GAME BLENDER FAQ (plez make this a sticky)

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
1

Okay this is an FAQ of questions related to blender, as discussed in the topic https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16206

The idea is that anyone can post FAQ’s on here, and provide a link to the discussion topic or website that answers the question. Please don’t actually ask questions or include full answers in this thread as it will make it hard to read and search. Only post FAQ’s as you think of them and provide a link to the page answering the question.

Oh and please don’t attach your signature to posts in this thread.

Cheers, :slight_smile:
Keith. 8)

Okay heres one FAQ to be going on with:

How do you access object properties/sensors/actuators using python in the Game Engine?
https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16206

2

Ok. Here’s my part. :slight_smile: It is devided into ‘Python related’, ‘Modelling, Texturing’, ‘Effects’ and ‘Other’. Could be more pretty but it’s ok. :wink:

Python related

  1. How can I access the properties of game objects with Python?
  2. Is it possible to save and load object properties, games, etc.?

Answers:

  1. You can access properties like this:
import GameLogic

	cont = GameLogic.getCurrentController()
	own  = cont.getOwner()

	value = own.prop
	own.prop = new_value

See also:
http://www.elYsiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15135&highlight=object+properties

  1. Yes, it is possible using python. Take a look at: http://www.elYsiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13662&highlight=water+script

Modelling, Texturing

  1. My objects appear white in the game engine, but are ok when I render them. What’s wrong?
  2. Ok, I textured my objects using the uv editor but they still don’t show up.
  3. My objects seem to have holes when I hit ‘P’.
  4. I’ve seen games with animated textures - how can I do that?
  5. How can I display text in the game engine?
  6. Where can I get more fonts for the game engine?

Answers:

  1. The materials which are used for rendering don’t work in the game engine. You’ve got to
    uv map the textures.
    See also: http://205.152.62.12/gruff/pink/index.html

  2. Probably the textures’ dimensions are not in the power of 2 (32x32, 64x64, 256x256, …). If they are then your OpenGL driver or your video card don’t support the resolution of the texture.

  3. This occurs when the face normal is pointing in the wrong direction. Select the face and flip the normal. You can use CTRL-N and SHIFT-CTRL-N to flip all selected faces to the outside or the inside.

  4. Take a look at: http://205.152.62.12/gruff/animtex/index.html

  5. To display text in the game engine you’ve got to create a simple plane, add a string property called ‘Text’ and uv map a special font texture on it. See also: http://www.elYsiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14816&highlight=text+font+bitmap

  6. There is a program called ‘ftblender’ which creates bitmap fonts for the game engine. Here’s a thread on this special topic: http://www.elYsiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14816&highlight=text+font+bitmap

Effects

  1. How can I make water with waves and stuff?
  2. Why doesn’t the particle system work in the game engine?
  3. How do I play movies (e.g. avi files) in the game engine?

Answers:

  1. Lagan has made a nice water script: http://www.elYsiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13662&highlight=water+script

  2. The particle script isn’t supposed to work in the game engine. But you still can make your own particle script using an ‘add object’ actuator. Here is an example: https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12721

  3. You can’t. At least not directly. But there is a program called ‘FMVed’ which allows you to play movies. See: http://www.elYsiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9529&highlight=fmved

Other

  1. How can I change the icon of my game runtime?
  2. How can I make runtimes for several platforms?
  3. How can I save my games as runtimes (.exe on windows)?

Answers:

  1. There is a program called ‘IconReplacer’ which does it. Take a look at this thread: http://www.elYsiun.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7215&highlight=icon+replacer

  2. alien-xmp made a real cool script: https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15722

  3. Look here: https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16273

More to come.

3

How do I make exe’s from my games?
Answer: See this post: https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16273

4

Don’t know why this thread isnt sticky yet, but…

How do I animate vertex colors?
https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16312

How do I give shadows to my objects?
https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16247

5

this is a really good idea, need to think what there might be, but some that i collected for myself are now public on our engine Wiki at http://studio.kyperjokki.fi/engine/BlendeR - do check out if anything there would be FAQ stuff (most things are links to threads here)

~Toni

6

Sticky-la-fying person sticklafy this.
Its a good idea.

7

if you guys dont mind, i am gonna put up some of the q&as on the gameblender.org site under the faq.

8

post them both places. :slight_smile:

9

Q. How can I make a car/object tilt to match the angle of the ground?

A. Add a material to the ground, and click the “DYN” button in the material buttons, (just to the left of the colour boxes.) A bunch of new buttons and sliders should appear.

Set “FH Force” to 1.0, “FH Dist” to 0.1, “FH Damp” to 0.15, and click the button that says “FH Norm.”
You may want to play with the settings a little, but these are the values I’ve found generaly work the best.

Now select your car, and in the realtime buttons click the “Rot Fh” button. Your car should now tip to match the ground.

10

hmm, i think the only reason this isnt a sticky yet is because its horribly disorganized and all the answers are links to various posts… imagine when alot of faqs are posted to this thread… there will be like 8 pages to scroll through to find somehting youre looking for…
if faqs were organized into groups like physics/movements, special fx, character faqs, logic brick faqs, python faqs and such groups like that, and if they were all organized on the first post, it would be alot more useful and easy to find what people are looking for…

the blender information database is organized extremely well and is where im going with this organization thing

all the posted faqs should be edited into the first post with answers, not links, and in seperate groups, ex:

Physics faqs:

Q. how do you add more gravity to games?
A. add a new world and increase/decrease the gravity meter

Character faqs:

Q. whats a good amount of polys for a full main character?
A. between 500-1000, the lower, the faster

General game faqs:

Q. how do i increase the frame rate(speed) of my games?
A. keep the poly count as low as possible, use minimal amounts of alpha/add objects, and keep your textures small and in sizes that are multiples of 64(or some number like that, i forget)

anyhoodlydoodle, people could make much more use out of something more organized… even if you dont list the answers, and just the links, thats completely fine, as long as its organized in the first post, else it could get crazy searching through 16 or so pages of faqs :stuck_out_tongue:

or perhaps the reason its not sticky is because a mod hasnt seen it yet! what do i know anyhow! :slight_smile:

11

Okay I’ll do that when I have time. :slight_smile:

Would be nice if the moderator actually told us why he won’t make it a sticky.

Keith. 8)