Presenting a Christmas Themed Preview of the game!
Firstly… Several of the player systems are currently in the middle of a major overhaul. We realised a while back that this meant a playable demo wouldn’t be ready in time for christmas. So instead of trying to rush something playable out, we decided to create this preview build. Going through this demo you can take a look at some of the work we’ve been doing over the last few months, and what you can expect to see in the final game.
Downloads:
The game requires Blender 2.36. Other versions are known to break several things in the build.
The standalone version contains additional music tracks to supplement the demo scenes. For compatability reasons the .blend version has no sound.
It may seem strange that the version with music is actually smaller than the version without, but that’s a testament to how powerful 7-Zip is. When unpacked the standalone version is actually over 35 MB larger than the .blend version! (77.2 MB compared to 41.5 MB)
Installation Instructions:
Extract all files in the archive into a folder. Run Transcendent.blend or Transcendent.exe
Features of the Demo:
Preview 4 different levels, each at various stages of development.
Watch 2 animation sequences made specifically for this christmas demo.
Watch a working AI demo in which opposing sides battle it out.
Preview various weapons which will be available to the player.
Configure options which can be saved to a file and reloaded again the next time the game is run.
Navigate a complete working menu system.
Additional Notes:
Due to it’s complexity and the fact sector & distance based culling aren’t yet implemented into Level 2, this level is particularly demanding to run. Therefore older machines may encounter some slowdown whilst watching these sequences.
The .blend version has been set up for monitors which run a 4:3 aspect ratio, (1024x768, 800x600, etc.) as these are the most commonly used. If you run a different ratio you may need to adjust the viewport window to fit the camera’s view.
It doesnt seem to work for me. I downloaded the exe and unziped as you said. Then I run Transcendent.exe and i get the Blackhole productions presents screen then it exits and nothing happens. I’m assuming it should load menu.exe but it doesn’t. I’m on a Windows XP. Whats going on?
:o Man, I got to really hand it to you guys. Hehe, hats off. That’s some really nice work there.
Sorry to hear it won’t come out before Christmas, but hey all games get pushed back .
Hehe you guys just set a new standard for FPS games in blender. It was truly and extremely motivating just to look through everything.
[EDIT]
Ohh, been poking around the .blend files a bit. Ok, hehe whoever set up the whole process (Andy, right?), very nicely done.
I’m wondering how you’re going to go about doing this when you have the full game out. Since the menu right now currently just calls to load the other .blends. What happens when you actually have enemies, weapons, and the player in the level. Would it still be setup the same way? That would mean each separate .blend would require its on separate copy of the same character, weapons, etc that’s used in each scene… Hehe, only biggy would be bigger file size.
Thanks for the positive feedback Mark62756 & goldentaiji
Each level will indeed have it’s own copy of everything. Bigger filesize was never really an issue for us, as it has no negative effects except for a longer download once the game is finished.
The important thing which I’m working to is keeping everything modular. Each key section has it’s own file, which makes work on that section a lot more managable. It’s especially helpful in a team project such as this one, as people can work on separate sections independently. After changes are made, you can just plug them all back together to form the completed game.
It does help having one person (which is myself on our team) to manage all the files and to keep hold of the ‘master’ build. This prevents version conflicts appearing and ensures the build is kept upto date with all the latest changes.
That’s strange, are you certain you unzipped everything into a folder on your computer? Quitting after the initial intro screen suggests that the game failed to find the next file it was supposed to link to (which is Blender.exe).
We are always looking for new members to join our team, so if you are interested in working on this game or other games with us, join up!
just PM me or ST150.
We’re mainly looking for experienced designers and programers right now.
Designers should be able to do low-poly modeling, texture mapping, texture painting/creation, and animation is a plus…
Programers need to have full knowledge of the game engines logic bricks, and probably atleast basic knowledge of python.
Another point worth mensioning…team members should be atleast somewhat dedicated to the project. you dont have to use all of your free time to help us or anything, but we do expect you to do more than just a couple models, etc.
I downloaded the blend file and all I have to say is wow. The graphics are amazing. It really doesn’t look like a Blender game at all. I wish I could work on a project like this but I probably dont have enough time/skill to. Out of curiousity, why do you have the logos in two different files? Couldnt you have just made one and called it logos or something?
Anyway, keep up the good work; I can’t wait to see a playable version of this
I’m downloading the demo. I cant try it now but will later. seeing the screenshots the game looks very nice. i like very much the textures and the menu. keep it up!
I’ve been a long time fan of this - and i keep saying to myself - “oh shucks… i should have gotten in on this one when I had the chance!” - this is a great bit of Blender magnificence! I’m so envious - I can’t wait till you talented artists get this game completed - I just loved this demo! Keep up the good work!
The Cristhmas joke was awesome! Cant stop laughing. The animation for AI… Everything. Maybe the “fade” efect (it really rocks!) could be a litlle more faster in some cases like the gamelevel overview.
If you’re not on Windows use the .blend file it shoud work for Mac OSX, Linux, etc… the only thing missing out of the .blend file is the music and sound effects, hopefully in the future Blender will have better built in sound support.
Many thanks for all the great feedback, and comments we really appreciated.
Hehe, When someone showed me the game before it got actually released on this forum, I was already like, :o whoow those guys have tallent. Amazing how nice those levels look in lightning, textures and such, and still run fast in the blender game engine.
Afther testing it to find bugs and such, I decided not to post here until everyone has seen it. I’m really amazed how those people did the project so far, nice, clean and with succes.
I think those people can defently need some help from the community with finishing there game.
Anyways, keep going like this, it doesn’t matter how long you work on this project as long as it keeps going as what I have seen. Personally I think this game could defeat Hellstation, I love that game and afther seeing those demo’s I love trancedent as well .
hey, thanks alot man. yea, I worked a long time on Level 2 to get it looking great…funny thing, the lighting you see there isnt even realtime, thats all baked and vertex painted. …and then the shadows were done using a technique similar to this one: http://www.blending-online.co.uk/8501/50779.html …Also, I used the “Lighting Effects” filter(had to play around with the “Texture Channel” options) in Photoshop to get the wall textures to look sort of normal mapped…
lol, also the animations are hilarious…
haha, thanks. we thought it would be a fun idea to try and put some comedy in there while we were at it…glad you enjoyed them.
erm…no. :-? Did you download it? Is it working correctly on your machine? …the demo includes a fly through of Level 2, a bunch of design demos of the other levels, guns, and design work, a complex AI demo, and a few other things…
We have most of the basic systems working and everything, but we were afraid we wouldnt have time to make it into a playable, entertaining gameplay demo before christmas…
.
Hehe you guys just set a new standard for FPS games in blender. It was truly and extremely motivating just to look through everything.
…and then the shadows were done using a technique similar to this one: