zoot

I'll have to try and track down that piece of code and see what can be done.

See from 1:17 in this video: When groups of units walking in formation is catching up to some path that has been traced for them, they move in a jerky, "turn-on-a-dime" kind of way (it's particular gross at around 1:26). What is the reason for this? Are there any options for smoothing out this motion?

Maybe some of our outreach guys would like to ask around in Kinect and computer vision communities? Don't know how fruitful it would be, though. But it certainly would be a boon for indy developers if it could be made to work.

I dare either of you to turn your living room into the official Wildfire Games mocap studio. The programming related work would certainly be an interesting challenge.

I've been thinking about something similar - I really enjoyed Diablo II way back when, and it would be good to have a good ARPG in the Free games fold. I think the engine could easily handle it, though you are right that it isn't designed for the classic dungeon crawl. But as long as any passages doesn't have to be too narrow, it should be fine. (Also, no overhangs or bridges without significant changes.) The first step would be some kind of design document or an outline thereof. I am sure WFG would be gracious enough to allow such a thing to be posted and discussed on this forum. Potentially, some art assets could even be contributed back upstream.

Does the team have any input on this:

How many 5$ webcams do we need to match up in OpenCV to achieve equivalent accuracy?

How about putting colored tags on crucial parts of the motion capture actor's body and then tracking the movement of the tags with computer vision software? I've only heard good things about OpenCV.

Yes, because there are a lot of normal maps to do, and actually doing them is only one part of the equation. I don't expect hundreds of people volunteering to do normal maps at the instant the patch hits SVN - it will take some time to propagate.

I guess my point was that someone who just to wants do a normal map or two isn't necessarily looking for any 'serious' engagement, but I'm sure you all will come to the right decision about this.

The motion capture demos that Emjer did definitely were a big improvement over anything that we can do by hand, and I think it would make a significant difference if something like that made it into the game. I'm a bit doubtful about how good results can be achieved with Kinect, but I obviously don't have any evidence to base that on.

Right. All I'm saying is that xNormal won't always get it right. Sometimes someone will have to go in and get their hands dirty like Wijitmaker did with the Roman Temple model.

If it was that simple, we wouldn't need normal maps in the first place - we could just implement the algorithm that xNormal uses in the shader itself. At best, xNormal can generate a guess from the diffuse texture. An artist would still need to tweak and validate the result.

What inputs does these tools take? A high-poly model? Do we have high-poly models for everything? And if so, can they be batch converted with no tweaks?

This is the relevant thread (it's really long, but the important information is in the first pages). In short, a user called myconid has been working on adding support for normal mapping, parallax mapping, specular mapping, ambient occlusion (AO) and self-illumination. These effects allow for a level of detail that has previously been unattainable in the game, and made it really tricky for artists to make good-looking assets (note e.g. all the brick walls in the game that are as perfectly flat as a mirror). Hopefully, the new capabilities which myconid has added (and which a user called wraitii has ported to a wider range of GPUs) will make it easier and more attractive to work on art assets for the game.

Not annoyed, your approach seems interesting, but I have no clue how the Windows build works.

Let me put it this way: if someone bothers downloading and using SVN to work on a feature that is only 'probable' to be implemented, they likely belong to a breed of people whose skills/dedication would be put to better use on things like animation and modelling. Making normal maps seems like a comparatively light task that would be better delegated to more casual contributors who are not preoccupied with higher-priority items. But the prerequisite for reaching these contributors is that "someone" spends the effort it takes to make the process super straightforward and risk free. If myconid doesn't get around to it, I'd be willing to give it a shot.

From a purely 'economical' point of view, I'd have to advocate against postponing this ticket until next alpha for the specific reason that it will give artists (and everyone around them) three months less to develop normal/parallax/etc maps in. Nearly all of myconid's other changes (and wraitii's too) can wait, because they don't have implications for other contributors, but if this branch does not make it into the upcoming alpha, artists who want to work on normal maps specifically (and there is a lot of good work that can be done) will effectively have to sit on their hands for the next three months. That said, I do of course understand if reviewers just don't have the time. *steps off the soap-box*

While on the topic of gate locks, is there any particular reason why 'lock' and 'unlock' has separate buttons? Can't they be combined in a single, toggling button?

Yes. Also make sure you got the right branch.

May I suggest deferring this until normal/parallax/etc support is in? That should maximize interest from potential art contributors.

Good stuff. Can #1429 be put back on review?

Nice report. No progress on the sound system? Pity.

There is a brief sequence in the video (about 0:55 seconds in) showing falling water. Looks like flat, texture animated polygons: They have the benefit of a static gameworld, though. It's much trickier for us because we have to make a solution that looks good on any terrain.

This is the world's highest waterfall, Angel Falls in Venezuela: Note particularly, in the end of the video, how the water completely disperses into a smoke-like spray, even without hitting anything. Not that we will need to depict a waterfall of this height, but our water should still tend towards this appearance when falling, if it can.