Worklog for HNPhan

Worklog 1

Return to Worklogs

Primal Omega - restarted(Posted 2004-09-04)
the project has been restarted, and is being recoded from scratch
currently has specular and bloom system implemented
first screenshot




School_Project(Posted 2004-02-22)
Ive been busy at school doing projects, completed this project just a few day ago:


http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.freewebs.com/cgi008/02.jpg
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.freewebs.com/cgi008/03.jpg
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.freewebs.com/cgi008/06.jpg
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.freewebs.com/cgi008/08.jpg
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.freewebs.com/cgi008/10.jpg
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.freewebs.com/cgi008/11.jpg

sadly, it wasnt B3D engine, since B3D doesnt support specular maps nor tangeant space normal maps.



PO_Month_1(Posted 2003-11-15)
*** A small update on 'Surviving' ***
It is now being published by www.Binary-people.com
*** End ***
I've finaly re-started my old game which never came about called 'Primal Omega'. This game is the story after 'Surviving', after being saved and on the way to your homeworld. This is another type of game, a 3D space shooter (Shoot em up). Ill have many artists working on this :D , and ill be taking more time to make this, since I'm going to school in the mean time.

---
Week 1
Note: Project started on 15/11/03
Added: Core engine
---
Oi... i havent updated this for a long time, I might as well put it on hold until christmas vacation start, and then Ill be putting more work in it.
---
Homework pretty much taking all my time these days
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.geocities.com/cgi008/maskedman.jpg
modelled,rigged,textured and animated by me 1900 poly with weapon



Surviving_Completed!(Posted 2003-08-28)
The game is finished :)
BUT, im finishing up a demo to release to the public and potential publishers
---
Thursday 8/28
Modified: Capped some stuff on the game for demo version, almost finished.
Modified: Done Demo Version, now uploading to server...



Demo here:
http://blitz.idigicon.com/filesystem_download.asp?NickName=TigerZ&ProjectName=Surviving&Filename=Install_Surviving.exe

Modified: Fixed Overlapping sound FX! finally
Modified: after many have suggested, i nerfed down the difficulty at easy mode, the other mode have been change proportionnaly except for Hell mode. There is now a Hint image in the Demo Folder.

** Epilogue **
So what now? Guess ill have to talk to some publishers... Im not gonna start a new game, nor continue the 3d fighting game, since im starting school very very soon. Ill probably do more research on some stuff, especially multiplayer.

---
Sunday 8/31
Modified: Minor changes, easy mode easier, flash when losing life, ect...
Note: Currently checking publishers....



Surviving_Week_7(Posted 2003-08-21)
This week, im gonna crank up everything, so i can put a closed beta to some people, and take out some bugs, the end of this month, i should have a demo for the public.
---
Thursday 8/21
Added: Finished another texture models, and almost finished the 4th texture model.
Added: Finished 4th texture model, finished 2 other texture models, 6 more to go...
---
Friday 8/22
Modified: Ive decided to take out 1 monster, and a few level, now has 43 levels instead of 51.
Added: Forgot how many texture models done, but only 1 left for the monsters to do.
---
Saturday 8/23
Added: Dee Jay just finished 6 tracks for the game :D, 22 minutes of quality eheh. Added intro music.
Modified: Gui, marine texture, dragon texture.
Note: All there is to do is to add the arbaleste model.
---
Sunday 8/24
Added: Arbaleste model, now i need to finish its texture
Added: Pack data into single files, the other stuffs like GUI and music and sound is left unpack.
Note: Uploading closed beta..... taking forever
Note: Done and done, got 3 bugs to squash now.. fun fun fun
---
Monday 8/25
Modified: Solved those 2 bugs, the last bug is still being investigated.
Modified: Sound, mucho bueno, almost no more of that weird overlaping effect.
Added: more sound FX, balancing issues, loading screen
---
Tuesday 8/26
Added: More SFX, im wrapping up everything soon, should finish it up and check out some publisher.
Added: More music, added also ending screen
Note: Now modifying the game into a demo version :)
After I completely finish this game, im taking a long pause from game programming and go to school, polishing my art skills (especially texturing technique)
---
Wednesday 8/27
Added: Intro splash, refined gui, completed arbaleste



Surviving_Week_6(Posted 2003-08-14)
First Month just passed, most model has been done, all is needed is the death animation and texturing work, gonna be very simple.
---
Thursday 8/14
Added: HexaPed(Ground), Bomb(Ground), Quadped flyer(air)
Note: All models (monsters) are finished modeling, and rigged, now comes texturing
Added: Music, place holder for now, till musician finishes them.
---
Friday 8/15
Modified: UV Map, full animation for the first 5 monsters
Modified: Set up HP on hard, so that it comes really really really close to taking out Player Lives
Modified: Now has 51 levels
Added: Boss destroys towers
---
Sunday 8/17
Modified: UV Map, full animation for the next 4 monsters
Modified: UV Map, full animation for the other 3 monsters
Added: upped some stuffs to make it more stratetigcaly interesting ;)
(I hope my game will be better then my spelling)
---
Monday 8/18
Modified: Redefining levels to be more challanging to the new changes.
---
Tuesday 8/19
Modified: First 4 model, textured.
Note: I decided to redo the first 3 texture of the model.
Modified: finished 2nd texture model, finished redoing the 3 UV maping



Surviving_Week_5(Posted 2003-07-30)
Putting sound is a pain in the ... bum.
---
Thursday 8/7
Note: currently debugging, today, ill be starting the tutorial section for the game, nothing fancy, very simple.
Added: Tutorial in the game
---
Friday 8/8
Modified: intro screen, abit more elaborate
Modified: Finished Gui for start menu
---
Saturday 8/9
Modified: Splash area changes according to level of tower
Modified: Mouse pointer hovering
Note: Currently working on models, having a pain of exporting
---
Sunday 8/10
Modified: Reworked the first terrain.
Added: Created base skeleton for all spiderlike monsters
---
Monday 8/11
Modified: Fixed a huge bug, where monsters just spawn out of nowhere
Modified: optimization done on shadowing technique
---
Tuesday 8/12
Added: Biped Model, Quadped Model, Bee(Air), Monkey(Boss), Monster(Boss), Man(Boss), Dragon(Air)
Note: Im doing a very cheap way to generate monsters, simply cause there would be just too much for me to create in 2 weeks (28 monsters in total), so 4 boss models, 6 air, 6 invisible, 12 ground.
---
Wednesday 8/13
Added: Cyber(Ground), Bot(Ground)
Modified: Optimized waypoint system
Modified: Lotsa ennemy stuffs, name, models, ect...



Surviving_Week_4(Posted 2003-07-30)
Yep yep, this game progressing very fine, ill be starting graphics and sound now, ill finish up some code for gui and stuff also.
---
Thursday 7/31
Added: Loading of level, start menu, ect..
Added: credits,Options, graphics in the start menu, ect...
---
Friday 8/1
Modified: Recreated towers from scratch, optimized poly on the marine, uv mapped all towers and marine, ill have to change the crashed ship's texture
Added: Win, lose, almost finished all towers
---
Saturday 8/2
Added: Quit, pausing
Modified: Lots of bug squashed these few days, the game is almost bug free... or so i hope.
Note: Tomorrow, ill start adding sound fx, music will be at the end.
---
Sunday 8/3
Added: Soft shadow under towers, added other cool stuff
Modified: finished all towers
Modified: rendered avatars for each towers
Modified: Gave face lift to gui
Reminder: I gotta explode the crashed ship when losing
---
Monday 8/4
Modified: more bugs squashed
Added: SoundFX, lots more to do though
---
Tuesday 8/5
Note: My game was just tested on a Radeon 9000, and it seems that the shadows still have problems, ill need to check up on that soon. So anyway heres a screenshot of the game so far:
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://cgi0081.tripod.com/Surviving_006.jpg
---
Wednesday 8/6
Modified: I decided that the current towers dont look to good, so i decided to redo most of them. and finished.
Added: Sun Effect for start menu
Modified: Integration of Start menu with game, done



Surviving_Week_3(Posted 2003-07-24)
Ok so i got 1 music for the game, and the game engine itself is almost done, i think the next few days is to take out any bugs, and then next week, start finishing models and texture, and after that sound :D
---
Thursday 7/24
Added: Homing Missile, upgrading homing missile
Added: Time Warp (slows down game speed)
Added: Time warp: only mouse is not affected by time
Added: mouse drag Box selection
Note: Im getting Terragen for this project, its pretty cheap price also :D
Added: New terrain, i scraped the old terrain map, im using a more cool one :D
Note: Ive decided that the user can choose from 3 terrain=
1: Island in the water
2: Snowy island in the water
3: ? dunno yet
Added: Difficulty settings
Added: Multiple selection upgrade and sell
---
Friday 7/25
Modified: Tower stats, cost, damage, ect.. more balancing
Added: Water splash for monsters
Added: Muddy island, snowy island
Modified: Lights, monster HP, its more challanging now
Added: Avatar image on selection
Added: 3rd terrain: diablo sign :p
---
Saturday 7/26
Modified: Lots of balancing, almost every stat changed
Added: User Warnings= if air or invis is next + fading
Modified: 3 level of detail for terrains = 512x512, 1024x1024, 2048x2048
Note: Screenshots very soon
Added: Mouse position and zoom constraints
---
Sunday 7/27
Added: 12 User tips
Modified: Better balancing
Modified: Finished all 3 terrains :D, will not have 2048x2048
Added: info Tip display
---
Monday 7/28
Modified: More Gui related stuff
---
Tuesday 7/29
Added: Satellite view, for FPS shooting (satellite link cannon)
Added: Link Canon shooting
Added: Linking of ultima
---
Wednesday 7/30
Added: More stuff for the Satellite Link Canon



Surviving_Week_2(Posted 2003-07-17)
Phiew, man this game been progressing so fast :D, i might finish this in less then 2 months, dunno yet.
---
Thursday 7/17
Added: Fire tower (Splash damage)
Modified: Optimized some code using Handle() and object.
Added: Matching sparks to the type of weapons
Added: Laser Tower (instant damage)
Added: Ultima Tower (Splash damage)
---
Friday 7/18
Added: Light cast from projectiles in high detail mode.
Added: Level input and processing (can now advances levels)
Heres a new screenshot:
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://cgi0081.tripod.com/Surviving_005.jpg
---
Saturday 7/19
Note: And today... i start the GUI interface... oh jolly... >_<, gonna use Quads and pickmode.
---
Sunday 7/20
Added: Gui with create tower button
Added: Skip build mode
Added: Critical Hit
Added: Gui for units
Added: Splash for arb fire
Added: Selection of units
Note: Gui is such a chore
---
Monday 7/21
Added: Tower control,Crashed ship control, ect..
Added: Tower upgrades, selling of towers
Note: Gui almost finished, thank god!
Added: Mouse hover over gui and monsters (shows quick tip and info)
Modified: Refined tower models so i can know which is which
Added: Unit keep selection
Added: invisibility detector overwrite
Added: Air unit path, and death
---
Tuesday 7/22
Added: Money system, buying, upgrading, selling, kills from monsters, and level completions
Added: Money display, Tot display, timer display
Added: New terrain system, its now around 20% faster and looks smoother and better :D
Added: Building time, and build transition
Added: Tower build limit
Note: I finaly found the code that slowed my game by 30 percent! now it goes from the old 300 fps to 450 fps (when no ennemies are there) :D,
BenchMark: Full sets of monsters(50-60 on screen) with 3 towers at level 1;
13 fps on computer 3
81 fps on computer 2
187 fps on computer 1
---
Wednesday 7/22
Modified: Adjusted collisions so that theyrs less clogging, Projectile are now best anti-air tower in the game, will do extra damage if air.
Added: Upgrade tower transition



Surviving_Week_1(Posted 2003-07-10)
Well im in major need for cash for school, and Im projecting that in 3-4 months i might be in big trouble for cash, so ive decided to start a simplier project to get extra money fast. This game is inspired by Tower Defense.
---
Thursday 7/10
Note: Started production, Im currently doing some test to see which format is best to use for model.
Note: I just finished preliminaries for the game, ive done some of game design, story, ect... Ive been thinking of using billboard-like sprites with the single surface particle system for weak and many monsters, and for medium and large sized monsters, they would be real 3d models, but ill have to see how well they go together.
---
Friday 7/11
Added: Created the Melee level 6 unit, and the Air level 6 unit also, from that i will start to downgrade the poly count and detail and size to create the other lower levels, ive decided to do this so that it will be alot easier to create the 28 units that i need to do. The starting levels will have mass amount of units, and as the level progress, there will be less units, but they will be more detailed.
Added: A* pathfinding, im using Dan Page's library, really nice stuff there :D, thank god, now i can start coding from it to use 3d, shouldnt be too hard from now on.
Added: Waypoint system is done as well as pathfinding
Added: Pathfinding on Blitz's Terrain system, soo cool :D
Added: Spawning of Units at 3 portal points, added also animated models into the game.
Added: Simple Shadow
---
Saturday 7/12
Added: Level 6 Melee, Walk cycle
Added: Marine-Cyborg, this is the avatar of the user, he can change weapons, or upgrade them.
Heres a screenshot of 3 days worth of code and modeling:
[**Took it out***]
Added: Sprite Mouse pointer
Added: None, Simple and Mapped shadows, the user can select
Modified: Camera Control, is now warcraft3-style
Added: User controlable Marine, using Mouse
Added: Marine Attacking algorithm
Added: single surface particle system, also added particle effects for bullets
---
Sunday 7/13
Modified: Torso tourret type firing mechanism
Added: Tower Creation routine
Added: Blocking towers, the ennemy will now avoid those towers
Modified: Fixed the rigging of the Melee unit
Added: Dying sequence for melee unit
Added: Collisions, monsters to monsters, towers, marines
Added: Grid helper
Heres a screenshot so far:
[**Took it out***]
Added: Tower Attacks
---
Tuesday 7/15
Added: Long Range Arbaleste (like a howitzer can go into Siege mode)
Heres a new screenshot:
[**Took it out***]
Modified: Fixed Mouse position when changing resolution, Fixed Shadows, and better speed increase at higher resolution.
Note: After thoughtful consideration, ive decided to use Elias's Mod of SimonH's single surface system, this should save me alot of time, so im scratching my own single surface system.
Modified: After major modification, im now using Elias's mod of simonH's single surface system.
Added: Smoke coming out of crashed ship
Modified: Grid texture, more optimized
Modified: Arbaleste Target helper, scaled to splash area
Added: Invisible units, Detector Towers, Blood when ennemy dies
Modified: Better shadow, shadow for bullets
---
Wednesday 7/16
Modified: Changed neutron projectile image, blood, sparks...
updated screen:
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://cgi0081.tripod.com/Surviving_004.jpg
Added: Freezing tower, it will slow any units to 50% movement speed and does splash damage. Freezing will affect invisible units even if theyr not detected, splash damage is less if its not a direct hit.



3DFight_Week_16_HOLD(Posted 2003-07-08)
Well after losing some important stuff, ill be spending some more time in re-creating levels...
---
Tuesday 7/8
Note: Im about to re-code the shadow system, it wont have bluring anymore, but i will add whole scene bluring instead.
Removed: Shadow Bluring
Added: Whole Scene Bluring
Removed: Rain Transition, I might remove the Night transition also, im not sure yet.
---
Wednesday 7/9
Modified: Solved some annoying Bluring bug
---
Thursday 7/10
Added: 3 modes of bluring technique, first is none, second is medium, third is high, the user can also change the bluring strength for each.
NOTE: THIS PROJECT TEMPORARELY ON HOLD



3DFight_Week_15(Posted 2003-06-30)
My computer is going *coocoo* whenever i press the CTRL or f5 or number 3, it keeps opening windows programs, as if it was binded to a shortcut, i initially thought that it was a virus, but no anti-virus program has been able to find anything, ill have to reinstall Windows or something, cause its really hard to program without being able to do fast copy and paste, and play any kind of game like this.
---
Monday 6/30
Note: Im gonna add the single surface system today...
Modified: Changed the stun system, now the animation is dependent on the amount of stun strength this gives the nice arcade feeling i was looking for. Also resolved some balancing issues, where the user could just always repeatedly press the punch and the other user could just not do anything until he's dead.
Note: Im currently thinking of implementing realtime clouds :D, using Perlin noise algorithm, im not sure how slow it might go, but it would be a nice learning experience. Im also going to try my hands on real time radiosity! I know... sounds pretty crazy idea LOL, but again it would be a nice learning experience.
modified: Single Particle system, ive finished implementing camerafacing.
---
Tuesday 7/1
Note: Good news, Im getting more help on the programming side ^_^, this means ill be able to concentrate more on graphical aspect of the game which i like the most :D
Note: I just tried perlin noise algorithm, it so SLOW! So I'm gonna use another method. Radiosity is extremely slow also, unless having those new GeForceFX video card, realtime radiosity is way way not a good idea, so im not gonna do radiosity in realtime anytime soon, but i will try my hands for pre-rendered.
If your canadian; HAPPY CANADA DAY :P
Added: Single Surface particle engine in to the fighting game, its very steady, going around 230 fps with 1000 particles with everything else going on. The only thing i dont like is that since its a single entity, its not affected by Blitz's tweenining, so everything else looks smooth, but the particle is abit choppy :/ compared to the other stuffs. I guess ill implement single surface particles only for slow stuffs, and ill use the normal sprite system for particle that go faster.
---
Wednesday 7/2
Note: Ok, im formating my computer 1 right now... I hope i backed up everything essential... *gulp*
While I reinstall everything, im writing down all the concept changes ive done the last hours or so...
1. I finnaly have a story, inspired by some B movie, which I seem to have forgotten the name... but anyways, its a world where women rule, and male do not exist anymore, except for 1 (ta ta tummmmmmm!), *cough* yes i know, not very original but meh... I wrote more on it, but I dont wanna write it all here, but all womens are a clone from the last surviving women, ect... youll know the story once i finish the game.
2. Ive balanced and changed some concepts for each arenas, i have finish thinking it through yet, but heres an outline:
Arena 1 -> Interior, use of very soft shadow
Arena 2 -> Island Paradise, remove rain cycle, this will balance out performance issues with the other arena
Arena 3 -> Montreal, rainy environment, with splash and very soft shadows
Arena 4 -> Snow Base, Mass snow, deformable snow
Arena 5 -> Demon World, Rain of fire
3. Ive also started to run through the concept and pseudo code for critical hit display, deformable snow and super attacks (melee), there will be 2 or 3 super attacks per character, they are predefined animation combos that uses mana, the damage is proportionaly exponent to the number of attacks. Ill get more on it once installation is done.
---
Thursday 7/3
Note: After reinstalling windows, the problem still occurs, so it was the keyboard after all XD, i just replaced it and it works now, i shoulve tried replacing keyboards first :/
---
Sunday 7/6
Note: Bad news :( after i formated my C drive, i realized that i forgot to back up my Arena 2 *sob sob*. Im gonna have to recreate it :(



3DFight_Week_14(Posted 2003-06-23)
Just quitted the second job on monday >_<, so im gonna have more free time, yay, less income, but i should still be ok.
---
Monday 6/23
Note: Ive started design of the last boss, he will not be user selectable. Im preparing to create the 3rd arena also, im getting my camera ready, and waiting for a good day to do the shots, ill continue on the other arenas later on, but i need to test out this new technique of mine first.
Note: Ive decided on changing the stun system, im going to use something which should make it play much better then the current one.
---
Saturday 6/29
Note: I just tried to go on top of buildings to get 360 degrees panoramic shots, but man... those people reaaaaaaaally dont like strangers up there, ill have to try again somewhere else, the search continues...



3DFight_Week_13(Posted 2003-06-16)
A new job, starting this week, which gives me 2 jobs :(, i dont really like too much, but its paying for school.
---
Monday 6/16
Note: I need to prepare my portfolio, and the deadline is on friday, so im gonna be using the models of this game for that purpose as well as the game itself and ill put other stuff also. Im just hoping that theyr computer is fast enough to run it, so im gonna need to make more models these few coming days and more concepts art (hand drawing) as well.
---
Tuesday 6/17
Modified: Cloth engine, found a new bug, i made it look better, ill solve the bug very much later, not gonna do much coding this week.
Note: Ive just made up my mind about the last boss in single player, the character will not be selectable to the user, this will allow me to really pump and put incredible stuff to him, i was thinking of a robe that when he spins, will damage the user, the robe will use my cloth engine.
---
Friday 6/20
Note: Ive been sick since Wednesday, I skipped work today and im just gonna go on my bed and rest now.
---
Saturday 6/21
Note: Summer finaly came ^^, I feel much better then yesterday, im skipping the first half at work, so ill be doing some resting at home a little bit more.



3DFight_Week_12(Posted 2003-06-09)
The game is progressing slowly right now, this is the 3rd Month and summer coming, I might have to extend the deadline, but Im not sure yet, ill have to see how it goes. But the good news is that ill have more time to do concept arts, the next arena is situated in the city of Montreal(thats where I live) on top of a high building, ill need to take some shots with a camera and model the city. Im also thinking of the day time to be sunset time, yet im not sure jsut yet. So around the buildings are many more buildings, some mountains, a river, i might put some cars traveling and stuff. But I have a good instinct about this level, it should look really nice ^^
---
Monday 6/9
Added: Camera Shaking Horizontal/Vertical
Modified: Cloth engine, took out some bugs, shadow order bug for cloth as well as particles.
---
Wednesday 6/11
Added: I just went crazy and started coding a 1 surface particle system, and man.... that thing can display a huge number of particle, its running at 360-440 fps with 10 000 particles on computer 1, im gonna have to implement auto Camera facing and put it in the game, its gonna be so cool to be able to use so many particle ^^
---
Thursday 6/12
Modified: I did some work on the particle system today, it can now Life fade, life scale and turn, next step is to optimize the turning algorithm and make it always face the camera. And make leaves out of it ^^
---
Friday 6/13
Note: Bad news, im having 2 jobs right now, a total of 60hours per week :(
I gotta make lots of money to get into school, so its gonna get real slow here
---
Sunday 6/15
Modified: After i added particle turning i lost around 200 fps a few days ago, and today i was able to save 130 fps with optimization Lol



3DFight_Week_11(Posted 2003-06-01)
Here we go again, another week, the last week was pretty slow with weird stuff happening in my personnal life, hopefully this week will be abit better.
---
Monday 6/2
Modified: I just finished Polygon to polygon collision for cloth, it doesnt look right yet... im not sure why, but it'll do for now and as for the speed difference, i havent timed it yet.
Modified: I made the cloth collision even better now, the only known problem is that it doesnt slide smoothly, but the user wont notice it.
---
Thursday 6/5
Note: Mm... guess this week wont be any different... too much happening in my life right now... maybe friday ill get time.... or maybe not... *sigh* i just dunno
---
Sunday 6/8
Note: Ouf! I really havent touched the game for awhile now, currently were doing concept arts for the coming arenas and the new female models, since Im littered with other stuffs were progressing slower then normal, but we are progressing. I just did the 'Tour de l'ile' on bike, man its more exhausting then i thought :S, so I'm gonna sit back and relax.



3DFight_Week_10(Posted 2003-05-27)
Well im back and running, after a few days of... personnal stuff, i guess im abit behind schedule, so ill have to kick my ass and finish up those models.
---
Monday 5/27
Note: Just started the second female model.
---
Tuesday 5/28
Note: I just had a really nice idea to add to the game, the user will be able to have special abilities that can be activated through special combos, and in single player, the user can upgrade his/her character. Ex: Vampiric Attack, Stunning, ect...
Also, as the user gets more damaged, the more armor he/she will have, this will make the fights longer and more exciting.
Note: Linus is also taking a shot at Level Texturing and Concept.
Note: Started the third Female Character
---
Thursday 5/29
Modified: Second Female character; jogging type female, blond, white shirt, Finished Rigging.. i wish i had Weighted bones :S
Modified: Third Female character; Necro-type female, very dark colors, red-head / brunette.
Added: Island Paradise Arena, if youve seen the demo, youll know what i mean, of course ill have to change ALOT in it, ill make less trees but much cooler looking trees and leaves swaying, grass, pollens, rain, night, waves, this map is near-last arena in the single player, the last arena is the Twisted version (demon world) of Island Paradise which will have rain of fire, magma, ect...
---
Friday 5/30
Modified: Island Paradise Arena, solved many bugs, ive decided to not have 300 trees, as it doesnt look as good as i had hoped, instead im going to put 3 huge trees with lotsa leaves swaying. Also added dripplet effects when it rains, eats alot of FPS but the user can enable it or disable it.
Note: I just found an even easier way to export the 2nd UV coordinates, this will really speed up level designs and make them look as i wanted in the first place.
---
Saturday 5/31
Modified: Island paradise level, itll be called something else soon, i made it so that theres a spotlight with fog to be added when its at night, also added 3 huge trees, im pondering on if I should put the old leaves or use a hack to do it and get speed boost... ill also need camera collision detection since the camera gets in the tree at times...
---
Sunday 6/1
Modified: Cloth engine, ive just started to implement polygon to polygon collision with cloth, dunno about speed lost yet, ill soon find out.



3DFight_Week_9(Posted 2003-05-18)
Because of time constraints, and the fact that im doing pretty much everything by myself, ive decided that the game will only have FEMALE characters, and except for one male. Ive been having problems with creating the first Arena, ive never done Level Creation before, and I'm just starting to learn this.
FPS Reference at 640x480 32 bit on Wednesday:
High: 450
Average: 350
Low: 240
Reference FPS taken on Computer 1
---
Monday 5/19
Added: Area/Soft Shadow, the user can disable this in the settings. Of course theres some FPS loss, its not much, since i still have alot of FPS to spare still.
Modified: Punch Combo, its a better style of fight now.
Modified: Grab attacks are now harder to do.
---
Tuesday 5/20
Note: Now that the work load is abit less on the characters, i project on having the models and arenas done in 5 weeks, altough summertime might 'intervene' if u know what i mean ;)
Im also thinking of droping the Colosseum arena, it doesnt look as good as i had hoped in-game.
Added: Arena 2; earth Arena, Just finished its Lightmap, the arena isnt textured yet, but ill get on to it soon enough, im gonna recreate Arena 1 soon. heres an early screenshot of the Arena 2 In-GAME.
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://cgi0081.tripod.com/Arena_Earth_2.jpg
Note: Ive hit a snag here and there while i was modifying the arena, but its solved, and ill finish the arena by thursday. Its around 2500 polys.
---
Wednesday 5/21
Modified: Solved some bug; Stream Laser Direction bug, Direction Control user Bug.
Note: oh boy... i really suck at level editing
---
Thursday 5/22
Modified: Arena 2, put more stuff on it, its now around 4600 polys, 3 Lightmaps.



3DFight_Week_8(Posted 2003-05-12)
And so another week starts, blitzcoder being up again. Not much else to say, its been raining the few days, and its gonna rain *again* for the next days, pretty much of a downer there. I guess i forgot to mention my team mates so here they are by order of recruit:
Main Coder/Artist: Hau Nghiep Phan (TigerZ, thats me BTW)
Music: Jack (forgot his family name)
Support Coder: Linus Levis
Story: Gary Rennie (CrazyGaz)
we all live in Canada, Montreal, except for Gary who lives in the US. I met Jack when I told one of my friends that I needed a musician for my games, so he refered him to me. Linus was a collegue of mine while i was working for, please dont laugh, Saine Marketing, he went to the same college as me, Dawson College, and went to the same program as me, Computer Science, but we didnt go in the same year, he went 2 years before me. And Gary is a fellow member of BlitzCoder, he's 15 i think, and thats a good thing for story writing, since his imagination is pretty much hyped up at that age.
Linus is gonna code the GUI, the Camera Control, the AI for now and I do pretty much everything else.
---
Monday 5/12
Note: I talked to Gary Rennie, and the first 3 races of the 5 races have been set out;
Race 1: Human (2 model almost done)
Race 2: Cybernetically enhanced human
Race 3: Half-Demon
Race 4: ?
Race 5: ? (only 1 character)
Theres time to figure out what the other 2 races will be, so im not too worried.
Modified: Human Male Character; I just finished its UV mapping, the hair was particularly annoying to do.
---
Tuesday 5/13
Modified: Human Male Character; Finished step 1 of texturing, Finished step 2 of texturing. Started rigging of the model.
Note: I just realized that Im gonna be behind schedule, ill need to create the arenas, and itll take 1 week for each arena also. So after i finish creating this model, ill have to create the first arena, which would be on Planet earth, in the clouds. Im thinking of having 5 arenas or maybe more, depending on the time constraints.
Modified: Human Male Character; Finished step 3 of texturing. Partially done Step 4 of texturing.
Here is the result:
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://cgi0081.tripod.com/Human_Male_character2.jpg
Again its not finished until a story is written, ill add tatoos and finish up his face at that point. Ill also need to put specular(shininess) and finish up the rigging tomorrow. Now i need to start to create the first arena.
Note: Ill need to make the skin of the male character have more depth. For the first Arena, im thinking of a floating Arena, above the clouds, around the Arena, are ruins of Roman/Greque temples, with birds flying above. The man model is also bigger then the female one, which will have a wider collision radius, but he will have more strength to conpensate. Where as the female one will have more endurance and Mana perhaps. I've also scraped the idea of the male being mean looking and all, the cybernetically enhanced character will though.
---
Wednesday 5/14
Note: Arena 1; I just had an idea, the arena itself will be a replica of the Roman Colloseum that floats above the clouds. Well its raining AGAIN today, I dunno why but Im gonna put a level where its gonna rain alot, with alot of wind going on, thunder, cloudy skies... very..... noire...
Added: Arena 1; earth Arena, I just started the modeling for the first Arena. Im expecting around 9-10k polygons, but i dunno exactly yet, it will be very big though (size, not poly). Just tried to see how slow itll get once i put 10k on the scene, and... oh yeah... very good FPS ;)
Modified: Arena 1; earth Arena, I modeled it more and added UV mapping, the next step is to add details, and put aging effects. Polycount = 5880
---
Thursday 5/15
Note: Finally a beautiful day outside, yay, this will definetly help me out in arena design.
Modified: Arena 1; earth Arena, Im trying out different Light setups to see which one would look best for the game.
Modified: Arena 1; earth Arena, I just did another try with lightmaps, this time its a sunset, looks very sweet now ^^. And its time to make the arena old, and put textures.... right now the texture size is abit excessive... 2048x2048 -_-' ill remedy it once i finish making it look old and stuffs. Im looking at the female character and the male character, i really need to redraw the female's cloth, doesnt look good.
OK, so heres the LightMap for the first arena, its not finished, but ull get the sense of what i mean.
**Took out: http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://cgi0081.tripod.com/Arena_Earth_1.jpg***
---
Friday 5/16
Modified: Arena 1; earth Arena, I just sliced up the Light map, and its now 5 texture file instead of one huge texture. Ive also put soft shadow instead of that stencil looking shadow. Next Step, erosion of the coloseum... Ill be adding Drop Fog effect in the game for this arena.
Modified: Arena 1; earth Arena, setup for the the lightmap is now completed and final and the ingame works perfectly.
Modified: Arena 1; earth Arena, Remodeled the spectator's seats, better light map quality. Tested out destruction of the colosseum, doesnt look very good... ill have to find a way to export 2 uv map coordonates into 1 model to use in B3D.
---
Saturday 5/17
Note: Well after a couple of hours on fondling on how to use the 2nd UV map for light mapping, i finnaly found a way to do it ^^ hooooray! Now i can finish up the first arena. Just tested it ingame, works perfectly, except that theres abit of a frame loss, not much though.
---
Sunday 5/18
Added: Arena 1; earth Arena, Volume Fog.
Modified: Human Male Character; Finished Rigging, tested the character in the game, works, but doesnt look as good as i thought, ill have to tweak it.
Modified: User can now choose which character he wants to fight, the female is 1 head smaller then the male, the height difference will impact the way each user is played, since hitting the head does more damage then the torso.



3DFight_Week_7(Posted 2003-05-05)
The next 7-8 weeks will be concentrated on model creation as well as level design. And since in Canada, the temperature is really rising, ill spend most of my time running or biking outside, and enjoying the scenery, and so less coding but perhaps this will give me insperation on level design.
FPS Reference at 640x480 32 bit on Wednesday:
High: 322
Average: 280
Low: 186
Reference FPS taken on Computer 1
---
Monday 5/5
Modified: Human Female Character; Finished UV mapping. Finished step 1 of texturing.
---
Tuesday 5/6
Note: Im short of ideas as to how the cloth should be textured, so im gonna go and take a peek at victorias secret ;)
Modified: Human Female Character; Finished step 2 of texturing. Finished step 3 of texturing. Step 4 of texturing partially completed. Finished rigging to bone. I was able to export the model into B3D and make it fight, it works, but since B3D doesnt have bone blending, it doesnt look as nice as i wanted it to be, ill have to tweak it to make it look better.
---
Wednesday 5/7
Modified: Human Female Character; the rigging is much better now, i made a mistake when i was exporting the mesh into B3D format the other day, its now solved.
Modified: Improved ingame visuals.
At step 3, this is the result.
http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://cgi0081.tripod.com/Human_Female_character3.jpg
the screenshots im posting are, of course, not pre-rendered images, but rather real time rendering, i retouched it to show the wireframe though.
The last step (step 4) will be finished once i get a story, since the 4th step of texturing is about adding details (ie: tatoos, armor, ect...) and so tomorrow, ill be starting the Human Male character.
---
Thursday 5/8
Note: Ive been thinking of how the first human male should look like, im thinking of muscular type, with boxers and a belt-like around his waist with black tatoos on his body, a dragon perhaps or some other sign. A very primitive glove wrapping around his hands and arms, with metal knockers, looks mean or something with perhaps cyber enhancements on his arms or legs.
Added: Human Male Character; I just started modeling the guy, he is muscular, has pants, big arms. Body + head - hands - neck = 1282 polygons
---
Saturday 5/10
Modified: Human Male Character; Modelled the details on the character, his upper body is naked (will definetly get black tatoos) and wears pants, Whole Body = 1648 polygons. Later on ill give him some hair, and very baggy cloths. Note: Right now im thinking that his upper body wont be totaly naked, but rather a cloth that will cover his arm and chest, with an opening on the middle of the chest...
---
Sunday 5/11
Modified: Human Male Character; Ive put some Hair, the hair looks abit like dragonBall style, but not the same, ive added hands and boots. Whole body = 1896, the cloth is very basic, ive decided to go with a naked upper body, and pants.
Modified: Human Male Character; Division of the body and cloth, ill have to remodel the arm, currently it looks too big.
Modified: Human Male Character; I just remodeled the arm, and ive done some few optimizations, the model is now final and ready for UV mapping. Polycount = 1728, I havent put smoothing groups on it yet, but itll be done once i get on the texturing part.
Heres a very early screenshot:
***Took Out: http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://cgi0081.tripod.com/Human_Male_character.jpg***
Ill start UV mapping and texturing tomorrow, now i know that theres a big difference between the polycount on the woman and the male, but it wont matter all that much, the FPS difference is very small, and the male character will have his pants interact with the cloth engine, but im not sure yet if im gonna do that. I forgot to put gloves on him >_< so I just updated the model...



3DFight_Week_6(Posted 2003-04-28)
Ive been mostly tired the past few days, so ill need to get some major rest.

---
Monday 4/28
Modified: Cloth engine, i have made it more stable with better collisions and im almost ready to integrate it into the 3D fight game, ive also added Shearing effect on the cloth, i might add bending but for now its not essential. currently there is 342 interconnections.
Modified: Camera Control, always perpendicular to the 2 characters with smoothing, once LL finishes his part, ill start implementing rolling.
---
Tuesday 4/29
Note: I'm still on the search to solve the ATI shadow glitch, with some help, ill solve it very soon. Ill also have to find a good free web hosting service so i can put some screenshots around here to show what has been done to date. But once we finish the game, ill probably buy a domain and have it host my files, but thats in a few months away.
---
Wednesday 4/30
Modified: Cloth Engine, I can now simply call CreateCloth() to create 5x5 or 10x10 detail cloth, I think that those 2 dimensions will be enough for my game, i can also have multiple cloth objects created.
Modified: Cloth are now created proceduraly instead of loading from a file, the interconnections are still hard coded, since i dont intend of changing them.
Note: Im running abit late, since LL hasnt finished the camera works, and I have till today to finish the cloth engine and have it implemented in the 3d Fight, my guess is that the scaling will be annoying to do.
Added: The cloth is now integrated in the 3D fight game, theres some tweaks that i'll need to do, but nothing major i think. Each model can have up to 10 cloth objects, with a detail of 10x10 each, ill need to create a 3x3 cloth model now, since 5x5 is abit large for some other stuff im planning, once i finish the first female character, i will implement pony tail physiques as well as breast physique. Ill need to put wind also.
Added: 3x3 Cloth template
---
Thursday 5/1
Note: I have now started character design, my favorite model; Female human character ^_^, i'm planning on having one character created each week, for a total of 10 characters, the hidden character and the template character will be done at the end. Once I finish the models, i will probably put theyr screenshots here. I estimate around 3-4k polygons for each characters.
Created: Female Human Character; whole body, except face = 1516 polygons
---
Friday 5/2
Note: Ill have to modify her breasts, they look too big right now, im not sure yet about how her face should look, the hair color is also another issue... blond? brunette? or redHead?
Modified: Female Human Character; whole body + head = 1780, since its easier to modify from blond to brunette or redhead, ill start with blond, and ill see how it looks brunette and redhead later on. The modelling part is almost finished, now i need to clothe her.
---
Saturday 5/3
Added: Female Human Character; Some cloths, polycount is now around 2200.
Modified: Female Human Character; Modeling complete, final polycount is: 2332. The face was created using a French Female actress as reference. Ill UVMap and texture it on Monday or maybe tomorrow. On second thought, im starting with redhead first, probably a fire user also.
heres a screenshot of the untextured model
***Took Out: http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://cgi0081.tripod.com/Human_Female_character.jpg***
---
Sunday 5/3
Modified: Female Human Character: Modified her cloths, hair style. She now looks hotter (IMO), polycount: 2558, again I havent textured it yet
***Took Out: http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://cgi0081.tripod.com/Human_Female_character2.jpg***
Modified: I have started UV maping, the model is now final, there wont be anymore adjustements to the geometry from this point.



3DFight_Week_5(Posted 2003-04-21)
Im really starting to wonder if the cloth physique is really worth it... Im stil gonna implement it, but with the performance hit that it seems to put, I might rethink. The Next month(May) will be mainly concentrated on character design since right now, there is only one male model from a previous project that im using as a place holder to test out animations, collisions, ect... Im also planning on starting GUI interface on that coming month.

---
Monday 4/21
Note: Ive come accross a rather unexpected problem with my computers, i had to make some heavy maintenance on my computers, almost all my files are corrupted, so i didnt really have time to code anything today, thakfully my files for this game wasnt corrupted.
---
Tuesday 4/22
Note: Well after a couple hours of 'maintenance & Backup' I was finally able to do some work.
Added: Much more Precise Collision system, Ive gone from the Sphere to Polygon to a Polygon to Polygon hybrid collision system, the speed is very good, theres almost no difference in Frame rate, around -1 or -2 frame, and of course its much more precise
Added: Random Table system for small optimization
Added: Grabbing for throwing
---
Wednesday 4/23
Note: I did a tutorial on Blitzcoder.com about B3D skeleton animation, took me about 1hour to finish it. I took a very small portion of this game code and put it in the tutorial, hopefully, itll help people understand better. Once BlizCoder.com is running up again, ill contact Krylar and have it permanently posted on the articles/tutorial board.
Modified: took out the annoying crouch bug as well as the strafe bug
Added: Straf Back animation, better Straf Front animation
Added: Flash on the head, when the user gets headbutt
Added: Create dust when the user falls down on the ground
---
Thursday 4/24
Modified: squashed that annoying cornering collision bug
Added: Better Arena Collision with particles and player
Modified: Took out another bug, when your hit or down on the ground, you cant do special attacks anymore, took out also the bug when you get hit by a laser stream, you cant block in mid time when being hit by it.
Modified: Ouf! after a 45 minutes of recoding, i finally finished changing the user player code so its much easier to code, update and read.
---
Friday 4/25
Note: I just ran some code on Rigid body, and at first glance, man this thing can really go fast! for now its actually running at 900 frame per second!!!!! and thats for 8 nodes, i dunno yet how slow itll go when were gonna implement it as cloth (around 100-200 nodes), but im crossing my finger on this, I really hope it'll be really fast enough with the collisions and wind going on.
Added: Cloth! Its soooo fast! right now, theres 100 particles, with 171 interconnections, with gravity, springs and its going at 570 frame per second. All i need to do now is to make collisions detection
Modified: I have now put collisions and did some optimizations and added shadow mapping, at fullscreen 800x600 32 bit, its running at 950 frames per seconds!!!
Note: Im waiting to see how fast the cloth system is running on others computer the topic is here:
http://www.blitzbasic.co.nz/bbs/posts.php?topic=20465
screenshot of the cloth engine:
***Took Out: http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://cgi0081.tripod.com/good.jpg***
it was taken from computer 2
---
Saturday 4/26
Note: There seems to be some problem with the cloth on ATI Radeon Video Card, ill have to have check it out more thouroughly and hopefully solve the problem.
Note: I had a talk with 'Crazy Gaz' (I forgot his real name) yesterday, and he's gonna be doing the story he seems to have a very good imagination. I havent been able to contact my musician for sometime now, his cell phone doesnt seem to be active for sometime.



3DFight_Week_4(Posted 2003-04-14)
Ive gone over some game design, my other team member is progressing fine *I think*. I have around 2 more weeks until the main code deadline, I'm pretty confident that i'll finish it by then. This week, I will undoubtfully have a story *I hope* done, so i can start planning other stuffs. And on the end of the month, once the main engine is done, I will start posting screenshots of what we have done so far. By then the cloth physique should be ready as well as smooth camera control.
here are the Special attacks, for now:

Level 3
;Laser Stream
;Blizzard
;Comet
;Obliteration
;Glacial Swarm
;Elemental Morph
;Invincibility
;Apocalypse

;Level 2
;FireBall Swarm
;Piercing Ice
;Glacial Arc
;Shakira Swarm
;Bomb Swarm
;Rays
;Infernal
;Hand of Apocalypse

;Level 1
;ChargeBall
;FireBall
;ShockWave
;Shakira
;Bomb
;Swirling Blade
;Double Neutron
;Double Ball

---
Monday 4/14
added: Player to Arena delimiter collision
added: Lightmap compatible arena, this will be done from an outside program since im modeling the arena, instead of using maplet or anything like that. Ill have to check some stuffs for multiple UV mapping on a single mesh in B3D since i have realtime shadow maps and pre calculated radiosity lightmaps. Of course if its too trouble some, ill just use Maplet instead.
---
Tuesday 4/15
added: Flash Kick animation
added: 'Homeworld' like trails for strong legs hits
added: Crouched Guard
LL added: Camera Zoom control
modified: Laser Stream Special attack, better looking
---
Wednesday 4/16
added: Jump Front Kick
added: Crouch Guard
modified: Better Tripping attack detection
modified: When you fall down, you dont just suddenly 'get hit animated' anymore and come back on your feet extremely fast as it used to
modified: You can now charge up melee attacks by pumping normal attack and doing jump and/or Crouch attacks right after, but only works for kicks. But by doing this, you can create new never before seen moves, such as: escelating the ennemy and face kick, or double spinning kicks and will allow other advanced combos
the basic melee attack system is almost finished
---
Thursday 4/17
modified: solved some Player to Player collision bug
added: more precise Player collision
added: Particles Shadow
added: multiple types of Smoke Trails
---
Friday 4/18
modified: Recharge mana, better looking effects
modified: Laser Stream, bigger effects
added: Trails for ChargeBall
---
Saturday 4/19
LL modified: Smooth Camera, it now zooms correctly and smooths correctly
note: in the few weeks that follow, i will change completely the collision system, as the one that im using now isnt precise enough, i will use a more precise procedure, hopefully, i wont regret it...



3DFight_Week_3(Posted 2003-04-07)
Meh.. not much to say, we still havent gotten a story yet, but im planning on having one by the end of this month, so i can start some character design and Arena designs. For now There will be 10 characters to chose from, 4 female, 4 male, 1 hidden character, 1 template character so that the user can customize him.
FPS reference:
High: 501 at 640x480 on Wednesday
average: 300
Low: 220
---
Monday 4/7
added: Arena objects
added: swaying leafs on trees for Sakura Level with shadow mapping
added: clouds
---
Tuesday 4/8
modified: Clouds setup, repositioned and optimized the trees
expect a screenshot very soon ;)
modified: Kicks, better animation kicks
added: tripping attacks
---
Wednesday 4/9
added: Combination Special attacks system
added: Fireball special attack, Trails, Explosions
added: Homing FireBall Special Attack
added: Mana system
---
Thursday 4/10
added: Laser Stream Special Attack
---
Friday 4/11
added: Charging Ball Special attack
---
Saturday 4/12
modified: *cleaned* the collision detection for special attacks so it can be use easier
---
Sunday 4/13
modified: Custom Special attack for different Character, this will allow user to customize his own character with his favorite Special attacks and User model, the user will be able to texture a template character and use it to fight on his local machine.
preadded: all 24 Special attacks so i can make that the main code works, 4 special attacks have already been done, only 20 more to go... Later on ill put 8 to 16 Special moves combos attack.
added: Powering up Mana (like Dragon Ball)



3DFight_Week_2(Posted 2003-03-30)
After thoughtful thinking, ive come to the conclusion that this project will be finished on the last day of September.
---
Monday 3/31
I tried to implement mirror mapping, altough it seem quicker then the mirror() command, the results were not satisfactory(too much pixelation), so im not gonna use mirror mapping for ground mirroring.
added: Jumping
added: simulation of 'hit key' for joystick X and Y axis
added: double taps for fast strafing moves
added: Player to player collision (pushing)
---
Tuesday 4/1
added: switching of Left and right direction control depending on where the user is at
---
Thursday 4/3
added: Skinned models
added: Kicks
added: Strafe + attack
added: Jump Animation
modified: code layout, shortening code and small optimizations
added: Bullet Time (Matrix effect, where time slows down when you hit something)... ah.... dang... looks sooo sweet!!
modified: better Player to Player Collision detection
added: Fall down and Get up animation
added: Upper cup from crouch attack
added: CPU controled user (very random AI)
modified: User defined Key controls, joystick or keyboard
---
Saturday 4/5
added: basic sideview camera following
---
Sunday 4/6
added: very basic, joining and hosting Multiplayer support using UDP
modified: LAN Support for Multiplayer, for now, almost no LAG on LAN, every move (from user input) is displayed perfectly for now. Ill have to put optimisation soon for internet play.



3DFight_Week_1(Posted 2003-03-26)
Project started on Friday 21 March 2003
I have discussed with my team mates about the game, its design, story and gameplay... were setting another meeting for Friday 4 April.
We havent come up with a story yet, but my musician seem to have really great ideas for it, we didnt come up with a name for the game either since the story hasnt been created yet, for now its not that important, but next month, it will be.

I started to code the Main engine on the Monday 24 March 2003, im expecting to finish the main engine at the end of April 2003.

---
Monday 3/24
I have successfully implemented Shadow maps for multiple resolution and running at 526 Fps at 640x480 on my computer, 280 Fps at 1024x768 runing at 32 bit window mode.
I have now done animation for: Idle, Walk front and back, Guard, Right Punch, Left Punch, Right Knock.
---
Wednesday 3/26
added: Hitted animation
I have started to do collision detection, so far so good.
The particle effect seem to work nicely, glows and aura also work nicely.
Blocking and Damage hit works nicely.
FireParticle added
---
Thursday 3/27
added: SideView combat system
added: stun timer
---
Friday 3/28
added: Crouch animation, Crouch attack