Open Machines?
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Unreal Engine #X sounds fine by me. I'll back you guys up on that!
For the rest I think we should minimize the amount of creative stuff (Although I love the intent) but getting that engine running is really the single most-important priority we should have here. If we want any kind of game. (We have 9 years worth of creative stuff hehe)
How well versed are you guys with the Unreal Engine? Are you absolute Guru's? Is it easy to learn? How fast could somebody get up to speed with it?
I saw something SourceForge somewhere. How much effort went into there, does anybody have the link, how viable is that still?
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Well getting an RTS to work on Unreal is not going to be very difficult. It will obviously take time, but we definitely need 3D art. While I'm practicing 2D and 3D art I'm currently nowhere near good enough to do anything more than drawing up concepts. So creative works aren't out of the picture.
With Unreal I'm new, but I've tried stuff out, and it's not going too be difficult to learn. (for parts that are relevant to your field) We should be able to get up to speed with it pretty fast.
The SourceForge project does not really have anything of value for continuing a project, not too much effort was put into it. It was just a small attempt when we wanted to make changes afterward with switching engines and whatnot. Of course we had not moved on sooner because we had been busy.
Of course we will set up version control later; probably with git.
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Can we re-use all the old 3D models? (Should we?)
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@Judas
Do you mean from the original game or from the SourceForge project? The project has a minimal amount of models, and I don't know if they original ones would work. I guess it depends on what type of file can be extracted from the game. If we would want to start there we could, and then move on to original content later. -
@bilal said:
@Judas
Do you mean from the original game or from the SourceForge project? The project has a minimal amount of models, and I don't know if they original ones would work. I guess it depends on what type of file can be extracted from the game. If we would want to start there we could, and then move on to original content later.Exactly. I think we can extract DirectX (.x) files from the models.bin file. I'll check out how we can edit those later (Change 'm into AutoCAD's .dxf? Or Blender's .obj? What works best?)
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I guess .fbx. It seems that's what people are using with Unreal.
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Aye aye capt'n. I'll be home in two hours and I'll get to it right away.
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I may or may not have 700 .obj files right now.
I may need to register the software though (3D Object Converter) because now every 5th triangle/poly is removed :/ (And a license is 50$. Ouch.)
Onlu .obj files btw. I couldn't find .fbx :s (Mind you, every 5th triangle is removed, hence the crappy look)
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@Judas
I think obj should work anyway. Is it importing the .x into blender that removed every 5th triangle, but the exporter works fine?EDIT: By exporter I meant the program that pulls the model out of machines.
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The Exporter/Converter is the part that removes the 5th triangle. Blender is working as it should (free and perfectly smooth)
(Blender doesn't allow importing .x files tho)
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@Judas
Ah, hm. That's weird. I'm going to see if there are any other converters and probably test this one as well. -
I've asked the guys that created the converter if we could get a free key (even if it's only for a single use), this being the product of love, sweat and tears. :) (But looking at others is wise, as I don't know if they'll respond positively if at all)
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@Judas Wait, you need 3D Object Converter?
...just asking.
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@Encrypted
That's the one we need yes. You have a license?
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Nah, nah. But if I get enough money I might want to give you the license.
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YES YES YES!
Zoltan, the creator of 3D Object Converter has very generously given us a FREE LICENSE!
So, soon I'll be able to upload the model files 100% intact!
Edit: My god. That looks amazing. (For 1999 3d models, of course)
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@Judas
Wow.I didn't expect that to happen. Did he give you a limited time or unlimited time license?
Anyway, that's great. I've been working with UE4 in the meantime so I guess we can see how these would do as placeholders.
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Unlimited, but personal license.
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My.
Dear.I'm at a loss of words!
So, anyway... seems like it'll be easier to make OpenMachines? No?
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@Encrypted
Yep. Much easier. In fact, I even dare to state that things like 3D models and textures are the #1 reason these kinds of projects fail. Everybody can create a single 3D model for show, but nobody wants to create all 695 we've just extracted with the click of a button.
Anyway, to make a game you have a couple of components, three of which are the most important:
Engine, Textures, 3D Models.
With those three combined you can place objects and actors in an environment and make them do things/interact. With the Unreal Engine we have #1, we can reuse most of the textures of Machines so we also have #2 (until we find suitable replacement) and with the 3D-models we finally have #3. (Again, until we find suitable replacement)
By reusing the models, we've managed to cut about 200 Hours of 3D-modelling time (by an experienced 3D-artist) and it will make it much easier (in fact, this alone makes it possible) to create some sort of product with PR-value that will attract new, interested and hopefully skilled people to the project.
Now, we still need to think about animating the models, improving the models and texturing the models (The actual process of putting textures on a model is also a field of expertise) but we've managed to cut considerable time with this. Probably years, taking into account the speed at which we were going.
Pretty surprised nobody did it before me though. The tools were right there on the download page, haha.
