Hey guys,

Sorry for the long break between updates. I got burnt out and took a month long hiatus around the holidays...one of the benefits of being 'self employed' I suppose. The freedom is a double edged sword for sure.

Either way I'm back on the project with a passion, over the last few weeks I've been working with my main contract artist 'Tom', who has created a high resolution player model for Armored Warfare. It weighs in at ~10,000 triangles with 150MB+ of texture data [ 4096^2 color, normal, specular ]. Magnificent work IMO...I can reskin it and adjust the colors later on [ for each team ]. Right now I'm just using a brown/green skin for testing.

What's a new player model without a hawt animation system to go with it? In addition to the GPU skinned/instanced normal mapped characters I render [ ~700 triangles ], I now have two higher LODs as well to work with. So I coded a brand new animation-system-to-end-all-animation-systems over the last 70-100 hours I've been coding day and night to get it done. There is still some work but it solves some issues that I've been wrestling with for many many years.

Previously I would use the Micorsoft .x format, this caused me so much pain from 2005-2008. In that time I spent months cobbling together an efficient and workable system that would allow me access to weighted vertices in animations (infact I would cite these flaws as one major reason I delayed Urban Empires)...Milkshape3D (my other supported file format) did not support 4 weights per vertex in it's specs or editor until relatively recently. This was a game changer for me. I coded a new .ms3d system up in 2009 it worked alright. This new system, the twenty-ten system ;-) is nearly perfect. Nearly full support/integration with Milkshape3D . <br>It goes:<br> 3DMax -> SMD Export -> Milshape3D -> SMD import -> Save .ms3d file -> Load into game. <br><br>It might sound complicated but, it's a walk in the park since the HL2 export tools are so solid. Compared to .x format it's night and day. Also, on a forward looking note since the demise of the .x format in DX10/DX11…I'm ready to roll into the future ;-)<br><br>So yea, the new system supports every kind of feature you could want in a model format, tangent space generation, 4 bone per vertex weighting, GPU skinning/instancing, full CPU skinning fallbacks, arbitrary animation blending, unique top/bottom half animation blending, integrated level of detail, smooth animation speeds across all frame-rates…on and on…coded in the last few days. Even has support to read comments from the .ms3d files that were typed in Milkshape3D.<br><br>Well - here are some screenshots of the new character model / animation system….they are EARLY screenshots. The next 24-48 hours will show major improvements. <br><br><i>*NOTE - there is no advanced shading on the character models, or advanced self shadowing.</i><br><b>Click for high-res 1680x1050 versions…</b><br><br><A href="http://www.radioactive-software.com/warfare/Soldier_motion_blur_early3.jpg"><IMG SRC="http://www.radioactive-software.com/warfare/p_Armored_Warfare_Soldier_motion_blur_early3.jpg" border="2"></A><br><br><A href="http://www.radioactive-software.com/warfare/Soldier_motion_blur_early2.jpg"><IMG SRC="http://www.radioactive-software.com/warfare/p_Armored_Warfare_Soldier_motion_blur_early2.jpg" border="2"></A><br><br><A href="http://www.radioactive-software.com/warfare/Soldier_motion_blur_early5.jpg"><IMG SRC="http://www.radioactive-software.com/warfare/p_Armored_Warfare_Soldier_motion_blur_early5.jpg" border="2"></A><br><br><A href="http://www.radioactive-software.com/warfare/Soldier_motion_blur_early6.jpg"><IMG SRC="http://www.radioactive-software.com/warfare/p_Armored_Warfare_Soldier_motion_blur_early6.jpg" border="2"></A><br><br><A href="http://www.radioactive-software.com/warfare/Early_shading1.jpg"><IMG SRC="http://www.radioactive-software.com/warfare/p_Early_shading1.jpg" border="2"></A><br><br><IMG SRC="http://www.radioactive-software.com/warfare/Soldier_motion_blur_early.jpg" border="0"><br><br>A WIP image - basic shading w/tangent space normal mapping against a single directional light [ ignore background soldiers ]<br><IMG SRC="http://www.radioactive-software.com/warfare/High_Res_Soldier8_WIP.jpg" border="0"><br><br>Well that's how it looks now. I'll be back in 24-48 hours with an update. I'm very excited at the possibilities.<br><br>I'm also updating all other aspects of the game - making my dream Wargame doesn't seem toooo far away. Though sometimes I wonder why I go at it all alone. I suppose the answer is because it's impossible to trust other people to have the same level of dedication to the project that I have. It takes years to make a solid game, and I wonder how many people would have the faith and patience to work through it all with me. <br><br>One thing is for sure, in my old age [ 25 ] I'm getting tired of all this work…lol, I need to finish Urban Empires & Armored Warfare and hire a fulltime artist, and a fulltime assistant programmer/tools programmer to help me flesh out my engine. <br><br>All in due time I suppose…eh…back to work :-)<br><br> - Dan<div> </div>