Saturday, June 14, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Cheetah3D Rocks
Those words deserve their own period. Cheetah3D Rocks. Between all the new software toys and all the new hardware toys, I don't mind going without the other for the summer.
Cheetah3D is a deceptively straight forward, deceptively fast 3D modeling application... once you know how to use it. The same goes for Autodesk Maya, which I have been PLE'ing of late. But Maya PLE does not (readily) support FBX or OBJ export, so it is back to the Max-lineage Cheetah3D for now. And Cheetah is cool. Now, as far movie file formats, I will leave you to decide.
Here is my movie.
_After_ rendering it, I was able to save it into a number of movie file formats. I chose these four, and was surprised at the file size differences for this four second animation.
Hello_World.avi
984 KB
Hello_World.mov
860 KB
Hello_World.mp4
128 KB
Hello_World.wmv
The AVI worked well for uploading to U2B; the mp4 played without problems on the HTC. So now I am fiddling with "Super" to convert the best of our video library to mp4 format.
238 KB
Cheetah3D is a deceptively straight forward, deceptively fast 3D modeling application... once you know how to use it. The same goes for Autodesk Maya, which I have been PLE'ing of late. But Maya PLE does not (readily) support FBX or OBJ export, so it is back to the Max-lineage Cheetah3D for now. And Cheetah is cool. Now, as far movie file formats, I will leave you to decide.
Here is my movie.
_After_ rendering it, I was able to save it into a number of movie file formats. I chose these four, and was surprised at the file size differences for this four second animation.
Hello_World.avi
984 KB
Hello_World.mov
860 KB
Hello_World.mp4
128 KB
Hello_World.wmv
The AVI worked well for uploading to U2B; the mp4 played without problems on the HTC. So now I am fiddling with "Super" to convert the best of our video library to mp4 format.
238 KB
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Back to Blogging?
Things are moving fast enough that there is a pressing need to keep some type of record of progress, regardless of unlikelihood that the record will be complete. There are a number of things coming up on the horizon, and there are a number of things going on right now.
Going on right now, Unity Pro is a saviour at work. The corporate process is sufficiently inefficient that tools of remarkable efficiency are required to keep things moving forward. Unity has not only allowed us to build a number of publishable games in a matter of weeks, it has also allowed us to build a number of in-house technical prototypes to settle perennial technical issues.
My birthday is coming up. This year, everyone who wants to is going to buy me a Mac so that I can Unity Indie at home. To participate, contribute any amount of money large or small, designated for the "Mac for Shannon's Birthday". At this point, even contributions of moral support would be appreciated.
Which leads us to what is coming up on the horizon. Once I get my Mac, I will be able to publish SHANNONWARE GAME LAB-made games on the Web and Mac. If that is successful as a business endeavour, I will get Unity Pro myself some time early next year and move on to publishing games for PC. In other news, yesterday I ordered a new phone yesterday from my medieval telecom provider Rogers, the HTC Touch. Basically, as a member of the Microsoft Developer Network (oooh, I feel so special), I can develop an XNA Game Studio game for the HTC right out of the box. And that point leads us to the mosts significant discussion of the day: Unity versus XNA.
Background: Unity 3D is a level editor/game engine/publishing platform all in one. It makes the rapid development of games really easy, especially compared to many of the other game engines available today. If that is not enough, the Game Engine Royalty imposed by Unity is the best possible: $0, i.e. 0%. If you build a game with Unreal or Virtools, expect them to ask for a piece of every copy that you sell. Not so with Unity, and this is perhaps the best part of all. And this is where XNA comes in. In an ongoing effort to dominate the video games industry, and to provide a larger development community for its Xbox 360 console than it had for its Xbox console, Microsoft has made XNA available for free. Which means that you can build imersive 3D (or 2D) video games for the PC for no additional outlay for middleware. The caveat here is that (in my humble opinion) XNA requires real programming expertise in order to adeptly manipulate the C# code required. Unity also uses C#; however the 'UnityEngine' takes care of most of the boiler-plate operations that would be required by a game application, especially relating to the manipulation of visual and audio assets. At the end of the day, Unity Pro and XNA can produce comparable PC executables; however, under the hood, they are quite different.
So, provided that
Time = Money
we can understand that
Time spent doing technically demanding programming in XNA on the PC I already have >= Cost of Mac + Cost of Unity
And no matter how little money we have, it seems we always have even less time.
Now, going back to the HTC, it seems I will be able to at least embark on building my first game for it using XNA Game Studio as soon as it arrives. But ultimately (and this is where the horizon comes back in), I would like to somehow extend Unity to publish games not just for iPod and iPhone, but for Windows Mobile as well. It is a lofty goal, I will admit, but with the power of Mono, we are closer than we have ever been.
Going on right now, Unity Pro is a saviour at work. The corporate process is sufficiently inefficient that tools of remarkable efficiency are required to keep things moving forward. Unity has not only allowed us to build a number of publishable games in a matter of weeks, it has also allowed us to build a number of in-house technical prototypes to settle perennial technical issues.
My birthday is coming up. This year, everyone who wants to is going to buy me a Mac so that I can Unity Indie at home. To participate, contribute any amount of money large or small, designated for the "Mac for Shannon's Birthday". At this point, even contributions of moral support would be appreciated.
Which leads us to what is coming up on the horizon. Once I get my Mac, I will be able to publish SHANNONWARE GAME LAB-made games on the Web and Mac. If that is successful as a business endeavour, I will get Unity Pro myself some time early next year and move on to publishing games for PC. In other news, yesterday I ordered a new phone yesterday from my medieval telecom provider Rogers, the HTC Touch. Basically, as a member of the Microsoft Developer Network (oooh, I feel so special), I can develop an XNA Game Studio game for the HTC right out of the box. And that point leads us to the mosts significant discussion of the day: Unity versus XNA.
Background: Unity 3D is a level editor/game engine/publishing platform all in one. It makes the rapid development of games really easy, especially compared to many of the other game engines available today. If that is not enough, the Game Engine Royalty imposed by Unity is the best possible: $0, i.e. 0%. If you build a game with Unreal or Virtools, expect them to ask for a piece of every copy that you sell. Not so with Unity, and this is perhaps the best part of all. And this is where XNA comes in. In an ongoing effort to dominate the video games industry, and to provide a larger development community for its Xbox 360 console than it had for its Xbox console, Microsoft has made XNA available for free. Which means that you can build imersive 3D (or 2D) video games for the PC for no additional outlay for middleware. The caveat here is that (in my humble opinion) XNA requires real programming expertise in order to adeptly manipulate the C# code required. Unity also uses C#; however the 'UnityEngine' takes care of most of the boiler-plate operations that would be required by a game application, especially relating to the manipulation of visual and audio assets. At the end of the day, Unity Pro and XNA can produce comparable PC executables; however, under the hood, they are quite different.
So, provided that
Time = Money
we can understand that
Time spent doing technically demanding programming in XNA on the PC I already have >= Cost of Mac + Cost of Unity
And no matter how little money we have, it seems we always have even less time.
Now, going back to the HTC, it seems I will be able to at least embark on building my first game for it using XNA Game Studio as soon as it arrives. But ultimately (and this is where the horizon comes back in), I would like to somehow extend Unity to publish games not just for iPod and iPhone, but for Windows Mobile as well. It is a lofty goal, I will admit, but with the power of Mono, we are closer than we have ever been.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
In Unity with Wii Development
Short Story: Unity can be used to develop games for Wii. To do so, one will need to: (1) be a licensed Nintendo developer and/or have a Wii Dev Kit, (2) have special Wii Dev license from Unity.
Long Story:
On The Nintendo Side
The process of becoming a licensed developer is the same as it has been for the major consoles for many years: (1) if one can demonstrate the ability of one's company to properly handle the license and bring a product to market, one is eligible for a developer license; (2) the console developer remains fairly involved in the development process (they require that the requisite bug reports be submitted to them, etc.); and (3) the cost of obtaining a license is not disclosed, and one finds out only if/when one qualifies.
An Nintendo statement to this effect can be found here:
http://www.warioworld.com/licensing/becomelicensee/
Here is some of the key text from that page:
"Please send a corporate portfolio consisting of the following information:
1. A detailed description of your company...
2. A detailed introduction to your key personnel...
3. A marketing plan for your proposed products...
4. Any market study information on consumer demand for your proposed
product...
5. A written description of your proposed software product;
6. A complete summary and at least three samples of software you have
previously published...
"Nintendo will then undertake to make a determination if your qualifications would support your selection as an authorized licensee..."
On The Unity Side
If one is a licensed Wii developer, one can approach Unity about obtaining the necessary code (controller class, etc.) for publishing directly to the dev kit. Like the Nintendo license, the cost is not publically disclosed, and one finds out only if/when one qualifies.
The Unity "Nintendo Wii port of the runtime has now been in development for well over a year."Unity has been working with certain developers doing beta testing of their Wii API, "several months". The announcement of official "Wii Middleware" status was made just yesterday. In his announcment, the president of Unity directed interested developers to the official Nintendo "Software Development Support Group" web site at http://warioworld.com/
Website announcement:
http://unity3d.com/company/news/wii-press
http://unity3d.com/unity/features/wii-publishing
Community forum announcement:
http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=11835
Long Story:
On The Nintendo Side
The process of becoming a licensed developer is the same as it has been for the major consoles for many years: (1) if one can demonstrate the ability of one's company to properly handle the license and bring a product to market, one is eligible for a developer license; (2) the console developer remains fairly involved in the development process (they require that the requisite bug reports be submitted to them, etc.); and (3) the cost of obtaining a license is not disclosed, and one finds out only if/when one qualifies.
An Nintendo statement to this effect can be found here:
http://www.warioworld.com/licensing/becomelicensee/
Here is some of the key text from that page:
"Please send a corporate portfolio consisting of the following information:
1. A detailed description of your company...
2. A detailed introduction to your key personnel...
3. A marketing plan for your proposed products...
4. Any market study information on consumer demand for your proposed
product...
5. A written description of your proposed software product;
6. A complete summary and at least three samples of software you have
previously published...
"Nintendo will then undertake to make a determination if your qualifications would support your selection as an authorized licensee..."
On The Unity Side
If one is a licensed Wii developer, one can approach Unity about obtaining the necessary code (controller class, etc.) for publishing directly to the dev kit. Like the Nintendo license, the cost is not publically disclosed, and one finds out only if/when one qualifies.
The Unity "Nintendo Wii port of the runtime has now been in development for well over a year."Unity has been working with certain developers doing beta testing of their Wii API, "several months". The announcement of official "Wii Middleware" status was made just yesterday. In his announcment, the president of Unity directed interested developers to the official Nintendo "Software Development Support Group" web site at http://warioworld.com/
Website announcement:
http://unity3d.com/company/news/wii-press
http://unity3d.com/unity/features/wii-publishing
Community forum announcement:
http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=11835
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