Comments on: Killing Me Softly with 3ds Max

by: Desi Quintans

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 04:17:04 +0000

I tried making a 3D game once. I’ll never do it again, for exactly the reasons you’ve given, Matt.

Instead of making gameplay features or world-building I’d be trying to make some noob character model hold a latern right.

by: KB

Fri, 18 Aug 2006 16:39:02 +0000

I despise 3d studio max… I blame my school and my hatred for modeling lol. It’s true though that the freedom you have with Muds from a design point of view just can’t be matched in the 3d realm.

I’ve got several more years of modeling with 3dsm.. I feel your pain in some fashion or another heh.

by: Amanda

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 20:35:19 +0000

I heard the rumor that IRE was expanding into the graphical era, but I hadn’t run along this blog until just today! :O How long has this project been underway?

by: Matt

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 16:39:15 +0000

Thanks, but what’s going on right now is the Achaea Gods meet in Vegas, and sadly, I am not there.

by: Vesence

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:04:07 +0000

I’ve dabbled (and by dabbled I mean, tried at the most basic level) programs like Z-Brush and Cinema 4D. I imagine that they are along the same lines a 3DS Max. I entirely know where you’re coming from on this entire issue. You’ve done some very amazing things in the textual world thus far, I am positive EE won’t disappoint.

-Joe (Vesence on Achaea)

P.S. Have fun at the IRE Gods meet ‘06.

by: Psychochild

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 00:59:36 +0000

Heh, same thing I ran into with M59. It’s worse, because the technology behind M59 has been long forgotten by most developers. Good luck trying to find someone willing to work with 2D sprites in an 8-bit palette. Let alone trying to animate the sprites. Or, trying to find someone that can make good textures within a very tight size budget. Or find someone good at DOOM-type level editing (with custom extensions to the system).

It’s a lot of work, and graphics don’t age as “gracefully” as text does.

Good luck.

by: Mike Rozak

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 22:20:49 +0000

Matt Wrote - “Something like a knock-down ability that wouldn’t make you think twice in text becomes the subject of serious thought.”

Here’s a possible solution to the specific problem you mentioned (not the general issues of animation = time = money):

1) Use an existing kinetics engine or program your own (which is pretty easy if you’re not being real-time… conservation of momentum, conservation of energy, etc.).

2) Precompute a “falling down” animation sequence or two and store the precomputed animation.

Somewhere in my memory, I think there was a small company working on procedural motion of this sort. The intent was to animate based on mechanics. You could use this approach for non-humanoid creatures, as spore does, and get OK results. Because we know how humans move, this wouldn’t work well for humanoids.

A slightly less procedural approach would be to graph the angular momentum, energy, center of balance, etc. underneath the character in the animation editor. If there’s any obvious “lack of conservation” going on, hand-tune the animation until its more stable.

As for the more general case: You then have to solve the problem of the monster trying to knock down the player, and an animation for that (one for each monster)… And the animation for a wounded monster… and the animation for a monster climbing up/down a ladder… and the animation for the monster daintily sipping a cup of tea… etc.

by: PlayNoEvil

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:13:33 +0000

You don’t have to be bound by the “literalism” of other 3D games. Look at Okami who found they couldn’t afford to do what they wanted and went to the cel-shaded, abstracted visual style that is winning them kudos. Or look at anime or other places where people have used creativity for financial shortcuts - it is amazing how staticly shot popular anime like Cowboy Beebop and others are when you start taking them apart.

… heck, even look at text… Batman’s “POW” screens or “The results of this blow were so incredible, no computer available today could adequately render it. In fact, your eyes would rebel and blind themselves just to avoid seeing this scene of carnage - we now return control of the game back to you”.

by: Matt

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 16:53:01 +0000

Yeah, IRE’s combat system would be effectively impossible to replicate graphically in an MMO environment, unfortunately.

Not saying what the paymentt model will be yet.

by: Joseph Monk

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 14:10:23 +0000

I can only imagine how much different and difficult it is for you to go from four, almost five, text MUDs and then try your hands at the limitations of graphics. The combat system you use in your MUDs would be extremely difficult, and time consuming, to reproduce it all in text (or so I would imagine). What about payment model? Are you going to use the credit style system, or a more “traditional” fee based one?