the other mesh, then export that. Putting them back together in the game isn't a problem. My object system allows stuff to exist of more than a single mesh. In the tutorial, that positioning was more for weapons, because they're what everybody is making at the moment. To play it safe, for world objects, put the base of the object at Y = 0. (flat on the red axis) So it's sitting on the floor, then just put the center of the object at X = 0. This way, when I spawn world objects, they should sit on the floor without extra work.

Make sure you try it out in the model viewer too

 

[giovanni]

That's going to be a problem. What you can do, is export them separately, a mesh is only exported if you have it selected, so only right click one mesh, export it. Right click the other mesh, then export that. Putting them back together in the game isn't a problem. My object system allows stuff to exist of more than a single mesh. In the tutorial, that positioning was more for weapons, because they're what everybody is making at the moment. To play it safe, for world objects, put the base of the object at Y = 0. (flat on the green axis) So it's sitting on the floor, then just put the center of the object at X = 0. This way, when I spawn world objects, they should sit on the floor without extra work.

Make sure you try it out in the model viewer too

Perfect

What is the best size for the textures? I use the 500x500 format.

 

[Butterman]

It won't make a difference, but it's best to stay in powers of two. 256x256, or 512x512. This ensures maximum compatibility.

 

[fusion_power]

I`m thinking of having a very basic map editor, that you will be able to run on the Pandora itself. You will get dropped into the gridded world in a first-person view. Then, will be able to build the map around yourself, putting walls, floors, ramps down. Testing them out straight away. You will be able to texture stuff, maybe with a texture gun, so you can just shoot whatever texture you want on to the walls. Technologist wise, this will be insanely easy to implement. As in, I could probably do it in a few weeks. This will limit map complexity, but I think, with enough work, it could make very complex maps very quickly and easily, and anybody could do it. We could have a contest, the best 6 maps go into the release of TINCS or something like that.

I love editing straight out of the Device. If you need inspiration for a good Editor, try the "Sauerbraten" Engine. In my opinion a very effective Editor and one of the few really INGAME Editors, it even allows multiplayer-Map Editing, sounds crazy but it's true. (The other Semi-ingame Editor was the BUILD Editor from Duke 3D but it was not easy to handle)

- Artillery
Weapon system to be operated by two players. One uses a beacon or small laser (only one per team) to paint a target, the other has to load and fire the artillery gun. Artillery ammo is large, unwieldy and stored away from the gun, so the operator has to run a small way for each shell, two shells if he drops his sidearm and carries another one in his arms. The gun fires straight up, the ammo is looking for the target on its way down from the apex. If there is no target marked, the shell will impact close to the gun, probably killing the operator.

UT2004, one of the Expansion Packs, right? There was an interesting Artillery vehicle for the Onslaught mode.

+1 for the Steampunk Idea!
+2 for a graphic Style in "Art Deco" (Bioshock for Example or just visit the Empire State Building )
-nice Idea with the Turrets/Sentries. Also a good Idea to build such devices like in Team Fortress. I loved to play the Engineer!
-also good Idea to make a solid engine first. Graphics can wait, Bots too of course.
-I hope the game will run fast enough onto the Pandora. better Speed than Graphic effects IMHO
-I like the Idea with Vehicles.

my fav. Game Modes: Assault (UT), Onslaught (UT 2004),CTF Team Fortress Style, Holding Bases like in the Battle Field series.
Player classes are also a good idea.

Whoever wants can make a Steampunk Version of my RPG sketch.

 

[Megatog615]

XreaL has some nice Blender export/import tools for MD3, MD5, and ASE.

http://xreal.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/xr.../xreal/blender/

 

[Dutch_Cap]

Since vehicles are being considered, may I suggest steampunk mechs? Because giant robots make everything better.

 

[atomicthumbs]

I have made a gun in the style I like

425 tris, 256x256 diffuse

Very nice, I also think this style would be a very good direction. I'm guessing secondary fire is for zooming and melee is for bayonet?

The Colt Revolving Sword-Rifle?