Dev Diary 3

Well, I have a bit of time on my day off here so I think I'll write an update.

Development is going well. The 3d Modeler and myself ran into some serious issues with skinning the hands properly. It turned out the issue was due to a modifier we were using in 3dsm to export the models called mesh smooth.

I then ran into an issue where we wanted to have 2 textures on the hands. The normal material (along with supporting normal map) and an emissive texture on top of the hands which would glow in game. Turns out this is a bit difficult to do through 3dsm unless you plan for it from the get go. After some testing and trial and error and a little help from a mentor. I've managed to get a cool emissive glow on the knuckles in addition to the material and normal map. On top of that, we'll have cool particle effects on the hands as well. Should turn out awesome!

Our coder has been working his magic and has our main mechanic working 100 percent (that's the gravity gun type mechanic) You may say big deal as UDK has a gravity gun by default, but ours trumps it...Not to mention anything we throw with the gravity gun will affect fractured meshes and PhysX assets...This means our destruction aesthetic mechanic is definitely shaping up to be awesome. He also got slowmo working..When we blow up a pillar with the gravity gun in slow mo it looks damn good.

Our 3d modeler is hard at work trying to get decapitation working on our models and our level design and PM are plugging away at the code, docs and miscelaneous...We're all damn busy but seeing great results.

Finally, We've decided to start a new enemy model/concept. I've been doing a quick turnaround for our modeler and in between that I've been texturing the fantastic 3d models that our 3d collaborator has been pumping out for us. I've also been dealing with our sound collaborators who are producing some phenomenal work for us as well. We have sounds for our main weapons and slow down so far.

Annd that concludes my little update. I'll try to get some pics up for you folks (hello? anyone out there?) to see the new enemy model. Also, buy this book if you are at all interested in UDK and game development. Part 2 is out as well and three should be out early next year.