[WIP] Hackers' Haven

[KittenKoder]

I don't want to give too much away about this because ... well, I at least want the demo done before I start giving away the magician's secrets. Mostly because I finally came up with something a lot of people actually want to play test, and I don't tell more than this about it:

It's a ATB RPG based on a Shadowrun and Cyberpunk like cybernetic computer hacking, the concept is a bit like how Johnny Mnemonic had their cybernetic linkup and internet system. But the game is not based on stat numbers, those are invisible to the player, instead the success or failure of a player will be based more on how they organize their deck, which includes some programming concepts but nothing heavy, conditionals and such mostly.

The idea will eventually become an MMORPG, eventually, after I get some help with development so I don't have to do it all. NPCs will react based on the actions and behavior of the player, and stories are essentially "runs" into the networks for various tasks the player is hired to do. When I originally came up with the complete concept my 3D modeling skills sucked, so I spent 2 years practicing those to make the models for this game before I began writing the code. It uses JPCT/LWJGL for graphics, I'm working on a GUI, camera, actor, and scene library right now. Animated models will all be MD2, I like the format, and static models will be Wavefront OBJ, absent the MTL as I will be adding settings in the scene files to override them anyway. The extended object class supports animated textures, not a difficult thing to do, as well as full animation management for quick setting. Basically, I'm wrapping a game library around JPCT.

I won't offer much more information on it, certainly none of the world storyline, until I get the demo up. Most of my game ideas sucked and were often already done by someone else and I hadn't known of it. I think this time I may actually have a unique idea.

[Gjallar]

ummm... good luck! 

[KittenKoder]

Setting up a scene for the demo I am working on, and it's about half completed, here's a screencap, not sure where to put it, but let me know: Too much Tron?

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[Gjallar]

A bit more background information would be nice. What are you gonig for?

[KittenKoder]

A bit more background information would be nice. What are you gonig for?

Well, in game the "mountains," which I just call the wasteland, will show up a bit better, Blender rendering has a harder light fade and the animations haven't been added yet.

I want a Tron Legacy meets Johnny Mnemonic look and feel for the graphic, heavier on the Tron though. This is the "main street" of the internet, in the future of course, for the demo, so it's really small compared to what the full game will have.

[sproingie]

Definitely has a William Gibson vibe, I say jack in and run with it.  Glowy abstract cyberspace shapes all the way baby! 

[SwampChicken]

Too much Tron?

Nope.
+ throwing discs.
+ destructible environment.

[KittenKoder]

Too much Tron?

Nope.
+ throwing discs.
+ destructible environment.

I was considering one day making the light cycle game in Legacy ... but you mention this and now I know how I could make a disc wars game easy.  Of course it would be a project for after Hackers' Haven.

[KittenKoder]

Definitely has a William Gibson vibe, I say jack in and run with it.  Glowy abstract cyberspace shapes all the way baby! 

I love glowing things! Especially with mostly black or dark gray.

[namrog84]

I love the look of this, I cannot wait until there is a functioning prototype!

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[KittenKoder]

I'm finally getting into making the game models. Here's one.



Helps if I paste the correct link.

[namrog84]

awesome art!  more please!!

[KittenKoder]

awesome art!  more please!!

Thank you. I'll post more as I finish them. I am finally far enough in the code development to actually work on this part.

[Agro]

Wow, that's actually really nice! Make some more

[KittenKoder]

Alright, some more images, these are rendered with Blender so they don't look exactly like they will in game, but it's pretty close:

[KittenKoder]

I had forgotten I started another thread on the graphics already .... so ... I'm posting the new ones there.

Edit: Thank you Riven!

[Riven]

Merged and moved to WIP

[KittenKoder]

Just for some technical.

Polygon counts are, all quads still:

First: 137
Second: 117
Third: 83

[KittenKoder]

One more generic building/server.


Anderhall Bank and Loan server, one of the demo's servers.


Wondermill Robotics server, the other of the demo's servers.

[KittenKoder]

Now the fun shots, these are all in game shots. The first three showcase one of the avatars that will be available, Shiva.





The few numerical stats.

Program management.

File management, includes programs not loaded.

[Riven]

Can you add a screenshot to your first post? *pretty please*

That way it shows up on the WIP game listing

[Jimmt]

Word of warning: please don't make the glowy art overly bright. When I play games, I'm usually already tired and don't want to look at bright flashy stuff.

[KittenKoder]

Word of warning: please don't make the glowy art overly bright. When I play games, I'm usually already tired and don't want to look at bright flashy stuff.

lol Well, that would kind of ruin the whole look. There will be changes to make it more mellow though, and the world itself is really dark, except the lines. It's suppose to feel like 80's virtual reality but with a more modern style.

On another note, I'm having issues with the scaling, working on it, but it's just not placing things correctly yet in the loader and I can't figure out why. I actually can't play these type of games, 3D games make me dizzy, so it slows development a bit when I have to take breaks just to let my head stop spinning. So if you're wondering why it's taking so long to get the demo working, it's because right now I'm working on that part that makes me dizzy to test.

[KittenKoder]

Actually, Jimmt, I tested out some darker coloring, and it does look a bit better. So, yeah, thanks for the advice.

[StumpyStrust]

 

[KittenKoder]

Slight delay, not much of one really. The library I was using for the graphics may not work out too well, so I'm probably going to do what I should have done anyway and develop my own graphics routines. Which will benefit the game a lot because there are some nifty effects I discovered a long time ago using OpenGL which are just not available on any of the libraries, not even the big ones. Such as altering the shadow and specular colors per object, just for one example, which, if done correctly, can produce better glowing effect without any extra work on the processor.

[KittenKoder]

Okay, coding in raw OpenGL ... not as annoying as I thought. I will release the graphics+game library as well, which will be open source. I have way better material settings and shaders than previously demonstrated, and they'll work on older graphics cards as well, as old as 2006 at least, as that is what I am testing it with and developing it on. I may go up to 2008 but nothing newer as I don't want to alienate too many computer users, and that's part of why I ditched jPCT for this. The library I am working on only uses pure OpenGL and mostly modern stuff, there should at least be extensions available for your card to support it. Current test runs include 8 lights per object, unlimited in the world environment, multipass rendering with and without FBOs, and a very simple but elaborate material system that mimics Blender's materials very closely, with lower quality results as it's real time and to do raytracing the exactly how Blender does would not be possible in real time. Even wrote the engine using Blender units though the Y/Z coordinates are exchanged, as I prefer that coordinate system anyway.

In other words, lots of new coming.

[KittenKoder]

To give an idea of what the new rendering engine will look like:



Full armature/skeleton support for animated meshes, two texture layers, one for diffuse the other for emit. Though my library actually has capabilities for 3, to keep my target audience a little wider I opted to skip the specular highlights to reduce GPU/CPU drain, since my target audience are the generic computer users not hardcore gamers I have to accommodate a lot of low level capabilities. Most of the engine is low level stuff, using pure VBO/VAO objects, even layered VBOs as well.

The "camera" object is a game camera specifically, so all movements are based on the same coordinates as objects. Object linking is hierarchical as well, and textures are fully dynamic, you can paint on them very easily. There is also a low memory, fast, texture sequence in the core engine. Working on the new GUI engine next. I will be caught back up in about a week, I think, give or take a few days.

[Riven]

What do you mean by 'layered VBOs' ?

[KittenKoder]

What do you mean by 'layered VBOs' ?

I really described that badly. I should have stated shared VBOs, I think. I was half asleep when I typed that out. lol

Bascially, one VBO can contain several objects instead of one object per set of VBOs, using offsets and counts that are easily managed inside the mesh object classes for quick reference.