   'Gang War' Tech Videos
  Hey guys, I've been revamping the game engine behind my multiplayer action/strategy hybrid "Gang War".  I've recently added:- Real-time shadow maps on everthing in the city, using a local and global shadow map.- A new character/model rendering system- A new dynamic sky model for the entire city- A bunch of other things.I've still got to add the following effects:- Envinronment mapping on vehicles, and buildings- Post processing glow effect on all light sources (ehhh, no HDR though)- Some kick ass waterI'd like to know what you guys think of the following tech videos, showing some of the new things I've implemented into the game/engine - This shows the character animation system, and a little bit of physics: This video shows the view distances/LOD managment system in the game.This shows the dynamic sky/lighting/shadow system.  It also shows how you can accelerate time in single player modes. Shows the character animation system + texturing on the world.Texturing is off in 3 of the videos to make the lighting effects/geometry easier to see.  I turned it on in the last one, just so you'd have some idea of what it looks like.  And I know there aren't any wheels on the vehicles right now, I'll have that back into the game tommorow sometime [grin]Just let me know what you think...since I work alone I like to get opinions from other developers every now and again.You can also follow the progress of the game via my developers journal here on GameDev.  (Link is in my signature).If you want more info about the game...there's a link to my website in my signature as well.  There are a lot of videos, and a ton of information about the game on my website.Also...the game is being published through Strategy First whenever it's "done", so keep a look out for it! - Dan[Edited by - dgreen02 on December 9, 2005 2:18:14 AM]
  Have you investigated doing some form of jittered sampling on the shadowmap edges to remove the banding? I'm guessing you still have some pixel shader budget to burn on high-end cards? Other than that its looking awsome!   ;  Mate this looks right nicei especially like the animation systemkeep up the sweet work   ;Quote:Original post by rolloHave you investigated doing some form of jittered sampling on the shadowmap edges to remove the banding? I'm guessing you still have some pixel shader budget to burn on high-end cards? Other than that its looking awsome!Hey there...well I'm actually doing 4x4 percentage-closer filtering and jitter sampling...though I could probably do a better job with the jitter sample points...I'll go throguh and work on that later today.  Thanks for the comments guys! - Dan   ;  Dude, you're like my hero :D Seriously, when I saw your project and started looking through your site, I was so stunned, I thought "is this guy for real?" :) It opened my eyes, got me thinking about my own goals, and I decided from now on I'm putting twice as much time into my coding each day, even if it means giving up a lot of sleep.Anyway nice videos, the shadows rock. Best of luck and keep up the awesome work!   ;  What you're doing is awesome man, really inspiring to me, to see what one person can do with enough spare time and a will to succeed [smile]   ;Quote:Original post by dgreen02Hey there...well I'm actually doing 4x4 percentage-closer filtering and jitter sampling...though I could probably do a better job with the jitter sample points...I'll go throguh and work on that later today.  Thanks for the comments guys! - DanYeah, I watched the textured video first and there the shadows looked a lot blockier than in the other videos. It gave the impression of regular/uniform sampling anyway ;) Its a lot more up-close on that video, so maybe it cant be helped.I noticed the shadows from the buildings are a bit jerky too. I'm guessing you are caching them since they dont need updating as often and time is speeded up in the video so the updating becomes noticable? Maybe its possible to do some sort of blending in the transitions there? Take half the shadow samples from the old map and half from the new one, or something :) Although I dont know that its something thats going to be noticable at normal speed.Now that I'v watched your other vids... Excellent animation and lod!  I saw a tiny bit of popping at one point, but it was hardly noticable, and would probably be even less visible with textures on. I dont want to mess with your "when its done" so instead of asking when its going to be done, roughly how finished do you feel you are?Great work!EDIT: here is a screen from the video to show what I mean: I guess the only solution is to change your sampling pattern per pixel. How are you doing it now?[Edited by - rollo on December 10, 2005 9:40:32 AM];  Is the pedestrian AI implemented? It just seemed funny to me to see the cop(?) standing there while the car landed on the other car infront of him. [lol] I'm a big GTA fan, and they aren't much different in that game either. That's a real letdown to me that they are so primitive in terms of AI.The graphics look awesome. I'm a big fan of 3d rendered cities. I used to map and mod urban environments into games all the time so i like looking at how other people do them. Your buildings and tetxures are nice.   ;  I have to say that is probably the single coolest-looking thing I've seen on here. Are you focusing more on the startegic elements, or is it mostly action like in the vids?   ;  Are there any plans to introduce damage to cars? I don't remember seeing cards take any visible damage when they hit stuff in the earlier videos I saw.   