Modeling Practice

The Leadwerks community is in need of some quality models that are professional grade. My next project is to create a construction set for caves, made from only a handful of pieces. The pictures below shows some of my progress.

AI Path Finding

I had a challenge last week from my partner for this game project. Allow an NPC to come up with a quick way to navigate to a particular place, even if the environment around him is dynamic.

Some high-budget games use static node path meshes, which must be a final step in production for each map. A combination of theses meshes in different formats have been used in different games, and some use smoothing algorithms to make the web of node seem more natural. I wanted a different approach that didn't require a web of objects hand placed into the world.

I came up with a rotational path collection.


On a pivot, a box would rotate several degrees and create a collection of distances from the target. After the closest one is found, it adds this entity to a PathCollection, then moves the pivot to this new closer spot.

The cycle repeats itself until the radius is close enough to the target.


I used a collection of Entities to avoid storing a minimum radius, and calculated terrain slope to manage where NPCs can actually travel. Changing the rotating radius and amount of degrees for each iteration can be used to create a low-density path compared to my example.

The best part about this approach is you can store these paths in memory, removing the data as necessary.

2.3 Evaluation Kit

Josh has Released the 2.3 Evaluation Kit. The only sandbox where you can render God Rays, SSAO, and Tens of Thousands of trees on a Single Core 1.2GHz Processor.

Follow up

You'll be seeing some screenshots as I continue to create the media for the game. At the moment I'm building low-poly castle walls with hi-res sculpts for normals. Each can be destroyed and picked apart slowly, nearly brick by brick. I'm using a technique that partially replaces the model for physics-based objects, depending on the severity of the damage

Respite

I have worked on an Untitled project with another development team for some time, but as with most small teams dedication is hard to find. The team I was invited to decided to allow me a respite, and time to experiment with the Leadwerks API.

This hiatus from another team gives me a change to work on my own original project. Here is one of the beginning narrations from the beginning of the game:

Novel: " As I scale the icy mountains to destroy what I have sought for several years now, a single thought of dedication passes through my mind. I am known as Novel, and I now walk to my death. "

I now have a complete title name for anything that I produce: `Rekindled Phoenix Software`

Custom Particle Effects

So, to help out the people in charge of graphic design I created a custom application that allows you to make particle effects dynamically using XML. This small app uses the Leadwerks Engine to create the possibility of hundreds of particle emitters. When it launches, it scans for a settings file with parameters. These parameters manage velocity, size, and rotation of all of the particles.

Particle Creator Alpha is currently in use by my graphics team.


To see how the application works, click here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2irFmcX--w

Networking

Leadwerks has a simple networking class, one that I am happy Josh includes in the engine. Sadly, it's not enough to include communication layers, simulating smooth network traffic, and even security. Something that as a programmer, I'm happy to be able to download.

RakNet is a wonderful networking solution, and is seems it's filled with more goodies than an easter egg basket. This is more than a recommendation, this is a must download for anyone who has an independently funded game.

They can be found here
www.jenkinssoftware.com