3 Apr 2010 - You take the high road...

NOTE: Basic thoughts outlined here - more detailed post to follow. Apologies to any regular followers of the journal. I'm incredibly busy and trying to catch up on the project schedule.

Road proposals - small sections: Initially entire sections of the course, but still had collision issues. considered using UDK BSP brushes in the game engine that don't need collision boxes, but are far more simplistic in shape.

Decided to 'break down' each road section into individual pieces - this sorts collision issues but increases time to produce each section of track. No instancing may mean higher demand on memory

Problem: UV textures will take considerable amount of time to produce if each section is individual. also, scaling issues will add even more time to production.

Solution: UV unwrap one piece of track and crossroad, scale them so they match, and modify these to make extra sections. As the texture is already in place this should save time and allow them to tile/scale properly. Some deformation in the texture may occur when making curves/hills but this should not be too noticable - will test this.

*add pictures*

Designing the Test NPC - Part 1

To test player and NPC interactions, we are obviously going to need an NPC.

However, simply using one of the Half Life 2 NPC characters for our own will not be sufficient for our needs, as our testers may have preconceptions of that NPC if they have played HL2 before. The solution is obvious: we must make our own NPC.

Building an NPC from the ground up will be extremely time consuming, and making it fit into the visual style of HL2 would be difficult, so the best way to go is to take an existing NPC and modify it to match our NPC design.

The first step is to choose which NPC is best suited for this modification, and the method of choosing the NPC is discussed here.

31 Mar 2010 - Productivity ramped up in Igford

NOTE: Quick 'placeholder' post, as I'm really busy at the moment. Pics of work will be included later.

Progress Report - since the presentation, working mainly on 3D modelling. This week I have made:

Airship
2 Warehouses - one derilict (used as a 'tunnel' for track)
Shed
Broken Viaduct Section
Railway Track
Broken Railway track
Piles of logs (barriers for track)

Also, feedback from tutors: Look more at terrain/geography of land to get away from 'game environment' style level and move to something more realistic

Improve HUD as it is very basic - this can help set the mood of the game

Colour schemes - use of complimentary colours with lighting - perhaps a little too drab at the moment

Next Priority is the racetrack - need to work out how it's going to be implemented or there will be no finished game in May.

27 March 2010 - Game within a game

The last few weeks have been really busy with other projects, a trip to Blitz Game Studios in Leamington (which was awesome) and a presentation / exam in University. As a result progress has been slow but I have managed to do a few more things in the last few days.

As it's been an exhausting time, I decided to work on the aesthetics, slowly ticking things off the monumental to-do list. The Lumsden Aeronauts rugby ground was textured in a day, which was a massive boost to my confidence. I love it when things are done as quickly as that - because they rarely work out like that.

Here are some screencaps of the ground: Please excuse the purple hills, they're untextured and work-in-progress. I'm not colour blind or putting tributes to Eminem and D12 in my game.





At the time of writing, i'm currently working on a damaged section of the Igford viaduct, an Airship based on the ones featured in last year's game project Igford-Under-Siege!, some railway lines and log piles for obstacles. It's going to be a busy weekend...

13 Mar 2010 - A trip through Auchterlony and Lumsden

With much of the basic functionality in-game sorted, I've been able to concentrate more on the stuff I want to look at - building the level. I've been making really rough tests using the buildings and props i've created so far in the build up to my second stage Viva on the 23rd of March. Time is flying now so I need to make sure I prioritise tasks. For now though, the level takes priority.

The Auchterlony Viaduct in the (very) basic level test (NOTE:These pictures are a rough level in progress with many elements missing)

Older, low-quality housing near the Auchterlony Viaduct, Upper Igford

Today I've built a stand for the rugby field (the local team are going by the name of the Lumsden Aeronauts, even though they don't feature in-game) and a stand for spectators to watch. These kinds of details are important to me as they suggest that the place is a community and not a series of lifeless buildings purposefully set out for a race. I want to feel like this is a convincing place and i'm really getting into the world building, both physically and fictionally.

The Lumsden Aeronauts rugby ground at Cairncross Street, Auchterlony

Part of the initial test map - The Maxton 88 races through the streets of Auchterlony and Lumsden in Upper Igford.

In the last few days i've been adding details to see what they look like in-game - a 'crowd' made a lot of difference (See picture) even though they're just cardboard cut-outs. These are placeholders for the purpose of the project to demonstrate the visual feel.

My tutors also suggested windows that are lit up on some buildings (I'd use Emissive textures like the Skydome for this) as well as some consideration given to sound effects. I haven't thought about sound so far but it would be good to have some in-game to really bring it to life.

Additionally, the tutors mentioned that the player camera needs attention and some areas of the track need to be illuminated for players to see where they should be going. Playtesting is also vital and as soon as I iron out the collision glitches in the prototype level, i'll be ready to unleash my creation on friends and family. I bet it takes them under a minute to break the game.

9 Mar 2010 - From Start to Finish

Just a quick update regarding one of the more important aspects of the game - the track itself.

Now that the car handling issues have been addressed I no longer have to compensate when designing the course. This will allow me to have more freedom in how the track is designed vertically - I want it to be interesting and all the most interesting racetracks in games I play have lots of hills in them. Maybe i'm just a hill person, I don't know.

Anyway, heres an initial sketch that was scribbled instead of paying attention in University a few weeks back:

I quite liked the feature of the viaducts in this, so I spent a little while refining the design after looking at Formula 1 courses online such as these. This is what I came up with:



The track is broken down into sections (for visual design later on), and the lighter sections of track are alternative routes that a player may take (the large grey lines that intersect the course are train tracks - only certain sections of which will be accessible). These may or may not be advantageous and will hopefully add a small amount of exploration in the game to increase longevity and variety while not detracting too much from the racing element.

I plan to use the above image as a reference in Maya, construct a rough track, export it to the UDK and test how the vehicle reacts to the slopes and turns of the course and adjust them accordingly before creating the final models.

7 Mar 2010 - Mad Maxton beyond the Skydome

Sorry, it's a terrible play on words (based on a certain Mel Gibson film) but I couldn't help myself.

Anyway, Some visual progress for a change - I've made a 'skydome' for the in-game level. This is basically a half-sphere with a texture that surrounds the whole in-game level, giving the impression that there is a sky in the game world.

Custom Skydome in Maya - the game world would be positioned within this dome

Instead of using the ones supplied in the UDK I thought i'd make my own, and with a little help from the forums, all went well. Some initial issues with the visibility of the skydome were caused by me wrongly setting up Materials (Textures) in the UDK. The texture of a skydome needs to be an emissive texture, not a diffuse texture (which is what is used for most other objects in my level). This won't mean a thing to anyone else but i'm making a note in my blog for myself - I know i'll forget this further down the line.

I've started painting the texture of the skydome - which is the fun bit - and early tests in a test level look encouraging.

The Maxton 88 in a test level with skydome visible in the distance

Tomorrow i'll spend the day on Photoshop - no coding for a change! Wow, I almost feel like i'm on holiday. At long last, I can be creative for a few days!