Sorry about talking about this in excess, but I’m still having problems with the alpha curve. I have managed to create an alpha curve that starts off at 1.0, then gradually decreases to 0. But once I try to animate it in the game engine, nothing happens. Is there any way I could get a demo build of a menu fade in. I’d make sure to credit anyone who could help…
All u newbs i beg you to please put some effort into finding the simple things you are looking for, as it is extemely taxing to constantly point out everything that is right in front of u.
Thank You
It’s based on a simple timer which gives a fixed amount of time for the background scene to load in before it sets the alpha fade going. This doesn’t have to be very long, but complex scenes will cause a momentary freeze in the fade otherwise (often eliminating the effect altogether). The screen itself masks the loading of the background scene to make the whole thing look smooth and seamless. In effect it evens out the stutter which can be caused when a complex new scene is loaded.
Did the example file Siegel posted help? The fade not working will usually be something simple that you’ve not enabled… PM me if you need any further help 
ok but how does the loading scene work on a timer, is there a timer sensor?
New update:
This will be the ingame menu. Currently sorting out all the code underneath to make it functional. The design is still in the early stages so I’m looking for any suggestions on how to improve it. Anything that could be added or isn’t needed, or just a better way to lay it out.
The health picture will become more grainy and hard to see as your health falls. For the inventory I’m thinking of doing it as a linear slider rather than a grid of boxes, though I’m still experimenting. It will probably come down to whichever is the easiest to program 
Just wanted to throw in a quick monster update. I started on a few gnarly little beasts last week…I might have some screens up later this week, though Andy might want to keep them a suprise.
I think they look pretty scary…and they have normal maps, and per-pixel lighting, so they look nice.
Too bad for me, my card can’t support any of that. (nvidia 2)
Yea, yea, I know. It’s long past time to upgrade.
Its ok Social, I feel your pain I have a Nvidia Geforce 4 MX (Fancy way to say Geforce 2) So im in the same boat.
Just a small update…
I’ve completely rebuilt the player controls to be more intuitive. There’s still a lot more I want to factor into this, but the key things are that the mouse now controls rotation of the player and drawing your weapon is now done manually with a toggle key. Targetting will be done using a laser from the weapon. Fighting monsters should be a lot more involved than just pointing and clicking with this new system.
TomorrowMan has kindly provided a couple of monsters for the game, and there will be a few surprises in store for the release version 
4 Things:
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I’m curious to know what the monsters will look like in the environment, since they will have normal maps, but the environmetn doesn’t. Do you plan to add normal maps to everything by final release?
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One thing that was really cool about Airdale, was the atmosphere, but I think having that garish laser sight will detract a lot from the feeling of immersion. Perhaps there should just be a thin red line for the sight.
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For the final release, will you fix the lighting? As it is now, the lighting looks very unrealistic.
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Just curious wht that brown splotch is on your main character.
Very good! I liked the Airdale! I can’t wait for the Shadowdale!
Thanks for the feedback Dim!
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Currently I think it would take too much time (and maybe hit performance too much) for me to normal map the whole game. I don’t think the monsters will look out of place being normal mapped when the environment isn’t. Should have a screenshot of 1 of the monsters up shortly, so you’ll be able to see.
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Atmosphere is definately something I’m looking to retain and improve. I want the whole experience to be carry some atmosphere and suspense, so I’ll look into refining that laser to be less obtrusive. The system needs to allow some way of aiming from a 3rd person view, and I don’t really want any kind of auto aim setup. This is the best I’ve come up with so far, and I’m open to any other suggestions!
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I can take a look at lighting solutions such as baking the lamps to vertex colours for added realism. At the moment I’m toying with the idea of having a mounted torch in front of the player only. As well as adding to the atmosphere having complete blackness behind you, it should look quite good from a lighting perspective.
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That’s part of the strap for the backpack he has on. The texture on the character is really quite bad at the moment. He could do with a whole new map and some proper clothes! It’s definately not my strong point doing this though, but if anyone wants to contribute that’s one area I’d welcome help on.
Thanks Denommus 
I could possible skin your character for you. PM me with the model
what i am doing for my game, which you could also do, is to have the camera move from its fixed position, to a over-the-shoulder view. It seems to work well, if you can get the camera to point in the right direction.
Refined that laser a little to look less obtrusive and more like an actual laser…
All I need to do now is apply a small glow where it hits an object so you get a better idea of what you’re aiming at. A modified bullet holes script should do the job here.
Excellent! I’ll have it with you shortly Dim.
Hmm… that could be a good idea! Maybe even switching to 1st person for manual aiming. Only problem is it may be disorientating for the player switching viewpoints frequently and could also break the atmosphere. I’ll need to run a few tests…
looking good keep up the great work.
To be honest, I really like the over the shoulder idea (though not actual FPS), since it’ll add more dynamic combat.
First look at one of the monsters of the new game…
TomorrowMan did a good job The screenshots really don’t do the normal maps justice, they look superb in the game. Just needs a few tweaks now and then the AI porting over. Much better than the old ghosts I used.
You’ll also notice I’ve changed the room slightly. I want to expand the object database used in the game to give a more unique feel in each room. The last version pretty much looked the same everywhere. If any modellers would wish to contribute something to the game, just drop me a line. Perhaps I could even get a ‘Needed objects’ list up if enough interest is shown, as I prefer to focus my time on the gameplay mechanics.
Thanks nitrofreak
I’ve been looking into this, but there’s still the problem of how do you aim straight? Looking over the shoulder is at an offset angle.
<Jaw Drops> YIKES!!! That monster actually looks kinda scary! Nice Job.
With the over-the-shoulder problem, you could have it warp into standard 3rd person fare, and set up a crosshair on an overlay scene.
Also, on the monsters:
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I think you may wish to reduce your specularity a considerable amount, they look really shiny slimy.
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It looks like you have a human animation rigged on the monster which makes it look goofy for lack of a better word.
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I think that the monsters look a tad out of place with out normal mapping anywhere else. I dont think it’d be a huge hassle to normal map the rest of the level as well.