Progress Screenshots

[Armada]

Moderator's Note: This thread was started before the release of the first NHR demo, and has been moved from a hidden sub-forum.
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UPDATE 5th July 2017
This thread contains some pre-release screenshots from the game's earlier development which were previously not visible to everyone. We'll continue to post development screenshots for new builds moving forwards.

Original post as follows:
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Here are the main ones I have, showing some things already implemented and other things I tested previously:

Spoiler: Images from current build

Nathaniel aboard the Rossiya (because why not?)

Redesigned Inventory screen (not yet working, but all the UI elements are in place)

Widescreen main menu (New Game works, other buttons are placeholders)

Spoiler: Images of other tests

(This was done in a separate Unity project, but can be imported easily)

Sailing HUD (water is a placeholder)

Sun flares

Cannon fire particle effects recreated using the same values and sprites as PotC

World map scene and ship

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I've got all the pictures you guys posted saved somewhere.
Up-to-date as per a month ago or so.
How would you like me to send those your way?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

See here for all the screenshots you guys made that I still had saved somewhere:
http://piratesahoy.bowengames.com/potc/Pieter Boelen/potcr_screenshots.zip

 

[Armada]

Thanks for posting those!

Here are two new ones showing the simple fencing system I've put together:

Spoiler: Show images

This is an empty test scene* for the purposes of testing land combat and AI. I added two test dummies; the first (on the right) started out as a static target with some health that could be depleted, and I then gave him a sword and the ability to attack, defend and pause at random. The second (left) has the added ability to move towards the player and attack when close enough.

Both enemies have a floating health bar, which is mostly to make testing easier, but also to prove it's a viable option instead of numbers flying around each time you hit them.

(*Ignore the very large stone texture; that's just the way the UV mapping is on a built-in plane object.)

 

[Kikirik007]

I would like just ask you... Do you planning damage model of ships?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I would like just ask you... Do you planning damage model of ships?

At least to the extent that the original PorC has for sure.

 

[Armada]

Remember this fine fellow? Nathaniel needs someone to talk to when we show off dialogue, so he volunteered.

I managed to export him from GM format and rig him to the skeleton, though I had to use TOOL's "raise arms" function to force him into a T-pose to make the process easier. The skinning isn't perfect yet (his jacket clips through his back when running), but it's workable for now. He can use any animation we've already imported for Nathaniel.

Did I mention he has a thing for hats...?

Spoiler

I took this hat from the Corsair character and exported it separately, so it can be attached to any other character's head. It appears to be a bit small to disguise bigger heads/haircuts, but the mesh can be tweaked to make this less noticeable.

Most importantly, this proves that other characters can be imported successfully. Nathaniel (and Danielle, once we get round to her) was easier because we had the pre-rigged source file. The rigging process is still a bit of a pain and will need some manual tweaking in most cases, though.

 

[Jack Rackham]

I like this separate hat thing. It has caused me so my work in POTC with double heads etc etc.

 

[Armada]

It gets better...

Look closely at these two Nathaniels and see if you can spot the difference:

Spoiler: Answer

The one on the right is smiling!

What I've managed to do is replace the right one's head with the fully-rigged "talking head" model from PotC. We've got the Maya files for all PotC characters' heads (via the "Heads" help file on the FTP), so I opened Nathaniel's head model and separated it from the shoulders, leaving only the bones above the neck. I exported this as an FBX with all the animations, parented the head to the original body's head bone in Unity, and disabled the original head so it doesn't show at the same time.

Now, the character can perform walking and other animations as normal, and we can trigger facial animations independently while the rest of the body is still animating. This is equivalent to AoP's system, but with a bit more flexibility (the animations in AoP cover the entire body, including the face, so they can't be triggered separately).

Spoiler: More images

Here, he's playing the default "conversation" animation. Other emotional states are also available, including the "happy" one shown above.

Below is the head model in Maya, showing the bone structure inside his face. Note the meshes are identical, but with the eyes and inner mouth separated from the face.

This means we'll be able to have engaging dialogue between characters without needing to display the talking heads in a separate UI element. Eventually, we could experiment with using the different emotions with certain animations, such as being "angry" while fighting.

Technically, this also allows heads to be swapped between characters easily, so combined with interchangeable hats, we've got the makings of a fairly robust customisation system.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That's an amazing step forward compared to stock PotC.
You managed to sort that out incredibly quickly too. Nice one, @Armada!

 

[Armada]

You managed to sort that out incredibly quickly too. Nice one, @Armada!

I was surprised that it worked in the first place.

I wasn't sure if the head and bones could be separated from the shoulders without screwing up the animations, but luckily there was a tool for that. If I had tried to use the entire head and shoulders model, it would have been connected to the regular model halfway up the spine, so the head would have swayed away from the body when different animations were playing on the body. That would have looked pretty nasty!

 

[Armada]

The dialogue system is starting to take shape. Here's a preview of the start of Rhys Bloom's quest:

We're using the Dialogue System asset for Unity, which handles pretty much everything quest-related. The UI is a reskin of the default layout included with the asset, but it can be customised however we want, including font size and panel positions. I've disabled player movement and the HUD while in conversation, though the camera still needs work.

I've implemented the dialogue tree for the first discussion you have with Rhys in which you can choose to help him or not. The quest doesn't actually do anything after that, yet, but there are tools to set it all up.

I'll see if I can trigger some facial animations during the dialogue next.

 

[Armada]

Another minor update, this time laying the groundwork before importing the new Indefatigable. I've now added support for gaff sails, which applies to spanker sails and other fore-and-aft quadrilateral sails.
This now lets the Aurora's mizzen driver furl and unfurl properly:

The gaff is defined by two width variables, two height variables and an offset for the lower aft corner. You can see the settings on the "Sail" component below, along with a real-time preview in the viewport to show you an outline of the unfurled sail shape without having to run the game.

Spoiler: Show image

 

[Armada]

To round off the upgrades to the sail class, I've added an XYZ offset to the lower aft corner of triangular sails. This allows creation of triangular staysails of any proportions, as you can see on the newly imported Indefatigable below:

The Z-offset allows you to move the corner away from the centre so it doesn't intersect other staysails.

You'll also notice two additional ropes for the sails to connect their upper edge to. These are "line renderers" that create a 2D billboard shape that always faces the camera, making it look 3D unless you closely inspect the endpoints. It's defined by at least two points (a beginning and end), just like a "rope" locator in PotC, but it can have any number of points to produce complex curves, and these can be updated at runtime. It can also have whatever thickness is suitable for the width of the rope. We'll probably use these for the running rigging later on.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That's really very awesome, @Armada!

 

[Armada]

I've now added the rest of the Indefatigable's sails:

Spoiler: Show images

I've also made a slight change to the way spanker and lateen yards turn, so they now use the negative angle when the rest of the yards are positive, and vice versa. For example, when the square sails are turned 45 degrees to starboard, the spanker turns 45 degrees to port. This is pretty much how it works in PotC, but it's still not right at some relative wind angles, so I may adjust it again in later builds.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

She looks pretty great!
Good job to both @Armada and @Martes.

 

[Armada]

The Indefatigable is now armed and dangerous with 12-pounder chase guns and 24-pounder broadside guns:

I've been using her to test an improvement to the cannon fire system that now supports more than one target at a time. Previously, you could only target and fire at one ship within your ship's effective range, but now each gun battery tracks its own target independently, allowing you to fire all batteries simultaneously if they have targets in range. In this scenario, I placed five enemy ships in the scene, and the player ship correctly targeted the four closest ships, ignoring the Rossiya placed further on the right.

It's worth noting this is not restricted to four gun batteries; the only thing currently holding back individual calibres per deck is the HUD, which only displays four reloading indicators. Once I figure out how to rework it so it dynamically displays multiple batteries per side in an intuitive way, the Indy will be armed with the right calibres on each deck, including six hefty carronades that will pack a punch in close quarters.

Initially, I was looking for four debug log entries (see the lower left of the screenshot) to confirm the targeting was working, but more showed up than expected.
This had me confused, until I realised it was the enemy ships targeting each other as well.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

You are vastly outdoing the original PotC, by the sounds of it!

What happens if a given gun has multiple potential targets in range?
Can you choose a preference, or just pick the closest or "first come, first serve"?

 

[Captain Armstrong]

Outstanding work! Sounds like it will lead to smarter targeting by the AI as well, which will surely make them more formidable!

It's worth noting this is not restricted to four gun batteries; the only thing currently holding back individual calibres per deck is the HUD, which only displays four reloading indicators. Once I figure out how to rework it so it dynamically displays multiple batteries per side in an intuitive way, the Indy will be armed with the right calibres on each deck, including six hefty carronades that will pack a punch in close quarters.

I love that this allows for the proper calibers to be used for each gundeck. I reckon the current UI system could still be used, with two possible variations:
The bars extend the full length up and down, as they do now, but the lowest deck is closest to the compass and additional decks are represented by additional bars added to the UI moving outward. This displays the load status just as well, but could take up a fair amount of screen space at maximum (4x bars each side for first rates). The other obvious alternative I see would be break up the current single bar into portions according to the number of gundecks, with the lowest gundeck being the lowest segment of each bar. This has the advantage of taking up no more space than the traditional UI, but at maximum (4x pieces each side for first rates) it might be difficult at times to effectively tell the load status of each gundeck.