Isn't there any useable game dev software out there???
Quote:Original post by thesaint1987As Codeka mentions, that is all well and good for large commercial studios - but if a company spends a few million building procedural animation middleware, no way are they going to hand it out for free to anyone who asks.Quote:Original post by swiftcoderWell but the good aspect would be that it would only be more expensive ONCE, since many games could now use this generation.
This is unfortunately the reality: at the present time, procedural content generation is generally *more* expensive than an art department.
And as for the indies? The ones productive enough to develop something along these lines are too busy making games (Eskil Steenberg, Ysaneya, etc.), and the rest of us are not motivated/skilled enough to finish it [smile]
Quote:Original post by thesaint1987
As I am a very experienced programmer in other areas, I am sure that none of the techniques I described is impossible. So my question is why isn't there iny engine or tool set supporting them? Since it would definitely make game development a lot easier if not possible at all for me.
Huh? There are tools like that, lots of them.
They cost $10,000,000. The tool is called: financing a studio.
I really don't see the problem here, never before has it been easier for a single person to get things done.
Quote:it is really not that hard to generate realistic looking terrain, since I wrote such an engine myself. But of course it was still lacking many important features...
1 + 1 = ?
Why is your engine lacking many important features? When will they be completed? Where can I download it with full source, documentation, tutorials and hundreds of production quality samples?
I'd like a link right now please, I'm busy.
Think about it.
Quote:the good aspect would be that it would only be more expensive ONCE
Mass Effect 2's Afterlife tracks come from one NFS game. Even the big players reuse, since cost of production these days is astronomical.
You can too, but the cost of original production must be covered somehow. So they won't be available for free.
As for procedural building/model creation, check out the papers by Paul Merrell here. I've taken a course with him and he seems to take a unique approach (derived from texture synthesis).
I think you're trying to compete with AAA game studios, but you are one man. This is impossible as one person, no matter how good you are. If you could automate most these things you mentioned, people would have already done this.
So you're left with a few choices. You can either organize with other talented individuals and start your own studio, or refocus your attention in areas where you can excel as an auteur (mobile game development, indie games, etc.)
This is slightly sidestepping what you're saying, but all the same I think it might be of use to you: ">Ira Glass on Storytelling
(At least it's entertaining ;-) )
So you're left with a few choices. You can either organize with other talented individuals and start your own studio, or refocus your attention in areas where you can excel as an auteur (mobile game development, indie games, etc.)
This is slightly sidestepping what you're saying, but all the same I think it might be of use to you: ">Ira Glass on Storytelling
(At least it's entertaining ;-) )
If you are an absolute perfectionist, game development is not for you!
Even the best games ship with things that are really appalling.
If you can't handle ugly hacks, ugly code or doing things "just good enough" instead of the absolute perfect way or the way you "should" do it, you are going to be really really frustrated.
Reality, time tables and budgets dictate imperfection.
So...
you are going to have to loosen up, or choose another field :P
Even the best games ship with things that are really appalling.
If you can't handle ugly hacks, ugly code or doing things "just good enough" instead of the absolute perfect way or the way you "should" do it, you are going to be really really frustrated.
Reality, time tables and budgets dictate imperfection.
So...
you are going to have to loosen up, or choose another field :P
Quote:Original post by thesaint1987
1)What about realistic motions like in state-of-the-art games? Is there any way to get something close for a single developer? Most hobby/OpenSource games out there, including my ones, look like robot invasion, at best...
2) Is there a better software for clothing simulation than DAZ Studio with the "Dynamic Clothing" plugin? I mean last time I was using it, only two dynamic clothing bundles were available. So you can do nothing productive with it, even if the idea itself is almost perfect.
3) Is there any good terrain rendering software out there where you only specify global aspects, like heightmap and areas carrying information about wood, snow, water, etc. But then the software should use some fractal-algorithms to interpolate all the details from my global specification...? This is possible, just before I start to do this myself I want to know if there exists anything.
4) Is there any good software out there, where you can build realistic architecture with the least design effort? Again this should work in the way that I specify global constraints and the engine computes all the details and variations using fractals/heuristics, or whatever.
5) I think this last question is useless... Is there any Software that now can apply realistic physic effects to my previously created digital content and save it in a format I can use in my game? I mean the DAZ Clothing is rather useless if I can't reproduce it in real-time.
1. No, not really, but most games have crappy animation anyway. The big problem is using canned animations you can't change. Also, 3dsm really sucks for animation. So if you use something someone put together in biped and can't edit it it will suck squared.
2. Well, it's pretty pointless to use an offline tool and plan to use it in a realtime engine, but plenty of engines have some kind of cloth support.
3. Sure, plenty of engines. If you are starting from no engine you will be done with a usable one with the features you want in maybe 10 years if you don't have other obligations.
4. Sure, again you want a game engine with a good editor. Trying to use random tools for each thing will go nowhere.
5. You want engine with physics support, and again, go by the engine not by outside tools. The engines that support havoc in the way you want mostly cost a mint, and won't turn out exactly like you want anyway.
Quote:Original post by thesaint1987
-------------- The long explaination
I know tools like Maya, 3DS, DAZ3D Studio, Blender, Poser and all that kind of stuff. But none of them seems to give a single person any chance to create competive digital content in reasonable time.
What I mean is simply that it will probably take years if not forever to create good characters and animation, the environment (flowers, buildings, etc) for a single developer. Even if DAZ Studio or Poser are more the ones I am searching for, they still lack many important features and not mention, they only provide good support for character animation but not for environment setup.
No, it's not possible, no matter how great you are.
If you are bruce lee you could kick any one guy's butt, but no matter how awesome you are you'll never be able to take on a whole division of guys, even if they are all illiterate chinese peasants.
You can make a game on your own, but even if you are a good programmer you need to learn to program 3d. Then to learn to make art. Then to learn to be a technical artist (make maya plugins and scripts and rig and stuff). Then make your actual game.
So if you have 5 years of free time and are a good programmer and have discipline, you could make a game, but only if you limit the amount of artwork a great deal. And plus the guys making the art aren't just random guys with computers, but artists who go to school for it, study it, and have some kind of talent.
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