DrewMelton's Forum Posts

  • QuaziGNRLnose Thanks. I will hold off for now, but this will definitely be something I will keep an eye on with future updates.

  • QuaziGNRLnose Thanks for the explanation.

    I don't know if it makes any difference, but the wall sprites are actually considered characters when it comes to z-ordering. Both the characters and the wall objects are basically treated the same and are in the same family. It was the only way I could get them to order correctly since each wall tile is basically its own entity. I don't know if this makes any difference to what you were saying though. The "ground" is essentially the background.

    The wall tiles were made in 3d and exported as a png, and the characters will be the same when I finish them. However, they could be obj files just as easily, as long as I can import the animations. The ground is just a 2d texture that repeats.

  • Hi, i'm the developer of the Q3D plugin.

    Hey, I was looking at your plugin and wanted to ask some questions.

    I posted a screenshot of my game on the previous page. Do you think I could supplement that with 3d objects? Essentially I would just need wall tiles, maybe floor tiles, and the characters.

    The main reason would be so I could have realtime lighting. You know like if each character was carrying a torch or something. It would add a lot to the cave ambiance.

    The map is created entirely from an array. I would also have a lot of animations that are very important for triggering events (like using a turn).

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  • DrewMelton Zbrush being quirky - lol, yes indeed.

    Well from what I've seen so far. It looks awesome - even if you're using "Golden Axe" sprites. Would love to see how this would have looked like, in an easy-to-use 3D Game Engine, with your talents.

    After you're done with your current game, do you have any plans to put your engine in the Asset Store?

    For my next game, I was thinking about a turn-based RPG - but I have no idea where to start with a project of that magnitude.

    I was first looking at "RPG Maker", but although its easy to use, its screen resolution is low and you do have limits to your tilesets. That wont be good if i'm planning to sell a high resolution RPG game for PC.

    Yeah, turn-based games are fun but really hard too. You have to make sure the enemies follow the rules and take their turns when they are supposed to. I have had to rewrite the code and rethink ideas numerous times to get it where it is now.

    I didn't want to make the game a click-fest like Diablo. I wanted it to be more like a board game where you think out your moves and act carefully. You know like, do I heal or attack, should I move this character to a better location, and so on.

    I've never tried RPG maker. C2 is pretty much the only thing I've put any time into, and I've only had it since last October. I didn't even decide to get into game making until about a year ago.

    I didn't even know you could put engines on the asset store, lol. I haven't even looked at it. I'm not sure if I'd do it though unless I got a lot out of it. It's been a ton of work.

    Judging by the replies in this thread, we would have to look elsewhere for a 3d engine. I'm fine with using C2 as a 2d platform for the moment. I can make things look really nice without blowing away people's computers. In fact, I could add lots of details into the environment if I didn't want to make it randomly generated. I still might add some details actually.

    As for what I'll do when I finish this game, I'm not sure. I may move on to another program or keep using C2. It just depends on what I want to make and whether I keep working alone.

  • DrewMelton A separate 3D program with the ease of Construct 2 would be awesome for the kind of project that you're doing. I don't know how to do "isometric" in Construct 2 - so my game is a straight top-down view of the characters and environments.

    Would you happen to have a demo of the game so I can take a look at it? I don't need the source file. I'm just referring to putting it up in a browser so I can see what it looks like.

    On another note ... Zbrush makes me cringe. It's the only 3D program that given me a good a** kicking. I've used Maya, Mudbox, 3DS Max, Lightwave, Cinema 4D with no major problems - but Zbrush? Good Lord !!!

    Zbrush is a bit quirky. I only use it for a bit of sculpting here and there. I use Modo for just about everything. It even does sculpting itself pretty well.

    Anyway, my game is way under construction, so I don't want to release any demos until I get some more done. I'll show off a screenshot of what I have so far.

    Keep in mind that the game is not ready to show off, so this will be one of the rare screenshots I actually post of it. When I get my main 3d characters done, I'll probably start an actual thread on it.

    This is a rogue-like, so it focuses on randomness and replayability.

    Notes:

    1. Please ignore the Golden Axe sprites. I will be replacing them with 3d models soon. I just needed a placeholder while I work on the code.

    2. There will be changes. I have a new character creation system that I'm working on, so the stats in the upper left will be replaced.

    3. I'm still making gameplay decisions, so remember that nothing is final yet.

    4. The game will play like Civilization with its turn-based approach. That's why you see red and green icons here and there.

    5. The levels are randomly generated and can be destroyed. Thanks to the updates to the pathfinding regeneration, I can now have the walls be destroyed.

    6. The fog of war is currently disabled.

    7. I'm hoping for a spring/summer release next year. So, lot's of work to be done! If I didn't work alone, it'd probably go faster but whatever.

  • I am actually working in 3d most of the time even though C2 is 2d. I'm using Modo and Zbrush to create my characters and assets. I use Photoshop for HUD elements or other effects.

    The benefit to a 2d engine is that there is no polygon limit since it is image based. I can create a character with a ton of polygons and simply export it as a png. So, there's really no difference in a character with 3,000 or 300,000 polygons or hair effects or whatever other fancy stuff I use.

    I'm working on an isometric game like Baldur's Gate or Diablo. For the most part, I've been able to do everything I want in 2d, but I have to make do without lighting effects of any kind. I know that C2 was updated with a lighting module or something, but that won't work in 2d because nothing is actually solid. An isometric 2d cube is completely flat, so it's essentially an optical illusion, and therefore it cannot have real time shadows on it.

    Since my game is, turn-based RPG, I honestly would have probably killed myself trying this in another program. C2 allows me to quickly change events or move them around, and in a game like this, I need to modify and experiment quite a bit.

    3d would have opened my game up a bit so I could have had multiple levels in isometric perspective, such as a stairway to a second floor or platform elements. However, this is not absolutely necessary. It'd be more like an added bonus.

    I would welcome 3d, but I'd have to see the pros and cons first.

  • Cool, glad it helped. This isn't my area of expertise, but at least it was useful.

  • Krinikajason Can you be more specific? There's lots going on with this mini-map, so it's hard to explain.

    I'm using several different layers and stacked sprites. The screenshot of the event sheet on the last page shows how I get the actual image.

    Now, the code to get the icons and camera position by clicking on the map are separate events entirely, and I have not posted them.

    Creating this mini-map was a very complex process, but if you can be specific with your questions, I can try to help.

  • If you look down a few threads, I made a thread about node webkit and transparent backgrounds. Inside I posted a picture (the one of the event sheet) of capturing the entire layout into a mini-map. Maybe it will help.

  • Here, I revised the HUD to cover the black area using the wooden texture that I made for my icon backgrounds. I think it looks fine, and it gave me a bit more room to work with so I was able to enlarge my backpack icon as well.

    I'd still like to hear if anyone has a fix or not just in case I ever need it, but I'm satisfied with this solution for now.

  • Hi i'm working in a application that requires that the user save images to the the disk, and i found that node webkit can't render the main window background transparency(the last layer set to transparent)...It's difficult to say without seeing your capx, but it could be this problem.

    This is a huge drawback, if we need to make applications that requires to edit and save images with alpha channel.

    Hmm, this would explain why I can't get rid of the black. There shouldn't even be anything there. When the screenshot is taken, the majority of layers are hidden, and even if they weren't, what I'm seeing is not what the color of the layer is.

    There are no sprites in the black area either. That area is just blank. So, nothing should be showing up during the screencapture process just like it does in Chrome.

    I can't post the capx because it's nearing 2,000 events, but if you'd like to investigate this further, I would be willing to share more.

    I'm going to redesign my HUD for now until because I just don't see any other option at the moment. I have no more choices for my export other than node-webkit, so I'll make something that works for that. I'll keep my old HUD in a separate file in case this gets sorted.

  • This looks pretty cool. Some of that art is pretty nice. If I had to nitpick, I'd say that I'm not a fan of straight top-down games because looking at the top of someone's head is not as exciting as say isometric or a hybrid like Zelda.

    How does the combat system work? Does damage to each section of the body depend on whether you target that area manually?

    Oh, and on that last screenshot, you misspelled "strength."

  • I didn't post a capx because there's really nothing to it. I just made a blank project and tried setting the mouse cursor from sprite on start of layout and even to further make sure, it also sets it every tick. I have a variety of ways I set the cursor in my actual game depending on the actions of the character, but I can't even make it work with a simple project anymore.

    Here is a capx.

    Edit: I have also noticed that once I lose my custom cursor, if I right click in the game, I get my custom cursor back. No idea why.

  • Am I really the only one having this problem? I updated my graphics drivers, and it didn't seem to matter.

    Like I said, this problem exists in new projects as well, so there is nothing I can do event-wise.

    If I could just add a one pixel border around my game, it would work because crossing over the black letter box area always brings my custom cursor back. But I see no way to modify the node-webkit.

  • I really need to know if I can fix this or not because I don't want to redesign my entire lower HUD if I don't have to.

    I know that the transparent layers are working properly, so the issue must be with something else. Maybe the background is showing black? Like I said before, if I disable webgl, I get my transparent map. But then I lose my effects, and that kinda sucks, so I want to keep webgl enabled.

    If it helps, here is how I am creating the picture of the map. Why everything has to be such a long, convoluted process is beyond me. I think I am trying to do things that C2 was never designed for. Anyway, here is a picture of the code. Maybe this will reveal the problem, who knows.