This Week in Game-Guru - 1/22/2018

As mentioned previously I should probably get off blogger soon.
Is it just wordpress these days or is there anything else of value out there?

It dawned on me I'm basically doing the job Lee and crew did years ago back when Game-Guru was still fresh and had life to it.  

ENGINE UPDATES:

The following video has all of the latest details and updates on the Game-Guru engine.

That's right, literally nothing, zip, zilch, nada.  Just one cryptic post from Lee about another unrelated project (here) that was received rather poorly by the increasingly salty natives.

NEW ON THE STORE

https://www.tgcstore.net/product/30999 - BSP made a new m9 pistol.  Looks very decent!
https://www.tgcstore.net/pack/11002 - Tarkus continues his efforts in the world of audio for Game-Guru.  It's a smart move and he could easily translate it cross platform if he so chose.  I like his work thus far. This 'star cluster music pack' has a really professional feel to it.  The tracks are well done and have a heavy ambient-style synth vibe to them.  It's slower than his other stuff but definitely has a good feel to it for a space-based game that is not fast paced.  The free samples practically sell it for him.  Even though I'm an owner of his previous work(s) I feel this one has a real good flow to it.  I may purchase it myself soon!
https://www.tgcstore.net/product/31002 - Corrosion's 'enhanced AI'.  Probably is enhanced but I'd prefer to see a video if I'm spending that kind of money on an unproven product.  I'm an AI geek myself; I spent several thousand lines of code writing a pretty landmark AI program that went on to be the basis for the Reaper bot code.  Color me hard to impress, if you will.  Without a video to show the differences, it's hard to justify spending 7 dollars on something that could only be marginally better.  Considering how bad the AI is currently, this is significant.  If anyone purchases this, please let me know what your results are!

THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS:

So in more relevant news (to me, that is), there's a lot going on with third party programs.  To me, this and Lua coded items are where the action are at.  Lee simply takes too long to push his updates and as a result, we're forced to do a lot of the heavy lifting if this thing is ever going to be a functional product.

So first off we have OldPMan's excellent "Normalizator" (wow, what a mouthful) tool starting to beta PBR support.  This is a huge boost to people like me who haven't got the time to invest in learning a whole new workflow for PBR assets!

More info here:  https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/216095?page=6#msg2594115

Also we've had some lively discussions on voice synthesis (robo-talk) software: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219214

And also we have a great thread on converting assets from Makehuman to Mixamo to 'FBX2GG'.

Lastly, I should also mention my own work here.  I recently created a Notepad++ Lua API for Game-Guru.  It's a simple piece but was a time consuming slog with 2400+ lines of XML code to write up.  It will basically auto-complete, give hints, etc for Game Guru and it's associated Lua functions. You can get more info on that here: https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219215

RANDOM ACTS OF CREATIVITY

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219234 - Bugsy continues his work on his Wolf's previous FPSC game: Direct Action.  The sequel is called "Direct Action 2" (surprisingly enough) and has some pretty good teaser screenshots:

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219060 - Duchenkuke has given up on his flagship product 'Cold Contract'; This is unfortunate.  Another high quality potential Game-Guru developer is taking an undefined hiatus from Game-Guru due to production issues.  This is, in my opinion, the biggest plague we have ongoing right now.  We really have a significant hurtle in using Game-Guru with respect to producing titles, primarily our ability to actually 'convert into standalone' and memory issues.  The memory issues, in particular, really cause serious problems in larger projects.  It's a damn shame that yet another great project is being dumped because this issue couldn't get resolved.

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/219206 Lastly, while it's not a WIP, Wolf made a pretty great lightmapping tutorial.  This is the type of thing we need more of.

IN MY OWN WORKS

As mentioned, there's my Notepad++ API that is free for download to help developers get the most out of their Lua coding in Game-Guru.  On top of that I've been intermittently working on my upcoming kit(s) for Game-Guru.  They're heady projects though so it's really eating up cycles to do the things I want to do.  I realize that if I was a slightly better programmer in Lua this probably wouldn't be so tremendously difficult.

That said I've made a lot of progress.  I've integrated weapons and healthkits into my system (ammo was the first thing I used) and now need to find a way to get the enemies to do what I want them to do.  All in all, I'm a solid 2-4 months away from being able to release either of them at this pace.  Maybe as things clear up I'll be able to allot more time.  As it is though, it's only a little here and there.

That wraps it up for this week.  Keep an eye out for an update coming down the pike.  We should see some really great stuff soon if Lee ever deems to open the floodgates.

Wizard of Id's GameGuru Underground Pack

So this has been coming since the middle of July.  I apologize for both the delay and the scraped pictures.  I'd rather have done them myself but my life is incredibly busy as of current with the new baby and job stuff.

So it's about time to do some review stuff.

I recently purchased the Wizard of Id's (WID) Underground Pack.  It's an underground maze-system which has a great sewer or bunker-building quality to it.

This system contrasts against OldPman's underground kit which is similar but very, very different.

One of the more interesting things about WID's kits is that they are usually built with an uncanny level of detail; it's something very few artists pursue.  Each one has their own skillset but clearly WID's is his near obsessive level of focus on individual pieces.

Like this small sampling of the lights included.

This is a versatile kit which I think is well positioned as a competent middle ground for people looking for a very generic 'brick and tile bunker maze' system.  It's definitely reminiscent of a subway station or maintenance tunnel.

The first thing you'll notice about WID's kits is while they typically are not extravagantly modeled with ridiculous amounts of polygons... they have exceptionally good texture quality.

Speaking from experience, this is on medium.  Putting it on higher levels makes this really stand out.

WID's bump mapping is second to none, at least in the Game-Guru community.

He's got that down to a very enviable science.   He also tests his levels extensively using actual test levels he builds and with static lighting as well.  The results are clearly something which are
very mature in palette, texture, and shape.

The above is not too far off from what to expect from your own work.

It's a lot like going to a concert, really.  Sometimes you listen to a musician's audio track and think "I like this song.  I'll bet it's great in concert."... yet it ends up being an utterly flat dud.   Other times you think "This sounds as good or better than it does on the cd!" ... WID's work is a lot like that.

The pricing for his individual pieces is high.  I never buy his stuff individually.  His packs, however, are reasonably priced for art that's on peer in terms of quality with Errant AI's stuff (which I hold in extremely high esteem).

One thing worth mentioning... these pieces are HUGE.  I mean I was really flatly shocked after working extensively with other vendors like oldpman at how monstrous these levels could become.  It's not a bad thing, but you should know so you can plan accordingly.  Don't think you're going to create a tiny maze here on the edge of your map.  

This is approximately the width of a skyscraper from the TGC City pack.

The bottom line: That said there's a lot of variety, quality, and depth to WID's work and this one is no exception.  If you are looking for a top shelf set that merely needs some clutter items, triggers, and enemies - look no further.  This will handle the bill in spades.

Update to Oldpman's amusement set

So a few weeks ago I wrote a post in detail about the new 'Oldpman Abandoned Amusement' set.   It's a real winner, in short.  But there were a few minor words I had about it for improvements and shockingly Oldpman really took my words to heart and ran with it.

Primarily the two items I felt were missing:

• The entryway was disappointingly simple.
• There was only one color of bumper car.

Well he sure stepped up on this, check out these awesome additions:

 I'd only added one new color; he added 4!

And that's a heck of a jump over the original single yellow car.  The best is yet to come though because he dropped this bombshell as well:

Ok so when he said he made a new entrance I expected.. I don't know, something wimpy; sort of blocky, simple... just .. why waste the time right?  A big simple entrance, nothing major.  But wow, this is one of the best, if not THE BEST piece of the whole set.  I *LOVE* this piece's artistic flair.  It looks gorgeous in game as well.

Thanks oldpman!  More impressively the cost remains a scant $4.50 USD so it's definitely worth a look!

Review: Oldpman's Carnival/Amusement Set

So it might seem a little unfair to some, but I'm going to be reviewing another of Oldpman's products.  He produces a lot on a consistent basis and much of it isn't stuff that's really up my alley but is of frequently very good quality.

I noticed he hit an abandoned amusement park pack and before it was even complete as a kit, I already hit buy.  I was pleased to notice between the time of that purchase and now I've been gifted with a few extras.  So there's a lot here to review on what is a very well priced kit.

Now I'll admit as I've said in the past vending machines, arcade machines, and amusement parks all capture my fancy.  I personally live near a major east coast USA park (Hershey Park) and spent much of my youth there so I have many fond memories.  There's also a few abandoned ones in the area.

Almost immediately the pictures he had up reminded me of another park.  Specifically the infamous Pripyat park, in Chernobyl.

Looking at some pictures and comparing against what he'd posted, it was a pretty close match.

I see similar looking yellow bumper cars.  I see the strange Soviet-esque architecture.

I see the copper floor model.  Yep, looks right. Definitely Pripyat.

One thing bothered me though - In many of the pictures, I saw a red cart as well.  And this kit didn't come with a red cart.  Well, nothing copy, paste, recolor (hooray for paint.net) of the DDS file couldn't fix.







Behold, my addition to the kit.  I'll send it over to Oldpman and ask him to add it in.

 

Variety is the spice of life, after all, even in former Soviet Russia.

So on to the kit itself.  It contains a wide variety of objects.  There's walls, wall corners, a coconut shy, a full set of bumper car items, a ferris wheel, a round-a-bout carousel, two hanging chair carousels (one is animated), some flower planters, benches, etc.  

Overall, it's a hell of a value for $4.50; initially when I purchased this it had about 6 items and I was playing around with trying to get regular objects to fit with them well.  So it's refreshing to see him add walls and what not to help round out the kit.  Let's see what we can do with it.

As you can see I've begun assembling your regular run of the mill amusement park.  I decided to try to use as many free assets or stock assets as possible to help setup this park in a meaningful way.  I did however use the 'Wizard of Id' Sci-Fi Wall kit, but only for an entryway because the stock entryway is a bit simple.

 

This is just a little bland for my tastes.

That's more like it; parks should be grandiose on entry!

So basically I found the park actually worked exceptionally well with stock assets.  Here's a list of some of the preferred ones that I used:

• Blue/Brown Port-a-potties
• Barbed wire chain link fence
• Tent (canvas) - used for creating a custom amusement, a shooting gallery: 
• Standard wooden boxes with wooden crate palette as an improvised countertop
• Dumpsters
• Structure (Building A and B)
• Some free tree-lines from Belidos
• Some free picnic tables I snagged a while back from Valuable Assets
• Other basic assets I am failing to remember.  Nothing major though.   Just your usual signs, boxes, crates, etc.  

So let's fix that entrance and really give it the proper treatment for a busted down amusement park.

There we go.  Notice the simple signage, mountain being added as a backdrop, broken chain link fence, etc.
Continuing on, obviously it needs detail work.  I want to see how this is going to look in a near finished state.  Here's the 'final' version:

 

At this point that treeline encircles the entire 'zone' and the mountain is very detailed now, lots of ridges, chimneys, chutes, etc.  Unfortunately when I went into the game the graphic settings were clearly too low.  So I put on an overcast sky, added fog, tweaked lighting as I've done a hundred times before... Added my 1024px High Quality Road Set and some dried vegetation. 

Here's some snaps in no particular order:

It's surprising how just a little lighting change, the right elements, and configuration can really bring a scene together, eh?

 

The Bottom Line:  If you're in the market for a really superb kit which matches a lot of the stock pieces, has great mood and represents a good value for the price  - then this is definitely a buy.  I will say it's pretty contingent upon your 'need' for a kit like this.  For my upcoming game there's an abandoned entertainment zone so this suits very well.   Oldpman's work continues to impress.

Updates to the set have been done in response to this article, read the update HERE!