[mikedoty]

Your models are pretty amazing. The people / monsters are fabulous, but even "ordinary" objects like the tables look very well done.

[TheSuddenFire]

If there is no musician in this project, I want in. This game looks cool and I've been fiending for Diablo-like and/or RPG projects, lately. The visuals here represent exactly what has been on my mind.
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Chameleon, on the floor, writhing with a blood-stained neckline. Glowing eyes stare unto this changing one.

[Nodtveidt]

Mattias, what version of Poser are you using?
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If you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear demonic voices. The scary part is that if you play it forwards it installs Windows. - wallace

[Mattias Gustavsson]

[Mattias Gustavsson]

As promised, here's a bit more about the different images I render as part of my automated process. Here's the set of images, along with a comparison shot for how the object look when rendered in-game:



The first image, is the object with lighting, but without shadows. The last image is the objects shadows only. When I process the images, I use the alpha channel from the first image, to separate the ground shadow from the object shadow in the shadow image. By doing this, I can render them separately in my engine. When I render a frame, I start by drawing the ground, then all the ground shadows from all objects, and last the objects themselves, so that I never have a ground shadow drawn on top of an object (as that just looks wrong).


The two images in the middle might look a bit odd. They are flattened versions of the object, and I use them to calculate the objects footprint, for path finding and obstacle avoidance. The brighter the colour, the higher the object is at that point. This way, low objects, or low parts of objects, can be ignored. The first of the height-images gives the height of the object, and the second height-image gives a value for how close to the ground the object is at that point. In this example, with the tree, the trunk goes all the way down to the ground - this is why the second height-image is all black in the centre. But at the same time, the trunk is also the highest point of the object - and that is why the first height-image is brightest in the centre.

Using these two images, I can detect if a point is too high for a player to pass through (for example, a high wall), but also if it is possible to pass underneath the object (for example, a high wall with an arch going through it). I don't use these images directly in my engine, but instead I use a custom, and more efficient, format generated from them.

I like having things like this generated automatically, as it can take so much time to do manual mark-up for these things...
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www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine

[TheSuddenFire]

What goes through my mind when seeing your step by step rendering images might be a neat idea if it's possible. I'm looking at the image that is black and white (2nd to last with the tree model) and imagining a dimensional rift where a whole town or area looks like that. I guess a magician could cast a super spell or something big could happen, or perhaps the player would be in a dream realm. Otherwise you could joke that it has snowed a lot recently :p
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Chameleon, on the floor, writhing with a blood-stained neckline. Glowing eyes stare unto this changing one.

[Mattias Gustavsson]

Here is the last of the player characters - a bard. But not your garden-variety bard - this guy is a real bad-ass adventurer :D


_________________
www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine

[BadMrBox]

Is that a blond David Hasselhoff with pointy ears and a hypnotic glare?
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[Mattias Gustavsson]

If that works for you, then YES! :D
_________________
www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine

[Nodtveidt]

Looks like what would happen if Ariel got violated by Drizzt Do'Urden, the guys from Nelson, and every member of Motley Crue.

:D
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If you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear demonic voices. The scary part is that if you play it forwards it installs Windows. - wallace

[Mattias Gustavsson]

[Nodtveidt]

[Mattias Gustavsson]

So, time for another update - I've been working a fair bit on base systems, mostly to do with getting entities to move around in a natural way. I've tried some different ways, until I've finally got something I think is ok:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPbHb-Gz6S8

This shows a bunch of goblins wandering around aimlessly, while tending to stay close to the center of the world, and avoiding to collide with each other or any obstacles. Uses a combination of the steering behaviours wander, seek, separation and obstacle avoidance.

The next step is to add some sort of behaviour tree on top of this, to choose between different behaviours based on the state of the entity and the game world (for example, if you spot an enemy: attack, unless your health is too low, in which case: run away, and so on).
_________________
www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine

[Verious]

I understand this is not the final version, but I did notice a few goblins get hung-up on each other about 41 seconds into the video (near the center of the screen). Maybe they should randomly change direction if they get stuck for more than a couple seconds.

Looks great so far!

[tcaudilllg]

The models don't look realistic... why is that?