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4/26/2006

Cel Shading Makes 3D Fun

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Indie Games

— joeindie @ 10:45 pm

Cel Shading Makes 3D Fun

Call it a fad, call it an overhyped blip on the 3D gamescape, call it what you want.

But damn cel shading is a lot of fun to work with.

As an indie, pursuing the latest and greatest in photorealistic rendering can be…prohibitive…at best. And no matter how good a job you do, you’re always behind the curve–because it’s hard to climb the steep curve built up by publisher-funded blockbusters using the tech within reach of the average indie.

My attitude is: Don’t compete where you have about zero chance of winning.

My attitude is also: Gawd! Not another photorealistic game…

Non-photorealistic rendering (aka “NPR”; of which cel shading is just one sub-category) seems to offer a good way to do something visually cool (maybe even visually stunning) without the overhead of having the latest Unreal/Doom/Renderware iteration.

And its fun.

-David

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4/19/2006

Cottage Industry Redux

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— joeindie @ 10:12 pm

Cottage Industry Redux

Back in November 2005 I talked about “cottage industries” and bragged on my son (he’s 12). As work on the game project has been showing visible results the past couple weeks, he’s been getting more and more excited. He pulled out Milkshape again and has been cranking out models. Here’s one from this weekend:

I don’t plan to include the Spyder Victgor in the game (unless a licensing miracle happens), but still…he’s getting pretty good (if I do say so myself

If he keeps it up, I have no doubt that he’ll have some models in the finished game. Which would make me both a proud father, and a happy cheapskate indie project manager (Free art? Woo hoo!).

So let me encourage you indies out there to involve your families in your projects. Or maybe tackle a new project which your family can be involved in. Either way, it just seems like it could be pretty snazzy. (Of course, there is also that old saw about never going into business with family members; so maybe limit it to your spouse and children.)

-David

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My Continuing Education…

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— joeindie @ 6:39 pm

My Continuing Education…

…in Things Torque and OpenGL took a pleasant turn today: I achieved a quite passable (maybe even snappy looking) cel shading effect:

pbn-06-04-19-001.jpg (55.4KB; 515x403 pixels)

How did I achieve this passable (and possibly snappy) result? Multi-texturing.

I slapped a 1-D “texture” of alpha values on top of the skinned model. Oh, the high technology of it all.

Somehow, I snapped a few rubber bands in Torque when I slipped this in, so I’ll have to find and fix those. Plus, I need to make my multi-texturing more sophisticated (so I don’t have to do a 2nd pass) and better integrated with Torque’s rendering engine.

Still, I consider what I did today as “proof of concept” that we can, in fact (and not just in wild fantasy), achieve (at least this part of) the look we want from Torque.

More news, as it happens.

-David

PS In radically different news: The Journal 4.1 was released on Monday. Now The Journal has simple reminders for appointments, tasks, events, and special days. Plus, well, other stuff I added which is pretty cool. You should check it out.

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4/15/2006

It’s Like a Blast from the Past…

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Indie Games

— joeindie @ 11:06 pm

It’s Like a Blast from the Past…

…Obsessively hacking on the same bit of code, digging through source code, flipping through reference manuals, swearing loudly at the monitor (in failure or success).

Working on a game brings out all of the (bad?) habits that drove me into programming in the first place. It’s rough on me, and probably a bit rough on the relationships…but it also seems…well…

That it’s what I do.

There’s something about working on a game that makes me obsessive, that demands that I get it (whatever the current “it” is) to work.

Work on The Journal I can pick up, focus on for a normal work day, and go do something else–like take pictures.

Writing (fiction or non-fiction) tends to be the same way. I can allocate time each day and work during that time, sometimes using more, sometimes using less.

But neither of those bears on my mind, forces me to try just one more change, create another experimental test case, do another edit-build-run cycle, the way game development it does.

I’m either on the brink of heaven…or teetering on the edge of the abyss.

Maybe it’s a good thing…

-David

PS A bit of progress on getting cel shading (ish) to work in Torque:

pbn-06-04-15-005.jpg (79.7KB; 650x506 pixels)

We’ll get the skin on the poor player soon, I’m sure.

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4/9/2006

Never Lose the Joy of Learning

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— joeindie @ 12:48 pm

Never Lose the Joy of Learning

Or, in my case, the joy of trying to remember all (or at least the suddenly relevant portions of) that advanced math I took in college and apply it in new and different ways.

After a decade of true “six degrees of control”, approaching photorealistic rendering, and so on in 3D games, you’d think that the 3D game engines would be at a point where they could be used as tools. That is, as tools that you just pick up and do/make something with. But you would be wrong.

And by “you”, of course, I mean “me”.

Wanna be a photographer? Grab a digital camera and start shooting.

Wanna make a movie? Grab a digital video camera, round up some friends and/or your kid’s action figures, and start shooting.

Wanna be a rock star? Grab a guitar, learn your chords, and you’re on your way.

Wanna be a painter? Wanna be a singer? Wanna be a long distance runner? With a small upfront expense to buy the bare minimum tools and the willingness to practice, you’re moving forward.

Wanna make a 3D game, though, and…well…you’re fucked. Not only are the engines themselves incomplete,fragile, and prone to erratic behavior, but so are the content pipelines–and that includes the modeling/texturing software.

3D games are still largely at the point automobiles were at in the late 19th century: Sure, you can buy one. But if you want to use the damn thing, you better be a) a mechanic or b) able to afford a mechanic.

Except with 3D games, you need more than one mechanic. I see at least 2: a programmer with a strong math background and an artist with a software/tech-heavy background and experience using (and abusing) the modeling software.

This isn’t exactly news to anyone, I think. At least not inside the industry. And it really wasn’t news to me.

I just find it annoying.

In the meantime, of course, I’m learning what I need to know in order make the 3D engine (in this case, Torque from Garage Games) do what I need it to do.

I never really wanted to learn the intricacies of 3D programming. Now I have to. So I might as well make the best of it and enjoy the process.

And it has been fun, so far. Most of the time.

-David

Comments (7)

4/3/2006

Book Royalties Do Exist!

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Indie Games

— joeindie @ 1:29 pm

Book Royalties Do Exist!

I’m having a hard time believing it…but I actually got a royalty payment for The Indie Game Development Survival Guide.

Never saw that coming. [NOTE: For you would-be authors out there, I still recommend you negotiate your book contract as if the advance was all the money you're ever going to see.]

In related news: I’ve begun planning the 2nd Edition of my indie book. So feel free to leave comments about what new information you’d like to see in the book. My own thoughts are to have another indie game developer survey, lots of interviews, coverage of the portals, updated example indie games (so many more now), more marketing coverage, more production cover, and so on.

And, for the record, I still want to see another indie game development book. Think about it.

-David

PS Where will the royalty check go? Probably into a spiffy new lens for my photography habit/hobby. I’m leaning towards a Nikon 20mm f/2.8 AF – wide (enough) and fast (enough) for my purposes, and less than half the price of the Nikon 12-24mm f/4 DX.

Comments (9)