Sky

So, considering the last post, Terrain, one of the other constantly visible things in a game is the sky. Whether  you're just getting a glimpse of it as you fight off some monsters or flying through it, the sky can be equally important as any other part visual part of a game. so of course I've gone ahead and started work on the sky system for Ruined. I wanted to follow the art style of the game, so I stuck with a stylized design.
The sky is still "under construction," but I feel like a good portion of it is working

The clouds follow the stylized theme of the game,
and move dynamically over time

Terrain

One of the most important things in a game can easily be its terrain. The scale, the detail and the atmosphere it creates easily make a good terrain system a must.

So of course I've begun work on a terrain system, nothing fancy yet, I've only invested 2 days in it so far, but I'm pretty pleased with the results.

I've created a terrain editor, built right into the engine.
Features include:

• Loading/Saving of a height-map
• Physics, dynamic lighting... - all the features of the engine
• Texture splatting
• Raise, lower and smooth tools
• The ability to paint terrain from right in the game!

I still need to look at some optimization techniques so I can be sure it runs flawlessly on the Xbox, but for now here's some screen-shots of the editor.

The terrain editor doing its thing.
Green = Raise; Red = Lower; Blue = Smooth; White = Texture Paint

Back and ready for action

So as the title says, I'm back! "From where?" you may ask;
I had had finals and afterward was taking a quick brake/vacation for the summer, but I assure you I'm ready to get back to work now.

A few new features have been added that still need to be tweaked before I can show them off, namely a couple of render-specific adjustments. All will be revealed shortly...