OverDose - Shameless Self Media Pimpage [id tech 2]
polycounter lvl 18
Ok, so as a lot of you may know, I currently co-run an indie team called Team Blur Game and we are hard at work on our post apocalyptic first person shooter OverDose. OverDose has a strong team play feel to it, lifting a lot of inspiration from Return To Castle Wolfensteins objective based gameplay, almost to a homage level of appreciation. Obviously, we have added our own elements along the way to stand out, such as a more advanced movement system that lets you mount/climb objects, even letting you buddy up with a friend who can help you climb up higher surfaces. The number one point of OverDose was to pretty much bring Wolfensteins objective team play based gameplay screaming into the new era as much as we could.
Obviously as a tiny team, this is bloody hard work. With one coder and one artist, its Tough. We have had Jamin who did our character models and weapons, but even then we have a single weapon completed and two characters (plus several heads). Ive had to do everything else, art wise, including UI, effects, textures, models and maps. A massive project But thats not for here, because that would be more of a help wanted style post, which this isnt as its more of a pimp (But yeah, if you can help out, give us a PM).
Before I get onto some screenshots of what OverDose looks like in its current state, please be aware of something OverDose is based on id Tech 2. Two. Thats Quake II.
Anyway, onto some shameless self pimpage. With the renderer being pretty much feature complete now, I figure its time to ramp it up a bit with pimping. Polycount has a boat load of my heroes and people I look up to posting here, and I value you guys more than any other area of the tinternets when it comes to this stuff.
WIP Area screenshot, lacking a lot of Ivy and a few other bits:
Just chilling:
Misc Bits:
Real time light shafts/pom/post process:
Missing all the foliage/ivy:
Shed load of misc objects (of a few hundred Ive made):
My Marauder hands:
Bens CMC Pistol:
Bends CMC Pisol with CMC Hands:
Field Ops Class:
Field Ops Head Variants:
Infiltrator Head Variant:
And another:
Maybe Music and the like is more your bag? Here are some samples of the music and types we are going for created by the talented Luciano Giacomozzi, so you can experience them for yourself:
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhPPsY4qrEo"]OverDose Soundtrack -- "Prepare Yourselves" - Luciano Giacomozzi - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFN1VUfD8fU"]OverDose Soundtrack -- "Time Is Running Out" - Luciano Giacomozzi - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQDeSbfN0ls"]OverDose Soundtrack -- "Holding Onto Humanity -- Marines Win" - Luciano Giacomozzi - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRqhPPREKyI"]OverDose Soundtrack -- "Mutated Victories - Marauders Win" - Luciano Giacomozzi - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJqDHHmRL9s"]OverDose Soundtrack -- "Radiation Killed My Soul" - Luciano Giacomozzi - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5s-mBfB1hM"]OverDose Soundtrack -- "The Horrors of Apocalypse" - Luciano Giacomozzi - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfhdp_bNQvM"]OverDose Soundtrack -- "World In Darkness" - Luciano Giacomozzi - YouTube[/ame]
You can find out more on the About page of our site: http://team-blur-games.com/overdose/
And even more at the ModDB/IndieDB page: http://www.moddb.com/games/overdose
Obviously as a tiny team, this is bloody hard work. With one coder and one artist, its Tough. We have had Jamin who did our character models and weapons, but even then we have a single weapon completed and two characters (plus several heads). Ive had to do everything else, art wise, including UI, effects, textures, models and maps. A massive project But thats not for here, because that would be more of a help wanted style post, which this isnt as its more of a pimp (But yeah, if you can help out, give us a PM).
Before I get onto some screenshots of what OverDose looks like in its current state, please be aware of something OverDose is based on id Tech 2. Two. Thats Quake II.
Anyway, onto some shameless self pimpage. With the renderer being pretty much feature complete now, I figure its time to ramp it up a bit with pimping. Polycount has a boat load of my heroes and people I look up to posting here, and I value you guys more than any other area of the tinternets when it comes to this stuff.
WIP Area screenshot, lacking a lot of Ivy and a few other bits:
Just chilling:
Misc Bits:
Real time light shafts/pom/post process:
Missing all the foliage/ivy:
Shed load of misc objects (of a few hundred Ive made):
My Marauder hands:
Bens CMC Pistol:
Bends CMC Pisol with CMC Hands:
Field Ops Class:
Field Ops Head Variants:
Infiltrator Head Variant:
And another:
Maybe Music and the like is more your bag? Here are some samples of the music and types we are going for created by the talented Luciano Giacomozzi, so you can experience them for yourself:
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhPPsY4qrEo"]OverDose Soundtrack -- "Prepare Yourselves" - Luciano Giacomozzi - YouTube[/ame][ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFN1VUfD8fU"]OverDose Soundtrack -- "Time Is Running Out" - Luciano Giacomozzi - YouTube[/ame][ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQDeSbfN0ls"]OverDose Soundtrack -- "Holding Onto Humanity -- Marines Win" - Luciano Giacomozzi - YouTube[/ame][ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRqhPPREKyI"]OverDose Soundtrack -- "Mutated Victories - Marauders Win" - Luciano Giacomozzi - YouTube[/ame][ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJqDHHmRL9s"]OverDose Soundtrack -- "Radiation Killed My Soul" - Luciano Giacomozzi - YouTube[/ame][ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5s-mBfB1hM"]OverDose Soundtrack -- "The Horrors of Apocalypse" - Luciano Giacomozzi - YouTube[/ame][ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfhdp_bNQvM"]OverDose Soundtrack -- "World In Darkness" - Luciano Giacomozzi - YouTube[/ame]You can find out more on the About page of our site: http://team-blur-games.com/overdose/
And even more at the ModDB/IndieDB page: http://www.moddb.com/games/overdose
Replies
Either way you look at it though, what you are pulling off with it is better than a lot of other dev studios imo. This looks better than some of the ID Tech 4 games out there.
Can't wait to see some vids.
Also, what sort of help you looking for?
Everything you see thats in these pics, we added ourselves. That includes per pixel lighting, shadow mapping, sub surface scattering, rim lighting, AO, real time shadowed light shafts, material system, shaders, EAX/Open AL, post processing, colour grading, skeletal animation systems, custom model formats and encoders, brand new tool sets, a level editor, sky portals, terrain systems, folaige systems with wind simulation, GUI scripting, blah blah woop woop dingle berry tech stuffs. Theres a TINY ammount of Quake 2 still in there, the whole thing has been re-written to bring it up to date. It probably shares about as much in common now with Quake 2 as Rage does.
As for what we need help with... Well, take your pick
*NEW REVISED TECHNICIAN CONCEPT (Second from right)*
http://www.team-blur-games.com/forums/download/file.php?id=153
http://imageshack.us/f/831/mdrtechniciancolour.png
Marauder Custom Head Designs
http://www.team-blur-games.com/forums/download/file.php?id=133&mode=view
I just can't get over how amazing these shots look, and even more amazing considering the fact that you guys completely redesigned ID Tech 2.
Why did you guys decide to do an overhaul to such an old engine rather than just choosing something more recent? Or has this been a passion project of your guys for years?
If you were looking for a level designer or heck if I had any experience with ID tech I'd probably help you out cause the amount of work you've done with such a small group deserves some support.
Regardless I wish you luck.
We use a modified version of Radiant, so anybody with knowledge of building Quake maps will know right away. That includes COD games.
Well when we started all this, we were working on Quake II Evolved and there was only the faint glimmer of a possible Quake 3 source release in the future. So UDK, Doom 3, Cry engine etc... They didn't really exist in the way they do now. Obviously down the line, you get used to working with your own baby, and OverDose really did (parden the pun) evolve over the years into our own engine of sorts.
Thanks for the kind words guys, means a lot to us.
Everyone who thinks they can make an indie-mmo should come here to see how much work it takes to make an "easy" game like a FPS.
The weakest bit to me is the bathroom scene, just because the floor tiles and locker doors' materials are not being communicated at all. Is there no shader support for cubemaps or anything that could achieve a similar effect?
This is a simple FPS, its not even Single Player (but if we ever got to a serious position, we have a LOT of plans for a nice team based coop single player story game). It’s a lot of bloody work, but its also crazy fun. The daft thing is, after years of doing “next gen” style art, I find it REALLY tough to go back to doing diffuse only textures… Very strange…
Amazingly, that floor AND locker surface has cube maps on it. Its just in past screenshots I was met with “woa, tone that shit right down, its supposed to be old and dirty not ultra shiney”. It actually does use a cube map there. Maybe I can try again and find a happy medium between the two…
Thank you
Everybody is a “newb”. Theres always somebody that does it better, or has been doing it longer… That’s the whole point of art. A real artist doesn’t look at his work and know its perfect, a real artist looks at his work and knows what could be achieved better/differently next time. The guys at Blur, myself included, we get this, that’s why we work close with everybody and offer as much or as little feedback as needed. Send me some previous examples, and I’ll take a peak?
Ah! Always tough to find that happy medium. Can you mask the reflection with a greyscale map? I really dont know how that shader stuff works in engine.
Btw, I don't have a ton of productive time laying around, but I may be able to make some props or draw some concepts for you if you'd like. Huge respect for humble, serious indie projects.
a) slap a cube map over the surface with no bump interaction.
2) slap a cube map over the surface with bump map interacion.
d) slap a cube map over the surface with bump map interaction and use a greyscaled mask.
The specular stage also allows us to control power/scale of the highlight per surface.
Good luck with everything! Hope to see this released some day
We get asked this a lot. Honestly...? We were the first engine to add per pixel lighting, before it had that huge buzz of everybody adding it. We actually had a PPL tech demo out for Quake II Evolved... Before Doom 3 hit retail.
So, seeing as its pretty much that engine that started it all, we have stuck by it since. We just have a lot of knowledge and experience with it. We started all this (Maybe not OverDose in its current form, but this type of work) when UDK didn't exist. When Unity was just a fart in a bath tub. When the Quake 2 Source release was, well, something unheard of before. You stick to what you know, and it was much easier to add new things and stuffs to an engine we knew that was as open as we wanted it to be, than it would be to make a "mod" for another game.
For example, with OverDose, we have access to EVERYTHING. Not just a few things, but EVERYTHING. Netcode, physics, master server stuff, everything. We can change as much or as little as we want, any time we want to. It just made sense back then.
Its the same thing with Rage... why didn't they just use a pre-existing engine rather than tweaking Doom 3? Because is a base, its what they knew. Same can even be said for COD, but then IMO COD needs a good kick up the arse in a LOT of ways...
[ame="
I've since flattened the cloud sphere a tad so it doesn't look so odd.
You guy's deserve more support!
Its hard with so few people, but we've had a few really good guys contact us thanks to this post so it was defo worth it.
The question is this: Given that God is infinite, and that the universe is also infinite... would you like a toasted teacake?
WIP - Missing weapons, ivy, foliage, dust particles, cobwebs, tits, shoes, several small ferrets and a trombone.
Also the new theme tune for the game has just been completed, so pimped it shall be:
[ame="
Do you have any gameplay/tech demos or vids?
I didn't comment earlier but looks like it's coming along pretty fancily. It's great that you've done all of this as a small independent group. A few friends and I are thinking of doing something like this soon so it's very inspiring to me.
As for tits... I would love to post some lovely bojangly ones but it will have to wait... We have some pretty damn disgusting designs for female player models, but w want to wait for the males to be done first before we look into "extra" models.
So, for now, this is the best I can do!
2 guys doing everything from scratch is bloody impressive, but obviously it's going to take a long time to finish. Graphics seem pretty much AAA based on screenshots you've posted, but how are you going to ensure it stays so and maintains edge over competition after say, 4 years?
The simple truth is always as follows:
Want the game out quicker? Then help.
Want the game to look better? Then help.
Want the game to always have that "edge"? Then help!
We simply try our best, but without HELP, theres not much more we can do other than our best. We do, however, have a LOT in the game thats not even ready for modern day use but can be enabled if you wish. 64 samples on shadow mapping? Multiple high ultra quality shader settings and materials? Real time reflections on things that dont need them? Amazingly high quality POM/AO? Hell, even real time light shafts can ALL use ray traced shadowing... If you enable it. Of course at the moment, if you whack everything up to insane levels then it wont run smooth all the time, but that stuffs there for now.
The thing is, we don't worry about the graphics. We worry about how it will play. Do you worry about how bad Link To The Past looks when you load it up? Or Doom? Grpahics always change. Crysis won't look amazing in a few years, even... But it will always play the same. Thats the important thing, but its also something we can control easy by changing it as/when needed.
http://www.indiegogo.com/overdose
I did try kickstarter, but they were all like "Oh hell naw, we don't serve your kind here, get lost".
I'll be posting more updates in the next day or two from the actual game
You have changed the id Tech 2 engine making it a quality actual engine. That's impressive.
It 'a bit of time I see your progress and your skills as artists and coders is equal to your determination.
Good luck.
Also did a quick new bonce. Total time 32 mins, including low/high/textures.
In-game:
Multishot ingame:
http://www.team-blur-games.com/odium/cmc_head_ingame.jpg
Diffuse only shot, no lighting:
http://www.team-blur-games.com/odium/cmc_head.jpg
Flats:
http://www.team-blur-games.com/odium/cmc_head_d.png
http://www.team-blur-games.com/odium/cmc_head_s.png
http://www.team-blur-games.com/odium/cmc_head_local.png
http://www.team-blur-games.com/odium/cmc_head_sss.png
Maybe a better way to put it is for example, high contrast pictures of games look awesome but high contrast games are horrible when actually playing.
Asside from that, everything about this project is inspiring to myself
The lights can be seen better in this shot, but imagine them as an actual light source, and glowing:
Also the lights look pretty good, although it took me a while to spot :P. These models look pretty awesome though. Do you guys have a website or something that I can follow this on?
Two questions:
First, idle curiosity, how prototyped or implemented is your movement system? Will you guys be able to show some video of parkouring around levels in first person, at least, for the indiegogo/kickstarter?
Second, for more specific reasons, how possible or likely will attachments and extra costume elements on the characters be? I'd love to see some variations of different straps/gear/pouches over these dudes to really sell the scavenger/raider look.
1) The website is http://www.team-blur-games.com/overdose but we use http://www.moddb.com/games/overdose a whole lot more.
2) The video for stuff is nearly done, its just I had to leave early for my birthday week stuffs as my girlfriend had a death in the family, so I put it aside a little to spend a little quality time with her. I should be back onto that this week. With regards to the movement system, everything is in there, even crouch sliding under broken doors and what not, with weapon... the trouble is, theres not enough actual on screen animation to really support it just yet to really show it off. But the video does include lots of WIP media and animation and the like, both from first person and third person. All of thats in, and is usable in the various maps. The only thing thats really not in is the buddy up system, but that one needs to wait a ittle while longer as its more game code, something we are well into now.
2) Well, every player gets to pick their head, thats standard and changes remain over any class change. Thats the second change, the classes, as each class five per team) has a different model. The last is change is load out, as we have lots of different weapons and class specific gear, all of which can be changed with attachments at will, each having their own strengths and weaknesses, so each being something that works best at a given task. The good news is that every weapon is available right off the bat, and NEARLY every weapon to every class. That means medics can use shotguns for example, but rocket launchers is a bit of an odd choice. Attachments are unlocked over a series of progression based challenges, be it simply kill X people, or killing a certain way. We wanted to give the player at least some sense of progression in this area, so that he had access to every weapon in the game off the bat, but smaller tweaks like holo sights, silencers etc, would be more suited to a players play style instead. We want to give it a bit more focus on the player there, and a bit less on the "ZOMG NEW TOYS!!!" COD formula.
The way attachments work is via tagging onto different bones. Thats what allows us to have for example, a laser sight, or a silencer, all with the same animation set. Adding the pouches and things is a great idea, but sadly would require a lot more work on the animation side (Something we need some SERIOUS help with right now). The truth of the matter there is that the player animations atm all have standard model bones/skeletons up to the head, with an additional 6 for taggng flares, 2 for weapons in each hand, and a special bone for the random "tube" the field ops class has. Using this single rig we can animate every MP character, which cuts down on the workload a LOT (but isn't vital to the game working, just something we aimed for to make life easier). Heads on the other hand, have a series of small simple animations, and each have their own rig (due to different shapes, sizes and scales), and these range from simple phonemes for speach, to simple animation sets like blink, shout, scream, pain etc. In this case, the "head" model is tagged onto the "body" model, same as a weapon would be tagged into the hand. This allows us at least some form of coustomisation on that part.
Add that in with theme specific skins using .skin modifications (Black guy has black skin, when in a snow themed level add a different diffuse covered with frost, different d/n/s set for the body if you want etc) and you have, at the moment, a lot more possibilities. Doing this this way, its totally possible to actually remove surfaces that we don't need and not even render them at all. That includes pouches and things on the the models.
The only problem there is that this is a team based but also CLASS based game. That poses two challenges on the gameplay front. The first was quite rightly pointed out above; Spotting your team mates over the enemy. We solved that with a player lights, that don't make you glow in the dark to everybody in a 40 mile radius, but do allow quick spotting of team mates (NOTE: These lights and materials are totally dependant on if the player selects colour blind mode... Yes, we included that). But the second challenge is actually even bigger... How do you spot a Medic, over a Field Ops? Thats where the different looking classes come in. So adding more or less "things" and "stuffs" to those classes changes the silhouette and general outline of a class. So thats where it gets into murky waters, and we need to draw a fine line between allowing player to do what they need to make them look unique, but still allowing th game to function on a playability level.
But the heads are totally custom... As in, old school custom. As in, hey you don't like the ones we made? Then use your own. We have lose file loading in OverDose on pure servers, which allows you to upload new files (providing they meet a check list of requirements and don't overwrite any older materials). That means if you don't like the selection, and would rather add a Homer Simpson head to the game, go for it. Just don't be shocked when people start head shotting you a million times
Hope that answers a few questions! Ignore the typing, I'm on Carla's laptop, and its like typing with gloves on... With no hands.