#enginedev — Public Fediverse posts

so this is where the "spline" part of the "spline mesh" finally appears

every edge can be turned into a cubic spline

there's still a bunch of things that don't work yet (e.g. tangent visualization and editing, spline-aware edge picking and face previews)

but at least the intermediate positions are being generated, the spline edges are rendered correctly and they also appear in the exported polygons

#gamedev #enginedev #graphics

making some progress with rig processing

- added conditional tagging
for now there's only face count for vertices/edges and part count for faces, so it's possible to find outlines and inner vertices/edges

- added conversion to polygons/polylines
from there it's possible to make fill/edge meshes etc. from that

could in theory add materials and other metadata to the rig directly but idk, will try to make upgrades as I proceed and see what's needed/helpful

#gamedev #enginedev #graphics

created some extrusion code

the basic mesh transform (outline finding + vertex/edge duplication + face-vertex/face-edge redistribution + bridge faces) turned out much easier than expected

but making the full thing would probably require upgrading the transform gizmo

just need to do missing editing features (element tags, grid, selection modes) and element extraction and it'll be ~enough for editing procedural modeling rigs

#gamedev #enginedev #graphics

finally developed enough features that I could finish skinning the test character at a base level (without finger or face bones)

also ended up not needing undo so far 🤷

the weird thing about developing a reasonably efficient tool is that suddenly the work ends up taking like a few hours total and you wonder if spending several weeks on the tool was worth the effort

hopefully I'll be able to cash in at scale (after skinning a bunch of characters, together with iterations)

#gamedev #enginedev

noticed a really weird issue with dual quaternion skinning

at the end of the day, all skinning is a nasty approximation

(though in this case linear blending looks a lot less weird, even if still unnaturally stretchy)

I wish there was a better option that didn't involve lots of work (cloth simulation + overbuilding the character for it)

#gamedev #enginedev #graphics

the slowest part in all this seems to be the process of figuring out what is it exactly that I want to make:

- dogfooding
- noticing problems
- coming up with several solutions
- coming up with their costs and effectiveness without actually making them
- picking the optimal combination

there's a lot of fancy 3D view selection/editing things that I'd like to make but they seem to cost far more and thus I could only justify them if I have seen somewhere that they worked best

#gamedev #enginedev

did a lot of tiny things but also

1️⃣ removed *shared* bone weight shapes (ones used for all skins)

reason: it would be more difficult to fit most of them to 2+ skins than I initially thought

2️⃣ made weight shape transforms absolute (used to be bone-relative)

reason: allows moving the bone pivot without moving the shapes

reason for both: now all skins are self-sufficient and could be moved into separate files to prevent shared changes from rebuilding all associated files

#gamedev #enginedev

back to working on the mesh skin set editor - a second pass to support more cases

- made the test view functional (as in, finally allow pose changing)
- added the missing weight shape visualizations

yet to figure out how to design the weight shapes for optimal weights (spine seems to be especially complicated... but I have an idea)

self-intersecting meshes could be a challenge but flood fill might solve it (the test model has teeth, can test later)

#gamedev #enginedev

been working on a "spline mesh" for some time (a tiny bit at a time) and finally have something to show

the data structure has been seemingly figured out now and there are a few basic actions available

it's not yet enough to design anything but could be eventually

the goal is to build control rigs for things like this and more: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@archo/115384498813589175

eventually it should be possible to turn edges into splines and extract faces as polygons

#gamedev #enginedev #graphics

starting a new "building generator" thread (previously https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@archo/116522023095047486) since the last one was getting a bit long

here's a new attempted approach for producing inner faces for stair cutouts

- emit requantized shape
- projected-intersect it against platform shape
- generate edge mesh by pushing vertices upwards up to top plane
- filter out entrance face
- added edge blend layer

good stair sides are still annoying to make in this system tho

#gamedev #enginedev #graphics

added a first set of mutexes for loading textures

there's a global one for the hash table/file texture list, and one mutex for each texture (for loading/unloading)

the whole thing is a bit messy currently (in part because there are several different types of textures) but a stress test seems to work

and it's a bit annoying to spend memory per texture for what's basically failsafe code

but it's the simplest approach I could come up with for now

#gamedev #enginedev

another thing to fix eventually is force-pausing the game while BeginPlay is waiting for the data to be loaded

the idea is to emit a special signal if a partition expects to be activated but isn't yet loaded

and then use this signal to pause most update code and render some overlay indicating to the player that more time is needed before the game can resume

should reduce situations where scripting could fail due to missing parts of the world

#gamedev #enginedev

thought about async loading for a while and landed on this extremely basic approach

since I'll only be loading one thing at a time, the idea is to pick the next thing to do and then apply it, depending on whether it can be streamed or not

anything under Load/Unload will eventually receive the appropriate mutexes

isAsyncBusy should be an event instead of an atomic bool but it should not fail on windows (unlike e.g. android where thread scheduling is far less forgiving)

#gamedev #enginedev

but will I need a separate disk thread? not if most work happens on just one thread (e.g. the map loading thread)

which is true as long as it won't be necessary to load textures in parallel, separately from the rest (if they're not too large and not too many per partition)

hoping to avoid a good chunk of the complexity by steering clear of the cutting edge and not overdoing it with the granularity of partitioning

#gamedev #enginedev

I think it's no secret that most of the issues are likely to appear in the process of making the streaming system work with real content

expecting a need for a loading thread (with all the necessary sync), and some way to attribute renderables to partitions (possibly with opt-out if I'll want to carry some stuff out) so that I can fade things in and out at the very least

but e.g. component addressing has been designed with streaming in mind already tho

#gamedev #enginedev

worked on the runtime side of the partition system

basic support for loading and unloading works now (no multithreading of any kind yet, no hierarchy either)

there are a few basic shapes (sphere, box, cylinder*, capsule*) for measuring the distance between the partition and the reference point (= camera position for now)

(* - missing editor preview)

so far the work has been much simpler than anticipated, though in part due to prior design and extensive refactoring

#gamedev #enginedev

One of the things that fascinated me about #Doom was its aggressive visibility determination, avoiding work for geometry that never reached the screen.
For #helios I opted for a non-hierarchical AABB culling #algorithm (Miettinen), currently testing against every scene member and switching MaterialHandles to highlight culled and visible objects. On to #BSP now! #indiedev #enginedev #indiegames

been working on the editor side of the partition system

moved map items out of layers, into "indexed chunks"

the chunks are basically a list of map items that all have common filter parameters (initially layer, now also partition and whether it's inside the low or high LOD section of the partition)

starting small for now - currently partitions exist, can be edited, and items can be assigned to them but otherwise they don't affect much in practice yet

#gamedev #enginedev

test animation 4

this is the animation I wanted to create initially

the transition points are visibly broken at the moment, but also necessary for this animation to work

I'm also rethinking the whole concept of transition points, as it doesn't make much sense from an editing standpoint for them to always be synchronized across the axes, possibly even if they contribute to the implicit acceleration curve

#gamedev #enginedev #3d #animation

created a new test animation consisting of 3 keyframes that create a circular motion with decreasing speed

it appears that the new rotation curve editor is finally working well enough to stick with it

#gamedev #enginedev #animation

created a new test animation consisting of 3 keyframes that create a circular motion with decreasing speed

it appears that the new rotation curve editor is finally working well enough to stick with it

#gamedev #enginedev #animation

created a new test animation consisting of 3 keyframes that create a circular motion with decreasing speed

it appears that the new rotation curve editor is finally working well enough to stick with it

#gamedev #enginedev #animation

a very early preview of how the rotation editor might look (while nothing is hovered)

worried about vertical autosizing of the curves and keeping everything in the frame while keeping it still for editing (might need some state to freeze things while they're being edited)

the discontinuous curves are somewhat trippy but also purely visual since the curves as currently defined can't support discontinuities (rapid changes need two points next to each other)

#enginedev

a very early preview of how the rotation editor might look (while nothing is hovered)

worried about vertical autosizing of the curves and keeping everything in the frame while keeping it still for editing (might need some state to freeze things while they're being edited)

the discontinuous curves are somewhat trippy but also purely visual since the curves as currently defined can't support discontinuities (rapid changes need two points next to each other)

#enginedev

a very early preview of how the rotation editor might look (while nothing is hovered)

worried about vertical autosizing of the curves and keeping everything in the frame while keeping it still for editing (might need some state to freeze things while they're being edited)

the discontinuous curves are somewhat trippy but also purely visual since the curves as currently defined can't support discontinuities (rapid changes need two points next to each other)

#enginedev

so as expected, the curve view interface isn't really working for editing the rotation curves

and as expected, the issue is the adding of differences

moving a single point doesn't mean what one would expect

worse still, moving has this weird duality - the results are different depending on which segment of the curve is considered to be edited

so it's impossible to preserve the invariant during/after that operation

now contemplating making a fully custom insanity of a UI

#enginedev

so as expected, the curve view interface isn't really working for editing the rotation curves

and as expected, the issue is the adding of differences

moving a single point doesn't mean what one would expect

worse still, moving has this weird duality - the results are different depending on which segment of the curve is considered to be edited

so it's impossible to preserve the invariant during/after that operation

now contemplating making a fully custom insanity of a UI

#enginedev

so as expected, the curve view interface isn't really working for editing the rotation curves

and as expected, the issue is the adding of differences

moving a single point doesn't mean what one would expect

worse still, moving has this weird duality - the results are different depending on which segment of the curve is considered to be edited

so it's impossible to preserve the invariant during/after that operation

now contemplating making a fully custom insanity of a UI

#enginedev

created a first test animation

need to figure out a much better test since this is very axis-aligned and too fast overall

the fancy interpolation ends up being unused for rotation, basic slerps ended up being OK at this speed

also probably could use a time scaling parameter

#gamedev #enginedev #animation

created a first test animation

need to figure out a much better test since this is very axis-aligned and too fast overall

the fancy interpolation ends up being unused for rotation, basic slerps ended up being OK at this speed

also probably could use a time scaling parameter

#gamedev #enginedev #animation

created a first test animation

need to figure out a much better test since this is very axis-aligned and too fast overall

the fancy interpolation ends up being unused for rotation, basic slerps ended up being OK at this speed

also probably could use a time scaling parameter

#gamedev #enginedev #animation

working on the animation editor, only made vec3 curves minimally usable so far

I wish it was easier to line up the velocities of adjacent points when the velocities are small

#gamedev #enginedev

working on the animation editor, only made vec3 curves minimally usable so far

I wish it was easier to line up the velocities of adjacent points when the velocities are small

#gamedev #enginedev

working on the animation editor, only made vec3 curves minimally usable so far

I wish it was easier to line up the velocities of adjacent points when the velocities are small

#gamedev #enginedev

working on the animation editor, only made vec3 curves minimally usable so far

I wish it was easier to line up the velocities of adjacent points when the velocities are small

#gamedev #enginedev

- created the [animated mesh set] component
- fixed the data transfer bugs
- added an [initial pose] feature to the [animated mesh set] component

...one thing led to another...

- created the leaning toilet 🚽

#gamedev #enginedev #art

- created the [animated mesh set] component
- fixed the data transfer bugs
- added an [initial pose] feature to the [animated mesh set] component

...one thing led to another...

- created the leaning toilet 🚽

#gamedev #enginedev #art

- created the [animated mesh set] component
- fixed the data transfer bugs
- added an [initial pose] feature to the [animated mesh set] component

...one thing led to another...

- created the leaning toilet 🚽

#gamedev #enginedev #art

- created the [animated mesh set] component
- fixed the data transfer bugs
- added an [initial pose] feature to the [animated mesh set] component

...one thing led to another...

- created the leaning toilet 🚽

#gamedev #enginedev #art

(re-)added the ability to edit hit volumes

the previous skeleton metadata editor was capable of this so it's largely a matter of copying the code

but now there's a possibility to add more than one shape per bone, which could be useful in cases where one shape isn't quite enough

#gamedev #enginedev

(re-)added the ability to edit hit volumes

the previous skeleton metadata editor was capable of this so it's largely a matter of copying the code

but now there's a possibility to add more than one shape per bone, which could be useful in cases where one shape isn't quite enough

#gamedev #enginedev

(re-)added the ability to edit hit volumes

the previous skeleton metadata editor was capable of this so it's largely a matter of copying the code

but now there's a possibility to add more than one shape per bone, which could be useful in cases where one shape isn't quite enough

#gamedev #enginedev

(re-)added the ability to edit hit volumes

the previous skeleton metadata editor was capable of this so it's largely a matter of copying the code

but now there's a possibility to add more than one shape per bone, which could be useful in cases where one shape isn't quite enough

#gamedev #enginedev

the whiteboard case also showed in what ways calculated, non-destructively edited weights are superior to painting - subdividing the model wouldn't result in needing to repaint the subdivided bits

another interesting side effect of in-engine skinning is that I could combine any mesh generator with skinning at some point, making something animated entirely inside the engine

not that the existing capabilities help with character design but it's something to consider

#gamedev #enginedev

the whiteboard case also showed in what ways calculated, non-destructively edited weights are superior to painting - subdividing the model wouldn't result in needing to repaint the subdivided bits

another interesting side effect of in-engine skinning is that I could combine any mesh generator with skinning at some point, making something animated entirely inside the engine

not that the existing capabilities help with character design but it's something to consider

#gamedev #enginedev

the whiteboard case also showed in what ways calculated, non-destructively edited weights are superior to painting - subdividing the model wouldn't result in needing to repaint the subdivided bits

another interesting side effect of in-engine skinning is that I could combine any mesh generator with skinning at some point, making something animated entirely inside the engine

not that the existing capabilities help with character design but it's something to consider

#gamedev #enginedev

the whiteboard case also showed in what ways calculated, non-destructively edited weights are superior to painting - subdividing the model wouldn't result in needing to repaint the subdivided bits

another interesting side effect of in-engine skinning is that I could combine any mesh generator with skinning at some point, making something animated entirely inside the engine

not that the existing capabilities help with character design but it's something to consider

#gamedev #enginedev

got as far as getting a skeleton editor to a point where it's minimally usable, and starting work on a mesh skin set editor

figuring out the data structures and data flows took a long time but I think that might be largely done at this point

while testing the mesh skin set editor, noticed that the model I was initially testing it with (a movable whiteboard) wasn't sufficiently subdivided to make it bend, so I had to change it

#gamedev #enginedev

got as far as getting a skeleton editor to a point where it's minimally usable, and starting work on a mesh skin set editor

figuring out the data structures and data flows took a long time but I think that might be largely done at this point

while testing the mesh skin set editor, noticed that the model I was initially testing it with (a movable whiteboard) wasn't sufficiently subdivided to make it bend, so I had to change it

#gamedev #enginedev

got as far as getting a skeleton editor to a point where it's minimally usable, and starting work on a mesh skin set editor

figuring out the data structures and data flows took a long time but I think that might be largely done at this point

while testing the mesh skin set editor, noticed that the model I was initially testing it with (a movable whiteboard) wasn't sufficiently subdivided to make it bend, so I had to change it

#gamedev #enginedev