AllarEngine + DX11 + HTML5?

So in the process of researching ways to integrate web-based services into UE3 during my work on Rekoil, I came across the library Awesomium thanks to James Tan and thought it was cool enough to add into my personal project / hobby engine I am working on arrogantly called the AllarEngine. It was quite easy to get Awesomium in and running, however I recently switched to DirectX 11 using Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012 as my current run-time target and that required some major refactoring for both DirectX11 and just a general "why did I do it this way, I know a better way" effort. I could go on and on about this, however to keep this short, here is an image of Awesomium being rendered to a quad in screen space.

Friend Jessica Schultz Finished Her DnD Halfling Cosplay Outfit

Good friend of mine, Jessica Schultz, dabbles in 3D modeling and various craft works such as making cosplay outfits! She recently started a blog which I hope you guys will subscribe to over at http://frekki.wordpress.com, where you can see her past works, encourage her to do more, and maybe contact her if you have work that needs done!

Kasumi Practice

It's been awhile since I've posted but here's a quick 15min paint I did to test out Adobe Photoshop Cs6. My review: pretty cool

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9ufz801v8k&w=560&h=315]

Diablo 3 Launch!

Been waiting forever for Diablo 3 as with everyone else; have a few friends who worked on the title tease endlessly about it... but now its finally going live. My battletag is Allar#1160, lets kill some evil!

Updating this blog is hard...

I don't mean to sound whiny, but ever since my new job at Plastic Piranha working on a game title called Rikochet, I just haven't had time to publish any of the cool things I've been working on in my spare time. Hell, I even have a UnrealScript Editor with real auto-complete and some really nice features not found anywhere else, but I'm not happy enough with it distribute it yet. I've even made progress on writing my engine, but that is another story all on its own.

I'm trying to schedule some time in to update my tutorials, but we'll see. For those who keep coming back, thank you!

Going to GDC 2012

I'm on my way over to the Game Development Conference in San Francisco, if you're going to be there be sure to find me at the Plastic Piranha booth!

Savvy's Saturday Drink Responsibly

Another Saturday video to feast on. Enjoy!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoG8ITH082o]

Savvy's Saturday Session #1

So kids, I'm starting a new video series of Saturday speed paintings. I'm going to be filming these paintings in as close to real time as possible and will try to talk about my process or whatever else is going on. Any who, hope you enjoy this rocky first go.

 [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbbCIG6CKHo&w=640&h=360]

UnrealScript Edtior Proof Of Concept

It's all in the title, and the embedded video!

IDE Feature Set

I'm currently traveling down the road others have gone and trying to create an UnrealScript IDE myself as well. nFringe and WOTgreal and some of the newer attempts are all usable and nice, but none of them are as lightweight as I want and are either missing key features, aren't extendable to include features I want, or are outdated. Hopefully I should have a prototype by the end of the week, but if you have any suggestions for what you would like to see in an UnrealScript IDE please comment away your suggestions.

Savvy's Flat Leather Tutorial

And here we have a short tutorial to show you one way to create the look of a flat leather material.

 [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWs5nBfwO30&w=640&h=360]

Kyle's Modular Building!

So if there was any way to build a level fast and efficient its some modular building. I suggest if there are any of you artists out there that love environmental building, look into this because you will instantly make a level designer your best friend.  Here below are a few pieces I modeled & textured out, with this set I can make hallways all day, throw in some rooms and clutter... Waala! You have yourself a pretty decent level to go around go play, tweak, and then refine.

If you are going to try to start making some modular pieces here are some tips:

- ALWAYS stick to the grid, make sure everything will snap just right.

-Try to work within the a power of 2 (specifically 256 or 512 sizes) .

Everything has to be extremely precise, otherwise it will end up not fitting correctly when you import it into your favorite editor. But once done right, can be super powerful. One good read about modular pieces is this. I will update the hallway above, maybe even with some game-play!

Frustration: ScaleForm GFxMoviePlayer Not Calling Init

If your GFxMoviePlayer isn't calling your Init function, I bet you are loading your custom GFxMoviePlayer class through Kismet.

Apparently Kismet fires Start but not Init, at least that is the conclusion I just came to. I didn't find any documentation on this so I'm posting it here for reference.

Savvy's Awesome Unicorn and Prince Commission

I have some fun eye candy for YOU to watch :) Enjoy

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhvRe6K9u7I&w=640&h=360]

Kyle's Hand of Nod

If there was any reason I had any interest of games, or what inspired me to become a video game developer. It had to be the Command and Conquer franchise, BEFORE Electronic Arts took over. I'm talking about Westwood Studios, they probably had to be one of two main reasons why I love games and why I am where I am today.

As a result, I have a little drawn up sketch of a FPS Multiplayer map below is a building that you might see!

Savvy's Hot Keys

For those of you followers of the Allar's Awesome Blog, you are in for a treat with a Savvy created hot key tutorial. The hot keys I cover in this tutorial are ones that I use on a regular basis, but there are many more hot keys that you could find useful for yourself. Using hot keys might be a bit foreign for you at first, but I suggest writing down the short cuts you think you'd use the most and make yourself use them until it's second nature. Using these keys help cut down on time, and promotes focus on your illustration, concept, or texture.

 

 [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UzEaO4yr3g&w=560&h=315]

Beginner Level Design Tips by Kyle

Everyone has to start somewhere, even sometimes you will have to refer to your foundations when it comes to making something. Here in this topic I will give you some tips before it comes to blocking out or modelling your level. This is a workflow that I have used that can help you get started.

The Idea

Movies, games, history, music, photos;  anything can be your references and inspiration to create these epic and memorable play spaces.

Here are some sites to help:

Fuck Yeah Concept Art
Reddit
Bioshock
Mongkok, Hong Kong
Nasa - Image of the Day

My Idea: Space Station on a meteoroid.  

Restrictions/Limitations

Once you have constructed your idea, there are a few questions that you have to ask yourself.

• Is it single player or multiplayer map? Multi-Player


• What is the gameplay like? Deathmatch


• What kind of Engine will be used? Unreal Development Kit


• What will make this map memorable? You are able to launch players in space


• What is the story that this map will tell? A warehouse in the shape of a bio-dome controlled by a mercenaries now being raided by cops.


• What is the deadline (if none give yourself one)? One week. 


• What is the theme? Sci-fi,


• Where do my limitations lie? Shortage of assets

Draw it Out/Reference

Now comes to bring the look of what you had in mind. Start looking about on the internet on where you can grab photos on what you want your map to look like. When grabbing your photos you also want to try to grab some ideas of the lighting or maybe how you want your background to look. Here are some images grabbed from Google and Flickr.

This is the time you want to also draw something out. Personally I love doing a bird's eye view of what the map could look like. Only start thinking about how this map is fun; there is plenty of time to worry about balancing out the map, placing  power weapons, and making play spaces used more but that is to be done later during play testing. By the end you will have many iterations of your level.

This is the basic pre-production on how to create your level. Thanks for reading!

Beginning Your UDK Game: Tools Setup

Hello reader! Whether or not you are brand new to programming in general, programming with UDK, this will set you up with the tools you need to have to make awesome!

At the end of this tutorial, you will have:

1. A copy of the Unreal Development Kit installed (at the time of writing, version Dec. 2011)


2. Visual Studio 2010 with Version 1862.1 or higher of Visual Assist X installed with UnrealScript auto-complete




• Or Wotgreal if you do not have access to Visual Studio 2010




3. UnCodeX for browsing UnrealScript code


4. Everything set up for you to begin a new game project!

Things you will need to download:

1. The Unreal Development Kit


2. Visual Studio 2010 (or Wotgreal)


3. Version 1862.1 of Visual Assist X (if using Visual Studio 2010) You must use Version 1862.1 or higher of Visual Assist X


4. UnCodeX


5. [download id="8" format="1"]

This video comes in two flavors. The first video is for people who are brand new or have no idea whats going on:



This second video is a much shorter rapid fire approach to the above, and is either for those without patience or who already know what they are doing but would just like to get Visual Assist X working properly:

Composing Game Music

Game music is, without a doubt, one of the hardest things to break into, ever.  To put it into perspective: I had a friend start a band, get the band signed to a label, make an album, toured Europe, then left the band, all while I was still trying to break into the industry.  

Unlike artist, programmers, and even sound designers, very few studios actually house full time composers.  Your chances are already slim.  Small time indie developers make the mistake of wanting a sound designer that can do both sound and music, or a composer that can do sound design.  Add that to the fact that the director of the indie project has a brother with a cracked copy of Fruity Loops who now thinks he's Mozart, and you may realize your chances of becoming a game composer, or even working on projects, are less likely.

Frustrating and depressing at times? Yes.  Without a doubt.

Does that mean you should give up? No, of course not.  But knowing how hard it is will help put things into perspective.

Taking the music aspect out completely, being a game composer is so much more than knowing how to write music.  Dare I say it's an art to itself.  Understanding interactive media and how that translates to the music is one of the differences that sets it apart from any other media.  You're not just writing a piece of music.  You're writing music that has to adapt and change with the player.  Not only is it interactive but you have to understand that it is fluid, not abrupt stops from the ambient piece to the tension track.  It has to evolve from one to the other.  Which, in reality, might be a whole different "transition" piece you have to write all together.  Being a game composer means understanding all of this and being able to write music according to these demands.

The Unreal Development Kit (UDK) / Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) and WWISE / FMOD are probably the best examples of how a game engine (or middleware in some cases) create an interactive musical landscape.  If you do not understand at least the basics of these programs, and how they relate to, and handle, music you are doing yourself a disservice.

Do you understand when the tension track is played in UDK?  How about the action track?  Do you know how loop points get set in WWISE, how it can relate to your music, and how it's incorporated into UDK / UE3?

If you have no clue what I'm talking about or don't know the answers to those questions then I suggest downloading both UDK and WWISE and experimenting with them.

UDK Website

WWISE Website

Both are free to download and learn.

Not only will this give you an understanding of how these tools work but it'll give you a better understanding of interactive music.  How it's created, applied, and possibly even change how you write you music all together.

Now on to the music aspect.

If you want to sound like Zimmer, do sound like Zimmer, or only write music that has staccato strings with horns playing fifths, and don't even know there's a woodwind section to an orchestra, then don't waste your time trying to break into the industry.  Zimmer clones are a dime a dozen and, honestly, not very well-respected in the musical community.  Yeah, you might pull off a convincing Zimmer sound, but no one cares.  We've all heard that style time and time again.

On a similar note, if all you write is "un-tis", house, techno, whatever you want to call it, you might want to try a different industry as well.  Everyone with their cracked copy of Fruity Loops is a "producer" and can write that same stuff.  They too come a dime a dozen.

I can hear the angry mob forming, ready to lunge at me with their pitch forks and torches.  I know it's very blunt and may even be hard to hear.  But the fact is, you're applying for an industry that has some of the most talented and creative people you'll ever be given the chance to talk to or associate with - people who aren't a dime a dozen and could probably write that same generic crap ten times better than you in their sleep.

Do you think Kevin Riepl knows what notes are in a B minor scale?  Without a doubt.  Do you think Sascha Dikiciyan uses stock presets in Massive?  Far from it.  These guys have honed their craft and are damn good at what they do.  Jesper Kyd, Sam Hulick, etc, these are, essentially, the same group of guys you'll be applying against (or possibly even working with).  What are you going to do if someone tells you, "Alright guys, we're gonna write this whole soundtrack in A minor." and you don't know what A minor is, or what notes belong in that scale? (Red Dead Redemption's soundtrack was all in A minor)

Again, this isn't musical elitism.  This is knowing your craft inside and out and being able to deliver on all fronts when asked.

So if you are reading this and are becoming depressed - good.  But that doesn't mean don't try to break into the industry,  just know that it's something extremely hard to do and you really have to be on top of your game to get that foot in the door.  Hell, things are just now starting to come around for me after many years of determination and growth.

- David Mason

How to Make Bad-Ass Sexy Leather Part 1

So folks, this video pertains to leather. Painting leather, especially different types of leather, can be difficult and confusing. To make it easier for you humans to master, I have a two-parter to help fellow artists learn ways to create a nice leather look. In this video I cover sexy shiny leather. Cat Woman's tight fitting, very snug leather suite might come to mind. The soon to come 2nd leather video will be a way to do a flat leather.

These styles of painting can also be crossed over into texturing characters, or even prop models, so give this video a go even if you'r not a 2D artist.

All of the ways of painting that I suggest in my tutorials are techniques that I go by,  but you might find a way that works better for you, and by all means go for it. It's about the final piece being AWESOME, not necessarily how you got there. As Tim Gunn says, "Make it work".

 [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcWw5AJgfx4?hd=1&w=560&h=315]

Design3's Game Development In One Word

Ben Mears over at Design3 has been recently blowing up Twitter #gamedevinoneword about how game developers describe game development in one word and created a montage of their responses from interviews at GDC 2011 which I also happened to be at.

You can check out the original post on Design3 here, or view the montage embedded at the end of this post. Please hit up #gamedevinoneword on Twitter if you're also a tweeter or whatever these newfangled kids are calling themselves now. Side note, this post is my high score for links-to-total-text-density, whooo.

A Challenger Has Appeared! (Kyle)

I know with the cliché gaming title you must be wondering on who I am.  To get a super quick idea of who I am, my name is Kyle Bardiau. I'm a level designer/world builder by heart, but sometimes caught acting like an environmental artist. Love long hikes, pizza, etc. Now lets talk about levels!

Below is something I started, being inspired by a certain picture done by Gia Nguyen Hoang. Tell me what you guys think of it so far, and what you are working on!

Free Indie Games

So there has been a few good Humble Indie Bundle packages that let you pay what you want to pay for a set of indie games...

Here is a pack of free indie games! Just thought you guys would like to know about it if you don't already.

http://theturtle.editions.free.fr/nanigaming/freeindiebundle/

Looking For Authors And People Who Like Writing Stuff About Things They Know

To make sure that my site has a steady stream of content to occupy your time between my tutorial postings, I am looking for asset creators and authors who want to share their tutorials or write articles based on things they have done... basically to blog about their stuff on my blog. I would like to keep the writings geared toward game development and the game industry but if you have some topic that you think might be of interest to me, feel free to leave a comment below and I'll consider it. I'm hoping for some artists and level designers to step up, but I'd also like a few team leaders working on things to possibly share their trials and tribulations as well.

Just recently I have enlisted a few friends and colleagues to help generate some content. The first being Savannah (Savvy) Cortez, current roommate and concept artist / 2D painter for various things, to help expand my blog to more than just programming. She has a few tutorials up, and you can check out her YouTube channel for her videos which hopefully she'll be adding to and sharing with us here. Here is a link to her first post here as well.

Next up, level designer friend and colleague Kyle Bardiau, has decided to give some blogging a try with some of the level design stuff he is working on. Hopefully over time we can see some of his designs come to fruition. You can view his first post here.

We also have the privilege to finally get some content on sound and music, more specifically David Mason's article about getting into the games industry as a composer. I have worked with David Mason in the past on the Unreal iOS game Warm Gun for which he has created a truly stunning soundtrack. Hopefully he will continue to write and share some information about sound and music that the game development world desperately needs.

Finally, as an incentive to get some new authors on the site, approved authors get all the web hosting space they need to share the things they write about (aside from putting a whole development project on my server.... for now).

Savvy Does Art and Stuff

Hey there fellow humans, robots, aliens, and animals. To cut it short, I'm Savvy and I love art and to create art. I've been placed here to create artistically for your viewing pleasure and learning purposes. Please enjoy the following.



[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lcGCUFiTTo&w=560&h=315]

New Site Features Implemented

So I was able to get some forums and a fancy new feature suggestion box thing that I've wanted to add for a while now, fix some formatting issues on some pages, and hacked a bunch of PHP to get WordPress plugins talking to each other so you friendly people can log in via a social network platform instead of being forced to create a new account (but you can still do that if you like on the left hand side bar). The site still has a way to go before I can start pushing my planned content out, but its taking shape.

Comments can still be made on articles without being logged in, but forums and feature suggestions need you logged in. I'm hoping to do some cool stuff with user accounts as time goes on, maybe even offer subversion hosting? We'll see. In the mean time, suggestions are welcome on the feature suggestion page. Every account gets 10 votes a month that you can use to vote for something you want to see done on this site. Cool stuff abound.

Also, within a day of setting up the donation button on the People Who Are Awesome page that allows you guys to donate directly to my web hosting account as well as my personal microphone and pizza buying account, a Steven from StevenAshley.com donated $15, so here's a shout out to him. I am greatly appreciative of those that help to make this possible and I thank you very much. I'm not really sure what this Steven does, but you should go click on his website anyway. If you're feeling kind, feel free to give too!

How I'm Starting The New Year

Right now I'm digging through some word press themes trying to find one that looks nice for reading code upon and that will support some new features I'm trying to implement. If you have any suggestions, whether good or bad, or links to word press themes you want me to check out, please leave a comment!

And here is me testing some LaTeX stuff.

$latex x=\frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}&s=4&bg=00355F&fg=ffffff$