DrewMelton's Forum Posts

  • That's good. A typical animation in this type of game might have 30 frames, and that's for each direction. With 8 directions, that's about 240 frames for one animation. The main character is going to have probably going to end up with just under 2,000 frames. The enemies won't have as many because they won't be able to do as much, but still a bit. Then, factor in an extensive HUD and environment graphics, this is why I start get worried when I hear anything about limits.

    But if it's like you say, then it shouldn't be an issue. Each layout is only going to have the character plus 1 to 3 enemies since I'm going with smaller levels (each room will have doors and lead to other rooms on a separate layout). All in all, probably 50 to 100 rooms altogether when I get done. I'm building a full castle.

  • Tokinsom,

    Not that I think is an issue for you, but nice to know that windows has a 10,000 object limit. Sounds like a lot, and 10,000 is a lot, but a lot less than you think. Especially when it comes to games. What other applications you got open when you running preview? It all adds up.

    But it could be anything really.

    Does that 10,000 limit include animations as well? If so that's a major bummer.

    I mean, look at this interview for Baldur's Gate II

    Q: How many frames of animation are there in the game?

    A: : At last count there were roughly 108,420 frames of character and monster animations rendered for Baldur's Gate at BioWare for your viewing pleasure. We are adding 171,000 more frames for BGII:SoA. This does not include things like animated water, waving flags or other animated objects of any kind.

    And that game came out in 2000. That was 15 years ago.

  • Personally, I think it is just an issue with having lots of animations or frames. I didn't notice the project taking that long to preview until I started adding in my full animations. Like I said, I don't even have any sounds yet.

  • DrewMelton

    You really, really, really need an ssd.

    With a system that powerful I'd be surprised if that wasn't your bottleneck.

    Yeah, it's been on my list of things to get. I just haven't gotten around to it. If everyone here thinks it will speed up times considerably enough to warrant the price and effort, then I'll make it my next purchase.

    If it's just 5 seconds or so saved, then it may not be worth it. I have a ton of stuff installed on this computer, so if I have to reinstall the full OS just to make use of it, I may not feel like doing it unless it's really worth it.

  • Ashley

    I ran some tests with a stopwatch.

    Time:

    (I start the timer when I hit the preview button in C2 and stop it when I see the game running).

    NW.js - 10.5 - took about 4 to 5 seconds to see the loading bar and another 40 seconds of loading. Total ~ 45 seconds

    Firefox - most of the time did not even show a loading bar and sometimes brought up a script dialog box. Overall times were around 21 to 35 seconds depending on what it was in the mood for. Total ~ 21 to 35 seconds

    Chrome - slightly faster than NW at about 3 to 4 seconds to bring up the load bar, and maybe 30 seconds to load. Total ~ 34 seconds

    Note: I usually close the game before running a new preview, because it only saved a couple seconds leaving it running.

    Performance:

    NW.js - 10.5 very smooth 60fps and very low cpu usage around 2%

    Firefox very unpredictable loading, but fine afterwords, pretty smooth 60fps and slightly higher cpu usage around 11%

    Chrome smooth at windowed size, but garbage fps when maximized, cpu usage around 6%

    Project details:

    Game type: Isometric with pre-rendered 3d animations. Uses pathfinding and mouse click movement (like Age of Empires or Baldur's Gate)

    Stats: (shown either at status bar at bottom of project or in-game)

    approx download: 26.8

    memory use 146 (around 113 in game)

    events: 908

    object count (in game): 196

    very minimal particle effects

    very minimal webgl effects

    Note: I have not yet created any audio for this game yet. It does feature quite a few detailed animations being that it is isometric and needs to have different directions animated. The levels are very small, and there will only be 2 or 4 characters on screen at most.

    My PC:

    i5-3550 —

    gtx 680 superclocked

    16gb ram

    standard 7200rpm hdd

    win 7 pro

  • My game takes about 45 seconds to preview to node-webkit. I have a standard HDD and a i5-3550 at 3.30ghz. I have no audio at all yet, but I do have a bunch of animation frames. I haven't even added everything I want yet.

    I'm probably going to make a watered-down version with minimal animation frames to create some code or make small changes and then just copy and paste it over to the full project.

  • 404 not found, someone can share it again?

    Thanks.

    Well, I copied the title of the article in the url and did a google search. This looks like a reprint of the same article. It mentioned the original website.

    http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_ ... mers-r2936

    Of course, I never read the original article in the thread, so someone else will have to confirm if this is the same article.

  • I still use Fraps, but the problem I have is showing off the video. Only Chrome can do 60fps with youtube, otherwise, it looks very jittery, especially as the character walks across the screen.

  • wow.. so good! how are you doing that torch lighting??? DrewMelton

    The background is pre-rendered in a layer below the characters. I will have some objects in a higher layer when I need them to be in front.

    But anyway, I have a dummy torch setup in Modo with a light material applied to it. I have an actual light set up in front of the torch that creates the torch light. There are a few other lights here and there to fill in the rest of the area so it's not too dark.

    In construct 2, I am using a couple of very small particle effects to create the fire effect of the torch. It looks cool in motion.

    The characters are rendered in their own scene with a light above their head, and an invisible shadow catcher below them so the shadow appears animated as well.

    Your concept artwork looks cool. When working with rough sketches like that (or any art) you can test it by squinting your eyes or taking a few steps back, and see if the design still holds up. I'll send you a PM in a moment.

  • Glad you like it. It wasn't as hard as the stuff I had to make for my game. My game requires fully animated human characters rendered in 8 directions.

    This is a screen from my game. It's just a small test area.

    Anyway, you mentioned trying to find an artist. I may be able create some assets for you depending on what you need.

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  • Well, since I have a headache and don't feel like working, I thought I would play with your ship and see if I could recreate it.

    Now, this is very rough. I didn't feel like getting every detail exact.

    Based on my experience, it is tricky to recreate this exact style in 3d. You would almost be better off using Photoshop or some other program and just making it piece by piece using gradients and shapes. I mean, there are a lot of very strong gradients your example. I would have to really play with my material settings to recreate that exactly.

    Also, there is a lot of detail such as the rings in the metal parts or the details on the red part of the ship that would be easier created in 2d. I'm not going to go through the trouble of setting up custom textures/bump maps or whatnot, so I just created some geometry to give it some detail.

    You need to make a lot of bevels to make something like this. I also used a lot of loop selections. I duplicated shapes from one side to the other to save time. Like I said, it's not perfect. I didn't take the time to make sure everything was even lined up.

    Depending on your skill level with 3d (modeling, materials/texturing, rendering, etc.) it may be easier to make in 2d instead. You'd probably have to make it actual size unless you go vector. With 3d, you can render at various sizes, but some detail is lost if you go really low rez. That's why a lot of pixel art is made at the actual size so they know how much detail can be seen. Of course, you don't have to go low rez. There's nothing wrong with higher rez art.

    I use Modo because it's great for pre-rendered 3d. They do have a cheaper indie version on Steam. I use the full version, but the indie may work for most people. I never cared for Blender.

    I can give you the obj or fbx if you want to play with it in Blender. I'm not sure how well it will export to that program though.

  • Hmm, I'm not seeing the ship names you mentioned. I must not have downloaded them.

    Can you post a screenshot so I can see the ships you are referring to?

    My game is all pre-rendered 3d. It's isometric, though, which is a little harder. I mostly use Modo for 3d. Maybe I can give some tips when I get a better look at the ships you mentioned.

  • Noooooooo! At least the gameplay looks nothing like my concept. Maybe I'll ask the community for name suggestions when mine's nearer to completion. Dammit!

    I know how you feel, lol. When I was thinking of names for my game (which I haven't posted yet), it's like every time, some clown somewhere already put it down for some little piddly board game or out of nowhere video game. It drove me so crazy I started making lists and put down ideas whenever I thought of something so I'd actually be able to get a good name when my game is ready, and preferably with an available .com.

  • I just saw another game with that name, Umbra. Hopefully, it won't interfere with yours having the same name, but I just thought I would let you know.

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  • I exported from Modo to Blender with a fbx file, then set up Blender with an addon to export to json.

    When I try to run the project, I am getting this error:

    I also do not see any animation data in the json file when I open it with wordpad as was suggested on the previous page of this thread.