Wijitmaker
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Posts posted by Wijitmaker
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Check out ColladaMaya or maybe this? https://collada.org/mediawiki/index.php/OpenCOLLADA
I'm not a Maya guy either... but I am a Max guy. When we first transitioned to COLLADA and .dae files, 3ds Max didn't natively support a .dae export. We had to use plugins. Most artists used 3ds Max and not Blender then as well. So, the game engine was largely developed around the ColladaMax exported .dae files. That was 2006-2007ish... today Max has it's own .dae export. I don't think the natively exported files work with pyrogenesis (at least they didn't last time I checked), only this plugin worked. Long story short... I wonder if Maya has the same issue?
Perhaps you could use a plugin. Would any of these work? http://colladamaya.sourceforge.net/file_releases.php
I noticed that this appears to have some activity as well? https://github.com/KhronosGroup/OpenCOLLADA
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Micket, this might be some fun reading for you if you haven't read it before. This was the path to getting normal maps implemented in the game by myconid a few years ago.
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Fun fact
10 years ago 0 A.D. originally had only these civs:
Celts
Hellenes
Iberians
Romans
Persians
Carthaginians
Two of the civs "branched" into sub-civs (celts - britons, gauls & hellens - sparta & athens). But, this was intended to happen during the game as a strategic choice - not something you decide and set in stone before the game even started.
The choice would have shown itself during one of the town/city upgrade phases, and would have affected the hero choices, special structures, and late game technologies.
I'm not saying the existing method is bad, just that I personally like the concept better (more strategy, easier to balance) than having dozens of civs that are slightly different from each other to choose from at the start. But... it is no longer my decision to make and hasn't been for years. I'm just throwing the idea back on the table
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I'm not sure about the female capturing stuff. It seems too much trouble for the cheap units we have.
Yeah, that is kind of the point though. Female citizens weren't simply intended to be a cheaper citizen soldier that didn't fight. They brought equal or greater value to the game (vs a basic male citizen soldier) by offering higher economic capability, but at the trade off - being the risk of easily loosing that asset's allegiance. If an enemy scout comes into your village and sees 20 unprotected female citizens it would be a goal to capture a handful of them before they ran into a garrison. I could explain in more detail if you are interested in hearing more, or try to find the old discussions.
About replacing a building with the equivalent for that civ, that's often not very simple.
I think this was back in the day when all the civs had the same buildings, none were given special buildings that were civ specific. So, that probably wouldn't work today. I think the intention was that if a celt unit captured a roman barracks, it didn't make much sense historically that the barracks would continue to spit out roman soldiers - but instead it would be used to make more celt soldiers. But, I personally don't think that is a big deal. In the C&C games, it was like you described. If you were the Allies and you captured a Chinese tank factory, you as the allies could start making Chinese tanks.
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This discussion jogs my memory from over 10 years ago.
Here is what was originally specified. This concept was largely taken from Westwood studio's model of how entities transfer ownership (Command and Conquer - I can't see this video from work, but I think it will show it:
)I'm not sure if all can see these links so I'll cut and paste the contents:
http://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=699
CAPTURING FEMALE CITIZENS
1. INITIATING CAPTURE
To initiate the capture sequence, click a Cavalry Citizen Soldier, then activate his Capture action (the same command used to capture buildings), and right-click the intended female unit target.
2. FEMALE REACTION
The female unit has a relatively long LOS, so she is generally aware of her surroundings, and has a "flight response" wherein she will attempt to garrison in the nearest available building if a unit attempts to capture or harm her.
3. HOLD PERIOD
If the capturing cavalry manages to place himself adjacent to her, she will be held in place for a period of 5 seconds (which simulates getting her onto his mount to be carried off).
During this period she cannot perform any action, nor can the capturing unit defend himself, and if attacked must "release her" (cancel the Capture command by giving him another action) in order to defend himself.
Once the hold period has elapsed, the player acquires full control of the Female Citizen.
4. CANCELLING CAPTURE
If the Capture command is cancelled, the enemy will regain control of the Female Citizen, and she may flee and thus he will lose his quarry.
5. CAPTURING BENEFITS
1. A free econ worker, capable of farming, husbandry, and enhancing the productivity of male econ workers.
2. Captured Female Citizens are not affected by the player's population cap. Therefore, through capturing Female Citizens, the player's Population Limit can exceed its maximum.http://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=742
CAPTURING ENEMY BUILDINGS
Capturing an enemy building replaces the building with the equivalent class for the player's civilisation. It does not allow the player to research another civilisation's technologies or train units that are unavailable to the player's civilisation.
Special Buildings, that are unique to a civilisation, cannot be captured. Some buildings, such as walls and towers, do not allow a player to build other buildings near to them. Such buildings also cannot be captured but must be destroyed. Allied buildings cannot be captured.
a] A building cannot be captured or destroyed if it contains garrisoned units, since garrisoned units will suffer all damage before the building itself can be harmed. All garrisoned units must therefore first be killed before the building can be captured.
b] The capture sequence is initiated by giving the Capture command to a group of Citizen Soldier units (Infantry or Cavalry).
c] The necessary number of units will then move adjacent to the building and stand immobilised for a period of time until the capture is complete. Conversion time = Building Footprint Width x 10. i.e.
House (2x2): 2 units for 20 seconds.
Fortress (5x5): 5 units for 50 seconds.
d] As capturing units are immobilised for the specified period, it may behoove the player to have other units in the immediate area to protect them during the process of capture. If a group has been issued the command to Capture, the appropriate number of units will "detach" themselves for that purpose while the rest of the group stands by in the immediate area on Defend stance.
e] Once the Capture sequence has completed the Building conversion, the capturing units revert to their former condition and the building is now replaced with the player's equivalent. The building may now be repaired to bring it up to full functionality if it has suffered damage during the attack.Also an interesting discussion that we used to have as part of the design FAQ (Ken Wood was one of the original game designer):
*How can you have capturing females in the game? That's so sexist!*
Quoted from Ken (with substantial summarisation):
First, I take full personal responsibility for having come up with the idea as one of my very first for the game a couple years ago. I will say that in more than six decades I have loved, admired, and respected women, so my intent was never to demean them... rather to do something with the 'female character' that has never been done before in an RTS game to my knowledge.
The concept can easily be misconstrued as politically incorrect, a slur against womanhood. However, the reason she can be captured is because the Female Citizen (notably, she has full citizenship rights) is a VALUABLE asset in the game.
Recalling that she lived some 2,000 years ago and is in part based upon my experience in real life as it continues even today, these are some of her attributes, she is as are all women a complex 'personality':- "Women's work is never done" (back then, women did a full day's work on the farm like the men, but also without complaint had to feed the family, look after the children, etc). She 'works harder' at economic tasks she can be assigned to than her male counterparts, the Citizen Soldiers (who are a combination of economic and military units).
In performing them, she accomplishes more than the men do. Put her to farming and she brings in more crop. Put her to animal husbandry chores and she brings in more milk. She can also build and repair the Farm Centre, Housing, and Civ Centres as might be required (doesn't perform better, but carries her weight).
2. Represents the sense of 'family' in the game (so the game is not dominated by male units). She is attractive (as much as that's possible in an itty-bitty sprite) but in no way prurient, as it's a fact that the majority of game players are male.
3. Male units will try to 'impress' her when she is around. When she is within LOS of one (or more) male units performing an economic task, they will work as hard as she does, and are more productive than they otherwise would be.
Not only is it historical, but human nature at work. She doesn't even have to work at the task herself; she only has to stand nearby male units cutting wood, or mining, and they will speed up their work.
4. She is valuable, and therefore desireable. She cannot attack, and so you'll need to protect your womenfolk from other civs trying to capitalise on her value. It isn't easy, but she can be captured by another civ and 'assimilated' into the population (probably getting married, raising kids, like women did and do). She becomes a fully-fledged citizen of that civilisation (certainly not a slave).
5. Captured Female Citizens don't count towards your population limit. They don't count towards your population limit (taking up positions that could be used by your own units), and so it's totally to your advantage to capture them.- I hope that this puts to rest any reservations you might have about how we have designed a useful and valuable unit into the game in the form of a female character, with no intention to discriminate.
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Fun read, thanks for sharing
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I think it is all pretty awesome. A+ for creativity, except... ponies? really? I grew up in the era when they first came out and this is what I associate with them:
I can't connect the dots in my head between that image and 0 A.D.
But... that is my problem. Fantastic artwork! I think it would be a fun mod, to mod your mod into a Medieval faction.
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Not sure if this would be something worth pursuing, but I recently posted it in another thread. Thought it was relevant to this discussion:
...there was an idea in the past that you could make a selection in Atlas of multiple entities and save them as a "group". These groups could be then be added to a player's custom pallet of tools. So perhaps it was a collection of trees, rocks, shrubs and bushes - and you define/call that "TemperateGroup01" or something. Atlas saves (or "copies") the x,y (not z) and rotation of each entity/actor into that group xml file. This could then be recalled at any time later and "pasted" onto the terrain, conforming itself to the terrain. The group could be rotated like what is featured in the new alpha release video. The group would conform to the terrain and the z height would be altered for placement as required. I'm not sure if this was documented or implemented, but it might be worth looking into to achieve what I think is what your going after here with this farm idea?
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That is beautiful - thanks for sharing!
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Looks great
Nice use of the self illumination feature. 
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Sorry, if I I caused confusion. My intention was not to insinuate that anything in the game be changed. I was just answering the question that was posed.
Games have inherent trade-offs that counter-balance reality with fun and practicality. Those either/or decisions are made all the time in development. At several points I remember emphasizing that we are making a game with 0 A.D. and not a simulator. True there is some educational value to games, but a game shouldn't be overwhelming with education to ad nauseam. Very few people will care about the historical accuracy of wheat, they would likely care more about the historical accuracy of units in the game. So we focused our time there.
I gave guidance to Mythos and did some of the texture work myself for the wheat and barley you see in the game. I'm not suggesting it be changed. What is in the game is sufficient to modern age players that represents wheat as a food source
EDIT - there was an idea in the past that you could make a selection in Atlas of multiple entities and save them as a "group". These groups could be then be added to a player's custom pallet of tools. So perhaps it was a collection of trees, rocks, shrubs and bushes - and you define/call that "TemperateGroup01" or something. Atlas saves (or "copies") the x,y (not z) and rotation of each entity/actor into that group xml file. This could then be recalled at any time later and "pasted" onto the terrain, conforming itself to the terrain. The group could be rotated like what is featured in the new alpha release video. The group would conform to the terrain and the z height would be altered for placement as required. I'm not sure if this was documented or implemented, but it might be worth looking into to achieve what I think is what your going after here with this farm idea?
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As a farmer's son I can assure you that the wheat in the picture is indeed fully grown (the ears are only developed when the plant has reached its final height).
Ha! i didn't know that Erik? Neat, I'm a farm boy too
Why is the wheat not taller than Mr. Gladiator? Maybe because it is not fully grown, would he ever stop to ponder explanations?
Like the guy in video was saying... modern wheat is different than ancient wheat. Erik is correct, what was shown in the gladiator footage was "full grown". Modern hybridized wheat is bred by design to shorter stalks, it provides a better stand for the heavy heads of grain (sometimes 4 or 6 rows). The idea being that the plant should spend more resources on making kernels than useless straw. Ancient wheat was a simpler variety that looked something like this:
http://www.primegrains.com/prime-einkorn.htm
They didn't have modern chemical fertilizers and irrigation either... so the density of the fields was probably much less. Their yields were probably a 30% of what modern farming techniques can do with the same piece of ground today.
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I think there should be a way to get the look you are after. myconid was the last programmer (to my knowledge) that did some major changes/updates to the graphics engine. Here is the full evolution of his changes unfolding before your very eyes - post by post:
http://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16022
You should be able to get a glow effect like this you see in the bottom image:
After reading this... try playing with the alpha layer of the spec map:
http://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16022&p=242478
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I managed to finish some more buildings with working decals, check them out:
Thank you, that helped a lot.
It is neat to see a new look in Pyrogenesis. I'm looking forward to seeing more
Perhaps you can't select - because it is a gaia object instead of player 1? That would be the first thing I'd check.
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Factoid... The Forgotten uses art from the mod "Rome at War" made by Wildfire Studios back in 2001, later turned into Wildfire Games.
I'm not sure if people can even still install this mod... http://wildfiregames.com/raw/
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Apparently, someone thought it was a good idea:
http://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11290&page=2&hl=bagauda#entry203495
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It is neat to see a form of auras back in the game. They were once a huge part of the game design's strategy for play. It was something that really was intended to separate 0 A.D. from being an Age of clone, it also adds more real time tactical depth rather than just masses of brainless fodder being waypointed around the map (like I see in a lot of 0 A.D. youtube videos today). This game wasn't intended to be be won by "they who click their mouse fastest" but rather "they that thinks and strategically out maneuvers their opponents". Auras were key to this idea and implemented in the game at one time, but were never re-added after a rewrite about 8 or so years ago.
More info on their intent and purpose: http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/XML.Entity.Traits.Auras
Back in the day, auras were only represented by a simply player color vector ring when an entity was selected.
Morale and stamina (running/charging) were two other aspects to the game that were once fully functional that we lost in that same rewrite... I still morn this loss to this day
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I would like to propose a countering template with three distinct types of relative strength.
1) Attack advantage against unit type (e.g. 1.5x)
2) Attack disadvantage (e.g. 0.5x)
3) Neither at a disadvantage or advantage (1x)
Let, 1), 2) and 3) be represented by:
1) ---------------->
2) ---------------->
3) ---------------->
Here is the blank template:
This reminded me a lot about something I posted 10 years ago. I'm not able to make the thread visible for you (it is in some private staff forums), but it might be a fun read for you if a moderator could move the thread.
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To remove the blood without editing the actors... couldn't you just modify the texture that the blood is coming from and make it completely transparent?
I don't believe the blood is 'baked' into the unit textures...
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The actor editor was a pretty handy tool for people that were not familiar with modifying xml tools. It also caught a lot of mistakes before you made them. I guess it wasn't documented well enough to pass on the usage to the next generation of developers. There was a lot of elements (groups, variants, random, loading, unloading, prop point recognition, prop point browsing) that really made setting up a a new or editing an existing actor quick and simple to those that aren't familiar with coding and syntax.
I'd encourage not loosing sight of it.
Philip made it and did a fine job IMHO
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as you can see i have a plenty of time...for now, And Yesterday i came up with an idea to make a little animation for the logo of 0AD, i'll upload it in a couple of days. It's no much but maybe you like it. Here you have an advance about how it's looks like.
Nice work on the animations, it is good to see some new animations since the once I did 10 years ago
I like where you are going with that animated logo. I like the use of depth of field.
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Nice work, I like the variation
Less clones there are in the game, the more real it looks.-
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Just out of curiosity... does the "what you see is what you get" tool called "actor editor" work for pyrogenesis anymore?
I look at the wiki and I see a lot of work being done in notepad.
I thought I remember actor editor being integrated into Atlas at one point. Does it still work today?
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The alpha channel of the texture could be used for color. Similar to the how horses are done. It is the same concept as player color.
This allows you to "color" the Auroch brown/tan/black randomly in the actor xml file using a single texture. If you are interested in that, check out the horse textures as an example of how that is done.
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Engine Questions
in Help & Feedback
Posted
Few more hints.
There are lots of examples in the location that Sander pointed you to: http://trac.wildfiregames.com/browser/ps/trunk/binaries/data/mods/public/art/skeletons
Make note of what your joints are named in Maya. Prop points follow special rules.
Some more background info for you.