I'm going into phase 3: conversion to C++. Got the Toothed Wheel Object's skeleton set-up, including the object attributes and icon. Now I'm transferring the COFFEE functions for generating the rudimentary gear shape, both for involute and ring gears.

After I get that working, I'll add the user-controlled tooth profiles. Still lots of stuff to study about the API. I want the profile controls to either be in a separate GUI or keep them as splines+nulls, but they should only be there for setup.

I'll just keep whacking at this, see how it'll turn out.

Anyways, I'm currently working on a plugin for Cinema4D. It's for procedurally generating different kinds of toothed wheels, be it gears, sprockets, circular saw blades, etc.

Right now it's an XPresso/COFFEE-based setup compiled in an object hierarchy.
Features:
-> clean mesh topology
-> hole and edge beveling
-> manual controls for adjusting tooth profile

To-do list:
-> attach tooth geometry to gear's face
-> add clean beveling across face-profile intersection

-> add controls for symmetrical tooth profiles
-> add option to mirror control points for asymmetrical tooth profiles
-> add a few shape presets

-> convert XPresso/COFFEE to exclusively COFFEE-based implementation

Possible future development:
-> rotation to produce helical gears
-> separate controls for each side of the gear to allow for more shapes including bevel gears and, uhh… orange juicers…
-> custom number or control points for tooth profile
-> option for loading/saving preset shapes
-> conversion to complete C++ implementation

The setup's currently placed in a COFFEE Tag, though I'm working on converting it into C++ So it can be imported as an Object Plugin.

I'll be posting updates as I work on this. Cheers!

Started building my own particle library for my unity3d projects. I'm focusing more on the particle's movements and behavior rather than the overall look for now; Skinning the particles will be the last on my checklist for this one.

In the demo I have two particle types. The light cyan ones wander around the screen while the dark ones stay in place. [Arrow keys] move your character, pressing the [spacebar] draws the particles towards you. Also, the particles will gravitate towards you on their own if they're close enough.

Please view the full post to see the Unity content.

I'll release my library as a package once it's large enough.

For the first character, I'm doing a quad – legged mech. Here's the current progress. The initial leg, just making sure that there are no overlapping parts when it moves. Again, all done in Cinema4d.

The hydraulics are simply bones with squash set to %100, letting them slide along their axis. The details on the piston construction is on the image below the video.

Please view the full post to see the Unity content.

I worked on Ojii, the main character, plus three of his origami transformations: the rhino, the frog, and the crane. I did the modeling, rigging, and animation for all of them. It was challenging; I had to make sure that I maintain the feel of paper, but at the same time they had to move organically. I did the work in Cinema4D, then exported them as .fbx files into the Unity engine.

You might need to download the Unity plugin to be able to see the interactive 3d viewer. But if you're using Google Chrome, I think it'll play without the plugin.

Here's the link to the game's dev blog.

http://www.projectono.com/

Playable demo:

http://projects.myvfs.com/games/GD15_ONO/

Edit: Moved the character player inside the post, added in link to demo.

Please view the full post to see the Unity content.

Anyways, it's my second week playing around with Unity. Getting more used to the workflow, though I'm still struggling with organizing assets. Hope they add type-based sorting or search filters on the next release… Anyways, for now I'm trying to see what game mechanics I could work with using the engine. For now, I'm gonna play around with platformers and non-first-person shooters.

Platformers:

For 3D, it seems that relying solely on physics is a bad idea. Most interactions feel too 'floaty', from jumping to object collisions. I'll probably have to do a lot customization with kinematic objects to get what I want.

For 2D platforming, the weight issue is more pronounced. It's like you're blowing on a character to make 'em move. Plus I still haven't found a proper method to implement one-way platforms. You know, those that you can jump on from below. I'll probably have to work with kinematic objects and collision events for this one… as a note, perceived physics =/= real-world physics =/= estimated computer physics. There's a difference, people!

Shmups:

Surprisingly, I found working on shmups, specifically curtain shooters is fairly easy. Drop a ship, add whatever cannon type you need, drop behaviors for the ship and cannons. And it's modular. Drop several scripts, activate one or the other, and you're good to go. So far the framerates are good. And considering that I'm using a Compaq CQ50 Laptop, that's saying something.

Well, i'll be uploading updates and a playable prototype in a couple of days or so.

Done with my first experiment with Unity. It's just a compilation of several game mechanics/ elements. No actual game just yet. Actual Unity app is inside the post, [test01.unity3d, 138k].

Actions available:

• Clicking on an empty space drops a block on the column.
• Clicking and holding on the mouse button on a block for half a second removes it.

Behaviors included:

• Particle absorption animation.
• Dust particle animation from falling blocks.
• changes in animation states from mouse events.
• Object instantiation/destruction.
• Sounds on specific events.
• Physics with some kinematic control.

Bugs:

• Collisions trigger when a column starts falling, causing extra smoke.
• Audio clue on blocks falling has some delay.
• Collisions may trigger while the block is still in freefall.
• Blocks only snap into place on top of 1×1 blocks. Falling on larger objects sort of bounce. (code just for 1×1 blocks was implemented on this prototype.)

Please view the full post to see the Unity content.

Right now, I'm playing around with the particle emitters. I want to see what the limitations are, and what kinds of particle effects I could create besides the obligatory explosions.

Current to-do list:

• non-explosion particle effects (wisps, condensing fog, energy charge/discharge)
• trail renderer effects (laser, lightning, energy stream)
• object instantiation/destruction (just lots of objects on click or something)
• mouse events (object animation on click/hover)
• keyboard events (rudimentary WASD movement)

I'll upload updates in a few days.

Unfortunately, I still can't get it to embed in WordPress so I have to set it in an external link. Particles follow the cursor, brightness affected by its speed.

http://www.genemagtoto.com/processing/sketch001/