391 replies to this topic

[bombshell]

@bombshell: I think I will add this option, as I am doing this already (top-down). It will also create an alpha mask, and possibly even support antialiasing.

Anti - Aliasing? WOO!
\..\ >.< /../
but it won't show when people put them in their games I don't think,
unless you sav that in tthe gml / gmmod file aswell,
theres a way of 'simulating' anti-aliasing by drawing alpha'd pixels around the object,
its quite clever as it takes up not much if that none performance.

also alpha mask? is that a second object used as an alpha?
and that would be great if you add the fix camera thing,
I was thinking of making tanks (my rpg engine still early wip)
using this, and now I can ^.^
I bet they will look better using this anyway.

keep up the good work I'm supporting you all the way,
also you sould put a donation thing on your site if you have not already done so,
when my paypal comes through, I'll give you £10. (I'm not the biggest money earner just yet lol

Edited by bombshell, 23 February 2009 - 06:22 AM.

[Maarten Baert]

@bombshell:
Lol, no, I mean anti-aliasing and alpha mask for the rendered sprites. Not for the 3D models, this is impossible in Game Maker.

@magicaltrevor50:
Hmm, I will try to fix that now.

[bombshell]

@bombshell:
Lol, no, I mean anti-aliasing and alpha mask for the rendered sprites. Not for the 3D models, this is impossible in Game Maker.

@magicaltrevor50:
Hmm, I will try to fix that now.

AA can be simulatec in GM,
by drawing a thin alpha'd line around the objects,
like when people draw a thjick black line around the models from the view but on a much smaller scale,
check what I mean by clicking the link in my sig,
it goes to a stickman 3D game where the characters have thick black outlines,
drawing a thin outline with an alpha effect using that same system can simulate AA,
its very useful as it not only simulates Anti - aliasing but it also takes up near enough no performance

EDIT:nvm

Edited by bombshell, 24 February 2009 - 05:44 PM.

[Mad_Scientist]

Hi. Is there a way to lock the camera perspective to Isometric 45/60/custom degree view - so we can create and render out isometric "sprites" using this program?

That way this will be so much more beneficial to the entire community if we can create our custom sprites this way via 3d modelling them and then rendering them on plain bg which we can transparent out.

An example would be:
Reiners Tilesets

Many thanks.

Not a good suggestion? It'll be helpful for everyone - specially if we can rotate it for 8x or 16x or 32x locked angles so we can get a 360 degree animation sprite format as well. Also, will you be adding keyframe animation as well? So we can animate those swords and axes etc?

Thanks.

[Maarten Baert]

I don't think I will ever add animation. Almost nobody would use it, because GM doesn't support animated models (saving every frame seperately uses way too much HD/RAM).

About the renderer, I am trying to make something like this. The Game Maker 3D functions aren't precise enough to create sprites, so I am trying to create some simple raytracing renderer. GML is not fast enough to do this, so I am writing a DLL to do this. The renderer will use a parallel projection, as this is used in almost all sprites. It will support vertex coloring, alpha (without depth ordering issues!), textures, lighting with highlights (only directional, it would make no sense to use point lights in sprites) and ambient light. It will also support antialiasing and alpha masks.

Edited by matrebatre, 26 February 2009 - 01:17 PM.

[bombshell]

Nvm I get you now

Edited by bombshell, 28 February 2009 - 08:10 PM.

[bombshell]

I'm making the tanks for the sprites now and so far I have a basic body,
and the tracks (2 different models)
the tank head is in progress ^.^
this is my first time making objects using the triangle tools (besides convert to triangles)
Also whens the next update coming out and what are the planned fetures

EDIT:
here it is the finnished project ^.^

this proves teh awsomes of this program !!

Edited by bombshell, 28 February 2009 - 09:03 PM.

[Mad_Scientist]

I don't think I will ever add animation. Almost nobody would use it, because GM doesn't support animated models (saving every frame seperately uses way too much HD/RAM).

About the renderer, I am trying to make something like this. The Game Maker 3D functions aren't precise enough to create sprites, so I am trying to create some simple raytracing renderer. GML is not fast enough to do this, so I am writing a DLL to do this. The renderer will use a parallel projection, as this is used in almost all sprites. It will support vertex coloring, alpha (without depth ordering issues!), textures, lighting with highlights (only directional, it would make no sense to use point lights in sprites) and ambient light. It will also support antialiasing and alpha masks.

As bombshell picture shows, we could have (360 degree isometric rotation) 4x 8x 16x 32x "preset" locked camera perspectives with definable elevation (in degrees - eg. 45, 60) + definable camera distances - to custom create all our sprite needs! This program has more functionality now - as it will be needed for BOTH 2D game makers AND 3D game makers!

As for animations - not REAL animations - but something like POSER - where we can manually move the AXE + HAND to upper, middle, lower positions and then SNAPSHOT the 32x (fully rotated) camera "preset" pictures and generate sprites from it later.

Basically, we create a model, define elevation degree (eg 45), define number of frames (eg 32x), define distance (any suitable for our game scale), and press GENERATE: And viola! Model Creator spits out 32x frames/gif/etc file(s)!!

This will be heaven for sprite making! We can not only have 32x perspectives and custom sprites - but also have them posed and create proper POSER-type action animations for 2D game making!

Please add these features!

Edited by Mad_Scientist, 01 March 2009 - 01:17 AM.

[bombshell]

I don't think I will ever add animation. Almost nobody would use it, because GM doesn't support animated models (saving every frame seperately uses way too much HD/RAM).

About the renderer, I am trying to make something like this. The Game Maker 3D functions aren't precise enough to create sprites, so I am trying to create some simple raytracing renderer. GML is not fast enough to do this, so I am writing a DLL to do this. The renderer will use a parallel projection, as this is used in almost all sprites. It will support vertex coloring, alpha (without depth ordering issues!), textures, lighting with highlights (only directional, it would make no sense to use point lights in sprites) and ambient light. It will also support antialiasing and alpha masks.

As bombshell picture shows, we could have (360 degree isometric rotation) 4x 8x 16x 32x "preset" locked camera perspectives with definable elevation (in degrees - eg. 45, 60) + definable camera distances - to custom create all our sprite needs! This program has more functionality now - as it will be needed for BOTH 2D game makers AND 3D game makers!

As for animations - not REAL animations - but something like POSER - where we can manually move the AXE + HAND to upper, middle, lower positions and then SNAPSHOT the 32x (fully rotated) camera "preset" pictures and generate sprites from it later.

Basically, we create a model, define elevation degree (eg 45), define number of frames (eg 32x), define distance (any suitable for our game scale), and press GENERATE: And viola! Model Creator spits out 32x frames/gif/etc file(s)!!

This will be heaven for sprite making! We can not only have 32x perspectives and custom sprites - but also have them posed and create proper POSER-type action animations for 2D game making!

Please add these features!

what your talking about is a skelenton right?
I agree it would be amazing but as I think of the stuff like this I reliase what is involved,
a feture like skelentons would be immensly difficult (I think)
and will take a while if anything it should be in a seperate app,
or quite a later version of this app,
its speed of progress at the moment is amazing and it is worth any wait for the next tools.
so matrebatre could keep the mini updates continuously or take a leap of faith and go for big ideas like this,
I'd expect that sklentons take loads of variables,
and code,
possition + angle location creation,
point of origin linking to the joint,
marking the skelenton,
motion restriction.
everything is difficult for my little brain.
so it would be a long update

EDIT: THIS IS THE DESTROYER \..\ >.< /../

Edited by bombshell, 01 March 2009 - 01:52 AM.

[Bouncy Ball]

I realize this is a big thing, but could you make it so that you could move the view so it doesn't just orbit around the origin?

[Maarten Baert]

The renderer is almost finished. Unfortunately another bug has appeared, I will have to solve that first.

Here is a strip generated by the renderer (supports alpha):

[bombshell]

cool so this 2D render makes sprites from our objects?
does it take camera co-ordinates?
or does it just take pictures of several angles?
also could you add an option to change the lighting angle,
I want to test the models a bit without importing to a game

[Maarten Baert]

Indeed, the renderer generates sprites using your models and textures. The renderer supports any camera/light angle you want. It also generates an alpha mask for the sprites. The renderers doesn't use the graphics card to do the rendering, therefore it is a bit slow. It took 5 seconds to render that image.

I will try to add an option to change the lighting.

[bombshell]

Indeed, the renderer generates sprites using your models and textures. The renderer supports any camera/light angle you want. It also generates an alpha mask for the sprites. The renderers doesn't use the graphics card to do the rendering, therefore it is a bit slow. It took 5 seconds to render that image.

I will try to add an option to change the lighting.

cool can't wait ^.^
and do you know anyone whos good at texturing?
I find it very tasking.
I'm trying to texture my tanks.
but I only have the tracks done,
and they aren't how I was expecting either.

the texture tut in the first post doesn't teach but shows,
and I can't follow tuts without an audio or text telling you what to do!
please help if you know anyone or if your good at texturing yourself?

[Maarten Baert]

Okay, I think I managed to fix the bug now. I will upload a new version in five minutes.

Here is another render, to show that it is possible to change the camera angle:

Of course this strip is useless .

EDIT: Here's another one, using isometric camera angle: 45 degrees longitude, 30 degrees latitude (sin(30) = 0.5 so this should give a 1/2 y/x-ratio)

This one consists of three models (roof, walls, floors) each with a different texture.

By the way, I have uploaded the new version now.

Edited by matrebatre, 01 March 2009 - 03:09 PM.

[bombshell]

huray!!

EDIT:
OMG this is a million times better than I ever imagined it,
when I turned on the program to make this alot more amazing my favourite song came on (I'm listening to Bullet for my Valentine on WMP \..\>.</../)
This is simply to put it amazing!

EDIT 2:
to test it I have given it a hefty task,
make a strip with 360 images and 36 rows
64 x 64 double sized the model,
is like wow!
and still rendering XD

Edited by bombshell, 01 March 2009 - 03:30 PM.

[Maarten Baert]

Lol, I guess that will take quite long . As long as you have enough RAM, this should work. You will need at least 10MB RAM just to store the result . How many triangles did the model you used have?

EDIT: I think it will take about 5-10 minutes, depending on how detailed the model is.

Edited by matrebatre, 01 March 2009 - 03:39 PM.

[bombshell]

Lol, I guess that will take quite long . As long as you have enough RAM, this should work. You will need at least 10MB RAM just to store the result . How many triangles did the model you used have?

a few I uess,
but I'm being smarter and having 36 frames now instead,
isometric tanks game here I come,
I thoughtI could have
image_index = direction / 10
but would I have decimal troubles.

wow the finnished project looks amazing,
and I havn't even done used the alphas yet

this is my new sprite resource

Edited by bombshell, 01 March 2009 - 03:43 PM.

[Stickdude]

That looks great! Does it support GM7?

(Sorry if that's obvious)

[bombshell]

That looks great! Does it support GM7?

(Sorry if that's obvious)

yeh its made for GM and I use GM7 so \..\ >.< /../