3D RPG Graphical style taking shape (1 image)

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Sunteam Software(Posted 2003) [#1]
Well we've been busy busy busy and we now have a first screenshot to show you:




SopiSoft(Posted 2003) [#2]
hey, this looks great!!!
i like the cartoon style!!!


dan_upright(Posted 2003) [#3]
nice - looks like a popup book =]


Dorian #11(Posted 2003) [#4]
Very nice :)

P.


DarkEagle(Posted 2003) [#5]
wow - i like that a LOT! i love that graphical style as i was going to attempt something like this a while ago... what did you do your models in?


Neuro(Posted 2003) [#6]
Wow! I've been waiting to see a new project of your guys...and still waiting for that Harrier demo!


Sunteam Software(Posted 2003) [#7]
Thx all for feedback. My artist does all the modelling and texturing for which he uses 3D Studio and Milkshape mostly. We've been putting the levels together in WorldSpin and then import the .wsp files into the game engine through a specially modified import routine to cater for the rpg requirements :)

We were in the throngs of trying out the various toon shading routines floating about but we'll have to wait and see how everything looks in motion as at the moment the results look really good as they are (i.e. no toon shading routines).

Neuro: Harrier is not likely to be here anytime this century as we are well involved in this rpg now. However your version looks to be doing it justice, so I look forward to seeing that :)


Caff(Posted 2003) [#8]
That looks really good - maybe as a suggestion tighten the lighting up so that the ambient light is quite relaxed, and the lights themselves are smaller and sharper. If that makes any sense!


DarkEagle(Posted 2003) [#9]
@toon shading comment:

two tone texture with a wiggly line down the middle (light on top, dark on bottom) and apply this as a spherical reflection map. (thanks to zen for this method :)


MRaven(Posted 2003) [#10]
This looks really gorgeous. Nice to see someone uses my little worldbuilder. :) Good luck with this project.


Anthony Flack(Posted 2003) [#11]
It looks great! Awesome!


Physt(Posted 2003) [#12]
OMG! Something different! I love it. Keep going.....


Neuro(Posted 2003) [#13]
Anymore screen shots?


Zo Zo Zee Zar(Posted 2003) [#14]
That fantastic looking, really cool.
Do you plan to add shadows? You could vert color the walls and add flat black textured alphad meshes just above the ground to give it sharp looking cartoon style shadows. To save surface count just merge all the shadows in to the same surface.

Can't wait for a demo.


Sunteam Software(Posted 2003) [#15]
Again, thx all.

Neuro: no more screenies just yet, we are still early on in development :)

Ravey: we've been playing with shadows for a while and we haven't found much to our liking (or that worked LOL). I'll be playing with it more further on down the devel path so I'll keep your idea's in mind :)


Anthony Flack(Posted 2003) [#16]
I rather like it just exactly the way it is.

Although I'm not suggesting you go this way, it puts me in mind of flat, hand-drawn characters put in the world with no attempt to make them look 3d at all. Does anyone know of an animated series called "The Adventures of Thomas and Nardo"? Used to be on Liquid Television. It reminds me of that.


podperson(Posted 2003) [#17]
Very very nice. Makes me want to redo the textures for my game cartoon style. I really liked the look of DarkStone which was more on the painterly side... and I like this a lot too.


Gabriel(Posted 2003) [#18]
Although I'm not suggesting you go this way, it puts me in mind of flat, hand-drawn characters put in the world with no attempt to make them look 3d at all.


Yeah, I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw the screenshots. One of my favourite console RPG's is Breath of Fire 4, which I've just bought on PC so that I can play it again without digging my PSX out again ( PS2 won't play BOF4 because it's a US import ) and it does precisely this. It looks great imo and much more original and interesting than most RPG's.

BTW is this going to be a REAL rpg ( console style ) with turn based combat and everything? I've always wanted to see a proper console style RPG made in Blitz ( and have begun work on one myself, but more commercially viable projects are taking precedence )


cyberseth(Posted 2003) [#19]
Actually I'd have to disagree. If there's one thing that really annoyed me about Breath Of Fire 4 (and TechnoMage) it was the way that the characters weren't really 3D. When the camera rotated around, the characters turned in little jerks and it was really off-putting. I like to see a cartoony style but with proper 3D rotation.

I'd suggest going down the toon cel shading route.

Also I think that this 3D world would benefit from some form of shadowing, or tightening up the lighting somehow. As it stands, it's a bit hard to picture the depth of the stony floor, particularly around the fence. I know this is part of the effect of toony 3D graphics, but there must be a way to get the best of both worlds, with a little careful shadowing..?


Anthony Flack(Posted 2003) [#20]

As it stands, it's a bit hard to picture the depth of the stony floor



Surely this isn't an issue when it's moving though? Personally, I quite like it without major shadows, that's just MHO of course.


When the camera rotated around, the characters turned in little jerks and it was really off-putting.



The effect I was thinking of is more like paper dolls - in the Thomas and Nardo cartoon, people seen from the side looked flat!


I'd suggest going down the toon cel shading route.



But realistically, so would I.


Psycoach(Posted 2003) [#21]
This look very cool ! :-)

Another artistically interesting approach can be found here :

http://www.pcgameworld.com/details.php/id/3868


Sunteam Software(Posted 2003) [#22]
Anthony: the character styles have not been decided yet, however at this time it is considered they will be full 3D in a toon fashion (maybe manga-esk).

Sybixsus: We've always been influenced by arcade/console/retro games and we are certainly aiming for a more consoley type rpg then say Never Winter Nights style. The combat system being planned at the moment however is a real time combat system very much like Ys or Legend of Mana where the player will be able to walk around and hit things without the need for a seperate screen. As a fan of Final Fantasy games I'm still annoyed at the amount of pausing of the game when combat ensues, we prefer to have a continuous gaming experience where combat and exploration happen within the same environment.

Cyberseth: we do still have a lot of work to do on area graphics and atmospherics. This includes the exploration of various methods for toon shading, shadowmapping and environmental atmospherics such as rain and fogging effects. Our biggest headache so far is to get the shadowmapping looking right as we have been using YAL but unfortunately the surface fingerprinting routines just don't want to work so I'm now considering a true import->lightmap->export of shadowmaps contained within the .b3d files. I'll post updates as and when we are happy with the results, which as Anthony suggests may even be without true shadowmapping. It all depends on how it all looks when put together.


Anthony Flack(Posted 2003) [#23]
I remember seeing an early WIP of Pencilwhipped and being rather taken with it - downloading now...

But they said they'd replaced the sketched characters with 3d models, now why would they do that?

Well, taking a look now...


Sunteam Software(Posted 2003) [#24]
New work in progress image:



In view is some of the atmospheric effects we've been putting in including rain with droplet splash effect and fogging which uses 2 textures to produce an animated volumetric type effect. The main guy (placeholder object) walks around. The green spheres are place holders for pickup items. The cubes are enemy place holders with currently only a rudimentery seek and destroy AI at the moment. Things are progressing nicely :)