03/29/2013
Here are some new game play videos I made:
Friday, March 29, 2013
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Updated Avatar Shadow, Animations, and some Bug Fixes
03/26/2013
I have updated the Avatar shadow to become more faint the higher the player gets in the air:
After getting some updated animations (Wall Run Left and Right, Landing, Falling) and an FBX model (Wall) from an artist I imported them into the game:
While trying to correct a bug with the Ninja Scrolls not animating on the Xbox 360, I found that the water and skybox were not unloading... again. I updated them again to unload when the user enters the pause menu or exits a level.
In addition I noticed that if the user goes to the pause menu while the sarcastic dragon was out, he would continue to be on the screen until he timed out. I updated him to instantly disappear if the pause menu was activated.
So back to the Ninja Scrolls, I eventually found that the bug was introduced back when I turned off particle effects when a Ninja Scroll was on the screen. I removed this change and it instantly removed the lag and the animation is back and working. For now I have just re-positioned the scroll to not be over the center of the screen, since we currently only plan to have the scroll up to start the level:
Last but not least, since I was testing the new position of the Ninja Scroll on 480p, 720p, and 1080p, I noticed that the popup Tutorial and Timer were both partially off the screen. I updated both of them to fit on all 3 screens.
I have updated the Avatar shadow to become more faint the higher the player gets in the air:
After getting some updated animations (Wall Run Left and Right, Landing, Falling) and an FBX model (Wall) from an artist I imported them into the game:
While trying to correct a bug with the Ninja Scrolls not animating on the Xbox 360, I found that the water and skybox were not unloading... again. I updated them again to unload when the user enters the pause menu or exits a level.
In addition I noticed that if the user goes to the pause menu while the sarcastic dragon was out, he would continue to be on the screen until he timed out. I updated him to instantly disappear if the pause menu was activated.
So back to the Ninja Scrolls, I eventually found that the bug was introduced back when I turned off particle effects when a Ninja Scroll was on the screen. I removed this change and it instantly removed the lag and the animation is back and working. For now I have just re-positioned the scroll to not be over the center of the screen, since we currently only plan to have the scroll up to start the level:
Last but not least, since I was testing the new position of the Ninja Scroll on 480p, 720p, and 1080p, I noticed that the popup Tutorial and Timer were both partially off the screen. I updated both of them to fit on all 3 screens.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
More Bug Fixes...
03/23/2013
The water and particle effects that I had previously setup to unload when the player either entered the pause screen or exited a level were back to showing up when they shouldn't be. Looking over the code either my code was lost in a git merge or someone removed them. Either way, they have been corrected again.
I also updated the Ninja scroll to not show up by default with which ever level the user selected. Now it will have to be assigned as a Quest within the level builder.
The water and particle effects that I had previously setup to unload when the player either entered the pause screen or exited a level were back to showing up when they shouldn't be. Looking over the code either my code was lost in a git merge or someone removed them. Either way, they have been corrected again.
I also updated the Ninja scroll to not show up by default with which ever level the user selected. Now it will have to be assigned as a Quest within the level builder.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Struggles and Success with Avatar Shadow
03/22/2013
After struggling for the last couple of weeks on trying to get shadows throughout our game, I was tasked with at least getting one below our Avatar to help with player movement while jumping from platform to platform. I went back and revisited both of these tutorials:
http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/shadow_mapping_1
http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/avatar_shadows
But the problem I kept running into was that both tutorials are displaying the shadow on flat surfaces that are not being Normal Mapped. As I continued to try and merge the tutorials in with how we were drawing our models I would run into problems where the textures would not be displayed properly. They would be drawn then stretched around the model. Kind of like a Christmas bow on a present:
I finally decided to just hack it to create a simple circular shadow under the player. I would ray cast below the player and if a collision was detected, it would draw a circular model I created in Maya on the surface of that model at the X,Z position of the Avatar. It was far more simplistic than I wanted it to be, but in the end it gets the job done. Playing the game with it and jumping from platform to platform was a lot easier with the shadow as a guide:
After struggling for the last couple of weeks on trying to get shadows throughout our game, I was tasked with at least getting one below our Avatar to help with player movement while jumping from platform to platform. I went back and revisited both of these tutorials:
http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/shadow_mapping_1
http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/avatar_shadows
But the problem I kept running into was that both tutorials are displaying the shadow on flat surfaces that are not being Normal Mapped. As I continued to try and merge the tutorials in with how we were drawing our models I would run into problems where the textures would not be displayed properly. They would be drawn then stretched around the model. Kind of like a Christmas bow on a present:
I finally decided to just hack it to create a simple circular shadow under the player. I would ray cast below the player and if a collision was detected, it would draw a circular model I created in Maya on the surface of that model at the X,Z position of the Avatar. It was far more simplistic than I wanted it to be, but in the end it gets the job done. Playing the game with it and jumping from platform to platform was a lot easier with the shadow as a guide:
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Dynamic Skybox, Sarcastic Dragon Font
03/21/2013
Today I added code so that the skybox can be specified from the level builder and dynamically loaded based on the XML for each level. In doing so I went through and renamed the current skyboxes to be standardized.
I also updated the sarcastic dragon to use the same font from the Ninja scrolls. This alowed the text to be a little bit more readable.
Here he is mocking the player whenever he falls into the water:
Today I added code so that the skybox can be specified from the level builder and dynamically loaded based on the XML for each level. In doing so I went through and renamed the current skyboxes to be standardized.
I also updated the sarcastic dragon to use the same font from the Ninja scrolls. This alowed the text to be a little bit more readable.
Here he is mocking the player whenever he falls into the water:
EAE Top Undergraduate Program in the Nation
03/21/2013
Recently our EAE (Entertainment Arts & Engineering) department was ranked by the Princeton Review as the number 1 Undergraduate program in the nation.
The Salt Lake Tribune did an article on the success of the department. I would like to say congratulations to everyone involved. I am just glad I was able to be a part of it.
Recently our EAE (Entertainment Arts & Engineering) department was ranked by the Princeton Review as the number 1 Undergraduate program in the nation.
The Salt Lake Tribune did an article on the success of the department. I would like to say congratulations to everyone involved. I am just glad I was able to be a part of it.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Normal Mapping, Particle Effects, Bugs, and Lava
03/20/2013
With the help of our level builder being updated to support exporting different shader types, as well as variables (lightPosition, lightColor, ambientLightColor, shininess, specularPower) for the Normal Mapping, I updated our DisplayModel.cs to dynamically set these for each model based on the level builder's exported XML file. Additionally I was able to also update the Particle Effects code to also take advantage of the level builder's XML file to dynamically place particle effects wherever they are listed in the XML.
Here are some examples of the ability to set dynamic lighting:
I have also fixed a couple of bugs. Normal Mapping was not set properly on our dragon, platform_squre_brickmoss, and wall FBX models. Here is the updated platform_squre_brickmoss:
There was also a problem where if one of our Ninja scrolls with text was displayed on the screen, any particle effects that were behind it were being seen through it. I updated the show and hide methods of the scrolls to also turn on and off particle effects as needed to fix the problem.
Another bug that was found was if a player exited game play and went back to the initial start screen, both the water and skybox would not unload and would be visible. I added code to unload both of these on the pause screen and upon exiting the level.
Lastly, I was asked to take lava textures created by one of our artists and implement it with the water effect. Here are some video and picture of the textures in game:
With the help of our level builder being updated to support exporting different shader types, as well as variables (lightPosition, lightColor, ambientLightColor, shininess, specularPower) for the Normal Mapping, I updated our DisplayModel.cs to dynamically set these for each model based on the level builder's exported XML file. Additionally I was able to also update the Particle Effects code to also take advantage of the level builder's XML file to dynamically place particle effects wherever they are listed in the XML.
Here are some examples of the ability to set dynamic lighting:
I have also fixed a couple of bugs. Normal Mapping was not set properly on our dragon, platform_squre_brickmoss, and wall FBX models. Here is the updated platform_squre_brickmoss:
There was also a problem where if one of our Ninja scrolls with text was displayed on the screen, any particle effects that were behind it were being seen through it. I updated the show and hide methods of the scrolls to also turn on and off particle effects as needed to fix the problem.
Another bug that was found was if a player exited game play and went back to the initial start screen, both the water and skybox would not unload and would be visible. I added code to unload both of these on the pause screen and upon exiting the level.
Lastly, I was asked to take lava textures created by one of our artists and implement it with the water effect. Here are some video and picture of the textures in game:
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Game Play Video and Pictures for GDC
03/19/2013
Last night and this morning I worked on capturing new game play video and pictures for the upcoming Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Our EAE department will have a booth and some of our team will be traveling out for the conference to show off our game.
Here are the videos I captured:
Here are the pictures I captured:
Here is the trailer that was made for GDC:
Last night and this morning I worked on capturing new game play video and pictures for the upcoming Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Our EAE department will have a booth and some of our team will be traveling out for the conference to show off our game.
Here are the videos I captured:
Here are the pictures I captured:
Here is the trailer that was made for GDC:
Monday, March 18, 2013
Sarcastic Dragon
03/18/2013
After a couple different iterations of size and textures, I have finished the animations for the sarcastic dragon coming in and mocking the player. The first scroll texture was a little to tall and not wide enough so it was shortened and widened. Here are video and pictures of the initial size and textures:
Here is a picture of the updated size and texture:
After a couple different iterations of size and textures, I have finished the animations for the sarcastic dragon coming in and mocking the player. The first scroll texture was a little to tall and not wide enough so it was shortened and widened. Here are video and pictures of the initial size and textures:
Here is a picture of the updated size and texture:
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Shaders, Normal Mapping, FBX Files
03/17/2013
Members of our team are running into problems when artists are submitting new FBX models, or when the level designers are selecting a shader type for a model that is not designed to be shaded that way. So I have gone in and updated our DisplayModel.cs to catch shader types that are not supported for each FBX model that is displayed. This is mainly for Normal Mapping, either when someone sets the shader type to normal mapping and the FBX model has no Normal Mapping, or when the FBX model is designed for Normal Mapping, but has not been set to be processed by the Normal Mapping Processor. This updated code will allow for the game to always build and run, but models may not be drawn as well as they could be.
In the process I have gone through and updated the following models so that our code recognizes them for what they are and will display them all the way they were intended:
Lamp_1, Lamp_2, Lamp_3, Lamp_4, Lamp_5, crate_max, fire_pit_big, lamp_short, pillar_short, platform_squre_brickmoss.
Members of our team are running into problems when artists are submitting new FBX models, or when the level designers are selecting a shader type for a model that is not designed to be shaded that way. So I have gone in and updated our DisplayModel.cs to catch shader types that are not supported for each FBX model that is displayed. This is mainly for Normal Mapping, either when someone sets the shader type to normal mapping and the FBX model has no Normal Mapping, or when the FBX model is designed for Normal Mapping, but has not been set to be processed by the Normal Mapping Processor. This updated code will allow for the game to always build and run, but models may not be drawn as well as they could be.
In the process I have gone through and updated the following models so that our code recognizes them for what they are and will display them all the way they were intended:
Lamp_1, Lamp_2, Lamp_3, Lamp_4, Lamp_5, crate_max, fire_pit_big, lamp_short, pillar_short, platform_squre_brickmoss.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Finalized EffectsManager, Shadows and Dragons
03/05/2013
Today I finalized all the standardized effects to go along with the new EffectsManager, which included the two new fire effects.
I am now looking into adding shadows into our world. I will be using the two Indie Game code samples from Microsoft as a base:
http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/shadow_mapping_1
http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/avatar_shadows
I will also be working on adding a sarcastic / funny dragon that makes fun of the player anytime he is unsuccessful.
Today I finalized all the standardized effects to go along with the new EffectsManager, which included the two new fire effects.
I am now looking into adding shadows into our world. I will be using the two Indie Game code samples from Microsoft as a base:
http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/shadow_mapping_1
http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-US/education/catalog/sample/avatar_shadows
I will also be working on adding a sarcastic / funny dragon that makes fun of the player anytime he is unsuccessful.
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