Pandora Tincs - Multiplayer Shooter For Pandora (video)

[Mithrildor]

@ Butterman: About tincs.jottit.com

The menu at the right side is kinda messy I have some ideas to make the site easier to use , but I don't know how to do that
-Get the menu bar at the left side, almost all websites use that and it is way easier
-Make some tabs in the menu (just like 'main' above all links in the menu) and organize the menu.


To tell ya, Ive made a 'Gameplay' page because all the gameplay ideas are hardly accesable without using the menu. And I like to give the website a certain flow.

 

[Butterman]

I can't edit the page. It's like Wikia. All I can change is the colour and font.

 

[Butterman]

Poll for art style is up!!!

 

[GPSchnyder]

@ Butterman: About tincs.jottit.com

The menu at the right side is kinda messy I have some ideas to make the site easier to use , but I don't know how to do that
-Get the menu bar at the left side, almost all websites use that and it is way easier
-Make some tabs in the menu (just like 'main' above all links in the menu) and organize the menu.


To tell ya, Ive made a 'Gameplay' page because all the gameplay ideas are hardly accesable without using the menu. And I like to give the website a certain flow.

I've said that I will sponsor Webspace. I'd like to install a Website also with a small forum or so to work things out in a better way. But we have to wait for the name poll for that anyhow...

 

[Butterman]

I've said that I will sponsor Webspace. I'd like to install a Website also with a small forum or so to work things out in a better way. But we have to wait for the name poll for that anyhow...

Yes. We're very grateful for this. We need to start putting name ideas together this week once the art style is chosen tonight. (I'm going to archive the ones that didn't win too on the Jottit). So we can get that site sorted ASAP!

 

[Mithrildor]

Butterman , plz read the reply's and not only to poll. They are right we need a new and fresh style. So it would be a great plan to go with Steampunk.

 

[Butterman]

Butterman , plz read the reply's and not only to poll. They are right we need a new and fresh style. So it would be a great plan to go with Steampunk.

Who's they? More people voted for #2, the majority of people want that style. Don't worry about it not being fresh. We can handle that, if anybody had actually read his pitch they would realize what the style is actually about.

 

[Vorporeal]

As I said in the topic in General, we should probably discard the votes from this poll, let people discuss the options, and then do a real poll. I voted for number 2, but after reading the 3 pages of discussion that were there, I reconsidered. Discussion about something like this is healthy, and I think we should do a lot of it before actually having the poll to make the decision.

 

[Muzz]

Sorry dude, the poll is final, i don't know if you have read, we are trying to get a beta out the door as soon as possible. The art style will be changing slightly as we go but there will be no major detours.

I would rather have a finished game with a little bit less originality, than to have vaporware; And not delaying things like this is one way to avoid that. Its about keeping up the rhythm of getting stuff done.

 

[retort]

Poll for art style is up!!!

man its early, wheres the poll?

 

[Butterman]

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=46904

 

[Butterman]

Yo dawgs, I heard you laek not having cubes as players, so muzz modeled a dude, then I sorted out sum serious problems in ma codes, so you can shoot stuff that ain't cubes while yo roll.

tl:dr, muzz made a model, i was using ubyte to store indices, a byte is 2^8, which is why i haven't noticed any problems in low poly models, but when muzz sent me this, we had problems, flipped it over to a uint, which is 32 bits, 2^32. Now we're in business!

That's gotta be the first time a tl:dr was longer than the original text.

 

[retort]

nice work butterman.

quick question, i know you won't have dynamic lighting or anything, but will there be a shadow system? or just 1 default ingame light?

i'm working on a level, and pre-baking is no problem, but some corridors are going to be identifiable by light colour, and shadow contrast, which may look tacky when a character is so visible in the environment.

 

[Butterman]

nice work butterman.

quick question, i know you won't have dynamic lighting or anything, but will there be a shadow system? or just 1 default ingame light?

i'm working on a level, and pre-baking is no problem, but some corridors are going to be identifiable by light colour, and shadow contrast, which may look tacky when a character is so visible in the environment.

We will have dynamic lighting. Shader style. At first, this will simply consist of point lights placed in the map. I haven't thought past there. You should probably give this a read.

CODE
http://tincs.jottit.com/creating_a_map_for_tincs

 

[Mithrildor]

Butterman Ive got an question for you.

What if someone wants to use a custom dude for his map. He want to give everyone characters of the he is using in maps. How will that person be able to use his own objects?

Currently there is nothing about it on tincs.jottit.com

 

[Butterman]

Butterman Ive got an question for you.

What if someone wants to use a custom dude for his map. He want to give everyone characters of the he is using in maps. How will that person be able to use his own objects?

Currently there is nothing about it on tincs.jottit.com

For player models and weapons, he can just replace the ones in his folder, and he will see different models. Unless the other players already have the models, there is no way that you can make everybody else see a different model. I think that's what you're asking?

If you're asking, if a map could have its own character models, the answer would be no, not for technical, but for design reasons. Every TINCS map, will have to conform to regulations, or it won't be official, you can still use it on your server if you want (but we won't support different player models server side). These regulations will make you have to follow the correct art style and gameplay. If they aren't followed, the map simply does not get put into the release and therefore not used on any official servers. If you want players to use different models, you create a mod, rather than a map. But modding support will come after the alpha/beta (the period where we make our first public releases), but before the full release (could be a good 6 - 9 months from now, tbh).

 

[darkblu]

tl:dr, muzz made a model, i was using ubyte to store indices, a byte is 2^8, which is why i havent noticed any problems in low poly models, but when muzz sent me this, we had problems, flipped it over to a uint, which is 32 bits, 2^32. Now we are in business!

erm, dont do that. ushorts are your choice of index type for 99% of the case.

 

[Mithrildor]

Butterman Ive got an question for you.

What if someone wants to use a custom dude for his map. He want to give everyone characters of the he is using in maps. How will that person be able to use his own objects?

Currently there is nothing about it on tincs.jottit.com

For player models and weapons, he can just replace the ones in his folder, and he will see different models. Unless the other players already have the models, there is no way that you can make everybody else see a different model. I think that's what you're asking?

If you're asking, if a map could have its own character models, the answer would be no, not for technical, but for design reasons. Every TINCS map, will have to conform to regulations, or it won't be official, you can still use it on your server if you want (but we won't support different player models server side). These regulations will make you have to follow the correct art style and gameplay. If they aren't followed, the map simply does not get put into the release and therefore not used on any official servers. If you want players to use different models, you create a mod, rather than a map. But modding support will come after the alpha/beta (the period where we make our first public releases), but before the full release (could be a good 6 - 9 months from now, tbh).


Do players need to send their map to you ,before it can be used on the main server? So it is not like Warcraft III where you make your own custom map and the only thing you need to do is host a game and wait for people to download it?

Thats too bad, I hope we can get that implanted in later releases.

 

[GPSchnyder]

I found it a bit weird to choose an art Style where some had a Background attached (That's not the Art Style, isn't it?) and one like mine didn't, even as I mentioned it in my Text that if we apply a Story to the Art-Style mine would be Steampunk or Steampunk vs. Cyberpunk.

Do we choose the Storyline sometimes or is it now Cyberpunk? Was a bit confusing.

Anyhow, how do we choose, give in Names for the next poll?

 

[Butterman]

Do players need to send their map to you ,before it can be used on the main server? So it is not like Warcraft III where you make your own custom map and the only thing you need to do is host a game and wait for people to download it?

Thats too bad, I hope we can get that implanted in later releases.

Yes. I said that you can run whatever maps you want on your own server. Players download them when they connect.

I found it a bit weird to choose an art Style where some had a Background attached (That's not the Art Style, isn't it?) and one like mine didn't, even as I mentioned it in my Text that if we apply a Story to the Art-Style mine would be Steampunk or Steampunk vs. Cyberpunk.

Do we choose the Storyline sometimes or is it now Cyberpunk? Was a bit confusing.

Anyhow, how do we choose, give in Names for the next poll?

I thought that Muzz was creating a picture, more than anything.

No, this is just the art direction. For a multiplayer FPS, I think that the art is more important than the backstory. Considering they're very interlinked, we're going to have to go for something futuristic, not necessarily a cyber-punk story, but it has to work with the art.

We're going to start accepting concepts for back stories now. They will be voted on just like the art style was.

Yeah, It's names time, we need to start building up ideas for names, I'm terrible at this kind of thing .

tl:dr, muzz made a model, i was using ubyte to store indices, a byte is 2^8, which is why i havent noticed any problems in low poly models, but when muzz sent me this, we had problems, flipped it over to a uint, which is 32 bits, 2^32. Now we are in business!

erm, dont do that. ushorts are your choice of index type for 99% of the case.

Shorts are 16 bit right? I came to the conclusion that maps may go over the 2^16 limit imposed by that.

Well, I hope our maps are big enough that they do