A Day In The Armory
A great day if you like playing with big guns! In my efforts to ensure backwards compatibility with all legacy weapons and AIRMOD enhanced guns I brought in a few favorites from Errant AI's collection and made sure that full functionality was restored to them.
In the process I learned quite a lot about the new features I did not even realize existed in the engine such as ammunition pools so you can have a single type of ammo for multiple types of weapon. Special animation reserves for zooming, empty weapon state, alternative weapon animations so on. I even found early work on melee and dual wielding, though I am going to be careful about these to make sure we get the best result down the road.
Simply duplicating the weapon and placing them to the left and right looks odd when you reload (as you see four hands). I am thinking more in the style of sword and shield, or carrot and stick style systems which will be more controlled by the artist than the fine tricks of coders.
All Guns Present
I know have the Sniper, RPG, Shotgun, Uzi, Pistol and Magnum present and correct, working in the new weapons prototype and ready for Mark and Johann to do there thing and finish off the content. It is staged in such a way that I don't have to get much involved now so can focus elsewhere. Hopefully within a week, the weapons will have extra features such as animations for walking, running and pressing against walls, accurate fire spot and smoke emissions, and the very latest sound effects to lift the version up another notch in quality and game immersion.
Else Where?
My next task, should I chose to accept it, is to re-implement FLAK and EXPLOSIONS to the prototype. I was going to jump to shaders and shadows, but when I fire the RPG and get no trailing rocket and huge bang, it leaves one wanting. It also means that once coded, it's done and I don't have to back track too much. The explosions will come from our new explosions code and art, and should make an impact in the new terrain scene. My mind started thinking about underwater explosions and rockets skimming along the surface of the water but i stopped myself. These crazy notions are for the realm of future adaptions.
Signing Off
This weekend will be a gardening weekend if the weather holds. In playing catch-up after my IDF trip, I seem to have burned my candle a little, and a small recharge is in order. I have some potatoes I am curious to unearth, and a small path to cut. Hopefully this will give me the thrust on Sunday to add a little bang to the prototype. The classic FPSC rockets did not have a trail behind them, and flew is a perfect straight line. I am tinkering with the idea of a rocket that keeps it's heading, but slightly weaves it's way there and leaves a thick plume of smoke in it's wake.
It will also give me the chance to tie in the explosion code, which has remained an isolated module up to now, and start adding the good stuff like physics particles, knock-on effects and maybe a few brush fires :)
I would seriously consider having all the stuff like rocket weaving, head-bobbing while running etc adjustable by the user. A lot of people prefer not to have it.
ReplyDelete"I learned quite a lot about the new features I did not even realize existed in the engine"
ReplyDeleteHaha, that's what happens when you let the community get their grubby little hands on it ;)
"pressing against walls"
Ooh, I'm glad you thought of that! I forgot to mention it. Excellent work!
"My mind started thinking about underwater explosions and rockets skimming along the surface of the water but i stopped myself. These crazy notions..."
...would be really really cool! But yeah get the important stuff finished first :)
"I am tinkering with the idea of a rocket that keeps it's heading, but slightly weaves it's way there and leaves a thick plume of smoke in it's wake."
Thick smoke, yes, but not all real-life rockets fly in a weaving line, so that should be adjustable by the user.
And I agree with Arnar in that head bob should also be controllable and not hard-coded.
While we are at this stage I will take the opportunity of comment while things come to mind. These things may be catered for?
ReplyDeletePlayer, Characters and Weapons :
Game Characters : It would be Characters when at "Idle" had a little more realism than classic Characters and had some idle body movement other than just head movement. e.g. breathing body movement - unlike classic where they stand like statues. Reason - obvious - professional looking.
Player : Similarly. When at Idle with or without weapon can the player or weapon or both have a little apparent body movement. i.e breathing and not be still? Same Reason.
When player moving can we have editable defaults of sensible movement and not overdone wild swaying up and down or left to right. Gentle please.
Weapons :
Can we have Game Maker Flexibility for above and here too as much as possible please and not hard coded.
Weapon moving can we have editable defaults of sensible movement and not overdone wild swaying up and down or left to right. Gentle please.
Weapon use : Again gunspec or gun management can we have editable gentle defaults and not wild movement even when firing weapons. I understand weapon recoil and so on but that needs to be easily adjustable for everyone. Many past weapons have by default vastly overdone recoil so much so you cant hit a barn door from 20 paces and spend more time getting back on target than actually firing the weapon. Thus defaults gentle please and users can make it more aggressive if they want too. In real life if I could not control a weapon substantially then I would would not hit anything and have done some of that in my time. Its hard to be good and accurate so you must have a high level of weapon control where one can keep it on target when you actually fire weapon otherwise you have no chance of hitting your target. Weapon moving around aggressively means a miss.
Weapon position : If possible adjustable weapon position in, out, left, right and choice of on screen display. Also choice to disable more than one position. i.e. I don't want a central position for weapon as I want to see a full screen as much as possible and also concentrate on the accuracy of point of impact - the cross hair without obscuring it. i.e. move player camera relative to weapon. - Probably too difficult and not possible?
Presumably we wont have any other way to have choices of difficulty for levels so flexibility to allow game makers to set up weapons as well as the game characters to allow for such flexibility to suit a game or scenario would be good as above and not too much hard coded.
Anyway that may be my last comment for a quite while you will be pleased to know.
Thanks for all the hard work.
:-)
While we are at this stage I will take the opportunity of comment while things come to mind. These things may be catered for?
ReplyDeletePlayer, Characters and Weapons :
Game Characters : It would be Characters when at "Idle" had a little more realism than classic Characters and had some idle body movement other than just head movement. e.g. breathing body movement - unlike classic where they stand like statues. Reason - obvious - professional looking.
Player : Similarly. When at Idle with or without weapon can the player or weapon or both have a little apparent body movement. i.e breathing and not be still? Same Reason.
When player moving can we have editable defaults of sensible movement and not overdone wild swaying up and down or left to right. Gentle please.
Weapons :
Can we have Game Maker Flexibility for above and here too as much as possible please and not hard coded.
Weapon moving can we have editable defaults of sensible movement and not overdone wild swaying up and down or left to right. Gentle please.
Weapon use : Again gunspec or gun management can we have editable gentle defaults and not wild movement even when firing weapons. I understand weapon recoil and so on but that needs to be easily adjustable for everyone. Many past weapons have by default vastly overdone recoil so much so you cant hit a barn door from 20 paces and spend more time getting back on target than actually firing the weapon. Thus defaults gentle please and users can make it more aggressive if they want too. In real life if I could not control a weapon substantially then I would would not hit anything and have done some of that in my time. Its hard to be good and accurate so you must have a high level of weapon control where one can keep it on target when you actually fire weapon otherwise you have no chance of hitting your target. Weapon moving around aggressively means a miss.
Weapon position : If possible adjustable weapon position in, out, left, right and choice of on screen display. Also choice to disable more than one position. i.e. I don't want a central position for weapon as I want to see a full screen as much as possible and also concentrate on the accuracy of point of impact - the cross hair without obscuring it. i.e. move player camera relative to weapon. - Probably too difficult and not possible?
Presumably we wont have any other way to have choices of difficulty for levels so flexibility to allow game makers to set up weapons as well as the game characters to allow for such flexibility to suit a game or scenario would be good as above and not too much hard coded.
Anyway that may be my last comment for a quite while you will be pleased to know.
Thanks for all the hard work.
:-)
I could omit looking at the name and Avatar, and STILL recognize an Uman Post when I see one. ;)
ReplyDeleteSo this Johann is actually "Ivan" Ertlov ?!
ReplyDeleteHaving a Gothic Producer working on FPSC-R is quite impressive, I am now even more looking forward to the final product. Will be gladly featuring it in my blog.