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Work in Progress / Samurai Legends

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Irradic
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Posted: 15th Mar 2012 17:44 Edited at: 30th Mar 2012 23:02


A short introduction:

Japan at the end of the 15th century. States are warring over the rule of Japan.
A western ship, with a group of occult worshipers on board, strands along the shores of Japan.
The group and crew are being captured and brought to the nearest Daimyo.
The occult worshipers strike a deal with the Lord, their freedom in return for immortality and an army big enough to conquer the whole world.
However, the Daimyo would have to sacrifice his youngest daughter in order to create a rift to another realm.
In the following months a demonic army rages terror. Raiding and burning down castles and villages of those who stand against the Lord.

About the Story:
Before I had posted anything regarding the story, I was asked a couple of times if the game is based on actual historical events.
As you can figure out by reading the short intro above, the story is fictional. Some characters are based on actual historical persons.

Genre:
Samurai Legends is an action adventure game. Inspired by games like Onimusha 1-2, Ninja Gaiden and Way of the Samurai


The initial plan was to create an open world, where you as a wandering Samurai could pick quests from NPCS in different locations. Pretty much in the style of Way of the Samurai.
But at the end we decided for a linear story. Which I'm pretty sure people will enjoy. We had the aid of a real screen writer.
I would still like to incorporate side quests, but we'll see
how this would work out with the pacing of the story.
It wouldn't make sense if our hero is doing side quests while
a character from the main story needs to be rescued.

On the technical side, the game is of course being created with DBPro, Evolved's Advanced Lighting shaders are still responsible for the lighting of the game.

At the moment we are debating about third person versus fixed cameras. While personally I'm tending towards the fixed cameras. My friend, who's the programmer, thinks fixed cameras are outdated.
I just think a well placed fixed camera could be better during a sword fight, than a cam behind your character which needs constant adjusting.
If you guys would like to share your opinion, please let me know what you think would be best, and if possible why.

At the end I would once again thank those who have donated.
Most donations we received so far came from the TGC forum community. The Samurai Legends campaign still runs until mid May, any contribution will be a big aid. We still hope to get enough to hire some additional help. Funders will receive perks for their support.

Samurai Legends is now present on IndieDB !

We are looking for an animator !
___________________________________________________________________
I'm a person who prides himself of doing stuff on his own. However, Samurai Legends has taken proportions where I can no longer do all the asset work alone.
Hence I'm looking for an animator who would be willing to lend us a helping hand.

Unfortunately at the moment I can't offer any payment other than being in the credits.
If we'll be able to raise funds through crowd funding, you'll definitely be paid for the work done.
But for now I'm making no promises.

For now we need an additional 3-4 attack combo for the main character. Here is an example.
The combo needs to be split into several parts, so that if the player discontinues the combo, we could transition to the attack idle pose.
Personally I'm working with 3ds Max, I will provide the biped and the .bip files of the first attack and the attack idle pose. But you may also choose to not build on top of my attack animation and animate from scratch (as long as it starts and ends into the idle pose, ).
Should you be working with a different software package, I'm able to work with fbx files as well. You could use your own rigg since I'm able to remap the animation through a script.

Would be great if someone would like to help out.

Thanks for reading guys !
___________________________________________________________________

























Hivernaal
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Posted: 15th Mar 2012 18:29
Impressive !

2 reasons to live
f*** and kill
Doomster
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Posted: 15th Mar 2012 20:08 Edited at: 15th Mar 2012 20:12
I agree, the logo looks great and so do the screenshot; look pretty polished!

Quote: "If you guys would like to share your opinion, please let me know what you think would be best, and if possible why. "

I'd personally prefer a fixed-cam, because...

...Third-Person has been overdone the last couple of years, while many oldschool game mechanics, such as fixed cams, kinda ceased to exist (not even Resident Evil and Silent Hill use them anymore...probably one of the many reasons, why the newer games of these series tend to suck). So, that'd be one more thing to help Samurai Legends to stand out, I think.

...Using Fixed-cams would allow to really "wow" the players, by using cinema-esque camera angles that show of the scenery better, than third-person would be able to do (the bridge screenshot illustrate that really nicely).

Or perhaps the camera could be a mixture of both, that the fixed cam is used while the player isn't fighting, but switches to a third-person view (still a bit away from the player model, and slightly rotated (pointing more towards the ground than straightforward)) during battle...although that'd require more work to really get it right and nail it.

No matter what it's going to be in the end, I'm certain it's gonna be great. Awesome job!

-Doomster

Quel
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Posted: 15th Mar 2012 21:01
I just view a couple reviews of newer games here and there, haven't played any of them, but i'm already sick of this "open world" gimmick, glad you decided this way.

Was time to finally start this WIP!

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Irradic
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Posted: 15th Mar 2012 21:52
@Doomster - Thanks for your feedback !
Those are exactly my thoughts. I believe fixed camera angles will just work better for Samurai Legends.

But I'm curious about other people's opinions.

@Quel - Thanks, we thought it would create a better experience.
I hope we'll be able to pull it off the way we imagine it.

DevilLiger
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Posted: 16th Mar 2012 11:50
looks great, but what kind of video card are you running? just curious.

Irradic
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Posted: 16th Mar 2012 23:10
@DevilLiger - Thanks. I'm using a NVidia 560GTX

DevilLiger
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Posted: 16th Mar 2012 23:39 Edited at: 16th Mar 2012 23:39
great choice.

Dimis
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Posted: 17th Mar 2012 15:17
Very good work so far! Being a big Onimusha fan myself, I can't wait to see this game progressing. I remember seeing this wip in youtube a long time ago and I am surprised that I don't see any new characters or backgrounds yet.
Technically I also think that fixed cameras are better in that type of game. I still prefer the fixed cameras of Onimusha 2 rather than moving cameras.

Keep up this great work!

Irradic
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Posted: 17th Mar 2012 17:34 Edited at: 17th Mar 2012 20:00
@Dimis - Thank you ! I think you should rewatch the old video. Everything you see here is new. I decided not to reuse the scene from the old video since it was too small. It was only supposed to be a showcase at the first place. If you were talking about new locations, I will post new stuff as progress goes.
Once the AI is ready I will post a gameplay video where you'll be able to see the first enemies of the game.

Anyway, since most people seem to share my opinion regarding fixed cameras, I think that is the way to go.

Gunslinger
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Posted: 18th Mar 2012 01:58
Allready said it at youtube some time ago.
Just - fu**ing - awesome!
kamac
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Posted: 18th Mar 2012 12:26
I suppose, Wow?

Really, really... really nice. Try to popularize this, just as sword of arkhanox got popularized.

Irradic
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Posted: 18th Mar 2012 13:52
Thank you ! I will definitely give the game more exposure once I have some gameplay to show.
Hopefully this will be in a month or two. We want the fights to be as good as they can be.

TheComet
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Posted: 18th Mar 2012 19:54
It looks frikkin' amazing!

Quote: "Inspired by games like Onimusha 1-2, Ninja Gaiden and Way of the Samurai"



That game was impossible... The tutorial levels already slaughtered you. I hope you don't choose to make it that hard

Good luck with finishing this!

TheComet

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Posted: 18th Mar 2012 20:54
Agreed TheComet.


This looks pretty damn cool and it'll be interesting to see what you implement for game play here.


Irradic
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Posted: 18th Mar 2012 23:16
@TheComet - Thanks !
Haha, yeah Ninja Gaiden gave me a hard time too. I actually never finished either 1 or 2. Samurai Legends won't be that difficult.

@Seppuku Arts - Thanks a lot ! Expect lots of action, cool boss fights and some nice environment puzzles. I hope we'll deliver !

Darkzombies
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Posted: 18th Mar 2012 23:52
So awesome, how long did it take?

-------------------------------------------------------------
Irradic
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Posted: 19th Mar 2012 01:35 Edited at: 19th Mar 2012 01:38
I've spent around 6 months on assets, a lot of it is still untextured on my harddrive.
All the work was and still is done in my spare time. The main keep (castle), specially the interior did consume most of the time.
The original mesh which I used for my showcase had no real scale and no interior. I rescaled the mesh and resized portions of the castle to offer enough space for an interior. Unfortunately the UVW got corrupted during the process and I had the "pleasure" to unwrap everything once again. But it was also an opportunity to make some optimizations.
I worked around 4 weeks on the new character. The original character mesh was quiet dated, from a time where Mudbox (sculpting) was not yet part of my workflow. I liked my original design. However, I wanted the new version to look more current gen and address the critics I got on youtube. According to 3-4 people the main character was "whimpy looking", "looking like a tool" and having elf ears. So I beefed the new version a bit up.

Except for the castle, the creation of everything else was pretty straight forward. I did a lot of research and collected references to create assets that look as authentic as possible. Something I didn't really do for the showcase project "Oriental Fantasy project". As a result I had some Chinese elements mixed in, which is the reason why I didn't reuse any of the assets except for the castle.



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Quel
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Posted: 19th Mar 2012 03:32
To me the new character looks a bit western... i prefer the previous one, but both are quality stuff, it's your choice.

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The Slayer
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Posted: 19th Mar 2012 15:29
Reaaaaaaaaaaally coooooooool stuff, Irradic! I'm sooooooooooo pleased you got this back on track.
I love the samurai and ninja era, so I'll keep a close eye on this.
Personally, I think you should combine fixed and moving cameras. Fixed camera would limit what the player can see/discover. Especially since this is looking so amazing, you should allow the player to see all of it with it's own eyes, and not through the eyes of a fixed camera. But, that's how I see it.
Anyways, don't give up on this. Niiiiiiiiiice work man!

swissolo
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Posted: 19th Mar 2012 17:35
I personally would prefer the lack of a fixed camera, only because it therefore feels like you're being guided though the game, as opposed to discovering it. A mix would probably be fine, but watch out.

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Irradic
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Posted: 19th Mar 2012 18:32
Thanks a lot for sharing your opinion guys.
My experience with the third person camera was that I was missing a lot of the scene, unless I would take the time to just stand there and look around. But that's a bit difficult to do when you are under attack.
Doomster made a good point when he gave the bridge as an example.
With fixed cameras I can create more cinematic perspectives, show off scenes better. But on the other side one might experience this as lack of freedom. However the cameras wouldn't be totally fixed. They'd still follow the character to some extent, either through rotation or movement.

Anyway, I haven't made any final decisions yet in this aspect.
I'll revisit Ninja Gaiden and Genji and see how the camera was done in those two games. If I remember correctly, both titles mixed fixed and third person cameras. And If I'm right, both showed more than just the back of the character throughout the game.

Thanks again for your input, it's much appreciated.

Clonkex
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Posted: 20th Mar 2012 00:58 Edited at: 20th Mar 2012 01:10
Wow, this looks great!

I know from experience that Advanced Lighting can be incredibly slow on older cards and laptop chips. It would be great if the game could have some options to turn the shader effects down.

What did you make the levels using? What did you make the character using?

And out of curiosity, how many lines is the source code?

EDIT: Just noticed the first post was posted on my birthday
EDIT2: I also noticed that the FPS displayed is some of the screenshots was 62fps rather than 60. Is this due to using integers for the fps limiting code? I speak from experience...
EDIT3: In the most recent screenshot, the FPS was 75 - does that mean there isn't any limiting code? If so, you REALLY need to lower the quality of the shaders, because you're using a 560GTX and if that's the best it can manage, than someone with a lesser card will simply not be able to play the game.

Clonkex

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Posted: 20th Mar 2012 01:12
I used to like a lot of the fixed camera games, it's a style I like playing. I don't think enough games do it these days because 'open world and free exploration' seems to be the emphasis. Some games that used to be fixed camera but are now more free just don't have the right feel. Like Resident Evil for instance, it was a horror game and its restrictiveness played really well to its horror themes. So naturally I want to see more modern games use the fixed camera.

But I am certain you'll work it so it works best with the game play. However, that's my opinion on the camera.


Irradic
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Posted: 20th Mar 2012 10:48 Edited at: 20th Mar 2012 12:51
@Clonkex - Thanks ! To answer your first question, all was created using 3ds Max. I used Xnormal to render the normal maps from high poly objects.

Now about the FPS. At the moment only DOF and God Rays are activated, all other effects are deactivated.
Evolved is about to rewrite the entire Advanced Lighting system, I hope while doing this he will cut down on render to image calls and improve performance. It's just not one of DBPro's strong points. Another problem seems to be objects with smooth transparency.
Take a look at the fps at the screenshot I have attached.
I had talked with Evolved about this issue.

When we did a comparison with the Leadwerks engine, yes we imported an entire scene to Leadwerks, Leadwerks was almost 150 frames faster. Same scene, same resolution, but Leadwerks had more post effects activated.
However the art pipeline was such a pain in the butt,with the exporter constantly crashing, that I was turned off. We just needed a lot more time getting things done, that at the end we returned to DBPro.
There were 2 options I was considering, going back to forward rendering or staying with advanced lighting but turn off the shadows for all static objects and bake lightmaps for the entire scene.
Turning off the shadows more than doubles the frame rate, however once we turned the shadows for the character back on, we had the same fps as if the entire scene shadows were rendered. So we'll have to do some more research and see what's up with that.

We are still finding ways to improve performance. That said, It will still be a while until the game will be ready. A year at least if not more. We are not targeting (old) low end laptops or Desktop machines ( we have tested on 380GTX and 460GTX). Most likely we will cap the frame rate at 30, since this is not a fast paced game anyway. You will definitely have the possibility to deactivate effects for some extra fps.

@Seppuku Arts - I just recently read an article, don't remember if it was on Kotaku or some other gaming website. It was talking about survival horror games and how the fixed cameras added a lot to the atmosphere and gameplay. It was quiet surprising when a zombie just popped into your screen, and ammo was quiet sparse in the first RE games as well.
For Samurai Legends, we will just have to see what works best.



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Irradic
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Posted: 20th Mar 2012 12:31 Edited at: 20th Mar 2012 12:46
Here another shot without hair, you can find the same screen grab in the first post. A difference of almost 80 frames.


Problem is smooth transparency, foliage is using clipping with an alpha map that only uses black and white, which is not causing problems.
We are looking for a solution, using the same method the foliage does would be one. But I would have to create a new alpha map with a higher resolution, with the current one it just looked horrible.

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MrValentine
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Posted: 20th Mar 2012 14:29
I was waiting until I had time to reat this thread to then reply... I remember seeing this game on youtube and instantly loved it... and now it looks even more impressive!!!

I have a slight concern maybe you already addressed this but
Quote: "!!!!!!!BACK!!!!!!!UP!!!!!!!YOUR!!!!!!!DATA!!!!!!!"


HUHEMM.. make sure to backup your work!!!
If you have [as we all tend to do] forgotten about this aspect... use drop box or a second and third hard drive duplicated copies of your project files...

Can you link me to the latest evolved shaders thread? I can not find it using the google search below

About the website... I would love to contribute it...

My Quote from the other thread [the physx wrapper one...]

Quote: "Irradic I want your game and also did you setup a website for Samurai Legends yet¿ if not I would love to make one for you in exchange for some insight into your development ^^ I and a discount of your game hehe"


for anyone wondering why I did not ask for a free copy [his choice entirely ^^] I think he still deserves some credit for the game regardless of me making a website for him... [Who knows maybe my name in his credits ^^ and my company too ^^]

anyhoo...

Yeah I want some practice making websites for projects like this and it would be a constant work in progress always making enhancements or improvements not a one time job... it would be helpful for my own project when I come about doing that...

my current banner showcases [ now side note for future readers as my banner will change by the time someone reads this in a few months or even days or weeks... it states " Currently Going Back into Web Development, So anything to do with CSS3/Html/5 xHtml, PHP MySQL and Javascript / jQuery say Hi " ] that I am reading back into web design its because since 2007 spring time I have been playing about with a WYSIWYG design style but I finally decided to bite the bullet and go hands on with further coding skills and also more advanced functions such as Databases and Animation/effects etc...

so anyway I would love to create something unique for this... and I will soon have an up to date portfolio as soon as I finish the current project that I am working on.

I would not be looking for any financial gains as I know your budget is tight, just some mutual respect is all and I have respect for this project as its of interest to me... just give me a full on tutorial on completing the game haha... I can also foresee some marketing improvements for this project so maybe I can add some benefit to the project too... this goes for anybody else on here guys as I wish to give something back to this community as without it I may very well still never get near fulfilling my dreams of creating my very own games...

I started a community project actually just not had time to write out the wording yet... Shameless Plug Here but its still on hold until I get more projects out of the way... though anybody is welcome to take up one of the tokens...

Anyway Irradic feel free to take this into PM my email is below in profile, Or here is fine by me too but I would hate to sidetrack your WIP ^^

back to the WIP...

I think the debate over Fixed cam vs. Dynamic can kind of hits on the borderline of heading down the mixed view I think... I liked the thought as above of a Battle cam and movement cam like when theres no enemies around... kind of think Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon style camera angles... I think its time for me to enjoy watching that movie again and posting some screen shots of what I mean if you have never seen the movie ^^

The fact that you are doing this in DBPro is extremely motivating for me as I have a similar environmental game which I will begin work on from April [After my Birthday on the ... First...] by that I mean its going to be hugely populated... have you looked at Dark Occlusion? I think it may benefit you in this project...

Wow I better stop here I have WAAAAAY TOOO MUCH TO SAY and time is short... this project has hit close to home for me

phew Hi as well to everyone in here

~MrValentine

Irradic
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Posted: 20th Mar 2012 18:38 Edited at: 20th Mar 2012 18:43
Good news first, took care of the smooth transparency issue and doubled the frame rate.


@MrValentine - Thanks a lot for the kind words. Glad you like it so far. I'm backing up the project regularly on a server, we are using GIT to keep everyone up to date.

As for the website, your offer is very appreciated, and a mention in the credits would be certain. You are correct that at the moment I don't have the budget for such things, hence we started the fund raiser in hopes that we could raise enough money to hire additional artists. But since at the moment the campaign proves to be not very successful we will relaunch it once we have some game-play to show.

Anyway, right now I just think there isn't enough material for a website. And I don't have the time to create graphics for one, the time I have available is better invested in the development of the actual game. I believe a development blog should suffice for now, on a site like Mod DB, which would also help in getting some more exposure.
Maybe we should put the discussion on ice for now and get back to it once we are ready. I would also have to get a web space and register a domain for it.
I can't thank you enough for making the offer. In case you'll be still interested in the near future, let's talk about it again.

I have of course watched Crouching Tiger, but it has been so long I really don't remember anything about the battles. Feel free to post a screen !

Good luck with your own upcoming project ! I hope you'll be able to overcome the hurdles DBPro will throw at you and create something great !

Btw, here is the LINK to the latest version of Evolved's ALS

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MrValentine
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Posted: 20th Mar 2012 18:48 Edited at: 20th Mar 2012 18:49
Quote: "Maybe we should put the discussion on ice for now and get back to it once we are ready. I would also have to get a web space and register a domain for it.
I can't thank you enough for making the offer. In case you'll be still interested in the near future, let's talk about it again."


I understand and agree as I too am tied up at the moment... and of course I was not in any rush to get started

I would gladly host the site too as well as the Database [which is MySQL only... as far as I know] and I should be able to allow you back door access to it if not... small issue as you can always have access to the database regardless with the login data... as well I doubt your game files will exceed a few gigs anyway ^^

And yes I am always honing my skills [see what I did there? ^^] in my web development and as you can see I am furthering my developments in various key areas, so if there is anything I can contribute be it hosting DivX streamed video files or if you need some free ftp testing space just ask... [I smell a free copy of the game and early beta access coming along lol]

but long story short yes lets keep it on ice for now and I would gladly unless you find someone more suitable than myself [*sigh*] be up for the task.

back on topic...

umm can you do a comparison shot for the smoothing thing? I do not see whats been addressed just a thought ^^

EDIT

How terrible of me... forgot to say

Thank you as well for your response

Irradic
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Posted: 20th Mar 2012 19:25
@MrValtentine - Glad you agree. I already see, we'll have a lot to talk about when time comes. Anyway...

In an earlier post Clonkex was concerned regarding the frame rate.
As I explained, an issue with smooth transparency cost a huge performance hit. Take a look at the screenshot with the Samurai side by side comparison, take note of the frames per second, 80 (with hair) vs 197 (without hair).
Tonight I revisited the issue and was able to fix it. As you can see in the latest screenshot the frame rate is almost 150, unlike before, where it ranged from between 50-70.

MrValentine
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Posted: 20th Mar 2012 19:36
Nice!

DAEvo
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Posted: 20th Mar 2012 19:46
Wow! Looks great!

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Rig Specs: Intel i7 2600k 3400 Mhz, 16 GB RAM, GeForce GTX 560 Ti, 64-Bit OS, 27" ASUS (x3)
Clonkex
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Posted: 21st Mar 2012 09:56
How did you solve the transparency problem?

Clonkex

Irradic
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Posted: 21st Mar 2012 11:23
Actually I can't really pinpoint what exactly fixed it. I'm no shader wizard. To be honest it was more luck than anything else.
The alpha shader I'm using is from an older version of Evolved's Advanced Lighting shaders. His newer versions all use clip(), which is faster but only allows visible or not visible, pretty much like 1 bit alpha. I'm using the old shader only for hair.
I made a side by side comparison of both shaders and did a couple of changes, until the object totally disappeared. That was the point where I was about to throw the towel. Then after my last attempt it all worked.

Sorry I'm not able to tell you what fixed it, but if you are using Evolved's Advanced Lighting shaders as is, and don't mix and match stuff like I did, you shouldn't have this problem at all.

Irradic
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2012 19:11
Guys I just wanted to let you know that Samurai Legends is now on IndieDB. Click here to visit the page.
Hope to see you there !

By the way I'm now working on the trigger zones for the fixed camera system. If I get to install FRAPS any time soon, I'll post a video.

MrValentine
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2012 23:58 Edited at: 22nd Mar 2012 23:58
I am not keen on joining any more sites but NICE!

Looking forward to seeing more !!!

EDIT

Oh forgot to say lovely screens on IDB and I bookmarked it for future revisits ^^

Irradic
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Posted: 23rd Mar 2012 00:10
You can view the page even if you are not registered on their website. For Samurai Legends it's just a platform to reach a larger crowd, and maybe build a small community outside of TGC.
News however needs to be authorized before being visible, most likely you'll read updates here first.

Thanks, glad you like the screenshots.

MrValentine
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Posted: 23rd Mar 2012 01:06 Edited at: 23rd Mar 2012 01:07
yeah , no I understand the conce[t, was just concerned I would not get the updates here thats all ^^ I do however forsee myself joining IDB within a years time though... just now is not the time for me to do so... but yeah I can think of another place you can publish your game into for a bit of customer base/feedback/demo promotion ^^

And I fully support you no matter what

Did I mention yet that I have the original Onimusha on PS2 now?

EDIT

I will get around to posting those CTHD screen grabs soon...

Irradic
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Posted: 23rd Mar 2012 15:14
@ MrValentine - Thanks ! Onimusha is a good game, hope you'll enjoy it !


Btw, visit the Indie DB page in a day or two.
We are looking for a name for our hero, there are some rewards involved, if we should use your suggested name.
You can read about the whole scope in the news section once the bit has been authorized.

MrValentine
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Posted: 23rd Mar 2012 17:33
I played Onimusta when it first came out and saw it recently in a second hand store for less than $5 £3

Dimis
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Posted: 25th Mar 2012 00:48 Edited at: 25th Mar 2012 00:49
@Irradic
You are making very good use of Evolved's shaders and I like the result very much.
Unfortunatelly I can't use shaders for my project because it keeps crushing when I try to use bone shaders. Probably this is because my models have a large poly count. I was curious about the poly count of your main character. How high is it? And when you have multiple characters on screen do they all cast shadows? If so, is your fps dropping?

Recently I started playing again Onimusha 2, trying to get 100% of the scenario route. Still waiting for Onimusha V...


Irradic
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Posted: 25th Mar 2012 02:00
@MrValentine - That's a bargain, it's a great game to have in your colllection !

Irradic
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Posted: 25th Mar 2012 03:32 Edited at: 25th Mar 2012 03:35
@Dimis - Have you maybe accidentally used the bone shader on an object that has no bones in it ?
This happened to me once when I assigned the shader to a piece of equippmet (helmet).
The main character has around 10k polygons, others range from 5 to 7k. But I doubt that the crashing is caused by the polycount of your characters.
There is a max object limit for shadows, I'm not sure at the moment if this is 8 or 10. You can adjust this in the advancedlighting.dba (sorry I'm not sure if this is the exact name).
While using directional light I'm only experiencing a slight drop, this is caused by the presents of another skinned character rather than by its shadow. However this is a total different story when it comes to point lights.
I had to turn the point light shadows completely off since once the character would get near a point light, the fps would drop up to 40 frames. Up to now I have no explanation for this, since directional light shadows are not causing this kind of performance drop.
If you have the same problem, use the shadows of the directional light and turn the once from the point liights off.

MrValentine
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Posted: 25th Mar 2012 04:41
yeah its amazingly a smooth game too... minus the quirky lack of proper side strafing which would have mae it much easier haha... Devil May Cry anybody?

Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 25th Mar 2012 15:26
I just love the depth of field, it's amazing to have a focal point in a game.

Irradic
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Posted: 25th Mar 2012 15:45 Edited at: 25th Mar 2012 20:59
Thanks Pincho Paxton, I didn't want to overdo it.


Just a re post of my thread in the 3DChat section:

I'm a person who prides himself of doing stuff on his own. However, Samurai Legends has taken proportions where I can no longer do all the asset work alone.
Hence I'm looking for an animator who would be willing to lend us a helping hand.

Unfortunately at the moment I can't offer any payment other than being in the credits.
If we'll be able to raise funds through crowd funding, you'll definitely be paid for the work done.
But for now I'm making no promises.

For now we need an additional 3-4 attack combo for the main character. Here is an example.
The combo needs to be split into several parts, so that if the player discontinues the combo, we could transition to the attack idle pose.
Personally I'm working with 3ds Max, I will provide the biped and the .bip files of the first attack and the attack idle pose. But you may also choose to not build on top of my attack animation and animate from scratch (as long as it starts and ends into the idle pose, ).
Should you be working with a different software package, I'm able to work with fbx files as well. You could use your own rigg since I'm able to remap the animation through a script.

Would be great if someone would like to help out.

Thanks for reading guys !

Clonkex
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Posted: 26th Mar 2012 01:42
Well- I'll give it a go. I use Blender, and it can export easily to FBX. Just tell me what to do

I love to help people wherever I can.

Clonkex

Irradic
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Posted: 26th Mar 2012 09:59
Thanks a lot for offering your help Clonkex. Let's move our conversion to Email. In case you don't want to post your address, you can drop me a line at Irradic at hotmail.com

Dimis
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Posted: 26th Mar 2012 15:21
Thanks for the advice about the shaders. It could be a piece of equipment that causes the crash in my project, I will look into it tonight.

About animations, I would like to help very much. But I don't have the experience to work with 3d studio or blender yet. I have a lot of experience creating combat animations with Poser. I could use a little time to see if I can help, probably with a newer version of Poser, because the one that I use now has limited import and export options.
Since you ask in my thread about Poser, it is a very good program for animating characters with limited modeling abilities. It is easy to use, but it has a lot of bugs and only 1 undo, so you have to learn how to work around those problems.

Still I want to help with this project so I will try to find a way.


Irradic
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Posted: 26th Mar 2012 16:11
Thanks a lot Dimis, any help is very appreciated !
I checked out Poser on youtube (how to animate), I like how you use dials to move each bone. However I'm puzzled how this would work with custom models, like in your case. Do you import your models and then animate, or do you animate on a generic character and then remap your animations ? If that's the case I guess both must have the same naming conventions ?
I'm just asking out of curiosity. There are people who prefer working in one package. Personally I have no problem working with multiple applications if the workflow is better/ easier.

Thanks again !

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