Visual Game Mechanics Development System

[StarFire]

After a long discussion about game mechanics we are going to create a new Skyline system to make it easier to create your games.

Skyline has many features that are not obvious to the new user, such as the power of actions and we want to make these features easier to implement.

This system will be a visual node based editor to speed up mechanic development and will make it easier and quicker to get your games off the ground.
We will keep you informed of progress but we hope to have a prototype system soon

[pgadesertrat]

Ahhhn, very nice! Sounds like something along the lines of Blueprints in UE4 (amazingly good) or Flowgraphs in CE3. Both are really helpful for artists to put their ideas in motion without having to rely upon a programmer for every little thing.

[StarFire]

Yes something similar to what you mentioned. We had a few moments over the holidays where we just wanted to play with Skyline and not get trapped in code or script. This we found even a simple door trigger required some effort, normally this is a quick task but after a glass of wine or two the task got fuzzy lol .

So we decided to design a brain free mechanic development system for the times we just wanted to play and this will make Skyline more accessible to the artists and coders could then develop module to share.

[sfarza]

I don't know if you guys have moded arma3... many ppl have told me that it's mostly done by scripting. Have a look and see if that could give you an idea.

[StarFire]

@Sfarza thanks for the information we will take a look at this game and see if it gives us any ideas.

So far the Visual editor is looking like this....

The initial test are showing that this is going to be a very powerful yet simple to use system. Users with little experience will be able to use AI, controllers etc by joining a few wires, and Experienced users can develop low level modules for new behaviours and share with the community. We have planned a comprehensive set of core modules that will give the power and performance of C++ but with super ease of use

[ant0N]

great job!

PS. five minutes used the Blender Game Engine, and I was surprised as just there to use the navmesh.
maybe it will be helpful to you.

[SolarPortal]

thanks, StarFire is coming along with the visual game mechanics editor great! Now the modules can go deeper into themselves as many levels as you want for extremely complex designs; which sit as a single module on the top level. We are very excited about it.

i have started a navmesh thread, if you could move your navmesh post into there, that would keep this thread to visual editor only thanks. New topic at : http://www.chi-ad.com/Skyline/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=751

[StarFire]

A quick up date on the Visual editor progress:

So far so good, we have the modules now working as containers so you can create new parent modules which can contain other parent modules and so on, enabling very deep + complex groupings. Any module can be made at any level from the existing graph. (think of a pyramid structure)
Today I am adding the ability to a parent container module to have a connector remotely added by adding a connector inside the parent. This all may sound mad but will make sense when you get to try it out lol

Then all that is left is to get the modules communicating inside the player and we are away.....

[StarFire]

We can have coloured wires, going to use these on the various connection types to make it easy to see what can connect to which connector. Events, Values etc.

[ant0N]

Great! Looking forward to try it in action.

P.S. Can be strict style would look better?
For example:

or


Although this is not important...

[StarFire]

certainly, although we have not done any styling or art as these are just to use until the code is in place.
We like the look of UE4 bluprint

[ant0N]

Oh Yes! I like it too...

[StarFire]

We obviously won't copy them, but are inspired by their design

[lordalmighty1]

i think leadwerks has something similar to this for their lua scripting designer also, so it would be popular feature i think for sure to those who are not scripters and want to learn?!. like me lol.
is this lua scripting helper or something else?
im no scripter but i have altered some lua scripts to suit in another engine, though they have a lua designer also made by a community member its all puzzle pieces which without the skills or knowledge to understand which pieces go with which to fit together into a complete script making it harder to do anything. i would welcome this sort of thing if easier to use than a puzzle without a picture so to speak

[StarFire]

Our visual system is not a visual script to replace Lua. It is a visual interface to core C++ Skyline features so should be way faster than a visual script whilst having more power, yet simplifying mechanics for the user ( or not as it can go extremely complex if you want to fall into the abyss ). At any stage any user module can be shared or sold if it has asset value as every module is built from the same core modules that come with Skyline.

Short answer - There is a similarity so conversion may be possible, yes visual aids can be a godsend to the non scripter.

Hope this helps.

[lordalmighty1]

i see, well i think i see lol..



the above hopefully showed in forums?! is a picture of the visual lua designer from a 3d game maker i have used for over a year..
its not to easy to use this lua designer lol..

i cant grab a screenshot of leadwerks version but its alot like the above pictures shown by others and your good selves.
i will update this post with a pic of it later tonight when im back on my main pc and not this laptop .

either way it seems a popular layout for such things i guess given the use of similar softwares so should be well recieved by users i look forwards to playing with it sometime soon

[StarFire]

omg that look complex to do an easy task

[SolarPortal]

@antON sorry man. i completely misunderstood the post about the navmesh, i see now that the game logic in BGE was using a node based approach. Just checking the video to see how it was done in there again. sorry and thanks again

[StarFire]

Wow finally after what feels like an eternal battle for supremacy, overthrowing the dark lords of module connection. I have got sub module connectors working. This means that new empty modules can have IO modules added inside and these IO connections show up on the parent module. Importantly needed for any new user custom module creation

[StarFire]

Hi Guys just a quick update!

I have just completed the first scene tests with the visual system. Within a few mouse clicks we had a rotating cube and so much easier that script. There is still a lot more interactive graphic ui work before we can move forwards but it was great to see as simple mechanic other than log prints.
Skylines action system and Lua started with just a rotating cube, its sort of Skylines very own "hello world!" Look how far those systems have developed.

When We get chance, we will show a tech video of the basic system in use.

[SolarPortal]

it's very cool!

[StarFire]

News update on the Visual Mechanics Editor:

Its taking longer than I hoped as there are a few system issues to address to make the modules behave how I envisaged they would. Although its slow progress, its still progress and the editor is showing some very promising results.

A simple example is the door module. This will move a door a given amount based upon an event for "open/close". The event is provided by an object clicked module which is linked to a scene entity's tag.

I have uploaded a video showing the speed of development in Skyline using the new modules.



Exciting times

[Pirate Myke]

Looks very productive.

[Gtox]

Looks to be a good, easy to use system.

[ant0N]

this is really cool!
Just wanted to know how to create new modules?