Hopefully the next step

[mutha]

I was stooging around a capped base when my tail got shot off, so I exited the aircraft and hit the silk.

I landed close enough to the town, so I walked to it.  I could see the fight raging above me, and I heard vehicles around me - some friendly, others not.

I helped friendly GVs spot enemy tanks, and watch the GVs reduce the town to rubble.

Once it was white flagged, I watched some M3s to pull up and the drunks run over to try to take the map room.

The level of detail was outstanding. It really felt like I was in the middle of a battle.

What was missing were other people - allied and enemy soldiers. It was like being on a set with no actors.

And it also felt like an opportunity. This town should be teeming with real human players shooting at each other, like millions of players do every night on the PCs and consoles.

I'm not saying gameplay should even be linked, but imagine that it was - we had real troops fighting over a town, calling for support from GVs and fighter-bombers? 

It would attract a whole new group of players who may never fly a plane or drive GV, although I bet many would.

I suspect that this may not happen due to lack of interest in the development team. But if HTC could subcontract the work to another dev team, who can do a rev share...

Mutha

[guncrasher]

actually hitech has already said several times that this is one of his wishes.



semp

[Chalenge]

In my first character animation class I worked out a low-poly soldier. The soldier that I first created was not very pretty, and Hitech didn't act much like he was interested. In the following quarter I learned how to do proper rigging, which was much more detailed than we had previously. When we learned retopology I learned how to use a program called Mudbox to 'paint' facial features onto a lower poly model, and how to rig the model more precisely. I worked out a very detailed model and posted to our squads FB page, to which a few members stated incredulousness at the detail. It was 15,000,000 polys, so no wonder and impossible to use in AH.

So, I could make the soldiers, but right now I'm working on a number of projects already including the Masters program in design and animation (game design and game animation), and FMOD sounds for AH.

[Bruv119]

+1

[OldNitro]

+1, A Panzerfaust, PIAT, or Bazooka around any corner, behind any bush, would make things pretty dam sporty for tanks. You'd be able to infiltrate the towns quietly. Halftrack could blaze out front and drop a screen of guys with AT weapons. Interesting tactical possibilities! 

[mutha]

HTC folks let me know if you intros do dev houses that do this work. I did business development for Xbox, PC, etc.

Mutha

[Easyscor]

As I understand it, it's more about getting the puppets to move right and that apparently needs 3D motion capture of live people acting out the moves to be supported by the game.

ymmv

[Bruv119]

would be good to spawn out of a barracks run across a field and bazooka any camping gvs.   obviously they also get a kill if they mow you down with a pintle. 

[Chalenge]

As I understand it, it's more about getting the puppets to move right and that apparently needs 3D motion capture of live people acting out the moves to be supported by the game.

ymmv

Character animation can be done pose-to-pose, but motion-capture is smoother usually, and certainly more realistic. It's not just model and motion, because the player perspective has to be developed also. This can be a big ticket item production-wise, or a very big ticket item depending on how in-depth the combat considerations are taken. You could certainly do motion capture, but because of the game fidelity that might be a tad excessive. Nothing wrong with going that route though.

[Mongoose]

  After Band of Brothers came out, there was a WWII first person shooter that my son was playing.  I thought it would be cool if Aces High could be linked with an FPS.  Hitech wouldn't have to write his own, just partner with another game.  Work out a way for the two games to share data.  One game for ground combat, Aces High for the airplanes.  Maybe not something that's done every day, but link them up for special occasions, or a some kind of tournament.

[Chalenge]

I really think Hitech has already decided which way he is going to go.

[Chalenge]

I played around with this while the wife and I were at the doctors today. In just a few hours I had a soldier running around in Stingray. It would not be hard to make it a separate game. In fact, . . . I may make a video on how to do that.

[hitech]

I played around with this while the wife and I were at the doctors today. In just a few hours I had a soldier running around in Stingray. It would not be hard to make it a separate game. In fact, . . . I may make a video on how to do that.

The animation system currently uses bvh files. It's capable of merging from one motion to another. The hold up is mostly having a solder and matching equipment along with matching animations for many different moves.

HiTech

[Chalenge]

Once I can complete the sound work I can get back to work on this. Maya will export BVH data, so even pose-to-pose animations will work. The problem is support for the .flt file format, which 3DS Max supports, but Maya does not.

Motionbuilder, which I dropped last year, has gone to a subscription cost of $525/quarter. MB is critical for character motion, I think. 3DS Max is now $185/mo, which is why I cut back to owning Mudbox (which you can still buy), but subscribing only to Maya LT.

[puller]

The animation system currently uses bvh files. It's capable of merging from one motion to another. The hold up is mostly having a solder and matching equipment along with matching animations for many different moves.

HiTech

Once I can complete the sound work I can get back to work on this. Maya will export BVH data, so even pose-to-pose animations will work. The problem is support for the .flt file format, which 3DS Max supports, but Maya does not.

Motionbuilder, which I dropped last year, has gone to a subscription cost of $525/quarter. MB is critical for character motion, I think. 3DS Max is now $185/mo, which is why I cut back to owning Mudbox (which you can still buy), but subscribing only to Maya LT.

I don't know about anyone else...but if is a money thing that is holding back something like ground combat in limited role in the game...I'd be willing throw down a few bucks...for sure

I can imagine the running a m3 with about 4 or five sqaddies in it to a spawn camp...letting them out a couple of hundred yards away... Set up the ambush attack with bazookas...totally awesome concept...I've got a USB controller waiting for "Aces High 4 Total War"