Intro GSoC Intro: Character and Gear Customization

[Podzy]

• Name: JJ Pods
• From: Michigan, USA
• Skills / Tools: Currently, I am enrolled at Oakland University studying computer science as a major. I have extensive knowledge of 2D and 3D design using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, After effects, Cinema4D, Unity, and the Unreal Engine SDK. I have always had a passion for computer graphics, taking art and graphic design classes throughout my academic career. With this graphic design experience, I have done freelance work on logos, websites, and advertisements, as well as video editing and animation in 2D and 3D. In the area of coding, I have intermediate experience from school and personal projects with Java as well as C and C#. I use NetBeans for writing in Java, and Visual Studio combined with Unity for game development in C#. In addition to academic experience with coding, a week long summer program on video game developement has given me a base knowledge of level design game development using the Unreal Engine. Lastly, extra experience in this area comes from years of gaming. From SNES to Xbox One and PC, video games have shaped and fueled my passion for computer programming and game design. I have experience in Minecraft with modding, serving hosting, and world design as well as extensive gameplay time in the voxel game "Trove". Additional MMO gameplay experience 10+ years.
• Found via: GSoC
• Interests: The first idea on the list: Customizable Characters, immediately caught my attention. With a passion for graphics and a hunger for customizablity, this idea was perfect for me. With reference to games today like Destiny, The Division, Minecraft, WoW, customizable characters are in high demand. In addition to creating beautiful armor sets and shiny weapons to choose from, the user often has the option to wear cosmetic items. Depending on the payment style of the game, cosmetic items can often only be purchased with real currency which shows just how badly people like to stand out and look unique. In a sea of thousands of players, your wearable gear and physical features are what set you apart from the rest. Having a system in place that lets the user explore countless appearances will provide a sense of freedom and expression and keep them coming back for more. I am currently working on this very situation in a 2D action sidescroller that I am developing in Unity. Castlevania was a huge inspiration in my start in pixel art and below is an example of the pixel art that will be present in my personal project. .

 

[Cervator]

Hi @Podzy and welcome. Nice art

I don't see a GSOC proposal with a name clearly linked to you on the official site yet - it is really late getting started if you want to land a GSOC spot. Unless you are more interested in contributing in general? We'd be happy to have your contributions and do what we can to help you learn in either case!

 

[Podzy]

I'm not sure what to include in the proposal and it is quite late so GSoC probably won't be happening. I would love to contribute and work with you guys though, GSoC or not.

 

[Cervator]

I'm not sure what to include in the proposal and it is quite late so GSoC probably won't be happening. I would love to contribute and work with you guys though, GSoC or not.

Awesome! Good to hear

Take your time then and start by just setting up to run from source. Find a small bug or other enhancement to work on. Maybe look at how inventories work, and aim for setting up a custom one that'll become a player's character screen, for equipping gear. Doesn't have to do much, just having the option to equip a pair of boots that doubles the player's movement speed would be a neat way to demonstrate it.

 

[Skaldarnar]

Hi and welcome

Since @Cervator already gave you some ideas for getting your hands on the code base I'll add one or two points about artwork. Given your skills in 2D artwork and pixel art you might want to have a look at the side project we have adopted, Destination Sol. And there is always someone looking for new shiny icons

 

[Podzy]

I was able to get into the normal game mode and look around a bit, but when entering the dev build I had major framerate issues and couldn't even look around. I'm also a bit lost on how to set up the source code to start tinkering. I have run IntelliJ and run gradlew idea but I'm not sure what to do next. Could I get some pointers to get going in the right direction? Really digging the graphics, the water, and the physics in the game so far

 

[Cervator]

@Podzy check out the engine wiki, it has a few pages on how to dev

https://github.com/MovingBlocks/Terasology/wiki/Dev-Setup

Did you enable any particular modules when you hit lag? If possible F3 then F4 in-game will enable a set of performance metrics that might give you a clue what is eating up all the resources.

Also, we need an icon for a Butterfingers candy bar, without it being too infringey.... long story. Not actually very long but I'm trying to make @SkySom prepare a fun example of a bug-turned-feature

 

[SkySom]

One of these days I'm going to regret my "If I have textures I'll do anything" outlook on modding. But today is not that day.

 

[Podzy]

@Cervator I sent you a message regarding a few setup questions that I had. As for the butterfingers icon, I can definitely whip something up. What size would be best?

 

[Cervator]

Woo butterfingers!

It is just for an icon, so pretty small. The player would be able to hold the item (for a fraction of a second before it auto-drops, because, you know, butterfingers) so it will be displayed that way. Comparable to the usual tools like the axe etc.

 

[Florian]

I was able to get into the normal game mode and look around a bit, but when entering the dev build I had major framerate issues and couldn't even look around

Sounds to me like the game runs out of memory and starts doing tons of garbadage collections. Try increasing the memory limit (e.g. change VM option -Xmx1024m to -Xmx2048m)