Oh so spooky

So its all hallows and I have a house party to go to. This makes me all warm and squishey inside as I love halloween and house parties are the best way to experiance them!

I'm going to be a pirate as I mentioned in an earlier post but my costume has improved greatly since the idirlín last saw it. well, I'll probably end up with my photo taken at some point tonight and I will transfer it from facebook to here as soon as I feel bothered...

Yo ho ho and ninjas are still cooler...

Yay for huge scope projects.

So I've been messing arround in blender. I've been learning about how for game creation it is a good idea to link files rather than have all objects in the one file. (this makes it easier to make changes to objects behaviour and appearance).

I have also been looking into animation. Shape keys are a big part of animation in blender. Shape keys change the geometry of meshes... and work in the game engine.

I have been making models with MakeHuman. They are great induvidual looking ones and with the future release of the project it should be much better...

Still... 

I have decided to begin work on putting together a repository of game models for use in the game engine. It will be expandable by users and all models will be of high quality and free for any use.

Not only that but there will be a seperate section. One for humans. But this section will be different to most. There will only be one model (apart from clothes). One model that has a variety of shape keys added to it. through blending of these keys it will be possible to create unique and interesting characters for your game. Not only that but by creating a "styalising key" you can go from human to manga to elf to chibbi. All the while using all of the other options available for customisation. It will be a MakeHuman for low poly game characters (MH is geared towards rendering).

This model will be fully UV unwraped and fully usable in the GE. Hopefully with a subdevision modifier it will also look good in pre rendered FMVs. It will come with a few "base textures" aswell. (Young Man, Old Man, Boy, Manga Boy, Deamon etc with female equivilents.

It will also be rigged and set up for expressions and lip-synching aswell.

Users will be able to submit their Morphs so the customizability is constantly evolving. 

Eventualy the model will have to be upgraded due to engine improvements or simply a better mesh being made.  Then 2.0 versions will be released. Both classic and new versions will continue to be hosted (as morphs won't be transferable from model to model) so users have a choice of which version they use.

It is an idealistic dream of a site but If I go about starting off the right way.

I have just found a website hosting site that offers 1GB storage and (More Importantly) unlimited bandwith!

Tomorrow being Halloween I probably wont get a chance to begin working on the site but I should be able to get started over the weekend. The idea of such a site is dear to my heart as it is a site I have always wanted to have access to. I will be working hard to keep the quality of models high and the site streamlined and orgonised. At first I will run it exclusivly and set up a seperate email account for recieving submissions. I will keep this up until the site grows past my own ability to manage it (if it does) and then get a programmer to set it up for automatic submition with user moderation. (If a model recieves x many bad reports I am messaged about it an decide if it should be deleted or not, I may just end up replacing the model with good quality one)

The site should be a good one and if I post a few adsense adds on it I may even get a bit of money from it that could be used to commisssion new models or even get a new, better, human model made.

I will be putting some thought into this site. It will probably have a tutorial section also. I hope it turns out well but I will need to put together a lot of content before I upload. There is no point in it being devoid of models when it first goes up. I will probably make a post on TurboSquid asking for donations before or just after launch. Yay I'm realy excited for this one

Beats me

So I re-installed Beats on my PSP. I was playing Patapon on the dart on the way home and though to myself... I wana play beats, let me play now... but I couldn't. Now I can. It's awesome. I cant believe it only cost a fiver.

In college I went to all my lectures and events!! yes, all three! Actualy now that I think of it I may have had a lecture after that lab...

*checks the online timetable*

Error 404

that's weird, I never had that happen before...

Hmm...

Well I guess I will have to assume I missed a lecture. I am prety sure I have one at the time I was just so relieved to get out of that lab that I forgot.

I'll check my college email to see if there is anything about the Student Information error...

*logs in*

Email about science office being closed temporaraly. I guess that answers my question but they give no reason... Hmm...

Ah well, It cant be important.

Tomb Raider the extension of chemical doom

Scheduals are fun, not making them is more fun.

So my parents are away this week (yes he still lives with his parents) and I have to take care of the house, which is already a kip. I have ordered pizza 2 of the 4 days they are gone but have managed to keep the dog alive thus far. I mark that down as an achievement.

I bought Dead Space a few days ago and I have to say I am in love. While at times the survival horror gives way to a scene too actiony it still manages to work and the game is so loaded with atmosphere I think my PS3 has swelled to a bigger size.

I like Survival horror and this game is one of them. (one of the best I've seen in a while not counting Siren as I'm waiting for a BD release)

Tomb Raider Underworld's demo is on xbox live... for gold members only... and is exclusive to live... I'm not buying the game. I refuse to be treated like this. To think it used to be my favourite franchise... oh grid movement where have you gone?

Blending away as usual, recently I have turned my attention to architecture. I am now a fully qualified architect... well not realy but I can draw up blueprints and make 3D concept renders. The reason I learned this skill is because we are extending the house and I want it extended my way and the best way to make this happen is to prove to the "legal owners" that their idea sucks and mine is practically devinely inspired...

Still pluging away at college, have to start studying soon... still I learned something in my chemistry tutorial and felt proud. Maybe there is hope for me yet!

Edu-wah?

So when I came back to college this year I had every intention of working hard, studying like a trouper and exercising every day. That didn't happen...

Today I was down to the line writing a chemistry lab report with 40min until I had to hand it in! That is not good. In fact it's the opposite of good... Tomorro I have to get a biology report done by 4 o clock which will probably mean skipping a few lectures. Overall I am dissapointed with my current state of studentyness.

Next week I will have to turn over a new leaf! I will have to do something extreme like schedule fun and recreation. I don't want to have to but I will. 

Over the weekend I will write up a schedual/ time table that includes all the things I need to be doing. I wont go overbord with either exercise or study but I will put in time for each as well as lunch being schedualed each day. I may also need to put in caffine boost markers to keep up my concentration. Today I had a bagel and tea before a lecture and then I managed to stay alert for two lectures (In the same venue no less!).

Yep, scheduals are fun... and they always work (o_O)

A day a muffin...

Today didn't start out great. I was very tired and when my dog jumped on the bed this morning demanding I stay in bed a while I decided to agree. That said by 11 even she was growling and barking at me to get up. Stupid mutt...

When I dragged myself out of my bed I looked in the mirror. I wont claim to be the best looking guy in the world but I am usually happy with how I look. I am comfortable in my skin. This morning I looked like hell.

I couldn't put my finger on it but I looked like absolute crap. Not a great way to start the day.

By ten past one I had dragged myself into college and was just wandering in looking for something to do when I saw a friend of mine walking the other way.

-What are you doin?

-I just got in, I have an hour to kill...

-Wana go get lunch?

so we did. We went to O'Donavans, the weird little place that looks like it's out of the 80s but serves good food at a cheap price. I bought a spicey chicken wrap despite knowing they burn the mouth off me and we went to the Ham-Couches which are back.

It was a great meal and then I had 4 lectures in a row. I managed to see quite a few people over these four lectures which made me feel good. I was a bit lonely in college as of late but today I realized the place is still teaming with friends.

Then I came home and did nothing for hours. It's time for bed now. I had a great day.

Here is Lithium for you

I had a Lab!!

So all I had today was a 3 hour lab. That said I didn't know anyone on my bench (Except 2 other guys who are best friends) so the very first thing I had to do was make a brand new friend to have as my lab partner.

This was very difficult for me as I am a tech geek science nerd with no social skills but after about half an hour stammering I managed to introduce myself to my new lab partner. I was pretty drained from the experience of having to talk to an new person AND look them in the eye but I got through it ok.

The experiment itself was easy as they come. A simple titration (Well three). We got the first 2 done in about 50 min and then there was a fire drill. we all had to march outside, stand in the cold as passers by admired our sexy lab coats, and then file back in. The process took about 10 minuets. When we got back we did our last titration, got our results, and said by by PhysChem lab. The 3 hour lab took 1hr20min including introductions, standing around wondering if we should start working and a fire drill.

not bad for a first day back

Time for college II

Well I go back to college again tomorrow after my week of absence. Boo Hiss etcetera...

I have been playing with Blender a lot today and have managed to get some nice effects running in real time on my lowly PC so I'm hoping that if I get time for my little stylized horror game I will wind up with some nice physics and real time shadows. I have 5 of the 7 bosses decided on. Just 2 more to design. I still like the idea of having real people play all the characters. I think it would be a lot more intriguing to watch and a lot easier to get relate able emotion than inf I had to animate it. Either way I am going to use real people as models for the characters just because it's cooler.

I also went out driving again today. For the first time in a while. I had a shaky start but after a while I really got into it. I hope that this time I will actually gain some sort of confidence behind the wheel and be able to actually drive.

Tomorrow, If I have time, I will make a short video showing some of blender's great new real time effects as a tech demo for my new game. It will prob be basic stuff but may turn out nice

Sick and Depressed

So I have been sick and prety much housebound for the past few days. I'm still not better entirely but I'm on my way. This is great because when I get sick or loose ability to do things I like, even simple things like jumping around or acting like an idiot I get depressed.

I mean it is quite normal. If you are used to being able to just run up the stairs or go climb a tree or swim in the sea and all of a sudden it is taken away from you you get depressed. It is very upsetting not to be able to do what you are used to.

I have been putting some though into making videos and I have a few that I would like to make. One is about time I spent in a hospital, another is about hats. I'm normal, I sware...

Well, aswel as this I have also been adding some Ideas, new and old, to my game ideas book. I am going to sort through all the Gemini stuff and stick it into it. I amn't going to make this game for a while. If anything I want to make a new survival horror game using the Blender Game Engine. I saw a showcase done in it lately and with the new softboddies and real time lighting it is becomming quite robust. My printer is broken so I cant print off any interesting little bits of information but I hope to be able to get the hang of it.

It seems the majority of these effects can be achieved quite easily using the GUI and Survival Horror gameplay isn't the most taxing to assemble. I even have a nice stylised universe created with (What I feel is) some interesting little things to include. I hope to use the depth of field filter in the game. I have to wrap my head arround it but DOF is one of those things that can make or break graphics and it looks fairly easy to impliment it to work in this. I just have to decide on the camera type (staic or trailing).

I think if I do make this game I will use actors for the cutscenes and concider getting help for the scenery building. I would like the levels to be dark and well made. There will be 7 levels, each with a boss and the story will be quite ambiguous. The combat mechanic still needs to be thought out as does the items and weapons but I am liking the direction I have been taking with this. It is inspired by Suda51's "No More Heroes" and to a greater extent his "Killer7".

anyway, here is the credit's song from portal for some reason:

Blog?

college maked me tired and I just didn't get arround to blogging for a while. 

I is sorry but is not in mood for blog time

just saying blog still exist.

Myself and Grammer should return soon

I finished Bionic Commando... oh well time for education

Yep, It's true!! I have finally beaten the last boss in Bionic Commando Rearmed! I am proud of my overwhelming achievement.

However I have, today, learned of some harrowing information that has shaken me to the core. I am desgusted by some of the things I have learned today and have also come up with a super secret solution!

The S3 plan (That is it's true meaning Raiden!) will hopefully revive a market through a new pathway and hopefully re-instate some of gaming's major issues. That said it is to be kept under wraps untill it is time for the world to experiance it (or I get bored and hope someone else will do it.)

The harrowing information I will also reveal in a later blog after I have done a little more research into the situation. It is safe to assume however that this will be a deep discussion of many computer games affected by a common ailment.

back to college tomorrow. BOO!!

Another thing is that since I have started to enjoy blogging so much I am concidering starting to vlog aswell! yep, you heard it here first... because you're not going to hear it anywere else, no one cares...

The reason I feel vlogging is a better choice to blogging is that you reach more people. Videos on youtube tend to get at least a few views where as blogs have a habbit of staying on the internet without anyone reading it. If I vlog I can tell people my opinions and let them tell me how they feel about them. I don't plan on being successful like SxePhil or What the Buck! but it would be nice to have a few people share opinions with me

I killed a shead!!

So today my dad and I finaly knocked down our old shead. It was pretty trickey as the non rotted parts were fairly solid and the rotted parts splintered into your hands and eyes!

That said, the shead is dead... heh, I'm a poet....

(cue seemless transition)

I dug out all my old poetry yesterday and gave it a read. I have quite a bit now. I havent written about this before but I use poetry as a way of controling emotions that overwhelm me. If I am very upset or happy or whatever I write a poem about it. This gets it out of my system so I can deal with it in bite size chunks by reading the poem back in the future. Because of why I write my poetry is very emotionaly heavy, especially for me. 

Anyway I had lost one of my poems, a Haiku, but fortunatly they are short and it was a personal favourite so I had it memorised. I filled it into the book I write in (I used to use loose pages!!) and now it is safe.

That said it made me realise how easy it would be to loose it all. Because of this I have decided to digitise all my work and keep a copy on the PC, the internet and a seccond printed hard copy for reading. I will keep the origionals safe in a box or folder of some sort.

This way I won't loose one of my most prized posessions as well as my emotional memmories from the times I wrote about.

I also finaly made the book, It's empty but I have to start filling it with all the ideas I keep locked in my head!

Finished and compleated... someday

-Final Fantasy VII

-Grand Theft Auto IV

-Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation

-Metal Gear Solid 4 the Gun's of the Patriots

-Pixeljunk Monsters

-Pixeljunk Eden

-Wipeout HD

-Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty

-Half Life 2

-Bionic Commando: Rearmed

The catagory? Games I'm in the middle of...

This list is a bit over the top. Some of these games I don't play that often. For instance Half Life 2 and Tomb Raider 4 are put aside to finish "some day"

Pixeljunk Monsters I only play as a multiplayer game. It is a lot of fun in single player but with a friend it is twice as much fun.

Metal Gear Solid 4 I have finished before I am just playing through again. The same could be said for all the MGS games. I have runs in all of them going all the time.

Eden is the kind of game you play whenever. It is a visual masterpiece and is beautiful to witness. It's gameplay is light and imersive at the same time. That said you can drop in and out of playing it without loosing any of the experiance. If you have one or two friends present they can join you. In other words it's not a game you try to finish quickly. It's a game you just play.

The other five games however, those I have to finish. MGS I'm at the last boss but I cant beat him. Hard mode is hard.

R&C I bought alongside BC:R and have gotten Wipeout since. It sort of fell by the wayside and I haven't made that big a dent in it yet. I will probably leave it until finish GTA4

BC:R I am on the last level. I got to the boss once but he destroyed me with ease. I haven't attempted since but I could beat him, I just need to try a few more times

Wipeout I just want to unlock all the stuff. It's not that big a deal since I bought the game for playing online against friends so I'll live.

GTA4 I want to finish. The game is great. However because of the "friendships" thing I hate getting back into it because I have to take my brother out, then my stoner friend, then my roid rage idiot friend, then go on a date... if I'm lucky I may fit a mission in between simulating life. 

Don't get me wrong, I love the IDEA of the friends. And it works brilliantly, they have enough dialogue and locations so they don't feel repetative. You can even play minigames like bowling or darts. The problem is it works too well. In real life I don't have time to work at becomming a crime lord and in GTA4 it feels similar. I'm just so busy all the time!

All the side missions etc are good though because they mean that the game never ends. After the story there is still a wide variety of side quests to do that are randomly genorated. 

Final Fantasy is a long but brillian game. I am thouroughly enjoying it. I have to play more of that too...

dammit I don't even have time to go out. I will have to donate a lot more time to gaming in the next few weeks. as well as studying since I start college on monday. Great!

Didn't shop, dang

Didn't get the shopping I wanted to get done... this makes me sad :'(

Saw friends I haden't seen in a while... that made me happy :)

Had 2 dinners today... that makes me happy too :D

couldn't rent silent hill, it was gone... sad again :'(

Found my new jacket comfey... happy :)

Played wipeout hd some more... happier :D

In the end I am enjoying life back at college, at least untill lectures start... XD

Nyt nyt blog.

Stuff and more...

So I finaly have my graphics tablet. Getting it to work in Gimp and Inkscape required some .dll nonesence but it works like a dream now and I heart digital painting. It is so fun and fast. I dont think I will have any problem making graphics for games now... except for inspiration of cource.

Havent gotten the book yet, I will tomorrow as I have a tonne of random things to buy. 

-A filofax

-Duct-Tape

-An A4 sketch pad and refil pad

-A large white shirt

-Coloured Card

I want to play Silent Hill 5. It got shit reviews and looks crap but I think I will rent it on friday and play through it. Renting seams to be the new black. A tenner for a week and games are shorter thease days anyway. you almost always finish on rental unless it's an RPG.

No Gemini news... Should have some some day but none at the moment. I also have ANOTHER game concept I want to work on. I hate when this happens!

oh, and it's now October...