Mission outline?

I was thinking on how my mission should work, and I had few ideas. I would lie it structured like this. 2 fight, against the same guard, within few years of distance in-between.
First day of prison, you argue with him and during the night (so I don't have to create all the prison inmates but I can fake them) I fight with him, winning but getting tazered and ending up in isolation, or something fancier like "the hole" or some bullshit like that.
Second, I'm in my cell and the boos of the prison request my presence and he tell me that the same guard (vinnie?) has gone too far and that he need to be killed. Escape from the window, find him in a room after I jump around on the roofs (an hidden part) and I kill him, first I beat him, then I shoot at him.
Sounds cool, but think it its one thing, make it its another.
In the meanwhile here it is a fast sketch of the main character meeting with the boss(italian mobster stereotype).

Level Up!

Well after I did the modifier for the strength that change with the level up, I did not stopped there, and changed also max stamina, now I m gonna do max health, and I was also thinking on creating a modifier, like the one I did for the damage, but this time for the speed of the animation, even if it would be infinitely smaller than the one for the damage, which its already smaller than 1.

Well....that was easy

A dude answer me on the Ukd post, solving my problem. God bless the internet

Why?

Yesterday night, around 4 I had the idea to try (once woken up) of multiply the damage done by the jab, to a variable(from another class) that increase of a 0.1 every time I level up . This mooring, I tried, and it should be fairly easy, considering the fact that I ve done it tons of time. But this time it gave me and error that I had before, but this time the same solution did not work. I ve posted a tread on the UDK forum, waiting for an answer.

BTW

Happy New Year!!!!

First Look into my map

A really fast creation to think of the shape of my level, this one of the first iteration, and what I get from this particular map is:

Think there are to many cells. the corridor is about the right wideness, I worked a lot to trying to get that claustrophobic feel, of course I ll have to work for it a lot more. Ill need to put plenty of static mesh, but I think I have time for that.

I 'm missing lot of stuff, but its going good

Vinnie the sequel

I ve done a really fast sketch using a picture of him as reference and drawing on him a prison guard (something like that) suit. I think he could be awesome as a bad dude, crooked guard, that try to brake you once you get inside the prison. Would actually give some kind of story to the demo\game I'm supposed to do.

Cover system?

I ve found on the internet a really interesting tutorial. Rather than a tutorial it is the script files for a cover system. I always wanted to implement a proper cover system in a first person game and see how it looks. I always have been willing to try to make one that actually work, different from what I ve seen until now in all the games I ve ever played. As said, it would be really interested, but I ll leave it for the end, as an extra because for the moment it is not essential for my game.  Anyway, ill try it, later on.

Vinnie?

I ve been creating concepts for my enemy, which I want to be a prison guard. I ve been looking for reference in actors, and at one point I just bought of Vinnie Jones, which always act as a though dude in his movie, and pretty sure he is the same in real life. The fact is that his aspect would work kinda great for my crooked guard, which I ll have to beat in my level. I ll start to do some sketches. Letss see how it goes.

Render to texture

I have created a Security camera prototype, which was pretty straight forward to be honest, basically I just used a Render to texture, nothing special.  The other test is for a local multiplayer, which works, but have a major problem. If I try to lock on the second player, it just does not locate as an enemy. I ll try to fix it. Also, in the split screen mode there are the HUDs, which are gonna leave. Also, for the moment I need to put a line of code in the console, I ll have to check on how to do that.

Hair styles

I ve been researching for hair styles, taking as a reference different culture, actor or just photo founded on the internet. I ve been also looking from the sportive world, in fact there are plenty of different famous athlete in different sports that are from mexico. One of the is extremely mexican (at least in my opinion), but I do not like it.

I have a precise idea for the body, which I would like kinda slim, not bulky or excessive muscly. Also the tattoo research keep going.

A possible arena mode?

Looking on the internet, I ve found a 2 local player tutorial, which I could use to actually have an arena mode in my game. It would actually be cool to implement something like that, like story mode and arena mode. This code would actually divide the screen in two. I would have love to try it today, but I need to focus on the visuals now. Also I ve been working on dissertation today. So Ill probably leave it for later, something around end of january.

Beard Styles

I ve been thinking on how my main character should look like, facial hair wise. I ve been drawing different styles of beard, whit a single hair look which is the one that I ve in mind for my character. It has to actually look like a mexican fella, so the facial hair actually is kinda of a big deal. These are just few sketches.

For what concerns the hair, I have few sketches but on paper, due to the fact that I don't have a scanner, I ll drew them again on Photoshops.

P:S: "interessanti" means interesting. Does not take a genius to get it, but....just to be sure.

God Bless Bools

Another update on my control system I actually created the main function that will apply to all the other fight move. This all thanks to a series of bool that detect if I'm in a certain mode (attack) or if I'm pressing a particular button, it will activate a bool, that will modify my whole command, giving me the opportunity of having 2 different sets of attack! and a third set of normal thing, like jump, use, and whatever pops in my mind. Now It's time to start properly with the design and the visuals.

Contextual Binding

Today I made possible to have more bindings to a particular button depending on the context they are used in. Now my J button have 2 different function binder to it, actually it's just one that call a different function based on a bool that gets activated only when the player it is in Attacking mode(bool), so hell yea, another victory on script

Crosshair

I was finally able to disable the crosshair, which sound easy and stupid, but it actually took me a while to discover ho to do it. The biggest thing in changing it was the fact that it is not in the normal script but in a  ini file, defaultEngine. Or was it DefaultGame?
Whatever, now looks  as I wanted it.

Kinda Free Running??

The other day I found a tutorial on how to implement some sort of free running style, which is really cool.
I ve tried to implement it, and even if I used a different animation, (fake death something) it look pretty cool, and it works perfectly with my custom real first person camera. It work only thanks to an actor. But it is customizable and really useful. So,hell yea!!!

Here we go!

And finally I was able to create a punch!!! I'm currently using the default animation "Taunt_something" and it work pretty good. I surely need to tweak it properly, but I'm actually happy. For this video I ve pumped up the amount of the momentum, thats why the dude is flying away, something that remind me of Dragon Ball, which is cool as hell! 

The next step is now, create the other punches and fix some minor problem, like the fact that even if I do not punch ,  but touch the dude he will jump miles away anyway, just need to put the "trace" function to be called just when I punch. 

Guard On!

My guard system perfectly works now, I do not have Fraps on my computer at home, neither internet (which is ridiculous) atm. ASAP I ll have internet again, download Fraps, create a video and then post it! The cool thing is that it works with the press ion and the release of a button (G at the moment), so it actually work like a proper guard. God I'm Awesome!!!



Here we go with the video

Script Advances, straight out of Italy

I was able to implement a guard system which actually make the player to take half of the damage he is supposed to take. Or at least it should, I'm not at this point able to say it it is actually working or not, I ll keep looking into it. But today I also learnt how t call particular variable from script that extends to another script family. Hallelujah

Eureka

I was finally able to do almost all the mechanics in my game. It actually start to look kinda cool, at least in my opinion. It is starting to take shape as I intended it. Here is a video of my mechanics that I have done for my game.

The next step is, be able to have a working punch in game. I m really happy to see that now a lot of my mechanic are working properly, this totally deserve a drink (or a series of drinks) in town.

He is ALIVEEEEE!!!!!!

He is alive indeed!!! He is alive, but not at his best to be honest, in fact for the moment I m just testing. Looke all fine at start, everything seemed cool and then something happen.

This Happen!!!!!

To be honest I know why it did that. In fact I exported the skeletal mesh from maya with the wrong orientation. I tried to do it again, really fast just to check it out, and I'm not willing to show picture of that abomination on this blog. After I checked where the sockets where and I found out that the feet socket where, somehow, at the height of the hips all on the right. I believe I l be able to fix everything really easily, doing the weight of the mesh and importing it in UDK once more. No problemo!!

I defeat the system!!

Today, after months of desperation and failure, I was able to beat the script. I was able to create a first person camera, which is not big deal, but it has the body awareness, so it is pretty sweet! It is not perfect yet, but it is cool as hell!!! Once my animation system will be implemented everything will look amazing!
Keep in mind that the gun it is going to disappear!!

It would have been a lot easier to notice if it was an actual video, but I did not manage to use fraps, I will for my pitch. Finally I had some satisfaction with this damn scripting.

Would this be called procrastinate?

I know it sounds ridiculous but I can't get my mind on the color of the frigging walls!!! I want something kinda dark, but all my research and reference say that they usually have two colors (the walls), and that they are quite light. This due to the fact that different color affect the mood of the people that look at them. It is not that important for  a bank, but it is in prison where people cold easily spend 20 hours looking at a wall.

Prison? Jail? Penitentiary Institute? whatever

Little concept for some of the elements of the jail, I need to create a new one to finally decide the colors of thew walls inside the prision, I like withe-green  but it is too relaxed, ten if with those coulur I could improve the dirty look (easier to se stuff on withe that a really dark color ). Next wee its gonna all be on the script and the working mechanics, If they won't work I ll use maya, but I prefer give something to see that actually works. I ll try with the real FPC, with body awareness . Hopefully

Game Concept

This is a concept on how I intent my game to work. Different kind of punches, and avoiding too much movement in the camera. The "Guard" is the stance that change once the fight begins.

Internet, best thing after women and alcohol...

Today, just to leave the routine of getting crazy over a script that does not work properly, I ve done more research looking a bunch of documentary on jails,  prison life,  and discovered how a penitentiary house work. I also get more information on how my level should look like and how to implement some idea I had but I was not sure if they would have actually fit the "jail mood". Next step is to make the script work and learn how to fly....I 'm more confident to be able on doing the second one.

Once again....script

the stamina script is now up and running, work perfectly, I made in such a way that the logs write (at least now to see if it works) when the stamina is replenished. I also polished the whole script in order to make fewer file, putting a lot of stuff in the pawn file, and some other things in the player controller class. I was made to change the vision accordingly to the target Im looking at, but it totally created something that actually made no sense, physically and logically, J .Valentine is whiteness of that horrible thing I do not dare call "script". I kept researching on internet for my targeting system, but I ve found only people that knew less than me, which is not encouraging. I also ket doing concept, but did not uploaded, I'm atm focusing on the script because of the fact that the pitch is in like 3 weeks.

Script Advances

Iw as able to create a binded function that call the lock on system. Unfortunatelly, I'm finding the socket with the correct name, but I'm finding the one on me, and not the one on the enemy, I know where the problem is, I just don't know what to change that "pawn" line of script with. Im working on it, let's see how it goes, I was able also to print the location in the log file while I'm playing it. I ll continue to work and see how it goes. Today, after lesson, Ill start to subdivide command with different states, which should be fairly easy, and would allow me to have different set of commands, and have different sets of base animations (hopefully)

Possible title?

While doing my designs for the jail uniform, I  just scribbled on the uniform a number, that in all the movies is printed on the jacket of the prisoner itself, on the moment I wrote my P number from Uni. It actually fits, maybe it does not work as a title, but it will surely be useful to recognize my character, and naming him without give him a name.

Baby please make a change...I know it will do you good...

Today I worked on small, but significant detail such as, pawn velocity, no double jump, jumpZ, side movement, backward movement etc etc....
It actually helped me a lot to get more grip on the Unrealscript, that sometimes make no sense to common human being. I also made the first key binding. Now it just put a sentence in the log file, butI just need to change the line inside my exec function with the code to locate the socket, and set as view target the coordinates. I had another look at that and I miserably fail. I was not impressed by my scripting skill, neither from the official UDK tutorial.  On the other side of the coin, I imported (successfully ) all the other code I had already created, deleting all the error and warnings they where giving me compiling.
I can say that today was kinda of a drawn between me and UDK. Tomorrow should go better, I ve been researching all evening on the single native function of the engine, and I guess I ve found something that could be useful.
The fact that I was not able yet to put my hands on SKYRIM was a determinant factor on my attendance to my own "study session".

"La Vida Loca"

I sarted to work on the main character design, and the first thing I had to choose was...where is this guys gonna be from? So I started doing different skin-tone example.

I ve choose to use the "mexican" for different reasons. First, I can't actually remember a game with a mexican protagonist (except a 3rd person shooter with "vida loca" in the title, or something like that). Also, (biggest reason of all) mexiacns have a huge tattoo tradition, with a lot of different meanings. I started the research and to do some really fast sketch for them, I have almost finished the design for one of the biggest (a girl-skull resembling the day of the dead). I sketched different jail uniform, and at the end I created the concept for two, in order to decide which one I prefer.

Over that, I  made different iteration of the map, (see notebook) deciding what kinda of jail I wanted, ad the main sector of it, with the different way of mapping different rooms. 

Sockets VS Volumes

Asking to people on the unreal forum, Iw as suggested to look into sockets instead of volumes, as regards my lock on system. The code, that I ve founded on an actual UDK tutorial(pointed out by a dude on the forum), seem to work fine for what I'm planning to do, so now the testing will start. It basically is a function to detect a particular socket, get the location of it, and give you the opportunity to actually use those coordinates to whatever you want (became camera target ?). Hopefully it will work at my advantage

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SkeletalMeshSockets.html

Unreal Script, the language that Satan use to talk to us

I've spent plenty of hours trying to make a damned function yesterday, in order to advance with my "Lock on System", but there is no way to actually find the function in UDK that actually get the location, I ve looked so much into the Seq_Act GetLocation AndLocation, but there is no actual function in there. I also spent hours looking into GetTargetLocation, just to discover that wanst what I bought it was. I'll be honest after 6 hours of trying doing stuff and not getting anything out of it, I got really pissed.  

I ve posted a question in the UDK forum trying to get some answer back, or at least some one that say something, (http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/853767-Target-lock-system-get-location-of-a-volume-in-ureal-script) so now I'm waiting. In the meanwhile, I wrote another small script in order to have a tidier developing process, creating a new volume named "TargetVolume", making it available in the editor, and using those just for my "Lock On system". (It also premise me to not get mad and destroy my computer due to the constant failures)

This is the code:

//========================================================================

// Target Volume

//========================================================================

class TargetVolume extends Volume

showcategories(Movement)

placeable;

/** Is the volume enabled by default? */

var() bool bEnabled;

/**

 * Overriden to set the default collision state. 

 */

simulated event PostBeginPlay()

{

Super.PostBeginPlay();

SetCollision(bEnabled, bBlockActors);

}

defaultproperties

{

bStatic=false

bAlwaysRelevant=true

bReplicateMovement=true

bOnlyDirtyReplication=true

RemoteRole=ROLE_None

bColored=true

BrushColor=(R=255,G=0,B=0,A=255)

bEnabled=true

}

Was this the one?

I remembered what Jon told me about a Namco game that was actually a first person fighting, so I started to research it and this is what came up. I found a game named Breackdown, for xbox, which is a first person fighting\make people puke game like he said.

I can actually see now, what J was concerned about, and I agree with him when he said that was a good idea try not to make my player puke all over the screen. I had already thought about that, and that's why my lock on system will always have the enemy face as center, trying to minimize the "I'm on a boat" effect. 

The next episode

What I'm gonna check now? What's the next step? What s gonna be in the next episode?
In order to have a working example for my pitch, in which (at least my plan is to) I will have few punch and I will be able to brake a fractural mesh these are the steps I have to follow.
Find out the script for the Lock-on function, which I have pretty much already figure out (I hope), thanks to  get location script into a state, and set the 3 different variables (XYZ axes) and set them in the in-cam. Next step are sockets, with which Ill be able to actually have the animation of the punch, and I should be able to add to the the damage. I ll see how it goes, but now I'm kinda busy with the dissertation proposal and the debate, after the 1 of November, Ill be all over this script.

Size matter...

Like last time I'm gonna talk about my Post-Process for the black outline. Last time I've posted about the one I'm not longer using, because of its low versatility. Today I'm gonna post The shader I ve done (tutorial that I cannot remember) and that works a lot better (in my opinion). This is the shader

Thanks to this I'm able to achieve two different thickness, one is for the closer edges, the other one is for the farer. This is the result I can achieve with this particular shared, and the different iteration I can have just changing 2 constant.

Here there are 4 different version of the game with the post process on with different settings. It is very fast to change and to actually see  the difference directly on the game world. The one I'm more oriented to is the 3rd example because it actually make the player realize there is this black outline, but is not too thick and it does not look too overwhelming. 

Shaders

At start I was thinking on implementing in my game a shaders able to create a graphic novel style. After a while, even if I have achieved, I realized that it wasn't what I really wanted my game to look like. But, on the top of that, I really liked the black outline which I was able to create on all the hard edges. Of course it took me long time to make it working properly. It is of course a post-process.

The first attempt took me long to achieve, it did create the effect I wanted to, but not in the way I was looking for. (http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitGemsSobelEdgeDetection.html)

It was tricky and a lot heavier than the one I have achieved now, which is with a smaller number of node, and actually give me the ability to select the thickness of the closest and the farer edges. (I don't have a picture yet)

Also, the first method, the "Sobel Edge Detection"  give me few error, like counting some planes, as a series of edges, making them totally black. This new one, is working good, and it has not given me any problem yet.

HUD is for losers!!

Naa, is not for losers but is not for me. What I want to make clear to the people that are reading this blog is one thing, what I'm trying to achieve is not a super-realistic graphic, but a clean graphic with no HUD at all, using other way to indicate to the player what s happening to his character.
How I'm gonna achieve this? Post-Process is the answer.
My plan is to make active different post process depending on the level of life and stamina of the pawn.

Post-Process activated by the healt\stamina of the pawn left
	Healt Based
		Pawn.Healt < 60%				Darker Corner
		Pawn.Healt < 30%				Desaturation
		Pawn.Healt < 20%				Blood on the screen
	Stamina Based
		Pawn.Stamina < 60%				Vertical oscilltation
		Pawn.Stamina < 20%				Blur, Vertical oscillation, Deep Breathing

This is the basic idea, of course I dunno the complete script for the moment, but I'm getting to it. Only one thing make me wonder if it will work. Will, all those post process effect, slow down my game, to heavy to be run smoothly?
I also seen that UDK implemented, in their last releases, they have implemented an oscillation of the screen, like if the player was actually breathing (which is really cool).

Location location location.... It's all about location

First thing first, when I started to look for what kinda game I should have done for my 3rd year the first thing I looked into where the mechanics. Once I got those, I start to search for a plausible place where all those fight could actually happen. First I tough to use a school as environment, which would have been really cool for different reason, but there was a major problem. the problem was the fact that people, leave the school at one point of the day, and this would have meant that I should have modeled an outside world, an just for few scene, it wasn't worth it. Then, a massive epiphany occur to me. Jail. A really cool environment, which would actually explain why so much violence was going on. I started so to research into the subject, and I discovered there are 3 different generation of prisons.

1st generation its basically hell on hearth, it's the oldest kind of prison, I would never recommend it to no-one (I would not recommend jail time at all to be honest).

2nd generation are the ones we are use to see in movies, the one where there is the massive room with different cell for generally 2 people or more. This is the kinda prison I m gonna use.

There is finally the 3rd generation, which is basically a huge dorm room, which I m not interested in. Even if apparently it actually help the prisoners a lot more than the others 2 generations. I have few sketch and ideas, but I don't have a scanner, so nothing for the moment.

Speed is nothing without control

In order to make my game playable in the way I want, I ll be needing to use an Xbox360 controller. I need that in order to achieve the fast response from the player to what actually happen in the game world.
I was already able to connect to the xbox controller a "sprint" button, unfortunately I had to delete that particular script because the sprint function I had created didn't work with the new stamina system I had made. I also already mapped the command (I based it on a configuration available on fight night), in such a way to make it really fast during the combats.

Normal Status
A	Jump
B	Crouch
RS	Run
LT	Lock-on
X	Action
Fight Mode
X	Jab
Y	Straight
B	Right Hook
A	Left Hook
RT	Guard
LB	Grab
RB	Spit\Distraction
X+A	Left Uppercut
Y+B	Left Uppercut
LT	Modifier
A	Dodge
B	Right Kick
X	Left Kick
Y	Headbutt

This is just a work in progress, once the script will work I ll try and see if any of the command need a change.


 

Examples of what I'm actually trying to do

This is an example of what I'm trying to achieve, but, at the end of the day, what I'm trying to do is to unify the strong point of both of these gameplays, creating a fast combat with a particular lock on system, that would actually represent (thats the main idea) how it looks during a real fight.

In this first video, there is the first person fighting system, which was available only on the PS3 version of Fight Night Round 3. What I would like to achieve is the particular lock on of this system and I would also want to achieve the speed of this game, which would keep the player constantly "on his feet". 

The second video its a fist-fight from Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Even tought, this game does not have the particular "lock on system", it actually has a really good fighting system, slower than the one I'm thinking on creating. 

Another of my main goals, is to create an invisible HUD. What I mean by this is, the way the player see, will change basing on how much life, stamina, the player has. This is achieavable thanks to script and post processes.

First of a loooooong series.....of posts

This is the blog dedicated to my final year project. For this project my intent is to create a first person fighting game, based on a stamina system, the main character will be able to level up and increase stamina, health, defense and strength. It will also give ability point to let the player learn new techniques (or at least this is my intent). During the summer I increased my knowledge on script, and even is not my strong point yet, I have improved lots. On the graphic department, I want the game to be rapresentative of the reality, but not realistic. During the summer I was also able to create a shader (post-process effect) to create black outline around the edges of the objects. My objective was at first, to achieve a "Graphic Novel" style, but I realize that it wouldn't fell right. I decided so to keep the black outline, but to reduce it's effect to the minimum. In order to justify the fights (and their brawler style) I had to think to a particular location that could actually sound legit. My second objective was to create an environment easy to control, not an open space, which could result really hard to create and to control, also really time consuming. At the end then, I opted to go on the dark side of the humanity, so I decided to go for a prison as environment. Easy to control, close ambient, where actually the continuos fighting would make sense. It would also be possible to create a series of mission, in order to avoid to be repetitive in the game play. This decision, it actually open an entire world of different possibilities when it comes to story, game play, and sick graphics!  So here start my journey to get my degree trough my last year of uni. Hopefully it wont sucks big time!

Clarification needed to be done

Almost all the scripts I'm gonna use are just a modified version of tutorial, or other scripts I ve found on the internet, they generally are the development of different bunch of script found on the internet, putted together for my purpose, and modified in order to achieve my mechanics!