RageEffect Dev Blog

In the beginning, I was actually making some sort of HTML-like user interface for my game where it...

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:05:00 +0100

In the beginning, I was actually making some sort of HTML-like user interface for my game where it would basically support all kind of HTML features and allow users to easily edit and mod the UI themselves without a sweat. But even though my UI engine had a lot of basic stuff done, it wasn’t fully finished nor was it any near the power of the mighty HTML. I made a promise to myself that I would work more on the game than the engine or some other dumb pointless features that can be added or improved later, so I needed to get it done fast. It was either finishing my UI engine which would’ve taken at least a month or two, or find something that might work as a replacement.

At some point thanks to the Wolfire Blog and their ingenious idea of implementing webkit, I said to myself : “Hey, why not?”

An RTS game doesn’t use the GUI much, nor does it require any fancy effects since those might distract or just simply annoy the player while he’s ingame, having html+js for the UI was the perfect choice. Using chromium engine ( through Awesomium ) to do all the rendering, logic, the solution ended up being really handy ! Thanks to it, not only did I save a hell lot of time but I’ve implemented something really powerful and flexible.

( Picture shows the half-arsed alpha-beta-gamma lobby screen, re implemented into webkit )

I guess I’m perfectly fine when it comes to posting one...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:02:49 +0100

I guess I’m perfectly fine when it comes to posting one update every month, but things are indeed speeding up !

Have a screenshot of my pink army kicking the shit out of some green units, mwhahaha

This was my first successful 4-player test, and I’m pretty happy with it even though we did encounter few crashes because of some unexpected actions =)

Happy 2012 ! It may sound lame, I’ve only worked on a...

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:35:00 +0100

Happy 2012 !

It may sound lame, I’ve only worked on a new model importer lately because our modelers were having trouble importing FBX format ( which I wrote pretty badly ) into our game. As you can see on that fancy gif, I decided to go and use Valve’s very own 3D model format because apparently it’s way simpler and more game-oriented than the complex FBX one.

As for the rest, I mostly enjoyed my relaxing days where I provided 0% of progress to the whole project, other team members did the same thing or just went into the full-panic mode in order to prepare for their exams =P

( Antlion model is owned by Valve, but I made that crappy animation )

Maps will look less ugly now that we have floating rocks with...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:32:29 +0100

Maps will look less ugly now that we have floating rocks with trees on them everywhere !

Because emm.. why not?!

Been rewriting the rendering algorithm during this week. I couldn’t exactly go without optimizing anything since our game features the extreme zoom out ( aka strategic zoom ), and once everything is zoomed out you’ll be supposed to see all these small units and bases. Without those optimizations, you can say bye-bye to your mid-range PC or the strategic zoom =]

101th post ! woooooohoo !

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:05:14 +0100

101th post ! woooooohoo !

The first networking test has worked successfully ! Enjoy...

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:31:59 +0200

The first networking test has worked successfully !

Enjoy our non-phallic ingame screenshot for this week =D

Networking is an enormous step for the game because.. what’s a strategy game without multiplayer? =P

Some real advanced shit is going on at this current...

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 21:49:00 +0200

Some real advanced shit is going on at this current moment !
Not much to show though…

We’re getting there, no worries.

DON'T PANIC !

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:52:36 +0200

A friendly reminder that it’s just the lazy ( and sometimes very busy ) holidays =)

Enjoy this nice screenshot showing off some sweet debug...

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 23:26:57 +0200

Enjoy this nice screenshot showing off some sweet debug stuff that most of you people probably wouldn’t even comprehend =)

( Since the mailing-list is still quite empty, I’m still keeping the more fancy stuff in my super secret locker.)

Enjoy the fine breeze.Added foliage support to our game =)

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 04:13:34 +0200

Enjoy the fine breeze.
Added foliage support to our game =)

Aaaand we're back !

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:27:00 +0200

I FEEL THAT YOU HAVEN’T SEEN MY FANCY BUILDING ANIMATION ENOUGH !

Anyways, progress speed is back to normal

Still on a break

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 13:19:00 +0200

Eating KitKat.

Although I’m studying hard to succeed my exams, I do work on the game from time to time when I’m bored. So like I previously mentioned the progress isn’t exactly on hold, it’s just sloooowed doooown.

Things are going well, we also found another great team member !

Few days left before we’re back to real progress !

Not sure if people know this but there’s also an indieDB / modDB page for our RTS...

Sun, 29 May 2011 04:10:00 +0200

Not sure if people know this but there’s also an indieDB / modDB page for our RTS game.

http://www.indiedb.com/games/faction-command

I’ve just posted there 2 new screenshots, because the last update there dated back to December heh

I think I’ll put soon some screens on the homepage as well =)

Newsletters !

Fri, 20 May 2011 02:31:00 +0200

Sometimes there are small updates that most people don’t even care about,
sometimes there are big ones.

Allow me to tell you that you can now subscribe to our yet-to-come big updates !

Just head to http://www.factioncommand.com, enter your mail and wait until the end of times !

I already have some plans of what I’ll be showing off =)
Hint: It’s some exclusive fancy stuff.

Take a break, have a KitKat

Sat, 14 May 2011 19:35:00 +0200

It’s the time of the year where all progress gets slowed down to a point where you begin to think “Holyshit did the devs die or something?”, when that happens you have to know that we didn’t really die but instead, we’re in a deep deep coma suffering endless pain over and over again until the end of our days. You probably want to know how it feels like, so here’s a little description :

Imagine millions of bull ants crawling through your nose and ears and mouth, carrying away small pieces of your body and stinging you with their painful venom. ALL.THE.TIME.

Luckily ! That’s not our case, the real reason is because I currently have to study so hard like the world was gonna end… This also brings to the fact that being a sole programmer can sometimes be bad =(

With some luck, one of my lazy members of our lazy team might someday, during my absence, post something interesting ( or something completely retarded ) :D

Writing an .fbx ( autodesk’s 3d model format ) importer from scratch.Awfully long and boring...

Thu, 12 May 2011 18:51:00 +0200

Writing an .fbx ( autodesk’s 3d model format ) importer from scratch.
Awfully long and boring job, including all kind of weird problems and dilemmas.

( As you can see in the picture, the bones of that placeholder model [ from 3Drt.com ] aren’t exactly where they’re supposed to be )

Adding more features to my map editor, such as map painting...

Sun, 08 May 2011 03:35:00 +0200

Adding more features to my map editor, such as map painting =]

Lots of engine changes have been made, currently what’s taking most of my time is writing a .fbx converter. Pretty important stuff…

Funny glitch that sliced the terrain in an interesting way =)

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:16:00 +0200

Funny glitch that sliced the terrain in an interesting way =)

Improved bloom effect

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:31:00 +0200

Here’s the old crappy bloom effect I had implemented long time ago…

And here’s one that uses exactly the same technique as in C&C: Twilight !

Looks much better, right?
At first it might just look like I increased blurring radius, but that’s not the same since it wouldn’t give this kind of beautiful effect.

Here’s a small guide I made on how to achieve that effect :

You first downsample the backbuffer into two images, lets call them alpha and beta.

Alpha is the downsampled ( 1/4th size ) version of the backbuffer.

Beta is the downsampled ( 1/4th size ) version of Alpha.

We blur Beta, and then blend it with Alpha.

Once we did that, we blur Alpha.

Then we apply that to the backbuffer

And we’re done !

Unfortunately I have some exams I got to take care of so the progress will once again slow down.
We also got a new member on our team who’s hopefully gonna make some sweet sweet 3d models, increasing our percentage of our amount of content by 99%.

I noticed that some one wanted to see a close up picture of the...

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 08:00:06 +0200

I noticed that some one wanted to see a close up picture of the terrain and water, unfortunately sumitgood decided that it would be great to just take a random screenshot and post it.

Sadly he doesn’t have the same screenshot taking skills as I do.

Enjoy the first ingame extreme-close-up picture !