thanks for the comments guys. it's pretty barebone right now, but i'll try to make 'er spiffier.
i actually had the fish done flagster. i'm importing the enviroment into unreal, so i didn't bother until i set up the animatedactor class and imported them in the engine. they just have a "wading" animation right now.
looking for suggestions on how best to accomplish the fish swimming aroung the tank in unrealed 2k3.
killing: can you use splines? have them all on various continuous loops through the rocks? I don't know unrealed, just a thought.
I don't know a lot about fish, but I'm used to seeing them with a few more fins. Usually in some shape or form one (or 2) along the back, one towards rear underneath, two front underneath and two side. But that is all probably subject to the whims of mother nature, and maybe you based your design on a real fish anyway
rooster:
i can constrain the fish to a path in max sure, but i'm not sure if it would carry into unreal and if digesting a 100-200 frame animation sequence would be a possible direction. i am aiming to create an enviroment (not a level by any shape) so as long as you can view the room without HEAVY lagging on a good computer so i can record a matinee cinematic, i will consider it okay. i don't want the animation sequence loop to be noticable or too fast and unrealistic in case it is seen in view longer than i intend to record for some reason. also, i havne't played with the animatedactor actor and subactors much, so i am sure there is much there to learn. i noticed you can set the speed of your animations in the actor's properties and unreal will actually interpolate the inbetweens or tween in-game. so if i get a good feel for how that works i may be able to set position and rotation keyframes, condence them down to single frames so when the animation time is slowed in game they look right. but the way i animate, the keyframes are never the same distance apart, so that may be something to consider.
the fins i noticed were screwed up after i 'rushed in for the skin' to see if i could import the animation into unreal. it worked and i'm finless! the detail skipped my mind. i don't really like the fish, it's not exotic enough for the fancy fish tank. that tank would cost a lot and to drop a fish that looks like a generic, stepped-on goldfish, doesn't fly.
hey polycount, i was thinking, if anyone was interested, i think it would be cool if the polycount community helped me populate my fish tank by modeling out a small exotic fish model for my tank. if it looked dumb i wouldn't put it in there, no offense. i would want weird looking fish and i'd be willing to texture them up if you didn't want to, animate them, and import them in and give you credit for your fish. but i'll only do it if the fish is cool looking.
As I mention I don't know unreal ed well, so I'm waiting for someone who does to tell me these ideas are useless.. but if I was looking to do it I'd look up if its possible to constrain to path in unreal rather than max, as I know moving stuff on splines is pretty cheap performance wise and also from working on a fish game prototype for the last 9 weeks that a generic swim along a spline can look pretty convincing.
Something that springs to mind is the particles of light that occasionally lead your way in the assault game when a new objective comes up, and also any camera movements in ingame cinematics. I assume these were done by moving stuff along splines?
I'll let someone who knows what they're talking about make some suggestions now :]
rooster:
ah yeah, the cameras do move on splines. i'm actually pretty sure there is a way. i'll search google and the unreal wiki's for an answer when i get the time. i know what erol is talking about with the shark creatre and will take a closer look on how they set that one up - i think they used a skybox for that. (makes me wonder if you have the option for multiple sky boxes in unrealED, that'd be fun to play with.)
cubik:
thanks for showing interest, i thought it was a fun idea. i'm thinking in the range of 50-200 tris and 64-128 textures.
if i get a lot of fish i can always make another aquarium so the fish can be better displayed.
A simpler method might be to just "attatch" the fish together into a couple of single objects with a common center. It's not important for one fish tolook perfect, but to give the impression of many fish in the tank. So if you turned multiple fish into an "object" made it a mover with a 7 frame rotation around the tank, and then made another owne with a different rate of rotation, You would have some varience in there. If you used simple mesh deform animation (such as how the flags flap in the game) for the tails, that would suffice. Make a few more fish to be statick or move in very slow cycles and you could have a good pseudorandom movement in the ttank without a lot of hassle with the splines and if they import or not.
Hey Cory, remember when I showed you that animated mushroom, I think you could do the same with the fish. I'll mess with it and see if it will work with the spline. I don't think the spline will import but the movement in 3d space might.
AHotHandSandwich, i'm importing the enviroment into unreal
this is the basic layout i'm working towards. city scape to the left. bathroom/fishtank center, bedroom to it's right. kitchen far right. curvy 8-shape things are ceiling arm tracks.
i like what you're doing with the monochromatic color schemes. so long as each room has a similar kind of "punch" color element like the fishtank, it should make for a rather impressive looking unreal level. hopefully you'll upload the level when it's done so we can all have a butcher's ?
maybe you could change the contrast/slight hue shift between the floors and walls? it all kinda mushes together. the details on the walls and floor kinda match, making it hard to discern the two.
lookin cool though! should be sweet with furniture and plants n stuff
You know I think this actually came out really cool. It takes a really top notch artist to pull off something so monochromatic and simple without it seeming monotonous. With some interestig lighting in game this could read as a really interesting space with a unique ambiance.
How did you like unrealed? easy to learn? I'm getting ready to dive in soon, and was wondering how you liked it? Could we see your flats from this stuff? And don't let this project die out! finish it! I think it has a lot of promise in the direction of developing an interesting space for level design.
Replies
...oh yeah and what are the random bits in the glass bit at the bottom of the bottom picture?
I love the feel of the models, they have a very nice flow to them.
i actually had the fish done flagster. i'm importing the enviroment into unreal, so i didn't bother until i set up the animatedactor class and imported them in the engine. they just have a "wading" animation right now.
looking for suggestions on how best to accomplish the fish swimming aroung the tank in unrealed 2k3.
I don't know a lot about fish, but I'm used to seeing them with a few more fins. Usually in some shape or form one (or 2) along the back, one towards rear underneath, two front underneath and two side. But that is all probably subject to the whims of mother nature, and maybe you based your design on a real fish anyway
looking forward to seeing developments!
i can constrain the fish to a path in max sure, but i'm not sure if it would carry into unreal and if digesting a 100-200 frame animation sequence would be a possible direction. i am aiming to create an enviroment (not a level by any shape) so as long as you can view the room without HEAVY lagging on a good computer so i can record a matinee cinematic, i will consider it okay. i don't want the animation sequence loop to be noticable or too fast and unrealistic in case it is seen in view longer than i intend to record for some reason. also, i havne't played with the animatedactor actor and subactors much, so i am sure there is much there to learn. i noticed you can set the speed of your animations in the actor's properties and unreal will actually interpolate the inbetweens or tween in-game. so if i get a good feel for how that works i may be able to set position and rotation keyframes, condence them down to single frames so when the animation time is slowed in game they look right. but the way i animate, the keyframes are never the same distance apart, so that may be something to consider.
the fins i noticed were screwed up after i 'rushed in for the skin' to see if i could import the animation into unreal. it worked and i'm finless! the detail skipped my mind. i don't really like the fish, it's not exotic enough for the fancy fish tank. that tank would cost a lot and to drop a fish that looks like a generic, stepped-on goldfish, doesn't fly.
hey polycount,
i was thinking, if anyone was interested, i think it would be cool if the polycount community helped me populate my fish tank by modeling out a small exotic fish model for my tank. if it looked dumb i wouldn't put it in there, no offense. i would want weird looking fish and i'd be willing to texture them up if you didn't want to, animate them, and import them in and give you credit for your fish. but i'll only do it if the fish is cool looking.
Something that springs to mind is the particles of light that occasionally lead your way in the assault game when a new objective comes up, and also any camera movements in ingame cinematics. I assume these were done by moving stuff along splines?
I'll let someone who knows what they're talking about make some suggestions now :]
ah yeah, the cameras do move on splines. i'm actually pretty sure there is a way. i'll search google and the unreal wiki's for an answer when i get the time. i know what erol is talking about with the shark creatre and will take a closer look on how they set that one up - i think they used a skybox for that. (makes me wonder if you have the option for multiple sky boxes in unrealED, that'd be fun to play with.)
cubik:
thanks for showing interest, i thought it was a fun idea. i'm thinking in the range of 50-200 tris and 64-128 textures.
if i get a lot of fish i can always make another aquarium so the fish can be better displayed.
177 tris
82 polys
128x128 texture
Just a suggestion that I hope helps.
Scott
Todd
heres a movie, yours will hopefully look better than this
fishy box
screen of max setup, just simple box along spline
this is the basic layout i'm working towards. city scape to the left. bathroom/fishtank center, bedroom to it's right. kitchen far right. curvy 8-shape things are ceiling arm tracks.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v668/killnpc/apartment02.jpg
maybe you could change the contrast/slight hue shift between the floors and walls? it all kinda mushes together. the details on the walls and floor kinda match, making it hard to discern the two.
lookin cool though! should be sweet with furniture and plants n stuff
How did you like unrealed? easy to learn? I'm getting ready to dive in soon, and was wondering how you liked it? Could we see your flats from this stuff? And don't let this project die out! finish it! I think it has a lot of promise in the direction of developing an interesting space for level design.