Sanctimonia: Client Wind Vector, Excavation and Water Level Oscillation
In yet another video-based mini-update, Kevin Fishburne shows off some improvements he has made to his Ultima-inspired, man vs. nature MMORPG, Sanctimonia, in the last little while. Specifically, he has improved the excavation feature in the game, added water level oscillation, and tweaked how the game’s client handles wind vectors.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9B3–5k4YY&w=560&h=315]
Deeper and deeper!
This time around, he didn’t post any further details in the video description, so you’ll just have to watch it to see what’s new and improved in Sanctimonia this time around.
Great updates recently (EUO, SI and BtR). I’m glad to see those in the trenches get a shout, as always.
Some clarifications on the update:
The wind vector (speed and direction) had been in place but it now drives a sky reflection across the water. It’s hard to pick up in the video as it’s subtle and the YouTube conversion is crap.
The excavation is the same mechanically but it’s much nicer looking now with the perspective projection, adjacent tile elevation averaging (will soon be obsoleted by more logical geometry for the tile grid) and new water effects. I want to add more cloud texture variations based on cloud strength (already sent to clients continuously), give them an alpha channel so the sky shows through to the next texture, then add star chart and heavenly body textures like moons and the sun. Who needs a horizon bar when you can see the sky accurately in the water?
The water level effects are nice, but I need to keep working on making them look better. I’m also in the middle of enabling tile grid (landscape) shading by calculating all the surface normals, averaging intersecting ones and properly moving the sun and other lights. That’s my biggest goal at the moment and most difficult. I suck at OpenGL if you haven’t noticed.
OpenGL is always tricky at first. Careful though: you say who needs the horizon bar if you have the reflection but you might be inland 😉
Other than that, as I said, great work and progress!
Hmmm. That’s a good point. One of the worst things about a top-down game is the inability to see the sky or horizon. Maybe I can amp the horizon bar up so it looks cooler or matches the environmental variables better. That combined with overhead water reflection should make it seem more immersive.
Thanks, and yeah, OpenGL is pretty hard core for what I’m used to. I chose GAMBAS rather than C/C++ because top priority is getting the game done. All I’ve known is BASIC. I’m better at code logic than language syntax. OpenGL’s been an unwelcome learning experience, but I’m pleased with the results so far.
After surface normal calculations are done I need to work on correcting wisp physics. I’ll already have the sun going around so the landscape will look inviting, but I need blood and flying debris to move realistically with gravity and elevations. It’s already somewhat implemented, but needs to be debugged/revised.
On that note, do any games make a gib such as a blood splash that lands on water, makes a sound effect, then slowly sinks as it dissolves into a pink trail? That would be cool.