It’s been a productive week, so here’s what happened in brief:
Inventory
A lot of work has been done on the inventory system, now it’s using JSON to handle serialization and easier modability. Equipping an item will also handle outfits. Right now it only handles external cosmetic items (hats) but the system works.
Character System
The character system has gotten a lot of improvement lately, first of all it can properly merge models using the same mesh, which we will be using for the time being to handle customizations for the players, as we’re using the vanilla playable characters. Equiping the outfit in the inventory will properly set up the proper mesh.
Cutscenes
Probably not really worth mentioning, but the cutscenes work as intended, including player animations for each character. It’s possible to use the camera data from the original game, however I feel this is one of the weakest point of the game, so redoing them by hand will probably going to a better choice, as I can rework them to feel more cinematic than it is.
Quest System
More work has been done on the Quest System, it’s still early to show anything, but I’m going on nicely. This is something I want to be as moddable as possible while also giving you the option to use your own quest script.
Multiplayer Backend
It’s probably time to talk about this and why it’s going slower than expected. The multiplayer backend is mostly assigned to Stephen, while Stephen has some personal matter to attend (not to go into too many details, but it’s nothing too serious), I’ve picked up on the backend task, and so far it’s been going on pretty well. Right now it can only handle basic login and authentication, which is pretty much what we want at this stage. Once things pick up on the multiplayer, we will let you guys on registering to the site for a potential demo, we really shouldn’t be talking too much at this point, but needless to say, a little flavor wouldn’t hurt.
Converter Tool
As some of you may know, I’ve continued working on a converter toolset mentioned in an early blog post, VAMPTools, that can convert VTMB models and materials to FBX, recursively TGA. Originally it created the texture naming in a unique naming format, which I redone to suit each name from the mesh’s material names. Also added PNG support for those who want to convert the textures to it, implementing a proper alpha detection as well.
The only issues I have left is to add multi-set object material assignment and add each mesh into one element, so all the model parts would be part of the main model as it should be. This has been consuming a lot of my time but it didn’t affect the progress on the project as much as I initially thought.
Once the toolset is out, it will hopefully enable transparency between modelers willing to help without our input. It’s far from being perfect, but should be good enough to use as a reference, for either improving the old one or recreating a new one based on this.
Decals
Some of the decals have been remade to be in higher resolutions, namely some of the band posters. These are mostly a taste to what will come. We know many are concerned about the direction we take for the visual aspects, namely the interface and decals, but not all of them can be recreated. It’s impossible to do a 1:1 replica, and it wouldn’t make sense to go with low quality textures when they can be dealt with, in one way or another.
Summary
A lot of things have happened, especially backend stuff and toolset, many that unfortunately can’t be shown yet, since they are far from ready. Teemu in on a short holiday as we speak, in a distant place dubbed “Heavy Metal Town”, Wacken. On the other hand Stephen should return back into development soon to push out the much needed gameplay build for the multiplayer.