Questions for a new project...

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
1

Hi!

First of all, i must say that i´m not a Blender pro, not even close to that, but i´ve been playing around with GE for a while, and even if i´ve never finished any project, i think i´m ready to start on a serious solo project… It´s hard, i know, and some of you may think “oh, well, just another dreamer…”, but this is something that i really want to make…

My game.

But i have some doubts that i would like to see answered before i start anything new from scratch… So i´m counting on you…

1- I have some doubts about Gimp… Is it almost as good as Photoshop or not? I mean, i´ve been using Photoshop for a while, but i want to use a free program like Gimp…

2- I´m gonna need to use a good program to modify my voice into different characters voices… I´ve found this program “MorphVox” at http://www.screamingbee.com/, and it´s great, but i would like to use a free program, so, is there a good free-program with the ability to modify your voice like this one does?

3- Where could i find a good free-sound source?

4- And a good free-texture source?

5- I would like to have dynamic shadows (who wouldn´t? :slight_smile: ), and i know that it´s not possible to have them, at least not yet… But my question is: Is it possible to simulate dynamic shadows? Even imperfect…

6- I would need to have a soundtrack, and i don´t have any musical instruments, but i´m very familiar with the program “Music 2000”… It´s commercial program, i know… So, my question is: Would i be allowed to use this program to make a soundtrack for my free-game?
If not, is there any free program similar to that one and free?
I´m asking for too much free things i know:o

Well i think that´s all for now…
Anyway, i´m sorry for all these questions, but the answers are really gonna help me in the development of my game…

Thanks in advance.

2

1- gimp is better than photoshop, one argument is it being free, the other is it has the same capabilities.

2-if you try the linux audio programs you will be amazed at how many programs you will find that can change your voice.

3- >> http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/packsView.php

4-there are many links for this you can search for yourself, its easy to find.

5-i have no clue, perhaps wait ogre integration and start to prototype your game in ketsji.

6-same answer as in question 2

cheers
greboide.

3

Thanks greboide!

Well, i´m using Windows, and i´m not familiar with Linux, but thanks for the advice… Maybe i´ll give it a try :slight_smile:

4

Gimp has a cool instant normal map plugin, but other that that, I always use photoshop just out of preference.

5

For shadows, you would make a semi-transparent black circle in GIMP (check the tutorials on the GIMP site if you need help with this), save it to PNG (or any other file format which supports transparency), and open Blender. In Blender, make a plane under your character (or moving object), and use the shadow image as its texture. In the shading menu for the plane (F10), add a new material and select “Tex Face”, “Shadeless” and “ZTransp”. It should now work in the game engine:yes: Feel free to scale and move the plane so the shadow suits the character or object.
As for music, check the license for Music 2000 (it might be in its program files folder). It will probably tell you if you’re allowed to use sounds from it in a free game. And if you want to morph your voice, just put on voices yourself. It’s what I always do - I didn’t even know you could get software to do that for you:D
And if you need free sound effects, this should suit your needs:yes:

BTW, I would say GIMP was the best, I’ve tried PhotoShop but I find GIMP easier and more useable (although it lacks some features).
Just think of it as Blender compared to Maya or 3DS Max. Blender’s easier to use and free, and does some things the other ones don’t, but the other two have far more advanced features (although they cost thousands).

6

Self-Adhesive: Thanks for your opinion.

animatinator:Thanks for your suggestions (and link)…
As for voice suggestion… Well, it´s not easy to simulate a woman´s voice :)… Maybe i can use Audacity for that…

[edit]:After all, Music 2000 is “ROYALTY-FREE LICENCE”
It means i can use it to create and share my songs… As long as i mention they wre created with Music 2000 :slight_smile:

UUURRRAAAHHH!!! I love that program!!!

7

1 - In my experience, Photoshop is better than GIMP in general. Photoshop has better scaling algorithms and better jpeg encoding. I still like to use the GIMP for a lot of my work, though. Usually, I’ll use a combination of programs. I like to use XnView for my scaling operations, then use GIMP for editing.

5 - Yeah, you can simulate dynamic shadows with a Python script. You would need to specify a certain object or 3D position as the light source, then use a fake shadow like animatinator suggested and set up a script to change it’s size and rotation based on its position with reference to the light source. It’s a bit complicated, but it should give a decent result. You could even do multiple shadows for multiple light sources if you wanted (like you may notice in real life, where you have two or more shadows of varying darkness). I’ve not yet had an opportunity to make a working example, since I only just thought the idea through a few days ago.

8

You must try the shadow thing blendenzo! It would be the best thing since toast!

9

Answer to qeustion nr 6
Well i’m a musician and creating ur own music from scratch will be very hard.
I can tell u safely that making a song is as time consuming as making a full grown model.
So u might wanna concider buying some samples from Magix, an example of how it would look like http://site.magix.net/english-uk/home/music/sound-essentials-5/
They are royalty free so u can use them as u like. But they are not that great to create a uniqeu score. The moment u export ur song to mp3 or wav noone can tell in what program it was made, draw ur own conclusion :wink: u are not forced to mention it was made in their program or that u used their samples. hence Royalty free.
Best i can recomend u is FL studio http://www.fruityloops.com/
I use it myself and its very versatile. It has come a long way and at this point its in many ways a proffesional program. Downside is to get the full benefit of the program it rapidly becomes very expensive.
But if u get the Demo, only a small 68mb u will see that it can be used as a stepseqeuncer and as a sample based program. It also accepts vsti instruments
http://www.kvraudio.com/ those are virtual instruments, some of them are for free and pretty good. Not to discourage u but making ur own soundtrack on top of making a game will be extremely hard. Using sample’s is not the best way to go. And if u want a classical score then it will be practically impossible to make it for free :slight_smile:

If u decide to go for FL studio, u can PM me and we can work something,info,links, some songs depending on how good ur project progresses, to save u some money and or time :slight_smile:

10

blendenzo:Thanks for the advice about Photoshop and Gimp…
As for shadows… Hum… Well, i´m not very good at phyton, and i´m thinking of not using phyton at all in my game… I know that this decision is going to limit my work a lot, but i really want to avoid phyton… Anyway, it´s not a full-made desicion, so, maybe, as the project progresses i´ll learn on how to use phyton scripting… Thanks for the hint about shadows :wink:

Byleth:First, i really want to thank you for the links, and for your offer… It´s good to hear (read) that someone is interested in helping on a (dream) project like mine…

I´m familiar with Fruitloops, it´s a very good program, maybe i´ll give it a try…
Anyway, i´m not thinking about creating a huge soundtrack, and it´s not gonna be something professional of course, but maybe i´ll ask for your help…

To finish, I want to thank you all for being so helpfull… Your opinions, links, hints, etc, are really gonna help me on moving forward with my project…

Thank you all :wink: