The use of software to make games

The Partridge Family were neither partridges nor a family. Discuss.
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angelicous
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Re: The use of software to make games

Post by angelicous » February 26th, 2014, 9:57 pm

How much time do you think that takes to build a engine able to import and render mesh animations?

I've been watching some videos on youtube, and look at this one here

The guy says that it took him a year to build that... :shock:

Well, i'm no expert, but isn't that a lot? The guy just downloaded the sounds and the models from other places... He didn't have to model anything.

Is importing the meshes really that hard so it takes over a year to develop? This ones aren't even animated...

albinopapa
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Re: The use of software to make games

Post by albinopapa » February 26th, 2014, 10:56 pm

I figured out how to import obj files, mostly, within a few days to a week. I say mostly because I didn't know what to do with the info once I got the data streamed in at the time, I plan on revisiting it soon I think. Since you are into cinema 4D you might already know what obj files, they are static meshes. As far as the animated meshes, you would need to know the file layout and what data is associated with skeletal groups or vertex weights depending on how the model was rigged.

There are two methods that I have read about for 3D model animation when it comes to games. There are pros and cons to each.

Frame based animation: This one is more like the traditional sprite animation. You have your model posed in the different shapes for each frame of animation, then you just set the vertices of the model to match the destination frame.

Pro: There isn't any complex math involved, you are just translating the vertices to their new location, so it's a faster less time consuming way of animating.
Con: It's not as flexible to mix and match animations so what you render in the animation is what you get when you play the animation and could look robotic in nature.

Skeletal animation: This form allows you to either use joint rotation to move a part of the model, or you can set an end point, for the hand for example, and do the calculations on the other joints(wrist, elbow and shoulder) and have the computer figure out when and where the models arm and hand should be.

Pro: More organic movement as well as being able to mix animations like moving the head and legs separately.
Con: Takes a lot of calculations depending on how many factors you include. Most games probably only deal with joint rotation and not worry about vertex weights. What I mean by that is when you bend your arm or leg your skin either stretches or retracts a bit, for a more life like look you could do the same thing by applying a float value(weight) decreasing from the point of the bend outward.

This method is probably more used in CG video and maybe in facial close ups in games, but I doubt it's used in anything more than that.
If you think paging some data from disk into RAM is slow, try paging it into a simian cerebrum over a pair of optical nerves. - gameprogrammingpatterns.com

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angelicous
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Re: The use of software to make games

Post by angelicous » February 26th, 2014, 11:33 pm

I think i'm familiar with both animations... i think. Sorry, but english is not my main language so i may get confused over some terms.

The frame based is the one like... stop motion right? You get your leg in front... frame picture... other leg up... frame picture, etc etc

But we need to rig the model to do this with the skeleton right? I mean, the only way i know to animate a model is that second way. Building a skeleton with joints and make it move...

I guess to do the animation you would have to mix both, but use like sprite method to animate on the game... Am i right?

EDIT:

With the rig the model with the skeleton i mean like this:

Image

And then use this to make the animation right?

albinopapa
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Re: The use of software to make games

Post by albinopapa » February 27th, 2014, 12:45 am

Yes, you would rig the model, set starting pose as frame 0, then pose the next one for frame 1, and so on. You might get a way with setting key frames and have the computer fill in the tween frames, as long as you can export the model in each frame.
If you think paging some data from disk into RAM is slow, try paging it into a simian cerebrum over a pair of optical nerves. - gameprogrammingpatterns.com

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LuX
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Re: The use of software to make games

Post by LuX » February 27th, 2014, 8:43 pm

Most commonly you would build your game around Direct3D or OpenGL which's different versions are supported by just about every GPU on the market. Almost every engine is also built around them. Both allow you to use anything from basic to advanced functions and instructions to make any game you can imagine, only perhaps limited by hardware speed and you yourself.

I think chili will be going over all that 3D stuff in future lessons, but there's also a healthy amount of online tutorials, though some might argue they are not at the same quality level as chilis...

PS. that game or what ever in the video took one year to make? Wow. I mean if you downloaded all the material you could build that in matter of hours from scratch. Of course assuming you have some experience. I'm guessing the guy counted in his learning time as well, because that is going to take time.
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PutPixel255
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Re: The use of software to make games

Post by PutPixel255 » February 27th, 2014, 9:33 pm

Yea, Chili's vids are tiptop according to me. I guess he just gives a shit :o

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angelicous
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Re: The use of software to make games

Post by angelicous » February 27th, 2014, 10:41 pm

Bah Lux... i guess that only would be "ok" for someone who doesn't know nothing at all about coding, and even then, they would probably thought it would be a lot easier to use software to develop instead of learning all this from zero.

About the Chilli level... As i've said before, he is a great teacher. He makes all this fun, because learning from videos it's boring if you are not with the right mindset. If my teachers compared outputs from programs to retards, they would be fucked... This guy says it... he says he is fucked, and genuinely finishes it with "I regret nothing". I've never laughed so hard when learning something.

I am just imagining how the 3D will be like... Mr. Face Bond, blowing poo up... literally lol

I would probably just make videos more frequently. Yeah he already has a lot of them, but he is making two a month. He is already making videos for more than 2 years now. But i guess he as a lot to do other than this. Maybe if he gets more people around here he will make tutorials more frequently.

I would suggest to make some kind of "discussion" post for every new lesson to promote a debate.

PutPixel255
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Re: The use of software to make games

Post by PutPixel255 » February 27th, 2014, 10:55 pm

I really don't mind the pace of the output, I'm still working on the Poo Game. I tried reading from books, I bought Andre Lamothe Game Programming Gurus back in the nineties, but damn couldn't get anything to compile and just kind of gave it up. Then went on to study math and physics over the next several years. So I like the fact that the code is gonna work cause he's doing it right in the video. And I'm certainly learning it a lot faster than from now to the nineties :lol:

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angelicous
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Re: The use of software to make games

Post by angelicous » February 27th, 2014, 11:31 pm

Well PutPixel255 i guess you can say that you can learn better, but Chilli doesn't really follow an academic "script". He explains the basics of course, but you kinda need to figure out where to go from there. You can't really learn to create something new just by making a poo game that as you said, it's just there for you to copy.

Like when Chilli is explaining something and he says "oh this does something you guys don't know what it is... and i won't explain it yet", and you have two solutions. Or you trust he won't forget it in the future, or you go search for the info an learn it yourself

In a school i guess you wouldn't have scenarios like that. But on the other side, it takes a lot of f time to progress with something... Like i had two weeks of C classes for example and they only talked about the printf, scanf and the while loop. 8 hours of class total. In 8 hours from Chilli's videos you probably already done a game... The problem is that Chili's it's not gonna give a lot of solutions. And if you want something done, you have to think for yourself, and that is where much people fail.

What i'm tring to say is, Chili videos are very good, but probably not good to someone who wants to learn from 0. I can be wrong too, but i have people learning with me that can't do a basic program after 6 month learning so...

PutPixel255
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Re: The use of software to make games

Post by PutPixel255 » February 28th, 2014, 12:31 am

I think schooling is good if you already know what you want to do with your life providing you can learn it. Like if your twelve years old and you know you like to draw and you want to be an architect then schooling is probably a must although Mr. Wright would disagree profusely with that :ugeek: But, if your just fumbling around and looking schooling might not be a bad thing, but your racking up debt looking around and trying to figure it all out while your grades all half-assed and you'll probably wind up a bum having to beg for a quarter so you can go play a video game...

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