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LATEST NEWS




01/02/2013 - 3D action/rpg game WIP

This is the project I've been working on for the past couple of months.
I had to take a break "mentally" from it (was getting too irritated) so that's when I went to play with the raytracing and mandelbulb stuff.

This is based on an older project I wrote about in this post. I decided to start working on it again while playing with shaders, and eventually went full 3D (more forgiving art style).

It's inspired by MTG Battlegrounds and Minigore


24/01/2013 - Mandelbulb update

Got rid of the trig, so it renders around 2x as fast now !
Also added distance based LoD (more detail as you zoom in) and progressive quality (image gets sharper when "standing" still).

Since I like zooming into them, I made a final video (might want to hit the mute button). I apologize for the low quality, messed up with the picture in picture


20/01/2013 - A go at the Mandelbulb (3D Fractal)

So I've been looking into raytracing lately and decided to try the famous MandelBulb 3D fractal.
Needless to say, this is a pretty heavy task to render, but I eventually managed to make it run rather smoothly,
at 1/4 resolution on my 3rd gen iPad.
Here is a video showing a couple different ones running with Codea. Note that the recording lowered the frame rate (very irregularly, but especially during zooming), and it is actually quite better on the device.


17/01/2013 - Realtime Raytracing in Codea

I've been looking into Raytracing lately since it's pretty cool rendering technique and I decided to build a basic raytracer in Codea to see how it would handle it.
Now keep in mind that the video shows a version using the Codea beta (which gives shaders some love), and running at 60 fps (well 30 due to recording cap).
The non-shader version runs at a wicked 0.2 images per second It renders progressively now though, so it's smooth and gets pretty over time ^^


Xavier de Boysson - 2013 - Contact Me

CURRENT PROJECTS

Arena style game with spellcasters and RPG elements
3D renderer for Codea, made directly on iPad using lua
Terrain engine

Arena style game with spellcasters and RPG elements

This is a (very) early WIP of an iPhone/iPad 3D action game with some RPG elements tossed in that I'm working on.
It started as me building a 3D engine to see what my new iPhone (and me) was capable of running, and then my son suggested making it a complete game.

What is done so far:
Well, not much... Only the classes/spells are done (reused from a game I made a while back) but will need tweaking. Summoning/spellcasting mostly working (only it's not summoning/casting anything visually yet ) Network code is in progress, ty game center HUD needs to be done, placement is wrong wrong wrong (and god damn it those spell icons are ugly...) Still, I'm really just focusing on the modeling/texture painting (this is so hard...) and on the engine atm.






How the game will work:
The game concept, I actually already had made into a flash game a few years ago (top down 2D). For the iOS though, I originally planned fights to happen in arenas and be very dynamic, much like in wow. However, since my son and me loved MTG:Battlegrounds, I decided on making it similar to it regarding some game mechanics, such as the way summons are handled and arenas are "street fighter" style and split in two. Having it "street fight style" also allows easier controls on an iOS device, a more detailed world, and removes the cost of fancy physics. Each player will be able to summon forth powerful monsters and use various spells and abilities to defeat their enemy. There will be 3 classes to chose from: mages, shadowknights, and enchanters. You will be have to smartly build a spellbook from various spells (summons, buffs, and damage spells) before entering arenas and fight to the death.


The classes:
I know 3 classes seems like a few, but I won't add another class until i'm certain the thing is balanced and useful. What I have is "working" (well it was in my flash game:P), and still allows for a lot of customization. Each class will have its limitations: Mages will only be allowed to pick from a couple summon spells, but have access to just about all of the detrimental ones. Enchanters will focus on creatures and buffs, and have few choice of damage spells Shadowknights will be jacks of all.. Finally, each class will have a unique trait (something like counterspell for mages, unsummon for enchanters, and leech life for shadowknights)




Single/Multiplayer:
Single-player campaign will allow you to create an avatar, level stats and gear him up, build a powerful spellbook, and take him into multiplayer battles. (I will certainly release multiplayer first though, since a worthy storyline takes time to build, and I don't really want to do a shallow story like the actual MTG:Battlegrounds game...) Single-player vs CPU will come out first though, since I actually need this for testing the gameplay. Multiplayer will be through game center and allow 1v1 fight (and maybe 2v2 if I manage to make it fun and not a total mess on screen) using your avatar from single player (or picking up a pre-made one if yours suck).


The Engine:
I'm still working on tweaking the engine, but on the iPad, FPS is currently at 60 until the 12th player model is on screen, then is goes in the 55s. That was my goal (2 players, and a max of 10 summons), but since I want lots of fancy spell effects and possible 2v2 multiplayer, i'm not sure how it will turn out... I also have yet to implement single player AI, sounds and spell effects, but It should still be really smooth on modern hardware... Still, I'm working really hard (and having a lot of fun) making the thing look good (and smooth) on older hardware (iPhone 3G). I might take advantage of openglES 2.0 for some "fancier" effects if it's really worth it, but that's really not planned atm.





3D renderer for Codea, made directly on iPad using lua

This is a pure software 3D renderer, made completely from scratch and directly on the iPad, with procedural textures and dynamic lightning...
I'm working on a hardware accelerated version now so I could enjoy real time lightning (also added real time LOD using quadtree and chunks). You can learn mode about Codea here
You can find the source code here


First version was very slow compared to how it is now, and with color/depth only:





Eventually managed to update it to use texture and high quality normals for lightning:





Done implementing procedural textures, generating them 5 times faster, and it looks pretty nice !



Terrain engine

This is a WIP of a terrain engine based on the chunked lod algorithm for a possible future game on iOS.
The idea is basically to apply a quadtree to the heightmap, with each node being a 'chunk' with a specific level of detail.
I believe it's the best approach right now for mobile devices.

-- More info coming soon --


Xavier de Boysson - 2013 - Contact Me

MISC STUFF AND OLD PROJECTS

3D stuff

3D rendering in AS3, First try
This was my first try at 3D, so had to understand the concepts of perpective projection and stuff...
I felt pretty good at the time :)
3D Top-down view game engine in AS3
This was my first real 3D engine, with affine texture tranformation and static lightning.
Terrain renderer in AS3
This was my last 3D project with Flash. Has dynamic lightning (flat shading).

2D stuff

A* pathfinding in AS3
First try at A* pathfinding. Was supposed to make a game out of it but eventually dropped the idea when I got to taste 3D.
Dynamic light source in AS3
Very cool trick to generate a dynamic light source that casts shadows in Flash.
Particle generator with basic physics in AS3
Basic boucing particle generator in Flash.
Real time shadowing of multiple objects in AS3
Efficient way to apply real time shadows to multiple objects.
Light vectors in Flash in AS3
Basic work on light vectors in Flash.
Ticket stratching simulation in AS3
This was just me learning masks in Flash.
2D filling challenge game in AS3
This is a 2D space filling game. The goal is to fill up as much space per touch, without getting hit by the meteor. It's complete, just haven't done anything with it yet.
Sphere mapping illusion in Flash in AS3
Simple trick to simulate sphere mapping in Flash.

Xavier de Boysson - 2013 - Contact Me

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Xavier de Boysson - 2013 - Contact Me