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Playable Test Level + Unity Engine
PROGRESS UPDATE: 8 DECEMBER
The big news: Mark and I have decided to switch development of the game to the Unity3D engine (http://www.unity3d.com). Unity has been around for a few years, but was recently made Free to use for indie developers. Rather than Mark developing his own engine again and coding the game from the ground up, we've decided that Unity will get us to a playable game faster and let more people help out.
I've already quickly imported some of our existing assets into the Unity Engine to make a simple basic run-around of the Asgard/Norse Heavens level. You can download the 9MB ZIP file here: http://www.gotech.co.nz/files/LBH-Unity-7Dec.zip
This only took an evening or so to do, and you'll see it has a few nice features like lights, reflective shaders on runestones, transparent textures and fog.
So, why switch to Unity?
* It is Free, so everyone contributing can download the editor and test their items or ideas out
* It is a reasonably fully-featured but still fast 3D engine, saving us the development time of building our own
* It has excellent 3D Studio and Maya support, using the .FBX file format exporters, including animation support - so more artists should be able to contribute and test out their models themselves
* It has scripting support for Java (and C# and Boo/Python). This means other programmers should be able to contribute - especially to add custom scripts to make the levels interesting and interactive
* It has a good level editor, so people should be able to contribute levels nicely too.
* Games can be made on PC, Mac, web browser (and also additional kits for iPhone and Wii)
Downsides might be:
* It's difficult to use a SVN for version control with Unity - we'll work on this one
* People will have to learn a new editor
If you've downloaded Unity, you can Import the raw level data as a Package (In the Projects pane, Right-click and Import Package). The 11MB package file is here: http://www.gotech.co.nz/files/AsgardLevel-7Dec.unitypackage
Have a play of the level, ask questions, and give feedback!
I really think its looking awesome
The only issues i can see is theres no jump animation (or at least its not working for me ), but thats fine cuz its only a work in progress and since it only took one evening thats pretty cool.
I've been mucking around with Unity myself, and I've actually found the navigation controls to be exactly the same as Maya so learning it might not be as tricky as we think
I do have a couple suggestions though -
I think the camera needs to be closer to Erik
I think you should add a second directional light for the sun where it comes through the clouds. You can add a lens flare in the light properties, Below is a shot i took i think it looks pretty good
Also on the long hall model, the runes1 shader needs to be set for " Transparency / Diffuse " that will make the alpha channel on the texture work so that the runes look painted
Other then those few things I think its looking pretty good.
btw i've been workin on a norse farm house recently so I should have an update for you guys soon.
Thanks.
I agree about the need for a lens flare. I tried a directional light shining from down below (since that's where the sun is - below the clouds) but - while logically - it looked so odd and unnusual having the light come from there. Many parts of the level where in darkness. But I'll play with that again.
We've got a jump anim, just need to implement it and will tweak the camera too.
Hi,
* Quick getting started guide.
1) Install/start unity.
2) Create new project.
3) Select menu item "Assets->Import package"
4) Select the file downloaded from http://www.gotech.co.nz/files/AsgardLevel-7Dec.unitypackage
5) Double click on 'Asgard' in the 'Project' pane.
6) Click on the 'play' button...wee!
A few thoughts on updates in general...
Until we've got SVN sorted (if ever) I reckon, say, let's see, how about...Stephen! should be in charged of 'merging' changes which people can either post here (eg: for simple script changes) or email to him (eg: for gruntier model files).
Then, he can do regular Friday or whatever releases of the current ".unitypackage" file for the entire game.
Bye!
Mark
Had a try at the import today and all good!
Managed to add a shadow and tweak the collision box so that Erik looked like he was walking and had a wander round.
I just need the time to do some testing with regard to importing models so I know how to make them.
Nice work, I like the main character. The clouds/environment look good too although they seem a bit out of place in the game (cartoony mixed with realism).
It's hard to give feedback, because it's just a small sample, it's hard to know what you actually worked on and what is there just to fill the space.