By the way Im very pumped for this, because with the release of USQLite solution last week, it will be easy to complement this character creator to allow making a NPC generator, which is currently one focus we already have for one development here.
i think that i will be cool a blueprint system for generate a specific character passing parameters, and randomize this parameters will create a new character everytime or you can just recreate your character using only this parameters, what do you think about it?
My idea on the NPC generator is to write a table with rules for generation and the amount of characters to create for those rules. The rules will be composed of skin color, height, muscle, gender, if adult, teen or child, while the names will be picked from another table once (associated with the gender and if adult, teen or child statuses). Each generated character will be saved with their attributes in a table which you can load and visualize the character (a character browser) and save again ontop of the generated one (for a fine tune).
This is the approach we are working atm for our game. Once all NPCs are done we assign their names to the quest composer and also get the position they are supposed to be found in the world during that particular quest step.
That’s cool, but i’m not sure that SQL is the right approach, storing offline thata inside a database for a game? i don’t know, there is other method for storing, read, write and update data (like a save system, quickly and without client dependency) or proprietary file that act like a table. (like the “old” .ini files or XML file), my 2cent.
There is right now a free SQLite plugin in the MP (free for few more days) that is very easy and powerfull to use. It can work like a save system and can save and restore any UObject derived class. The solution is not marked for Xbox and Playstation but Im sure that is achievable, the database C code is used inside mobile phones currently. The creator put a demo for users to know the performance too.
Currently is easier to make the solution I mentioned using database than using the regular save system. Im thinking on MMO, not standalone game ofc.
I do like XML, but still I think the database allows you to do fantastic queries that otherwise you can’t with XML or JSON,
Can i ask how you intend to manage the SQL connection? If is an MMO you can’t store data locally, but you can’t even salve it remotely, because the baddest things to do is connect to a database directly from client side (the executable can be reversed enginereed and the username and password retrieved), are you creating a dedicated separated server executable for it that “bridge” the data operation?
i’m really interested in networking but other than write a dedicated server from scratch or using a service like gamesparks I don’t know if there is other way, is maybe possible to separate the blueprints code and compile two different executable? One for the client and one for the server?
The database operation will happen at the server side and the data on client will change with Notifies. There is no client connection to a database and should not have. Whenever you need data, you just ask for it or when a data which needs to be update on client, the server will notify the change, then the client has to catch that notify and provide the change. You can have a separate client and server solution, but we are using the built in networking for now, so it is the same executable, but started different in the command line to act as a server.
The data Im going to generate using the NPC generator is to feed the main database only accessible in the server. So, when the quest system ask for the NPC attributes to build the appearance, it will use a server service call, when the server has gathered the data it will notify the client the requested data is ready. The client must not wait for any data or hitches can occur, so the notify system is the best suitable.
Also we will build a layer for the SQL database so later we can change it for a more robust one.
Make sense in this way, i working without a dedicated server but my project is not big as your (not an mmo), so i just prefer to use listen server and local save system at this time, i was interested in implementing steam but i got some problem with testing (seem’s that i need two computer for testing multiplayer), so i think i will just develop it without steam implementation.
I know mlindborg said they wouldn’t be here till after Friday, but I’m hoping someone else has run across this. I have implemented my own UI for the character creator but it seems that something happens with the material when it loads. This happens on both characters. I’m not sure if it’s trying to load the material instances twice or not. But it looks like they have a very serious sunburn. Haha.
I don’t know what you changed but it seems the head material is being applied to the body material slot.
Materials are set in female_character/male_character blueprints and the instances are applied in the set_materials function in the character customizer component so check that out maybe.
