NEW BLOGS

As many of you may have noticed that my Unity 3D Video game development project has kind of taken over this blog. And it's such a HUGE project with many, many things going on that encompass so much from Photoshop graphics creation, 3D modeling, Animation, and the Unity 3D game engine itself. I felt it was time to give it it's very own blog as many who originally follow this blog may NOT be interested in my video game project. And although I originally set this blog up as sort of a basic "Just to let people know what I was up to" sort of blog, the video game project has kind of taken over. So what I have done is set up two new additional blogs. One for my Online Shops called MDK Graphics: Here. And another one dedicated entirely to my Unity 3D Video Game Project titled "Rednecks and Alien Zombies": Here. That way I figure people can follow more easily what they are interested in and not get lost in the clutter of stuff they may NOT be interested in.

Alien Zombies walk Through Walls

A new problem I've been having is trying desperately to come up with an "Object Avoidance" system that is simple and hopefully not expensive. I added this bit of code into my "Alien Zombie's" AI script:







function Update (){



//The direction vector to our target
var dir = (target.position - transform.position).normalized;
var hit : RaycastHit;
// Check for forward raycast
if(Physics.Raycast(transform.position, transform.forward, hit, 20)){
if(hit.transform != transform){
Debug.DrawLine(transform.position, hit.point, Color.red);
dir += hit.normal * 50;
}


}


var leftR = transform.position;
var rightR = transform.position;


leftR
rightR.x += 2;




if(Physics.Raycast(leftR, transform.forward, hit, 20)){
if(hit.transform != transform){
Debug.DrawLine(leftR, hit.point, Color.red);
dir += hit.normal * 50;
}
}
if(Physics.Raycast(rightR, transform.forward, hit, 20)){
if(hit.transform != transform){
Debug.DrawLine(rightR, hit.point, Color.red);
dir += hit.normal * 50;
}
}


var rot = Quaternion.LookRotation(dir);


var sizeOfMonster = 2.5;
var groundOffset = Vector3(0,2.2,0);
var newPosition = transform.position + transform.forward * 1 * Time.deltaTime;
if (!Physics.CheckSphere(newPosition+groundOffset, sizeOfMonster)){
transform.position = newPosition;
}


transform.rotation = Quaternion.Slerp(transform.rotation, rot, Time.deltaTime);
transform.position += transform.forward * 1 * Time.deltaTime;


}


function OnDrawGizmosSelected () {
Gizmos.color = Color.red;
var sizeOfMonster = 2.5;
var groundOffset = Vector3(0,2.2,0);
Gizmos.DrawWireSphere (transform.position+groundOffset, sizeOfMonster);
}
 
With some help from Unity Answers. But they still just pass right through the walls of my buildings and even sometimes through the terrain and then just fall into oblivion, which I'll bet is a real garbage collector and drag on the games performance after a while. These frustrating problems are causing me so much grief and costing me so much valuable time that I could be spending on the games actual creative look and feel. But I just want to get this and other issues worked out so I have some sort of template to base future (If Any) games on as this very frustrating learning curve continues.

Old Dynamite Shack

The Old Dynamite Shack

Finally done Farmer Bob's Old Dynamite Shack located right by the Old Windmill. It too me a little longer than I had expected to make this model, I guess it was all the odd bits of junk inside of the shack that took the time. It's got a shelf with old paint cans, boxes, spray paint cans, turpentine cans and empty wire spools. Some bits of old wood on the floor and leaning up against the wall, Old wooden cable carts, empty apple boxes, boxes of old dynamite, rusty old buckets... basically anything I could think of to toss in there but yet trying to keep the poly count down so as to not bog down my games performance too much. Unity 3D seems to handle it quite nicely so I'm very pleased with that. As you can see here (left) this is Bob's Old Dynamite Shack as seen in the game play mode.

For some reason when I imported my model into Unity 3D the door was out of position so I had to move it back to where it was supposed to be, fortunately only along the one axis so it was a very easy adjustment. My animations from Max 8 were unaffected thankfully. The REALLY cool part was that when I imported the model into Unity 3D the textures were all applied and all I had to do was apply the bump maps, so that saved a lot of time ;)

Now I need to make the Dynamite and Detonator, place that inside of the shack where my notation mentions so that Bob will be able to pick up those items in order to blast the rocks clear from the path.

Here is a sample render of Farmer Bob's Old Dynamite Shack done in Max 8 with the roof hidden so you can see a general layout of the shack's interior and all the odd bits of junk lying about the place.

Level One Layout Bob's Homestead

After a lot of tweaking and playing around I am fairly close to completing level one of my Unity FPS game. "Rednecks and Alien Zombies". As you can see the level is much more manageable than how I had it before which was to try and place everything onto one giant terrain. Which I quickly discovered was just not going to work. So now I have been working on setting up level one which is where "Farmer Bob" starts his adventure. There are a few things Bob needs to figure out in this level. Nothing too complicated. There is a locked gate that Bob needs to take the key hanging on his wall in order to unlock and then open the gate to gain access to the old farm area.

Getting into the old farm area is not enough though, Bob has to find and kill all of the "Alien Zombies" lurking about his property. Also in order to get the first of four "Alien Artifacts" Bob will need to walk towards the UFO hovering just inside on the Ancient stone circle close to Bob's house. This will cause the UFO to take off and in mid flight will explode and then crash over on the "Old Farm Area", but ONLY if Bob walks towards the UFO and causes it to take off otherwise he will NOT get the first "Alien Artifact". Also Bob will need to visit the Old Dynamite Shack located close to the old Windmill in order to get some Explosives to blast the rocks blocking the exit from this level to the next game level.

The Dynamite shack I'm still in the process of construction right now so it's not seen on my Screen capture of my game level just yet, just the Old Windmill is visible. 

The Old Windmill is Back

The Old Farm Windmill is back. This time I decided to place it over on Bob's Homestead just on the other side of the Ancient Stone Circle from which the UFO takes off from. You can't see it here to fully appreciate it but the windmill blades rotate slowly and make a nice quiet old creaky windmill sound.

The idea is have my player explore more and find things they need. Now I haven't even begun to make it yet. But over close to the old windmill there will be Farmer Bob's old dynamite shack that's used for storage. You see when the UFO takes off from the Ancient Stone Circle and then crashes over by the old farm area the impact causes a rock slide that blocks off the path that exits this game level. So Bob will need to get some Dynamite to blast the fallen rocks clear.

I guess that's going to be my weekend project is to start work on the Dynamite shack. There might even be "Alien Zombies" lurking about inside of the old dilapidated Dynamite Shack

Dynamite is of course the Farmers old helper, it removes stumps. rocks, and drastically reduces the flight capability of Alien Spacecraft

Farmer Bob's Old Farm Gate Action

Farmer Bob has a new obstaclele to overcome, a very simple one. it's a locked gate that separates Bob's homestead from the old farm area which has the old Barn, abandoned farm house, the old Chicken Coop and disused Silo. Bob will actually need to pick up the key that hanging on his wall in order to get the gate unlocked and then open. Simple I say because I can't really imagine anyone leaving the house, which is the starting point of the game, without taking the key. most people I know explore an area pretty thoroughly before leaving it. At least I always do whenever I'm playing a game. So to miss the key one would have to be pretty blind not to see it hanging there. It is almost because of this very reason that I have thought about perhaps putting the key in the wood shed out back of Farmer Bob's house just so it forces the player to explore a little more. but it to me didn't make much sense to have a key out doors like that??

It took me the better part of almost two day to figure out how to code this to get it to work with a key though. As it's NOT like any of my other door that simply open when the raycast from my FPS player intersects with the door, the door opens. The gate's coding was a little different in that I had to make it recognise that I had actually picked up the key. Took a bit of getting the scripts to send messages to one another, a whole process I'm still a little fuzzy on how it all works. But we eventually got it to work.

The gate model itself didn't really take too long to make, what did take a while was working out the unlocking and gate opening mechanics. The gate has a sort of "Swing Arm" type of locking bracket that closes over the end gate pole and then locks with an old rusty padlock at the ends of the "U" shaped "Swing Arm." I had to make an animation for that part to unlock the padlock, swing the "Swing Arm" down to unlock the gate. You can see the whole thing in action in the video clip from my YouTube. Once you have the key, you approach the gate, press the "Q" key on the keyboard which unlocks the gate, press it again and the gate swings open. A real pain to figure out but at least now I have a working model of this game action so I can use it again if I ever need to in the future.

Alien Zombie Attack 01 Postcard from Zazzle.com

Alien Zombie Attack 01 Postcard from Zazzle.com

Farmer Bob's Creepy Old Wood Shed

I kept thinking that Farmer Bob's homestead was missing something, although truth be told I still think there are some things that need to be added. But I did over the weekend manage to make an old wood shed for just out back of Farmer Bob's house located fairly close to the old abandoned out house.

As you can see here from my "In Game" screen captures it adds a nice bit of eerie scenic detail. You can also see that I have given Farmer Bob a flashlight too which is perfect for poking about inside of those dark confined and creepy interiors.

 I figure it's another ideal place for Alien Zombies to be lurking about and hiding on Farmer Bob's property. I have not yet placed one of the Alien Zombies inside of the old wood shed yet. I've been trying to think of something interesting or different that an Alien Zombie could or would be doing in there, perhaps just hiding behind the door as it opens inwards so behind the door would be kind of a perfect spot for a surprise Alien Zombie attack. In any event I'm trying to come up with something different or unusual for this location. I am also still trying to work out if I can start my Alien Zombie animations off from something other than their default "T-Pose" as right now in confined spaces the "T-Pose" intersects with the geometry of some of the small confined spaces like the Chicken Coop and the Out house especially. So I'm sure that will muck up the game when it starts as they will most likely end up stuck inside of the walls of such confined structures. At least this IS want happens to my Chicken Coop Alien Zombie when I shoot him. Because his "Dead replacement rag Doll", which starts of in the "T-Pose", he ends up stuck through the roof of the Chicken Coop when he dies instead of dropping to the floor. I've been asking around on Unity Answers to see if anyone knows if "Rag Dolls" can be given different poses as this would solve the problem of that happening I am sure.

As you can see from my Max 8 renders that I have tried to give the Old Wood Shed a fair amount of rustic typical "Red Neck" style and detail. There are wood planks, an old barrel, a broken pallet, an old wood saw, chopped fire wood inside, some loose boards with nails sticking out here and there and nice grungy wood textures to help give it that old well used and broken down sort of look.

As usual I have made my model available on my Turbosquid.

Alien Zombie Chicken Coop Of Death Part 02

Alien Zombie Chicken Coop Of death Part 01

Alien Zombie Chicken Coop Chowdown

Alien Zombie Chicken Chowdown

Alien Zombie Chicken Chowdown

It's gonna be a hot time in the O'l chicken coop tonight with poor ol Farmer Bob's gruesome discovery of an Alien Zombie raiding his old chicken coop.

I'm just working on the animations for the Chicken Coop Alien Zombie. I've never tried to animate two bipeds before so it should prove to be an interesting challenge. So far it seems to be going OK, just more parts to animate and try and keep track of. After I do this animation I have to create an "Aware" animation for when Farmer Bob discovers him and he is within a certain range he will react to Farmer Bob's presence. I also will need to do a special attack animation for this guy where he maybe drops the dead chicken and goes after Farmer Bob, and I'll also no doubt need to make a new "dead replacement" rag doll too for when he gets shot by Farmer Bob. lots to do so little time.

Chicken Animation Test

just an Idle animation test for one of the chickens that will occupy Farmer Bob's Chicken Coop in the FPS game I've been working on called "Alien Zombies".



I've got some envelopes to tweak I see but it's getting there. This is the first time I've used a Biped in quite this way so it's a little different from what I'm use to.

Adding Extra Details

I've added some clusters of Fire Flies to my game environment just to give it some extra life and make it more realistic. I figured what better for a night time scenario than to have some lightning bugs flying around here and there. In my particle emitter I used a picture of a real Fire Fly tweaked a bit in photoshop and given some extra glow in the tail section. Exported that as a PNG transparency for the particle emitter. I made scattered about 3 or 4 clusters around the trees here and there. They fly around randomly popping in and out so hopefully they act like real fireflies. They look good in my scene so I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out.

 Farmer Bob's Chicken Coop
First there was Alien Zombies in the outhouse and now there will soon be Alien Zombies in the old Chicken Coop. I'm almost completed the Chicken Coop, I just need to add a few details and then do the animation for the open and close door function so that way when Farmer Bob gets close to the door it will open just like his house and outhouse door functions.

Of course the Chicken Coop is going to need some chickens. I was originally just going to have it so there was an Alien Zombie stuck in the Chicken Coop just like the Outhouse scenario but the more I thought about it the more I thought it would be nice to have the Chicken Coop scenario work a little differently. It's going to mean more work to create a new animation for my Alien Zombie where he is inside of the Chicken Coop munching on a Chicken when Farmer Bob discovers that gruesome sight. I have to texture map the Chicken Coop floor so it looks like feathers and Chicken Blood everywhere and make a dead Chicken for the Alien Zombie to have in his hands. This is going to mean setting up a new "Dead Replacement" Rag Doll with the Chicken roughly placed into the Alien Zombies hand so that way when Farmer Bob shoots him he'll drop the Chicken as he slumps down dead like a sack of potatoes. lol

Also additionally I've placed "Meadow Muffins" here and there around the terrain so that way if Farmer Bob accidentally steps in one, he'll curse; "Dag Gumit!"