Next update is ready! I thought I would do one sooner than normal this time, otherwise it would have gotten quite lengthy again :). The biggest things in this update are that I got two more stages of Aspen growth done. It’s really starting to feel even more like an Aspen grove and there is definitely a lot of potential with all of it. I updated the game builds here if anyone had wanted to see it: http://www.artoflightandmotion.com/downloads. It’s amazing how much having the Aspens with leaves only on the top add to the scene and how it changes the lighting. Without the leaves on the lower areas, you get all of these interesting light shafts coming through to the forest floor and makes the daytime lighting much more interesting and pretty. Before, when it was just the other trees that were full of leaves, during the day, you kind of just have these circles of shadows at the bottom of each tree and was a little bit boring, but with having these other trees, there are a lot of different shapes that are formed and you have light hitting the bark everywhere, which makes it more visually interesting. Just a neat little thing I hadn’t thought about before that it actually adds a lot to a grove to have the leaves only at the top.
The interesting part is going to be placing everything in the level in a way that feels natural, and later on, also keeping all the trees and different biomes feeling cohesive together. I have pretty clear ideas for how certain areas will look, but the rest of the areas I’m not completely sure about. So without further ado, here is a video of being in the groves while changing the lighting and just looking at how everything feels so far. The first grove is of the one that has the teleporter in it, where I added a few boxes that start to give an idea of the house that will be there. The second part is of a different area that tries to give an idea of what the Aspens will feel like surrounded by other trees in a forest:
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Probably one of the most exciting things that happened with the project is something that actually happened last update, but there were already so many things to talk about, I thought I would share it with this one. What happened was there was an old friend who was upgrading to a new computer and gave me his old one! Even though it’s pretty old, it’s still a pretty nice computer; one of the old large Mac Pro computers with Xeon processors and 12 cores, which is better than the newer laptop I was using. So I was able to upgrade it with a new graphics card and everything is working quite well. My laptop I was using was really starting to have a hard time working in Unreal, so it was really an incredible blessing and intervention by God that came at just the right time; right before I started adding all this foliage and right before I’ll be putting the foliage on the landscape. The friend who gave it to me didn’t even know about any of the difficulties with the game! He had just been feeling God wanted Him to get a new computer and that he was supposed to give me the old one. I should be able to finish out working on the entire game with it as well!
I also figured out what was wrong with the Distance Fields creating black splotches on the landscape. I realized I needed to turn on double sided distance fields since they aren’t enclosed meshes, and that fixed all the errors. For now, I just turned it on for the ones that have trees under them, since I have to do them each one at a time, and I don’t know for sure yet if I’ve figured out the best way of doing the landscape. So I didn’t want to spend the time yet.
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I had ideas for finishing another poem too that’s in the game. I almost had it done on the previous update, but not quite. You can see it here too:
What is true worth?
People’s opinions can give worth for a season, but people’s opinions change in time,
what was once popular in one season, matters little in the next,
and all that is left is the wondering of how worthwhile any of it ever was to begin with.
To say that Van Gogh was once unpopular in his time would be an understatement,
yet his worth changed when he was no more,
and may change again in a generation not yet born.
Could it be the number of people that love you?
But do they love you or the image they have created of you,
and will they still love you when you are no more who they want you to be?
As the curtain fades, what is left of the crowd, the worth?
If they don’t still love you, how much were you truly worth?
Will they sit with you as you die?
Some would say that worth is power,
the ability to be above and control others.
But what happens if you lose power over one,
or someone else controls more pawns than you?
To live by a currency of people is to have a worth that is always changing,
to be worth less because others are worth more,
and to live in slavery to others,
because even one has the power to change your worth forever.
And so you might control an entire atom called earth.
In a universe full of atoms,
you still only have an atom’s worth of worth.
One could say that they’re worth something because they made it in life,
and found success in the things they did.
The belief that you were good enough to make it,
and worth more because others couldn’t.
But what has been gained by that success?
Are you not the same person you were before?
Though it may feel good to look down on others,
are we truly better,
or are they just a mask,
used to hide the things we look down on in ourselves.
And though you may succeed in some things,
you’ll fail in others,
and others will look down on you,
when they were good enough in the things you weren’t.
So is there really any worth in the end?
And if that’s the measure of you’re worth,
then how much are you worth after bankruptcy?
So what is true worth, if all the worth in life can shift in the sands of time,
ebbing and flowing in the waters of life?
Is there any hope?
Yet I find, not just a person, but a God who loved me for who I am,
that before I could ever even try to be good enough for Him,
I was loved and worth so much,
He put me aside and was tortured in my place.
To be worth everything when you have nothing,
this is true worth.
And though the world’s currency of value will always change,
this is a worth that stays the same,
condition-less love that will remain.
It’s a worth that’s just about you, not what you do,
nor the monument of your own greatness,
and the way that people look at you.
A worth not based on quantity,
not tied to a currency of value,
and infinitely more valuable than any other,
because you don’t have to attain it,
or have anything to have it.
It is freely given,
without charge.
Rich or poor, in sickness or in health, failures and success,
that love will always be the same;
a worth that remains, a love that does not change.
True love, true worth,
will I ever be the same?
To give some background of the poem, it’s really the story of my own quest, if you will :), of trying to find worth, and in the end finding it in my relationship with Jesus, and really in His unconditional love. It’s that unconditional part that is really the key thing that makes His love so life changing. The love between spouses, friends and family can very much be a picture of His unconditional love at times, but it’s still tainted here on earth, and you can’t really find a love that will always be truly free. His love is like the pure form of what can be seen on earth, a love that is truly without conditions and so full of acceptance of just you. Even if you were to become the most evil person on earth, or the poorest person on earth, His love for you would not change because it’s all about you and the person He sees inside, and that’s just such a special thing that can be so life changing.
In many ways, the poem is really the story of how we try so hard on the earth to try and get people to love us and feel like we mean something and are worth something, but even if you gain that worth, you can gain so much in the world and yet have so little in the end. Yet with unconditional love and His love, you don’t have to do anything to gain it or attain it, He just loves you. That’s what makes His love so special; that it is completely free. It’s a worth that’s real and solid and doesn’t change because it’s so much about just us, instead of what we’re able to do. With first hand knowledge, I’ve experienced both in my life, and I can say that there is no comparison to His love that is so completely without conditions and just so full and un-lacking. It’s even a bit scary because you have no control over how much He loves you, and there’s nothing you can do to change it, it can only be humbly accepted. A very humbling love.
So anyway, that’s some background of the poem and I hope you enjoyed it :). It’s also similar to the image of the old man on my website, but talks about things in a different way.
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For the next update, I’ll work on one of the bottoms of the Aspen bark, and also be experimenting with the landscape, trying to see what the best option is performance wise. The real difficulty is there will be so many different types of trees and areas by the end that will need different textures for the ground, that I think I’m going to have to figure out a way to do a mixture of static meshes that are separate from the landscape, as well as have a large landscape that has the materials for things like streams and paths that need to be the same throughout the world.