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FPSC Classic Work In Progress / Different levels of interest

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rolfy
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Posted: 28th May 2012 21:59 Edited at: 28th May 2012 22:12
This will be something a bit different.
This will not be a game as we know it. I intend to create walkthrough levels which will have very little gameplay (there will be some interaction with environments), instead I am concentrating solely on level design, I am hoping to create something visual and immersive as I can possibly make it.
Since I dont have to worry about storyline as such at this stage I can pretty much design whatever comes to mind and tie it up together later.
The good part is having to only think a small bit at a time and one level at a time with no real deadline in mind, so I expect to enjoy doing this.

First level is about 50 percent done, I just need to throw more filler props in there and maybe looking at some sunbeams and particle dust motes.
I have a crap load of media created which I have never used myself for anything and now is the chance to dust it off and see what I can actually do with it.





Awesome! Its one of those threads.
bruce3371
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Posted: 28th May 2012 22:11
Somebody's been playing 'Dear Esther'!

Lovely looking screens

rolfy
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Posted: 28th May 2012 22:27
Thanks Bruce.

I have been working on some stuff that may not see its way into this level but most likely be a part of the next.



Awesome! Its one of those threads.
uzi idiot
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Posted: 28th May 2012 22:39
Wait... what.
That's...
That's FPSC?!!?!?

If something compiles on the first try. Something is terribly wrong.
BlackFox
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Posted: 28th May 2012 23:01
Looks good so far. Good to see you dusting off the talent. I'm certain some can learn from your skills.


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Braden 713
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Posted: 29th May 2012 02:25 Edited at: 29th May 2012 02:25
This looks really cool! Sounds like a fun idea, can't wait to see what you come up with. Your levels have always been very unique and innovative.

Good luck with the project!

Life would be much easier if I had the source code.
maho76
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Posted: 29th May 2012 10:43
"i cant believe this is fpsc"

yea, that simple, i cant believe.^^
great job, rolfy. i am curious about the level sizes.

rolfy
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Posted: 30th May 2012 01:09 Edited at: 30th May 2012 01:27
The first scene above is 15x15 grid size, I don't expect any of these levels to get any bigger than that. You should regard each scene as stepping into a painting.
Screenshots and photographs are like this in the sense that you don't see the surrounding area or whats behind you and you try to focus attention on a single point.
I am trying to create scenes which have maximum interest wherever you are in the 3d space and the illusion isn't spoiled, to do this its best to limit the size of the space.

At present the woods scene has six dynamic lights as these can be scripted to use light intensity, this can be seen to best effect on the trees, with a couple of filler lights to create some scattering, there are no static lights used at all. It may be that I will change things and bake the lighting and shadows to get it the way I want it without forcing it in FPSC.....although 'forcing it' probably isn't the best term to use as FPSC is doing an excellent job in this case.

Awesome! Its one of those threads.
BlackFox
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Posted: 30th May 2012 04:19
Quote: "The first scene above is 15x15 grid size,"


What is the height (number of layers)? For example, some buildings in packs are two or three "layers" high. Is your scene in one layer only?


Twitter: @NFoxMedia
King Fluffs
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Posted: 30th May 2012 20:59
That looks godly...



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Teabone
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Posted: 30th May 2012 22:42
Beautiful work. I wish I knew how to properly map my textures to my models.

Ertlov
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Posted: 30th May 2012 23:50
Rolfy, jsut a quick question: How do you make those sunrays?

Come to where the madness is:http://www.homegrowngames.at
Disturbing 13
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Posted: 31st May 2012 00:31
As always great job! Will you have audio as well to make it more an interactive fiction?

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rolfy
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Posted: 31st May 2012 01:22 Edited at: 31st May 2012 01:24
Lots of questions...
Quote: "What is the height (number of layers)? For example, some buildings in packs are two or three "layers" high. Is your scene in one layer only?"

The height of the trees is around 40ft in real world terms so I guess with terrain its around 5 segments in height.


Quote: "Rolfy, jsut a quick question: How do you make those sunrays?"

Those rays are a part of the skybox at present, I am looking at creating some rays using bond's animated shader and hope to introduce some dust motes throughout the level using particles. The rays will be the hard part as FPSC doesn't handle overlapping transparency very well, but will see what can be done, I really dont want to use decals.

Quote: "Will you have audio as well to make it more an interactive fiction?"

Ambient sounds most certainly will be in there.

Awesome! Its one of those threads.
Ertlov
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Posted: 31st May 2012 15:36
Quote: "Those rays are a part of the skybox at present,"


NOW I see it. You really had me on that one. I thought all the wood in the background is also modelled and textured...

Come to where the madness is:http://www.homegrowngames.at
Disturbing 13
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Posted: 31st May 2012 22:41
Quote: "Ambient sounds most certainly will be in there."

I was meaning more an inner monologue of the player character to tell a story. It would make for an interesting sort of game play to be clued in on what to do or where to go by what the player is thinking.

Disturbing13
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rolfy
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Posted: 1st Jun 2012 02:37
Quote: "NOW I see it. You really had me on that one. I thought all the wood in the background is also modelled and textured..."



Thats a fairly good idea D13 if it were to look like it could all be tied together into a storybook I will. The idea here is not to get stuck with keeping things tied together and simply throw out ideas I have for environment design and attempt to create it. The next level could be steampunk or scifi or whatever, but still its a solid idea and I love the thought of creating a storybook with 3d interaction.

Awesome! Its one of those threads.
JLMoondog
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Posted: 1st Jun 2012 03:52
Firefly's, this scene must have firefly's.

Looks really good. Can't wait to see what else you bring to this interactive art experience.

rolfy
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Posted: 1st Jun 2012 04:03
Firefly's it is.

Awesome! Its one of those threads.
Metal Devil123
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Posted: 1st Jun 2012 07:49 Edited at: 1st Jun 2012 07:51
Quote: "Firefly's it is"



Ba dum tshh?

No but really, fireflies would really put the icing on the cake (yes I think that's the correct metaphor). It's really looking great. Love that you're just putting your imagination out there, no restrictions. And you also had me fooled, that all that in the background was also models (not all of it, but at least some)

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rolfy
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Posted: 1st Jun 2012 08:11
Nice to see you around MD123, the skybox is actually a free one I released not too long ago.

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=175136&b=24

I guess I am just doing with it what I intended it for so thats why it ties in nicely.

Awesome! Its one of those threads.
rolfy
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Posted: 1st Jun 2012 11:37 Edited at: 1st Jun 2012 12:16
Threw some more stuff in there and added particle firefly's.
These views are from round the other side now.
I am not happy about the brightly lit foliage will be fixing that.





Awesome! Its one of those threads.
007
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Posted: 1st Jun 2012 12:45
WOW man, i really admire your skills!

What an awesome work!

Your work always is an inspiration to me, and as i said, the idea of designing my levels inside 3dsmax came from your project, Dark House.

Just it`s sad that you don`t want to create a completely game in FPSC, i am sure you could create one of the bests games ever created in FPSC.

Cheers,

007.

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ASTECH
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Posted: 2nd Jun 2012 03:38
Quote: "Ba dum tshh?"


I was so waiting for that post. ROFL

Quote: "Just it`s sad that you don`t want to create a completely game in FPSC,"


Sometimes a little project here and there doesn't hurt a thing.

PC Specs: AMD X4 2.7Ghz, 8GB DDR3 RAM, Nvidia 9800GT, Win. 7 Pro 64 Bit
rolfy
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Posted: 2nd Jun 2012 07:26 Edited at: 2nd Jun 2012 07:48
Ive been trying out lightrays and it sure looks nice after a fair bit of tweaking, though I reckon I will have to optimise the level a lot to fix the framerate drop caused by these, this laptop got an integrated card.
I have tried but cant seem to find any way to change the height of the direction rays come from, its no problem changing on the horizontal, if anyone has any insight into this I would welcome it





Awesome! Its one of those threads.
Cyborg ART
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Posted: 2nd Jun 2012 11:31
Thats just sick!

You got some serious skills!
I cant believe its FPSC, you have really shown that the only limitation within FPSC is your imagination.

uzi idiot
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Posted: 2nd Jun 2012 13:08
My visual cortex just exploded.

If something compiles on the first try. Something is terribly wrong.
Phaelax
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Posted: 2nd Jun 2012 17:48
very nice

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Ertlov
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Posted: 2nd Jun 2012 18:58
Harr-Harr, Postprocess=3 is the key to the last pic, right?

Come to where the madness is:http://www.homegrowngames.at
Metal Devil123
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Posted: 2nd Jun 2012 20:48
Quote: "My visual cortex just exploded."

I guess that's the best way to put it. That just looks awesome! The light rays make the scene!

rolfy
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Posted: 4th Jun 2012 12:19 Edited at: 4th Jun 2012 12:58
First texture bake, now able to remove all those dynamic lights using ambience only.
The details really jump out now and I reckon the skybox will need some post work as well.






Awesome! Its one of those threads.
SpaceWurm
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Posted: 4th Jun 2012 18:16
Looks brilliant Rolfy!!!

It's a pitty the engine couldn't render realtime shadows like that instead of the "creator" having to bake them into the scene.

Looks very pretty nonetheless.

Landman

Artrift.com - Digital Art Community | MyPixelbox.net - My Creative Blog
electric chihuahua
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Posted: 5th Jun 2012 06:10
Fantastic work as always.
Will you be able to show us a small video walk thru later?



Clark
rolfy
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Posted: 6th Jun 2012 00:25 Edited at: 6th Jun 2012 04:13
Quote: "It's a pitty the engine couldn't render realtime shadows like that instead of the "creator" having to bake them into the scene."

Its not for everyone or even every scene. With woodland scenes like this or anywhere you place trees you really need to have the dappled light and shadows to make it work, in my mind anyhow. Still by doing it this way I am less likely to run into the memory cap at build.

Quote: "Will you be able to show us a small video walk thru later?"

Of course and each level will be available for download as they get completed, this wont be overnight as I am trying different approaches to get the results and will show each method till its the way I want it.

Handy tip:
Here's one of the advantages to baking textures, once baked and into FPSC I can take a quick screenshot, I can then post process this in Photoshop, tweaking the brightness/contrast,levels and colour tones till it looks the way I want it, its a simple case of creating an action to repeat whatever processes are used and then batch apply this to the textures, when you go back into FPSC you see the results of this.
You could in fact apply this to scenes created in the standard way too. making your scene textures fit right in with what you want.

Awesome! Its one of those threads.
The Storyteller 01
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Posted: 6th Jun 2012 00:31
This is something I am looking forward to play very much.

PS: haven't you released a very cool skybox once with a similar theme?

In case you find my grammar and spelling weird ---> native German speaker ^^
rolfy
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Posted: 6th Jun 2012 00:34 Edited at: 6th Jun 2012 00:35
Quote: "PS: haven't you released a very cool skybox once with a similar theme?"

Yep and I think you got it at the time if I remember. This uses that very one.

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=175136&b=24

I dont expect a lot of gameplay as I am simply trying to create environment with a little interaction, but I hope you do take a look at it.

Awesome! Its one of those threads.
SOLO DESIGN
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Posted: 11th Jun 2012 16:46
Rolfy,
This looks cool!!

PS I have just ordered your cloth and crate pack!
rolfy
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Posted: 29th Jun 2012 05:07 Edited at: 29th Jun 2012 05:30
Took a bit of time out to do other things but getting back on track with this.

Final bake, added some GI and desaturated the terrain colors a little to tie it up better with the skybox.



Added lightrays with particle firefly's.



Mushrooms now puff golden spores.



I do have a few other models created for this, just need to put them in there, I dont want to show everything at once as I want folks to discover it all for themselves when I release the demo.
So far these are all from much same view for comparison shots.

Awesome! Its one of those threads.
wizard of id
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Posted: 29th Jun 2012 12:16
Awesome rolfy !! Are you using any shaders ? I assume baked textures, will not look all that pretty normal mapped ? Some specular maps would look awesome on the trees and mushrooms ?

Just been chatting to my neighbours teenage daughter and it turns out she's big into UFOs and aliens.

Which is cool because tomorrow she's getting abducted.
rolfy
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Posted: 29th Jun 2012 22:31 Edited at: 29th Jun 2012 22:37
Thanks wiz,
Since I use these bakes in much same way as lightmapping works (it uses an illumination shader so you can introduce lights and ambience for characters etc and not affect the baked textures) it would be possible to use at least a couple of the others, would probably require a little forethought all the same.
Specular highlights are baked in already, might be interesting to try some spec and normal on things though just to see how it looks, in fact not much is required after this, it might even be that any more detail would be overkill, is there such a thing in games graphics?
Still after I finalise the build I will tinker with some other effects and see how it goes.

Awesome! Its one of those threads.
Dark Goblin
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Posted: 4th Jul 2012 16:45
Rolfy a quick tip for the light rays.
If you're still using postprocessing=3 you can try to change the
variable inside the shader file.
I haven't implemented a way to change the vertical position of the rays the time I created the mod which got into FPSC and the sun plane isn't really that big, but adjusting the values could work.

If nothing is changing, the variable gets set inside the code, so your best bet would be to just rename the variable to something else inside the shader, replace all oocurences with the new name, place the rays horizontal in your map, change the shader to your new one and adjust the lightdir values in the shader so they fit your needs.

rolfy
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Posted: 5th Jul 2012 00:33 Edited at: 5th Jul 2012 01:57
Thanks DG for the info, I was able to change the horizontal direction for the light rays but nothing changed for the vertical, I will take a further look at things as you describe.
I am fairly happy with the modeled light rays I have just now and they are the first I have thrown in to see how it might work, with a little further tweaking I feel they will look better, they have no fps impact whatever which suits me and I might take it further and use an animation shader to liven it up.
But the full screen shader is very nice to have and any further info on its use is always welcome.

Awesome! Its one of those threads.
rolfy
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Posted: 6th Jul 2012 22:24 Edited at: 6th Jul 2012 23:22
Test of 3rd person and terrain collision (sliced), there are a couple of bugs to fix, mainly that the camera drops to floor height at random points when walking uphill, you see this at the end of the video. I think this may be a segment mesh issue, if so its an easy fix. Still, it wont be too much to work around it and I intend that the player should stick to the path anyway so its no big deal.
I have a couple of ideas for the player character though the Thug looks kind of sweet in this environment


.
You can find 3rd person,TDS and player body scripts to tinker with here:
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&b=21&t=195008&p=0

Awesome! Its one of those threads.
The Storyteller 01
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Posted: 7th Jul 2012 13:32
My VERY subjective comment:

I LOVE the landscape but the whole 3rd person thing spoils the impression. To make the player character live up to it, you'd need a model with excelent texture and animation - Errant AI's TF 341 are the only ones I can think of that currently are good enough.

But i, a game as visually appealing as your screens/vid promise, I could do without any 3rd person at all, it just discracts from the beuatiful surroundings

As I said, very subjective.

In case you find my grammar and spelling weird ---> native German speaker ^^
maho76
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Posted: 7th Jul 2012 13:44 Edited at: 7th Jul 2012 13:45
i agree with storyteller, but depends on what you are planning to do with this. i think some here have something like dear esther in mind.^^

personnaly i think 3rd person is only neccessary for jump&run-actions or when you have no other possibilities to get a connection from character to player (i am sure you can do it without 3rd-p, if at all neccessary i dont think so).

but very nice to see this in motion, i have to look into that baking-method (and learn texturing and lightsetting ... )

rolfy
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Posted: 7th Jul 2012 15:20 Edited at: 7th Jul 2012 15:49
I was thinking of a small flying Dragon or flying fairy character (really small), wasn't really planning on using a human at all
It also gave me a reason to raise the camera height, the default has always appeared too low to me unless a weapon is held to give some perspective.
I may or may not make it a small puzzler for added interest, its all just experimental at this stage and I am putting in and dropping things as it goes along, it also seemed prudent to me that if using 3rd person or even other characters, such as path following birds/butterfly's or whatever it might be best to slice up and test the terrain for npc collision before going any further, thanks a lot for the comments guy's.

Awesome! Its one of those threads.
maho76
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Posted: 9th Jul 2012 16:19
maybe you wanna take a look at the wastelander-pack (its not yours,isnt it?^^), the characters have a very nice boneshape and gamma that fits good to darker enlightened places like yours, maybe you can get good setups from it, using very small lights in the highlights to enlighten the entity for a short time in the right places would give a nice pic. just4info.

Soviet176
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Posted: 9th Jul 2012 20:10
Rolfy, your environments never cease to amaze. You should really consider doing a particle pack. Like the particles you show in your screen, maybe particle rain to update the old weather pack you did awhile ago.

What I love the most about you is that you think of everything when it comes to developing what you do. It must put a heavy limit on artistic talent to have to take things like Collision for both AI and player plus lighting, and many other things to get this all perfect.

You probably have the coolest fantasy scenes I have ever seen. Keep it up comrade!

007
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Posted: 10th Jul 2012 01:06
Hello Rolfy!

Congratulations Man, really, it`s an awesome job.

Now i am beginning to export my level environments created in 3dsmax to fpsc, but as you are a true master in this technique, i would like to ask you some tips and tricks, maybe?

1- When slicing a terrain in 3dsmax, following your terrain tutorial that is on the community guide, you are using the slice plane modifier. But i find it very boring task, especially when you have a big terrain to slice it entirely. I mean, don`t you know some maxscprit or plugin that can do this slice automatically? I tried some scripts like "glid_slicer", "topPlaneslicer", "multi_slicer, all avaiable at scriptspot.com, but they did not work well.

2- On the video, when the character walks upon the trunk of the tree, is this trunk of the tree a part of the segment or is this an entity? And if the trunk of the tree is part of segment, so i can have any polygon mesh inside 1 unit of segment? Or i must have just a plane polygon mesh, like a floor segment?

3- Lets say that i have a floor (terrain), that i sliced it in 3dsmax, then exported each piece on segment creator to create the segment. But as i used baked textures, so each piece of the terrain will have it`s own texture. And when i import it on segment creator, how i will reaply the texture? Are the UVW coordinates preserved when i import the mesh in Segment Creator?

4- As i am using a plugin to bake textures (Flatiron), in the final it creates a kind of big texture map (various texture maps), and some objects share the same texture file, just with different UVW coordinates. When i import those meshes in Segment creator, i won`t lose the texture information?

I am asking those questions, because i am finding some difficulties using the Segment Creator, and also, because i see that you already mastered this technique.

Cheers,

007.

Goldenye 007 N64
rolfy
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Posted: 10th Jul 2012 01:53 Edited at: 10th Jul 2012 02:28
There is no script available to do this that I know of, the only addition I might make to the tutorial you refer to is that it is quicker and easier to select each slice by element after slicing and detaching as a unique object, rather than exploding the entire mesh. This is a quicker method. I would also consider which parts of the mesh require npc collision and only detach those areas.

The 'tree trunk' you refer to is actually a stone figure (haven't baked this yet so its not sitting as well in the scene as it should), its sculpted from a simple plane (1024 poly's) and is a static entity with reduced collision.

The uv coordinates are retained so only one large texture is required for entire terrain (you can of course use more than one if you want extra detail). The good thing is once you have a terrain created its a simple matter of ensuring each slice is numbered simply, say 1-400, when you want to create a new terrain you can use a simple 'replace text' editor to rename all texture paths and mesh paths and reuse all the .fps you created for the first terrain. If you do this correctly on the first run you only need to use segment creator for first .fps then change the mesh number for each following segment file. After that its a simple matter of creating new terrains as described above, the first one is the most tedious.

It wont matter how you uv mapped your textures, as I said above all texture info is retained, though to be honest I wouldn't use an automatic uv unwrapper like Flatiron, if you do you have to save out the uv mapping from Flatiron and load it into a standard uvunwrap modifier as Panda wont recognize any other kind (also remember that Panda will only export one modifier from the stack so if using many you need to collapse it). To retain as much texture detail as possible over such a large object, you need to use a simple unwrap (planar) and use a 4096x4096 texture (dx9 limitation) or as I said use more than one texture..

Awesome! Its one of those threads.

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