So I'm making a side scroller...

[Zeph]

Well, this semester I'm making a side scroller, or some form of a 2D scroller (overhead ala pokemon or oldschool zelda), in U3 for my final. I'm still uncertain of what I'm going to make exactly, but I have plenty of ideas. I'll be working out the actual scrolling aspect with about 15 other people, so I'm not really worried about that. Either we all get it or none of us do. Seeing how there are already existing sidescrollers out there, I dont see how we could fail in that regard. Whatever happens though, I'd like some input on one of my ideas.

Several things in my portfolio are going to be related to Modacity. If I could get this scroller themed to the site, it would be amazing. Do any moments in the history of the community stand out to you? Even things from way back at GBX pre-CE work out. Small things could lead to something big, so dont be shy. This is a chance for some great :awesome:s to be made. If we cant theorycraft something together, I'll have to go with something really basic and boring.

[thehoodedsmack]

You could make it a murder mystery about Jay's sister!

[flibitijibibo]

You could have a Crysis-ice-land-like moment, where H2Vista turns into Modacity from a giant explosion or something.

Also, smiley powerups.

[ima_from_America]

Make a Sonic clone except with Rick Astley instead of Sonic and call it Rick Roll.































Run on sentences FTW

[legionaire45]

METAL SLUG.

[Pooky]

METAL SLUG.

BUT HALO THEMED :O

[DaneO'Roo]

Ennui the Evil Bitch Princess of Fire
Botman the Interloper
SVC 90210
Vertigo Shitty
GBX: The Masterz Birthday Party Expansion!
HIVers - The Saga
Alt+F4 for Aimbot
Dev looks like Michael Jackson
Exodus: Jahrain, Nick and the Apple vs Microsoft
Lifepod CE- The Chronicles of Jayden part 67
Boba Hates Starwars
Veegie the Troll
GBH - The Sacrificial Harvest
Slipknot, better than Maiden
Emmzee the Faggot


That should be a start

[Bodzilla]

needs more zilla is a dousche bag, but has a funny sig :D!
Heathen and Teek, the ambiguously gay duo!
TREND TIME
The second coming of Jesus aggy

[Phopojijo]

You said you're doing it in U3...

Are you doing it in UnrealEngine3? Or UnrealEditor3 (Unreal Engine 2)

It gets a bit confusing because UnrealEditor 1 and 2 were for UnrealEngine1.

If you're doing it for Unreal Engine 3 you'll find it quite a bit better than Unreal Engine 2... especially since you like to model everything in an external package and place it in the Editor... rather than build BSP in the editor itself.

That and I'll be able to help much more in UnrealEngine3.

How much middleware/packages are you allowed to use? If you could... check out UT2D here (http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=610415).

Or since everything in UnrealEngine is opensource... download it anyway and see how it's programmed for reference.

[Zeph]

Engine 3.

[Phopojijo]

Cool cool.

So yea, if you wish model everything in Max or Maya, export as an ASE file (Max can do it by default, Maya needs ActorX (http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/ActorX.html#Maya%20Exporter%20Plugins)). Some caveats though:

1) Use skeleton-based animations. You *can* export hand-animated vertex animations using the axvertex command... but that sucks: Performs worse, eats up more RAM, cannot be LOD'd, cannot be scripted nearly as fully as skeletal, etc.

2) Import your meshes as fully-welded sections of fairly small size (not necessarily complexity... just size)

Reason is 2-fold:
i -- If you have a funky mess of multiple meshes all imported at the same time as a single object... you're bound to get some errors. Not just for UnrealEngine3... I mean altogether. The cleaner the mesh the easier it is to export... period...

ii -- If a mesh takes up a LARGE area... it is more likely to be hit by multiple dynamic lights. Even if you cannot SEE the light, if it touches a mesh you can see -- it'll reduce performance. UnrealEngine3 automatically does portaling because it's a deferred renderer. If your camera cannot see the object? It doesn't exist. Take advantage of that -- do not make your meshes rediculously big such that things that are well outside your vision needs to be rendered.

Solution: Chop up your mesh, export it in fully-welded chunks, realign them in UnrealED (which shouldn't be hard as -- at least for meshes exported from Maya -- just set the same scale and move their position {using F4 when selecting the mesh} to 0,0,0 and they should all align perfectly)

3) You still need to use the builder brush for stuff like -- volumetric effects/triggers. That being said: They're usually simple boxes... no crazy-ass complex BSP... just boxes.

4) Collision defaults to off for newly-imported meshes. Easy way around it is setting collision to per-triangle. Not the most efficient, but you can tweak and tune for performance later. I'll tell you how to do that when it's time. Or just read this... (http://www.hourences.com/book/tutorialsue3modeling1.htm)

I'd recommend picking up Unreal Tournament 3 Collector's Edition. It's like 30$ or less now... and comes with hours and hours and hours of tutorials. Cheapest "textbook" ever :p

[Pyong Kawaguchi]

BUT HALO THEMED :O
aka halo zero >.>

This requires a realistic nuke explosion.

[Pooky]

Halo Zero sucked ass.

I meant actual Metal Slug gameplay, just with a Halo theme.

[t3h m00kz]

Do a story where Metroid and Zelda collide, then Master Chief steps up and says "sup homies" then they have to get the Triforce from Mother Brain, true leader of the Covenant, then they get shot down by pirates. SPAAAAACE Pirates.

Then on their way through the space pirate's main base, they make it to the Marathon where they meet up with like, Mario, Sonic and a whole bunch of other video game stars and beat each other fucking senseless. Forever.

Then it turns out it was Durandal the entire time.

Oh wait.. Brawl. nvm

[Sel]

You could make it a murder mystery about Jay's sister!

I like this one.

[ultama121]

This will be pretty awesome if all goes well, Zeph.


You could make it a murder mystery about Jay's sister!

The storyline would be far too deep. :rolleyes:

E: 800th post!

[Heathen]

Heathen and Teek, the ambiguously gay duo!


Wat?

Sooo not gay.