Code Name: Monster Island Promo Art & Beta Info
by Alan James · 09/24/2006 (1:25 pm) · 34 comments
Hi Everyone!
Just a small post on the status of the next Beta of Code Name: Monster Island. I have been stripping the directories down to a manageable level for a Beta build distribution (My main working directory is about 2GB, I've leaned it down to about a 160mb for a three to five level Beta).
I am interested in finding out if there are a few folks who would help me out first with a closed Beta. It wouldn't be the next Beta release but a bare-bones build so that I can get a sense of what type of performance everyone else might expect, and what kind of systems/gpu cards would be necessary. If you are interested post here, or email me: alanjames at charter dot net. It will be a rough build without most of the gui's updated, but it will be in a couple cases relatively content heavy to see just how bad things are and what I'm going to have to cut out. It will be a single player Beta.
Also I have been working on the Monster AI trying to pull from a couple different resources, but they're still dumb as stumps. I'll keep at it. At least they attack and can kill you now...instead of wandering *constantly* into walls or wherever.
On another note, I've include here a "Poster" of some promotional art that I'm working on for Code Name: Monster Island The model is one that I aquired from Blake Seow and his team at www.wonder3d.net. The arist name is Sanshi and it's a great main character model. I bought the mesh from them but handled the rigging and animation, there are a few things that I need to tweak, but so far I'm reasonablly happy with the results so far.
Also though I'd include couple screenshots from the Beta build directory. 'Cause you have to with a .plan, right? Hopefully I'll hear from a few of you interested in a rough Beta build. Thanks again.
- Alan
Creature in the Adara Sewer System
Area near the Damged Southern Airstrip
Soldier model in Game
Another shot of the creature in the Sewer System
Soldier on the beach
Soldier in partially submerged Jungle Village
Just a small post on the status of the next Beta of Code Name: Monster Island. I have been stripping the directories down to a manageable level for a Beta build distribution (My main working directory is about 2GB, I've leaned it down to about a 160mb for a three to five level Beta).
I am interested in finding out if there are a few folks who would help me out first with a closed Beta. It wouldn't be the next Beta release but a bare-bones build so that I can get a sense of what type of performance everyone else might expect, and what kind of systems/gpu cards would be necessary. If you are interested post here, or email me: alanjames at charter dot net. It will be a rough build without most of the gui's updated, but it will be in a couple cases relatively content heavy to see just how bad things are and what I'm going to have to cut out. It will be a single player Beta.
Also I have been working on the Monster AI trying to pull from a couple different resources, but they're still dumb as stumps. I'll keep at it. At least they attack and can kill you now...instead of wandering *constantly* into walls or wherever.
On another note, I've include here a "Poster" of some promotional art that I'm working on for Code Name: Monster Island The model is one that I aquired from Blake Seow and his team at www.wonder3d.net. The arist name is Sanshi and it's a great main character model. I bought the mesh from them but handled the rigging and animation, there are a few things that I need to tweak, but so far I'm reasonablly happy with the results so far.
Also though I'd include couple screenshots from the Beta build directory. 'Cause you have to with a .plan, right? Hopefully I'll hear from a few of you interested in a rough Beta build. Thanks again.
- Alan
Creature in the Adara Sewer System
Area near the Damged Southern Airstrip
Soldier model in Game
Another shot of the creature in the Sewer System
Soldier on the beach
Soldier in partially submerged Jungle Village
About the author
#22
Also. i wouldnt mind testing the beta!
BTW, are you using Alex's DRL res? BTW the monster looks awesome. looks almost like its being bumpmap/normal mapped. Also your normal maps, are they working fine in the ATI cards?
once again good job.
.
09/25/2006 (5:57 am)
Damn, this looks awesome. when should we expect this demo to come out?Also. i wouldnt mind testing the beta!
BTW, are you using Alex's DRL res? BTW the monster looks awesome. looks almost like its being bumpmap/normal mapped. Also your normal maps, are they working fine in the ATI cards?
once again good job.
.
#24
Hey, how much did you have to pay for the mesh? i'm thinking of paying that guy to model something for me. :)
09/25/2006 (12:24 pm)
@AlanHey, how much did you have to pay for the mesh? i'm thinking of paying that guy to model something for me. :)
#25
09/25/2006 (1:19 pm)
That looks a lot like the 3DRT troll? Don't know if it is, but it would be nice to see their stuff running around in (a highly modified) TGE! I can't wait to get my hands on this! I've been watching and waiting for a while now! Great job as always!
#26
09/25/2006 (1:31 pm)
it looks like it. but Alans one look much better
#27
@T_Squared, I'm using the GLSL Port, we were one of just several teams that got a drop. If you notice Alex S.'s .Plan, he's working on some things in regards to this. Won't be Code itself, but with reading some of your posts, you're clearly sharp enough to figure it out when some of his stuff comes down the line. Regarding ATI cards, I have a x200 in my little Celeron-M laptop and it runs everything, albiet it's a bit of a dog (not the card, but the whole setup. It's just a mobile workstation for me and it was cheap, so what the heck).
I tried to integrate one of the old bumpmapping resources for dts objects a while back and it was a *BIG* mess with all the other changes, so what I ended up doing was running the monsters texture through The Gimp's bumpmapping filter. It turns out pretty cool and doesn't cost anything in performance. Seems to work well for my needs. On the price of the mesh, I'll email you on that one, ok?
@David, yep that's 3drt troll with a Gimp Filtered texture. I've had decent luck converting the .X files. What I do is bring the .X into Fragmotion to add the needed mount points and then export it as a Milkshape MS3D file, from there I brake down the animation sequences, triggers and such then export to DTS with DTSPlus!. It's works, though it's a bit a workflow challenge, i.e. if a mount point is not rotated right, I have to go back to the Fragmotion mesh/rig because you can't rotate an existing node/animation sequence in Milkshape without hosing the whole animation.
@Allyn, yeah the screenshots seem a little over the top, but it really doesn't seem as strong in game, though it's great that you can adjust it (of course as soon as I get the options dialog working right...).
09/25/2006 (1:47 pm)
@Ian, John K., Eric, Plague, Tom & T_Squared -- O.K. you're all in, I should have the nasty beta build by the end of the month, I'll email you all when it's ready with a link.@T_Squared, I'm using the GLSL Port, we were one of just several teams that got a drop. If you notice Alex S.'s .Plan, he's working on some things in regards to this. Won't be Code itself, but with reading some of your posts, you're clearly sharp enough to figure it out when some of his stuff comes down the line. Regarding ATI cards, I have a x200 in my little Celeron-M laptop and it runs everything, albiet it's a bit of a dog (not the card, but the whole setup. It's just a mobile workstation for me and it was cheap, so what the heck).
I tried to integrate one of the old bumpmapping resources for dts objects a while back and it was a *BIG* mess with all the other changes, so what I ended up doing was running the monsters texture through The Gimp's bumpmapping filter. It turns out pretty cool and doesn't cost anything in performance. Seems to work well for my needs. On the price of the mesh, I'll email you on that one, ok?
@David, yep that's 3drt troll with a Gimp Filtered texture. I've had decent luck converting the .X files. What I do is bring the .X into Fragmotion to add the needed mount points and then export it as a Milkshape MS3D file, from there I brake down the animation sequences, triggers and such then export to DTS with DTSPlus!. It's works, though it's a bit a workflow challenge, i.e. if a mount point is not rotated right, I have to go back to the Fragmotion mesh/rig because you can't rotate an existing node/animation sequence in Milkshape without hosing the whole animation.
@Allyn, yeah the screenshots seem a little over the top, but it really doesn't seem as strong in game, though it's great that you can adjust it (of course as soon as I get the options dialog working right...).
#28
Good stuff, cant wait to see the game in action. So you're using the GLSL port eh? that means i should be seeing some of alex's parallax map in your game. and also, a celeron! how dare lol. So anyway When i ask speed, i was talking about frame rate, and in comparison to it being turn off. Also for the attemp of adding bumpmapping to the dts. have you tried implementing this res to it.
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=5683
I was planning to attemp it myself. but i havnt had time to go around about it. Also it seems they were using an older version of TGE, before my time. I was originally going to compare the difference with WinMerge with the original version it was implemented with, then try porting it to TGE 1.4. but as far as i can tell it looks posibly older then 1.3.5. If you happen to have any of the earlier version of it. let me know, and send me the corresponding files, and i'll take a hack at it.
09/25/2006 (2:55 pm)
@AlanGood stuff, cant wait to see the game in action. So you're using the GLSL port eh? that means i should be seeing some of alex's parallax map in your game. and also, a celeron! how dare lol. So anyway When i ask speed, i was talking about frame rate, and in comparison to it being turn off. Also for the attemp of adding bumpmapping to the dts. have you tried implementing this res to it.
www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=5683
I was planning to attemp it myself. but i havnt had time to go around about it. Also it seems they were using an older version of TGE, before my time. I was originally going to compare the difference with WinMerge with the original version it was implemented with, then try porting it to TGE 1.4. but as far as i can tell it looks posibly older then 1.3.5. If you happen to have any of the earlier version of it. let me know, and send me the corresponding files, and i'll take a hack at it.
#29
09/26/2006 (3:25 am)
Count me in for the beta Alan..
#30
http://www.ironfoot.co.uk/dev/
09/26/2006 (3:26 am)
Oh, for a military game, you might want to check out James's pack...http://www.ironfoot.co.uk/dev/
#31
Yep, that's the one. I have a *LOT* of modifications to the code. As I recall I had hundreds of errors, so it wasn't really worth it to run down the issues. I keep the offer in mind. Thanks!
@Phil
Thanks for the link, love looking at others work for ideas. And you're in on the Beta, I'll email everyone when I have it up and a link to download it. Thanks!
09/26/2006 (9:41 am)
@T_Squared,Yep, that's the one. I have a *LOT* of modifications to the code. As I recall I had hundreds of errors, so it wasn't really worth it to run down the issues. I keep the offer in mind. Thanks!
@Phil
Thanks for the link, love looking at others work for ideas. And you're in on the Beta, I'll email everyone when I have it up and a link to download it. Thanks!
#32
10/02/2006 (7:00 pm)
Hey alan, whats the status of the game?
#33
We've decided to go the Dev/Associates Weekend so it will be the first of next week when the Beta will be available. If you happen to end up at the weekend, we'll have it there. I'll email everyone the link on Monday. Thanks again.
10/04/2006 (1:13 pm)
@T_Squared,We've decided to go the Dev/Associates Weekend so it will be the first of next week when the Beta will be available. If you happen to end up at the weekend, we'll have it there. I'll email everyone the link on Monday. Thanks again.
#34
11/10/2006 (4:34 pm)
Awesome. I would love to check this out if you are still looking for testers. 
Torque Owner Tom Bentz