Nav-Mesh Editor Part-2

So, as usual I have very little time to work; the time I am getting though, I am using to make sure I can better use my time.
Hence why I've spent more time on the nav-mesh editor.

Additions:

• A translation tool (similar to most 3d editors).
• Polygon highlighting.
• Usability tweaks.

Anyways here are some pics to show what I'm talking about:

The navigation-mesh mesh editor.

Nav-Mesh Editor

So as I mentioned in the previous post, making navigation meshes on pieces of paper is a pain. So I've created an editor that runs right within the game.
Don't worry, this won't show up while you're playing :)

Anyways, I can now make the nav-meshes much more easily, which should help speed up level creation!

What works:

• Multi-selection of vertices
• Keyboard based tranforms
• Adding new vertices
• The display of vertices (boxes)
• The mesh visual, cyan outline of polygons

What's still missing:

• Selecting polygons
• Creating new polygons

So hopefully, when those last few features are added, I can create and test out a level that implements the navigation system...

 

Navigation

So, I've reached the awfully wonderful part of a game's development, where you have weapons programmed and tested, but now, you are just dying to get something to hit in your game.
This means AI is coming up fast!

Okay, so almost any game with an AI system needs to implement some sort of navigation system.

And that's what I've been working on for the past few days.
I have created a Navigation Mesh system for Ruined, that's powered by the A* ( A-Star ) navigation algorithm


You can read up on what exactly a Navigation Mesh is at any of these links:

• http://www.ai-blog.net/archives/000152.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation_mesh

Then you can learn about A* and its implantation at any of these:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A*_search_algorithm
• http://theory.stanford.edu/~amitp/GameProgramming/MapRepresentations.html
• http://www.gamedev.net/page/resources/_/technical/artificial-intelligence/a-pathfinding-for-beginners-r2003

Anyways, the gist of this all is that the monsters and enemies in Ruined should be smart enough to find you and KILL you, no matter where you hide :P

The test navigation mesh, with a test path. Red = path

The test mesh was created by hand, on a piece of graph paper.
The test path is from cells A to P.

So, I still need to devise a way to actually make these Navigation Meshes, because doing them all on paper would be RIDICULOUS, but for the most part, I've managed to get one step closer to finishing the game!

Sword Detection Progress

Making some awesome progress! I've gotten to the point where objects can be programmed to react when a weapon hits them. So things like monsters should be quite simple to make now. The "Hit-able" objects are represented with a bunch of spheres, inside of one big sphere. When the player swings a weapon, the engine does a ray-test to determine if the weapon hits the big sphere, and if so, checks to see if it hits one of the smaller spheres that make up a model.

In other words, you actually have to "hit" an object for the game to think you've hit something!

A smaller sphere in a test-torch

Hitting the torch, lights it!

A view of some of the collision bounds. Red = obstacle, Blue = big sphere check, Green = small sphere check

A better view of some "big-spheres"

Sword Detection

Okay, so the sword system is all good to go! I've made the other two sword swing animations and they work AMAZINGLY.
I even managed to get the sword detection down. The detection actually uses the position of the sword.  Currently the sword only collides with the level geometry because there is nothing to attack; hopefully I'll fix that soon, though.

Green line is the current sword collision line, red line is the last sword position.

Green is current sword position, yellow is previous position and red is a previous hit.

Sword Swinging

Finally! After four months I have an actual weapon being drawn in the game.
I have done one of the three types of sword "attack", I'll make the others shortly, I'll get a texture made while I'm at it!

First Person Progress

So tomorrow starts my spring-vacation, so I can hopefully get some serious work done!
I have already started to make the "first person" models that will be used in the game. My plan is to use a stream-animation system to allow some dynamic movement of the characters arms. Currently, I have the right arm modeled and rigged, and making the left arm will be a flipped copy.
All that's left before getting it in the game are its textures and some animating.
Hopefully once I have the arms done, I can work on some of the awesome weapons I have planned!

The right arm holding a sword.

A view of the arm's rig.

First Person

Okay, so after much thought, I have decided that Ruined will be strictly a first person game.
I know, I know, I had had plans to support both first and third person - as you could see in previous screenshot - and even went as far as to get a stream animation system specifically customized for the player.

The problem stems from two issues

1. Lack of time
2. Complexity

I have given myself a set time frame for the production of Ruined and I simply do not have enough time to work out all of the different content needed for both first and third person views. The amount of work it was taking to support both modes seamlessly throughout the game was to much of a burden...

Luckily! I can promise you, now that I've switched to first person view, that I will put all of my time and effort into this one view type.

UNICORNS!

I've decided that Ruined has had enough progress done and that I'll just release it as is! but with one addition: Unicorns!!!!!!!!!
The main character has been replaced by a magic unicorn, and all of the levels are in the shape of, you guessed it, unicorns!
It's such a perfect idea, I don't know why I didn't see it sooner!
Everyone LOVES unicorns, so what better to make a game about?
Who needs action, excitement or hair pulling tension when you have our favorite four-legged, enchanted horse based, horned creature!
...