ThePriest909

A few more WIP shots from the "intro" map I'm currently working on. It finally gets some basic shape. There's still a slot open for a skilled programmer if anyone feels like working hard.

Hmm.. I just added the model with the new shader in game today... Got a little issue to solve. There are two kinds of masked shaders in udk. The first one just uses a threshold point that just cuts off all the black areas of a mask.Like a 90 deg frequency filter. The second one is caled soft mask and it can be used for that fading out effect you mention. So in order to achive that trick for the grass I had to use the soft mask option. That comes with a ittle problem though. It seems that the shadows in this case are casted by polygons and not the masked texture lol. Deactivating the shadows for the grass solves the issue but it doesn't look realistic. :0\ Anyway, I'm sure there's a way around this somehow. That kind of stucco was made from a natural material but I really can't recall its name. When it gets wet ion its natural form, its color becomes very deep purple. So people used to mix that thing with some other kind of natural materials and in the end it looked like some kind of dark-stucco that they used for merging together the "un-perfect" walls that were created by natural uncut stones. With a deferent mix of materials they could turn it into some kind of concrete they used for floors and roofs. I spent a few days asking villagers about the ways they used to built back then. Some really old people still live in those ruined villages. Quite impressive places. Like a crack in time.

Thanks for the tips! Very usefull. The grass alpha thing works perfect :0) I just added a secondary modifier that tweaks the height like you suggested. Ignore the DoF effect... I won't use it in game since I prefer more natural looking stuff. It's only a director camera effect. Meaning, once you're off the cinematics mode it goes away. Most probably though I'll turn it off in cinematics as well and use lens flare instead to simulate the camera feeling. I think that would fit better. It's still up to the game diector though. If he manage to use it better than I did I might keep it. About the rocks. The game takes place in 1918... The first thing I said to the team was... Don't think about the architecture the way most games do. Meaning, American - English style. That's because that kind of architecture has been used already too much in games and people got used to it. I want to bring some new stuff in this game. So that's what it is. Stucco. (well, a kind of.... the shader still looks crappy but I'll get them done in time). The architecture is based on the greek model of that era. Untill the late 30s people outside the big cities were still using rock (cause it was an easy material to find instead of wood or blocks) and some kind of stucco they use to make from a natural material. (I can't recall its name in english right now). Although the current ruins are supposed to be a couple of centuries older than the era the game takes place, the way the built is pretty much the same. As an example take a look at the photo below. This kind of architecture was used untill late 40s in the countryside. This is photo is from a traditional village a few km away from my hometown in the current time. Today those villages are deserted. The reason for that "fallback" in architecture were the 2 world wars and the military goverment that took place a few years later in Greece. People had no money back then to build proper houses and so they still used materials straight from the nature. That counts for countryside only though. Considering that my father grew up in a house similar to the one in the photo when I'm the owner a 2-flored maisonette today and all the comforts a house could have... well I think you can realise the way people lived back then. And that's only 50 years ago... The way of living had nothing to do with the rest wealthy european countries. And back to the topic... Most probably I'll replace those shaders in the actual game and use vertex paint technics to get that mix of stucco and limed-stone look you can see in the photo. Note that the small building in the video with those ancient looking columns won't be used in the same area. Like I said this is just a "testing statics" level I made. Hopefully I'll be able to post a few shots of the real intro level next week. I still need to make a few more assets before start working on it. And again thanks for the tips. That grass thing was really bugging me for days

Thanks Grond! Hopefully if real life won't "eat" any extra time, the first in game samples will most probably be available in a month or so.

Just a short video I made in order to explain the use of matinee (cinematics-syetem) to our director. The music is composed and produced by me. Everything you see is a big test, nothing more, even the level itself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCflas0Cq-Y

There are already prototypes made for RTS and RPGs without the source code. That's what I meant that you don't really need it. The source code would be necessary only if you 'd possibly like to develop your own tools or modify the way the engine already works. In our case it's even easier since I'll probably go the first person way of gameplay since it fits better with what I have in mind to do. I'd like to make the experience more "personal" rather than showing a nice looking npc doing all the job for you. UDK is actually an improved and further developed UE3 editor. So they gave us more than they already had. Consider it a UE3.5 cause they're currently up to make UE4. Now as far as this concerns Aurora or Gamebryo. Please allow me to disagree. I would agree if you had mention the latest Source or CryEngine2 but Gamebryo!!!??? Even the latest of their updates (I watched the demonstrations of the current version and generally I've been watching its development because I've been doing level design for mods on games based on it for quite a few years) is at least 1 or 2 years back IMO. As far as it concers Aurora, definately not my kind of engine. It's up to the taste of each developer I guess and the kind of games they have in mind to make. Personally, although hard to use, my tastes go with the Source Engine. The current material system allows the user to make any shader on the fly. Meaning, there's no need for coding as long you don't need something really really unique. All the above shaders you mention can be done without the need of additional programming. What more could I possibly need!? An engine is not making a good game so... ;0) The latest version of unreal script has also shown great improvements as far as that concerns the speed of calculation and it's entirely up to the programmer to keep it that way. Anyway, I sound like an UE3 advertisement lol so, for more info on UDK refer to this page: http://udk.com/ You'll find all the info about the latest version plus demonstrations and like I've already said if we could afford it I would go with the Source Engine but since it's too expensive for us atm UE3 will do the job. I couldn't possibly ask for anything better atm. It's still too early for getting a full team in any case so.... Time will tell. :0)

UDK is the complete Unreal Engine 3 as it is used by the big companies out there. The only difference is that you don't have access to the core-code... Not that you need the access though since the unreal script can be manipulated by using simple mutattors. So what's the deal? Money... Indie developers can be the best advertisement. We already experianced that with several games including TES-IV. Epic just moved a step forward by giving you a game engine. To make the engine your proprty and have the rights to remove their logo like Bioware did for Mass Effect 2 for example... then yes... That's gon'a cost you a million dollars. But with their logo up... They become more popular and you have one of the best game engines available in the market. Not to mention that many of us bought games that use UE3 only to see what this babe can do. And considering the 25% fee for a 99USD license or the 2500USD per year? Not bad. More fame for Unreal Tech more money to Epic games. Well the guys in Epic games do even worst use of the specular channel than Beth did lol Anyway, the shaders can be created on the fly through the Material editor in UDK so, I do the most of level design stuff myself plus a large part of the architecture and enviromental design at least atm. Besides, it might take more time but, the less people you have and the more skilled those few are, the less is the chance of a failure because some of them may not share the same passion for a project as some others do. I had to learn that the hard way in my real job. I'd prefer to see a good and short game rather than a streched boring one. The screenshot is actually a very poor example of what can be done in UE3 since we're still working on basic stuff like gameplay. But once I get the first level done and running I'll update the post. Feedback is always wellcome since when someone works on a specific theme for days he tents to be unable to see the difference between the forest and the trees :0) And again, please excuse my english, I'm not a native english speaker.

The Unreal Tech has been recendly released for Indie developers in the form of "UDK". It's been out for a few months. Indie licenses start at 99USD plus 25% fee of your earnings (However your access to the core-code is limited) and full licenses start from 2,500 USD per year. Considering that Unreal Tech can do just about anything, the amount of money asked for a full license can only be considered as a gift from Hell itself. You can't find a better offer out there at the moment. In any case though we'll start with the non-commercial version (UDK) and if the resaults in game are promissing... well... then we can always consider of "swimming a bit deeper". Edit: About that shader... Those statics are supposed to be placed in a "foggy/wet" area. That's justa test enviroment. So if they look a bit wet, that's a good thing :0)

Thank you! I'm glad I helped even in this way :0) Licenses are not yet available but i will once we get the game working and of course if it proves worthy of the "next step". If you wish you could send me a sample of your work in case you're looking for a team and of course if you're intersted in horror themes in games.

Rowan and Glaedr, thank you both for the kind words.

That sounds very intersting and RL comes first for all of us. We're currently working on the main character. Once the model is done we're going to need to set a prototype of the actual gameplay and that's where we're going to need a programmer since we're thinking about adding some "special stuff". Your net connection won't be a problem for script tranfering. Blender is ok when it comes to static models. Anyway. Programer's job will be to help us develop new classes and AI mostly. If you think you have time for it and that you won't abandon us in the middle of the project please send me an e-mail to infrom you about the stuff we'd like to do (plus some extra info...) once you feel/are ready. Thank you.

Welcome Sarac!

Thank you very much GreenWarden! If we get a good programmer soon enough, we might have the first samples from the actual game in a few weeks.