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[clandestine]

@ Asterix:
Yep, Silo is great overall... i use Unwrap3Dv3 after silo, to pack my UVs, but thats because I'm used to it, from the times Silo didn't have UV mapper.
If you're on a budget or, want to learn about unwrapping, i would suggest you try Roadkill 1.1 its FREE and its very decent

it shows polygon stretching, a useful feature yet to be implemented in Silo.

@ digitalsoapbox:
i love the direction your project is heading!!
Besides REZ, are you thinking about maybe... Space Harrier, Planer Harrier, Panzer Dragoon type of gameplay?

keep it up!

PS: sorry i didn't explain the road unwrap (no time)... but actually there is no magic trick to it:unwrap using LSCM, then go to the 2D UV window, select edge-loops by double-clicking on them, then flatten... repeat until you create a very long straight path, align its bottom part with the texture image and it will automatically tile the whole way up.

[digitalsoapbox]

@ clandestine:
Silo allows selection smoothing, which can give you pretty much the same results as polygon stretching (though it would be nice to have a direct way to do it in Silo).  Or do you mean it shows it visually?

Yep, that rail shooter-style gameplay: REZ, Space Harrier, Panzer Dragoon, StarFox...basically the antithesis of a sandbox game.

I know what the beginning and end are going to look like, still trying to figure out what to put in the middle section...hard to find something that hasn't been done before.

[asterix]

Thanks digitalsoapbox, I was jsut currious. I am faily new to game design, I have not much result in painting the UV. But I believe some people are good at it and I can concentrate on other aspect of game making.

[digitalsoapbox]

Just a quick test shot:

[cryptonx]

Just a quick test shot:

test shot in rad ?

anyways its nice

[digitalsoapbox]

test shot in rad ?

anyways its nice

Yep, it's 3DRAD.  Custom skybox, bloom settings (the numbers at the bottom), and some water & glass shaders w/ tweaked settings.

[cryptonx]

test shot in rad ?

anyways its nice

Yep, it's 3DRAD.  Custom skybox, bloom settings (the numbers at the bottom), and some water & glass shaders w/ tweaked settings.

Excellente' ! didn't look like a rad render at all

[digitalsoapbox]

Here's a quick test for everyone to try out:
http://www.digital-soapbox.com/wrap/wrapspeedtest.zip

As the filename suggests it's a speed test, so there's a few things to be aware of:

• Texture on torso: 2048x2048
  
• Texture on face: 512x512
• Normal map on ground, sphere: 2048x2048 tiled
• Two particle systems, 75 particles each
• LOTS of reflections/refractions being calculated in realtime
• BLOOM SHADER IS IN EFFECT

Not for a weak system or weak video card.  Be warned! 

Also, 3DRAD seems to be doing something for the first 10-15 seconds after launching that brings even my graphics workstation to a crawl...after that it settles into a solid 55-60, but I wonder what's going on at the beginning?  I DO tell 3DRAD to create an environment map from the surrounding area for character itself (that special .01 setting is a huge timesaver), but does that take 15 seconds?



One other thing...Fernando, if you see this, can you tell me if there's a straighforward way of upping the quality of the sampling in the reflections and refractions?  You can really see the pixelation in the relfections/refractions if you use smoothing surfaces to reflect/refract that have no normal map.  Or is this is PS2.0 limitation?

[digitalsoapbox]

Speed Test 2:
http://www.digital-soapbox.com/wrap/wrapspeedtest2.zip

For some reason having two particle systems active was shaving 5fps off in the previous test, even though here I've got it set to 300 for one (and before it was 75 & 75)...weird.

Screenshot:

[asterix]

Oh Digital. your quite a artist, I saw your website. You made a baseball game for iPhone, what engine did you used? Congradulation.

[digitalsoapbox]

Oh Digital. your quite a artist, I saw your website. You made a baseball game for iPhone, what engine did you used? Congradulation.

Thanks Asterix!  Actually that baseball game was from a few years ago and was developed for J2ME/Brew phones.  I think it was for Sprint in the US, can't remember for sure.  Way back in the stone ages .

I sure wish those particles were showing as perfect squares though, but 3DRAD seems to enjoy stretching the particle texture. Oh, and randomly flipping it vertically for no apparent reason. Annoying.

[Weapon121]

This is looking sweet, great job  !

[archangel]

absolutely ridiculous....

There may be something to these alternative game designs...very artistic... very atmospheric...

Hope to see more soon.

[digitalsoapbox]

Thanks guys...cranking away on it.  How does it run on your machines?

Speedtest_02 updated with audio.  The idea is to keep the "music" simple, because the sound effects will help generate the soundtrack.  This is a rough of the main menu music...needs some tweaking to get it just right.

Updated file (same location as before in case you missed it):
http://www.digital-soapbox.com/wrap/wrapspeedtest2.zip

[3D Rad Developer - Fernando]

Looks great!

Also, 3DRAD seems to be doing something for the first 10-15 seconds after launching that brings even my graphics workstation to a crawl...after that it settles into a solid 55-60, but I wonder what's going on at the beginning?

During the first few seconds 3D Rad gathers information (basically running small tests) to determine best synchronization paramters for the rendering loop. This is supposed to allow optimized rendering after a brief warmup. Which shouldn't last more than 5 or 6 seconds though.

I DO tell 3DRAD to create an environment map from the surrounding area for character itself (that special .01 setting is a huge timesaver), but does that take 15 seconds?

Creating startup reflections shouldn't take so long It can take 3 or 4 secs on a very slow system.

One other thing...Fernando, if you see this, can you tell me if there's a straighforward way of upping the quality of the sampling in the reflections and refractions?  You can really see the pixelation in the relfections/refractions if you use smoothing surfaces to reflect/refract that have no normal map.  Or is this is PS2.0 limitation?

Envmap resolution is determined by the 000_em.dds image size. By default it is 256x256 from memory. Please keep in mind that cube textures require six times as much video mamory as a regular texture. When texture data fills your video card memory, frame-rate suddenly drops to unplayable levels.

For some reason having two particle systems active was shaving 5fps off in the previous test, even though here I've got it set to 300 for one (and before it was 75 & 75)...weird.

Particle overhead depends on how many screen pixels they at any given time. The number of emitted partciles doesn't really matter. So, if one of the two emitters was closer to the camera in the first case you mentione, this couls explain the difference.

As for particle flipping, this is by design an it is intended to create some randomness for smoke/fire particles. It would be nice to have this as an option though. Added to the list. Thanx digitalsoapbox