Terrain Mat 01

Initial work on the terrain material. No paint-able layers yet, only slope based, which is why everything is rocks right now. I did learn that I don't want the "pebble" layer. Just going rock to dirt.

 Also need to re-work the grass to be more solid clumps.

Terrain Textures

Finished the major parts of the terrain textures this weekend. I was worried about that task for the sprint. I haven't made the terrain material yet so I don't have an example of it all working just yet, which means there could be tweaks to the textures, but its all ready to bake down so hopefully the heavy lifting is done. I actually spent most time on the road and path textures, which are not show.
I can show you grass material which I have as a simple test. Some things like sand and dirt are going to be one color only, other things are going to be super detailed like the grass here. Potentially I may make another grass that is completely solid. Not sure yet. Texture tiling, is kinda small for the grass, but whatever its just a test

Also needed to give the rock kit some love since it needs to blend into the rock terrain material. Again, props to Arid Desert on the marketplace for giving me a base to work from.

Veg Kit & Map

Veg kit complete, including collisions on trees and stump. I will add more to the kit to build variety but this is the kit for the sprint that ends 9/4.

 New is Fern and Crop which currently is the blue plant.

Something I haven't shown but made it a while ago in the "dark time" when I wasn't very good about updates is the map of the world. This is the kind of thing that changes a lot but has been in a stable state for some time, so I think I can share it in its current state.

Tree02

Veg kit moving along. All I need to do now (for this sprint) is another variety of Bush and a Crop type... by tonight, hah.

Trees01

First round of trees, this is only 2, and the material needs more work to get the colors right. But the shapes are "there". This week is finish veg tasks. So these need to get a move on, and out.

Weekend Update 9 14

Started a sprint end of last week that goes for a month. Goals are to have am area of the level with houses, terrain materials, rocks, plants, trees and the player character able to run around, possibly fire his weapon.
Starting to put together the actual game part of the development. Building project, making class for character, getting animations together for the new rig... workin' it.

2 Steps forward...

Building the controller for real means bringing in the animations for the anim tree, which means bringing in the real Todd, which means rigging him. While I've gone through that process a few times now I knew the deformations were garbage and I had to rework them. At the time I didn't care b/c I was moving forward. Well now I needed to take 2 steps back to redo the topology of Todd, which gave be pause to tweak a few proportions. Nothing major just giving it another once over, and studying what I've done with a critical eye. Todd v07, also re-UV'ed, but that was easy.

I also went from T-Pose to relaxed arms b/c the edge loops were too hard to imagine in the extreme of the T-Pose.

3rd Person Camera & Controller

I'm working on the player controller and 3rd person camera height, rotation, and FOV. Trying out different configurations playing a bit and seeing how it feels. This is the last one I was trying, where I liked it for a number of reasons. Its always a give and take, closer up we get to see more details of the character, further away we can see the environment, rotated camera we can see forward, but then does the camera rotate to see behind you? So while it may seem simple there's a lot to consider, and I'm trying to find what/where that is.

Back

I admit it. I've been lazy. Luckily not lazy about development but about posting updates to my blog. Tons of writing, a game design doc, a narrative doc, lore, world info... I figured I had to understand the world/game before I just blindly made assets.
Then/While I did that I spent quit a bit of time re-working and refining the look. More on that to come. A friend of mine is about to ramp up into the project and will have a large role in helping define the visual art style. I've re-organised and set up a sprint for the next 4 weeks (well plus the weekend) Anywhoo so right now I'm attacking a few things but specifically I'm reworking a rock kit I bought "Arid Desert" from the asset store. I liked the set up, might add a few more small bits but overall, trying out a new look from them. Here is an image w/o any albedo texture just trying to get the feeling of implied detail through the mesh and normal map. There's still some refinements to do of course, as always but here's a quick screen shot.

So much more to say to catch you all up....