As a bit of a tangent, I've been working on some of the "on foot" aspects for a couple of days. Primarily getting a prototype ballistics system going. At the moment all projectiles ricochet but the next step is to ricochet at glancing angles + material type modifiers (not forgetting inherent projectile modifiers). Different VFX is triggered by material type, which spawns my VFX from the impact normal, with a variation min/max value. Weapon recoil is procedural with easily tweaked values for upwards and sideways drift but we'll need something better past the proto. I've only created two material particles so far, so we have metal and dirt here.
Next up, I've been working on the POD's internal cockpit and primarily it's weapon systems/particle FX/sound...Please excuse the ugly test level! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3_Xyd3vpJw
I like the fx. Great smoke. The drift is a nice touch.
A rocket trail would help a lot, at first I thought it was a remote detonator, with the tone warning being a countdown indicator. I wonder though if the tone will get annoying with frequent use?
The music is really nice. I feel like it infers fast mechanical heartbeats/breathing, I feel like I'm inside an insectoid warrior. Are you planning to vary the music with situational awareness? Battle vs. exploration, underdog vs. superiority, etc.
Also I might have missed this, but is this meant to be a VR title? The hud seems to be going that way. What do you think about hands on the joysticks?
Thanks Eric, Yep, agreed, a whispy little trail will help. Currently I have two POD weapons working, the rapid fire blaster type (which is projectiles still, not an energy weapon) and then that hi-powered explosive launcher that hurls a hi explosive projectile out. The player won't be able to arm too many of those - i'm thinking about 3 at a time, so they are sort of a special use weapon for desperate situations.
I just placed that track on the video to give it pacing, I nabbed it from the Greenzone soundtrack - but for the final game I'll be creating a lot of different tracks for many situations and plan on a dynamic switching system (and not the skyrim style, but a more indepth system).
VR wise, I'm aiming for it being VR playable, but I don't wish to aim soley as a VR title. So both will be an option hopefully. Definitely will have hands on the controls and the POD's legs are currently missing but the animation system for that is coming asap
The smoke does look great, although I think the scale is off. Your pod is supposed to be really tiny, right? Right now, the smoke looks as if the character inside the pod was the size of a human. You can tell from the size of the wisps of smoke and how fast they move. Also, there are no particles visible in the smoke. At the tiny scale of your game, I think smoke would have to look different: The smoke wisps should be larger and not as smooth. There should be some actual particles be visible (smoke is actually nothing but particles that normally are to small to make out individually). In general, I think you would have to scale the underlying physics. On this scale air should appear much more viscous that at our (human) scale. (I dont think it should matter for pods or characters, but for something as light as smoke, it should.) The same is true for fracturing objects. If you assume a homogenous material that is made up some smaller particles (concrete is a great example) these particles that determine the lines along which the object brakes appear to be much larger. Thus, the resulting fragments should be larger and more coarse.
The speed of stuff is going to be a little bit stylised because I'm making the aliens perception of time to be somewhat slower than humans (so a bee or ant will move around with more apparent weight etc). Particles do indeed look off scale, which I'll address in a second pass, I had done some initial work on larger scale looking particles but I didn't like the look of them. I'll get there though Good call on the fracturing too... those little blocks are just tests so aren't representative, but I would like to aim for destruction that feels right for the scale but also has finer grain fragments (especially when the player is firing tiny little needle projectiles).
All good crits and I will aim to remedy it all in the next particle pass. Next step is to get the POD into a proper level and start improving it's handling/motion a bit.
Woooow awesome, I keep checking this thread to see new updates. I cant
wait to see the whole progress. Is there a storyline you can tell us?
Like why are the aliens here for instance ? Much love
It's great to see this coming to life. I know it's not your focus right now, but that last video is making very anxious to see these guys in action with more scale ref in the level, like blades of grass and what not.
Today I indulged an OCD compulsion. My original grass blades weren't quite as accurate to life as I'd like so I caved in and made a new one from scratch. There are still aspects I'm not happy with but I'll return to them for a third pass another time...
I had spent a little time on some particle FX, and a lot of it wasn't really going to be suitable for Infinitesimals. So rather than waste it I had a thought about completing a set of weapon impact/destructions particles and releasing a pack for UE4 - Here's a couple of WIP videos: Clearly this is entirely unrelated to Infinitesimals but I'm hoping if it brings in even a small amount of cash, I can work full time on Infinitesimals for a while. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpsqJUmYSKQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V45_FbgBgKA
Well, just tying up the loose ends on the VFX pack today and tomorrow then back onto Infinitesimals full time... I added an obligatory bullet time toggle for the demo map: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwzqWh7KaJw
Feature creep reared it's head for the VFX pack... I added a bullet time mode and now shrapnel for the explosions... The shrapnel also has ricochet functionality, so It would be unlucky but entirely possible to be murdered by some deflecting debris from around a corner...
Haha, bullet time is never not a good idea. That narrator had me cracking up, effects look great too. Don't know why I wasn't following this already. I'll say one thing - the trail for the mysterious transport vehicle could do with being more uniform and streak-like, as I think it looks too 'puffy'. Minor I know, but it threw me off a bit, if it looked more realistic I think the full effect would be achieved
Ok, I promise I'll be posting Infinitesimals work again soon I should note that the systems I'm developing for the VFX pack are in many ways foundations to more complex systems I will then put into Infinitesimals down the line. So, with that in mind - update trailer for the pack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6QVVKqA5Yw
As part of both Infinitesimals & the FX pack, I've been working on ballistics simulation, adding tumbling projectiles and penetration systems. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxvQi_RNhYI
Hey! Any updates on this project? I would love to see any progress you have since April.
Yes indeed, I'll try and get an update on here soon. I've been pretty embroiled in technical work/scripting so it's been less art focused. However, I should have some visible things to show in the near future. I have hired a c++ contractor to help out recently too, so things should start moving along much quicker!
Ok, I promise a proper update is coming along quite soon... but in the mean time, here's a tiny little glimpse of some real-time procedural animation WIP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pejuNDhHKg
A tiny little update to show a little teaser of the POD in motion. I should note that it's still got a long way to go, the feet currently aren't rotating - but that will come next, plus it's gait needs a lot of improvement. This is entirely procedural motion (not a single keyframe animation) and it's also fully physics simulated. The body is held up by forces applied by the status of each foot (in simple terms). I'll have a more substantial update in a couple of months and by then the motion should be much better:
There is one important thing about the movement of his legs. If you want them to look natural while running, they have to touch the floor one by one and move along the arcs (now trajectories are almost straight). Look at the spider walking/running loop Anyway, you create something amazing, keep going!
Ilya Sinyavtsev : Good spot Yeh, currently there is a bug with the stepping solver that is truncating the steps (you may also notice a sudden jolt down to the ground) - The feet are arcing, but it's not coming out right yet. Next update coming soon and I hope we'll have ironed out those issues Also, some of the body physics are not enabled in that video above whilst we work on the gait sequencer.
Ok, so I realised I hadn't really posted much art here for a while. I'm currently texturing the POD and it's going to be ready to show in a few days. However, for a before/after comparison - first, here's the non textured POD in game...
Tonight I had a go at a prototype system for simulating rain, which requires a somewhat different approach at such scales. Next I need to split water drops on impacts and improve general 'wobble' motion.
Replies
A rocket trail would help a lot, at first I thought it was a remote detonator, with the tone warning being a countdown indicator. I wonder though if the tone will get annoying with frequent use?
The music is really nice. I feel like it infers fast mechanical heartbeats/breathing, I feel like I'm inside an insectoid warrior. Are you planning to vary the music with situational awareness? Battle vs. exploration, underdog vs. superiority, etc.
Also I might have missed this, but is this meant to be a VR title? The hud seems to be going that way. What do you think about hands on the joysticks?
Yep, agreed, a whispy little trail will help. Currently I have two POD weapons working, the rapid fire blaster type (which is projectiles still, not an energy weapon) and then that hi-powered explosive launcher that hurls a hi explosive projectile out. The player won't be able to arm too many of those - i'm thinking about 3 at a time, so they are sort of a special use weapon for desperate situations.
I just placed that track on the video to give it pacing, I nabbed it from the Greenzone soundtrack - but for the final game I'll be creating a lot of different tracks for many situations and plan on a dynamic switching system (and not the skyrim style, but a more indepth system).
VR wise, I'm aiming for it being VR playable, but I don't wish to aim soley as a VR title. So both will be an option hopefully. Definitely will have hands on the controls and the POD's legs are currently missing but the animation system for that is coming asap
At the tiny scale of your game, I think smoke would have to look different: The smoke wisps should be larger and not as smooth. There should be some actual particles be visible (smoke is actually nothing but particles that normally are to small to make out individually). In general, I think you would have to scale the underlying physics. On this scale air should appear much more viscous that at our (human) scale. (I dont think it should matter for pods or characters, but for something as light as smoke, it should.)
The same is true for fracturing objects. If you assume a homogenous material that is made up some smaller particles (concrete is a great example) these particles that determine the lines along which the object brakes appear to be much larger. Thus, the resulting fragments should be larger and more coarse.
The speed of stuff is going to be a little bit stylised because I'm making the aliens perception of time to be somewhat slower than humans (so a bee or ant will move around with more apparent weight etc). Particles do indeed look off scale, which I'll address in a second pass, I had done some initial work on larger scale looking particles but I didn't like the look of them. I'll get there though
All good crits and I will aim to remedy it all in the next particle pass. Next step is to get the POD into a proper level and start improving it's handling/motion a bit.
Keep it up! This has been a treat to watch.
Gratefulbred: I'll also write a bit more about that in a future update for you.
Next up is a little glimpse of this planets inhabitants in some kind of transport vehicle:
Clearly this is entirely unrelated to Infinitesimals but I'm hoping if it brings in even a small amount of cash, I can work full time on Infinitesimals for a while.
I added an obligatory bullet time toggle for the demo map:
Yeh, your not the first to mention the contrails looking a bit too wild. Something I will indeed fix in another pass.
Launch trailer for the UE4 Ballistics VFX pack up now:
I should note that the systems I'm developing for the VFX pack are in many ways foundations to more complex systems I will then put into Infinitesimals down the line. So, with that in mind - update trailer for the pack:
Yes indeed, I'll try and get an update on here soon. I've been pretty embroiled in technical work/scripting so it's been less art focused. However, I should have some visible things to show in the near future. I have hired a c++ contractor to help out recently too, so things should start moving along much quicker!
A tiny little update to show a little teaser of the POD in motion. I should note that it's still got a long way to go, the feet currently aren't rotating - but that will come next, plus it's gait needs a lot of improvement. This is entirely procedural motion (not a single keyframe animation) and it's also fully physics simulated. The body is held up by forces applied by the status of each foot (in simple terms). I'll have a more substantial update in a couple of months and by then the motion should be much better:
Ilya Sinyavtsev : Good spot
I LOVE THIS PROJECT SO MUCH I COULD BURST!