Kart racing game

[marshmonkey]

Zero Gear is physically-fueled, online multiplayer kart combat PC madness that me and 2 other guys have been developing for the past 2 years and change.

http://nimblebit.com/zerologo.png

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuLHEuLMlbM&fmt=22

official game website:
http://myzerogear.com

we have been keeping a development blog for almost the entire time that has a lot of the details behind the project. You can check it out here: http://nimblebit.com

Steam Official Game Group
http://steamcommunity.com/games/zerogear

screenshots:
http://myzerogear.com/media.htm

We have set up a Wiki for all editing informational purposes:
http://myzerogear.com/wiki
The Model SDK can be found here:
http://myzerogear.com/wiki/index.php5?title=Zero_Gear_Model_SDK

Zero Gear is available for pre-order (http://store.steampowered.com/app/18820/)! Players who pre-order will get 25% off the price of the game, as well as immediate access to the beta version! Visit the Zero Gear product page for pricing information. Zero Gear is slated for release on January 12th, 2010. Stay tuned for more release information in the weeks ahead, including a 4 package deal!

http://www.nimblebit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/zgpreorder.png (http://store.steampowered.com/app/18820/)

[Joao Sapiro]

that would look awesome with tf2 specs and engine.

[pliang]

Looks good...now work on the tire treads and headlights.

[JKMakowka]

[ QUOTE ]
that would look awesome with tf2 specs and engine.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah definitly needs a nice rimlight shader in game (pretty much like you rendered the models).

Nice work!

[marshmonkey]

I have already experimented with a rim lighting shader in our engine, I knew that I wanted that kind of look the moment I saw the mario galaxy and TF2 screenshots. I am not a large fan of the traditional "cartoon" shading with a big black outline.

[moose]

cool! i love the cars /images/graemlins/smile.gif

the roads could spare some extra polygons if they're available - the only thing that detracted from the sleek smooth visual was the lines on the road tessellating in the hard turns.

the western themed track is rad!

cool look to it though /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[marshmonkey]

I agree, I hope to be able to add more tessellation on the road sections, for collision purposes as well as visually.

One area in particular I feel is my weakest point in the character faces, I have no background in characters, and I'm not happy yet with the direction as a whole of the mouth/eye textures. I want it to be unique and simple but not cliche anime or too simple and look like a lego character. The plan is to have a bunch of different options to swap between but they all need to share a certain style of course. If anyone can point to any other references for Ideas and stuff it would be appreciated.

[commander_keen]

The carts and characters look awesome but the environments lack good rendering. Get some real shaders in the engine.

[moose]

Yeah, you could probably work on the eyes a bit, they seem a little long and close together. They're pretty "cute" but i think could have a little love spent there to make them a bit more round ish. You could still change their race up by altering the eyelid, but they feel very oval.

I love the mouth expressions, but they eyes could use a little work.

Best reference i could suggest would be South Park, but anything from Disney/Pixar may work :P

[marshmonkey]

I wanted to keep the rendering in the game as inexpensive as possible to make the game lightweight and playable on very low-spec machines. (I never mentioned it but the target platform is PC/Mac) So at least for now, the environments are vertex lit without any shaders, for the fastest drawing speed possible. Performance permitting, it would not be much trouble to add some simple effects like specularity on some surfaces that really scream for it. For now I am going to focus on effects like shaders on things like the karts that people are going to pay the most attention to.

There are many parts like the ice and the metal pipes and bridge that I will probably experiment with adding some effects on to gauge the expense. I would like to serve the lowest common denominator as much as possible, especially in regards to making people choose different gfx settings and such.

[WipEout]

check out Kid Robot (http://www.kidrobot.com) for some awesome kinda-cutesy/kinda-not characters-- right now your characters remind me of Duplo toys, but wit the right textures they could easily resemble cool big kid figures! /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Slainean]

I love the style of the karts - excellent work. How many polygons are you working with on those? I agree that the characters are the weak point, especially compared to the karts themselves. I'll second the South Park suggestion, but moreso the style of the celebrity characters, which are more detailed than the main cast.

A couple more small suggestions:
- Make the hands chunkier. I think bigger hands would balance out their oversized heads and make them more visually appealing.
- Compared to the karts, the colors of the character's faces and accessories are a bit washed out. I think some more color would help keep them eye catching. For the same reasons, it might be better to avoid using the same color for the racer's jumpsuit and the car itself.
- Have you considered kart decals at all?

[hawken]

these environments are great!
Nice touch with the music /images/graemlins/wink.gif

I've not got much to say, only that I think it's a winner project and I'm jealous because it appears to be a lot of fun to make!!

The characters are too static, and bare in mind you mostly be looking at them from behind so thats where to focus the detail / identifying marks

[marshmonkey]

I think I'm just gonna re-do the base character model, I agree for sure about the bigger hands, they will look much bigger than the little nub hands on there now and then they could also sport some kick-ass driving gloves. I like the kid robot style hands. I have considered decals yea, kind of like how mario kart DS has a poly somewhere on every kart where they can display a custom logo or such. Customization is main goal for sure, the plan is to hook up a shader on the kart and character textures so that you can use a slider to change the hue of your kart/character.

I don't know the poly counts of the karts offhand, but they are conservative compared to next-gen standards. I can make some wire shots later if anyone is interested.

Oh, and I got to play super mario galaxy last night . . . . gave me a lot of inspiration for sure! I'm going to see how a rim lighting shader looks on the entire environment as well as the karts and characters. It gives the entire scene a nice consistent glowy/dusty style in galaxy.

[SouL]

WIN!!
Any chance we can get a wallpaper size screenshot of all the drivers/cars??

[zOffTy]

Nice work!

But it seems to me that you have inversed the direction of tires grooves? (I think that's the word /images/graemlins/smirk.gif)
example (http://www.auto-evasion.com/forumsf/files/cedtechnoboy_1075656554_jantes_143.jpg)

[marshmonkey]

I can alway tell who the real race fans are because they mention my wheel treads /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[zOffTy]

héhé.. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[marshmonkey]

so after playing super mario galaxy I wanted to try adding rim lighting to an entire environment and see how it looks. This was probably the wrong level to try it on since it's already so bright, but here it is anyway. I'm trying this vimeo site to host videos, not too sure about the quality:

http://www.vimeo.com/387045

so far my impression is that the rim lighting works especially well in super mario becuase of how rounded all the environment elements are.

[Joao Sapiro]

i would definately buy this game if it was for the wii /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[marshmonkey]

I can think of a pretty big competitor on that platform /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I never could really get into the wiimote as a racing wheel to be honest. I hope mario kart for the wii has the option to steer with the joystick / dpad. The lack of resistance of holding a steering wheel floating in midair is disconcerting to me.

[CheeseOnToast]

About the eyes : try a really small pupil/iris rather than a great big one. Showing a lot of white in the eyes of toony characters generally looks better than a slightly creepy giant iris /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[marshmonkey]

[ QUOTE ]
About the eyes : try a really small pupil/iris rather than a great big one. Showing a lot of white in the eyes of toony characters generally looks better than a slightly creepy giant iris /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

ahhhh! thanks! Thats an awesome crit.

[marshmonkey]

been experimenting with rimlighting a lot after playing super mario galaxy: a video of it on one of my tracks:
http://nimblebit.blogspot.com/2007/11/rimlighting-test-2.html

and a little gif showing the difference
http://nimblebit.com/rim.gif

[vertexguy]

I'd suggest putting a few edge highlights in the texture mapping, but not with the scene lights over every object. The gif example just washes out most of the detail in the scene. It's also making things appear flat (like the water tower and cacti). It's also strange because the light source isn't really indicated anywhere in the scene and there's an absense of shadows. You'd need the sun setting directly behind the mountains to explain the edge highlights. The style of your racers look like everything should be more 3d in their world than flat to me. Try using more saturated color on highlights for objects rather than white and see what you think.

[marshmonkey]

I have heard the same opinion from other 3d artists too. The way I was hoping to use the highlights is not as an accurate effect of the lighting in the scene, but as an over all stylistic effect, similar to the black outlines of a cel shaded game, etc. I actually really like the way it's working on the objects like the cactuses, it almost looks like a white outline and it gives things a really different look. I'm hoping to figure out something which gives the entire scene and the characters a stylized look that gives it a unique personality. The parts where I don't really like the way it's working right now are on the large flat surfaces, where I agree that it just washes out the entire polygon. Perhaps there is a way to weight it so it stays mostly as an outline effect like on the cactuses.

as a reference, since this game was what got me curious about it initially:

http://nimblebit.com/mariogalaxy1.jpg
http://nimblebit.com/mariogalaxy2.jpg

the way mario galaxy implemented it is not accurate, the shading is based on the camera angle and not the actual light positions in the scene. You can see in these scenes that the light sources are pretty much opposite what would give off that rim lighting realistically. I think it lends the whole game a kind of shimmery, different and neat style though.

I will continue to play with the falloff amount of the rimlighting too, since that can have a dramatic effect on the thickness and amount of highlighting. What I have in the scene is probably a larger gradient than mario galaxy used.

[vertexguy]

In that case I'd suggest looking at a modified cell shader to get closer to this effect.

[marshmonkey]

yea, a very good suggestion - or possibly even some combination of the two.

[CheeseOnToast]

You could limit the rimlight to normals which are pointing upward, within a tolerance. That's the way it is in TF2 anyway.

[Jesse Moody]

Damn I love the cars and style of this. I could see this on xbox live arcade for sure. That would be fun to play online.

Man keep it up.

[marshmonkey]

[ QUOTE ]
You could limit the rimlight to normals which are pointing upward, within a tolerance. That's the way it is in TF2 anyway.

[/ QUOTE ] Ah, yea? Thats a good little tidbit to know. Was that in the paper they released a while back?

[JKMakowka]

http://ati.amd.com/developer/gdc/D3DTutorial_Skin_Rendering.pdf

This presentation from ATI contains some HLSL shader code for rim lights (I think... still new to that shader stuff).

[marshmonkey]

everyone is telling me that the rim lighting is too strong so I will probably tone it down in the future /images/graemlins/smile.gif It's so hard to restrain yourself when you start playing with a new effect! (see: bloom, bumpmapping)

[moose]

if you could have the rim lighting be more adative, or still show texture detail i think it may tone it down enough to keep a similar look to what you're looking at currently, and what may feel more polished. Addative may not be the proper word or idea, but having some sort of rim mask for the effect may go a long way.

using the rocks in the background as an example, where it gets darker the rim could be shorter/less aparent. You can see the effects of the mask on Bowser's arms and legs - he has a rim shader on him, but the scales are masked out, and its more addative to brighten the edges as opposed to purely whitening them out.

[marshmonkey]

made a new little guy

http://nimblebit.com/littleguy.png

[Kovac]

Agreed with Moose on intensity varieties on certain pieces that look especially washed out.

If you were to have rim lighting, I'd imagine it'd be best to have it based on distance from the camera/player anywho, as it'd most definitely help with performance and prevent those distant objects from looking so washed out. Since it's a real time shader anyways, a gradual progression of generating objects coming closer would help a lot to fight that wash out.

In addition, I didn't see what engine you were using but flagging specific meshes/textures with having rim lighting would help sort out things like the houses and giant rocks as they probably wouldn't work well with it either way.

Very neat little guys so far, and the western env looks very cool! The cacti in the background look awesome with the rim lighting applied.

[marshmonkey]

thanks kovac, I hadn't even considered using distance as a factor. We are using ogre, which has a far from idea shader system, the most control I would have at the moment is altering the intensity and falloff amount per scene material. For instance in that movie, the intensity if far greater on the cactus than on the ground material. I think I could get it satisfactory if I spent a decent amount of time adjusting everything, my programmer and I will sort out how to handle it eventually. Right now we are in more of a pre-production mode trying to figure what we need to achieve the look and feel we want.

By the way, I thank everybody for their feedback, I have gotten the most constructive crits from here on polycount.

[moose]

haha! that face is a huge improvement! it kinda feels like he's cracked out though, with the huge iris/pupils. badass lookin though /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[marshmonkey]

haha, I know what you mean. I will have to do some eye variations.

[marshmonkey]

http://nimblebit.com/colors.png

Customization is very near and dear to both Brian and my own heart, so it's no surprise that a high level of customization is a big goal of ours in ZeroGear. While Brian has been working on our physics and camera system, I had some time to play with Ogre's material system. After a little bit of poking around I developed a system to let us have user-customizable color on most anything we wish. After implementing it on most of our existing assets I spent a while time trying out different color combinations. Here are a compilation of some straight out of the Ogre model viewer.

I start out by making sure that all the areas that are going to be re-colored in the material system are desaturated. Things that are not going to change color (such as the tail lights or mud splatters in this example) remain full color.

http://nimblebit.com/kart003_lum.png

Then I make a solid white color mask of the parts of the texture I am going to be filling with an RGB value. Then in the material file I tell the engine to fill the mask color with the desired color and then combine it with the black and white base texture.

http://nimblebit.com/kart003_colormask.png

We will hook up a color picker widget in the game gui to supply the material with whatever color the user wishes to use for his kart or character or other accessories.

[marshmonkey]

http://nimblebit.com/57wire.png

unwrapping next :/

[hawken]

the only kind of flaw I can see is that your drivers have no tactical variations. In mariokart and other good racers, the drivers have different skillsets that make them appealing to drive. Like big and heavy but high top speed & small and light with fast acceleration.

you might want to keep this in mind

[Spark]

Hey Marshmonkey, did you teach at the Guildhall in Dallas, TX? Just was wondering if it was the same David Marsh that I had met before. Great stuff nonetheless and looking forward to seeing more.

Spark

[marshmonkey]

Nope, that must be a different David Marsh.

Kart statistics are a big part of the strategy of any racing game. We aren't to the stage of implementing any specific system yet but we have a few ideas of how we would like to handle everyone tuning their stats to their individual driving strategy.

[marshmonkey]

finished texturing

http://nimblebit.com/kart005a.png

http://nimblebit.com/kart005b.png

http://nimblebit.com/kart005_lum.png

[Pedro Amorim]

ahah
oh man. this is awesome! pretty sweet dude!
keep it up!

[marshmonkey]

http://nimblebit.com/rodcolors.png

I added another color mask for the flames, and kept playing with different colors, gotta start doing some more real work now!

[animatr]

this game will be rad man! good work!

[marshmonkey]

http://nimblebit.com/buggywire.png

finished modeling a buggy type kart, unwrapping and texture next . . .

[flaagan]

Hot rod flames.... this thread just got my attention. /images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[ElysiumGX]

Amazing work. Great style and lighting. I enjoy the visuals. This would be a fun game...and I want to play it!!!

[Joao Sapiro]

wouldbe awesome if the cars could have a black outline in game /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Sectaurs]

cars are looking awesome.

not too keen on the drivers, though.

also think the cars should be smaller in relation to the drivers.

[notman]

The Karts are damn cool. The drivers would be cooler if it looked like they were wearing helmets, rather than looking like they walked out of South Park /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[marshmonkey]

they will almost never be blank like that actually, I'll have to make a render with the default helmet and goggle on.

I think it would actually be kind of neat to try doing white outlines instead of the traditional black ones.

*edit* here is a pic of that character with the helmet and goggles:

http://nimblebit.com/charshow.png

Thanks for all the feedback. I hear a lot about the characters especially.

[notman]

Personally, I don't mind the characters overall. I think they fit with the theme. I want to see the helmets now /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[flaagan]

That buggy needs some hockey sticks / racing stripes. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[marshmonkey]

lol, hockey sticks?

[flaagan]

Hockey sticks: 1 (http://www.jimsautoparts.com/P4510274.jpg) 2 (http://www.challengergary.com/images/340_hockey_stick_pic.jpg)
Billboards: 1 (http://www.mopartsracing.com/parts/ram/stripe2.jpg) 2 (http://www.moparstyle.net/photoalbum/data/526/hemicuda2.jpg)

[notman]

You Chrysler guys and your fancy terms... :P

[marshmonkey]

sweet, some new terminology added to my lexicon /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[marshmonkey]

http://nimblebit.com/kart006a.pnghttp://nimblebit.com/kart006b.png

http://nimblebit.com/kart006show.png

[marshmonkey]

been quite a few updates since I last posted and I have kind of neglected this thread. Here are a few more videos from our blog (http://nimblebit.blogspot.com)

showing our customization interface:
http://www.vimeo.com/448510

and showing another track and a little bit of driving (still very basic):
http://www.vimeo.com/634940

[Cody]

Nice man this game looks sweet. I'm working on an independent game myself at the moment. It's alot of work. I see you have put your share of hours in this one, because it looks amazing. Keep it up buddy. Polycount ftw!

[marshmonkey]

A lot of unpaid hours and many more than that to go /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Cody]

I hear ya man. I'm in the same boat. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

It'd be cool if you checked out my game [wip]
and let me know what you think. Link -> http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=258602&an=0&page=0#Post2 58602

[pliang]

Colors look great...no seats?

[Mr.T]

It's looking great! I hope you'll add some dust / smoke from the kart, and maybe some tires mark on the asphalt when cornering. Amazing job!

[marshmonkey]

yea, there is a lot more polish to be done in terms of shadows and particles on the kart, etc.

There are seats in the stands, they are just a texture though to save on polies. I would like to have people and crowds sticking out of them and cheering but I haven't decided on the best way to do that yet. I was considering just having long strips poking out of the seats with a transparent animated texture on them.

[notman]

I would recommend turning the vehicle a little more in the preview screen, so you can see the wheels/tires on the vehicle better. Otherwise this game is looking damn cool

[SHEPEIRO]

i hope this has gameplay to match the hot visuals, you coders have a lot to live up to =)

[marshmonkey]

[ QUOTE ]
I would recommend turning the vehicle a little more in the preview screen, so you can see the wheels/tires on the vehicle better. Otherwise this game is looking damn cool

[/ QUOTE ]

Yea, I would like to have a whole "garage" area where your kart is up on a lift or platform and can be rotated around like is common in a lot of racing games.

[SHEPEIRO]

hey have you cheked out Little big planets rim lighting on its environents very nice

[marshmonkey]

yea, I have done some tests with rim lighting in maya, I would really like to get a rim lighting shader working in game, thats on the to do list for sure.

[marshmonkey]

So on the topic of rim lighting, I just made a post on our blog about a solution for rim lighting I implemented using cubic environment mapping. Check it out:
http://nimblebit.blogspot.com/2008/02/rim-lighting-extravabonanzathon.html

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/rim_west_720.jpg

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/rim_champ_720.jpg

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/rim_chill_720.jpg

[cholden]

I enjoy viewing this thread, and have nothing meaningful to add.

[Ryan Smith]

Wow man, i dont have any crits really, i just watched your video, and as being an enviornment guy, i absolutely LOVED your speghetti west stage... although there was one part, where the edge of the track and the background texture had nothing inbetween it, and it kind of looked empty, maybe some more decorations there or something, unless it was supposed to be a cliff or something

anyways, great job man! super inspirational!

[marshmonkey]

[ QUOTE ]
Wow man, i dont have any crits really, i just watched your video, and as being an enviornment guy, i absolutely LOVED your speghetti west stage... although there was one part, where the edge of the track and the background texture had nothing inbetween it, and it kind of looked empty, maybe some more decorations there or something, unless it was supposed to be a cliff or something

anyways, great job man! super inspirational!

[/ QUOTE ]

I know exactly where you mean, it at least has some rocks and cliffs in the distance now. Pretty much 100% of everything we show is in a constant state of evolution, especially with all the feedback we get from showing it. Thanks for the kind words! We can use every bit of motivation we can get!

[Aldo]

Looks awesome. Is the look achieved in texture or a shader? (hoping those are the right terms and I don't look like an idiot).

[marshmonkey]

it's done using Ogre3d's built in fixed function texture effects, so it is just using basic Direct3d or OpenGL calls, there is nothing being done with shaders.

[marshmonkey]

started on a new character, the old one wasn't really growing on me. hopefully this guy will have more character. Gotta unwrap and texture it next.

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/newchar.png

[SHEPEIRO]

[ QUOTE ]
I enjoy viewing this thread, and have nothing meaningful to add.

[/ QUOTE ]

me too =) except gush

[marshmonkey]

got the body squared away - the white and the blue parts will be customizeable in terms of color. On to the head!

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/newchar2.png

[marshmonkey]

worked on the face today
http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/newchar3.png
http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/rider001.pnghttp://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/rider001_2.png

[Cody]

Sweet character. What is the top half of the head UV for?

[marshmonkey]

the top and bottom of the head.

[marshmonkey]

made an extensive blog update about the character http://nimblebit.blogspot.com/2008/02/re-vamped-character-model-and.html
mostly just explaining the process that went into creating and animating it.

I also made a fun render of it posed in a little scene, I made it really high resolution so maybe I will find a place online to print me out a couple for fun.

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/ZGposter_thumb.jpg

small rez (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/ZGposter_small.png)

medium rez (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/ZGposter_med.png)

large rez (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/ZGposter_large.png)

[Cody]

[ QUOTE ]
the top and bottom of the head.

[/ QUOTE ]

Haha. Durr.

[Eclipse]

Awesome stuff as usual, this game is going to look soooo good. I love checking this thread /images/graemlins/laugh.gif.

[marshmonkey]

starting on a new character:

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/robo.png

[Ged]

hehe, cool a robot! I love the style of everything youre doing here, so much fun /images/graemlins/laugh.gif. The fresnel seems a bit heavy in some of the pics but that could be personal preference.

[Lee3dee]

marshmonkey this looks sooooo good /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[marshmonkey]

[ QUOTE ]
hehe, cool a robot! I love the style of everything youre doing here, so much fun /images/graemlins/laugh.gif. The fresnel seems a bit heavy in some of the pics but that could be personal preference.

[/ QUOTE ]

yea, I'm sure as time goes on I will look at the rim lighting again and decide to tone it down. That seems to happen with all new graphical toys I get to play with ( bloom, normal maps, etc )

[marshmonkey]

unwrapped and AO bake base

texture painting time

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/robo2.png
http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/robo3.pnghttp://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/robo4.png

[ElysiumGX]

Glad to see updates to this thread. I had it favorited anyway. This is cool looking project, and the new characters are perfect.

[marshmonkey]

basic texture, still deciding how I want to divide up the coloring customization areas. On to rigging!

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/robo5.png

[marshmonkey]

set up the color layer stuff this morning and got him all set up in-engine

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/robo6.png

[Slum]

haha, that one looks like Iron Man. awesome.

[Eclipse]

Very cool stuff, I think they eyes could be a bit further apart, but looks great.

[vertexguy]

Cool looking robot. My favorite is the red and yellow version. The rim light and glows are a nice touch. Hopefully it looks that good in engine!

[marshmonkey]

ok, I was up late last night making a new character poster

Robo Viking will pillage his way into your heart <3

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/ZGposter2_thumb.png

small rez (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/ZGposter2_small.png)

medium rez (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/ZGposter2_med.png)

large rez (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/ZGposter2_large.png)

[Mtg_kirin]

ur awesome and so are ur models

[Armanguy]

love it your blog is awesome

[marshmonkey]

we had our lan party playtest last night, it went really well!

Brian has been working a ton of hours getting the networking portion of our game far along enough to have our first Zero Gear play test, which we hosted at a LAN party this weekend. It seemed to be a great success and everyone seemed to have a great time driving around their characters even if we didn't have any real race rules in place yet. I was able to grab a lot of footage and I pieced together a little video, click the image below:

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/vidthumb.jpg (http://www.vimeo.com/769438)

Here are a few action photos of the Zero Gear party in progress, it was great to see people having fun!

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/lan1.jpg

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/lan2.jpg

http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/lan3.jpg

[Armanguy]

Very awesome stuff man looks like a ton of fun.

dont know if this has been asked but what engine are you using?

[marshmonkey]

Ogre3d for rendering: http://www.ogre3d.org/
Bullet for physics: http://www.bulletphysics.com/Bullet/

along with many other libraries which I can't remember off the top of my head

[ElysiumGX]

With crashing and stunts, this game looks so fun to play.

[pior]

thats looking incredibely fun to play! Any chance to have an online server up?

[Emil Mujanovic]

That was a cool little video!

-caseyjones

[marshmonkey]

[ QUOTE ]
thats looking incredibely fun to play! Any chance to have an online server up?

[/ QUOTE ]

we aren't quite at that stage yet, maybe in a few months!

btw, I am a great admirer of your work - I have spent lots of time exploring your portfolio in the past, crystal stuff!

[notman]

Looks like fun... You in any of those images?

[kevlar jens]

Adorable... in a positive way.

[marshmonkey]

[ QUOTE ]
Looks like fun... You in any of those images?

[/ QUOTE ]

nope, I am the one taking them. My parter Brian who is the programmer is in the background of the last shot though.

[CheeseOnToast]

Looking great. Looks like you've really got a handle on doing cute stuff now. That robot has officially been claimed as my character when I get to play this.

[marshmonkey]

I'm not sure if you want to commit so soon . . . I have inspired by a suggestion on a different forum that I try to do a lobster. I can see his cute little claws grasping the wheel already.

[Thegodzero]

Well if your going to make a lobster you should make a panda as well. With the panda you get all types of bears. Mainly i think it would be great to see a panda driving with a viking hat and a monocle.

[Armanguy]

panda and lobster sound awesome

[MightyPea]

tgz: A monocle? You wouldn't happen to be a secret poster at Tigsource, would you?

[vertexguy]

Looks great man. You should look into porting this to Xbox live arcade.

[marshmonkey]

put together some screenshots:

http://nimblebit.com/screenshot001sml.png (http://nimblebit.com/screenshot001.png)

http://nimblebit.com/screenshot002sml.png (http://nimblebit.com/screenshot002.png)

http://nimblebit.com/screenshot003sml.png (http://nimblebit.com/screenshot003.png)

also, I have done a couple of wallpaper renders for a few of the characters we have so far:

http://nimblebit.com/zerogear1_thumb.png
4:3 resoultions:
1024x768 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear1_1024x768.png),1280x800 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear1_1280x800.png),1600x1200 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear1_1600x1200.png)
widescreen:
1280x800 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear1_1280x800.png),1440x900 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear1_1440x900.png),1680x1050 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear1_1680x1050.png),1920x1200 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear1_1920x1200.png),2560x1600 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear1_2560x1600.png)

http://nimblebit.com/zerogear2_thumb.png
4:3 resoultions:
1024x768 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear2_1024x768.png),1280x800 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear2_1280x800.png),1600x1200 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear2_1600x1200.png)
widescreen:
1280x800 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear2_1280x800.png),1440x900 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear2_1440x900.png),1680x1050 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear2_1680x1050.png),1920x1200 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear2_1920x1200.png),2560x1600 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear2_2560x1600.png)

http://nimblebit.com/zerogear3_thumb.png
4:3 resoultions:
1024x768 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear3_1024x768.png),1280x800 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear3_1280x800.png),1600x1200 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear3_1600x1200.png)
widescreen:
1280x800 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear3_1280x800.png),1440x900 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear3_1440x900.png),1680x1050 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear3_1680x1050.png),1920x1200 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear3_1920x1200.png),2560x1600 (http://www.devbump.com/nimblebit.com/zerogear3_2560x1600.png)

[hawken]

xbox live would be the way forward, considering the out of control piracy these days

good editing on the video /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[marshmonkey]

there are still secure distribution platforms out there on the pc such as Steam.

[Joao Sapiro]

hey man i still think you should make it cell shaded at least the characters since the white fresnel makes them sort of "blend in" with the enviro and makes it confusing. Really great job and dedication here !!

[marshmonkey]

by cel shaded do you mean some kind of clamped lighting lighting effect, or like an outline around the mesh?

[Armanguy]

who coded your blog? they did a wonderful job /images/graemlins/smile.gif only if i could make something like that /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[marshmonkey]

If by coded, you mean took some blogger template they found on the web and replaced a lot of the graphics and hacked the css - then I did /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[marshmonkey]

I put up an "offical" site for the game.

you can visit it here: http://myzerogear.com

[CheeseOnToast]

About the cell shader, it might look even nicer with a clamped lighting effect you described, controlled by a 1-D texture. Put a (subtle) touch of blue/purple in the shadowed areas, and a bit of red into the midtones for a more toony effect. The transition looks better blended a little too, rather than a harsh two or three step cell shader effect. Sorry to refer to TF2 yet again, but that's what they have and it looks rather nice. Also gives you a lot more control over contrast, since you can just play around with the ramp texture. My avatar is using that effect, although it's probably too small to see clearly. It really does make a difference though.

[Nostradamus]

gogo wiiware ;>

[marshmonkey]

I know exactly what you are talking about cheese, I thin it would be fun to play with an effect exactly like that. Something that would be easy to turn on or off depending on your graphical settings too.

as far as Wiiware, I very much doubt that nintendo wants to put anything on the wii that even remotely resembles mario kart.

[marshmonkey]

so I have been really busy lately moving to a new place and dealing with all that fun stuff, but I recently started working on the "garage" environment, which will be a little room that your kart sits in where you can customize your looks, your kart tuning, etc. Hopefully we will end up supporting custom garages too so people can download new garage environments.

Here is the lift that you and your kart will be sitting ontop of:
http://nimblebit.com/lift.jpg
here is the texture:
http://nimblebit.com/lifttex.jpg

and here is a toolbox prop that will be sitting close by, I still need to texture it.
http://nimblebit.com/toolboxtextured.jpg
here are the UV's (spent like 4 hours on these!)
http://nimblebit.com/toolboxtex.jpg

[pliang]

Clean and generic but nicely built...hope you can squeeze in some surface details and wires.

[marshmonkey]

finished another garage prop, an exciting air compressor!

http://nimblebit.com/compressor.jpg

http://nimblebit.com/compressortex.jpg

[rooster]

these are nice and friendly, cool stuff..
i wonder what theyd look like if you put on a ffd and just gave them a bit of a cartoony angle, like wider at the top.. might be nice if it was subtle

[marshmonkey]

I actually did, it is kind of hard to tell from a top down angle with nothing else to reference.

[bounchfx]

just watched the video. This is really looking great! can't wait to try it out

[JohnnySix]

Have only just discovered this thread! Have just been catching up - really love the style and concept of this game - can't wait to play it - has all the best elements of games like micro-machines/mashed/mario-kart - am especially eager to see the physics in action first hand.

The last video with the cars flying through the air in a big arc looks hilarious. :D

[marshmonkey]

another small prop I just finished, and a very WIP shot of what the garage layout might look like with everything thrown in there.

http://nimblebit.com/airwrench.jpghttp://nimblebit.com/airwrenchtex.jpg

http://nimblebit.com/garagewip.jpg

There is still 3 or 4 more props I need to make, since the camera will be close in on the kart they will be close so I want them to look nice. Once I finish the props I will texture and do some simple details to the background of the garage and then light the whole thing. I am thinking it would be cool to have the garage door in the background rolled up and be able to see outside through that and the windows, would be a good light source too.

[dUb]

Nice work so far, Marshmonkey. I can't wait to try this out.

I'm a big mariokart fan, but the thing I missed in MK were believeable physics when you bump into each other. In your game, the physics seem to be much more convincing and exciting.

The characters, especially the human characters, look a bit bland. There's little to no contrast in the face, and the nose would be better if it was actual 3D imho.

Will the customization of the cart affect the driving? Like will there be upgrades you can earn to improve speed, etc?


Any idea when a playable demo will be available?

[marshmonkey]

Nice work so far, Marshmonkey. I can't wait to try this out.

I'm a big mariokart fan, but the thing I missed in MK were believeable physics when you bump into each other. In your game, the physics seem to be much more convincing and exciting.

The characters, especially the human characters, look a bit bland. There's little to no contrast in the face, and the nose would be better if it was actual 3D imho.

Will the customization of the cart affect the driving? Like will there be upgrades you can earn to improve speed, etc?


Any idea when a playable demo will be available?

The physics will be a big part of the game dynamic

Characters are my weakest point right now, I do not have a lot of experience with them, so I am learning as I go along with everything else. I hope each revision I do will yield improvement, and I hope to have a decent amount to choose from once all is said and done. Also, the format for the characters will hopefully be open for artists better than myself to create custom ones along with other things like karts and tracks and accessories.

Right now my gut feeling is to not have customization effect the actual gameplay, so that people can be comfortable choosing whatever they like best aesthetically without having to pick and choose the best for gameplay reasons, and also so that supporting community created things is not a gameplay balancing nightmare. We do plan on having the ability to tune your vehicle and distribute points among the customary attributes like weight, handling, drift, etc. which will be factors that affect gameplay.

[marshmonkey]

quick oil barrel

http://nimblebit.com/barrel.jpg http://nimblebit.com/barreltex.jpg

[marshmonkey]

spray gun and paint

http://nimblebit.com/spraygun.jpg

http://nimblebit.com/sprayguntex.jpg

[marshmonkey]

another quick shot, still very WIP

http://nimblebit.com/garagewip2.jpg

[Smirnoffka]

Looking like lots of fun :D I can't wait to play it! Only thing I would like to see is some nice AO under the objects on the ground. Other than that, top knotch!

[marshmonkey]

yea that would add a lot. When I go to vertex light it I will have to heavily subdivide that area, or probably it would make more sense to bake some AO into a texture itself once the placement of everything is settled.

[Pedro Amorim]

this is looking very very nice! your updates look extremely cool. you nailed the style spot on. congratulations!

[Ruz]

great stuff. i am envious:)

[marshmonkey]

ok, I finally finished up most of the garage and got it into the engine - here is a screen shot. It's all a fully modeled little environment so that there is something to look at in all directions as you will be able to freely rotate and zoom in around your kart & character.

http://nimblebit.com/garage1.jpg

[Pedro Amorim]

wow, this is so awesome!
really cool man. although it lacks calendars of naked chicks. lol

[marshmonkey]

hehe, I think naked chick posters might conflict with part of our target audience

[MattW]

The only crit I'd have is that the white fresnel on the bottoms of the tires on the images on the 3rd page really seem to disconnect the cars from the ground for me.

Otherwise awesome style and character. Great work and good luck.

[Smirnoffka]

Looking tremendous, and a ton of fun to play. I agree about the tires of the other 2 cars, but I know ogre can be hard to tame when using different materials and stuff, and other that that, I think you have nailed it!

[marshmonkey]

spent a little bit of time making some mock-ups thinking about how a few menus might work. The idea for the main menu is that the elements fly in from the edges of the screen, and a model of your character / kart on a stand screws into place from the bottom off screen.

http://nimblebit.com/main_screen_small.jpg (http://nimblebit.com/main_screen.jpg)

The customization menu will be able to handle all your kart and character customization or tuning. The left of the screen is where you will pick which element you are changing, and you can browse through your options on the right side, as well and pull it out further like a drawer with the red arrow to view more options at one time. The bottom of the screen is where your customizable color swatch options will appear for the item you have selected.

http://nimblebit.com/customize_screen_small.jpg (http://nimblebit.com/customize_screen.jpg)

[Ferg]

This is looking awesome man! No crits, just wanted to tell you that you're kicking some galactic ass

[pior]

Woah! Congrats on everything, this is going to be a great realease.
Do you plan to allow for user made customisation? It would be great to have custom heads, gloves, and wheels ... I am sure this would be hugely successful amongst modelers, and you could pick the ones you like and later add them to the game.

Do you plan to support normalmpas for characters? I think the default avatars are better without them but maybe allowing them for custom content would make for some nice visual contrast! Obviously, overdetailled normals would look like crap in there (you have a perfect shape unity and density atm, it would be a shame to break it), but if the normals are used to define broad shapes wedging together it could add a nice touch to future chars.

[marshmonkey]

yes, user customization is going to be a huge part of the game, which means supporting custom models for all the karts and characters and accessories, as well as custom levels and custom gameplay modes in those levels via Lua scripts.

Right now we have no plans to support normal maps, although as it stands nothing would stop people from doing it since our renderer supports them. We are trying to keep the game somewhat low spec, which for now means pretty much only diffuse maps and single level environment maps. This keeps the look consistent as well as cutting down the content creation time.

[marshmonkey]

we have recently been working on testing out our first test of some gameplay rules. In order to get a better grip on how our rules system is going to be layed out we are doing a quick game of tag, where the person who is "it" the longest wins, and whenever you run into the person who is it you become it. We are about halfway done with the mode, and have already happened upon some important fixes and tweaks in the process that will help us once we start on a racing mode.

Here is a screenshot of the level I made in the last few days to play tag in.

http://nimblebit.com/tagtest.jpg

This weekend we are having another lan party in which we are going to test out the game mode with around 8 people hopefully. I will be capturing footage to make into another video.

[HandSandwich]

This is looking boss as shit my friend. So... how soon can you get this on the PSN? :{) It'd be badass to have some multiplayer online kart action.

[monkeyboy_garth]

Holy crap dude. Well done - I've really enjoyed seeing this develop over the last few months. I can't wait to play it.

[marshmonkey]

New Video! Basic Gameplay tag-test

http://nimblebit.com/tagvideo.jpg (http://www.vimeo.com/926898)

In this video we are using a “Tag” type game mode as an intitial test of our gameplay scripting system. Using the experience from this we will design bigger and more exciting gameplay!

In this mode, players compete for the longest amount of time being "IT". The longer you are "IT" the more points you rack up. There is also a 3 second immunity after you have become "IT". For this level, we also made points accumulate faster the closer you are to the middle, to encourage people to duke it out in the middle ring.

The test was a lot of fun, and gave us a lot of ideas and feedback for how we are going to implement more gameplay features in the near future!

[HandSandwich]

I want to play this SOOO bad. We've been playing a bunch of multiplayer Mario Kart DS here at the office but this looks just as fun. Good work man.

[marshmonkey]

thanks will :) Me and Brian have put in a fair amount of mario kart ourselves!

[The_Kozmonaut]

Really cool. I love how you can roll the cars. keep up the great work

[danpants]

Awesome work I love the colors you used nice tone and vibrant selection. Nice presentation.

[pliang]

Really has come a long way...the color palette is really consistent and reminds me a little bit of Mario Kart...

[Smirnoffka]

Wow, you guys got some talent. I don't think I can explain how eager I am to play this.

I'd pay for it.

[RustyFranks]

eagerly waiting to play it

[[MILES]]

This is excellent!
Thought about implementing visual representations (customizable) of vehicle attribute enhancement? (IE: increase your vehicle's acceleration attribute and your cart's engine is represented as larger or different than the default engine. Increase your vehicle's handling attribute and perhaps the tires are widened beyond that of the default tire size). Such a feature might allow other players to visually tell what the strengths and weaknesses of their competition might be, before or during a match. This way, you could avoid having to apply specific default attributes to vehicles or players like Mario Kart does. This way, one man's pink pinto might not be the same as his competitor's pink pinto. :)

[marshmonkey]

;806112']This is excellent!
Thought about implementing visual representations (customizable) of vehicle attribute enhancement? (IE: increase your vehicle's acceleration attribute and your cart's engine is represented as larger or different than the default engine. Increase your vehicle's handling attribute and perhaps the tires are widened beyond that of the default tire size). Such a feature might allow other players to visually tell what the strengths and weaknesses of their competition might be, before or during a match. This way, you could avoid having to apply specific default attributes to vehicles or players like Mario Kart does. This way, one man's pink pinto might not be the same as his competitor's pink pinto. :)

I really like the spirit of that idea, and I think it is a healthy medium between some debates me and my partner have a lot about tying kart appearance to the stats of your vehicle. I have always thought that tying the visual models to performance elements would be very in-elegant - but simply modifying the scale and positioning across all assets according to your stats would be very elegant if you could make it all fit. I think it's a great idea!

[Baddcog]

That looks sweet so far. I love the part where the guy in the top hat tags then does a flying barrel roll to escape:)

[marshmonkey]

we are working on some items for our next video, as well as a new gameplay mode - here is a little sneak peek

http://nimblebit.com/powglove.png

[marshmonkey]

As you might have noticed in our last video, we have started putting particles in our game. For the non-developers out there, particles are how we create effects such as explosions, weather, dust or any situation where we need to animate some kind of graphical effect using many graphics moving together in a certain way. We are using an excellent particle library called Particle Universe which allows you to create these effects in a script type format. Here are a couple of effects I have been working on lately using this system.

http://nimblebit.com/particle1.gif http://nimblebit.com/particle2.gif

Here is a snippet of the script of the second explosion effect, detailing how the system should animate the fireball part of the explosion:


// --------------- fireball ---------------
technique
{
use_alias
material fireball
default_particle_width 25
default_particle_height 25
visual_particle_quota 500
emitter Point
{
emission_rate 1
force_emission true
velocity 0
time_to_live 1
}

// expand almost instantly then slower
affector Scale
{
xyz_scale dyn_curved_linear
{
control_point 0 1
control_point 0.1 4500
control_point 0.3 500
}
}

affector Colour
{
colour_aff_time_colour 0 1 1 1
colour_aff_time_colour 0.1 1 1 1
colour_aff_time_colour 0.3 .8 .6 .6
colour_aff_time_colour 0.45 .2 .2 .2
colour_aff_time_colour 0.65 0 0 0
}

}

[SHEPEIRO]

very nice havent looked at it for a while, nice to see its coming so far, hope it plays aswell as it looks. were in for a treat if we are

[marshmonkey]

been working on 3 items lately for our next video, along with a new gameplay mode. Here is a little teaser for the items:

http://nimblebit.com/itemicons.png

[marshmonkey]

real quick post, we just got our new level up and running for the next game mode we are building for the next video. Wanted to post a quick screenshot.

http://nimblebit.com/spacesmall.jpg (http://nimblebit.com/spacebig.jpg)

[Eclipse]

Wow Marsh, that looks really awesome, I can't wait to play this, it's gonna be great!

[Monochrome]

Looking sweet. Good work.

[Thegodzero]

Sweet!

It needs some asteroids orbiting the map and planets in the distance, maybe even a comet flying by. Id bump up the cloudiness in the star field. I think it will help make it less stark, and more friendly.

Also you might want to make a astronaut helmet for the players if your making space maps.

No mater what this game is looking very slick already!

[pior]

Wow! I love how this somehow looks like a tribute to the Mario/MK universe, and not just a mere clone. I think you are doing great!

You could make a space track with a Northern Lights theme hehe (ala Rainbow Road!)

Can't wait to play, CAN'T WAIT TO MOD!

[Ajax]

Man this game looks freaking SWEET man! Great job, awesome indie title right here.

[marshmonkey]

thanks guys! I have thought about putting a little space helmet in there too if I have time. Asteroids would be awesome too!

[Joao Sapiro]

damn ! you guys keep evolving !i reeealy like the colored look of everything ! my suggestiuon might be a tad weird, but what about giving everything outlines ? it would accentuante the cartoony look and make it more interesting in my opinion :)

[WipEout]

Dude, this looks fantastic! I don't even really care for cart racing games, but this one looks like a ton of fun! Can't wait to see/ play the final product!

I can see what people mean about the similarities to Mario Kart, and that might be cause for some worry. Honestly, though, with the customization, unique vehicles, and some sweet game modes, I wouldn't look at it so much as an MK clone as a fun cross between Little Big Planet and Mario Kart.

Keep up the good work!

[marshmonkey]

yea, I might play with doing outlines on the characters and kart via a shader at some later time, I'm not sure we are really going for a fully cel shaded look though. It could help the characters stand out though.

We are not too worried about being compared to mario kart - we are just aiming to be the most fun kart racing game on the PC. It's going to have lots of PC platform strengths that have never really been applied to a kart racing title before ( versatile multiplayer support, customization of game modes and visuals )

[marshmonkey]

I had to make a quick new hat for people to choose from for this new space stage:

http://nimblebit.com/hat012.png

[marshmonkey]

working on a new kart to fit the whole space theme, it's inspired by this toy:

http://nimblebit.com/buggyref.jpg

I've got it modeled and UV mapped with a starter ambient occlusion base texture. Will do the fun part and texture it next.

http://nimblebit.com/moonbuggy.png

here is what the UV map looks like

http://nimblebit.com/moonbuggyuv.jpg

[georgemancer]

I really like the style of this project. Very eye-catching. Nice job.

[marshmonkey]

finished texturing it tonight, here are some shots from the engine:

http://nimblebit.com/moonbuggy2.png

and here is the flat texture

http://nimblebit.com/moonbuggytex.jpg

since there are no exhaust tubes to animate or anything, I am going to make the antennas wiggle around as an idle animation :)

[[MILES]]

Looking excellent man. Love the solar panel and antenna wiggle idea.
Will the normal cars be allowed on the space map or will they be space only vehicles?
If space only, how about a retro-rocket and flying saucer to go along with the solar rover?

[marshmonkey]

just finished modeling and texturing a new character, now comes the terribly fun part of rigging him to a (lol) skeleton

http://nimblebit.com/skele.png

[Pedro Amorim]

ohhhhhhhhh
its nice!
altho i think i would prefer to see a reaper model .
would be ace.

with its little pitchfork and whatnot.. inside the car.

a comic version of this fella
http://kingpin-of-comics.net/catalog/images/grim%20reaper.jpg

[Armanguy]

PIMP work my friend keep up the good work!

[marshmonkey]

we had our first full test over the internet last night, it was a bit of a whirlwind trying to get everyone set up and working but it went pretty well. Here is a blog post Brian wrote about it:

http://nimblebit.blogspot.com/2008/05/first-big-internet-test-grand-ole-party.html

as you can read in the post, we are looking for some kind of dedicated server to rent with decent bandwidth so we can test with more that a few people, if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to shoot me a PM.

Also, we were using our Zero Gear Steam group to co-ordinate during the test, even if we aren't on steam YET, anyone is free to join our group to show your support of getting us on Steam eventually! http://steamcommunity.com/groups/zerogear

Also, I did a new accessory and hat this week!

http://nimblebit.com/acc005.png http://nimblebit.com/hat013.png

[marshmonkey]

spent today setting up some forums for the game, hopefully it will help us form a tighter community around the game as we get further along with development!

http://myzerogear.com/phpBB3/index.php

[Armanguy]

was reading the forums a little and saw character suggestions, you could so do a panda! i will do it for you if you wish :P oh and for a vehicle you should make a mini hummer like mine :P

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v92/armanguy/minihummerwip-2.jpg

[SHEPEIRO]

shesh..thats amazing

[marshmonkey]

Today I was working on a design for an icon for the game executable, this is much larger version of the design but I think it scales down pretty well

http://myzerogear.com/zgicon_256.png

[Thegodzero]

Looking good!

I can't wait to see a blue and orange panda with a cowboy hat, monocle, and mustache driving a dune buggy in space!

[marshmonkey]

everybody wants a panda! I guess I will have to make that my next character.

[FicWill]

A penguin would be great too, as well as fairly simplistic geometry and texture-wise.

[bounchfx]

I'm dying to try this out. it looks so awesome. It would be great to have a big online community for this and play on weeknights.

[CaptainHowdy]

finished texturing it tonight, here are some shots from the engine:

http://nimblebit.com/moonbuggy2.png

and here is the flat texture

http://nimblebit.com/moonbuggytex.jpg

since there are no exhaust tubes to animate or anything, I am going to make the antennas wiggle around as an idle animation :)
This is looking great!

Now, surely its only a matter of time.....

http://members.aol.com/pseisen/bananasplits/thebananasplits002.jpg

[marshmonkey]

lol if I ever make a monkey character it is going to be wearing a little vest for sure.

[marshmonkey]

a lot of people want a panda character so I decided to start putting one together this afternoon, here is what I have so far:

http://myzerogear.com/pandawip.jpg

[marshmonkey]

I got a texture done for the panda today, I think he turned out pretty cute! I changed the paws to be a little less stumpy as well:

http://myzerogear.com/panda.png

[Armanguy]

that turned out awesome, cant wait to see him in game :)

[Thegodzero]

Sweet!

I would love to see what it would look like if it had normal but chubbier (white) gloves on its paws. That or id detail in the paws more for a better hold on the wheel. Like a thumb nub at least., but i would try the chubby gloves first. Also id add a bit more detail on the feet.

[pior]

Haha that's one cool panda :P

One more suggestion for it : You might want to play with the black shapes on the head a little. I think a big part of real life pandas personality comes from these black surfaces around the eyes... shaped as eyes! Since they tilt down , they make the pandas look a bit hound-dog like in expression because our brain reads this as a socket shadow.

Okay that was unclear. Pics :
This one looks sad-ish at first sight, even if hes not.
http://www.motherjones.com/blue_marble_blog/panda01.jpg

And then you can play :
http://caswell.blogspot.com/china/images/20040907.Panda.jpg

So you could maybe explore SuperDeformed manga graphical codes for sadness, hapiness aso and maybe shape these black surfaces accordingly? It would add a great range of expression.

also I think the white of the eye is a bit too apparent atm (thats closely related to the above)

good luck! Keep them coming!

[marshmonkey]

thanks pior! I never really noticed that about the eye shapes, I will have to play around with different variations when I get the chance.

[notman]

Awesome Panda...

I sense that TGZ would love to get his hands on an SDK of that Panda ;)

[marshmonkey]

couple new things, we have been very busy working on a build to test thursday night to take footage for a new video.

here are a few short clips of 2 of the 3 items we hope to have working in the next video:

http://myzerogear.com/mine.mov

http://myzerogear.com/punch.mov

also, I like turtles.

http://myzerogear.com/turtle.png

[dippingsauce]

That turtle is OH SO CUTE! I love the proportion ratio of his head and shell. Those KISS pandas are pretty funny too :D

[BoBo_the_seal]

turtle kicks ass!!

[[MILES]]

Very cool, marsh!

You know you just have to include a platypus! No game would be complete, without. (Yes there are thousands of incomplete games on shelves).

:)

[pior]

Miles : was thinking about starting one for it haha :D Yeah I know the tools are not out yet but we could make this the first (and indie!) game to have a modding community *before* beta release!

[marshmonkey]

turtle kicks ass!!

wow, this means a lot coming from you! Thanks!!!

I am still getting comfortable character modeling as these are the first time I have taken my shot at doing characters. I am getting more confident with each new character now. That is one of my favorite thing about doing everything myself, if there is something we want to do I just have to learn how to do it myself which is cool becuase I love learning new things.

Everyone wants a platypus! I think there is some kind of secret platypus agenda. One problem with that or any character with a bill is that it would stick out and intersect with all the swappable hats and items. Thats why I have been trying to only do characters that I can represent by just slightly modifying a sphere, to insure all the swappable stuff still fits.

We are having a small test tonight, I will be furiously fraps-ing it ( lol ) and hopefully I will edit together a new video for you guys very soon. It will be showing off a new level and gameplay mode, as well as our first basic implementation of 3 items.

[marshmonkey]

Miles : was thinking about starting one for it haha :D Yeah I know the tools are not out yet but we could make this the first (and indie!) game to have a modding community *before* beta release!

That would be the most awesome thing ever. I think I could probably throw together a "sdk" sometime soon of a character with skeleton ( although now that I am more familiar with animating and rigging I am kind of embarrassed with my setup ) but it would probably be all you need to make something that could be put into the game. I could even include some of the hats and accessories so that you could verify it would work with those things

*edit* I could do the same thing with a kart too

[Ajax]

This game is looking so incredibly badass. It's really impressive guys, keep up the good work!

[[MILES]]

That would be the most awesome thing ever. I think I could probably throw together a "sdk" sometime soon of a character with skeleton ( although now that I am more familiar with animating and rigging I am kind of embarrassed with my setup ) but it would probably be all you need to make something that could be put into the game. I could even include some of the hats and accessories so that you could verify it would work with those things

*edit* I could do the same thing with a kart too

*Pior: :)

*Marsh: SDK - would be very generous and simply awesome

[pior]

Hehe I was just about to put a blank character sheet together, based on the images you already released of all the little characters :P Damn I have like tons of ideas for this!
(including, females)
(and, sculpted toys)

[rooster]

im kinda interested in this modding idea too..

[marshmonkey]

ok, I will put together a character and a kart one. Hats and Accessories can be easily made off the character one.

They will be Maya files, maybe once I post them someone can make .max versions. Does .obj save skeletal info?

[rooster]

dont think it does unfortunately.. you might be able to use fbx?

[Neox]

Hehe I was just about to put a blank character sheet together, based on the images you already released of all the little characters :P Damn I have like tons of ideas for this!
(including, females)
(and, sculpted toys)

do it

[marshmonkey]

ok, here is a basic SDK with Maya files - they should provide a good idea of scale for things to fit into the game.

http://myzerogear.com/ZeroGearModelSDK_v1.00.zip

from the readme.txt


Zero Gear model SDK
version 1.00
6-05-08

Included files:
-rider_SDK.mb
-kart_SDK.mb
-TextureSDK (dir)


both .mb files have sample objects in layers in order to help scale.

Notes:
-For the hats and accessories, each can be snapped to the headanchor bone to represent in-game appearance.

-Positioning the character to get hands to line up on the steering wheel (steering wheel position is the same across all karts) can be a little tricky, feel free to move the character root skeleton around to compensate.

-Polycounts should be under 3,000 tris for characters and karts

- Texture sizes are:

character: 1x 512x512
Kart: 1x 512x512
Hats/Accessories/Wheels: 1x 256x256

- For a sample of how to construct textures to be color customizeable, see the TextureSDK folder. For areas that will be customizeable, the base lum texture needs to be grayscale, and a transparent .png mask created to define where the custom color should be multiplied on top.





All included files copyright David Marsh, 2008

[pior]

Sad, couldn't open the files in Maya8.0... Maybe a .ma would be easier, or even a .obj? If you have the rig as boxes it should be rather easy to tell where to put the joints.

[bounchfx]

gonna second using FBX. doooo ittt.

awesome work man, one of my most anticipated titles :)

[marshmonkey]

darn, I will try exporting to one of those formats when I get a moment and re-post it . . .

[TorQue[MoD]]

This game looks like its going to be awesome! You using a custom engine or?

And Nimblebit looks like Gir from Invader Zim with a Viking hat on!

If you need playtesters let me know :)

[CheeseOnToast]

Where's the lobster you promised you'd make? WHERE IS IT?!?! We need a crustacean with road rage, STAT!

Seriously though man, this is just getting better and better. Opening it up to the community is a great idea.

[bounchfx]

lobster = awesome, panda = awesome, platypus = awesome...

but what about the king of the animals?... the AARDVARK?!?

...oh. maybe not.

[marshmonkey]

thanks for the support guys :)

well I spent an hour trying to get anything to export to FPX but it would always hang up while exporting, I tried getting the latest exporter and everything. So no FBX unless someone else wants to try, I have also included .ma as well as some static obj's this time.

http://myzerogear.com/ZeroGearModelSDK_v1.01.zip

forgot to edit the readme in there but oh well, I'm busy!

[marshmonkey]

Sad, couldn't open the files in Maya8.0... Maybe a .ma would be easier, or even a .obj? If you have the rig as boxes it should be rather easy to tell where to put the joints.

I am actually currently only using the same skeleton on all my characters so far becuase it saves time, there is no reason why any custom character can't have a unique or even completely non-humanoid skeleton - as long as it has the same anims that are the same length and they physically fit into the kart and other wearable items.

[BrodyB]

Oooh, I'm gonna have me sum funz. :D

[konstruct]

When this thread first started, I didn't think much of it, just thought it was some kinda neat micro-kart stuff, and now with every update, i have have to pick my jaw up off the floor because its unbelievable how far this has gotten, and how much it kicks ass. Much props, and for the love of god, don't stop-

[pior]

Save trees, recycle polygons!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/pior_ubb/pior_kartbunnywip001.png
Still have to rearrange the UVs, repaint some areas a little and do some cooler hair.
Plus made a quick Michelle Tanner female base :D

Also put together a little static template skeleton in .obj flavour. The zip has a Maya8 .ma version of the original template too - to make it work under older Mayas simply textedit the few '8.0's at the beginning to the desired version.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/pior_ubb/ZG_driverrig.gif

www.pioroberson.com/files/ZG_driverrig_obj.zip

Platypus's next!

[rooster]

lol, fuckin ace!

[Thegodzero]

Pior Sweet!!

I'm so glad thats a maya file... otherwise i wouldn't be able to keep myself from making one.

[marshmonkey]

pior you rock!!!! that helmet would look so awesome on other characters as well! I can't wait to see this in game! Also, you know you are going to make a kart and wheels that are just as awesome, right?

[marshmonkey]

Finished a new video! Check it out:

http://nimblebit.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-video-fallout-gameplay-mode-and-3.html

http://myzerogear.com/falloutvid.jpg

[SHEPEIRO]

thats ace
couple of tiny meany minor crits,
from the video its difficult to make out which were glass and which were holes, maybe a little more opacity, or some streaks across it?
the other was that the names are low res and dont really fit the style, sure thats temp though =)

[marshmonkey]

yea, the names are temp, they will be spiced up to be much prettier in time. The glass is something I have been struggling with for awhile, I have yet to find the right blending mode in the ogre material system that always looks like glass. I will have to keep working on it!

[Nysuatro]

I was hoping for a "cool going to die effect".
Just not simply falling down. Maybe dissolve in many peaces or ...

[SHEPEIRO]

why not try a normal mapped pattern like hexagons or sommit, or you could go traditional and add a streak in the diffuse texture? never used ogres materials but theyre supposed to be quite powerfull?

[marshmonkey]

Haven't thought much about that, do you mean normal mapped texture on the character or as a screen effect?

if you have a chumby you can use this Steam Group widget my brother made, it features the Zero Gear steam group as the default!

http://www.chumby.com/guide/widget/Steam+Friends

[pior]

Marsh I think Shepeiro meant that you could maybe add some simple normalmapped hexagon patterns (honeycomb) on the glass surfaces to differentiate them from the voids.

Another thing you can do is to make these sheets of glass slightly opaque at the edges where they connect to the frame (could be vertex based..) to suggest dust accumulated there. A great example can be seen on screenshots of the last Devil May Cry game on the PS3

Gonna have my female bunny done soon :P

[marshmonkey]

Marsh I think Shepeiro meant that you could maybe add some simple normalmapped hexagon patterns (honeycomb) on the glass surfaces to differentiate them from the voids.

Another thing you can do is to make these sheets of glass slightly opaque at the edges where they connect to the frame (could be vertex based..) to suggest dust accumulated there. A great example can be seen on screenshots of the last Devil May Cry game on the PS3

Gonna have my female bunny done soon :P

ah, yea I see. The vertex opacity is a good idea too. I'm excited about your space bunny! Is it going to be separated into a character and a helmet so the helmet could be swapped to different characters as well?

Me and my partner were just discussing yesterday about possibly releasing the garage character / kart customization section of the game stand-alone for people to play with and also to load custom stuff like you are making to see how well it fits together with everything else.

[SHEPEIRO]

thanks for explaining me thoughts prior =)

love the idea of a racer with an open source garage, i feel a tiny f-zero racer coming on

[marshmonkey]

added some new screenshots to our media page (http://myzerogear.com/media.html). Most of them are yanked from the video (http://www.vimeo.com/1141627) we released monday. Click on the happy family enjoying Zero Gear to check them out!

http://myzerogear.com/newscreens.png (http://myzerogear.com/media.html)

[breakneck]

don't know if this is mentioned earlier in this thread, haven't read it all but i have a suggestion that would be kind of cool to see:

after watching the latest vid i noticed that the karts still fell downward when knocked off the map. It would be cool to see them float off into space with less gravity and maybe run into a satillite. . or the kart sign.
-my 2 cents! keep it up!! good work!!