blender as a tool for video game prototyping

Blender as a tool forVideo Game Prototyping

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What is a prototype ?

INTRODUCTION

INTRO > What > How > BLENDER in a commercial context > End

What is a prototype ?● For a commercial dev studio :

● For an indie dev. Studio :

INTRODUCTION


What is a prototype ?● For a commercial dev studio :For a commercial dev studio :

It's a pre-production validation stage.

● For an indie dev. Studio :

INTRODUCTION


What is a prototype ?● For a commercial dev studio :

It's a pre-production validation stage.

● For an indie dev. Studio :For an indie dev. Studio :An evidence for potential editors/institutes or communities.

INTRODUCTION


INTRODUCTION


● Prototyping must be done fast

● Prototyping should give an overview of the production tools needed

● Prototyping should give an overview of the possible market (playable)

WHAT have we done and why blender ?

Intro > WHAT > How > BLENDER in a commercial context > End


● What do we need to create a prototype ?



● What do we need to create a prototype ?● Modelisation/Shading



● What do we need to create a prototype ?● Modelisation/Shading● Character animation tool



● What do we need to create a prototype ?● Modelisation/Shading● Character animation tool● Music/sound tools



● What do we need to create a prototype ?● Modelisation/Shading● Character animation tool● Music/sound tools● Inputs management



● What do we need to create a prototype ?● Modelisation/Shading● Character animation tool● Music/sound tools● Inputs management● Scene graph



● What do we need to create a prototype ?● Modelisation/Shading● Character animation tool● Music/sound tools● Inputs management● Scene graph● Objects events/Scripting tools



● What do we need to create a prototype ?● Modelisation/Shading● Character animation tool● Music/sound tools● Inputs management● Scene graph● Objects events/Scripting tools● Realtime rendering engine



● What do we need to create a prototype ?● Modelisation/Shading

● texturing tool

● Character animation tool● Music/sound tools● Inputs management● Scene graph● Objects events/Scripting tools● Realtime rendering engine



● Blender's benefits



● Blender's benefits● Integrated game engine (BGE)




– VS Ogre 3D/Irrlicht





! NO 3D TOOLS INTEGRATED !

! TIME CONSUMING !





– VS Unity/Shiva/Lightspeed







! COST ! NO 3D TOOLS INTEGRATED !





– VS 3DS Max/Maya/XSI...






– VS 3DS Max/Maya/XSI...


! COST !

! NO REALTIME GAME ENGINE !





– VS 3DS Max/Maya/XSI

● Documentation and sources






– VS 3DS Max/Maya/XSI

● Documentation and sources● Community



● Deluge, The Team● Jean-Christophe Romain : Confirmed Game

developer - « Jack of the trade » in CG (Art Director) and Programming.

● Gauthier Boaglio : Confirmed Programmer, level designer and tool programmer

● Pascal Pribat : CG Student ● Timothée Prost : CG Student● Sylvain Duigou : Sound Designer

● Deluge, The planning :● Jully 1rst – August 19 th 2009



www.klakos.com


http://www.klakos.com/

HOW have we done this ?

Intro > What > HOW > BLENDER in a commercial context > End


● Classic project environment● Intranet (Process and planning)● SVN Server● File Organisation (learned from YoFrankie!)

– World Creation level

– Region Creation level


World Creation level



TEAM : DESIGN

World Tiles

World Heightmaps

World Global MapGeneration Script

Region 1Tiles

Region 2Tiles

Region 3Tiles

AppendAppendAppend

RegionCreation

Level

RegionCreation

Level

RegionCreation

Level

FinalWorld

Link LinkLink

Region creation level



Scenery(RegionTiles)

Link

PropsLink orAppend

Lights

Chars.

Link orAppend

Link

MobsLink

InterractiveObjects Link

TEAM : CG

TEAM : DEV

Characteranimation

NodalMaterials

CharacterModelingTexturingShading

Link

Link

LevelDesign

OUT

IN

Player

Terrain tiles shading method :

● Color textures blending● Shadows/Ambiant

occlusion● Terrain glow





Point & Click interface (inventory, etc...)● Overlay scene● Data persistence

(Disk)



● One-click Inventory



● Contextual menu



AIs and BBOX generalisations

Intro > What > How > BLENDER in a commercial context > End

BLENDER in a commercial contextBLENDER in a commercial context

Enhancements to go further● Logic Bricks

– A great tool for fast development

– Become hard to read when the complexity increases

– SOLUTION : implementing the ability to turn the bricks into a full python scripting (Python Event Handling – this point is actually being discussed...)



Enhancements to go further● Custom tools implementation (python scripting)

– Python exposure of some functionnalities (For example the NODAL features)

– Blender UI access from python

– SOLUTION : it seems to be part of Blender 2.5 new API



Enhancements to go further● Project oriented development

– Lack of global project overview (multi-blend files projects)

– Source control integration inside blender

– SOLUTION : ability to turn the folders view into a project management window that takes a root folder as the root of the project.



Enhancements to go further● Lighting and shadows performances

– During our developments we had to :● Reduce a lot the number of lights in huge scenes

● Lower shading complexity for the materials

– SOLUTION : Rendering optimization by reducing the scope of action of the lights.

Reducing the scope to the area displayed around the camera focus, or whatever... (+ « defferred shading » in Blender ?)



Enhancements to go further● Protecting the IP (intellectual Property)

– Actually BGE doesn't allow to export a project into a full binary distribution : Graphics ressources and linked .blend files stay editable.

– So we provided a video to show our work

– SOLUTION : To extend the binarization applyied to the main .blend file to the others (the linked ones) and to encrypt external datas.



Enhancements to go further● Some other minor issues

– Recurrent loss of relative paths for highly linked huge projects

– Loading time very long at files opening (but quite good « ingame ») and crashes sometimes

– Characters physics behaviour very hard to manage

– SOLUTIONS : We are looking forward to using Blender 2.5 which should fix some of those problems.




BLENDER in a commercial context

A larger use of Blender in the game industry ?● Development of bridges with the principals game

engines (even when they're not Open Source)– Requires actors to be more involved in collaborations

(more intensive use of standard formats...)

● Deploying a more complete support– Personalized support together with Blender

specialists/ingeneers for companies who need it

– This could be both more people using Blender and more revenues for the Blender Foundation

BLENDER in a commercial context

Intro > What > How > BLENDER in a commercial context > END

CONCLUSION

Our experience with Blender ● Blender is a great tool and it takes an important

place into our production pipeline● Thanks to it, we reached our goal : producing and

showing our first playable Demo● With some advanced features and services, it

could become a software of choice for a complete game development pipeline (it is already the only one that combines creation of both the world and the game)


CONCLUSION

FINALLY● Even if we are testing it under GraphicAll.org, we

are looking forward to having access to the 2.5 stable release !!

● We see in Blender a stable and reliable tool– Big and skilled community– Fast development


CONCLUSION

More informations about our BGE experience● The video of our first game prototype on our web

site : http://klakos.com● Some extras for BGE adepts

– A « Hack'n Slash » template V0.1

– A complete tutorial addressing « terrain splatting » methodes we used (nodal way)

– A tutorial showing a sample of RT objects multi-texturing with nodes and vertex painting


CONCLUSION

FINALLYQuestions ?


CONCLUSION

FINALLYThank you for your attention.

blender as a tool for video game prototyping

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