Selasa, 09 April 2013

Shaders and cutaway


I've been working on the function to cut off mountain tops to a specified level so the player can see their tunnels and rooms under the surface. For this I've written a shader to clip off level geometry above a certain point. The function works but will need some additions to look right.
Also in this shot: check out the roughness of the water in the sun, this is from the noisy surface and the lighting. It changes as the day goes on.
The black outlines around the cutaway are a happy byproduct of the edge detection
I'm considering generating a mesh to "cap" the tops of the cutaway so you will only see tunnels and rooms that intersect the cut, not everything below the point of the cut. It may make it easier to see the cut but seeing your network of underground tunnels and rooms at different levels would be fun.
templates-office.com Voxel Dwarf Game

Outlines

I've added some outlines to add borders to the edges of mountains which is an interesting effect.

Outlined mountain edges make it easier to make out the shape of the different mountains in the distance

When turned up the effect creates a cell shading effect outlining the corners of blocks which is a surprisingly useful effect to help see the edges of blocks. It does give the game a much more cartoony look though.
Fake cell shading
templates-office.com Voxel Dwarf Game
Minggu, 07 April 2013

Noisy Meshes

After experimenting with mesh manipulation I'm considering adding some noise to the meshes I generate for blocks, give it a bit more of a varied feeling.

Very noisy terrain

Slightly noisy terrain
This is actually a very cheap way to create noise in the mesh because instead of using a shader to deform the meshes or taking the mesh and manipulating it I use the values used to generate the terrain to decide a bit of variation in the height of each corner to offset the mesh gen values while I generate them. This could use some tweaking but a little noise could go a long way in adding variation the the map and to make it look less like Minecraft, which currently is the first thing anyone notices about the game.
templates-office.com Voxel Dwarf Game
Kamis, 04 April 2013

Out of the cold for a bit

I am sick and tired of the cold and the winter and having the flu, the cold, some virus or another... It's time for some warmth and sunshine... so I am off... last minute trip to where there is sun, beach and palms. 

I won't be checking my emails regularly - as I am not sure about internet access and my motivation to check when there is sunshine and ocean out there to swim, snorkel and dive. Please have a bit of patience when you order some of the tutorial art or BlockBuddies. I will do my best to get the art to you asap... back on April the 16th...


templates-office.com
Selasa, 02 April 2013

Archipelago

Replacing the bottom layer of dirt with water to test out an archipelago type terrain generation. I wrote off oceans and islands early on because I didn't feel large expanses of water mixed all that well with the dwarves but the way this turned out it making me doubt my choice.

Missing the reflections water is supposed to have but still.


View from the editor

templates-office.com Terrain Generation, Voxel Dwarf Game
Senin, 01 April 2013

Ambient occlusion for better visibility

I added some fake ambient occlusion to try and remedy the visibility problems I've been noticing in areas of busy terrain. It's not real ambient occlusion but a post processing effect on the screen image. This is a premade script that I'm trying out, I don't have any experience with image effects.

Also in this shot I've changed the terrain generation to avoid adding dirt and grass to steep slopes so there are more mountain faces and less of a blanket of grass over everything.

Also the normal shadows are disabled here so everything is fully lit with just the AO adding shading in the corners. If I added shading to block faces based on direction it would be quite similar to minecraft and other voxel games' lighting. That may be an option for a lower graphics mode or for mobile if that becomes an option.

It helps discern where one block ends and a block on a lower level begins quite well. I'm satisfied with how terrain looks for now so I'll probably start moving on to gameplay code and AI soon.
templates-office.com Voxel Dwarf Game
Sabtu, 30 Maret 2013

It's been quiet here... too quiet

I've been quiet for a while as development slowed down while I studied for an exam in c++ but I'm back on track and have rewritten a lot of code which now runs much faster and uses much less ram. The old code was storing some block data more than once as a sort of overlap between chunks where one chunk would also contain the data of the blocks bordering it from other chunks. Now the chunk code can efficiently access other locks and pull block data to know what it's bordering on. The result is that I can generate faster and generate a lot more. Also the way chunks are sorted and stored has been updated which now makes it possible to generate infinite terrain instead of the fixed map size I used to have. I haven't implemented this because I don't have any use for it but with a function to unload chunks too far away this would be possible.


Ingame shot with Morning sunrise - medium fog preset. Ingame the sun will move over time and ambient light and fog will change to match time of day.

Scaling the textures down to 4x4 pixels resulted in this. This is probably not viable for actual gameplay because block types need to be distinguishable and the textures are gorgeous at full 32x32 resolution but it looks very cute.

Noisy terrain in sunset lighting
Daytime lighting with 32x32 resolution textures


One thing I'm working with right now is how to make terrain easier to discern, this proves to be difficult in some cases partially because of the very noisy terrain with few flat faces and partially because of the distance of the camera from the terrain and the angle. Hopefully I'll find a solution to this without toning down the noise and detail of the terrain.

Next on the programming to do list is the camera controls and the cutaway view for the player to view underground structures. Players will be able to scroll through and set a max height above which all terrain will be cut off and not rendered. This will let players see what's under the terrain so long as it's lit well enough.
templates-office.com Terrain Generation, Voxel Dwarf Game
Jumat, 15 Maret 2013

Cara Menekan Astral


Hanya dari pengalaman saja,
Astral adalah salah satu tempat pokok untuk menaikkan kekuatan char Wartune. Astral ada bermacam-macam warna, dan warna astral menunjuki bagus tidaknya astral.
Tingkatan bagus tidaknya astra adalah,
1. Kuning
2. Ungu
3. Biru
4. Hijau
5. Putih

Astral yang paling baik atau tingkatan pertama adalah warna kuning, sedangkan yang paling buruk adalah putih atau hangus. Astral putih tidah bisa di pakai.

Cara menekan Astral:
Sebelum menekan astral, perhatikan bola astral. Astral yang bisa di tekan itu bercahaya, dari redup ke terang dan dari terang ke redup. Jika koneksi internet Anda bagus, tekanlah di saat cahaya bolanya terang, maka bola astral akan melompat ke bola selanjutnya.



 

Tapi jika koneksi internet zzzzz, perhatikan cahaya bola saat menekan. Jika pada bola pertama Anda menekan saat cahaya bolanya terang dan bola pun melompat, pada bola kedua tekan pada cahaya terang juga. Tapi jika  bola pertama melompat saat di tekan pada cahaya redup, pada bola kedua tekan saat cahaya redup juga. Begitu juga untuk bola selanjutnya. Istilahnya, samakan cahaya astral saat bola melopat.


Hanya itu saja saran saat menekan astral, moga berhasil.
Sabtu, 02 Maret 2013

Menambah Kekuatan Char Wartune Dengan Skill Guild

Meningkatkan kekuatan char wartune selanjutnya adalah dengan Skill Guild. 

Saat char mencapai level 12, maka char anda akan di berikan quest untuk memilih bergabung atau membuat Guild. Jika anda bergabung dalam serveer yang sudah banyak pemainnya, sebaiknya anda memilih bergabung dengan Guild yang sudah ada.

Contoh Guild tempat saya bergabung di server 44.

Untuk belajar skill di Guild, anda tinggal klik tabel Guild Skill, maka langsung keluar berbagai macam skill yang bisa di ambil. Contoh:


Kemuadian anda tinggal klik learn.

Biaya untuk belajar skill berbeda untuk tiap levelnya. Semakin tinggi skill yang kita pelajari, semakin mahal pula biayanya.
Misalkan untuk skill level pertama membutuhkan biaya 200 contribution, untuk level kedua biayanya naik menjadi 500.
Bagaimana maksud 200 contribution? 200 contribution adalah 200.000 gold yang anda sumbangkan atau kontribusikan di guild. Jadi skill guil di beli dengan sumbangan anda di guild.
1 contribution = 1000 gold.

Mahal ya skill guild??? Dimana-mana barang berkualitas memang mahal.
Kualitas skill guild bukan hanya menambah PATK, MATK, PDEF, MDEF atau HP, tapi semua skill guild menambahkan Stats anda.
Contoh stats:
 Char yang mempunyai PATK/MATK 10.000 dengan Strength/Intelect 400, belum tentu mampu mengalahkan char yang punya Strength/Intelect 600 tapi PATK/MATK nya hanya 8000.

 Stats char hanya bertambah dari Skill Guild, Mount, Legendary Item, dan naiknya level char.

Pada skill Guild ada tambahan Charisma, fungsinya adalah untuk menambah atau memperkuat Troop anda.
Tambahan skill guild per level skill adalah 40.
Skill Guld adalah untuk menambah pengahsilan Gold anda.

Jumat, 15 Februari 2013

Meningkatkan Kekuatan Char Dengan Astral

Astral adalah salah satu tempat untuk meningkatkan kekuatan char, ada bermacam-macam jenis astral menurut kebutuhan. Semua jenis astral dapat di lihat di Exchange Star Points, seperti pada contoh di bawah ini.

Slot astral akan di tambah 1 slot di tiap 10 level. Jadi, kalau level 30, astral nya ada 3 slot, 40 ada 4 slot, dan seterusnya.


Dalam posting kali ini, saya akan mencoba membahas tentang astral apa saja yang cocok di gunakan menurut char. Saya membatasi sampai level 50 saja, atau 5 slot astral. Dan yang di utamakan adalah menurut urutan astral yang saya tulis.

1. Knight.

Pristine Force atau PATK
Pristine Fortitude atau PDEF
Pristine Willpower atau MDEF
Enhanced Will Destroyer
Pristine Enshieldment atau Block

Kelima astral ini bisa menjadi  astral paling penting untuk Knight.
Astral Will Destroyer fungsinya menaikkan damage dengan cara % (persen)
Asral Block sangat penting jika level sudah tinggi, karena untuk Knight, ada skill yang namanya Enhanced Block yang fungsinya mengembalikan 4 % dari hp anda tiap terjadi block atau Dodge.

2. Archer

Pristine Force atau PATK
Pristine Sniper's Edge atau Crit
Enhanced Determination
Pristine Fortitude atau PDEF
Pristine Willpower atau MDEF

Untuk urutan Determination dan PDEF, MDEF, anda dapat memilih yang mana dulu yang harus di pakai menurut type char. Tapi menurut saya, Determination lebih penting. Determination fungsinya menaikkan damage crit archer dengan cara % (persen). semakin tinggi levelnya, semakin besar pula damagenya. Mengapa harus Crit dan determination dulu? Karena Archer adalah char type Attack.

3. Mage

Pristine Misticality atau MATK
Pristine Fortitude atau PDEF
Pristine Willpower atau MDEF
Enhanced Will Destroyer

Untuk astral yang ke 5, anda bisa memilih antara Enhanced Illusion atau ilusi, atau anda bisa menggunakan Refined Goddess Blessing atau Enhaced Ruthlessness. Tapi keduanya (Illusi dan Goddes Blessing) tidak begitu berfungsi jika levelnya masih 4, dan astralnya harus kuning. Cocoknya untuk kedua astral ini adalah level 5 atau 6. Pilihan lain untuk slot ke 5 buat mage adalah Pristine Brilliance atau HP. Gunakan astral ini jika menurut anda hp char mage kecil. Jika level mage sudah tinggi, HP adalah hal yang sangat penting buat mage.

Tapi terlepas dari ini semua, Anda dapat berimprovisasi sendiri menurut keadaan char anda.Anda juga sebaiknya memiliki beberapa astral yang di naikkan levelnya. Fungsinya, anda bisa menukar-nukar astral menurut kebutuhan.

Seperti yang saya gunakan untuk char Knight level 58, tapi ini bukan untuk di ikuti.
 Cukup disini untuk kali ini, untuk kedepan akan saya coba ulas tentang cara menekan Astral.