GD.IE Stone Soup: Collaborative 3D project

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

I had spoke to a few people about the possibility of making an online, fun thingie for gd.ie, where people of various different skills could input a bit of their time and skills ( make a title screen, overlay, create a 3D model, add sounds etc ) to make a map of Ireland, showing where all of the various companies are based at.

i have finally managed to get time to put together a ( very ) basic template of Ireland, which you can drive around ( thanks to Ronnie for sending of the texture of Ireland… there is some collaboration already :) ).

http://www.candointeractive.com/gamedesign/car/gamedevelopers/

As you can see, the level is VERY basic, and so can evolve in a number of directions ( planning at this stage is probably not worth it, it would be cool to prototype some sort of level and see how the collaboration effort is going, before attempting a more polished #2 for the website… any suggestions on this are of course welcome )

If you are interested in taking part in this collaborative project, add a post with what skills you have ( eg I can model, or I can offer a model of a box with textures of screenshots from the PaddySoft games ) and hopefully if there is enough interest, we could end up with a fun little offering for the website. Hopefully it shouldn’t take up any more than an evening of everyones time.

I WANT TO TRY OUT SOMETHING VERY QUICKLY BEFORE I COMMIT

No problemo, download the app ( 4Mb ) from…
http://www.candointeractive.com/gamedesign/car

With this, you will be able to change the title screen ( title.jpg, 700×500 ), or if you know flash and want to get real fancy with the intro, create a title.swf in Flash 5 format, again 700×500 ), as well as vanlogo.jpg and numberplate.jpg ( these might be too far away in the final version to be seen properly )

Any musicians can simply replace music.mp3 for the background music ( check out .docs for more sounds that can be changed ). I’m hoping to get Aphra to give a quick initial “welcome to gd.ie” voice-over that will be played right at the start.

If you know your photoshopping well ( transparencies etc ), you can edit logo.png to include gd.ie logos and branding ( the banner at the top will be gone for the final version ), it’s 700×500 again

I’ll post the .MAX file and texture of the current level, if any 3D artists want to play with it.

UPDATE:
Here’s the .ZIP containin the .MAX file, and textures
http://www.candointeractive.com/gamedesign/car/gamedevelopers/ireland.zip

Regards…
Mal

[Anonymous]

will help out. i think that the marks (for companies) should be links to there websites.

[Anonymous]

Can you put physics on the markers so we can move some of the companies to more convenient places in ireland?

[Anonymous]

yeah, thats easy, just add moving_ to the beginning of the object name… but why?

[Anonymous]

So dublin can take its rightful place as the center of all things gd in Ireland

[Anonymous]

I just uploaded a .ZIP containing the Max 7 scene file, and the few textures that were used.

http://www.candointeractive.com/gamedesign/car/gamedevelopers/ireland.zip

If you just want to change title screens, overlayed logos etc, download the main .ZIP file from the first link ( containing the app ), then overwrite the gamelevel.w3d file from the link above, into the main app folder.

DarkSaviour69 wrote…

> will help out. i think that the marks (for companies) should be links to there websites.

I had that on the canDo maker originally ( just name the model as a URL, eg http://www.candointeractive.com ) but as people would be knocking into the various areas, it might make it a bit confusing… might be worth trying out though.

With regard to the markers, I was thinking of maybe doing this…

Have each company / college create their own 3D model of the marker ( eg 3D character model holding up a billboard with their logo, or a model of their main building etc ), position the model correctly on the map, and then send in their scene to be merged with the main scene.

Also, for showing screenshots, maybe have a spinning box / cylinder that shows a few sample screenshots from the company on the sides.

I’m coding in something to the car app that will allow you to specify a new overlay to appear when you are near an item, and this could contain additional information ( text, images ) about the company / college, which could give more details on what they do. This might help give it more of a functional element, rather than just finding out where various companies are located in a novel way.

Mal

[Anonymous]

can’t help feeling that something more user-friendly (i.e. doesn’t require plug-in downloads or a huge wait on a dial-up to load, and easier to navigate) would be better. Increasingly I’m directing foreign companies looking for info on the games industry in Ireland to the site, and I just think a simple 2D map with comapanies locations marked would be better

sorry!

[Anonymous]

> can’t help feeling that something more user-friendly (i.e. doesn’t require plug-in downloads or a huge wait on a dial-up to load, and easier to navigate) would be better. Increasingly I’m directing foreign companies looking for info on the games industry in Ireland to the site, and I just think a simple 2D map with comapanies locations marked would be better

Absolutely, by all means make a simple 2D map with this information on it. A .GIF of Ireland would be the ideal way of showing this.

This project is really an attempt at creating an opportunity where some of the members can collaborate easily in a game orientated environment ( people can pitch in with different skills, eg music, 3D modelling that wouldn’t be required for a 2D .GIF ).

If a few people work together and make something, then them may work together again in the future on a game related project. If the project doesn’t get used, that’s also fine as it’s not really the point of the project. If it is used as a gimmick, then that’s fine also.

> sorry!

No need to be sorry

Mal

[Anonymous]

Hi Mal,

got your phone message… how’s this piece?

http://www.fitchsounds.com/MP3s/CelticAdventure.mp3

maybe i think you could do with it being a little bit longer?.. it’s only just under a minute..

if it’s the right style though it can easily be extended ( when i get a minute free )

and i can get you some sound effects / voice over done no bother… just let me know again what you need…

will try call you back again at some point soon..

[Anonymous]

Hi Claire,

The music sounds excellent! I’ve placed it in the file, along with a hoirish voice.mp3 that plays at the start ( to be replaced of course with a more suitable one ). You can view it from the usual link at…

http://www.candointeractive.com/gamedesign/car/gamedevelopers

I hacked together a terrible UI, so hopefully someone with design skills will be able to put together a more subtle one ( the steering wheel and speedometer are optional, can be any size / transparent, and can be placed anywhere ). The banner at the top, and any orange colouring, will be disappearing for the final version, so there is a full 700×500 screen to work with.

I’ve just added animating texture support to the app, so if anyone has 2D artwork ( eg a 30 frame 2D animating character or similar ) it can be easily shown now in the app in 3D ).

See below for a quickly put together example of animating textures

http://www.candointeractive.com/gamedesign/car/animating

Mal

[Anonymous]

Heh, never underestimate the power of a simple game and a Leaderboard…having all the old skool games on our site at http://games.redbrick.dcu.ie really helped us win Website of the Year I think! :lol:

[Author]

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