Update

[Colby Jordan]

Hey everyone:

First, I wanted to tell you guys thanks for sticking it out and working as much as we did and for a good presentation.  I think we did very well, and things are only going to get better.

I got a whole lot of ideas inspired by everyone else's presentations and, of course, from Jason.
 

Some basic stuff to start off the rest of the semester:

Code guys- Over the weekend, I did a little organization work, and I changed the way we have our files and directories.  Hopefully this will lend itself to staying organized as the game grows.  The new set up is available (as usual) at http://vgd.servegame.com/workingset.zip.  I'll put Gobby up again with scb.lua so we can work from that again.  Also new are some batch files in the root directory.  I think this will simplify launching the game for demos and even for testing/debugging.  There is a little information in the README file in the root directory, but you should open the batch files in a text editor to see what they really do.  One of the things, for example, is writing all the console output to a debug text file.

Santanu-  I think one of the first things we should do when we meet next is try to find a resolution for making the textures from maya render on the exported objects in electro.  This is quite important, but I think we'll be able to resolve the issue.  Also, I've been looking at how much CPU the game is using and messing with some different functions, but I think the main cause of the CPU demand has to do with the level of detail that is exported with the object files.  Simply: I think we need smaller .obj files.  I also think that this will not adversely affect the look of the game because it is my understanding that we currently have more detail than is able to be rendered in electro, anyway.  Also, we should discuss the hand models as a replacement for the arrows.  I think this will give the game a lot of added polish and will be easy to switch out.  :)

 

Now, as you'll notice in the batch files, I decided to put all the game software (electro, glovePIE) in our game directory.  The reason for this is so that the computer running it will only need to have installed PPJoy and a paired wiimote (no way around those two...).  That also avoids the issue of dealing with the computer running the game having electro and glovePIE in arbitrary locations; we won't be using the local copies at all.

Another idea I was working on is our company logo, game introduction, instructions (controls), and game exit animations.  We mentioned earlier that it would probably be easier and more visually impressive to make these in something other than electro.  My ideas is to have the launch (batch) files call a version of portable vlc (a versatile media player) that is also included with the game to play videos before and after electro automatically and without any user interaction.  Right now, the videos are just blank place holders that take up about the right amount of time.  It's my understanding that Maya can render video animations.  We could also do voiceovers for the instructions and sounds for the other videos.  I have some ideas for each one.  I think this is the simplest, most visually impressive way to do this.  Let me know what you think about this method.

Thanks guys,

Colby