TAGENIGMA LLC – Page 125 – The Development Blog of Tim Graupmann

Snow with Clear Sky

Tonight it starts snowing and there are no clouds in the sky. Totally clear, lots of stars, really cold, and falling snow… How does that work? Has weather been upgraded recently?

Sector13 [Screenshot]

I added a nice lens flare effect on the back of certain engine types. Basically the alpha is based on the dot product between the engine mount vector and camera angle.

Sector13 [Screenshot]

This is the GCDF Capital Ship “Defiant”. I just added the collision logic where you can shoot off its turret weapons.

Snow for Valentine’s Day

Just when you think Winter is almost over:

Sector13 [Screenshot]

This is a capital ship in progress. Not its actual texture yet…

Import/Export Ogre Meshes

First of all you need a modeling tool and [Blender] is freely available.

You also may need the [Ogre conversion tools] (make sure these tools are in your path).

Blender uses these Python scripts to [Import] and [Export] Ogre meshes.

These scripts should be copied into the blender scripts directory.

You may need to install the latest [Python].

And you may have to install some of [Blender’s pre-compiled plugins].

Also you’ll notice when you export the skeleton that the axii are inverted. You can remedy the problem with this:

// Flip axii
Ogre::Vector3 tempPosition = Ogre::Vector3(bonePosition.z, -bonePosition.x, bonePosition.y);

This weekend I’ve been working on Squad formation AI. I also recorded several game play videos and integrated a new GCDF ACMC into the game. That’s short-hand for “Atmosphere Capable Mini-Carrier” for the GCDF manufacture.

Animation

I went to Linae’s animation class tonight. They were doing fast 2d drawings of animation poses. So I tried to do the same using ZBrush ZSpheres.

Dr. DivX 2.0 beta 5 (01-11-2006)

A new beta of [Dr. Divx] is available. Dr. Divx is the application that I use to capture svideo and record Divx compressed videos.

Sector13 [Installer]

I setup the installer for Sector 13 (Internal Release 3) using [Inno Setup]. I was completely blown away with how simple the process is!

Sector13 [Next Feature]

This is a screenshot of an effect that I am reproducing in my next task for [Daetrexx engine glows]. The Ogre version will be slightly different, different color, length based on speed, and more concentrated. That is… if I can pull spare time out of my hat.

The original effect can be achieved by adding a solar flare, using an animated texture for the exhaust, adding some volume with funnel textures (4 axis aligned billboards), and a face texture (as seen from the back). Now the face texture actually needs to be just behind the solar flare, otherwise it would appear as an out of place artifact.

The effect in action:

Maya Personal Learning Edition

“[Maya Personal Learning Edition] is a special version of Maya® software, which provides free access to Maya for non-commercial use. It gives 3D graphics and animation students, industry professionals, and those interested in breaking into the world of computer graphics (CG) an opportunity to explore all aspects of the award-winning Maya Complete software in a non-commercial capacity.

Available for Windows® 2000/XP Professional and Mac® OS X operating systems.”

Run SUSE 10 with free VMWare player on Windows or Linux

Story originally from [KDE Developers] and OSNEWS].

Download the [Free VMWare Player].

“Announcing something which has been cooking already last year but got delayed by POTS bandwidth shortage over the holidays:

VMware released a player for free with which you can run pre-built virtual machines. Somehow their virtual machine center offers under “Novell” only SLES and NLD images. Puzzled I created an image which contains a standard KDE desktop installation of SUSE Linux 10.0 OSS, upgraded to KDE 3.5 including KOffice 1.4.2 excluding non-KDE applications. It’s a fully working installation so don’t forget to install and try some additional KDE applications – and to run the security update when you’re asked to. Eye-wink

You can download it from [developer.kde.org] archived either as 588 MB flavor for Microsoft Windows or 537 MB for Linux.”

And it works like a charm:

Modeling the Pere

Ok this is a little morbid, but I’m going to try a 3d model using Modo of [this scene] using these references images ([A] and [B]).

I had wanted to model the Pere for some time, and finally got around to it. Click the thumbnail for a slightly larger image. I used an existing Modo head, and textured with ZBrush.

Sector13 [Screenshot]

Random screen shot:

Sector13 [Screenshot]

Each of the 32 ships now has its own loading screen:

GIMP 2.2.10

Version 2.2.10 of the [GNU Image Manipulation Program] just released. Please see the [NEWS] for a detailed list of changes.

Sector13 [Screenshot]

It’s been a while since I posted a Sector13 screenshot. We’ll we have the artist team working on modeling assets like capital ships and this space station. Although, they are in the tweaking process aligning polygons and making textures. You’ll also see that the targeting system is taking shape.

Video Tutorial: How to build a C++ RPG

I first came across [this video series] on GameDev. I’m going to repost only because this series is extremely useful for noob game programmers.

Blender 2.40

“Blender has had another long development cycle resulting in a release
packed with rewrites, new features and improvements. The major additions this release are the Character Animation rewrite, the added Fluid Dynamics system, improved editing and rendering of Particle Based Hair, and the Modifier Stack.” Check out the [new list of features].

SOFTIMAGE|XSI Mod Tool "Lock & Load" Challenge

The Avid Computer Graphics team, in conjunction with Hewlett-Packard, NVIDIA and Gamedev.net, is pleased to announce the SOFTIMAGE|XSI Mod Tool “Lock & Load” Challenge (the “Contest”). Join for a chance to win $25,000 in prizes, featuring HP xw9300 Workstations!
[Click for more details!]

Half Life 2 Mod SDK

It’s amazing all the great stuff available on the net these days. The trick is you just have to know it’s there. For example, HL2 uses a product called Steam to keep the software patches up to date. In the Steam Tools section, you’ll see an option to install “Source SDK”, which is all the modding tools you’ll need to create your own HL2 mod and content. How cool is that!?