Tag: Plugins

Research & Project Updates – 2020 #13

Posted on by Matthew

This week I was under the weather for a few days but got a bunch done regardless. On the character creation class here is the final link: http://www.mdhopkins.net/virus-ara-prototype/

On my thesis project, I finished my to do list. I adjusted the characters arm for the normal pose and sad pose. I had issue with the user voice search. It ended up being the index changing in the list. I swapped it out for a dictionary and reworked the code to get it to work. Another issue, was when it had to pick another story to tell, it would cause and error. I needed to set the sentence ID to 0. The last major fix was the issue with the head rotation in late update. I updated the animations so there is blending between it all but the head would snap when locking onto the user. Found help on the Unity forums. I had to create another rotation var in the start() and then call it again. All the original code worked as well. As of now, I need to do some long run testings aka over night testing for idle to see if it breaks. Hopefully it all works as intended. After that I am not sure what is left, I could do more voices with different emotions for the different moods but I am not sure how the writting would be. To be honest, I am gatekeeping this project because it is on the home stretch now…

Research & Project Updates – 2020 #3

Posted on by Matthew

This week I have worked on fixing some locking bugs. I got lipsync, audio, and animation to work with the storyID. I have a method developed and now have to implement it into the project. I am expecting a couple of hours to work it out. The major issue right now is locking the system so it does not loop but rather wait until it is finished animating.

 

Character Creation:

I worked on the base mesh. I am pretty happy with the overall character. I need to rework the torso and armor shapes but it is going in the right direction.

 

Thesis – Project Blog 13-14

Posted on by Matthew

Procedural Modeling

Me this weekend with Houdini:

Over the past few days, I have been hard at work finishing up my car generator. With the crashes with Houdini and Unreal, it was frustrating to say the least. Luckily, I swap over to Unity, and fix some code which saved time as it was not crashing as much. Besides the craziness, I believe the experience was worth it. I finished the project and got to learn Houdini in the process. Here are some Screenshots and Video:

Scifi Decal Panels – Substance

Posted on by Matthew

SciFi Decal Panels Substance

Software

  • Allegorithmic Substance Designer
  • Unity Engine

Substance Graph

Features

Description:

SciFi Decal Panels is a procedural material created in Substance Designer. With so many features, the material can be used in numerous applications and environments such as space stations/ships, futuristic environments, Decals for ceilings, floors, or walls, etc. The texture is using PBR metalness/roughness workflow and was created with realism in mind.

The goal of the project was to create a “kit” that could be used to help designers speed up detailing a environment with a many different panel decals in a instant. As well as exploring and understanding the use of procedural kits using Substance Designer.

Blog Entry – Research and Project Updates – 2019 #8

Posted on by Matthew

This week I have been focusing on finishing up my substance kit. Currently, I am finalizing the color maps but I have been running into constant issues. For example, I work on a certain shape setup then turn on another and it does not work or a switch does not turn off. Trying to debug this rat’s nest is horrible but I am making way. I am planning on tomorrow as the final day to work in substance designer. The rest will be in Unity using the kit.

Here are the current graph and in editor 3d/texture:

After finishing this project, I will move onto working on the character as I am going to create a proposal presentation. I am going to focus more on the sculpt and what references I will follow. Other information I will be deciding: back story, style, time period, and final render for the sculpt. I am also hoping I find some time to do a few more sketches to help my direction.

 

The Taken House on the Hill

Posted on by Matthew

The Taken House on the Hill

Software

  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Autodesk Maya
  • Blender
  • Pixologic zBrush
  • Allegorithmic Substance Painter
  • Unity Engine

Concept

Description:

The Taken House on the Hill is a game ready art piece involving a tiny house on a hill with a dead tree. All of which is contained within a glass bottle on display surrounded by darkness. The art piece contains 17,316 faces, and every texture is 2048 x 2048.

I decided the style of the art piece early on as I wanted to experiment and shy away from realistic modeling. The goal of the style was to mimic the style of Tim Burton, Gothic, and LucasArt games. Using this stylized resulted in creating a story that is not written. The viewer might feel there is more to the piece in which they might explore and create their own story around the piece.

Blog Entry – Research and Project Updates – 2019 #4

Posted on by Matthew

This week I completed my 3d project. I had to finish up texturing, UVing, and setting up the scene in Unity engine. Software I used was Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Maya, Blender, Pixologic Zbrush, Substance Painter, and Unity.

Enjoy!

Also Instant Screenshot is an awesome plugin for Unity for anyone looking for hi-res screenshots. – https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/instant-screenshot-24122

Blog Entry – Research and Project Updates – 2019 #1

Posted on by Matthew

This week I started to test two free A.I. behavior plug ins for Unity. This is important as I needed to test them for a game studio and my own project. The two free plug ins are: PandaBT (https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/ai/panda-bt-free-33057) and Behavior Bricks (https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/visual-scripting/behavior-bricks-74816).

(AI plugin testing – custom demo “game” scene)

The “game” I made had the AI chasing after the ball (player). Once the AI is out of the red, it will constantly loose health a5 until it’s death. The AI decides to pick whatever red zone is closer to heal. Once topped off on health, it will go after the player again.

PandaBT is a minimalistic script to create behavior trees. It uses a basic script called BT script. To create tasks, one can create a single c# script (or many) to build the tasks for the AI.

PandaBT

There are many positives with using this plugin. One of which is the ease of use. Getting started is easy. I got a custom demo “game” up and running in a few hours of messing around. Another major benefit of using the plug is the mass amounts of documentation. They have their own site (http://www.pandabehaviour.com/) j59 full of access to examples and information needed to get up and running. There are also many YouTube tutorial videos. I did enjoy using the plugin but some issues I ran into was the BT script. As I am using visual studio, the structure of the script is key. If the spacing is off, it throws an error. It is minor but annoying. Another issue (not really an issue but personal preference), the layout of the behavior is a list. I fear once the AI becomes more complex, this list is going to become confusing and difficult to debug. This is where Behavior Bricks shines, node trees.

“Down the stairs and near the safe, she found her space in which she escapes.”

Behavior Bricks is a behavior tree with a visual editor. I got it up in running about the same time as PandaBT maybe a little bit more as it forces you to take the modular approach which is a good thing t119!

Behavior Bricks

I found the visual editor easy to visualize what I needed to do but it was buggy. The editor’s colors, while running the game, glitches but I did not see any affect on the game. Another issue was the poor documentation. There is a some but much. It does include examples and their site has some api information (http://bb.padaonegames.com/doku.php). Regardless, I found it difficult to start off. So, there is a learning curve. With saying that, I believe it is worth fighting through as the visual editor helps a lot more than a list view. The task management isn’t too hard, but the API can be confusing for beginners to start off. For a project, I suggest creating templates of the code. That way it saves time having to change the namespaces and such repeatedly.

What plugin do I suggest?  b11 They are very similar, and both are great and free! As I will be suggesting one plugin to use for a game studio, I want the students to learn the concept of behavior trees and use a modular approach. With that being said, I am favoring Behavior Bricks. The good thing about using this for our projects, we can transfer to other behavior trees with limited difficulty which we might end up doing. As it is free, the development is not consistent and updates are put off. This reason alone, we might move to a paid plugin like Behavior Designer, Node Canvas, and playmaker. I read many great things about them. Their prices are around the same price – $70 although playmaker is $45.

 

119.89. 137.47.89.77.29.131.29.107. 23.53.113.17.89.131.29.107.29.23. 119.47.53.113.: 5.137.29.113.89.77.29. 59.89.11.!!! 137.29.71.17.89.77.29. 119.89. 119.47.29. 77.35.5. 95.107.89.41.107.5.77.! 95.89.125.107. 149.89.125.107. 95.5.113.113.53.89.83. 53.83.119.89. 149.89.125.107. 17.107.29.5.119.53.89.83.113.. 71.29.119. 149.89.125.107. 5.107.119. 11.29. 149.89.125.107. 131.89.53.17.29.. 83.89.137., 41.89. 89.125.119. 119.47.29.107.29. 5.83.23. 47.5.131.29. 35.125.83.!

77.5.119.119.