Friday 23 November 2012

XNA 3D Gizmo v2.0.0

I've just released a new version of the XNA 3D Gizmo! The updated source has been available on CodePlex for a while, but I never got around to add the final touches and create a release.

As the name suggests (2.0) it involves a major change compared to 1.0 which was released well over a year ago. The new release provides a much improved framework and simplified code while adding customization options if more advanced usage is desired.





The following is a snippet from the release notes:

FOR EXISTING USERS: If you are already using v1.0 you may choose to leave this release alone unless you require additional customization options or more advanced features which have been added in this release (see notes below for all additions)

- Quaternion support.
- Built-in vertex lists replacing fbx models (easier implementation for new users),
- ITransformable interface to add transformation support to anything in the scene (example: vertices inside an editable mesh that lives inside the 3d scene)
- A lot of framework simplifications and no more dependancies on Engine class or any other outside classes.
- Gizmo is now a standalone DLL (class files can still be placed in any other engine project without a hitch if standalone DLL is not preferred)
- Support for custom Select functionality (ITransformable.Select(ray) to allow users to define their own selection methods (triangle precision or bounding box etc.)
- Improved internal code for readability.
- Transformation is now done through event handlers, allows much more customization options on how to apply transformations in your own editor. For example it allows you to support a undo/redo system.
- You can now set different 'selection pools' this allows you to select and/or ignore certain object types by only passing a pool of a specific type (example: pass a pool of 3d entities or a pool of selectable vertices)

You can get the latest version right here!

Tuesday 28 August 2012

Junior Tools Programmer at Guerrilla Games


I've recently started work as Junior Tools Programmer at Guerrilla Games in Amsterdam! (Creators of Killzone)
Grim caught their attention when it appeared on control-online.nl

I should have some spare time once I'm fully settled in to work on hobby projects that include
C# and perhaps my engine. I have a new portfolio coming up (work in progress, but pretty close to completion) I'm not sure yet where I'll post the new updates (if they're not directly Core Engine related) 

I will make an announcement when my new portfolio is online.

Saturday 9 June 2012

Gameplay Metrics for Grim (Screenshots)

As shown a while ago, we have our proprietary metrics tool to review our playtests and look for unintended behavior and opportunities to improve the game. One example of where the metrics directly help us is to look for Leap events to see if players are having difficulty making certain jumps as a result of platforms being too distant from one another. 

I'm in the process of creating a short video, for now I've included some screenshots to give you an idea of what it currently looks like.

"Climb" the level used with the metric shots below.
Unfiltered shot of the full match with 6 players. 

Red indicates low Energy resource for player.



Thursday 17 May 2012

Second trailer of "Grim"

We've just finished the second trailer of our game. It features our second level "Climb" which was created for our Breach gametype. The "Mateba" our multi-purpose weapon (with both short and long range capabilities) and Leap our primary ability are all included in this new video.



As always, the most recent updates on our development are available at our website: http://grim.morepolygons.com

Saturday 5 May 2012

Gameplay Trailer of "Grim"

Our first gameplay trailer for "Grim"! It mainly features our first deathmatch level "Outpost" along with Deathmatch itself. In future updates we will go into more detail about the unique elements of "Grim". Hope you enjoy!



Saturday 14 April 2012

Titan Metrics: Gameplay Analysis Tool




Hey guys, I have been working on a gameplay analysis tool for our online shooter “Grim”. For the first internal release I made a short video, It should give you an idea of what we can do with it so far. I have a bunch more things I’d like to add (including cloud/heat maps) but first I must take some time off to work on gameplay and server browser!



It even includes my voice this time! :P Let me know what you guys think, maybe you have a cool feature request?

Friday 6 April 2012

Project site is online!

The project site is up! Currently you will find several screenshots and videos of our game, 3D assets, information about our game design and of course the two proprietary tools I've been working on! Have a look at let me know what you guys think.
Direct links:

Titan Metrics - Gameplay analyzing tool (Features 3D Visualization of player and match data)
Titan Toolkit - Making life easier for everyday UDK Development

Of course we will update the site on a regular basis, keep an eye out for more!

Sunday 18 March 2012

Graduation UDK Project


Hey guys, It's been a while since I uploaded any videos or blogposts. I've definitely been doing some cool stuff behind closed doors, this time with the Unreal Development Kit. We're about to reach a milestone where we will start showing our development more openly. This means I will soon start recording some videos that will include my development experiments as usual.


This project is for my graduation, I'm working in a team of six to build a proper first person shooter for the PC. As expected I'm the programmer, but do a lot of the design work as well. Aside from the game itself I have been busy building some UDK based tools for the team, this includes a launcher/management tool to launch UDK in every way you can think of and includes more advanced functionality such as bug reporting (automatically sends the reports to our server at Assembla) along with FTP file uploads (screenshots, crash logs) and more. A second tool will remain secret for now. I will reveal details on it later on through some videos and post some info about it here as well.

For now I'll leave you with two (pre-alpha) screenshots of our project.