Cloning Facility

Creating new content for Trespasser!

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Re: Cloning Facility

Post by TheIdiot »

Thanks, tatu! :) Performance is still quite good it seems, I haven't dabbled much in performance-related stuff yet but I'm getting the usual 30-45 FPS everywhere, which seems normal for the more heavily populated Trespasser levels. The level itself is actually quite small so I'm hoping that will help, and I plan on using occlusion objects as well. The lowest FPS comes from the starting beach looking inland as this is the most of the level it is possible to see at once and that area is fully decorated, but it's still quite good. I've been extra careful to avoid clipping objects into each other as much as possible which seems to help greatly as I have yet to experience a crash.
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Re: Cloning Facility

Post by Draconisaurus »

Looking good! Now eventually your cloning facility will have, facilities, yes? Yes, hello? Hello----haaaaaa
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Re: Cloning Facility

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Draconisaurus wrote:Looking good! Now eventually your cloning facility will have, facilities, yes? Yes, hello? Hello----haaaaaa
Thanks! :) Unfortunately I'm not sure what to do about the facilities themselves right now. I've got a list of about 6 or 7 building models I need to do for this level, but as I've told you I really just don't like using Max anymore so those are kind of on the backburner right now. I'm trying to build the rest of the level while I work out what to do about this situation.
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Re: Cloning Facility

Post by Draconisaurus »

If it's really an issue, what about redressing existing facilities for your purposes? Could be better than nothing.
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Re: Cloning Facility

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Draconisaurus wrote:If it's really an issue, what about redressing existing facilities for your purposes? Could be better than nothing.
Yeah, potentially, that's what I was thinking. However one specific facility will require more work than that...I could make it out of building blocks, however, if push comes to shove. Alternatively I might try getting back into SketchUp, it's way, way less tedious than Max and is especially good for building models. That's what tatu uses, I believe.
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Re: Cloning Facility

Post by tatu »

TheIdiot wrote:
Draconisaurus wrote:If it's really an issue, what about redressing existing facilities for your purposes? Could be better than nothing.
Yeah, potentially, that's what I was thinking. However one specific facility will require more work than that...I could make it out of building blocks, however, if push comes to shove. Alternatively I might try getting back into SketchUp, it's way, way less tedious than Max and is especially good for building models. That's what tatu uses, I believe.
Yes, I use Sketchup for making models then 3ds Max to texture and smooth it :)
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Re: Cloning Facility

Post by TheIdiot »

The gorge again, this time from a different angle.
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Just wanted to show a bit more of the work I did on this area as it's one of my favourites thusfar. Something like this is what I always imagined the developers pictured when they were working on IJ's gorge. There are a few puzzles you'll have to get past on the way through here, instead of Raptors, though - I'm trying to limit combat and focus more on exploration since there is a LOT of room for pathfinding trouble in this level without a great deal of AI finnicking.
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Re: Cloning Facility

Post by Draconisaurus »

Coool... Reminds me of the areas in RTJP. Hm uh, be sure to include melee sticks where Dinos do get around. :nerd:
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Re: Cloning Facility

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Draconisaurus wrote:Coool... Reminds me of the areas in RTJP. Hm uh, be sure to include melee sticks where Dinos do get around. :nerd:
Didn't even think of that but it definitely a bit like the RTJP dilophosaur paddock and VC stream, but a lot more detailed and claustrophobic since this level is quite small. :wink:

As for the melee sticks, I haven't imported them yet but do plan on adding them around. I'm also going to retexture all of the throwable rocks in order to distinguish them from the static ones I'm using en masse as you do need them for some puzzles. I'd like to come up with a way to make it obvious what objects are useful and what objects are just clutter since it's pretty hard to tell considering how much is going on in this level. I'm also considering re-using the RTJP stamina system here since it never really shined. Wouldn't imbalance anything and prevents the dreaded bunny-hopping, plus it makes Anne generally faster which offsets the speed you would have gained by bunny-hopping anyway.
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Re: Cloning Facility

Post by Draconisaurus »

TheIdiot wrote:I'm also considering re-using the RTJP stamina system here since it never really shined. Wouldn't imbalance anything and prevents the dreaded bunny-hopping,
I'm a fan. I never really figured out what it did, as my original playthrough of RTJP didn't display a HUD for whatever reason. I never got around to play with settings to see if it'd appear. It's a sad tidbit of unsupported tech upgrade, as we never really tested that aspect of CE while Lee was still around.
plus it makes Anne generally faster which offsets the speed you would have gained by bunny-hopping anyway.
Oh it makes her faster? How is that? And does stamina also affect running (instead of walking) or just jumping?
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Re: Cloning Facility

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Oh it makes her faster? How is that? And does stamina also affect running (instead of walking) or just jumping?
The script has a function that increases her speed by 20% or so. It's noticable when playing RTJP that she is a bit faster by default. And no, the stamina is only used for jumping (you can jump 5 times before it runs out and you have to wait a bit for it to regenerate) and sprinting, which can be done by holding shift - you get about 5 seconds out of it, though it can be a bit finnicky, and it makes her about 30% faster for a combined increase of 50% while sprinting. Regular walking and running is unaffected since I don't believe anyone ever uses her regular walk speed anyway.
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Re: Cloning Facility

Post by Draconisaurus »

Oh wow, didn't realize. Well I look forward to it.
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Re: Cloning Facility

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Time for a change of pace. Literally:
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You might notice as indicated by the new HUD in the bottom-left that I've added my stamina system to the level, which was originally created for RTJP by Tres CE's creator, Lee Arbuco. I'm not sure whether I'll keep it or not - it's possible I might keep the sprint system but get rid of the HUD, but I need to figure out how to re-enable the deactivated "Tire" voice lines in the script first so that you can tell when Anne is tired without having to have the HUD. The level is quite cinematic overall so I don't want to distract from the visuals with the HUD, hence why I want to remove it. I also hope to be able to add in the remaining unused RTJP scripts, namely the Map function and possibly the CE-friendly Spitter (though I didn't really plan on having dilophosaurus in this level, perhaps there's another use..?).
I added the Stamina system because I got sick of being able to bunny-hop away from dinosaurs and felt that Anne was a bit too slow - for those of you not already aware of what the script does, it makes it so that you have a limited amount of Stamina (the green bar), which is depleted by jumping as well as "sprinting", which is a new added feature that makes Anne run a lot faster when you hold Shift for a few seconds. Once you stop jumping or sprinting, there is a short delay before your Stamina begins to regenerate. You can't sprint or jump while your Stamina is low, so bunny-hopping is invalid as a strategy...you're better to sprint away to a safe distance, but even so you can't run forever as the Pathfinding-enhanced carnivores are a bit more competent in this level! :wink:

In other news, I've just finished the majority of work on another new model for one of the facilties in this level, and have been working on optimization as the level does slow down a fair bit when you're looking from the starting beach toward the rest of the level. Some rough Occlusion objects are in place and I'm working on getting good Culling and CacheDist values as well, though it seems for the moment CE is overriding the level's settings.
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Re: Cloning Facility

Post by Draconisaurus »

Drac waits patiently for sights of Cloning Facility other than jungle.

I personally think a HUD is cool. There'll always be lots of chance to play the game without a HUD, and CE doesn't have the HUD that ATX did, so I'm not so keen to say ditch it... I def. think the stamina system is a great way to create a new consistent gameplay that players can know is shared.

The Spitter... Didn't you make that work in the CE port of TC Anthology?

You made a new facility model! Great! A note on occlusion models. Long time ago I realized that Trespasser was interpretting occlusions as individual triangles instead of the rectangle shapes hoped to be used. But recently I read a developer document section talking about how models were meant to be made for the game. Apparently, Trespasser will combine some triangles on an object under the correct conditions and interpret them as a single polygon during rendering. If the conditions aren't met, two triangles won't be employed as a single polygon even if they're co-planar. The two requirements are that they be co-planar with each other, and that they have "linear" UVW coordinates. Basic example is that if you map a rectangle with a BMP image, then move 1 vertex slightly to the side, even if it's still coplanar Tres won't be able to combine them because the UV is now non-linear.
I bring this up because it's possible occlusion objects can use rectangular (or OVER 4 sided) polygons for occlusion objects if they are co-planar, and a bunch of custom Occlusion models over the years may not have worked as well because this method wasn't followed.
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Re: Cloning Facility

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Drac waits patiently for sights of Cloning Facility other than jungle.
There probably won't be many of those to avoid ruining the surprise, but I'll see what I can do.
I personally think a HUD is cool. There'll always be lots of chance to play the game without a HUD, and CE doesn't have the HUD that ATX did, so I'm not so keen to say ditch it... I def. think the stamina system is a great way to create a new consistent gameplay that players can know is shared.
I wanted to avoid the HUD in this level because there are some scripted RTJP-esque "cutscenes" which I feel would look kind of odd with the HUD - should have asked Lee to add in a way to disable the HUD via triggers while he was around. It will end up having to stay if I can't get the Stamina sounds to work, though. The overall Stamina system is going to stay no matter what though, probably remaining across all of my levels due to the way it blocks the bunny-hop exploit. I like the change of gameplay it offers as well.
The Spitter... Didn't you make that work in the CE port of TC Anthology?
I don't believe so. The only time I recall ever testing it was for an early RTJP version in which I did manage to get it to work. I know I also wrote a tutorial somewhere on it.
A note on occlusion models. Long time ago I realized that Trespasser was interpretting occlusions as individual triangles instead of the rectangle shapes hoped to be used. But recently I read a developer document section talking about how models were meant to be made for the game. Apparently, Trespasser will combine some triangles on an object under the correct conditions and interpret them as a single polygon during rendering. If the conditions aren't met, two triangles won't be employed as a single polygon even if they're co-planar. The two requirements are that they be co-planar with each other, and that they have "linear" UVW coordinates. Basic example is that if you map a rectangle with a BMP image, then move 1 vertex slightly to the side, even if it's still coplanar Tres won't be able to combine them because the UV is now non-linear.
I bring this up because it's possible occlusion objects can use rectangular (or OVER 4 sided) polygons for occlusion objects if they are co-planar, and a bunch of custom Occlusion models over the years may not have worked as well because this method wasn't followed.
Had no idea about this, are we sure it works properly? Do you have an example model I could see? I think that would make a significant difference if the Occlusion objects worked properly, especially since right now they don't do a great job. I did plan on making Occlusion objects that matched the terrain shape which is a bit unfortunate, but perhaps now that we know it's on a per-triangle basis I might be able to bend the triangles so that they cover the maximum area possible.
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