Bio Engineer Archive
Thread: I have an Idea that might be able to make the Coloration and Size changes possible
Perhaps a system where a single variable for each creature could be used....the number could represent the creature pallete and size all together.
Each level in bio-engineering plus the master could enable a player to add one to that number and therefore change the way the thing looks...and this would make it so that the creatures would not overload the engine with data, and cut down on the number of schematics.
What in essence I am getting at:
A novice Bio-Engineer would create the genric creatures they have schematics for.
A person with level one in engineering, could change the pallete by one step.
A person with level 2 would be able to change it via 2 steps.
A person with level 3 would get 3 steps
Level 4 gets 4 steps and a master gets 5 steps.
How this would work is take the Crimson Razor Cat:
A Novice would make just that.
A Level 1 would be able to make the regular Cat or something that looks like a Crimson razor Cat
A level 2 would be able to do the first 2 plus say a SLudge Panther type looking thing.
A level 3 Could make the first 3 plus maybe a different scaled creature of that type.
A level 4 Could get another version
And a Master could get another version.
Spiders could be done the same way.....
In this way, Bio_Engineers would not have to go through many different schematics. The Programming would not have to change to much, becasue the simple art used could just be used.
And this would also would be less data to transfer.
Oh well this is just a thought that occured to me....I mean Armor and stuff is one thing....but doing the pallete swap thing I suggest would make it so the ARtists would having something to do and take some of the load of the programing of the diversified appearances off the shoulders of the programmers in genral.
Heck this system could be used for the droids.
Which many people want to have some differences.
And maybe even for the cars.
Just think how easy this would be for the team of developers.....(oopps need a 5th and 4th pallete for the razor cat, think I will take a Crimson razor Cat, make it as big as a Huffdun...think I will make Number 4 A Jet black version...hmmm)
I can understand why coloring is a bit difficult as that would mean alot more data being sent.
The various textures are stored clientside, all the game has to do is send a message telling them what texture to load onto the creature. This wouldn't be any different to how the clothing system works and that is far more message intense for the network.
The reason why colors are taking so long is because the designers need to make a seperate texture file for each color, however a better solution would be to have them all greyscaled and simply use their texture baking technology to make each part of the pattern a seperate greyscale layer. Then the color is applied to these lairs via some code trickery, this system is very similar to how decals have been programmed in games for years. A good example of this would be the spraypaint decals in Half-Life which were made in greyscale and had the color applied to them with the grayscale determining the gradient.