UGAC –Handheld Environment– shoot-em-up – SHEPEIRO

[Dennispls]

interesting good luck !

[DevilHacker]

Great Concept Idea.
Look forward to seeing how this works out.
:thumbsup:

[SHEPEIRO]

ok made a start on the concepting while its quiet here at work, forgive the colouring, done with a mouse.

right just check the coast is clear.

heres the concept for the level.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/levelconcept.jpg

the wwo platforms at each end are the start/spawn points.

think i might add more levels of ground at each end, probably sloping up towards each base to add a little advantage to the defending side.

heres a concept of the tanks

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/tankconcept.jpg

the idea for the top left hand tank is that each section is a panel that can be hit damaging the tank. a bit like a target, even thought about colouring it like one.

each half of the outer ring corresponds to the tracks, the more sections damaged the slower you turn in each direction, until you cant move no more when they are all hit, or if you only have one side you can only spin.

the 4 sections on the gun correspond to gun reload speed, slowing with more section gone until, you can no longer fire and have to try for a draw by holding out(running away)

the top (nipple) is where the driver sits and is there for the bullseye. one hit and your out.


heres some concepts for the vegetation, yay giant mushrooms.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/mushrooomsconcept.jpg

the mushrooms are going to have simple damage models with the top gone so they nolonger provide cover.

another idea i had is Puff balls, remember chucking those at people they explode in clouds of spores. they could either provide means for escape (Small cloud of dust) if the DS is up to it????? or behave like a barrel of explosives in so many games creating an area of damahge.

[SHEPEIRO]

heres a quick concept for the puff balls,

im getting away with murder here, but hey its friday, and im gonna get a new job soon anway (always think positive)

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/puffconcept.jpg

[HellBoy]

wow I can imagine myself playing that level :thumbsup:

[SHEPEIRO]

wow i cant beleive it but i made major head way on the level this weekend.

ok first built the tanks, cos i wanted to and needed them to fit etc etc so here goes.

250 tris each (exactly)

the red tank
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/redtank.jpg


the green tank
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/grntank.jpg

and the texture sheet for them
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/tanktexturesheet.jpg

2x64* (8col) map for the base and turret of each tank plus a seperate 32* (8col) map for the tracks.

i need to know about what the best way to set up maps with alphas is, currently im using BMP's but max doesnt seem to read the alpha so ive got them on sepperate sheets at mo.

should i just use gifs?

oh and you can see alot of the nearly complete level in the background???????
yeah had a busy weeekend. also went to see GoGol Bordello which was brilliant. see if i can get more gypsy punk in my level.

[SHEPEIRO]

well here we go most of the level done just got to add the bridges between the islands, then create some damage models (ground blasts, blown up mushrooms, damage maps for tanks and castles), and the puff balls.

currently im at 3200 tris for the entire scene (not including tanks), is this ok? i want to be able see nearly from one end to the other, not quite so that if you have one castle in view then the other is beyond clipping plane, as at 550 tris each they are the heaviest model in the scene.

could someone who devs for the DS tell me if this is OK can i add more, there are a few bits that i can optimise a little further, but not that much, pos 500 tris at most.

ok here we go

birds eye
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level4.jpg

from one end
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level1.jpg

red tank scale
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level2.jpg

green tank scale
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/grntank.jpg

fog test
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level5.jpg

not completely happy with the fog as it fogs the sky dome and the cloud planes, is there anyway to get around this?

[Dennispls]

fast work
im not very keen on the graphics if youre gonna use it this close up.
Use bigger textures to make it look less pixely

[SHEPEIRO]

this is designed for the DS i think 64* textures is the limit with this machine, not tooo sure about that need to make sure. cos if i can use 128* then i will replace a few textures, like the tops of the mushrooms, and the tops of the mushroom walls, these are gonna be redone anyway so that they look less like one huhmungus shroom and more like a forrest of shrooms.

views in the game will generally be like image 2 and three.

also looking at it probably will re-do the mushroom stalk texture with 16 colours, as its a little too pixelly as well.

by the way each "base" (green team and red team) is a castle with 4 entrances which you can choose to spawn from to avoid being pinned down.

[SHEPEIRO]

thought i would show more of my textures.

heres the red castle (might swap the colours over on the models though)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/castletexturesheet.jpg

and finally here is the entire levels textures so far.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/texturesheet.jpg

[Auctane]

Looking sick!! You are making great progress. Very nice work on that forest texture! Its cool to see that you are putting thought into the game play as well. Maybe you could put something up in the sky to block the long view to the other end to prevent players from lobbing shells across the map?

[SHEPEIRO]

the way im playing the game in my head, i quite like the idea of shooting from a distance. more like artillery than upcloseandpersonnel.

one idea i had for a control scheme is that using the lower screen as a birds eye map view, you would use the stylus to draw a path for the tank to follow, which it would trundle along, while the directional buttons would control the view port. going into "fire" mode would change the top screen to a first person view (gonna construct this aswell, with a little instruments for angle compas wind speed etc) while you could still set paths useing the bottom screen. this would lend the game a much more strategic bent rather than speedy upclose battle.

but with your idea of placing something to block long shots, i quite like it, but perhaps not completely block it just make it skillfull, like a few of those barrage balloons.mmm yeah good idea

[SHEPEIRO]

ok added some blimbs that willl circle above the centre of the level, makeing super long shots that bit harder.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level8.jpg

added some more effects to the water in the river
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level9.jpg

heres the entire level

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level10.jpg

and i had realised that i haddnt really shown the castles off so here they are

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level7.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level6.jpg

what do you think?

im not to pleased with the texture work on the blimbs yet, needs a tad more something.

[SHEPEIRO]

no posts today, because ive done sommit real stupid, i was muck ing around with the scene converting everything to toon shading to see what it would look like and it updated the autoback as i was messing, it crashed and now when i reopen the file everything is really slow. so im in the process of exporting all the updated meshes as OBJ and reimporting into older version. seems to be working.

nearly cried:cry:

[Ivars]

That sucks :sad:
I think we all know how that feels. Good thing it's not completely lost.
Looking forward to updates as soon as you're back on track.

[SHEPEIRO]

yeah ive retreived 80% of the meshes from the mucked up file, just need to get the rest and re-apply the materials/textures, i was lucky this time, shouldn't cause to much hassle.

one time, i isolated the head of a character to work on that by itself(pretty high res) and when it came to saving late that night saved the head over the nearly finished model. instant regret.
one lesson learnt the hard way (save multiple sequential files***1,***2,***3etc) never just a master.

i wonder how many solid gold peices have been lost in similar circumstances.

[SHEPEIRO]

yay complete fix, wont bother updating today as all ive doen is make a few optimisations.

[TheGodZero]

shep start showing your screens at DS screen size so we get the feel of what it would look like.

[SHEPEIRO]

good point ive been meaning to ask WHAT iS THE DS'S SCREEN RESOLOUTION.

[SHEPEIRO]

got it "256 x 192 pixel resolution" looks correct. will re-post some of my images in that format. so far been doing 640X480, so it will be quite a reduction.

[Ivars]

From the rules thread...


right, thought I'd be helpful here and give you guys some lovely guides that I made a while back:

http://www.dadako.com/forums/screen_ds.png

suggested polygon count for performance (total visible): 2000
texture memory (per screen): 512kb
max texture size: 1024px x 1024px
screen colour depth: 18-bit (260,000 colours)
3d data format: (custom exporters)
texture format: TGA, NNS Targas
alpha blending: 5-bit? (32 colours)
suggested texture size: under 128, 64, 32 etc

http://www.dadako.com/forums/screen_psp.png

suggested polygon count for performance (total visible): 50,000
texture memory (per screen): 2mb
max texture size: 128px x 128px ?
screen colour depth: 16-bit (65,536 colours)
3d data format: ? (probably custom export)
texture format: ? (safe to assume TGA)
alpha blending: 8-bit (256 colours)

http://www.dadako.com/forums/screen_gp.png
http://www.dadako.com/forums/screen_mobile.png

should add some realism to your shots :)

edit: OOoops, wrote that one in swedish :P

[SHEPEIRO]

am i really sopposed to use TGAs for my texture formats, are they not large formats.

and do they support indexed colour schemes, never tryed it, only used them for high spec.

[SHEPEIRO]

ok here we have them

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/ds1.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/ds2.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/ds3.jpg

and i managed to get the level exported onto my new DS lite last nite:scream:
here it is in all its glory, man programming those shadowmaped lights toke me at least five minutes (no PS, i mean BS, promise:scream: )
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/dsonds.jpg

[SHEPEIRO]

update time.

some bridges
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level11.jpg

some tanks and some bridges and updated mushroom wall tops
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level12.jpg

some bridges and blast marks
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level13.jpg

some blast marks next to updated mushroom texture
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level14.jpg

in terms of geometry, i have 4400 tris and roughly 2500 polys, which i am assured the DS can have onscreen 2000 quads aslong as they are flat. so i need to go through the level and split every twisted quad to get propper figure, but with LODS, i think i will be ablt to add one or two things.

need to do power ups next:
-speed-up
-fast re-load
-scatter shot
-explosive shell
-sheild
-hammer'n'tongs
-sniper

coming up a flyby video, just need to go and find a nice site to host it!

[SHEPEIRO]

level flyby video here,

tell me what you think.

is the host OK?

oh its a 8.5mb bink video so it comes in its own .exe just open and it will play

download here (http://www.filefactory.com/get/f.php?f=5e93175037312fb44c5305d3)

forgive the camera work, late last night excusses.

[TheGodZero]

shep turn on texture filtering as the DS is all about it. then your shots will look more DS like.

[SHEPEIRO]

i didnt think it did

exhibit1
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2004/reviews/924896_20041104_screen008.jpg

Exhibit2
http://img.game.net/ml/3/2/5/6/325616ss2.jpg

exhibit3
http://www.gameplanet.co.nz/images/mag/Reviews/Screenshots/0002872,06.jpeg

[SHEPEIRO]

new video time, better lighting(even without shadows), sorted out scale and positioning of mushrooms so IMO the level reads alot better.

added some Power-ups, will post images later

DOWNLOAD VIDEO HERE (http://www.filefactory.com/get/f.php?f=d57c06d6db378809b6e39e3b)

[SHEPEIRO]

No-ones commented on the videos yet do they work? are there better sites to host? cos you need to do a little clicking on this one.

[SHEPEIRO]

here are the powerups ive made,

simple six triangle rotating icons.

sniper (stronger (little gravity arching) shot and upped zoom level when firing)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/powerupsnipper.jpg
speed (tank trundles that little bit faster)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/powerupspeedy.jpg
sheild (does what it says on the tin)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/powerupsheild.jpg
scatter shot (shots several shells that spread)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/powerupscatter.jpg
fast reload (reload that little bit faster)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/powerupreload.jpg
explosive shells (impact produces damage radius, so indirect hits possible)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/powerupexplos.jpg
Hammer and tongs (melle weapon)
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/poweruphammer.jpg

[SHEPEIRO]

still no comment on my videos, has anyone checked it out?

[TheGodZero]

I think that has to do with how long it takes just to get your vid. Wait ten seconds, now wait another 30 seconds, only to get a slow download.

Its a cool Vid but the colors are over powering, i may be alone but id tone donw the saturation on most the textures. The white of the mushrooms is pure white it seems and its blinding. So is the green of the grass and the yellow of the forest sides. Very overpoweing colors makes it hard to take in.

[SHEPEIRO]

cheers for taking the time too look.

i will endever to find a better host for my video. its pretty fast for me, but maybe that because im the author.


i agree with the overpowering colours. i want bright, but its a little too at the moment. im experimenting with a lighting scheme that will work well, but maybe i will tone them down a notch or two aswell, slightly more pastel.

its just without alot of effects the colourschemes i have seen that work on the DS are strong bright colours.

Thanks mate, when no-one says anything you often wander if its just plain boring.

[3Darthur]

Great job so far.

Think you have an elegant solution going on here, with a healthy nod to Mario style aesthetic.

This looks like a very playable level that could befits the low fi/hi fi charm of the DS (if you know what i mean), The tanks are full of character.

Unfortunately i cant view the vids as I am on a crappy Mac ATM at work so will check later 2nite.

Good to see this all coming together...

[SHEPEIRO]

cheers for the comment 3darthur, im trying hard to make what would look good/ work on the DS and there is just a little nintendo influence there aswell as otherthings.....

thinking of adding some fog/spray planes along the river, with a nice rainbow aswell.

im thinking that when i finish this one then i will try to make another level! dont know if this breaks any kind of rule, but i will still be well within the competition budgets for texture and poly count as this level will come in at roughly 4500 tris and under 512k texture mem.

if i can/have time, it will be a nightmare level, after a rosy tinted, overly bright, first levels, the game takes a plunge into the dark side of this trip:

welcome to "Deathcap Mountain"

a level played under a moon that looks like a skull, and situated on massive glowing deathcap mushrooms, bridges span the gaps between the mushrooms, and the four spawn points meet in a peak on the highest mushroom in the middle of the level. it will be a case of conquer the high ground and then defend from all sides.

[SHEPEIRO]

little update, added some spray from the river and a cute little rainbow, all together now aaaaaaaaaahh.

oh and i reduced some of the satruration on the mushroom stalks + reduced the lighting. better now?

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level19.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level15.jpg

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level16.jpg

and a butterfly that ive added, but im not too keen on at the mo.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level18.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level17.jpg

C&C as always please.

[HellBoy]

wow Shepeiro, thats awesome man. Totally cool :thumbsup:

well done

[urgaffel]

I'd up the ambient light somewhat or at least lighten the dark shadows of the textures. In the last two images you posted you can see that it gets really dark when you're on the shadow side of things. I'd have to agree with previous poster about not using totally white eieher... Not sure if you've used completely black in your dark areas or not, but if you have, change it to something lighter :) Try to add some bounced light into the bottom of the mushroom caps, just to make it a bit brighter on the bottom. If you think about it it's very rarely dark in for example nintendo games, they are almost never black or even near black, it's always a dark shade of some colour. Not to say that it looks bad by any means, it looks like an interesting level, it's just the shadow areas that could use some brightening up.

REALLY good site for pixeling and creating tiles etc: http://www.zoggles.co.uk/asp/tutorials.asp?tut=17

[SHEPEIRO]

yes im having a little problem with my lighting. im not using black or white in any or very little of my maps (just a little for detail to add depth, but very little) the mushroom tops are pale yellow, and the shadows in the stalks/ undersides are darkish brown.

the problem is trying to get nice light shadowing while keeping some nice shading across the ground. if i up the ambient more, the ground becomes difficult to read. if i go down the shadows become too dark.

any ideas? current light setup is just a signgle white spot.

that site is great,thank you.

[SHEPEIRO]

i lightened the textures etc over weekend and was pretty pleased but looking at them now on my work monitor, i beleive the problem is the brightnness of my home monitor. just bought a new LCD and boy its nice but its alot brighter than most other screens.

whats the best way to get it corrected?

any way here are some updates, as i said better lighter textures for the mushroom tops and sltalks.

added daisys, just for asthetics no real design reason.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level24.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level25.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level22.jpg
added exploding puff balls
befor
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level20.jpg
after
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level21.jpg

and varoius otrher pics
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level23.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/level26.jpg

[SHEPEIRO]

screen furniture mock-up, will be more cartoony in finished

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/screenfurniturecopy.jpg

[DevilHacker]

Hey. Awesome looking video. But the download process is way to complicated to download the video (which might be the reason for the lack of replies on it) I counted an total of 4 links and site re-directs to get to the download.
You might want to look for another host for your files such as Ripway (http://ripway.com/).


Also, about the images, and the overall entry…
It looks great! Easily one of the most interesting entries of the competition.
Seriously. Great work. If this was an real game I would run out and get an DS.
Maybe you should pitch the idea to an few companies…
:beer:

[SHEPEIRO]

yeah ive known about that for a while thanks for the link, its the better than all ther sites ive tried to use,

will post new link as soon as they fix problem with site, thought that was going to easy

[SHEPEIRO]

little update on the screen furniture

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/firemodemockup.jpg http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/firemodemock.jpg

[Dennispls]

i am digging this a lot:)
latest screenshots look good:D

[SHEPEIRO]

Yo much thanks to Urgaffel for hostin my new video.

http://www.urgaffel.com/shepeiro/Sh...eveldivx5-1.avi (http://www.urgaffel.com/shepeiro/ShepeiroDSleveldivx5-1.avi)

tell me what you stink, i mean think

[3Darthur]

Finally managed to check the vid out - looking polished.

like Shot on the bridge and insect, your smoke cloud features are cool.

maybe:

cut to tank rolling over a powerups

cut to/from 'iris' second screen device.

my 10 pence worth.

[urgaffel]

You should make a mock up of someone filming someone else playing it on a ds :D You did the DS mock up, you just need to animate it! No need for shaky-hand-cam(tm) though ;)

[SHEPEIRO]

unfortunately i dont own a DS. and cos im going on hols on monday YAY i cant really afford to go and get one just for this, even though its very tempting. if someone could send me a few pics of them playing with blank screen and fingers/stylus in different positions i could whip up a quick GIF

[urgaffel]

Was thinking of the picture you had earlier and just have it play as a demo, no need for human interaction :)

[DevilHacker]

unfortunately i dont own a DS. and cos im going on hols on monday YAY i cant really afford to go and get one just for this, even though its very tempting. if someone could send me a few pics of them playing with blank screen and fingers/stylus in different positions i could whip up a quick GIFGo into more detail of what you want…
I will see what I can due.

Video?
(If so, how do you want to go bout the button clicking/screen tapping?... timings ect.)

Pictures?
(what positions ect.)

[SHEPEIRO]

if you can post four pics of DS with finger tips in various clicking positions i could make a quick little gif, but i think its too late now, and it wouldnt really work with submission structure.

these are my propossed submission piccys.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/ShepeiroDSlevel1.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/ShepeiroDSlevel4.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/ShepeiroDSlevel3.jpghttp://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c346/Shepeiro/ShepeiroDSlevel2.jpg

i think i managed to squeeze everything in there

need crits befor end of working day 5:00 ish GMT otherwise im gonna submit, as im off on me hols and need to spend tommorrow on me portfolio

[SHEPEIRO]

no replys oh well im gonna submit then.

[He-blend]

wow, i think it looks pretty darn good.

too bad the textures gotta stay so low res

[DevilHacker]

- - - News Update on Deadline (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=3435887&postcount=48) - - -





Hey. I got to say. Your entry has (as from the beginning) looked' great.
I know you were 100% done, and therefore did not want an extension, but so many people were so close, and we got so many pleas, we had to give people a few more days. Have fun on your vacation, and rest well knowing your done... and if you want to do any updates afterwards, awesome. I look forward to it.
:thumbsup:





PS: Do you still want the system pics?

[gunstar]

wow thats awesome! is this actually on a DS, or all a mock-up?

[SHEPEIRO]

its mock up, but if anyone wants to cram it on to a DS it shouldnt be too difficult

[erilaz]

Shepeiro, this was a top-notch job. It actually looks fun to play! :D

[theabyss]

Wow, i really like how the whole idea came out.
From UnrealTournament04 i am used to textures with max 4096x4096...ha
..so i am pretty amazed what nice effects you can do wth that little texture space.
I was viewing this thread and saw what nice progress it made from the concept to
the final "game".
2 Thumbs up.

Greetz

TheAbyss

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