Escher's Relativity is doable

[Aloys]

Sure, better to start small.
For a start we could indeed just try to complete the Age as it is right now: take what you have modelled so far, complete the gardens, add textures, light, sounds, and of course transporters. That would make for a nice start.
As I said I'd be interested in doing the texturing. I kinda like the picture Tach posted (here), the earth tones are quite fitting. What do you think?
And I could do some additionnal modelling for the gardens if you need help here. You need three gardens, do you have any idea what you want them to look like? (the Escher pictures doesn't show much..)

[Karkadann]

Well the version im working on is halve done, as far as sub worlds, I have "a" solution to the camera angle although its still stuck to the z plane its easer to navigate and it will do until Tach is finished. I kinda like the texture it has, each plane is represented by one of the three primary colors although. I dont wanna get far away from the origional drawing also wanted to say away from Cyan textures or meshes and have been able to avoid it thus far. I have never realy done gardens and am not sure what Im looking for. Perhaps a forest or swamp type garden or something "inspired" by not taken from one of the many gardens in the Myst saga. Im open to any ideas if you have some pictures of your work, Id love to see some of it.

[tachzusamm]

Well, I've been quiet a while now, but there is progress.

First to answer a question: Yes, Transporters are no part of Plasma - I created them just from scratch, using slightly modified PyPRP exporter scripts. And Python, plus lots of fine adjusted regions, walk blockers, and empties as hooks.

While waiting for diafero to return from his vacation (he's back now), I updated the Python code a bit, and tried to follow some suggestions or wishes mentioned in this thread. So, now there are 2 additional Transporters installed, and it's possible to walk through the Age in a loop - and I tried to keep the original art as close as possible, as Karkadann said.
AlcScript is now about 3800 lines in total (well commented), there are additional features (I don't want to reveal too much), and there are many colliders installed, to protect the player from falling off ledges. And again many cleanups of the meshes, and I tried to get the naming logical to make it easier to follow the logic when you want to add additional objects. Oh, and I already made some "Garden Planes", to investigate how they can be aligned. Currently just flat, to get an idea.
Doors and trees are still something to add, or other objects you can imagine.

Plus, I must admit that I could not stop myself from starting to texture it - it was boring to test it with plain primary colors.
I absolutely wanted it to be nicely textured, mostly seamless and fine-grained. And with the impression of natural lighting.

Here are some screenshots:
http://www.texturu.org/share/images/Texturing_V64.png
http://www.texturu.org/share/images/Tex ... _Color.png

Yes, it already has a complete UV-unwrap of all objects, and lightmaps made with Ambient Occlusion. True lightmaps can be added later when the light setup is complete.
I'm currently unsure where I should place light sources; either a single sun, or would it look better it we put 3 different suns in it, one for each SubWorld, and each shines from the gardens into the house? Something to discuss...

There are still some issues:
- Because the rooms in the house are really small and the walls are narrow, I had to use cams with a very wide angle. This because the only working camera type, "simple", cannot avoid collision with walls. It looks okay now, but it still runs through wall sometimes. Sorry, but I fear there's no final solution for this.
- First Person mode does not work in rotated SubWorlds. To please first person players as well, I switch to a FP-like camera when you do a transit from main world to a SubWorld, if you were in FP mode on transit. So you can switch between the modes only in the main world.
- Panning in the SubWorlds works, but X and Z vectors are inverted / interchanged. A bit confusing, but I don't know how to solve it.

I'm going to test it on the Deep Island soon, let's hope multiplayer behaviour works as expected.
If it does, I will release the current status, as Age files and the Blender sources.

After that I will be eagerly awaiting what contributors will add.

~Tach

[dendwaler]

Awwwwfull. (edit: Hmm , sorry i meant the contrary , unlucky typo)
Absolutely stunning work.!
Besides visiting the age, i am realy curious about all the sources.
I aspect to learn a lot from what you have achieved!
Thx for sharing that !

[Aloys]

Very nice progress.

Textures:
I like where you are going. While the primary colors setup helps differentiate the planes, I prefer the earth tones colors quite a bit. And even if they are of similar colors, having 3 different textures does help.
Escher's drawing doesn't give too many indications about textures, and even less about colors; but something along those lines looks good to me.

lightmaps made with Ambient Occlusion. True lightmaps can be added later when the light setup is complete.
I'm currently unsure where I should place light sources; either a single sun, or would it look better it we put 3 different suns in it, one for each SubWorld, and each shines from the gardens into the house?

The AO really adds a lot.
About the lighting I would definitely go with 3 suns. To me the 3 planes are 3 different worlds, so it would make sense that they each have their own sun. (so that means 3 directionnal lights with softvolumes properly separating them.) But then we have the question of the lighting inside the 'house'. And again to solve that we must know how to design the missing parts of the building. (see my 2nd post on page 2).
If the building is 'open' then we have the lights from the suns coming in. But if the building is closed we will need some light inside. I guess that problem can be solved later though..

I'll start working on the gardens, and see what I can come up with.

[Chacal]

This is simply awesome!
Well done Tach.

[D'Lanor]

Good job! I can't wait to see this in a multiplayer environment.

[Chuckles58]

I'll hold up the "Applause" sign. This is really shaping up to be a fantastic age.

[tachzusamm]

Thanks for all your enthusiasm; this is what Age writing makes not only be fun, but satisfying too.

If you're interested in how those Transporters work, here's a short description:

Show Spoiler

Transporters in Relativity are small SubWorlds which carry you from one SubWorld to another (or from the "main" world to a sub), allowing a smooth transition.

Code: Select all

Components of a Transporter:   Type:
----------------------------      -----
- The Transporter SubWorld       Empty
- The carrying plane         Mesh
- Entry colliders (TransLocks)      Mesh
- Safety belts (SubBlockers)      Mesh
- Positions for the blockers      Empty
- A deactivated blocker pos.      Empty  (This can be the same empty for ALL Transporters)
- Lobby enable region         part of Main world, or SubWorld A
- Lobby trigger region         ''
- Backside enable region      part of SubWorld B
- Backside trigger region      ''
- Transit region            part of the Tranporter SubWorld


Main functionality of a Transporter is controlled by regions.
The two entry areas, opposite of each other, I call Lobby (side A) and Backside (side B) in the Python code.

Assume I stand in front of the Transporter at Lobby side, coming from the Main world, or from SubWorld A.
Soon as I enter the Lobby enable region, the Transporter gets "activated" (assumed it's not already occupied by another player).
This locally removes the TransLocks which inhibit the player (me) from entering the platform, starts the chain animation, and marks this Transporter now as occupied by me via network, player ID stored in SDL.
The Transporter SubWorld immediately rotates to align the platform flat in regard to my own SubWorld walking plane.

When I leave the enable region, the process is reversed.

When I continue to move forward, I enter the Lobby trigger region, which immediately puts me into the Transporter SubWorld, attaches a camera to my avatar, and starts the rotation of the Transporter SubWorld.
Safety Belts (the objects called "SubBlockers") protect me from moving too far forward or backward.
There may be additional colliders to limit left and right side.
If defined, an additional outer camera gets activated and plays its own animation to show me doing the transit.

When the animation is done, the SubBlocker on the Backside gets removed (warped to the "SBlockFreePos", that is), and I can leave the platform.
But I'm still inside the Transit region, which moves with the Transporter SubWorld as well - and the chain animation keeps running.
I'm still inside the Transporter SubWorld, and the Transporter is still treated as occupied.

When I finally leave the Transit region, I get tranferred to the destination SubWorld (B in this case), get the camera belonging to the destination SubWorld attached, the trans-chain stops, all blockers are re-installed to the original position, and the Transporter gets unlocked for all players again.
(It also gets unlocked when the Transporter owner quits the game or crashes.)


Additional features:
- If the avatar should stop moving during transit (idle), can be defined via parameter.
- A Transporter can be also used as an Elevator; the main difference is that it moves instead of simply rotating, and therefore it needs to be "called" before I can enter it.

I will include this in the Blender file for reference as well.

(Edit: some small updates to reflect the current status)

[Karkadann]

Wow awesome I like the earthy tones with the different textures , and Its coming along wonderfully, I cant wait to wander threw it in a multi player environment I was kinda hoping to get a bunch of people together to pose as the people in the actual drawing for the linking image, but all in good time.

again thanks for the help on this one, some of the best ages are a collaboration of several people I hope to use this as an example