Microbe Stage Final Draft

roadkillguy wrote:

Have we EVER decided how to render these things? How on earth am I going to render an amoeba?

Let's think about it from a programming standpoint. We can draw triangles --As many as we want. We can put images on the triangles. We can make the triangles transparent. How can we put together a cell from that? What do we want this to look like?

Thank you for bringing up something relevant.

I remember a while back we said our best bet was metaballs, as they can give the round organic feel pretty easy, but I don't know if our system supports them?

Basically the two most important things at the moment are getting a circular shape and a pill shape down. Most cells are variations on those shapes.

Sooo... where are we on models? If we're going to get the cell stage started, we need 'em. Right now, we need a couple of basic models, just for testing. Later, we'll work on getting the actual generation and all, but for right now we just need something halfway decent looking.

guitar999111 wrote:

Sooo... where are we on models? If we're going to get the cell stage started, we need 'em. Right now, we need a couple of basic models, just for testing. Later, we'll work on getting the actual generation and all, but for right now we just need something halfway decent looking.

YAY! I get to do helpful things. My Studio Arts teacher is going to be so mad when she sees me modelling sperm in class today...

I'll try to get four or five done today, they shouldn't be too tricky. .obj files are okay, right? And do we have any preferences as to size, poly count, etc? I'm using 3ds Max, if that's at all relevant.

Yeah, that should be ok. Maybe just make one sperm ( I'm sorry ) for now, just so if we can't read it in right now, or whatever, you don't waste too much time.

guitar999111 wrote:

Yeah, that should be ok. Maybe just make one sperm ( I'm sorry ) for now, just so if we can't read it in right now, or whatever, you don't waste too much time.

I've modelled it, and i have a texture you can use but it can probably just have a single colour pixel applied to it. Where should i upload?

You could take a screenshot and post it.

Quote :

I've modelled it, and i have a texture you can use but it can probably just have a single colour pixel applied to it. Where should i upload?

Just pick an uploading service. I think mediafire works, but I've never really used it.

If you'd like to follow development, you can go to our google doc.

It's nice and detailed.

Thanks, very informative.

Homer do good?

US_of_Alaska wrote:

Homer do good?

Hmmmm... Can we see it wriggle, anyone?

If you think of perfection as Einstein's equation for achieving the speed of light, modeling the thing is about .3c. Animating it, and bringing said animations into the game is about .7c.

Just an estimate. Great work Alaska.

Tenebrarum wrote:

US_of_Alaska wrote:

Homer do good?

Hmmmm... Can we see it wriggle, anyone?

I'm fiddling with it to get the best animation i can, but i still don't quite have a grasp of the animation tools in 3ds. I'll see what i can do, and i should have something by the end of the working week.

US_of_Alaska wrote:

Tenebrarum wrote:

US_of_Alaska wrote:

Homer do good?

Hmmmm... Can we see it wriggle, anyone?

I'm fiddling with it to get the best animation i can, but i still don't quite have a grasp of the animation tools in 3ds. I'll see what i can do, and i should have something by the end of the working week.

That's good work, alaska. I'm going to do some concept sketches of other protocells to help out your modeling.

Tadpole-cell is excellent work, Alaska.

I've just finished concept sketches for all 17 protocells. I also have a cell hierarchy. Here's the hierarchy.

Level 1: You must assimilate some of these to move about and grow into level 2

Wrigglers
Writhers
Squirmers
Heat-Eaters
Holders
Shiners

Level 2: You must assimilate some of these to move about and grow into level 3

Clone stickers
Poison stickers
Defenders
Producers
Dissolvers
Eaters
Light-Eaters

Level 3

Cookers
Platers
Gluers

I'm looking forward to seeing those sketches!

Tenebrarum wrote:

I'm looking forward to seeing those sketches!

They're not exactly fascinating. Proto-cells don't differentiate much, but I tried to make them as distinct as possible.

~sciocont wrote:

Tenebrarum wrote:

I'm looking forward to seeing those sketches!

They're not exactly fascinating. Proto-cells don't differentiate much, but I tried to make them as distinct as possible.

Well, we can critique and make a balance.

Tenebrarum wrote:

~sciocont wrote:

Tenebrarum wrote:

I'm looking forward to seeing those sketches!

They're not exactly fascinating. Proto-cells don't differentiate much, but I tried to make them as distinct as possible.

Well, we can critique and make a balance.

Original is 1600 by 1200

Was this finalized?

Pezzalis wrote:

18) Sharers - Elliptic Cells which can exchange DNA with other cells before dividing, and after division acquire some of that cells traits. Assimilating them gives you the ability to exchange DNA (Early Sexual Reproduction)

When a player's cell absorbs a given number of #17 - Gluers (Which could be quite rare to give a lengthy microbe stage), it gains the ability to "stick" to other cells of its kind, forming cellular colonies. At this point, the player can become a multicellular organism by bonding with as many cells of its type as possible.

However It will only be able to replicate the whole colony if it has assimilated enough #19 - Sharers, so the player must assimilate enough sharers before entering Multicellular stage.

These are essentially early gametes. During Multicellular/Colony organisms will evolve different ways of their dispersal EG. Flagella a la sperm, Drifters a la pollen, or other methods (anything which involves contact between the two).

At a proto-cell or prokaryotic level they could look like this:

Okay. Is end of working week and i have nothing. Sorry guys, i'll get it on it as soon as i feel up to it. And i'll redo the wriggler to look like Scio's worm there. Keep those sketches coming.

Pezzalis found this image and wrote:

At a proto-cell or prokaryotic level they could look like this:

I'm diggin this image. It makes the whole cell stage so much more artistic. Honestly, if we could get 2D colorful cells like this on a greyscale background it would look awesome. Those worms would be individual pieces/segments, so each segment would be it's own image. In fact, if we did make it colorful like this we would make each cell's image white, that way we could change the color in game.

roadkillguy wrote:

I'm diggin this image. It makes the whole cell stage so much more artistic. Honestly, if we could get 2D colorful cells like this on a greyscale background it would look awesome. Those worms would be individual pieces/segments, so each segment would be it's own image. In fact, if we did make it colorful like this we would make each cell's image white, that way we could change the color in game.

I dunno. I was hoping to see a very murky, soupy celly stage. You know, play off the whole "Primordial Ooze" thing.