₦airaland Forum

@ ama1: What kind of God will not send his son to die. If you stop to evaluate your perception, you'll see it is what blinds you. Do you know God? Can you describe his nature? Before you abuse him, tell us how you came about your conclusions on God, how you know who is a God and who is not. How you got to develop expectations about an all powerful being. How you got to know that He knew that Adam will eat the forbidden fruit. etc. Please start educating us on God. Is it your perception and expectation that anyone who can be called your God has to have knowledge of every micro second eons before it happens?

You should at least give us an  explanation on how you came to your definition of God.


Don't even get me started on logical reasoning, For starters, the same questions used to try to disprove God's existence come back to hunt those your stupid logical thinkers. You should read sam vaknin's 'Is God Necessary' to get started on some intricacies of the logic involved in thinking about God.

http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewArticle.asp?id=51990

@ ojukwu24: It's cool, hoping you'll fix it soon.

@world best: I'm uploading the unity package now. It's large because I included the default unity package(standard asset) with it, about 67mb. I'll only add upload additional models and packages next time so as to reduce size of needed downloads.

A few things you'll notice in the level model is that some random tall blocks are present. I used them to represent a human for scale/proportion sake, especially so I can limit the height of objects on the floor so that the player can easily step over them.

In unity, I decided to use the default firstpersoncontroller prefab as the default human size an changed the level import scale to five which makes the blocks i mentioned earlier just a little taller.

@ OP : God had to kill his son because it was the only way.

If you are a christian or muslim: I believe you have read not just the bible, qur'an but other books and testimonies about the miracles of God, his anger, his deeds and through that, not only learned about God's nature but being able to tell yourself that some of what people suggest or think might be wrong and have come up with your own views while accepting that of others.

Reading our qur'an and bibles, books which we have turned into idols rather than a way to learn about God, learning about the world and taking this journey called life, understanding that God's nature is different from that of man, is it not clear that your ideas of other means based on our perception of his power and his ways are definitely not the solution.  

He is indeed an all powerful God. A God who has felt so much pain because He is not just some being who does this and that. He is a God who does things because it is the best way. In humans, God has become a concept and going from that, we have built certain beliefs and expectations on what a being who should be God can do and how he can do it. but truth will always be truth and it will always be a shock to man.

God feels anger,  why? Because that is part of his nature. His anger is not like that of man or that of kings amongst men. It is not something that comes and goes like ours. His anger is great and with far reaching consequences. He is a God who feels regret. In fact, all our emotions can be said to be derived from him and perhaps, this is where we begin to falter in our perception of him.

Don't let your perception of God lead you to think you know how things should be done or how things are. We will never know God's nature and the world around him, it's workings and complexities,  at least, not now when we are yet humans,


If you are an atheist/disbelieving scientist/put some other new fad here:  Before I attempt to convince you about things which I'll admit are beyond my knowledge, tell me how the big bang came to be, the chicken or the egg, which came first, explain all the missing links and unproved theories bordering quantum physics and the beginning of the universe.

Even you will admit that we do not know all the answers and since we were not there, some of it is beyond us. Our theories are disproved over and over, fossils and the hypothetical family tree of man are cut down and rearranged with every few discovery,  some of our theories are so ridiculous that the chances of it occurring are thought to be impossible on probability scales. Doesn't it even surprise you how the order of the universe came to be?  Like the Jehovah witnesses put it, The world is so complex and beautiful, It's impossible to think there's not a designer behind all this,  And He is watching, taking account of everything.

@ worldbest: Yes I did it in blender. I'm in school now trying to finalize my registration. I'll upload it as soon as I get home tomorrow.

working, I'll replace the ground plane with several better defined meshes later

@ Ojukwu24: http://www.unity3d.com welcome to the team.

@ GraphMoney: Thanks.

@ worldbest: Yes I did it in blender. Like you said, it'll help prevent too much scaling etc.

Please post anything you find on texturing. I haven't seen good tutorials yet.

I'll try registering on sourceforge now.

EDIT::

I've registered and started a project.

Its at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/naijadev/

@worldbest: We'll do mixed buildings for now. We can work well on some and just make the others to populate the scene. At least, one the houses on the main streets may allow the player to go indoors. We can arrange 10 houses on a street since most of them will be low poly and not have inner spaces.


We can put the characters on separate streets and but I'm not yet sure how to make something like a radar to show important locations on the map. Maybe we can use small sign boards or 3d arrows to show directions for now.


I think most of the free repositories are for public projects. We can still put the needed things there since this is mostly a learning project, we'll just manage it but if we feel like we don't want to share something particular with others that are not part the project, we can secure the file with a password and share it through 4shared or something else.

@ worldbest: chill bro, I'm sorry, my reply wasn't meant to imply anything. I didn't mean to offend you.

I was just trying to say that giving the player certain things have consequences and some of them are external to the game. Giving him money means we have to give him something to do with it and since we already have things like him paying for tuition, it's can go easily with the game. Other things like ipods require certain things. We can design different gadgets but we have to consider If we can do without it, what it means for the player and what he can or should do with it.

While we can easily program the interaction, we have to consider it's realism, how it impacts the player, how the interaction can be dynamic, how to control the NPCs when not interacting with the player etc. All these things may push us to unnecessary planning and programming at this time. That is why I suggested a small area with mainly enemies who are fought off and characters who give the player missions. All the other things can be added when we are through with most of the game. I just wanted us to do the necessary things first.

Again, I'm sorry,

@ worldbest: I don't know about those rewards yet. Why give the player such things? you have to pay apple to show the ipad in your game, what music will he play on it? Will you pay for the song licenses?

Secondly : Trying to do things similar things implemented in games like GTA require time and knowledge. GTA is a very sophisticated game with high end AI, animation and effects. Lets keep things really simple and only do what is really needed.

I suggest we implement just money and points as rewards. We limit the interaction to just enemies who will be encountered in groups and those who offer him missions for now.

Modeling is house is not so complicated as it should be small and rough. A small problem might be arise from getting the scale right in blender for objects modeled in different scenes. The other for me personally is texturing.

The camera might also prove tricky as we'll have to ensure it doesn't stick into walls as the player moves about. We can use the smooth follow camera for now though. We'll concentrate on better implementations of things after we're done with most of the work.

@worldbest: Unity can import blender 2.49 files directly. I don't know about the new version of blender and unity 3 though.Try extruding the edge of a plane downwards, sideways and upwards again to get a gutter.

Using a small residential area first might work. We place puzzles, enemies and other things along the way.  The player races against time to get to his objective. If the area is small, the player can study the environment better and learn things quickly. Following your level one mission you suggested earlier, we can split it into three levels.

1: Find a job- The player has to look for 5 people who will send him on an errand, if he delivers his message late, he loses etc.

2: Sales/search mission: The player may be asked to look for buyers of a good before time runs out etc

3: Tuition: A man loses something and will reward anyone who finds it. Can you find it before others do or before the time runs out. It is the only available opportunity to pay your fees.

All this missions can involve tricky puzzles. The player encounters the gangs along the way etc. We also have to think of things to reward the player with.

@ worldbest: Great job. I'll be done with my registration soon,  just some minor things to complete and I'll start doing some work.

                      The map is large though. We should concentrate on one residential area, preferably one close to the soccer field so we have a mixture of closed spaces and wide ones.

                       The rest of the map should be restricted from the player for now. I don't think we are ready to work on a large map yet because due to the nature of the game, the setting being a mixture of urban and rural environment, we will be forced to fall into the feature trap.

                        We're going to be thinking of filling the void created by such a large expanse of virtual land and implementing things like bicycles, skateboards and cars may seem cool but they are largely secondary to the game. Lets work on a small area first and see how we can improve.

                        Regarding the building in the pix and 3d in general; It looks nice. Are you using 3ds max? I noticed the interior was displaying without any errors. You can duplicate it and modify it to look different then duplicate both again, modify and make several small layout configurations. Saves modeling time.

                        I had a hard time getting my blender models to display well in unity till I discovered it was caused by normals facing the wrong direction. It seems 3ds max doesn't have that problem. Just giving a heads up to anyone who is also using blender. It's better to turn off double sided before you start modeling so you don't make mistakes. 

                        It's also better to model several buildings together and share textures. My problem now is texturing as well as getting the object scale in blender right because it doesn't have a unit of measurement like 3ds max. The 2.5 version might have but I don't think it's supported by many apps yet.

@GraphMoney: Thanks. Welcome to the team.

@ daqskin: There's always space for anyone who is willing to contribute. Welcome to the team.

Hey ugo, maybe the reason you're thinking of retiring is because of lack of challenges. Here's one for you: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-471237.0.html

We're trying to develop games in the programming section and we really need artists like you. We're still contemplating the storyline and gameplay and it's been mostly talks and people signing up and failing to contribute. We've already started some prototyping but things are going slow since most of us are doing this for the first time and just encountering many things like physics, inverse kinematics, transformations, etc for the first time. How about helping with some artwork? It can help inspire I and the guys.

I'm really busy at the moment and haven't done anything for some time but I'll be done this week and will focus on doing what I can on the game for the rest of my holiday.


Thanks.

@ obyxddon:

First off, everybody wants to be like or better than someone. Life is all about relativity.

Secondly, What gave you the stupid idea that he's a krs one wannabe. I do love and listen to Krs's old jams occasionally and the similarity I can talk about in Mode 9's songs and his is the fact that they are both raw, untamed hip hop poetry. okay, both of them are not the best and their songs ain't always IT but the point is they are different. Hip hop today is mostly nonsense and pornography.

Mode 9 doesn't always give you the new age rush and fast tongued stuff like MI, Lil wayne and the new skool in general. Nevertheless, his music(when presented well) is still enjoyed and well regarded by people, especially those who have had a taste of pure hip hop.

I don't see anything wrong in all he said, Why are you guys hating? The message was aimed at mischievous and silly people who go around the internet cuz it's their new playground, posting and doing all sort of silly things. If you're one of them, F U VERY MUCH.

If you're jealous of the guy, DIE!!! Don't post any comment about there being no reason to be jealous cuz if there wasn't, you won't even be on this page. F U. The guy is a cool hustler. He is doing his thing. If his music doesn't suit you, don't listen to it. Simple. He is not perfect and nobody is. Let him be. Abeg, Mode 9, On to the next -ish jor, your fans are behind you.

Hi guys, Still trying to complete my registration. God willing, I'll be done next week. I've finally gotten a way rotate bones somewhat. It's not as great as the arm IK script but it works to some extent. Hope you guys are having fun.

@Ojukwu24 : The project is still on, as long as everyone can keep working and contributing. We need to work harder and plan better.

Hi guys. I'm still trying to figure out the texturing aspect and other things. I won't be able to do much this weekend and next week because I have to go to school for registration and other things. Hope you guys are having fun with unity, I had a look at the scripts in the project file I uploaded and noticed most of the variables were declared private instead of public and the walk speed was low. Anyone who downloaded it should change it to make things easier.

Nice. The things to be implemented are much though. It looks like there may be lots of interactions and we would have to set up a simple dialog system amongst other things. I've started making some plans on the level but I'll have to experiment a lot on the texturing aspect.

Thanks.

Wow, I finally did it. Had a lot of problems with circular headers and correct ways of passing addresses to the vector containing object pointers.

Here's the code:

Obj.h //the object header

Obj.h :

#ifndef OBJECT_H
#define OBJECT_h
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <vector>
#include "Box.h"

class Obj
{
friend class Box;
public:
Obj(std::string obj_name, Box &box) //pass the box as well so it knows what to register itself with
{
name = obj_name;
box.registerObject(this);

}
std::string giveAttributes()
{
return name;
}
private:
std::string name;

};


#endif


///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Box.h :

#ifndef BOX_H
#define BOX_H

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <string>

class Obj; //tell it about the object class here, but don't include the header file for Obj. It will be included in Box.cpp


class Box
{
public:
Box();
void registerObject(Obj *obj);
void outPutAll();
private:
//static int counter; decided not to use this variable
std::vector<Obj *> Objects; //the list of objects go into this box

};


#endif


///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


Box.cpp :

#include "Box.h"
#include "Obj.h" //compiler complains of incomplete type when trying to use pointers to objects if this isn't included. It defines the object structures


Box::Box()
{
}

void Box::registerObject(Obj *obj)
{

// i wanted to use a counter to get list of objects but I had subscript out of range errors
//Objects[counter] = &obj this generates subscript out of range errors, had to use push_back()

Objects.push_back(obj);

//counter++; did not implement this since i could use vector.size()
}

void Box::outPutAll()
{
std::cout <<Objects.size() << " items in Box \n";
for(unsigned int i = 0; i < Objects.size(); i++) //why does <= generate an error?
{
std::cout << Objects[i]->giveAttributes() <<"\n";
}

}


/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


Finally main.cpp :

#include "Box.h"
#include "Obj.h"


int main()
{
Box myBox; //first create a box
Obj Chair("Couch", myBox); // name of object and tell it which box it goes into
Obj Table("dining Table", myBox); //o yeah, dining table can't go into a box? who says?
Obj Book("Eco 101", myBox);
myBox.outPutAll();
std::cin.get();
return 0;

}



////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////


Thanks guys.

@ world best: nice, thanks.

@ Everyone: We should start analyzing the various areas of the game now so we can lay down how everything is going to work.

For example:

Protagonist : looks, behaviors, attributes, goals, etc. Some of this things have been defined to some extent when we picked our storyline. We just have to lay them out in a structured pattern.

Enemies/Henchmen : Looks, action patterns and states, attributes, groupings etc

Levels: Type of environment and setting, length, interactions, etc

Game in general: Genre- We could design it in various ways. If we go for the small adventure/fighter pattern, the player visits a small part of a level, has to fight off enemies, then is allowed to go to the next area in the level, fights again, etc This aspect will help us develop the game play.

Scripting : Representation of attributes, developing ways to allow interaction with things like triggers, tracking game objects etc.

Assets : 3d models, textures, sounds, etc

@ World best: Why are you asking? I try to rap sometimes, lol,

The problem is that some of the unity projects concern technical stuff and contain many interlinked things. The only way to quickly understand them is knowing about serious physics and stuff like that. I usually try to remove parts that are not to wide and use them. Learning the arm ik and the car tutorials with my own models is proving difficult right now because of various complexities involved in them. You can't just model a car, attach a script and expect it to work. That is one of the biggest drawbacks in unity. You need things to be modeled in a particular way and set up appropriately. It makes things feel rigid and not having 3ds max makes it worse for me. I'm just trying to look at the structure of the models in inside unity and guess about thinks bu I haven't had much luck.

@ Pheeque: The free version does not have but we'll have to find a way to do things. Considering upload and download speeds based on most of our internet connections, it is evident that we would still be constrained even if it was present. The thing about tools like unity is that it allows you to do things easily. We can easily paste particular scripts right here and upload needed models for others to test on makeshift scenes. We don't always have to be viewing and working on the same things. Even better: We can actually export parts of our project files from unity and other people can install them to their projects as packages. Like worldbest said, we can use a something like sourceforge as our repository. We just have to ensure that we communicate frequently, update each other on progress and challenges and try to tackle things as best as we can.

PS: Did I come off in some bad way? Pardon my attitude if I've somehow offended you.

@ World best: That's a great collection. I just wish someone would do a tutorial on the arm ik and other technical stuff. I still haven't found a way to import the bones along with the mesh into blender so i can analyze it better. Do you know any good tutorial on texturing?

@Everyone: Please download this ebook on game development: http://directory.vancouver.wsu.edu/people/sue-peabody/art-computer-game-design . It's old but it's an highly regarded book and it's free. I believe it will help us greatly. Anyone with links to helpful stuff should not hesitate to post them here. Happy Independence day guys. Maybe this time next year, we'll be able to develop something that reflects the African struggle in a unique way.

@ Worldbest: The first place for unity tutorials is the resources section on their site. Some tutorials are not well explained as there's a lot of code in them like the 3rd person platformer so spending sometime on the basics will give you some ideas. The project examples haven't helped me much since I can't analyze the models cuz I use blender.

other sites:

Burgzerg has a cool series that teaches you lots of things: http://www.youtube.com/user/BurgZergArcade#p/c/E5C2870574BF4B06 and http://www.burgzergarcade.com/hack-slash-rpg-unity3d-game-engine-tutorial

M2H has a lot of simple and explained project examples and cool tutorials including networking: http://www.m2h.nl/unity/

This guy blogs about games and stuff and gives source code: http://forestjohnson..com/

David Lancaster has taught a lot of people about game development: http://davidlancasterdevelopment..com/  I can't find the location of his evac city tutorial on the net anymore but I could upload the pdf for you.

This site has more links:http://infiniteunity3d.com

You can also check http://www.scribd.com

@Number One: Welcome to the team

@Everyone: I think the problem is that we are not really sure of  what game development is and some of us are not willing to understand it. It's strange but it's true. We seem to want everything the wrong way. It's good to want to create something that people are going to enjoy but we don't understand how to go about it. I've read many post on forums all over the net about projects and stuff relating to game development and the problems that have led to the failure or cancellation of the projects seem to be the same ones affecting us.

Lack of focus, impatience, greed etc. We want to achieve many things so fast, we want what we do to be amazing, we want to be the first to do things, we want it all,

The first thing I'm going to tell you all is that game development can be the most boring and unproductive thing you will ever do. You will slave in front of your PC for months only to find out your brilliant idea is actually nothing. This is a field that requires love and understanding because it is not a single thing. It is many things coming together. It is something that is  very very very very difficult even with the best tools at your disposal.

If you choose to go into it with the mindset of an adult, You are likely to fail. If you go in like a child, you are likely to fail. How then do you go in? Like an old man or a baby. You either go after with lots of experience and time or you go in knowing you are in a world where you can never be sure of anything. You go in ready to cry for help and seek understanding from those who know better but may not always be willing to help. You go in one step at a time, one day at a time, the breeze in you hair, virtual worlds of possibilities ahead, and you take over these worlds one vertex at a time.

Translation: We need to step back and rethink what we are doing. We should be having fun by now. We should be doing little crazy things with the tools we have and bring every thing together slowly. Sure, we could do a few little complete games in between but real knowledge and satisfaction will come when we do things the way they are supposed to be done,  SLOWLY,  DEMO MODE ANYONE? SHORT LITTLE DEMOS, IDEAS, SPARKS, BRING THEM TOGETHER, SLOWLY!!!

With tools like unity 3d, It is easy to deploy games across a variety of platforms easily. We could go with flash and develop for pc, mobile and web. I think the issue is not yet about deploying games. The issue is about making games. Let's have fun with what we have and maybe soon, we'll have a lot of things to put together. Life is made up of lego blocks!!!

Thanks.

You're right about the first one. The registration function is actually more than one though I only put one there. Thanks, you guys have been very helpful.

@ IbrahimB: Stuff is not meant to be a kind of box. Box is actually a separate class that performs operations on each instance of stuff I create. That is why I wanted to make stuff a member of Box in Box's constructor. I need an overloaded registration function in the mix because different stuffs need to be attended to in different ways. Phones will be arranged and packaged as expensive items, kept where they won't break while a stuff instances like shoe can be kept anywhere.

Thanks guys, nice idea. I'll work on it. So all I have to do is let the user input objects and it's characteristics and a member function, preferably the constructor calls the appropriate overloaded function in Box to register the object so it knows what type of work to do on the object. Won't this change my class relationships? Maybe the change is actually better. The classes only need to be able to communicate at the necessary levels. Maybe I can make a registration function in Box to add each object to a container and then operate on them at run time

pseudo:

Stuff n93(smartphone, phone, flip);
Stuff CODMW(game, disk, PC_Game) etc

Stuff::Stuff(classification, type, extras)
{
registerWithBox(classification, type) overloaded function
}

register with box increments a counter, uses it as a subscript and adds it to a container. Maybe this will work.

The main problem is creating the member function in Box to find and access each instance of Stuff on it's own. In PHP, when spidering for links or getting rss feeds, you get an array and loop through it. Something like: foreach($Stuff as stuff) . I can create an array of classes and do it but I want things to be sort of automated. That way, the user just creates as many stuffs as he wants and doesn't have to call Box each time to act on the stuff. and the member function in Box collects them in a vector or something.

Thanks. Here's an illustration. Supposing I create a class called 'stuffs' whose instances could be shoe, phone etc i.e

class Stuff;

instances:

Stuff shoe;

Stuff phone; etc

Then I create a class called Box with class Stuff as a child class. Box has a member function that will operate on the Stuff instances.

Is it possible to use some kind of container like a vector in the Box class (maybe in it's constructor) to automatically find all the instances of Stuff i.e shoe and phone that I've created without me explicitly making a call to Box each time I create a Stuff instance like book?

That way, I just concentrate on creating as many stuffs as I want and Box will find them at runtime and operate on them.

Unity 3 is finally out