I got a great second job last week. I'll be doing what I love and working for a good company. Unfortunately it's just a temp job. I start this week. I'm working 2 full time jobs now, so outside of work, I'm going to have about 8-10 hours every 24 hour period for sleeping. I'm going to have to say goodbye to a lot of the things I love. But, this second job is only until the end of the year so I will be back in action around January. So until January The Cheese will only be updated on weekends. Sorry folks. I love Quake2, but I need to start making extra money if I'm ever going to marry April and get a place for us. I'll keep my web server up, and you can bet when the Quake2 Test comes out I'll let you know right away. I'm rather busy right now, so I won't do a full update for today, but make sure to visit the other news sites. There are about 6 Quake2 screen shots floating about that you may not have seen yet.We'll miss you Fmellish! If your wondering, the 6 shots he's referring to are in our screenshots area.
NOTE: THIS POST TURNED INTO A LONG ANIMATION TUTORIAL SO READ ON ONLY IF YOU DIG THAT SORT OF STUFF OR SIMPLY SKIP DOWN TO THE 'CHEST-BEATING' SECTION. ALSO NOTE THAT I SAY SOME BAD WORDS SO IF YOU'RE NOT 18 PLEASE FORGET THESE WORDS AND DON'T UTTER THEM, WRITE THEM, HEAR YOU PARENTS SAY THEM OR EVEN THINK THEM UNTIL MIDNIGHT OF THE DAY PRIOR TO YOUR 18TH BIRTHDAY WHERE YOU'LL PROUDLY REMEMBER THAT FUCKING COOL ARTIST DUDE AT id WHO HELPED MAKE QUAKE2 INTO ONE OF THE GREATEST ACTION GAMES EVERRemember Norman's? - Blitz
Good news! I've gotten the number of player character anims back up to 50 by reusing some frames from the two-handed weapon set in the one-handed anim set. I also shaved some frames by deciding to push John's linear interpolation code by making it earn its keep as I deleted some transitional anims. Which is a good excuse to open up another chapter of the 'Steed Way To Model And Animate'.
WHY I USE A DEFAULT POSE & A QUICK AND EASY RECIPE FOR A WALK CYCLE
You see, whenever I animate a character it has a 'default' frame which is usually a 'ready' stance' that easily jumps to whatever animation that is required. For an illustration of this type of animation principle I'll discuss the walk cycle (I'll talk about a walk cycle because I had to redo a walk animation for the player character after I accidentally kicked the power strip 'off' button as I tried to get into a more comfortable slouch in my chair; I was so pissed that I blurred through the next version of the walk and had it ready to save out in 15 minutes). For this example, please realize that I am using Alias Power Animator with a skeleton driving the objects representing the character (I animate skeletons 99.9% of the time) and an IK chains set up between the respective upper leg joints and ankle joints. The root of the skeleton (or main parent) is the hips. I am also animating at a 10 frames per second playback.
A typical walk cycle done for Quake2 lasts eight frames, BUT even though the looping walk cycle is only eight frames the entire walk animation is normally be around 16 frames. Let me explain. The default pose is frame '0'. The first thing I set is the first STRIDE that is logical from the positioning of the limbs in the default. So I go to frame 4 and set the left arm forward, right arm back, right leg forward left leg back and set a key frame - stride 1('key frame' BTW is telling the computer that it is allowed to animate frame 1,2 and 3 by itself as it goes from the key frames I set at 0 and 4. Next I go to frame 8 and move the legs and arms in exactly the opposite way and set another key frame - stride 2. Then I go back to frame 4 and copy that key frame to frame 12 to allow for a loop from frame 4 through frame 11. Why not 4 through 12? Because this has to loop. 4 through 11 equals 8 frames. 4 through 12 equals 9 frames. Since 4 and 12 are the same, if you looped those 9 frames and played the anim, there would be a sticking point where the first and last frame repeated.
Last I go in and copy frame 0 to frame 16. This gives me a rough walk anim going from the default to a walk back to the default. Everything I just described should take about 3 minutes to do. This slam-bam quick flurry of ALT-k's in Alias let's me play the anim back and see if it's the proper tempo. If the timing's right it's now time to move on to the refining stage. This time-consuming part of the process is to add realism to the gait and for correct adjustment of the feet to prevent that shitty-looking 'skate' I see in some of our wannabe competition. Giving weight and making the feet not budge a millimeter as they go through their motions is definitely the first step towards realistic animations.
Want me to go over that, too? All right. I need a break from the MPC and since you've read this much so far, why not plod on?
Want to know one of my trade secrets? Copies of feet. Yep. Whenever I do an animation of a character that is supposed to be on the ground I make copies of his/its/her feet. If the feet are attached to legs and/or are uni-bodied (one piece) then I simply delete the vertices of everything but the feet copies. Then I freeze or template the feet and use them as my guides for proper foot placement for the character. When I set key frames at frame 0 and frame 4 of the first stride, I also set key frames for the feet copies at frame 0 and frame 4 with frame 0 copied to frame 3.
Before I get to the feet, though, I do some rotational key framing on the torso and waist as I knock out the walk. At frame 4 I keep the hips (root) facing forward and lean the torso and rotate it towards the extended leg along the z-axis (z is up in my setup). I set the feet right and match up the frozen copies to their dependent counterparts. I copy frame 4 over to frame 12 as well. Next I go to frame 8 and do the same in reverse. Then I go to frame 6 and raise the body up until the leg supporting the weight is rigid and looks correct; rotate the feet to match the planted and frozen copy; set the key frame and do the same all over again for frame 10. Finally I go through all the frames and tweaked them until the anim looks right (it would take me at least another page to detail that portion of the process). In the end it looks as if the character is at rest and decides to take 2 steps and go back to the same 'at rest' stance. Use your eyes and decide when it looks real enough and then you're ready to center the frames around the origin and save them out sequentially to be model-gened.
HERE'S WHY I ACTUALLY STARTED THIS POST
Now we come to the part where I decided to save some frames and make the interpolation take a more proactive role (kinda like letting her get on top for awhile). Instead of setting the stride 1 at frame 4, I set it at frame 2. And instead of setting the last frame 4 frames after the repeat of frame 4, I set it at 2 frames after the repeat. This tactic alone has bought me at least around 40 frames to apply to the anims that I lost to the great 512.
CHEST-BEATING SECTION
What is up with the .plans lately? Quit apologizing and or trying to softly talk shit and insult. I am a very happy, upbeat person who thrives on competition. I work hard and play hard. But at times I would much rather beat on some heads instead of my chest. Unfortunately, however, laws and the rancor of my fellow humans and peers prevent such action. Reading veiled insults and smack-talking, professions of love, fulsome contrition and ball-less attempts at making all the 'can't we all just get along' liberals out there happy makes me sick.
Fuck the competition. In a social setting I would love to sit down with ANY artist at ANY other software development company and swap war stories, drink beer and have a awesomely convivial time. You can tell me how bad I suck or how bad I pissed you off with one of my posts. But when it comes time to play ball and put my artist hat on while I swing a sword for my employer, then step off and get the fuck out of my face. If you aren't into your job or your project then find another of company and a better project. If you are into who you're working for then defend them and kick ass in the name of them.
My game's going to kick your game's ass. Nyahh.
ps
Is the screenshot a week thing true? Or is it just a joke?If you can not find them do not worry. We will add them to our screenshots page in a day or so.
>Thanks for reminding me. There are three hidden screen shots on the
>site right now.
>You can get to them using standard hypertext links. Just a question
>of finding them.
>
>Happy hunting!
ObQuake2: you guys are gonna love the power armor.Woops - Slipgate
The Quake Marines ( http://www.quakemarines.com) are hosting a demo contest that lasts until October 5th called Kuhas' Sewage System Challenge ( http://www.quakemarines.com/ssc/). The winner gets a Quake 2 CD once it is released and the top 10 entries will get posted on the contest page for download.PC Gamer shots - Slipgate
September 5, 1997Quake 2 fiery gif - Slipgate
-----------------
I was alerted to being quoted by a PC game magazine regarding the Voodoo and its status as "pimp master chipset". Curious to see when I said it, I reread my June 26 (late PM) plan, and sure enough, I said that. A reminder though to you trade rags -- PLEASE get my permission first (that plan update predated my original request, so that magazine is in the clear).
Anyway, of note is that in that same plan update I said:
"If I have 4 consumer accelerators and 2 high-end accelerators "Quake2 Ready" I will be very happy. If I have significantly more than that I will be abso-fucking-lutely ECSTATIC, and I think 6 consumer accelerators and 4 high-end accelerators isn't out of the question."
Well, the good news is that TODAY we already have _5_ consumer accelerators "Quake2 Ready" (Voodoo, Permedia2, Rendition 2200, RIVA128, PCX2), and at least one high-end accelerator (Realizm), and another high-end accelerator that's a definite-likely (Glint MX).
And in the coming weeks I'm very confident that we'll be running on and supported by Intel i740 (consumer), Real3D R3D/100 (high-end), E&S 3D Pro (high-end) and ATI Rage Pro (consumer).
Things are looking REAL good right now.
Ran our first TIMEDEMO on Quake2 last night -- pretty darn cool. Numbers weren't quite what we expected, but I'll write more about this in a week or so after IHVs have a chance to tune for Quake2.
I invite with open arms anybody who has a Quake2 site or a gaming site in general for that matter to head over toAre you guys all sick? - Slipgate
http://mountain.warzone.com
and make sure their sites are are to be put up on the search engine that will go up when it has a signifigant number of sites to start out with.
basically tell everyone out there who has a gaming site to head over to The Mad Gamer -- Search Engine and fill out the form so that their site will be posted on the search engine.
Hopes for it is that it will become the Yahoo! 4 Gamers, it is a gamers only search engine.
Thanks a bunch.
OK, now this is just sickening, OK? I mean, I love the fact that people visit this page. I just go ballistic whenever I actually see that the counter is going up at all. I'm glad to provide you guys with this news. But, is this the sort of thing the Quake community does? Is this who I'm making this page for? Was that dog picture really necessary? I'm really upset at this, just like Redwood. And rightly so.Final update
I have tried and tried to carry on but have just received a picture of a dog with all its guts hanging out with maggots and stuff on it. I feel I cannot continue this site as all this is just doing my head in totally. I will still continue to play Quake. Thank you to everyone for your support!!! Hope to see you around and frag you :o)!
9/3/97I'm back, and I'll stay - Slipgate
Been doing some surfing lately and read quite a bit about the Quake2 plot. I'd like to give some input to that. When I came aboard in October of last year the plot of the story went like this:
"An alien force has been pounding the shit out of earth in an attempt to invade and conquer us. The aliens are a nightmarish and painful hybrid of machine and flesh. They are pure evil incarnate and probably eat raw human flesh as well.
As the game unfolds you are part of an invasion force which has found a way to reach the alien homeworld through their own technology (i.e. worm hole/black hole trans-dimensional transportation 'portals'). As you hit the dirt of the said alien homeworld you quickly realize that most of your buddies are in the process of being wiped out and it is of course up to you to save the day. Your goal? To shut down the defenses of the alien military complex which you've crash landed into and specifically incapacitate the 'Big Gun' which can shoot down any one of the ships in the awaiting fleet overhead.
Once you've accomplished the destruction/shut-down of the Big Gun, the fleet will begin pounding the alien planet into submission as most of their defending fighters are off pounding OUR planet."
Kevin Cloud drafted the first iteration of this plot. I went in and named the aliens the 'Strogg' and explored the social and historical background of these bad guys to better set up the cinematics with a treatment that I wrote up. Several months later, Paul J. came in and added his more dramatic spin to things and the story is the id-amalgam that it presently is. The bottom line is that the three paragraphs I printed above sum up the plot of Quake2. They are the guide by which Kevin directs us all as we make the game, and the premise upon which I build the cinematics. Everything else is what we here at id add to it to make it an interesting read. Hope you all will dig it.
Also thought you'd be interested in knowing a little about what the player character will do in the game (since its what I've been working on 16 hours a day lately). As in the case of the drumming fingers on the weapons, we want to put some touches like that to the player character's animations which seem small yet have impact. I want to keep a lot of the specifics a surprise but let me just say that the player will do 55 different animations consisting of 500 frames. Let's just say that if during death match you get pissed at someone you'll be able to let them know. If you want to let someone know they're cool then you can do that. If you want to taunt someone you'll be able to do that too. Basically during deathmatch we're aiming to give you guys an even deeper connection to the world and an even wider range and ability to communicate through the animations. I know you'll like it.
Bad news again. I forgot about the maximum number of frames per character being only raised to 512 for Quake2. This means that with a standing animation at 40 frames for both two-handed and one-handed weapons I had to lose about eight animations. After you add swimming and a swim idle animation, I lost another five. We're still at 42 unique animations so in the end it will still be a larger range of animations than usual. This number may be altered yet again by the god of 512, though. I'll hold out at 40, regardless.Gamecenter a Crock - Dyno
"The demo on everyone's download list is Hexen II, and Activision promises that the full version will be out early this month (it's scheduled for a September 9 release). For those wanting more, Quake II will arrive the following month.... "Well, since they mentioned demos, they might be talking about Q2test. But they do seem like they are pulling in above schedule on this one, I don't know. Check out the article if you want to see the rest.
are
registered trademarks of id Software, Inc.