Bump Map & Beast Solution

I don't know if it's a correct solution but it's a solution that works. My problem was this; every time I ran the Beast Light Mapper I would loose my bump map or "Normal Maps" as Unity calls them. Now you can just imagine how very annoying that can be as bump maps I feel are crucial for giving a game a nice look of realism. I searched for hours, days for a solution to this issue figuring I can't be the only one who is having the same issue. Well this person suggested that and this other person said try this as it had worked for them and so on and so and so on, and either they were not explaining entirely well what exactly it was that they were doing or I was just missing something?? In any event nothing no one said was working for me. So today I thought;

"OK, what if after I run Beast I make a new Directional Light and set it at the same position and rotation in the sky and just tell it to be a real time light?"

Well Frack Me Freddy that worked!! As I say I don't know if it's the correct way but it seems to be a way that at least is simple and freaking works!! I had to adjust it's intensity a little but at least I have my specular materials & normal map effects back along with the beast light mapped shadows. HooAh! Now that's what I call a real KISS operation lol

Toy Wooden Blocks Added



I added some toy wooden blocks to the Tree House for bud to use to help avoid the toy wind up robot in the main part of the Tree House. They are more for scenic detail than actual use although I think if I was to make it so the toy robot just patrolled back and forth along this one side of the Tree House then they would serve more of a purpose in helping Bud avoid the robot, maybe I might experiment a bit with that just to make another challenge to overcome in the Tree House. But they turned out very nice and I'm sure I will no doubt find more practical uses for them later on down the road as the game develops.

Level 03 Developments

I've had some good stuff happen today and I've had a lot of frustrations as well. First off I spent a good deal of the day today trying to figure out why every time I baked my light maps using the Beast light mapper in Unity 3D that all of my materials that are being effected by the light maps seem to loose not only their specular properties but also the Bump mapping or "Normal Maps" as Unity calls them get lost, deactivated or no longer seem to have the desired effect?? I spent a lot of time searching for an answer to that problem and I think it's just another one of those if you want light maps and bump maps it's a Pro Only feature... another way to stick it to us struggling artist who are desperately trying to accomplish something half descent on a next to nothing budget Grrrrr. Maybe I'm wrong but none of the answers I managed to find so fare point otherwise :(

I did however FINALLY manage to figure out how to get that blasted lens flare effect for the sun. That was another thing I thought certain was a pro only feature. So I'm somewhat happy that I can do that cool effect at least.

I did a lot of playing around with lighting today using Beast, adjusting my directional light and playing around with my setting trying to see if I can get my level lighted nice before I go too nuts adding all the other stuff into the level. Here you can see "Bud the Spud" standing on the top lookout of the Tree House with that nice sunlight lens flare behind him. I added some more trees, rocks and some bushes to the terrain and placed in an extra health pickup just to work out his jumps across the rocks to get it and get that part working right. I'm still trying to figure out how to get him to make a tighter turn around for when he is standing on small rocks or branches as this would greatly improve his being able to climb up the ladder boards of the Tree House.

Tomorrow I'll see about getting the "Wind up Toy Robot" happening.

Level 03 Tree House WIP Continued

In continuing with yesterdays post I thought I would keep you up to date on how the Tree House is coming along. I've been busy all day mostly just adding the foliage to the tree. Because it's going into Unity 3D in my game environment I figure I might as well use the "Big Tree Leaves & branches" from the standard terrain assets pack. Because Max does the transparencies a little differently than in Unity I had to make a new reversed transparency map from the alpha channel in the unity "Big Tree Leaves & Branches" PSD files and use that in order the get the same effect you see here in my Max render using "Mental Ray." As you can see I've added some more branches to the tree and started to texture a few of the simple things like the tin roof that only needed a simple box texture mapping. I'll see if I have time to do the UVW texture mapping for things like the tree house parts and the tree trunk but that will depend on how much longer it will take me to add some more foliage to the tree, I still want to fill it out a little more in a few areas, but overall it's coming along nicely I think.

I was trying to think of things one might see in a tree house although I could not think of much outside of a few things like wooden boxes to sit on, an old cable cart for a table, a crude wooden bench, and maybe some comic books. Maybe some toy blocks on the floor and the occasional cola can. I'll have to see if I can search the Internet and see if I get some ideas from there.

Level 02 Completed!!

Level 02 is basically done, I was hoping over the weekend to have it uploaded to the game test site but I was having some issues with it every time I tried to export the game to a web player. I just don't get the problems, my game is only two levels in size!! What about when it starts getting to around 10 or 20 levels in size?? Are they trying to tell me that the "Indie version of Unity 3D" cannot handle a game bigger than 1 or two levels?!? I just can't see that being the case I think my problem is in the optimization area still, or perhaps in the way I have it set up to handle all of my games assets. Still so much to learn with this stuff.

• First I kept getting an "Out of Memory Unity Editor Host View On GUI ()" error every time I tried exporting my game to a web player.
• Every time I tried to add the mud bog haze particle effect to the mud bogs in level 02 they would act strangely, they kind of "Wink" on and off for lack of a better description. At first I thought it might only be in the editor so when I was finally able to get a web player version exported to test I noticed it still did this strange "Winking" in and out?? So I may have to just NOT use the haze in that level. :(
• When I was finally able to get a web player version exported my file size is now a whopping 60 MB in size!! How the hell is anybody ever supposed to play that on line?? I went through and optimized my textures to a low a resolution as I could before they start to look really crappy, I've nothing bigger that 1024 X 1024 and 512, 256 and smaller wherever I can get away with it. My music is all set to "Stream From Disk" except for my sound effects (I'm not sure what the recommended practice is for small sounds like that)

So those are my BIG GIANT ISSUES right now other wise you fine and somewhat patient folk would be having a good go at level 02 of my game by now :( I can attempt to upload the 60 MB file and see if that works but I just can't see that.

The other issue is that blasted "Load Bar" which I still can't seem to find any help on whether or not it's doing what it's supposed to which I don't think it is because it does not go all the way to the end, it just suddenly loads the game after only moving a little ways along?!? Should it not go all the way to the end at a certain speed to indicate how much of the game is remaining to be loaded?!? At least the freaking load bars I've seen perform that way!!

Sorry for the rant it's just so many things about these projects tend to REALLY piss me off and frustrate the living crap out of me.

Potato Beetle Damage

FINALLY!! Some headway today! With Chad Walker's help from "Walker Boys Studio" I was able to get my Potato Beetle characters to take two hits from bud before they are killed. The first hit makes them do a nice little gooey blood spurt and then they look damaged, the 2nd hit kills them with a bigger blood splash and they leave behind a nice gooey mess. I'm using a projector for that still as it makes the blood splat go over the bumpy terrain more effectively than the instantiated plane with a transparent texture map that I was using several weeks back on my enemy worms. So that little bit is done, took me all day to figure it out. Code stuff that an experienced coder would just buzz through in seconds takes me all day to figure out Grrrr...!! Oh well... we live and learn ;)

Final Mud Bog Areas in Level 02

I finally got the final two deadly mud bog areas worked out in level 02. Here we can see Bud the Spud standing on top of a tin foil wrapped potato baking on the Hibachi overlooking one of the final mud bogs. You can see the key sitting on the cinder block in the middle of the bog, you can also see an extra health potato leaf pick up item as well hovering in the air over another cinder block below. In the next image you can see it as well.

In this screen capture you can see Bud the Spud has made his way onto the cinder block in the middle of the deadly mud bog and is about to grab the final key. I made these jumps a lot simpler as I know retrieving the first key from the mud bog located across the paving stones is a much more difficult jump series, getting across the first few rocks is no problem but landing on that toadstool in the middle of the bog takes a bit of practice I found. So I figured I'd give my players a bit of a break with this 2nd key retrieval scenario. There is one more mud bog to cross on the way to the exit pipe which I've still yet to work out. I'm thinking maybe perhaps a grungy wooden board in front of the pipe like a crude wall with a small door located at the mouth of the pipe with crudely painted text that says "EXIT."

I've still yet to add some direction signs and maybe those helpful butterflies I was talking about in an earlier post. I might try and do those with a particle system that has animated particles just like the Fire flies in the Underground level. Perhaps I'll see if I can get to that tonight. Oh as you can see I did make that "Drainage Pipe" I was telling you about to help justify why the Bud cannot jump off other right side of the wall, I think it turned out very well and does the job pretty good ;)

Potato Beetles Added to Level 02

I've been working hard on getting the Potato Beetles into Level 02. Could not figure out how to get my characters to work with the Way Points. The Walker Boys Scripts are set up way different than how I'm used to with my "Alien Zombies" project which was based off of the first person shooter tutorial on Unity 3D's web site. So for now I'm just going to have to settle for them working the same way the worms do in level one, on the plus side though at least I can adjust character speed, damage and a whole bunch of other stuff to make them a bit more of a challenge.

I have them placed here and there on top of the brick topped wall in the yard. These guys dish out 35 damage to Bud the Spud and are a lot quicker than the Worms. I have a few in the grass along with a few Worms as well. I was trying to figure out also how to make it so Bud would have to jump on a Beetle twice in order to kill it but so far no luck on that, more script studying is definitely in order. I did give him a more juicier "Splat Death" for when Bud does jump on them, it's quite tasty looking as you can see below. You especially have to love it if you kill one right by the edge of the wall. Because I'm using a projector it looks like his blood splatted all over the edge of the wall and ran down the face of the wall to the ground below, very yummy looking if you ask me ;)

One more thing I want to try and do today before calling it a day is do a drainage pipe running along the top of that last third brick topped wall to justify the character not being able to jump off the right side of the wall back into the yard. If I can get that done before bed time I'll be a happy little maniac lol ;)

Potato Beetle Testing & Set Up

OK I've made my animation for the Potato Beetle, they are pretty simple nothing too complicated. I was checking out some insect footage on YouTube last night before I called it a day and hit the hay to check out a little about how beetles actually walk. I've got something pretty close I feel. I gave him his attack animations, idle state, die, target enemy, run, and walk. So that part is done. I've set up his character controller and added his foot effects for when he walking on various types of surfaces his feet will make sounds and kick up a little dust as he moves. I gave him his blob shadow projector and assigned his enemy controller script. I'm trying to figure out his Auto way points because ideally I would like this lil guy to wander back and forth between two point across the wall tops in level 02 and attack Bud when he gets near. Right now it seems like that if I assign the way points script he ignores his attack range and leaves bud alone except to run right over him like a run away truck! lol If I remove the way points script then he performs just as he is supposed to from an "idle state." Hmmmm I think I might have to take a look at how I did the AI in my "Alien Zombies" game which is on temporary hold right now until I can get some help with that project as it's super complicated compared to my "Bud the Spud" game.

But yeah, just gotta work out those little issues which I think are minor and I'm hoping to have this lil guy placed into Level 02 by the end of the day. I have to make a nice bug splat for him just like the worms but different, bigger and juicier if ya know what I mean ;)

Cartoon Potato Beetle

Just finished the texture mapping for the Cartoon Potato Beetle which is Bud's new enemy to deal with in level 02. Just like all of the other characters I've given him a decidedly hand painted texture map. I'm just now in the process of giving him Bones in Max 8 and rigging him for animation. I thought I could use a Biped, I was pretty sure there was a horse or dog biped option but buggered if I could find it, character rigging and animation is not really my strong spot. lol

I ended up just creating individual bones so I'm hoping that will work. Once I get him rigged I'm going to scope out YouTube for some insect footage and see if I can determine how six legged insects walk so I can better mimic his motion in Max 8. It does not have to be exact, in fact if he's a little more original and animated when I'm done that will be perfect as it will give him a more characteristic walk I figure.

Next will be his attack animations and killed animation which will no doubt precede the "Splat" when "Bud the Spud" jumps on him for a nice meaty "Squish!" Then will come the scripting in Unity 3D and character controller so he'll be able to perform his animations and interact with his environment.

Character BlockerWalls

I added some more eye candy to the scene in the form of these functional "Character Blocker Walls." I originally thought just having the bushes there was justification enough for why the character could not go over the other side of the wall but it just seemed kind of funny when I was testing out the game so I thought maybe I need some kind of fence or railing, or wood structure, maybe even more brick walling that is higher in the back, just something to really justify the characters restriction of movement within his 3D environment. So I came up with these boards of wood mounted to the back of the wall on long metal posts. I got the idea when I was out for my walk and looking at various fences in people's yards. I remembered seeing something like this last year when I was out on my bike doing some garage sale hunting last summer and thought; "Yeah... that's what I need here." It works very well for this portion of the wall but over on the 2nd Hibachi BB Q that Bud will have to cross on the 3rd wall I have it on one side but I need to come up with some way to justify restriction of not being able to go off the other side of the wall?? Maybe a drainage pipe or something?? Not yet sure on that.

I need to start making the "Potato Beetle" as they are introduced in this level as a new enemy for "Bud the Spud" to have to deal with. I also need to make a few bricks to use as character blockers in some areas as well like in behind the backs of the Hibachi BB Q's.

Level 02 Mud Bogs

I've added a couple of deadly mud bogs to level 02 and worked out the positioning and scenario for getting the first key, it's located on the big rock in the middle of the mud bog on the right. This is another tricky jump. The first three stones are pretty easy but getting onto the toadstool is a tricky jump. Once you have the key getting back is much easier, you just have to jump onto the toadstool and the stones just right and you are home free.

The other mud bog right now just serves the purpose of confining the player the the game environment, although I could place something in the middle of that bog too, maybe an Extra Life Heart perhaps?

I also worked out the scenario for using the Soccer ball to get onto the thirst brick topped wall. Bud will have to push the ball over to the wall and then jump onto the Soccer ball and leap onto the top of the wall. Pretty easy but it might take some players a little time to figure that out, which is a good thing ;)

In the underground level I was using the "Fire Flies" to give players clues as to where to go or hints that something interesting was close by, but above ground in the day light fire flies would be out of place, so I'm trying to thing of something similar, maybe butterflies perhaps??

Bud's House Model

Bud's House model renders

i've been busy all day rendering the interior of Bud's house to upload to Turbosquid. The renders took a long time in 3DS Max using Mental ray, one omni light for the candle beside his bed and settings for soft shadows. I'm very pleased with how the samples turned out but they sure took a while to render.

This morning in Unity 3D I was working on a particle effects for the little candle beside Bud's bed. Lots of tweaking and a while later I was starting to get something "Candle Flame like." I still want to tweak it a bit as I feel it could be better but I think it's getting there.

I feel the 000Webhost that I have my game currently on is not very reliable of friendly with Unity 3D's Web Player as I keep getting a "Bad File Length" error message. Seems sometimes I get it and sometimes I don't and I still can't tell if my load bar is quite behaving the way it should. It seems to move very slowly and then does not completely finish and then suddenly the game level loads which does not seem right to me, but unless I can find another more reliable web host I can't really tell what the problem is.

Load Bar Fixed

As near as I can tell the load bar seems to be working now. I made a few changes to the code. It does take a little while for level one to load so I still think I'll need to make a small inside of Bud's house kinda into level and see how that works. I'll see how far I get with that over the weekend. In the meantime it works and you can play it if you have a little patience.

Load Bar Issues

I've been busting a nut all evening to work out a load bar just so you won't think my game is busted while waiting for it to load up. And with a little help from Unity Answers I did manage to get one to kinda sort ify not so goodie kinda work... But it does do something but it seems that even after the load bar has finished there is a little bit of a wait before the game loads. I think what I need to do is make a very small level to load first so I guess this weekend I'll make a simple inside of Bud's house kind of level where you can kind of kill a little time exploring while level one loads up. That's OK though because I can put a "Potato News" on his kitchen table that talks about "Rotten potato's" dastardly deeds against the Potato people lol :)

And now if off to catch some Zzzzzz's

Updates to Online Testing Version of Bud The Spud Friday 23rd

Are you counting down the seconds to see all the sweet new changes that I've been hard at work creating to level 01 this week? Well you've not long to wait my friends, This Friday 23rd which is tomorrow around 5 PM ish I'll be uploading the latest version of Bud The Spud Unity 3D Web Player version so you'll be able to play and test out the latest updates to the game. You'll see all sorts of new stuff added to the game environment. If you've been following this blog and who whoever is interested in the game and who has been playing and likes the game would not be lol then you'll already have a good heads up on the shwack load of awesomeness that is going to be in the latest version this Friday. All kinds of cool stuff like

1. Bud's Blob Shadow fixed so not it does not spin around when he does his "Flip Jump."
2. Danger signs added around the Deadly Toxic Mud Bogs.
3. Fireflies to give players hints as to where to go in the game environment.
4. Special Potato Leaf Health pick ups that add 25 points to Bud's existing health.
5. Some cool background music.
6. A new broken pipe by the 3rd Toxic Mud Bog.
7. More worms to fight.
8. More Fertilizer pellets to collect.
9. Beast light mapping for shadows.
10. More challenges.
11. Additional sound effects.

Wow,  I mean WOW! I have been a busy little beaver this week. What can I say, I live to serve lol.

Don't forget to post comments to the blog as I would love to hear anything you have to say. Ideas, suggestions, rants, raves, you name it, it's all good. Who knows maybe some of your awesome ideas may wind up in a future level of my "Bud the Spud" game. ;)

Bud the Spud With Fireflies

As part of Jonathan's idea he suggested on Gamasutra to add visual cues or clues as to where to go I added some fireflies into the scene to give the players a hint. For instance on the middle deadly mud bog it would be perhaps logical for a lot of player to try and jump to the broken dock on the other side of the mud bog from the center island, and although it can be done it is a bit of a tricky jump. The safer jump is to the right of the dock along the mud bog edge. The fireflies flying around the glowing green fungus will hopefully provide a clue to the safer jump option.

Here we can see a screen capture of bud the spud with his very helpful Fireflies. They  are an animated particle system so if you get close to them you can see a little animated glowing bug flapping its wings while they lazily fly about and fade in and out. It's awesome comments like those from Jonathan that I just love and REALLY take to heart. ;)

Character Blob Shadow issue fixed

Although a minor nuisance I found that whenever Bud the Spud performed his "Flip Jump" the shadow spun around with him which is not accurate. I found a way around this with the option of unparenting the Blob Shadow Projector from my character and giving it it's own empty object or container if you like, placed on the ground with the projector above the character. I added a very simple script onto that object containing the projector that tells it to follow the character along like so:
transform.position = objectToFollow.position + offset;
Works like a dream!! Now there is no more of the silliness of the shadow flipping with the player.

I've also been playing around a bit with trying to add a nice background music loop for level one's underground, I've got something with a bit of a tribal beat to it, not sure if I'm totally sold on it yet. just experimenting. I also added some worms to the upper floating stone platforms for Bud the Spud to deal with. I have not added any of these changes to the online web player version of the games testing page yet. I want to do a lot more tweaks yet. 

Sneak Peek at Level 2 Development

Here is a sneak peek at the very early stages of level 02 of "Bud the Spud." Level 02 takes place above ground just after Bud has exited from his underground world through the pipe to the surface, that is if he's managed to collect the two keys needed to unlock the door to the exit pipe, managed not to get himself killed by worms or from falling into toxic deadly mud bogs.

Level 02 Bud the Spud must make it through the front yard and make his way to the Tree House located in the Pumpkin Patch where he'll have to avoid more worms and a new enemy the "Potato Beetle." Inside the tree house he'll have to avoid the occasional windup toy robot as well.

I don't want to spoil too much of what's in store for "Bud the Spud" but I just wanted to show a sneak peek at how my environment for level 02 is starting out. ;)

Bud the Spud Makes it to the Top!!

Actually made it to the top with 4 lives and only half my health taken away while testing out some minor changes I made to the game today. I moved some of the glowing Fungus over towards the dilapidated wooden walkway that leads up to the giant rock across the 3rd toxic deadly mud bog. I found that after doing the beast light mapping that, that area looked a little dark and could use some light sources in there so the Glowing Fungus were ideal for that. While testing it out I was doing so well I thought; "OK... I'll keep going and see if I make it all the way to the top?" which I did!! And with 4 lives yet!! Just thought I'd share that as I thought that was pretty cool ;)