Well, despite the problems that I keep having trying to build my game. I decided to put up a site to track it's progress. Limited, yes. But it has panache and screen shots!
(url="http://"http://www.digitalrain.org/call_of_shadows/")http://www.digitalra...all_of_shadows/(/url)
Please share your comments.
Cheers,
CG
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The screen shots look good, but I'd love it if I could actually see them (rather than just the thumbs).
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Now that I can actually see them, the game looks really cool.
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Quote
Originally posted by cgoran:
**I've now put up larger screen shots.
To tease....to please.
Again, feedback is always good.**
Looks nice, even though fairly dark on my screen.
Keep up the good work. 
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Looks scary I can't wait!
(the graphics are blinding).
Migraine
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"Kids aren't influenced by computer games at all... Pac man's a computer game, how many kids do you know who listen to repetetive music and take mind-altering pills?"
Wow really good. I really like the startup screen look. It's really cool. As well as the inventory screen, it's great as well. When I looked at these it made me want to play it. Keep up the good work.
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What stands before us
today is a meer foreshadow
of tommorow, fight hard or
die trying.
Thank you for the feedback.
Yes, it is a bit dark. Perhaps too dark. All rendered in lightwave, tweaked in photoshop and saved out as a 24bit png with alpha. It was a pain figuring out the 3/4 view thing, how to cut the images up so that the characters can walk behind the right elements ect. I wound up cutting all of the roofs of of the buildings and putting them on the highest layer. Then controlling the player movement with access areas. In the end I think the effect is good.
The lighting effects are all rendered to the images in lightwave. Overlays can be made be cutting the volumetric light portion of the base stamp and editing the transparency in photoshop, then laying it back down on a higher layer as a stamp. This allows the characters to walk beneath and be seen through the transparent lightning effects. This was done for the animated steam emanating from the manhole.
Also, Coldstone can create limited particle effects! For the weapons, I've been having every frame of a bullet animation spawn another animated sprite that dissolves. This adds a nice particle trail effect. Could be used for smoke or anything else.
Right now I'm spitting vinegar because I keep getting build errors. I've tried all avenues but to no avail. I hope there is an update soon. I'm torn. I would like to continue development, but on the other hand it may be foolish if this product evaporates. Coldstone has allot of promise, but if people can't build there games it is all for not.
Cheers to all,
CG
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You have fallen victim to coldstone promises - the game states it can handle 24 bit colors correctly but it can't I can only handle 16 bit colors correctly - It was one of the bugs supposedly fixed in version 10.01 but not really. You compiling problem is a true bug but no one at Beenox or Ambrosia will admit it. It has to do with the naming scheme and is a built in protection so that people cannot directly copy POG. I finally got this out of one of the developers of the original version of the game. This was designed to screw people and not allow compitition for POG.
Yes yes of course, that aside(most developers almost always have better versions lying around on their desks, wouldn't you)
Your graphics will diplay and assuming your not using any drastic gradation(airbrushed/or gradient) in your transparencies (i.e. your chracter uses a solid single color fade) then yes it'll come across fine. But like he just said coldstone doesn't completely support anything (monochromatic or otherwise) above 16bit. Long short yor transpareencies will exactly like they do when you choosse the launch feature 'gritty' but ultimately functional and cool
One thing i cannot explain however is that when using 32 bit graphics under thousands the graphics appear dark and grainy and in general bad, however when using true colors (which by definition is only 24bit not 32) it does appear dramatically better.
The true colors option, has been around since 97 as well it was dropped from a few releases of the engine because it wasn't implemented yet, this is as old as the allies feature(which by the way was close to working when the engine was still rogue style, but instead they devoted time to animation,graphic formats,mp3 support,a better interface,etc...dΔΊmn them)I guess it is unfair to wave it infront of your face like that but these were never promised(don't attempt to correct me, i've been there every step of the way)and in fact they are porbably empty sections of subroutine yet to be filled in (sad)...
Yes your bug results from the fact that the engine has crippled(or corrupted) your game files(locations,events,items,etc), what this means is that your graphical content will still work and if you want you can copy down all of the actions and settings and sit down and re-copy it, this is unfortunate but not impossible. This is a big BUG but i've only seen it when using files created under a designated DEMO engine (as if it stamps each one, and they don't expect you to accomplsh anything within the time, and perhaps the engine which has a 30 day trial period has prestamped all of the files with an expiration date based on tick...who knows. THis could probably be fixed but Dee who is seldom seen or heard from in any meaningful capacity has completely diverted his time towards GOLIATH which is a massive project. It would be different if they could at least hire or rent a coder and give him/her specific instructions on what to fix/debug, but they haven't Beenox, a troupe of 5 (if i recall) is busy, for shame, which is all you can really say or do, Ambrosia who is simply the publisher would logically have no answers for you if you want to make noise go rattle beenox's cage, instead of parading under a 'product specific mantra of doom',tell them we want support or simplty take it for what it is
(something that speeds up implementation of animation/movement routines better, faster, and more efficiently than you...oh not to mention collisions)
Good Luck CGoran your game looks very nice, you seem to be at least coping with the trueColors issue and have produced something with a very classy ambience, i doubt any one will be stuck on how 16bit your gradients/textures look and will appreciate it for what it is.
**random note about coldstone if your using picts you might as well use pngs, because the engine interprets them like simple pngs(go ahead and use a large white antil aliased text graphic on a black background with 100% opaque alpha and you'll see what i mean) and when you build your game it will bundle and convert them accordingly.
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I can tell you this i haven't attempted a build function with a demo copy since ColdStone b5 (preAmbrosia) and this was within 4 days of downloading the then 12mb enginebundle after that i immediately registered(at the time the engine was $30)and have either been a beta tester or registered member ( i possess two licenses )...subsequently i've never seen the error first hand.
the "stamping" or labelling of files might either occur directly at a binary level, in which case i believe your screwed, due to the fact that it might be purposely intertwined with essential data...or it might be because the file type might be different. I doubt the latter.
the best answer i have do not reuse/recycle any files other than graphic/sound files (things not generated by the engine itself). It's unlikely/unethical that the engine could/would append something to sound or graphic files. SO perform a clean install and i'm serious...do a desktop rebuild. Press apple+option during startup, before your background/color/image appears.
(this helps the computer decide what versions of software are current, where things are located etc, for example i have the old defunct b5 of CGE and i have the new version of CGE, before a desktop build applications with a matching file type(the two engines in this case) display separate icons although they have the same creator code, after the rebuild they share the icon of the one with the highest version most recently created date. This goes even farther as to prevent the dreaded hardDrive not found image)
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Quote
Originally posted by ellrx:
**
<snip>
the best answer i have do not reuse/recycle any files other than graphic/sound files (things not generated by the engine itself). It's unlikely/unethical that the engine could/would append something to sound or graphic files. SO perform a clean install and i'm serious...do a desktop rebuild. Press apple+option during startup, before your background/color/image appears.
<snip>
**
Clear, informative and timely. This should be printed in bold-face where everyone can see it. To wit;
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