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Author Topic: UQM Recreation  (Read 86588 times)
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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #240 on: February 19, 2006, 11:21:45 pm »

I find in amusing, perhaps telling of you as a person, that the ships that were major concerns were the first ones you attacked and got out of the way. Way to go.
It really just a smart way to program. If I did the easy ones first then went to the harder ones and they require sweeping changes I would have to make sure the changes have no adverse effect on the other ships. The fewer amount of ships to retest or recoded the better.

I've got a friend who seems quite enthusiastic over the Xbox live indie game thing (with that geometry wars game doing good).
Could you post a link explaining this thing?

I'm still curious about the ZFP stinger, are you gonna have a little telescopic ram come out and do... collision stuff?
I was thinking about representing it with rays, but in such a way that it looks about the same. Since it has such a short lifespan.

...and I do realize that the graphics aren't important at this stage, I was just curious what you had in mind there.
I was thinking of taking the current communication images and making them 32 bit color and a higher resolution. And make it so the image looks better (less pixilated and higher detail) not just blown up. How much effort would this take?

I can imagine the Utwig having a couple of sad and ultra sad images, then a super happy delirious joyous pink flowersprinkling ultra kawaii image that comes just out of the blue when you finish the ultron thing.
I like the idea but how much effort on your part would this take?
« Last Edit: February 19, 2006, 11:27:13 pm by BioSlayer » Logged

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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #241 on: February 20, 2006, 12:11:31 am »

Have you played rival schools? Maybe I have mentioned this (I always bring up Rival Schools in this context), but RS has this neat system with character that comes sliding in against a background. They're sort of like pinups (knees and up), and there's a couple for every basic mood (angry, happy, neutral, crying, etc). This makes the characters feel quite alive, despite being still images. Many other Japanese RPG's uses this system. It helps to create a wider range of emotions than what SC is doing now with some 'jittering' images.

RS is not the first, or last, game to do this sort of thing. It's very popular in Japanese games. Let's see if I can name a few... Final Fantisy Tactics Advanced, Fire Emblem (GBA), Advance Wars... hmm, a couple of GBAs is all I can think about, but I've seen it before.

It's a good effect, but I'm not sure it's StarControl-ish enough. Again, this supports the idea of ...
Quote
...change the designs and just makes it an SC-ish game :/

Plus side, original games allow wider release.

Minus side, creativity is difficult, time consuming, and runs the risk of sucking.
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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #242 on: February 20, 2006, 01:01:50 am »

Made another release with all the recent changes. Binary Only.
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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #243 on: February 21, 2006, 12:32:53 am »

RS is not the first, or last, game to do this sort of thing.

I know, If you read my post you will see that I mentioned other japanese games having it. I mentioned RS cuz it made quite an impression on me. It was many years since I played it though, so maybe things have evolved a bit.


It's a good effect, but I'm not sure it's StarControl-ish enough.

Maybe not, but I don't think it's a huge step away from the "SC-feeling".  Sort of depends how well it's styled into the SC look. I do feel the current animated stills doesn't give enough range of emotion. The Utwig is a good example of this, but most species seem to have different emotional states.


Quote from: BioSlayer
I was thinking of taking the current communication images and making them 32 bit color and a higher resolution. And make it so the image looks better (less pixilated and higher detail) not just blown up. How much effort would this take?
---
I like the idea but how much effort on your part would this take?

Well, I don't know which would take longer. Enlarging and cleaning up someone elses work is not that fun anyways. I think though... that the original artist dude has some of the pics up on the net. I recall seeing a chmrr pic and a Talana in hospital pic.

Here's a rough. Of course now he's posing silly, I suppose stuff has to be posed so it fits the character in question, SC is not a beat-ém-up game of course. Some characters might be tricky to pose, like Spathi or ZFP, cuz I wouldn't know where to crop them (upper legs). Some character might be sitting very obscured, it would be strange if they got up and posed in front of the viewscreen... although StarTrek captains tend to do that I think.
The backgrounds could be made to fit the different settings (homeworld, ship, spathi moon, whatever).



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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #244 on: February 21, 2006, 01:34:25 am »

I like it!

The only thing I would change would be to give him pants!

And where is his cigar?


So are you thinking about doing multiple images for facial expressions?

I’m now thinking on how I will redesign the communications part of the game in order to be dynamic enough to handle both the original images and whatever you produce.
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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #245 on: February 21, 2006, 12:00:00 pm »

Your wiki is ready. I finally managed to get it working with some hacked up sql commands to generate all the neccessary tables.

I can't guarantee that it will hold together since there were no fancy integrity checks (nor any other auto-config niceties) but so far it's working fine. Also, potential sluggishness is not my fault, blame the shared database server.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2006, 12:24:38 pm by Halleck » Logged


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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #246 on: February 21, 2006, 02:29:50 pm »

haha yeah I drew the cigar on a pose doodle that failed then I forgot it when I redrew it. I didn't have patience to come up with clothing so I gave him speedos cuz I was tired and in a silly mood.

It wouldn't just be faces, but shots of the upper body. I suppose each species have a few different emotions, and not always the same ones. example image. Possibly the backgrounds could be a bit detached from the character, mostly serving and a suitable atmospheric backdrop.

I'm not sure how they would 'wipe' when the emotions changed during the conversation. I haven't played RS or a japanese RPG in quite a while, so I'm not quite sure how it works. Maybe I should take the Playstation out of my closet and see... I think in RS there were several characters interacting against the same background and that might not work here.

Edit: Just played some RS. The technique used for transition between the different emotion pics depends on all character being against the same background and stuff. Since SC conversations concentrates on the enemy viewscreen and Zelnick/Captain is never showed, the transitions between any emotion pics will be more difficult to pull off. Sliding it in and out of the picture might look akward, and fading/wiping might too.
It could of course be possible to flip back and forth between the Captain + vindy BG and the Alien + its BG, and give the captain enough emotion pics to link to the conversation options so it doesn't get boring... but it might get redundant with the player picking the conversation option and the captain saying it, unless the conversation option is an abstract of what the captain will really say, which comes as an exciting surprise as the captain tend to be rather witty.


Maybe each some backgrounds could have monitors visible, and various images can be textured/morphed onto those surfaces, like Zelnik making a threatening pose if he say something mean, or the vindy with data.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2006, 03:42:25 pm by Arne » Logged
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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #247 on: February 21, 2006, 04:50:43 pm »

You could have some static in the communication (at all times), and make sure there's some static when you switch the image.
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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #248 on: February 21, 2006, 06:23:05 pm »

Dude, the dummied up screen totally rocks! Speedos and all.

Edit: Just played some RS. The technique used for transition between the different emotion pics depends on all character being against the same background and stuff. Since SC conversations concentrates on the enemy viewscreen and Zelnick/Captain is never showed, the transitions between any emotion pics will be more difficult to pull off. Sliding it in and out of the picture might look akward, and fading/wiping might too.

Which is exactly what I meant when I said that the look wasn't StarControlly enough. That sort of pan off/pan on when the emotions change is distracting.

Try just switching it. No pan/wipe. When the emotion changes, the picture just *blip* changes. I don't think that'd be too bad, thinking about it.
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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #249 on: February 21, 2006, 08:08:06 pm »

Try just switching it. No pan/wipe. When the emotion changes, the picture just *blip* changes. I don't think that'd be too bad, thinking about it.

I was going to suggest the same thing. A lot of RPGs do this with a "face box" that corresponds to a particular character speaking, and they simply "blip" to a different expression as the mood dictates. While this might be a bit tougher to do with more of a character's body showing, it probbly shouldn't be too bad unless their pose changes drastically during transitions.

The question of where to crop pictures is a good one; I know I basically think of Spathi as little more than disembodied eyestalks. Wink Also, showing a range of emotions on certain aliens may be problematic. Would an Ur Quan look any different when angry, really angry, afraid, or speaking of the Words? How about the Chmmr or Mycon, who don't even have recognizable faces at all?
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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #250 on: February 21, 2006, 08:54:08 pm »

Try just switching it. No pan/wipe. When the emotion changes, the picture just *blip* changes. I don't think that'd be too bad, thinking about it.

I was going to suggest the same thing. A lot of RPGs do this with a "face box" that corresponds to a particular character speaking, and they simply "blip" to a different expression as the mood dictates. While this might be a bit tougher to do with more of a character's body showing, it probbly shouldn't be too bad unless their pose changes drastically during transitions.

Even dramatic changes shouldn't be too bad IMHO.

Quote
The question of where to crop pictures is a good one; I know I basically think of Spathi as little more than disembodied eyestalks. Wink Also, showing a range of emotions on certain aliens may be problematic. Would an Ur Quan look any different when angry, really angry, afraid, or speaking of the Words? How about the Chmmr or Mycon, who don't even have recognizable faces at all?

Leave that to the artist who does the rendering.
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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #251 on: February 22, 2006, 01:31:53 am »

I've added a forum with guest posting enabled as per request. Drop me a line once you make forum and wiki accounts so I can upgrade them to admin status.

Also, what license do you want to use for the wiki? GFDL or a creative commons license?
« Last Edit: February 22, 2006, 01:45:11 am by Halleck » Logged


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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #252 on: February 22, 2006, 04:50:54 am »

Arne I have a question. Are you willing to do all of the communications? I think there are like 26 of them. Also do you want me to list you as a developer for the project?

helleck has done a good job with the web site you should check it out.
« Last Edit: February 22, 2006, 05:39:47 am by BioSlayer » Logged

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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #253 on: February 22, 2006, 12:13:44 pm »

helleck has done a good job with the web site you should check it out.
I sort of skirted my duties as a web designer... but we've got a place for content now and that's what matters.  Smiley
Glad I could finally be of assistance.
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Re: UQM Recreation
« Reply #254 on: February 22, 2006, 01:04:28 pm »

Arne I have a question. Are you willing to do all of the communications? I think there are like 26 of them. Also do you want me to list you as a developer for the project?

Well, I have to warn you, I have... focus problems. I tend to abandon and resume a lot. I'm very laggy and unreliable. I need to make an assessment of how much work I'd need to do.

Very aproximated:
The number of background images is number_of_homeworlds + number_of_ships = 45ish?
The number of character images is ((number_of_homeworlds + number_of_ships)*0.66) * number_of_emotions_average = 150ish?
So it's maybe some 200 images.

Some homeworlds could have special characters (like the safe ones), whilst other have a generic character for both the ship and homeworld. Wormies probably only hav one emotion pic, and I can imagine Melnorme keeping a pokerface too. I'll try to figure out more accurately what images are needed and then post something in your forum.

Edit: Added something on the Wiki : talk page. Feel free to move to where it belongs. I used the wiki cuz maybe some other person could finish what I started and add their expertice.

Edit again: I don't know how realistic 200 images is, some are very easy, like the Melnorme, Slylandro, UrQ backgrounds, and others are more complicated, like the ones with lots of perspective. The characters vary in difficulty too. It would take me 3 months to do all images if working fulltime, and more realistically 2 years if just noodling with it every now and then.
Maybe the lander crew could use some backgrounds and characters? It would be cool to see how it looks where they are.


Edit: I like Meep's idea with static.
« Last Edit: February 22, 2006, 02:39:37 pm by Arne » Logged
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