...although we didn´t keep you posted for quite some time about our progress. While we could start yet another story about problems with human resources - we decided to just welcome back two of our members who had quite a break: Shadowrunner and chewie. Welcome back folks
Youtube-ChannelSince development is picking back up we finally created the Youtube channel "Zero-Projekt TV" where our developers will post videos along with explanations of their work. Everybody is invited to watch our work - and maybe post some encouraging comments
Zero-Projekt TV on Youtube  Inventory, more clearly arranged & First version of our item contextmenu |  Better readable font for npc shouts |
Chewie made a lot of improvements to the Zero framework - e.g. the reintegration of our combat system, the preparation of the AI to fight in turn-based combat and the implementation of cover, just to name some.
The combat system we
showed in the past was a prototype with a lot of temporary solutions (read: hacks) to make it work. The goal of the reintegration was to embed the system into all parts of the framework - which we achieved.
For the AI, we wrote some pathfinder code to let them navigate on a non-random basis - which is all FIFEs current solution has to offer (and doesn't make sense for combat solutions). Furthermore, this little module helps us to calculate a basic line of sight as well as the cover values all map objects have. Having that, shooting through walls is not longer possible - and fights in a forrest get really interesting - as every tree now provides cover for both the AI and the player. Also, there will be the chance to hit multiple npcs in a row - if the dice are with you.
The next big improvement is the integration of day-/night cycles which are based on a realistic algorithm, namely a cosinus curve. The changes from day to night are almost not noticeable - which creates a great atmosphere if you are once again surprised by the night. At this point we want to thank our team member Helios for his work on FIFE's renderer.
Of course there were a lot of bug fixes - along with first improvements of the usability of the client. (we even had an extra day only for that topic)
FIFE / C++Helios is working on some interesting features in a sperate branche of the FIFE SVN. We already mentioned the LightRenderer in the past, which got quite some improvements. Also, he added SimpleLight, a faster way to create lightsources on the map as the previous solution (Lightmaps). Furthermore he tries to provide a flexible, easy to use and still powerful API. Here is a (german) quote by him about some of his efforts:
[..] also ich hab beim Rendermode von Immediatemode auf vertex arrays umgestellt [..]
[..] SimpleLight ist einfach ein Vertex was durch Mathematik dazu gebracht wird einen Kreis oder was auch immer anzunehmen [..] je nachdem wieviele Seiten man ihm gibt verbraucht es nun weniger fps als ein Image. [..]
[..] Das blending machen wir wegen der Flexibilität, so das Clients alle nur möglichen Arten von blendmodellen benutzen können bzw. sich diese selber zusammen stellen können ^^ [..]
We also worked on the FIFedit, the official editor client of FIFE. Helios worked on 2 plugins to access and test the lightrenderer, and our ObjectEdit plugin got some bugfixes and updates as well.
FIFE itself has released a new version
(0.3.0) and is heading for the next release - where the programmers of Zero are also heavily involved with.
 FIFE: first shader tests by Helios |
Motivated by the progress of the programming department, Shadowrunner stepped in and gave one of our animated characters a complete overhaul. We can gladly announce that Zero now has it's first base character finished - which is a important step for our demo development. Well - at least having all important animations in place helps to create and test the game ;-)
 Our first animationset - completed! |
Regards,
the Zero-Projekt team
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