Monday 11 November 2013

Parse Integration

Hey I'm still here,

I've now got Facebook playing nice with my apps, I can get and save user data. And various other bits of information.

Still haven't looked at Payments and Achievements but I will when I need to.

I've started to look at the Parse SDK (www.parse.com) now, so I can save data to a database and bring it back within the app.

So far I've got it logging in and adding things to the database, I've got multiple users adding records into the table and the records being updated as you are playing the game.  This is usefull if you want to store level specific scores and data.

Friday 1 November 2013

Facebook Integration

Hey, I hav'nt forgotten about this project, it's just I've got side tracked doing Facebook integration in Unity3D (Saves me buying the plugins)

I've been using the Facebook SDK which can be downloaded directly from Facebook developer website (It's free) and I've started to integrate into my projects.  So far I've got the following working:

- Initializing Facebook
- Logging In
- Getting the Facebook profile pictures so they can be displayed where I want them
- Sending Messages (This includes invites and gifts)
- Scores (posting and receiving)

Achievements I'm putting on hold for the moment, or until I need them.

Monday 7 October 2013

Update

As I said on my previous post I would have more stuff to show you, well here it is.
But before the nice pictures I will list what has been updated / modified or added.

- Add the ability to delete the last piece of track as well as deleting all of the track while building the coaster
- Added ability to load/save roller coaster tracks
- Added ability to click on any part of the coaster to bring item panel up
- VFX has been added into objects (You have to put a point in the FBX file so it can be found)
  (example: PSystem_TourchFlames, would use the TouchFlames particle system that is within the library)
- Fix, if park closed then do not allow anybody in
- There are various coaster bits that can be used from curves, hills, chains and brakes.

Well here are the images showing the coaster and VFX additions.



Sunday 6 October 2013

Coasters

Don't worry hav'nt forgotten, I'm still working on the coaster stuff and getting it to work nice.

I also have other bits done as well, but I will do a big update here once I'm happy with it.

Sunday 29 September 2013

Videos

Hey,

If you don't want to test the webplayer version of Thrill World, I have created some videos so you can see it in action.

Here they are, they are simple videos for the moment.  I will add more later.

http://youtu.be/LPgsCsEl5xY

http://youtu.be/jo7CiN8ypj8

Coasters!

Hey,

It's been a week or 2 since my last post.  I am still working on it, below there is a list of things that have been done.

- Working on Coaster (Adding bits and gfx / models)
- Code tidy up and minor code fixes
- Fixed double sided shader (Changed it to cutout rather than alpha blending)
- Animated water added (This actually gives us the ability to animate uv's depending on material)
- Fixed bug (when characters want to leave the park and there is no way to get to the entrance they would just dissappear)
- Added ability to read objects in but not add to UI list
- Added ability for the characters to throw rubbish on the floor after eating
- Updated rounded paths, made them work across boundaries
- Gate system (Loading and Saving), also it destroys the gate if the underlying path is deleted.
- Modified time and characters types that enter the park at certain times
- Added the ability for characters to carry things from the merchandise shop, i.e. balloons
- Merchandise Shops

And here is a screenshot that shows the curved paths and a bit of roller coaster


Saturday 14 September 2013

Curved Paths and Other Stuff

Hey, it's been a week since last post, lots to see and I've even got a new screenshot :)

Well updates over the last week are:

- Lots of bug fixes and code tidy ups
- Added entrance fees (Basically it's built off a baseride class but with certain bits turned off)
- Most of the curved path code and images have been done
- Loading and Saving has had lots of bits added into the files (Rides, Shops, Characters, etc...)
- Added max people in queue (This is part of the queue system going in)

And here is the new screenshot, it's just an image showing the curved paths.



Saturday 7 September 2013

Ride Settings and other bits

Hi, here is another quick update.  I have not supplied images recently because nothing has changed on that front.  I've started to put the user content pipeline in, so user can add there own graphics.

This one has the following updates and changes.

- Added ability to open up data specific variables within each object (i.e. pirate ship has max angle), this then gets shown in the dialog that gets shown when you double click on item.
- Added ability to load external paths and landscape graphics in (It checks on start to see if the folder exists if not it creates one, it also checks for the correct XML data files).  If everything is correct it loads the graphics in and allows you to draw with them (All textures for the moment have to be 128x128, but it can be PNG or JPG, plus it only works on standalone or webplayer run locally)
- Fixed VBO issue, was not deleting the mesh from the landscape when you edited it

Also Webplayer has been updated to correspond with these changes.

Thursday 5 September 2013

Don't Worry Not Forgotten!

I haven't forgotten this blog :)

I've been busy trying to rewrite the 2D / HUD stuff, so we create a mesh in an orthographic view.  This is so it will be batched like everything else and speed up the rendering.  So far it's going ok but needed to write various other bit's so things can be put in and taken out of lists.

But on top of this I've done the following updates:

- Added a UIQuadBatcher system component, this now stores all the information that was been generated by my 2D System and converts it to a 3D mesh so it will be batched. ( We have gained some FPS by doing this, it also gives me the option of turning it on/off so I have the best of both, and because it tied into my 2D system it still does all the key frame animations that I had previously )
- Tweaked the character states bases (Hunger, thirsty, bored, etc...)
- Fixed crash when getting 3rd icon in speech bubble
- Rides and Characters now use the game speed for animation as well
- Characters now start coming into the park on there own
- Updated the bored state, so if they are left wandering round the park they start to get bored and now they will leave the park
- rewrote how the characters move round the park, when we calculate the path we just copy it into a table and move along a spline.
- Various code tidy ups and bug fixes
- added logs into the log window, when you purchase a piece of scenery / shop or ride
- converted my atlas reading class to a proper unity component ( you now drag the files in you want parsing at the beginning )
  ( My atlas generation is performed on another application that I have written call alpaqa, it builds multiple sheets and even builds sheets from PSD files )

Sunday 1 September 2013

update time

Another update ready for anyone to comment on.  I've had a few comments from other people and I've incorporated some of the changes.  Hope you like it.

The Web Player version is updated most days, so please come back and check :)

- Added code for pirate ship (and you can place in the game)
- Added code for chairswing (and you can place in the game)
- various HUD gfx tidy ups
- Changed textboxes to use unity UI labels (and code tidy up)
- Added speedup button on the top meter
- Added ability to modify the ride specs in the item selection panel
- Added ability to close / open shops and made that section of code better which included starting/stopping rides (characters do not wait for it to stop before walking away)
- Overhauled the HUD
- Still working on the Static Batcher (I have found out how to get the tri's per submesh now, just got to sort the rest)
- Rejigged bits of code
- Changed how much we fade at night time (instead of 0.25 we now fade to 0.35)
- We now start at 9.00 O'clock in the morning instead of 0.00, this makes it better and brighter on start
- Modified camera background colour to match the grass colour as it fades



All feedback welcome

Wednesday 28 August 2013

HUD and other stuff

Another update coming through, this has the following changes:

- Tweaked the bored values, halved the bored value when they get on the ride
- Modified the queue system slightly, they now get on in the order they got in the queue (Which is obvious! doh!)
  (Before it used the render list!)
- Textured the spinner ride
- Textured spinning teacups
- Started on Static Batcher Script (Let's see if that makes any difference, but got to figure out if I can get the tri's for individual materials from the meshes)
- Modified HUD layout and gfx
- Added the ability to delete Rides and Shops
- Added more assets
  • Large Pirate Wall
  • Large Pirate Gate
  • Telephone Booth

- Cody tidy up
- Added bored state in (This only gets updated when queuing for rides and shops, it gets reset when they have stopping queuing)
- Added ability to add Halo component when importing prefabs (But again unity has issues, we cannot modify them via script!)
- Fixed date and time, so it counts through the days and months correctly

And as usual here is another screen shot


Monday 26 August 2013

More Shops and Bug Fixes

Updates:

- I have now put food shops in so when they get hungry they can find there way there.
- Icons in the speech bubbles telling the player what they require (Just hungry and thirsty for the moment)
- A few more assets

Bug Fixes and Optimizations:

- When loading the level it was not working the bounds out properly on some rare cases
- Changed loading so when it finds the object on load it fails out the loop rather than keep going
- General code tidy up


Sunday 25 August 2013

Update

Another quick update, this one has a few more assets.

Bugs fixed
- Scenery deleting issues (Reading the wrong object tag)
- Bounding creation issues (Rewrote how I produce them now)

Updates
- Added saving and loading of camera position
- Started to add the speech bubbles on to the characters as the screen shot shows.
- Changed the HUD (Hopefully made it look better)
- Fixed and optimized certain bits of code
- Added extra #def for certain bits of code on "webplayer / mobile / standalone"



Saturday 24 August 2013

Here comes another update

Updates for this build are:

- Night / Day light fading, it changes depending on the time of day (Looks pretty at night time with lights still lit up)
- Various bug fixes
- I've also started to work on the Load / Save while using it within the web browser (You have to press 'L') to load the level that I have created.

I have also created a WebPlayer build and this can be found here

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/205777365/WebPlayer.html

Here is another screenshot at night time.



Wednesday 21 August 2013

Queue's

Another quick update, I have now got my great English pass time working, queuing :)

The characters will queue for rides and shops, when 1 character moves from the front then the next will move in (All I do is check the next node that I'm going into and if there is a character there going to the same place and is also queuing then wait, keep checking until the next node is empty, then continue walking)

Basically the characters are one big state machine.

Now the queues are done I've got them going on and off the rides :)


Problems at the moment are that if there are lots of people in the queue it just grabs them in the character render order.  Also they are not rotated properly on the ride, hopefully I can fix that in the FBX file rather than code.

Tuesday 20 August 2013

Quick Update and Screenshot

Nothing really to report here, it's mainly bug fixes and a few assets.  But thought I would share with you any way.


here's another screen shot, this one has some more assets and you can also see somebody standing in the queue ready.


Monday 19 August 2013

Quick update

No new screenshot today, but a quick update just to keep you updated.  Various things have been done, they are listed below.

1, Changed how the objects are placed in the scene.  Before I used to use the bounds of the object, now I have what I call the footprint of the object, this allows me to have tiles that are not joined together (e.g. Arches, etc...)

2, Fixed broken code (You could'nt delete scenery that had been placed in the scene, with the above change It makes it easier to delete things now)

3, Code tidy ups and bug fixes

Sunday 18 August 2013

We are in a flow now!

Another quick update, this one has updates to the following:

- Characters now have emotions (or what I call emotions), they get thirsty and hungry, etc...
- Shops now work so when they get thirsty they will try and find a drinks shop
- Optimizations in the character calculations (They only do a full update every other process other wise they just move in the calculated direction)
- Various bug fixes and code tidy ups

And here is another screen.


Friday 16 August 2013

wow, another one!

I have another screenshot for you, this one shows a bit more scenery and people walking about.

Skip over this bit if you want, it's just a short rant....

I have had to get round some of Unity's issues (Why car'nt you batch meshes that have different scales!!), but got round it anyway.  I have also got round the batch issue when you want to change the UV's on a mesh but keep the same texture.

All this so you can change the textures on each character, so their faces and cloths can be different.

Take deep breath now...  rant over....

Anyway here it is :)


Wednesday 14 August 2013

2 Posts in 1 Day!!!

As the title states here is another post on the same day.

This post is about a project that I'm currently working on now in unity, it's a sandbox creation game.

(Some of the ui work images have been taken off the web while I piece it together)


I've got the placing of the landscape pieces, including rotating.  Assets can easily be added into the game from an XML file, you just place in the write section (Shops, Rides, Scenary, etc...)

I've also got characters walking around on the paths now, so hopefully soon we will get another screenshot with them in.

This all works on mobile devices as well (You can pan around the level, pinch/zoom and rotate with gestures, all code so far was written by me with no assets from the assets store, yet!)

As stated above, here are the characters walking about!



It's been a while...

It's been a while since I updated this blog, because I've now got some spare time on my hands because my time at Sega has come to an end :(  the studio is now closed.

So time to move on.

I should now update this on a regular basis (hopefully), with projects that I may work on in my spare time.
I've started to mess around in Unity3D rather then keeping my own engine going, easy prototyping (I may have said I did'nt like it before!), but now I've got my head round all the bits and pieces, it's pretty good at what it does.

Off on a tangent here, I have added some links to a friends project it's on iOS and Android.  Let us know what you think :)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evolve.fingerarmy&hl=en
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MggDxCLbaug