It's Quiet Around Here..

It's been a while since I last posted, I've been neck deep in uni and other work.
However, I've started a development blog for a current uni project:

While writing and formatting that I learnt a lot about how to make a blog look pretty and wider.

I'll make pretty later.  For now wider.

So by now I've all but given up on my artpass contest entry.
"But why?!" I hear nobody shout.
Why indeed.  Well I never entered intending to win (Hey!  It's not all about the winning!), it was more of an excuse to have a level design project to work on, and more specifically something to structure modelling around.


Since then a far better opportunity has come around, but unfortunately it's super-secret so nobody but a select few individuals have any knowledge of the sheer scale of awesomeness approaching.
Well, there was that forum post that most certainly didn't announce any form of project not being worked on and exactly what you should in no way ever expect to see any time in the near future.
That post didn't happen.  Why would we announce a super-secret project.


In fact, there is no project.  So stop asking about it.


What it most certainly isn't is Team Fortress 2 related.  It definately doesn't involve collaborative work from a bunch of modellers and texture artists who are in no way whatsoever talented.  Nor does it contain anything featured in this image:

Given that there's nothing whatsoever there, you most certainly shouldn't follow the advice not given right there.


I deny any involvement in anything, including the writing of this blog post.

Recapulation

Alright, it's been a while...

For the majority of the time over the last couple of months I've been attempting to learn C#, which has admittedly not gone too badly.
The astoundingly mediocre coding skills learnt by myself allowed me to survive the Brains Eden 24 Jam and come out the other end with....  This:
Cheese Chase
I would embed the player, but this blog refuses to tell me how to make it wider.  Stupid blog.

For the week or so after the Eden Jam I continued to work on Cheese Chase...  It now has a (slightly) better ending, greatly improved jumping, ragdolls and... Wait for it...  Minor Graphical Glitches Fixed!!!
...and possibly a few other things.  Probably should have written them down somewhere.
Anyway... Here it is:

Updated Cheese Chase

Pro Tip: (hahahaa!  I'm not pro!  I'm full of jest)
Do not ask your colleagues what they would like to see in a game based on their place of work, then proceed to make it.  Or this happens:

Untitled Restaurant Game
Wish I'd have documented the production of this one, it's been a lot of fun to work on and I've learnt a great deal.  And solved a lot of problems.  A Lot.
Still, it's not finished so any further progress I'll write up.  If only for my own benefit later on down the line.

Lastly (minus a bit of modelling here... a bit of sleeping there) there's this:

TF2 Contest Entry
Officially affiliated with TF2 and whatnot, I thought I would enter this contest and showcase my mad art skills.
There are a lot of people better at mapping than me, but that's not going to stop me having fun.

So, until next time...

Bye.
G

Collisioned.

Here's the truck and collision mesh in action.  I hate the width restrictions on this blog.

Truckin' Away

From TF2 Modding

So far, so not-looking-too-bad.  All she really needs now is a bit more texture detailing and dirtying up.  More to the point it works in game.  Wasted two hours this morning trying to import the truck, StudioMDL kept throwing out dynamic linking errors without any decent feedback telling me exactly what was wrong.  So after trawling Google results to find out what was going wrong and if it was either my fault or some kind of compatibility error, turns out that sometimes you need the Source SDK model viewer open for the StudioMDL to compile it.  Great.  Why can't this be as fluid as working with Unity or the UDK?  Make better tools dammit, Valve!

Anyway, it's there and it works.  The collision mesh needs a bit of fine tuning, there are a couple of areas blocked off that you would expect to be able to shoot through, and others where it doesn't follow the mesh closely enough.  Not much of a problem, but any objects attaching to or resting on those areas make the collider obvious.

Aside from that, the granite texture is finish, two versions exists, one with a coarse normal map that doesn't sit well with the TF2 visual style.  The other one with a smoother version that works quite nicely.

From TF2 Modding

Under Construction

So, I've started part of my grand plan and begun hanging around the request forums of TF2Maps. 

I picked up on a request for construction vehicles, and began to make this logging truck, with the intention of it fitting in with TF2's alpine theme.

Vaguely interesting fact No.1:  The truck is based on the International Harvester "L" and "R" Series.  I won't pretend to know anything about trucks.

This has been an interesting practice in mechanical modelling, so far I've only really tackled buildings and (mostly) organic models.  

It's been quite a smooth and quick process and I've learnt a few new techniques along the way.  The model's almost finished now, it perhaps needs a couple more details on the underside and a seat on the crane (not to mention the requested banjo) and around 1000 polys shaved off, then the models done.

After that I can get down to texturing, as well as creating the collision mesh and LOD models.  I'll probably only make one LOD model, basing this choice over Valve's example of only including one for similar models.

Then comes the joy of Mod Tooling it into Source.  Can't wait.

Another thing I've been working on is a request for a granite texture to be used in a quarry.  It's not coming along too badly, however I keep running into issues with Source being fussy about the specular mask.  I want to make this glitter, dammit!

It's Been How Long?

Seriously.. It's been months, and I don't think I can get away with another "Why Do I Even Bother With A Blog" post...

So I'll just start from here.

Year one is out of the way and I've been set loose into the world with a whole new set of skills and nothing immediate to apply them to. Hence an outlining of projects in my Personal Development Plan, which I won't bore you with, but the general gist is I plan on learning a few basic coding and scripting skills, if that happens to an adequate level create something simple and playable (but awesome looking) using Unity.

Then I plan on working on a full mapping project, either in Team Fortress 2 or an entire Left 4 Dead campaign. As yet undecided, it really depends on if anyone else is interested.

Another mapping project I would like to tackle would either be a fully scripted but short (probably 2-3 map long) campaign using either Source or the UDK. UDK is starting to feel like a more viable option, it's just so much easier to work with.

For major projects to tackle over the summer, those are pretty much it and I'll post up an update within the next week or so about which and when I plan on starting them

Besides those, I'll slowly build a website, something that's been in the works for years now, but have either lacked the technical know-how or been able to decide on the content. Now, however I have a focus and will have something up and running at some point in the next couple months.

In the meantime, while I gather my thoughts on those projects I'll be hanging around mod and mapping forums looking for odd jobs to keep me busy.

In my defence, this wasn't proofread.