Dragons for Unreal

[gopostal]

I've read about Leo's revival of the old model and it got me interested in doing something along this line. Check it out:


It's still really early in the process. I need to correct the skins and clean up some animation things, then code the entire beast (that's all?). I'm thinking I'll make four or five different species.

[gopostal]

Thanks to Bob and Gizzy I got the Dragons looking much better. Still need to fix the wings to proper alpha channel but they are already pretty awesome:

[Carbon]

Dude...that is too cool. Really. The dragons look quite fitting in Unreal.

[gopostal]

There are people that just don't get enough credit. Gizzy falls squarely into that category. He spent a good chunk of his Sunday teaching me how to compile code in C so I can now address any issues that come up with vertmeshes. Yeah, I know most of you are :eyeroll: but I'm really pumped that I made my first true exe file and used it. Thank you Gizzy for spending weekend time to show me. I will pay that forward if anyone else wants to know how.

As for the dragons, they are really coming along:
[img]http://imgur.com/BB8lLzl.jpg[/img]

Wings are all fixed, models are essentially done. Now it's just coding this thing. I'm kinda stalled at the moment with that constant Unreal irritation: finding a decent way to render flamethrowers. I made one that's not really laggy but I wanted something more visually like Skyrim, not 'spritish' like we've always seen. Can someone suggest something that would work here? The fire dragon will be the first one out so I want it to be the best visual one. I have the fire covered once it hits things. It will burn and spread and consume wood and such but it just lacks that visual punch of seeing the dragon spraying death in an arc.

Oh, that's a second question I have of you guys. I know it can be done in later engines but is it possible to declare the dragons head as the weapon bone and attach the breath emissions to that bone? I will do the research and learn how, I'd just like to know it's possible before I spend a weekend figuring it out.

Thanks Carbon! Want me to send you the rough version to try out? I'd value some feedback.

[スマイル・ドラゴン]

I can only speak of trying to remain compatible with 224 but you could make a WEAPON triangle near the maw of the dragon and use MuzzleFlash properties of Weapon to generate fire with.

You'd still have to produce projectiles and what not through careful scripting to make sure they spawn there.

On 227 as far as I know you can attach anything to any vertice point. But if you can actually make projectiles and what not spawn from mesh positions I don't know.

[gopostal]

Man, I'm really digging all the thing available in 227. Here's an update on the dragon dev:

I got really delayed because I needed to learn mesh bones and how to attach actors, etc to them. I think when I get these done I'm going to really write up the things I've learned and figured out. There's not a lot of information concerning it.

I built spreadable fire into the dragon's breath. It will ignite decorations, etc and has a chance to spread if anything else burnable is close enough. I'd really appreciate it if someone would meet me in TS and discuss classes to include/exclude in the 'can burn' list. I plan on including a blacklist of classes that the mapper can edit to account for something that shouldn't catch fire or that is unique (like a key). The fire can for sure destroy a decoration so that needs to be thought of in advance.

Next up is to refine the animations and behavior. I want the dragon to strafe if the room is big enough. Now to figure out how to get that
[img]http://imgur.com/vKKlOHi.jpg[/img]

[Solid_Snake FirePhoenix]

whoa this is one cool looking mod!..

[gopostal]

Quick update...
I've nearly finished primary coding for the dragon base class (the fire breather). You can set it to behave like a normal monster and wait in a spot or ask it to patrol the skies. It looks really cool soaring around the flyby castle. I'll get a vid this weekend. Hopefully I'll have a demo map in a week or so if you are interested in playing around with him.
[img]http://imgur.com/nk3tq9j.jpg[/img]

[Kapn_Karnage]

Ok I have been checking this dragon mod out for GoPostal. To maybe see how he operates in different situations and just generally to give a review. I have played with him now into the 3rd update and I have to say Gopostal has this dog trained. This latest update allows user defined patrolling with input on radius, height and patrol, stationary. The only trees I have that he does not destroy are because they are scaled way big or have special collision properties set.
You better have a good weapon or a fast pair of sneakers if he gets on you. You can escape but he will breathe down your neck if you get held up anywhere.
He would make an excellent addition to any open world map.
Here is a combination of Patrol, Fight and Die sequences.
I even manage to entice him thru a teleporter. All monster pawns have high health set.

[gopostal]

Got the Fire Dragon about 90% done and moved on to the Wind Dragon. It's about 75% done but I still need to do some stuff with the wind blast. It needs to push you around some but the visual effect I'm pretty happy with. Latest vid:

[Solid_Snake FirePhoenix]

wow looks amazing.

[gopostal]

Quick update video:


Project is coming along nicely. I'm seriously enjoying the things that 227 can do so effortlessly.

[Sat42]

@ gopostal:

This project is awesome, almost beyond belief!!! Excellent work, and like everyone else, I'm looking forward to seeing these creatures in future maps

In fact, I could see them being used in FireStorm

[gopostal]

I'm still working on this. I have all six (cough) coded and mostly done. There are
-Earth Dragon (fires boulders)
-Fire Dragon (flame breath, catches everything on fire)
-Wind Dragon (blasts you with tornado winds)
-Nature Dragon (spews seeds that create life around you)
-Ice Dragon (freeze breath, ice rocks)
-Ion Dragon (small redeemer type explosion from Ion blast)
-Hidden Dragon

It's crazy at the P.O. this week (as you can guess) but I'll have these in a good place within a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll get a demo map out in three. Does anyone have a decent terrain map I could use to demo these guys in? Rocky, craggy, open...that sort of thing. I don't need much, just something Skyrim-ish to place these so you see them from a distance acting all Dragon-y.

[Dr.Flay™]

Do you still have that "DM-((B-A))Mountains" map ?
Alternatively the SilverIbex demo map is more empty of geometry if you want something polished looking but bare.

[Sat42]

It's fantastic to know there'll be more than one type of awesome dragon!

And thanks to Dr.Flay, I discovered an awesome demo map (DM-TerraExample.unr, by Silver Ibex)

[EvilGrins]

Karnage, what map was that you were testing the dragons on?

[Dr.Flay™]

I would like to see what different people could do with that demo map.
Me and a friend have been editing the UT2004 versions, and have very different ideas.

[gopostal]

Last preview movie:


Thanks for the feedback guys! Merry Christmas

[Sat42]

Really gorgeous stuff, thanks for the preview!!

And yes, Merry Christmas!

[Kapn_Karnage]

Also posted in user map section for critique in that thread only.
Thanks Gopostal you shaped a theme in this map with the making of the Dragons.

[Dr.Flay™]

Very cool indeed.
Your footstep sounds need sorting on the various textures, though you could cheat with the footsteps mutator.

[gopostal]

Yeah, noted. To be honest the package size was approaching 40MB and I stopped adding sounds. A couple of days ago I got it back down to 22ish (texture manipulation) so now I have some room to add things in again. A better sound package is my next thing to work on. Surprisingly though there aren't that many good dragon sounds to be found across the net.

[BobIsUnreal]

was approaching 40MB and I stopped adding sounds

importing as mp3/ogg for the sound clips?
if your not , doing that could cut it down alot for the new audio drivers users.

[gopostal]

Hadn't really considered that. I'll try converting to mp3 then reimporting, see how much size I can save. Thanks B.