Author Topic: A WoD dev blog  (Read 421468 times)

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Offline niffiwan

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Yeah, apng's used for textures will use a bmpman slot per frame.

Also, apng's are not really recommended for "release" textures, use an EFF with DDS frames instead to save of video RAM.
Creating a fs2_open.log | Red Alert Bug = Hex Edit | MediaVPs 2014: Bigger HUD gauges | 32bit libs for 64bit Ubuntu
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Debian Packages (testing/unstable): Freespace2 | wxLauncher
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m|m: I think I'm suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Bmpman is starting to make sense and it's actually written reasonably well...

 

Offline Misuzu Stella

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Hi!

 

Offline QueenHolley

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Blonde power, unite!

 
Since when does Misuzu even know what a brush is? Her hair looks surprisingly spike-less.
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded

 

Offline niffiwan

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 :yes:  Nice to see WoD getting some animated VN love :)
Creating a fs2_open.log | Red Alert Bug = Hex Edit | MediaVPs 2014: Bigger HUD gauges | 32bit libs for 64bit Ubuntu
----
Debian Packages (testing/unstable): Freespace2 | wxLauncher
----
m|m: I think I'm suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Bmpman is starting to make sense and it's actually written reasonably well...

 

Offline LoneFan

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Ah! The anticipated return of the Bug Destroyer.

 

Offline Spoon

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I'd really like to make these development update posts more often, unforunately there's a lot of times in development when there is just not a lot to actually show. Showing off a new spaceship model or pretty new shield effects and such is easy, but a lot of other work doesn't always lend itself so well for showing off. (Though on the note of models, Hades made an awesome starbase that is currently in queue, waiting for me to get in the mood for texturing). So I figured I'd talk abit about what I've mostly been doing in recent weeks, drawing characters.

Back in 2015, not too long before the release of the first episode of the redone WoD, I learned of the existence of Emofuri, a japanese program that allows you to 'animate' a drawing by manipulating layers. It rotates, scales and translates various layers and creates a beautiful illusion of movement. For me it was love on first sight, a wonderful tool that makes up for my own lack of animation skills and talent. Back then though, there was no support for really using this in Freespace yet. Additionally, Emofuri is a demanding mistress who requires layers to be setup in very specific ways and things to be drawn in a way I hadn't done with anything before yet. It was effectively impossible to convert any already done art for use with Emofuri, and I wasn't quite feeling up to redrawning everything I had just done. So I decided to explore the program for future use, but to go ahead with releasing the first episode as planned.
2016 is coming to an end, and the Freespace landscape has changed once again, ever evolving and developing. Archwizards like Niffiwan and Axem developed APNG support and created arcane lua scripts that allow mere mortals to super easily create all these insane visual novel segments in a space sim engine from 1999. Meanwhile I've obtained a level of mastery of Emofuri, with all of its moonrunes, that I would really like to use with WoD (had plenty of practice because of JAD!) so redoing character portraits has been the name of the game for me recently.

Now you may think "but Spoon, showing a newly drawn character is just as easy as showing a new spaceship model". Well, you are not wrong. It is just that so far every character I've done is very much naked, which would make for a very nsfw blog :p
"Then why are you drawing them naked you old perv?" is perhaps the next thing you'd ask. To which the answer is that 1. It's a good base to work from. If I want to give a character different clothes it's easiest for me to draw them ontop of the naked body. Especially because of the way Emofuri wants the layers setup. 2. I wasn't sure yet what I wanted to do with the uniform and flightsuit designs (still am not atm) 3. I'm a perv and I like to draw boobs.
Now one other thing you may or may not be thinking is "Drawing characters shouldn't take you this long!". But alas, I am really just that slow. I'm a ultra rare specimen (dumbass) that draws things with a mouse and the Photoshop pentool. I can't really churn out flawless characters in the span of a few hours, I'm just not that good. Additionally, setting a portrait up for Emofuri easily doubles the time it takes for completion. 

Allow me to give a very basic rundown how a .psd for Emofuri has to be setup:
In a nutshell, there is the body layer, the face layer, the eyes which are split into the white, shadow, the iris and the outline. Then the eyes at a half closed state (white, shadow, outline) and closed eyes. The various eyebrows, and mouth layers that have an open and closed state. The hair is generally split up in front hair and back hair, but requires multiple layers to look good when doing a ponytail and such. When adding custom layers in Emofuri you have to define what it is attached to and what kind of physics it uses (its is pretty often trial and error).

But it often gets a bit more tricky and more ahead thinking and planning in layer setup is required. To give an example:

For Kunoichi her hair has 6 seperate layers on different depths with different properties. The hair back layer for example has to move with the rest of the head, but its not allowed to sway. The side hairs had to be on seperate layers or else they'd be in conflict with the scarf in terms of depth. The scarf had to be divided in two layers, the front part isn't allowed to sway and has to be infront of the face layer, the back part is behind everything else and is allowed to move. Usually arms and hands and such just go onto the body layer, but since the hand is infront of the scarf and the rest of the body isn't, on to its own layer it goes.

Now when doing layers that are normally hidden behind a layer infront of it, I was used to just draw up until the point at which it was visible. I mean, whats the point of drawing a hairstrand that goes behind the face and won't be visible at all, right?
Like here:

I'd draw the hair lines right up to the jawline and donezo. But I can't be lazy like that anymore.
Cause just slant the head and:

Out comes the hair that was previous hiding behind the face.

So there we go, stuff I've been up to. Drawing animu grills for some niche dying space game.

Let's end this entry with a wip old-new comparison:
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 
No matter what anyone else says, animating still images is black magic. Spoon has been practising the dark arts for the past year, his soul now lost to the black mage Axem.
Then again, you don't really need a soul to make full conversions of some 1999 space game that nobody remembers.

Serious talk though, if all this is being done now, including all the remodels and the all the arcane .tbl exploration would it mean the delay between ep2 and ep3 would be a bit shorter than ~2 years?
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded

 

Offline Spoon

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At the risk of sounding like a Chris roberts, I really like to answer that question with a yes. But release estimates are notoriously tricky.
I mean, in my mind when I released episode 1 in 2015 I had fully thought that most of the groundwork was done, and that I'd could start on episode 2 pretty soonish and have it out of the door in a bit more than a year. But then, that evidently totally didn't happen. I willingly sold my soul to the black mage Axem for about a year, doing stuff for JAD. And then there's unplanned stuff like doing reflect maps for the new PBR code, and a whole load of models did end up getting reworked and updated kind of on a whim.
I'm also redoing a few mission related things to episode 1 to improve the flow of the campaign and such. (I think I've even made the Ray 1 a bit more fun to fly)

But in an ideal world, when epsiode 2 releases the game should be in such a solid state that the vast majority of work thats then done on episode 3 is mission/content focused and not the stuff that facilitates it.
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 
I'm also redoing a few mission related things to episode 1 to improve the flow of the campaign and such.

Neat. Would that include some kind of dragonfly buff? With how sweet it looks it's a shame that the Ray outshines it in almost every way.
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded

 

Offline Spoon

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Well, it's intended that the Ray should feel like the newer generation fighter compared to it. But I really haven't had that much feedback on this, what kind of improvements do you think the Dragonfly would need to be a semi-viable alternative to the Mk III?
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Thisisaverylongusername

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  • This is fine.
I already prefer to fly the Dragonfly over the Ray Mk III. Maybe it's just that I like firing all 8 guns.
If the opposite of pro is con, then is the opposite of progress Congress?

 
So the ray3 is a jack of all trades and it's half a gen ahead of the dragonfly, but the problem is that compared to the dragonfly it's almost a MASTER of all trades. It's tougher, faster, more manoeuvrable, has glide, higher total secondary armament, and more versatile primaries.

I think the dragonfly would feel better as a more specialised design. Maybe make it faster and slightly more manouverable than the ray3(with added glide?) but reduce its shields and armor even more below the ray.  Maybe instead of glide it could be given side-thrusters for a bit of extra manoeuvrability(and style) in dogfights. It still wouldn't infringe on the Kaze in terms of pure speed but it would be kinda like the Ray3-E from the oldwod. More Serapis than Horus to the Ray3's Perseus. Just some checkbox it would have over the ray3 aside from "2 extra pews".

That way it'll be glass cannon compared to the ray3 lightning bruiser. Maybe also expand on that idea of "goes fast and kills fast but also goes down fast" by slightly expanding one of the secondary banks. Having 3 small banks makes it hard to get a good balance of dumbfires and other missiles. Having 1 bank a bit larger to fit in at least ~100 LDRPs would give it more secondary versatility. Fill up only 1 bank with LDRPs which gives you 2 banks for situational missiles. Having both HLP-1s and Darts would be quite useful.

Even if it's overall power level would still be below the ray3 it would offer a different way to play. Use your manoeuvrability and firepower to kill everyone before they chew through your squishy hull rather than the more balanced ray3 that can take it as well as dish it out(well, if you mess with the AI tables the ray3 stops being all that amazing at tanking firepower :P).
« Last Edit: November 11, 2016, 10:01:28 pm by FrikgFeek »
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded

 

Offline Spoon

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Good feedback! I'll give it some thought.
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline Spoon

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Some thought has been given and the changes I decided to make to the Dragonfly-ex is a significantly stronger afterburner, increasing it from 140 to 170, with an acceleration speed of 0.5 seconds to reach 63% of its top speed. To increase the contrast with the Mk III a bit in this regard, the Mk III got its afterburner acceleration time doubled, from 0.7 to 1.4. Which is still really fast, but now the Dragonfly feels considerably more snappy when accelerating in comparison.
Additionally, its secondary banks went from 15 15 15 to 15 25 15. It's still 55 total vs 80 total capacity, but the gap has been decreased a bit.

Fiddling with numbers like this has always been one of my favorite things to do.
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 

Offline LoneFan

  • 26
So the ray3 is a jack of all trades and it's half a gen ahead of the dragonfly, but the problem is that compared to the dragonfly it's almost a MASTER of all trades. It's tougher, faster, more manoeuvrable, has glide, higher total secondary armament, and more versatile primaries.

I think the dragonfly would feel better as a more specialised design. Maybe make it faster and slightly more manouverable than the ray3(with added glide?) but reduce its shields and armor even more below the ray.  Maybe instead of glide it could be given side-thrusters for a bit of extra manoeuvrability(and style) in dogfights. It still wouldn't infringe on the Kaze in terms of pure speed but it would be kinda like the Ray3-E from the oldwod. More Serapis than Horus to the Ray3's Perseus. Just some checkbox it would have over the ray3 aside from "2 extra pews".

That way it'll be glass cannon compared to the ray3 lightning bruiser. Maybe also expand on that idea of "goes fast and kills fast but also goes down fast" by slightly expanding one of the secondary banks. Having 3 small banks makes it hard to get a good balance of dumbfires and other missiles. Having 1 bank a bit larger to fit in at least ~100 LDRPs would give it more secondary versatility. Fill up only 1 bank with LDRPs which gives you 2 banks for situational missiles. Having both HLP-1s and Darts would be quite useful.

Even if it's overall power level would still be below the ray3 it would offer a different way to play. Use your manoeuvrability and firepower to kill everyone before they chew through your squishy hull rather than the more balanced ray3 that can take it as well as dish it out(well, if you mess with the AI tables the ray3 stops being all that amazing at tanking firepower :P).

I like many of these ideas.

 

Offline LoneFan

  • 26
Some thought has been given and the changes I decided to make to the Dragonfly-ex is a significantly stronger afterburner, increasing it from 140 to 170, with an acceleration speed of 0.5 seconds to reach 63% of its top speed. To increase the contrast with the Mk III a bit in this regard, the Mk III got its afterburner acceleration time doubled, from 0.7 to 1.4. Which is still really fast, but now the Dragonfly feels considerably more snappy when accelerating in comparison.
Additionally, its secondary banks went from 15 15 15 to 15 25 15. It's still 55 total vs 80 total capacity, but the gap has been decreased a bit.

Fiddling with numbers like this has always been one of my favorite things to do.
You know. I have had too much fun with the dragonfly. I would hate to see it become obsolete too quickly. How about third upgrade to come later Dragonfly-EX-S.
Dragonfly -> Dragonfly-Extra -> Dragonfly-Extra-Special.  Its like a pokemon.

For the EX-S upgrade, I would recommend a more powerful power source resulting in more weapon energy, faster boost recharge, and new more powerful shields.
The question here should be, is this Tempests custom upgrade for snarky, or a commercially available upgrade from the UGC in an attempt to keep one of their best selling products relevant.

"With this last upgrade kit, there has to be at least one more market cycle left in these birds." 
« Last Edit: November 13, 2016, 01:27:48 am by LoneFan »

 

Offline Dragon

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Now you may think "but Spoon, showing a newly drawn character is just as easy as showing a new spaceship model". Well, you are not wrong. It is just that so far every character I've done is very much naked, which would make for a very nsfw blog :p
Perhaps you could upload those to your Deviant Art page? It's already NSFW anyway, and it'd be a good way of showing off your artwork.

 

Offline Spoon

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You know. I have had too much fun with the dragonfly. I would hate to see it become obsolete too quickly. How about third upgrade to come later Dragonfly-EX-S.
Dragonfly -> Dragonfly-Extra -> Dragonfly-Extra-Special.  Its like a pokemon.

For the EX-S upgrade, I would recommend a more powerful power source resulting in more weapon energy, faster boost recharge, and new more powerful shields.
The question here should be, is this Tempests custom upgrade for snarky, or a commercially available upgrade from the UGC in an attempt to keep one of their best selling products relevant.

"With this last upgrade kit, there has to be at least one more market cycle left in these birds."
Fun fact, there already is a Dragonfly Ex_s in the tables, it's snarky's entry. So would it be Dragonfly Ex-S_S ?  :p
If there are going to be any Dragonfly upgrades in the future, it'd be a custom job. Not even the UGC would think that upgrading a 2.5 generation fighter for the market that is about to be introduced to the 4th generation, is going to be a viable idea.

Perhaps you could upload those to your Deviant Art page? It's already NSFW anyway, and it'd be a good way of showing off your artwork.
I made an imgur album, but I'm kind of iffy about putting the link in any publicly visible places, with imgur being so censor happy when it comes to nipples. I try to have my deviant be for stuff that doesn't appear ingame.
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 
Dragonfly-Ex_pimp maybe? Civilian use only, 12 new wings and 22 belts added. Pure style over function, 4th gen be damned :P
[19:31] <MatthTheGeek> you all high up on your mointain looking down at everyone who doesn't beam everything on insane blindfolded