Posts by Kedhrin

  • Indie game : Ayla

    Quote from Serenius

    Start with Flash games. Easy, simple stuff and work your way up from there.

    i'd agree here... or even better, i'd recommend working on mods first. Small mods will allow you to have a great foundation to work off of before jumping into something more heavy. Id even go as far as working with an engine that would be easier for you to complete something (like Quake 1). The more times you go through a complete dev cycle through and through you'll learn a lot. From there, getting into your own from scratch games like flash, etc. will be easier.

    A lot of people dive head on into an engine like UDK for their first time. I always advise against this as it is so much to learn and understand. There is too much perfume sprayed onto the core basics that a lot of the time the core basics are forgotten. For example, almost all FPS level design takes away the core foundations established in Quake 1. The programming side with QC is also rather simple and you can take away a lot of core fundamentals - as well as a massively documented dev community that is still breathing even after almost 15 years. It's always hard for people when first starting to accept going back to old games. But, it is really important to understand the core fundamentals of what makes good art, design and code within constraints. More than likely as you design your game and discover the art you want to accomplish- you'll find performance constraints are the greatest challenge. Working with constraints in mind from the gates will allow you to make fewer mistakes in the long run.

    New engines and techniques allow people who know what they're doing to develop with ease... but it also allows people who don't know what they're doing make a lot of mistakes that are covered with the new perfume technology has given us (see abuse of: Depth of Field, Bloom, Crazy Bump, Global Illumination, MudBox, etc.)

    Good luck! 16 is the age i started getting serious about game dev so i know its possible!

  • self challenge (quick build map)

    Quote from 2d-chris

    A little tip, it's easier to make out what's going on if you treat a map in stages, start with geometry and apply white (gray, pink, woteveryouwant) colours rather than quickly set-up UV's that make the scene look messy ...once you're happy with the geometry scale, shapes and detail you can then texture the scene

    What he said, the template textures you're using are off setting and can make it difficult to figure out what you are trying to achieve with your mesh work.

    other than that, i can't really tell what stage of your mesh work you are in. A rough ballpark estimate, what percentage would best represent your meshes work? I don't want to critique something thats so early on and you're quite aware of

  • WIP in WIP, post your level screenshots!

    Nice _gb!

    I have been itching to take a stab at this stuff for a while as well (but id like to do mine 100% out of brushes and use DP's rtlights as lighting). Its really cool to see your interpretation of it. I quit doing my Quake 10 year project back in 2006 because i just thought I sucked too much to be able to handle it lol...it's really cool to see someone taking up the challenge!

  • [WIP] Farmhouse Environment

    i've done massive constructions of interrior to exterior buildings in unreal engine 3 before using CSG... it makes me cringe but at the same time it can be really fun... i can tell you are using CSG in your first pic then modleing it in the next ones...are you doing a complete remodel or are you trying to convert the CSG into a mesh?

    i'm also inclined to agree witht he go concave rather than convex on your roof shapes

  • [UDK] Concept project

    This is super dope dude!

    Well done; a great strategy i like how you just took one concept art and not only made everything but also made it come to life... i do agree the water is your weakest point here but everything else is stellar!

  • [UDK] The Lighthouse

    i agree the waves in the water do look really flat...

    i really like the way the lighthouse is recieving light; its very photorealistic.

    I think your sand looks like sandpaper unfortunately you may not want much normal map detailing on it... or perhaps move towards putting more pebbles in your sand texture to give it the bump you maybe want... the fresnel effect touches it nicely too.

    the wood inside your boat looks great... the white (from the picture shown) maybe looks like it has too much noise in that normal map..

    the rock does look great too, although maybe it could use a bit more 'ocean' like decay ( a wet specular strip wrapping around the base... possibly some moss/lichen growing on it)

    The colors you use look really neat, and I think your ocean is generally there but your foam may be a bit too much...

    I like your post effects you did... thats crazy you have to do them in hlsl now though... hope they change that soon...

    reading your development blog: good call on the blending technique. I always love UE3's ability to do stuff like that really awesomely. You can create your own process really fast.

    In your earlier WIP pictures (picture 18) the darkening for the 'wet zone' stands out more... but still, even some spec there would really make it pop - especially if you can get a cubemap/reflection in with it

    I think your initial foam in picture 7 looked a lot better than what you have now too!

    anyways great stuff! Congrats on braving up the challenge to take on HLSL

  • UDK - 1930's Cinema W.I.P

    Heya... so first off... I think your DOF/Rain/lighting is masking your mesh in its entirety.

    You should focus on making a good model/texture before jumping into post effects...

    so i know you're just trying to get it into your school project... but I honestly don't think its worthy to put on your portfolio... i say that without insult of course... I think its a good skill for a student. If I was you, right when you're done - i'd scratch this one - first really research more interesting shapes - (id choose the bottom left cinema in your references and try your hardest to remake it piece by piece - you'll learn a lot)... then really really study proper texture/materials in UDK.

    I could give you a massive list of what you could do to improve this greatly, but if you're just going to start over we can just wait for that one (you don't seem to want too much critique on it?)...

  • Duke Nukem 3D´s new usermap IT LIVES

    oh hm you must be looking at another version the one i have for my droid 2 is perfect, runs like complete butter and has full music/audio/multiplayer even - this droid 2 can even run playstation games so i'm sure it can play whatever duke3d throws at it

    i'll check it out when i get a chance

  • The Road Concept

    excellent first attempt.... my first attempt would probably make people in here want to stab me in the kidney.

    i honestly think the barn on the right looks a little wierd with the rest of the colors going on around it. Almost as if theres too much tiny detail for how far it is, comes across as noisey. Your posts on the fence look great, as do your power lines/trees. i think adding some rays of sunlight coming through your clouds up top would be a nice touch, and possibly some love cleaning up the house face ont he left too. I like your road and the glossiness painted into it seems accurate to bouncing the pinks in the background of your clouds. Other than that I cant really tellt oo much other detail its almost all mucked out - could be because of compression? do you have a link to a higher res/non-compressed version?

  • [UDK] The Nocturnal Vapour

    The scenes scream vibrance and is fun to look at. very disney-like.

    i do think the depth of field is a bit much and the blur muddies some of your details but i get that its part of the 'fuzzy' feel.

    the smoke particles in the air may also be a bit too noisey, and some of the geometry in the first pic are lacking but thats all nit-picky - overall you've done an excellent job building an overall solid picture.

  • Unreal Engine 3.9

    it was nice.. but yeah, definitely more art than tech. A night time scene is always a great way to show off lighting technology. The big thing they have thats super awesome is the ability to control the way the DOF controls the lights in the distance (the shapes, which mimic the hardware in the camera). And of course, the backing of the raw power of the UE3 toolset always helps! Glad to see them finally jump on the deferred lighting bandwagon... but as stated, yeah it was on a beast 3-SLI machine in there... but still, doesn't mean you cant get crazy!