Rock

I had a go at creating a level today, using an on-line tutorial. The first few steps went OK, then it became clear that the Blue Mars Sandbox UI is different to the CryMod Sandbox UI.

I did create a level, with terrain, but the textures were not right. So, this is the first thing for me to get my teeth into

But, OMG! OMG! OMG! who has taken a spin around Taki yet in Blue Mars?? It is simply awesome.

You CAN fly in Blue Mars, just not quite the same as in SL. In SL the camera is slightly behind you, so you can see yourself flying. In Blue Mars you are actualy sending your camera for a fly around, and when you get to somewhere you want to explore on foot, you just do a Ctrl-G (and Escape to exit back to camera flight).

The waterfalls in Taki are amazing, the mist realistic, and when I got down into the water to see the effect down there, that was reazlistic too. There was fish everywhere, from singles to shoals, and when that huge manta ray swam past it was just mind-blowing, just so realistic (have I metioned that word before?). Then the turtles came for a look-see. And the terrain is ginormous! Will take some exploring.

Must get back, lots more levels to explore yet.

It is looking like a level is defined as a 'city' or 'region' in SL, and includes the terrain and everything on it, such as vegetation, buildings etc. The actual terrain is created on a 'Map'.

I will post a Blue Mars tutorial on how to create a level, based on a terrain (map), when I get the first few head-scratchers sorted out.

Rock

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Joshua Nightshade

Wait, what's Taki? I thought only the creation SDK was available, not Blue Mars itself?

Miriel Enfield

This is not Blue Mars, this is the editor. Flying the camera around is basic editor mode. Ctrl-G puts you into game mode, where you can walk around. (You can also to switch to third person while in game mode, though since you don't have an avatar (generally), this just moves the camera up and back a ways.)

I had trouble with the terrain, too, since it doesn't match the CryEngine documentation. I do wonder if it's less about Blue Mars specifically and more about the version of the editor they're using. The official CryEngine documentation doesn't give off an "up to date" vibe, you know?




Josh, the SDK comes with a few sample levels. They're gorgeous (except for the architecture, zzzz) and some of them are kind of fun.

Joshua Nightshade

Oh, so Taki is a sample level in the CryEngine Sandbox SDK?

ALL THESE NAMES ARE CONFUSING ME.

Rock

Yes.

Open the Blue Mars Sandbox Editor, go to File, Open, and you should be in the Levels folder. If not navigate to Blue Mars Online\Game\Levels

There should be two folders here:

AR
NewCompany

Open AR first, and you will see 10 Avatar-Reality level folders:

AR_BeachCity
AR_FaceCustomization
AR_Gallery
AR_Golf
AR_Golf_Course_1
AR_MPGame_Sample
AR_Ring_Game
AR_Startup
AR_Taki
AR_Viewer

If you open any of these (except FaceCustomization, Gallery and Startup) you will find a *.cry file (this is the actual level file). Open one.

It will take around a minute to fully load, then you can send your camera flying around the place. Use either W/S for Forward/Back (which can also look like zoom in/out), and A/D for left/right, or use the Arrow keys. To pan around (like Alt+Arrow keys in SL) just right-click and hold the right-mouse button, then move your mouse around. When your camera arrives at somewhere interesting, use Ctrl-G to move around on foot. Use Escape to go back to camera view.

I have briefly explored Beach City and Taki so far. Must have a quick look at the others, will report back.

Rock

Joshua Nightshade

I don't have the Blue Mars Sandbox Editor.

And if this is just the default SDK from the links you posted a few posts back, maybe for the sake of clarity, you shouldn't call it that?

Rock

Yes, you are right, this does need some clarification:

These are what I have been playing with:

a) Blue Mars Sandbox Viewer
This is what caused the original confusion for me, I thought it was the SDK, but it is not, it is just a viewer, to see what digital assets will look like when uploaded into Blue Mars.

b) Blue Mars Sandbox Editor (part of the Blue Mars SDK)
This is the one we need. It had a bug which delayed its release last week, but I got my link yesterday, so it looks like it is patched now. This is the one I am currently using to explore the levels.

c) The SandBox 2 Editor / CryMod SDK
You can download these right now if you have not got your Blue Mars SDK link yet. I gave the links in a previous post on how to download the Crysis Single Player Demo (which includes the SandBox 2 Editor) and the CryMod SDK to go with it. There are some differences between the BM SDK and the Cry SDK. At first I thought that the differences would be BM additions, for avatar generation etc, but I am seeing some aspects of the Cry SDK missing in the BM SDK (create surface type, for example).

Now, back to the levels, this is what I have found:

AR_BeachCity
Modern small city, with malls and stores, set along a beach. Very nice intro level.

AR_FaceCustomization
No *.cry file, so not sure what this is for.

AR_Gallery
No *.cry file, so not sure what this is for.

AR_Golf
This is a beautiful golf course, set in a tropical (Hawaian?) setting, wth gorgeous mountains and blue seas. It is a game, and you can have a nice round of golf here. The player is a girl with long red hair, not sure yet if you can change to male, or change appearance.

AR_Golf_Course_1
Seems to be the same as the one above. I did notice fish under the water here, and didn't on the previous (might be a case of missing them though).

AR_MPGame_Sample
This looks more like a continent. Fairly barren at the start location, just a beach and a couple of spaceships. In the distance I can see green mountains, and in another direction, further away still I can see white snow-covered mountains. There is a river too.

AR_Ring_Game
Same as Taki (see below) but with rings scattered around, which form part of a game, not played it yet.

AR_Startup
No *.cry file, so not sure what this is for.

AR_Taki
This is the gorgeous landscape. It has mountains covered with lush vegetation, nice hidden valleys, huge waterfalls, with mist, a river, and under the sea all kinds of fish, manta ray, turtles etc.

AR_Viewer
This looks like the SandBox Viewer. It is just a flat terrain, covered with a graph-like layout, and a single cube prim.

Some of the scenes from the above can be seen here:

Avatar Reality, Inc.

Rock

Joshua Nightshade

So none of those levels will be in the default CryEngine SDK you linked earlier? They're specific to Blue Mars' only?

Rock

Correct, the prefix AR_* indicates they are Avatar-Reality created levels. I am not sure if levels can be freely copied from Cry to BM and vice versa or not, or if there are texture dependencies. I will be trying lots of things this coming weekend, and that will be one of them.

I take it you have not got the Blue Mars SDK link yet? If not, an email reminder might yield results.

Rock

Miriel Enfield

Rock, are you getting levels with textures that say "replace me"? The sample game has as that as a terrain texture in places, on my machine. And on a sample level I made, all the trees got that as a normal map after I saved and reloaded. o.O

Rock

Yes, I have seen 'replace me' on a few areas within a level. Not anywhere inside Beach City or Taki though.

I created a level using the Cry SDK using an online tutorial, and it looked great. I then copied the level folder over to the BM SDK (Levels folder) and loaded the *.cry file. I got lots of 'replace me' textures, as it appears that it could not find the textures referred to in the Level.

I will ask the CryMod forum how they export levels to be used by someone else using a Sandbox

Rock

Miriel Enfield

There's a guide in the wiki to the proper formats and file structures for uploading levels, but I don't know if that runs into the "replace me" issue.

whyroc

Taki is freaking awesome! seriously. In terms of flying the vehicle transition is seamless in a few levels I tried. Since all building is done in edit mode, it eliminates the need for flying as we do in SL mostly. We are so used to vehicle sucking ass that realistically flying in blue mars will be more like a flight feather vehicle concept.

I am having some progress with the terrain but not much beyond what Rock has mentioned, the terrain features are abundant if not complicated. From other game engines texturing the ground requires an understanding of repeats and scale specific to the map you create (or start with).. I have managed to get some texture on the ground but resolution was off Im sure the settings are in there somewhere..

Looks like XSI may be the best for blue mars with a feature filled pipeline.. I have downloaded the free 30 days trial, I hope I dont like it too much or I may have to cheat on old faithful Blender and get a license.


-whyroc

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whyroc

Just wanted to point out something else I noticed, there is a primitive solid mesh / object building system in the sandbox.. better yet, anything you create can be exported as an .obj and textured in your app of choice

-whyroc

Miriel Enfield

Nevermind, I fear the NDA.

Rock

Is this any help?

Rock

Miriel: PM

Miriel Enfield

I've been using that, along with other pages in the wiki. I am setting things up properly, as best I can tell, but nothing.

Are you sure it's okay to link the wiki?

Rock

Not sure at all

I think for non-developers the link will not open until the Username/Password is entered (could be wrong though).

Have you tried asking some questions in the CryMod forum? I have had a couple of good replies in there.

Rock

Miriel Enfield

No, but I'm not sure that will help, due to Blue Mars' import system and possible differences in the way it handles LOD.

Miriel Enfield

Downloading the Max trial now, to see if I can get things working on that, or if the problem exists between chair and keyboard.

Of course, since I only have XP Home and not Professional, I'm not sure it will even run on my machine. Nice going, Autodesk.

EDIT: It won't run on my computer. Fabulous. I give up. Since I can't make content for Blue Mars and LL has, with this skin business, proven that they've seriously got no goddamned clue, I'm going to go sulk in a corner for a while now. Hey, Mycosm, where's my beta invite?

EDIT, PART II: Hmm, seems to be working after a restart. Sulk postponed!

Jesse Barnett

Let me know if it will integrate with the Blue Mars SDK. As noted in my caveat up there somewheres, 2009, which is version 11 will not work with the normal Crysis SDK, only SDK Wars. I am going to try Wars tonight.

Miriel Enfield

Okay, so Max plugin I'm supposed to be using claims it doesn't work with Max 2010, and has not installed itself properly. I can't even find the proper file on my computer. The plugin suggests compiling it. Right. And then I'll sprout wings and sing "I'm a Little Teapot."

I'll work on this more tomorrow, including attempting to compile it, though I've never compiled anything before. I must say I'm not very happy with the fact that Blue Mars is so picky about which 3D applications work with it.

Chip Midnight

That's one of the annoying things about Max. 9 times out of 10 when there's a new release all the third party plugins have to be recompiled for it, which is why I rarely start using the new version for client work until six months or more after it arrives on my doorstep and always keep the previous version installed. Sorry, I hadn't thought about that issue when suggesting the demo.

Miriel Enfield

I'd been hoping that the source files I had to download would contain instructions, but no. They do contain some documentation, but as there's no step by step guide to compiling, it's of no use to me. Google has also been unhelpful thus far, which means I've really and truly hit a wall. I have no idea how to compile this stuff.

Max 2010 itself does export into the file format I need, but I've no idea if that works, or if it will work for Blue Mars. Only one way to find out, I suppose. Though since my whole reason for doing this was to get a better handle on why I can't get LODs to work with Blender, simply switching to another program that may or may not work is not ideal. I'd been hoping to install the plugin and get it to work, in which case I could lay the blame at Blender's feet -- and compare the output from the two programs, and perhaps manually fix Blender's. Alternatively, if even Max couldn't get it to work, we'd all know I'm too dumb to be doing this. But now it's just going to be another guessing game. Bleah.

Joshua Nightshade

I got an email back from the Jim guy, though unfortunately it just had a link to sign up for the SDK and I still have to wait for another email with a potential download link.