Hotspot graphics
May 23rd, 2009
After my last hotspots post, a few people suggested ways to improve visual feedback for the editor. In particular, commenters wanted icons to differentiate between each type of hotspot, and you guys wanted an indication of the triggering area. In response, I've added two new features to the Overgrowth hotspots. First, each hotspot now has an identifying icon hovering ...
Creating the Overgrowth physics engine
May 20th, 2009
Lugaru physics Ragdoll physics played an integral role in the gameplay of Lugaru -- much of the strategy consisted of arranging fights so that Turner falls on soft surfaces and his opponents crash into hard ones. The ragdoll physics in Lugaru were based on Newtonian particles connected by rigid stick constraints, as described in this paper. This method worked to simulate ...
Overgrowth text editor
May 16th, 2009
Hey guys, one thing that is important for the Overgrowth editor is being able to edit and create scripts efficiently. To do this, Phillip asked me to make a text editor UI widget so we can work on stuff within the game. I started out by making a simple text editor. Since we are using webkit as our UI layer ...
Decals editor ~ part two
May 16th, 2009
Last week I introduced our prelminary decal editor for Overgrowth. At that point, the decal editor worked very much like the object editor, with 3D bounding boxes for each decal. This presentation style was quite messy. Decal editing has many of the same requirements as object editing, but it also has its own special conditions and constraints. Unlike objects, decals ...
Ragdoll physics - part one
May 12th, 2009
Ragdolls are in Overgrowth now! For those who have pre-ordered, you can summon any number of ragdolls by pressing 'r', and you can throw them around with right-click. They have some pretty cool features, such as smooth sleep transitions, static and dynamic joint friction, aggregated impact detection, and efficient subspace hashing. I can talk about these in a technical post ...
Initial Inspector UI
May 9th, 2009
We decided that it was high time for Overgrowth to get an inspector palette. The inspector will let you get extra info and edit all types of objects in the map editor. If you click on an object, this will be how you change its material, reorder the decals on it, toggle its visibility, or whatever else turns out to ...
Decals editor ~ part one
May 9th, 2009
A few weeks ago, David overhauled our decal engine. Leveraging off this, I've recently started implementing our decals editor, and I can now show off some fancy (but very preliminary) screenshots. I think decals will add a lot to the immersiveness and liveliness of our environments. Rock garden without decals and with decals. Zoom in to see the lichen ...