ET15 ASSIGNMENT 17 Basic AI - Pace & Chase

botoid chases phoebe.. need to reverse it

ET15 ASSIGNMENT 16 HEALTH & DAMAGE

ET15 ASSIGNMENT 16 HEALTH & DAMAGE

ET15 ASSIGNMENT 14 PICKUP ITEMS, SOUNDS & LIGHTS

Annnnd

ET15 ASSIGNMENT 15 TRIGGERED TRAPS!

I kind of made everything in one video... a twofer, if you will.  A BOGO...  it's almost black friday, you know?

ET15 ASSIGNMENT 13 DOORS

Heeeeeeey!  come on down and get some fake doors!!  (and some elevator noises)

ET15 ASSIGNMENT 12 Platforms & Elevators

Hi, I apologize for the scant updates!  Here is my elevator Video  :)

Now that i have the instancing of blueprints working, I made a pre-viz of some more interesting platform instancing.  First, I made a modified Koch Snowflake in 3D, and then I found a vector pointing between each point of the curve.  I instanced moving platforms in the direction of each vector.

This isn't exactly the behavior we are looking for.  actually if two adjacent platforms have the same vector direction, we want the platform movement to be reversed.

Of course, the modified Koch Snowflake can be substituted with any arbitrary curve.  I just thought it made an interesting pattern to work with.

here, we have slightly better movement, but we still need to shift the platforms along the instance point vectors.

Finally, i have the motion looking just as i want it.  Each platform moves in the correct direction such that it will come close enough to the next platform that a jump can be made.  Next it is time to instance the real thing in Unreal Engine!

Here we are, back in game with the moving platform system.  It still needs a bit of tweaking, but the basic idea is working.  I would like to extend this so that the platforms can move in curves and along paths, but ummm... we will see about that.

Crystal Effects

I had an idea that it would be fun to have little electrical bolts surrounding the crystal  (because they are extracting energy from it?)  Anyway, this is a little previz of the concept.  It would actually be little sprite animations that would flash on and off between each side crystal and the main crystal.

Also, i was thinking i could add some kind of vector field around the crystal to make some mist sprites particles swirl around it.  maybe the sprite particles can receive emmisive light from the eletric bolts for a cool effect.

also, swirling death goo!  Swirling death goo is coming!

ET15 ASSIGNMENT 10 TEXTURED WALLS & FLOORS IN MAYA & UNREAL

I've been trying to use a workflow that includes Substance Designer substances and Houdini Engine.  The problem with actually texturing the objects in Houdini is, Substance is a plugin in houdini, Substance is a plugin in Unreal, and Houdini is a plugin in unreal.. unfortunately, all those plugins don't communicate together well.  It's easier to do my uv layout in Houdini and then assign my textures in Unreal... so i guess i'll just show the models already textured in Unreal, because it's just an extra pointless step to texture them in Houdini first...

UV Textures in Houdini

Phoebe runs!!!  ...and columns

I got my character running.  also, i got sometextures on the columns!  yay  (i might change them tho...)

Ramps

Elevator and walls

I put more emissive panels on my elevator and control panel...  i have no freaking clue why, but I couldn't get the textures to apply on the control panel. so... it's just orange for now.

Crystal

I need to have a glowing outline on my crystal.  i tried to make it transparent in Unreal, but it makes the edges hard to see.

Crystal with better lighting.

Catwalks and Railings

Light Panels with emissive material

This is kind of a cool effect, i think i want to use it more, maybe.

Floor Pieces

Here are my floor pieces.  I want to figure out if there is a way for me to change the cracks procedurally, because right now, it looks a little bit artificial.  I'm gonna have to think about that one...

Also, it's possible that i need to shrink my uvs for this.  i guess it is nicer for them to be so big, because it is hard to see that the cracks repeat so regularly.  Maybe i will add controls to adjust the uv mapping.

ET15 ASSIGNMENT 8 TWO WALLS & ONE FLOORS MODULAR TEXTURE SHEETS

***Indiecold***

umm... sorry about not updating I got an Indiecold from Indiecade and it had me laid out cold  :(

***original post***

Here is my little in-class wall.  pretty spiffy, i think  :D  i will see if i can convert it to a substance material.  in a fun way.

Actually, maybe i can figure out a similar workflow to generate patterns like this.

(i have to make everything more complicated... i have set a precedent, right?  :D)

ET15 ASSIGNMENT 07 CREATING A GAME WALK THROUGH

Here is my Unreal Matinee video.  I didn't really want to cut it up because then you wouldn't be able to hear my beautiful background music all the way through.

Here I quickly demo a few of the features that I am using/have designed with Houdini Engine.

ET15 ASSIGNMENT 06 CUSTOM MODELS PLACED IN UNREAL

***Ramps***

Yay!  I had to think about this one for a while, but I got the ramps placed semi-procedurally.  Also, I want to note that everything is still being instanced here!  I am making one ramp by poly bridging between two floor pieces (at different heights).  then i delete the floor piece, so I am left with one ramp piece which I am instancing on points in between the two levels.

Also, the columns can be repositioned and the 2 level effect happens along the plane where there columns are placed.  (umm does that make sense...?)

***Column Floor Holes***

It was bothering me that there weren't floor holes for the columns.  It still needs a bit of work, I need for it to have the 2 level effect with the ramps.  Also, It would be nice to have some railings built automatically.  

Of course, there really needs to be some swirling death goo in those pits!

The nice thing is the holes are procedurally placed around the columns, so i can probably add some more little walk ways and columns or change the look without much work.

***Elevator control panel***

ummm... yeah... this thing is gonna project a hologram when you operate it... and hopefully look a bit nicer soon.

***Column Pieces***

The 3 column pieces are placed randomly on each column.  You can (maybe) see the little squares on one of them.  I was thinking to place an emmisive material on the little squares to act as lights...  later.

***Crystal and Column***

I stuck the crystal in the corner across from the elevator shaft.  You can see one column and also the catwalk in this picture.  

Right now, the catwalk will route around the columns (no matter where they are placed).  I need to route them around the elevator shaft and I'm also thinking it would be fun to add little scaffolding around the crystal.

Also, swirling death goo.  and lightening electricity.  and holograms... they are coming, i promise!

Also, also, I wanted to note that you can see the open sky, but the roof is controlled by a toggle switch, because it is annoying to mouse around the scene with a roof on the building.  It is trivial to turn it on and off.

***Elevator shaft fix***

I figured out the problem.  Evidently I had 2 assets named the same and it was causing a name collision in the instance stack.  (for some reason, "Window_001" was erroneously named "Door_002."  It wasn't causing a problem in Houdini, but in Unreal, I was getting a Door_002 for every Window_001 due to the name collision) 

***Walls and Windows... and more doors?***

Uhhh... well this is supposed to be the walls for my elevator shaft... ummm... uhhh... hmmm... it looks like Dr Suess got ahold of my instancing object.  Maybe it's time to reload the asset... :/

***Doors and Windows for elevator room***

here are the doors and windows, they also stick to the corner relative to the size of the level.  I need to add in the control panel and get the walls to build themselves, and this part will be pretty much done.

***Elevator***

Here is my Elevator, in-game.  It sticks to one corner of the level (no matter what size the level is).  I'm thinking of building a room around it (to use some of the pieces.)  I will make the room walls scale with the rest of the level.

***Ladders and Platforms***

 Placing objects has been a bit more painful than i had hoped.  However, i sort of think i maybe have things working ok.  This is supposed to be a picture of the ladder system which is attached to one wall.  You can change the height and width of the platform system.

I don't have animations of Phoebe climbing in game (actually i don't have any animations in-game, yet).  but here is my proof of concept.  

Unit 5: WEEK 05 - ET15 ASSIGNMENT 05

***Update #8: Column "lights"***

So, i couldn't find anything but little squares and rectangles that appeared to be light fixtures...  So, i just put a little rectangle on a column piece.  I'm not entirely sure how that's supposed to work, but i guess i could put an emmisive shader or that little pink rectangle.  

This thing tells me that neither emmisive nor shader are words.  haha, we just go around using fake words all day and acting like it's normal  :D  

***Update #7: Columns***

Some columns.  yay.

***Update #6: (Not a) Crystal Tower***

I have no idea what the hell the thing in the reference picture is supposed to be, but it looks enough like a crystal to me that I made a crystal... I'm calling my game Crystal Tower, so it probably should have a big crystal in it.  I'm imagining that they use it as a power source, and there are cool little electricity and lightening effects that spitzazzle off of and around it.  This thing can be in the middle of the level and it can be growing up out of a pit of swirling death goo...

MMMMMM... swirling death goo!!  ahhhhlllll....

***Update #5:  A hole in the ground***

I normalized and scaled the elevator i made with Zmodeler to fit the scale of the project.  Also, i made a floor piece for it to rest.  The floor piece is 600x600 and the elevator fits in it nicely.  (somewhat similar to the reference image).

If anybody cares i used ray-casting to conform shape of the hole in the floorpiece to the elevator.

Nobody cares?  oh well, i thought it was cool  :D

***Update #4:  Elevator Action***

Does anybody remember that game?

::crickets chirping::

well, anyway, i'm not sure if this is supposed to be an elevator, but I made it one.  I left off the little control panel screens, because I think i might make it control differently.

***Update #3: Fixed Normals***

Well, darn... after much head scratching, I finally figured it out.  In the material shader editor (or whatever UE4 calls it), all my materials had the normal maps disabled.  I just had to go in and enable them.  In case you are wondering why she is dressed like she just came from the forest, it's because she just came from the forest.  that's the thing.  she followed the robot from the forest, through a portal, and into this tower.  So there.

I'm mostly trying to figure out why it's already tuesday, and I still have like 5 level pieces to make... aaaahhhh

***Update #2:  Meet Phoebe!***

I know that since I am introducing ladders that I will have to introduce climbing.  Fortunately, there is Mixamo; i'm pretty sure they have a climbing motion... actually I should double check.  Anyway, I made a new version of Phoebe with Mixamo (now Adobe) Fuse.  

...for some reason, her normals came in reversed, but that's an easy fix, of course.  HAHA, it reminds me of one of those Halloween Simpsons episodes with the crazy fog that turns people inside out.

***Update #1:  Catwalks around Columns***

I updated the catwalk system so that it routes itself around columns.  Yaaay!  The columns pictured are much bigger than the specification.  This was necessary to get the maze generator to route properly.  My plan is to use the large columns as bounding geo for the actual columns which will be within the specified size maximum (400x600x400)

***Original Post***

I guess I got balconies and catwalks kind of confused.  I did catwalks last week, so Maybe this counts as balconies.  :D  Also, I know that ladders aren't a big part of the style guide, but i did find one busted ladder; so, i'm using that...

Anyway, I hacked the maze generator to make a procedural ladder/platform system.  I am thinking that for my game, the first level will be at the bottom; then for the 2nd level, the camera angle will change to a side view.  You will climb sections of ladders and balconies broken up with dissapearing blocks and moving platforms over spikes... because Megaman.

Then when you get to the top catwalk, the perspective will change back to 3/4 overhead.  you will corner the robot on the top level.  The robot will give you the code to operate the elevator which will take you out of the basement area you are in.  (and will finish the scenario)

ET15 ASSIGNMENT 04 MODULAR WALL MODELS FOR MY LEVEL

***Update 9.28.16 #3 -- speed modeling***

walls

doors

windows

They are ugly, but I made them in 10 minutes!  hahaha

***Update 9.28.16 #2 -- too much geo***

Hmmm... well I made another computer wall, but this one is waaayyyyy  toooooo geeeeooooo heavy. I'm sure there is a way to fix it...  I had better make some doors really quick though...

***Update 9.28.16 -- ZBrush workflow***

There was some good and some bad and some ugly when i brought in my Zbrush ZModeler computer terminal wall.  

The good was that the different pieces came in as groups and colored groups, at that.  That should make them very easy to uv and texture.

The bad was that the scale TIIIINNNY compared to the reference pieces.  Also, there was some degenerate piece that came from Zbrush that I couldn't actually figure out how to delete.  As you can see, i fixed everything more or less.  

First I normalized the scale of the object, then I matched the scale (in X) to the reference wall.  Then I had to do a little bit of manual tweaking to get the object to sit just properly on the construction plane.

The ugly was that i had some nasty pinching along the edge of my geometry.  I figure that's just because I am not so good at Zbrush right now.  I will see if i can do a couple more and get the geometry a little better.

***Update 9.27.16 #5***

I tried something a little bit different for this wall piece.  I tried using the Zmodeler brush in Zbrush.  I am a complete ZBrush novice, so this is a bit crude right now.  You can see, again, my inspiration was from 2300 AD Chrono Trigger.  I will probably make a couple of variations of this and refine it, but this is my basic attempt.

I have an idea to make a hologram sprite effect in Houdini.  So when you activate the computer panel, a hologram will pop out of it.  It will just play as a sprite effect in Unreal so hopefully it will look cool for no performance hit.

***Update 9.27.16 #4***

So, i made some railings. they are not quite right, but at least it is something.  They are instanced along the catwalk procedurally; so, i can tweak them later.  

Spaceman can still jump on top of them... also they make the catwalk feel even less dangerous..  i need to fix that.  gotta make some doors and junk, tho...

The view from overhead reminds me that I am not so fond of the default camera.  (it's not that it is bad, but it is sooooo generic).  I would like to have a 3/4 overhead view similar to The Legend Of Zelda:  A Link Between Worlds.

I remember The Tower of Hera was especially good from that game.  If you skip ahead in this video, there is a part where Link is outside the Tower on moving platforms far above Death Mountain.  It is really awesome in 3D.

***Update 9.27.16 #3***

The original size of my level was feeling a bit small.  I tried making the level a bit bigger (which was as easy as moving a slider.)  The catwalk updated accordingly, which was great.  However, I noticed that the catwalk placement was just so that Spaceman could jump right over the gaps.  That kind of defeats the purpose of having a maze...

Another thing I noticed is that everytime I increase the size of the level, the lighting begins to feel inadequate.  I need to figure out if I can do procedural placement of the lights...

Ok, actually i need to finish doing this weeks assignment... I will work on that now.  I swear!

***Update 9.27.16 #2***

Here is Spaceman walking on the catwalk.  Right now, the catwalk is procedurally generated points that have modular pieces instanced on each point.  The catwalk will scale with the size of the level.  I will also (maybe?) instance balcony pieces around the edges next.   Also, i need to have the columns cut through the maze.  

I feel like the catwalk is too low though, it needs to be much higher in order to feel scary.  Also, I wonder if maybe the modular pieces are too large for the catwalk.  Maybe I will cut them into quarter sections for the catwalk section.  I am not sure about that yet.

***Update 9.27.16***

Back in Houdini again.  Since the 2nd level from the reference photo looked like a catwalk to me, i thought about having it be a little maze.  I was thinking something kind of inspired by the part in Chrono Trigger where you have to chase the mouse along the rigging in 2300 AD.

...actually, everything I ever do is at least partly based on Chrono Trigger.

***Update 9.26.16 #2***

I made my first modular wall piece.  I didn't exactly base it on Halo 4...  (I know, I'm terrible...)  can you guess what game was my inspiration for this wall module?   (I will keep you in suspense for a while)

Oh, and look!  My spaceman is actually standing on top of the floor.  I fixed the collision on my Houdini tool!

  

Speaking of which... space man has GOT TO GO!  I'm sick of looking at him!  He is not making me happy.  Spaceman, your days are numbered!

***Update 9.26.16***

Ok, i know i need to get to building some wall pieces, but i did a little more hacking in houdini instead.  Procedural textures are nice.  they are looking a little bit better.  (although the UVs need work).  Also, i still need to figure out collision Geo.

another thing I was thinking is just building the level off a square grid is boring.  I was thinking of was to build a grid with an arbitrary shape.  I think i could poly-expand a curve. and make the grid to instance geometry by subdividing the expanded curve using a bricker polygon algorithm.    That would (theoretically) allow you to draw out an arbitray shape for the room from within Unreal.

After lunch i will model some doors and wall pieces!

***Original Post***

I am still hacking at my procedural level design tool.  I would like to develop a fully-procedural level tool for instancing the modular geometry by the end of the class.

i got the grids to line up for the floors and walls, and i also got substance files working for the textures, which is nice.  I envision a workflow that uses Houdini assets and substances to build up the level in Unreal.

The main problem i have right now is getting the collision geometry to build correctly.