Game Engine Update (Post processing effects, life bars, oh my)

Updated rendering so models are rendered according to Y value in order.

Updated so that the camera has special effects when shooting rockets

Updated lifebars ontop of ally and enemy units.

Fixed some bugs with hit boxes.

New Map Test

Testing out a new map. Needs some tuning but anyway, the graphics are loading ok.

Redid the way all the animations work today.
I was using 2D bone animations, but now I have decided to use flash animations exported to sprite sheets to do all the work.

Update to Game Engine

Added a map scripting engine to the game engine so I can spawn enemies based on events in the game. Updated AI just a little bit.

Game Engine Weak AI Update

Added a really simple AI.
Knight on the left is AI shooting other AI.
Also added some blood particle effects

Game Engine Update (Killable Enemies)

Added some functionality so I can finally do damage and kill off enemies.

New Game Engine Test

Back on subject with games, here is a new test for the game engine.

- Particles are finished
- Particle scripting
- Adding particles to character attacks with scripting in the character editor
- Particle collision with characters
- Particle collision with map

About Radiation Levels..

Just want to do some calculations to make things clear on radiation levels.
I am an American, so I will base my average radiation levels on that of an American citizen.

I will list my sources in links at the end.

Unit conversion:
(Radiation exposure) 1 mrem is equal to 10 micro-Sievert (which is what the news keeps using)

The news is also using per hour as their measurements, so micro-sievert / hour. I'll be changing things to per day.

First, take a look at the average radiation level received by an American every year.
Based on a calculation I found on the internet, the average person receives around 340 mrems per year which is 3400 micro-Sievert per year.

Convert to per day and we have about 9.3 uSv (micro-sievert) per day average.

Basically right now they are saying in Tokyo we are absorbing .8 uSv per hour.
Convert this to per day and we have about 19.2 uSv.

Average XRay (Depending on what part of the body you take it) is around 10uSv.

So everyday we are basically absorbing the amount of 2 (Chest) XRays.

Please look at the date to check the radiation amounts, of course this will change everyday.

Average Radiation Calculation:
http://www.new.ans.org/pi/resources/dosechart/

Info about units of Sievert:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sievert

Conversion from mrem to Sieverts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6ntgen_equivalent_man

More about radiation exposure:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1994/safe-0105.html

Xray radiation exposure:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray

Tokyo radiation exposure:
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20110315-268185.html

Comparison of rad levels
http://www.taishitsu.or.jp/radiation/index.html

Off Topic but Pisses me off

Ok, this is way off topic and I'm sure a lot of people are going to get angry about it but I have to express how I feel about all these fucking people waiting in line panicking to buy food and gasoline during the Japan tsunami tragedy.

First of all, why are you buying all the fucking food?

We are only shutting down CERTAIN parts of Tokyo and not all of it.
Not only is it only PART of Tokyo, but its only three hours!!
Just read a book or play with your cell phone, its not that hard to find something to do for three hours.

This gives no damn reason to go buy all the water and food.

Secondly,
If we buy all the food, we don't have any food to send to all the refugees we NEED to be saving in Sendai and northern Japan.
Why do you only think about yourselves? It makes me fucking sick.

Third:
For all of you buying gasoline.
You are only making the problem worse!!
Without gasoline the trucks needed to deliver food to the super markets and convenience stores can't make deliveries, which only makes everything a lot worse.

Now, why you say I get so upset about this?
Because when interviewed "Why are you buying so much rice?" "Why are you buying gasoline?"

The average person answered:
"Well everybody around me is, so I thought why not."

What the fuck kind of answer is this?
It matches the brain function of an average chicken.

Think for yourself! Do you really need to be buying all this?
Only 3 hours a day power outage, do you really need 50 lbs of rice?
Do you really need to fill up your car even though you aren't going anywhere?

It makes no sense. Think for once about what you are doing instead of just following the rest of the community like fucking zombies.

Anyway, done with my rant.

Just learn to think for yourself, and think about what is better for the community around you. Stop being so fucking selfish.

Thanks.

Japan Tsunami

UnoNO and I are in Tokyo, but we are ok.
Most of the damage is in northern Japan.
When I came home everything in my apartment was turned over and broken, but other than that I'm ok.

Aftershocks are still continuing, but a damaging one hasn't come yet.

Here is a video of the tsunami

Added Smoke Trail to Rocket

Used the particle engine to add a smoke trail to the rocket.
Also added a few scripts so he can do jump attacks and semi-auto fire.

Particle Engine and Rocket Test

Added particles and ability to script particles into keyframes.

Future of Gaming, perhaps?

Cliff Bleszinski, design director at Epic Games in charge of big games like Gears of War, Unreal, and helped out with other games like Bulletstorm, and Infinity Blade.

A lot of people on forums or youtube think this guy is a huge jackass, and tend to criticize him for being a douche.

But my opinion, this guy is way ahead of the game, and a damn genius.

Although I'm not a big Gears of War fan myself (sorry CliffyB) I really respect him as a game developer. He really loves what he does, who he speaks to, and thinks about the future more than most developers.

One of the biggest things in my opinion that he talked about during his speech was the change in the way people's minds work from 10-20 years ago and now, and how that will apply to video games.

Personally I have really been thinking about how to mesh together AAA titles with social games in a non-annoying way for a while now.

I really think having a system that will allow you to interact with your AAA title while on the go, is a genius idea.

An example of a first step in the right direction may be B-Spec mode in Gran Turismo 5.
You can actually run races from a web browser anywhere you go to earn EXP and cash for your drivers. This is a great feature, however the lack of appeal and marketing to the feature is really its biggest downfall.

Also the fact that you have to leave your PS3 on as a server, rather than just syncing data when you turn your PS3 on seems like a bad idea...

Nevertheless, it definitely was a good step in the right direction to hook gamers on your title. Making it available at home and on the go, is in my opinion the future of gaming.

Perhaps add side missions as an app on the iOS appstore. Example, play an FF game at home and then have a way to level up your summons (or GFs like FF8) by playing some mini games on your iphone in a battleHeart style.

Some one in the industry, please look at this and take it into consideration (if you are the man like CliffyB I'm sure you are already thinking about it).

Or you could just hire me as a designer ;)


CliffyB's lecture:

Smoke animation for rocket launcher

Added some smoke animation for the firing of the rocket launcher.

Added scripting and attack animation

Big breakthrough today on the game engine!!
Added scripting to the engine so we can script attacks and add some better effects.

To test it out I made a shoot animation for the Knight, and when he shoots the recoil of the rocket launcher makes him slide backwards a bit. Check it out.

Walking Knight Test

Here is a test of a newly colored walking knight.

Character Idle Animation Game Engine Test

Here is just a test of the character with animation being loaded into a custom made map... No running or jumping animations yet (sorry)

Crysis 2 Demo PS3

The Crysis 2 demo has been announced for PS3.
Looks like the multiplayer has some really new and cool elements.

Gonna have to check it out.