Transparent Shader

01/31/2013

I was able to take the transparent and normal mapping shaders created by our artist and use them successfully. The normal mapping is not showing up as defined as we would like so I am continuing to play with it, but with no success.

Here is a video of the xna shaders with multiple models:

Ninja Scroll Animation

01/24/2013

I was asked to animate the un-rolling and rolling of a ninja scroll. One of our Artists created some frame textures for me to use for the scroll.

Here is a video of the animation:

Mini Map

01/17/2013

After searching around for an example or tutorial of creating a mini map for an XNA game I was unable to find one, so I just built one from scratch. I setup an interface IMiniMapItem with one method:

Vector3 GetPosition();

These items need the GetPosition() method so that their dynamic positions will always be updated on the mini map. Any item we want to show up on the mini map needs to implement the interface, and then add it to the mini map:

public void Add(IMiniMapItem item)
{
MiniMapItems.Add(item);
}

There is also a Remove(IMiniMapItem item) so that items can add and remove themselves from the mini map. You can also add and remove static positioned items based on a Vector3:

public void Add(Vector3 item)
{
Vector3Items.Add(item);
}

I also setup the mini map so that it can be be re-sized to be either small, medium, or large. It can also be positioned in the top left, top right, bottom left, or bottom right corners of the screen. These settings can later be added to the settings screen.

Christmas Break

01/10/2013

During Christmas break I did not get as much done as I would have liked to. I continued working on XNA shading and lighting and went over RB Whitaker's working with Shaders in XNA tutorials.

I tried working with his shaders and was not able to get his models working in our game, but was able to get his models working in my test environment. I will continue to work on this until I figure it out.

I missed the first day of class on Tuesday due to the influenza going around.

One of the Artists on our team over the break also had gone over the tutorials and had played with creating his own Transparent and Normal Mapping shaders. He is going to give them to me to work on implementing them in our game.

Besides shaders I have also been assigned creating a mini map for our game.

Alpha

12/05/2012

Our game has reached Alpha!

Last night I installed my capture card to try and get some good pictures and video from our game in action. Some of the pictures will be used in a poster when we show off our game at the EAE Open House. The videos will allow us to look back after Spring semester to see how far we have progressed.

Here are the action pictures:

Ninja Avatars

Here are the action videos:

Aspect Ratio

12/05/2012

Yesterday in class one of our artists noticed that all the models looked squished. I told him it probably changed when one of our developers updated to support both widescreen and full screen. I looked through the code with him and found that the AspectRatio was set to 1:1 even on widescreen's. I updated it to change based on the display type.

I also showed him how the double jump ability scroll was not attainable due to it's mesh overlapping with another model's mesh. I updated the FBX file to change the location slightly so that it would not be a problem anymore.

Dynamic Water

12/03/2012

The artists on my team thought it would be nice if we had dynamic water. I looked into it when I started to research lights and found it would not be too difficult to implement. I have added it to our game with a water texture I found on the web. I also had one of our artists create a custom water texture and have tested it in our game.

Here is his custom texture:


Water with texture I found:


Water with custom texture:


Town overlook with Skymap, Directional Lighting, Water:


Town overlook with Skymap, Directional Lighting, Custom Water:


I updated the location placement of smoke plumes to any ability scrolls or objective scrolls located around the map to help the player find where he needs to go.

Here you can see the smoke throughout the level:


This will change to be more dynamic, showing the player only the next objective with a different effect (one line of code).