Visual Tweaks and Game Changes
Community Forums/Showcase/Visual Tweaks and Game Changes
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| Hi all, Ive been wanting to make Tiny Tanks look a little different for awhile now.. so for the last week ive been tweaking the game visuals as well as many of the game mechanics. Things I added were Fast Extention Blend modes right into my TT zone editor so that the pak file can automatically store these new features. You can now use all the specular, cubemap modes like refraction and such. For the maps im messing with I dont think ill ever use Bump mapping, but I think specular highlights add alot without getting to far from the toony feel TT has always had. I also am using a DX real time lighting sytem that I made, simply reclycling lights and allowing the nearest ones to the player be rendered onto the scene. This works great for weapon explosions and trails. The other visual scheme change is Ambient Occlusion baked lightmaps along side of real time Ambient Occlusion volumes that can light anything anytime based on its position in the volume either vertex by vertex or entitycolor the whole thing. On the gameplay side of things , ive improved some basic interactions with collisions, added a rear view mirror you can toggle, and re introduced the first person camera to all weapons. Before now the FPS view was only available when using the sniper cannon. The mortar cannon no longer sends a projectile that slowly travels and falls to the ground.. now its more like a real tank cannon , that shoots instantly, and there is a small delay to target impact, this delay is based on distance. No visual projectile. Thats it , I have not posted the update yet I still have a few things to iron out, probably early next week.. here are some shots of the new lighting.    and heres a shot to show that , if you arent in a dark room its still bright and toony  Last edited 2011 |
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| Looks good. That last shot makes me think of minecraft with tanks? |
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| I really like the lighting style you're using. Also, I like the rear-view mirror. As a side comment: have you ever considered putting "drivers" in the tanks, with their heads sticking out of the top? |
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| have you ever considered putting "drivers" in the tanks funny you should mention that, I've been messing with that the last few days.. Ive got a low poly human model with my own animation system just for this.. however I've not made the animation sequences yet, and I need to make better suited textures for the human figure. i was thinking of something like this, but until I put it in game for a test I won't know if I like it or not.  Last edited 2011 |
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i didn't think about the position of the guy well enough.. i think it would look really good once he is animated for events like firing, jumping, taking damage, being underwater and so forth.. I just would have to find a good place for him on the tank so that the different tank armor models don't run through it  Last edited 2011 |
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| Wow, the new graphics look great! |
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| Yeah the new graphics look cool but I think the tanks look better on their own without the drivers. |
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| Hmmm, I'm not sure about the driver. Maybe make him more-cartoony? Yeah the new graphics look cool but I think the tanks look better on their own without the drivers. The advantage of the driver is it brings the eyes to a focused point on the screen. Without the driver there's as much of a focus. If you don't want to use a driver, maybe something else? (special effects/eye candy?) |
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| I'm not sold on the driver myself.. just toying with ideas to make the tanks more enjoyable to watch.. I thought with funny animations the driver might do the trick for example: *The driver hanging for dear life and his legs flapping in the air when the tank speed boosts. *holding his breath when the tank is underwater *Cheering when the tank scores or stats go up Things like that. I was also thinking if I had a completely animated driver model, I could remove respawn times and just have players walk back to a regen spot as the driver to get the tank back after it has been destroyed.. so tank regen times would depend on distance from a regen spot. Again though just thinking about unique mechanics I can add. I dont want to start a new project until I decide where to go from Blitz3D, and this one is really fun to tweak right now. Last edited 2011 |
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| Ok the update is live.. small video showing some changes.. low quality vid is about 6 megs, the other one is about 23megs.. little less than the actual game download :) *Updated Textures on Tanks and cannons *Ambient Volume lib added for dynamic shading *First Person view added (3rd person still available) *Toggle RearView mirror (Forgot to do this in the video) *Reload Icons and health bar on local tank moved off the tank itself and put up as a hud element. *Mortar cannon is no longer an arching projectile, but a straight shooting cannon with an impact delay. *Maps can now use reflection,refraction, bump, specular and all the fast Extention library features *Sniper cannon can now only be fired after you zoom. Too powerful to shoot this thing from the hip and kill players in one shot. screenshot of fps view.. videos below it  videos.. low quality 6 meg http://www.empowergames.com/ttnewupdate_low.wmv better quality 23 megs http://www.empowergames.com/ttnewupdate.wmv Feedback appreciated, I know my cannon models should be of better quality now that you see them up close in FPS view, but my skills are extremely limited in that department. Last edited 2011 |
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| You don't need the drivers. They should be inside the tanks anyway. |
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