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MOLD (working title)

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Comments

  • Crazy how good it looks, this will sell like hot cakes on PS4, congrats on a genius work flow, I would love to see this on a huge 4K tv.
  • @CathyR @radiantboy

    hehe Thanks!
    but i doubt a P&C adventure will ever sell like hot cakes :) i'd die a happy man if i #1 finish it before 2030, #2 recover some of the expenses I had ;)
  • Wow, this is truly inspiring work!
  • So this isn't 3D or 2D. I assume it's 2.5D. I see rendering features of 3D but the environment and scenery are pre-rendered set pieces right? The character animation looks 2.5. Does it 'jump' down off the shipwreck or am I imagining?

    You didn't answer a previous query about the graphics method. Are you unwilling to disclose? :)
  • @Xidore

    "....scenery are pre-rendered set pieces right?"
    correct. bot those preprendered pieces are assembled inside of a 3d scene.

    "The character animation looks 2.5"
    correct again. 12 angles prerendered.

    "Does it 'jump' down off the shipwreck or am I imagining?"
    it does. its a true 3d set after all.

    "You didn't answer a previous query about the graphics method."
    mhhhh, you right, seems like i missed one or thought I answered it already...  sry @Havok

    here you go:
    its prerendered 3D, baked,projected onto 3D geometry and rendered via a 3D engine. you can call it 2.5D if you like ;) (2.8D seems more fitting though ;) )

    " Are you unwilling to disclose?"
    I started to write a "prototype post mortem" on my blog, which hopefully addresses all remaining questions... 2 posts are already online, a third (about projection mapping) will be posted in a few days. https://moldgame.wordpress.com

    unwilling pffff ;)
  • Heh. I only thought you might be unwilling because clearly its a great deal of your time and effort to achieve this. While it might seem 'mean' to be unwilling to share details it would be really understandable if you wanted to keep your methods proprietary and not disclose them all openly :)

    Thanks for sharing!

    I did look at your blog but it doesn't (yet) appear to go into detail on what you did within Unity/AC.
    I'm still very curious what solution you had for what you described: 

    "it was a real pain though to setup the dynamics with friction and mass.. and everything affected the pathfinding (it got buggy with "wrong" settings).. what a pain it was "

    We are developing a game with a rodent as a main character and the whole 'small things scuttling about a large world' feel of yours blows me away. How DID you achieve it?
  • @Xidore just FYI, i've added the third post which shows the projection mapping workflow...

    I'll cover Unity related stuff (including the ants) in the next post or the one after that, but its basically a sprite with ACs NPC script (and 8 angles), controlled and created during runtime by a very simple playmaker FSM.

  • Brill thanks :)
  • Hi,

    I also think the game looks just stunning. Are you by any chance using the camera projections method which is also used in Daeadlics Whispered World 2?

    Also, which AC setup do you use, 2D or 3D - because I understand you are using a 2D-sprite as character but projecting the beautiful textures on 3D models in realtime.

    Thanks!
  • thanks! ;)

    well camera projection on 3d geo is really old as a technique (i saw it first commercially in softimage 3.51 around `97?, but it's probably even older) there is pretty much only a few ways to do it, and these depend more on the 3d software than on the engine. (i've tried to cover most of it on my blog, but if you have any further questions, shoot)

    (about daedadlic) i know they used softimage before, but i've no clue what they are using for whispering2, but i think they probably approach it in a similar way (except the baking process perhaps)

    I use the 3D setup of AC, and did setup a 2D character using unity complex (when my memory serves me right)

    hope this helps!
  • Hi,

    thanks for your answer, I will definetely checkout your blog!

    I wasn't aware that you can use 2D-Sprites as Characters when using the 3D setup. Your character is prerendered from 12 angles so when the camera moves it will look like a "real" 3D object, right? Sounds like a lot of work to show different sprites/animations depending on the POV - but it looks fantastic.

    About Daedalic: They postet a very neat video of their production process of Whispered 2, check it out if you like :-)



    Regards
  • I've been looking for camera projection techniques...

    King Art did something like that too, with 3D assets projected to lowpoly mesh, only with the faces that shows on camera...



    With 3dsmax I would use a camera projection material attached to your lowpoly (already UVed), and render to texture to save the data. But if you want to move the camera (and that's the main point of it all), I think you'll have to render to texture a few angles, or all your camera path, and merge the final texture in photoshop to cover your lowpoly mesh.

    I don't know if there is a more automatic procedure... what @deroesi explains at his blog is a bit... overwhelming ^_^
  • well i haven't touched 3dsmax in a decade, but the usual workflow should work there as well... as Maas suggested UV the lowres properly, use a camera mapping material (if thats how max does it)  to project the prerendered image,  use any kind of bake tool (in Mentalray its called rendermap (at least in softimage)) and bake the albedo pass using it (thats just the texture without light, shading etc. - constant...)

    this should give you a proper 1K or 2K square texture which then can be used as texture for the lowres geometry.

    I didn't render different perspectives for mold, but i did build completely different lowres meshes which were optimized to work from the planned camera angle. Which avoids certain problems but causes others..

  • The artwork is pretty amazing, keep it up!
  • Thanks! it went a bit quiet recently, but we are still alive ;)
  • edited December 2016
    Hi @Deroesi, I am quite interested in what kind of camera you use. I believe you use an orthographic one, but as soon as you zoom in it almost looks like it becomes a perspective one. So my question is: what is your camera setup in AC?
  • edited December 2016
    Has anyone else an idea about this camera setup? Deroesi doesn't seem to be much online unfortunately... :( It looks like an orthographic GameCamera that can zoom in. Is it true such a thing can only be achieved with a custom script or am I missing something?

    PS: I have read his whole blog and this duscussion but there is nothing about his actual camera setup in Unity.
  • I follow this project almost from the beginning and I can't wait to play it. It looks great! @deroesi what about some video from development, new images or playable demo version?:-)
  • Hi everybody!

    Thanks @jakub!! and yes sorry! I must admit I wasn't really active in the last year or so... (had too much contract work) We (and the project) are definitely still alive ;) but after ~4 years the batteries started to deplete, so it was time for a bit of a break.

    @PurpleShine
    there is a simple script on the camera (or collider, i can't remember) which zooms in (triggered by volume colliders on the ground)... basically it just 'lerps' the cameras field of view from value A to B.


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