My 3D Plans

I have recently gotten back into 3D modeling. Part of the plan is to get back into trying to make characters and vehicles. For the most part, I am trying to make stuff to hopefully offer online for sale. The recent motivation to return to 3D modeling is to practice newer modeling techniques. I look at a bunch of models on different sites offering 3D models. I try to study the geometry of models as well as learn certain techniques on how to make such models. While I still use Wings3D for modeling, I have tried to incorporate Blender into my modeling so I can better implement them into projects.

Since you are reading this blog post, I figured I'd make a few announcements.

My Voxel Characters.

While I have not officially thought of what to do next, I am considering offering my voxel characters either as static models or make some "evolved" voxel models in case people want to try making rigged "evolved" models in case people want to make some animated characters.

3D Plans.

I have some plans to make some 3D characters. What I kind of want to do is offer a lot of my original characters for you to download. Some of my original creations may even be complimented with blog posts to introduce you to each one. Of course, I also will try to add material to my Weebly site (JohnMarineDesigns).

3D Locations.

I want to make locations that could be implemented into games. I am looking at a lot of older 3D racing games because of my skill. The original plan was to use material into Sports Car GT, then go to rFactor, and maybe even find Assetto Corsa. I also thought of trying to make locations for Rigs of Rods and BeamNG.Drive as well. Blender and Godot Game Engine are also test beds for any would-be location creations.


If all goes well, I will be sure to offer more material to you all to enjoy. I want to be able to flex my creativity even further. Perhaps even flex it more if I start getting on a roll creating content.

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Special Request!

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If you want to see what past 3D models I've created, you can look up my work on Turbosquid here: JohnMarineDesigns on Turbosquid. Alternatively, you can visit my JMDesigns store at JMDesigns store: 3D Models See more of my 3D work on my Weebly page by going to my 3D modeling portfolio on JMDesigns.

In addition to Turbosquid, I am considering joining CGTrader as well to market my 3D work.





I have not really anything to share at this point, so I will end my post here. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Project Rhiannon Update 2

My Godot racing project, Project Rhiannon, lives on! I recently went from trying to make modular voxel land to making polygon land. This was inspired by Gran Turismo 5's Course Maker feature. Seven environments make up GT5's collection of environments. To practice designing levels, I did some box modeling in Wings3D. I tried to closely follow some of the design nature of custom tracks in Gran Turismo 5 in trying to design modular assets for a race track. What I practiced mostly was simple modeling of such a course, rather than build a proper course. Here is a look at what I've come up with:


^ Instead of voxel land, I tried polygon tracks. I haven't yet found out how not to make things extremely shiny in Godot.

For some reason, I wanted to make some kind of non-tarmac course initially. I then decided to build an entire tarmac course in Wings3D and then scale it greatly in Godot to be used. I did not include a pit road, so this track isn't COMPLETELY practical. I wanted to make the road have subdivisions and loop cuts to allow for the possibility of making individual elevation changes to pieces of the track geometry. I am also learning that you do not have to model objects into the main model themselves. You build the track first followed by adding whatever objects you like. This can even help in the case where not rendering objects can help in the frame rate department as well as in reducing draw calls.

I still have a lot to learn, but I feel I can possibly make a proper track that I can eventually implement into racing games. It is a slow process that will eventually pay off into something amazing.

Driving Model.

While I am still using my voxel model cars for my test car, I am slowly wanting to develop my own proper 3D vehicles to use as my testing vehicles. I still have somewhat of a "to do" list to enhance my driving model. The driving model in Godot does not really allow for meticulous driving models. That is, unless you are incredibly adept at coding/logic for a proper model. The basics of the Godot Game Engine for vehicles are the commands of engine force (acceleration), brake (braking), and steering. I was looking to try to find some alternative methods to utilize these features. Everyone who has designed their own driving model through Godot GDScript has made his/her/their own spin on the vehicle model. These methods have been expressed in various games, and no one model is perfect. A driving model is only as perfect as the one(s) who deem it as perfect.

Engine Force
I allowed for more interesting acceleration by dividing the vehicle's Engine Force by a number less than 1. What would happen in this instance is that the car gets off from its starting position and go fast- almost like a drag racer. What I want to do is set a base speed that increases incrementally. So I want to properly simulate going from a standing start to properly accelerating away. I also want to develop a speedometer to know just how fast I am going as well as a tachometer to simulate the RPM range.

Braking
However, I have been struggling a bit to properly slow down the vehicle. The brakes work fine with my models. What I want to do is make the braking power more efficient. If I wanted to be more advanced, I would want to simulate brake balance. So a car with strong front brake balance could have some understeer dialed in. A car with strong rear brake balance can induce some oversteer. Too much either way can upset a vehicle's handling behavior.

Steering
Steering can be a bit slow. When I decided to meddle with the steering values, the vehicle may not even turn or only turn so slowly. Once I reached a numerical value that gives me some semblance of control, I basically left it alone and not chance ruining the steering angles.


I still need to get around these issues in trying to develop a driving model I can be proud of.

Extra Insight.

I mentioned Gran Turismo 5 and its Course Maker. Gran Turismo 5 allows you to construct race tracks purely on a set number of parameters and features. The environments differ. While you do not have meticulous control of each environment, your track is given a set number of variables you can control. There are seven locations you can choose from in Gran Turismo 5:

• Toscana (Tarmac)
• Eifel (Circuit)
• Mt. Aso (Tarmac)
• Liège (Gravel)
• Alaska (Snow)
• Eifel (Kart)
• Tokyo Bay (Kart)

The tarmac environments are primarily designed to be run by almost any kind of car. The dirt environment of Liège is meant for gravel rally racing. The snow of Alaska is meant for racing on snow and ice. The kart environments are short courses suited mostly for go-karts. Each environment includes a number of different features unique to that environment. For example, the Toscana environment features mostly a stroll along the Italian countryside in beautiful Toscana, complete with Italian Cypress trees. It also has fireworks going off at night.

If you have actually played with Gran Turismo 5, though, you know many of the environments appear very sparse. Almost like incomplete terrains. That is kind of like what my environment deal is like at present. Implementing some of my work will require some extra geometry edits as well as triangle tesselation. I do feel good about designing a practical course that could be implemented into games or certain other projects.

What I did was study how the roads for the environments were set up. I looked at differences in elevation, the placement of the road, grass, barriers, and things like that. Go back to the Toscana tarmac example for instance. You have a mostly wide road that has little edges on the side close to the rail fances. Down the way are usually either bushes or trees. These object placements do not have to be uniform all the way around the track, but you can put certain features in to make the environment a bit more entertaining and lively. I hope to learn from these in building my courses from scratch. Maybe if I learn certain algorithms to design procedural locations, I could create locations without having to do everything by hand.


Now you know a little more about my development of racing/driving games of late. I have yet to find a winning balance.





Now you have an update about my racing/driving game development. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Project Rhiannon Update 1

"Project Rhiannon" is my Godot Game Engine racing/driving project. I figured for this blog post, I will update you on how I have been doing with Project Rhiannon. I do not have any pictures to share right now of my work. However, I will tell you of certain elements of my project so far.

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Project Rhiannon: Update 1

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If you want to know more about "Project Rhiannon," please read Project Rhiannon.

Updates (as of August 3, 2018).

Project Rhiannon is my very first 3D type project of any kind through Godot Game Engine. I have developed Project Rhiannon to take advantage of certain vehicle models I have created. I have taken inspiration from other racing games and projects to try to develop something I think will lead to me creating my first true game.

After going around online, I have learned how to properly set up my vehicles in Godot. I learned more importantly how to set up the camera for vehicles. I found a camera setting I really liked and will use it for my viewing of cars in action. You actually don't need to have any kind of vehicle set up for rigging to be programmed in Godot. All you need are definitions for the Vehicle Body (VehicleBody) and the Vehicle Wheels (VehicleWheel). You then need to set up Collisions and Camera (with script) so you can complete your vehicle.

I used a static body voxel model as my way of learning Godot's vehicle dynamics. The interesting thing is that as long as you set up the VehicleBody and VehicleWheel locations and settings, you can make almost any vehicle controllable. I am not going for any all-out realism in attempting my first racing game project. One such aspect of realism involves wheels that turn. So in my project, the wheels are static. The vehicle still turns, though. I may consider in the future to make my cars ready for animation and enhance the array of options I have towards animating cars.

To develop a driving model for my machine, I had to try to adapt my driving model from other Godot projects. I made a simple driving model based on a Godot 3D project called "Truck Town." Truck Town is a driving model that features this hilly location as you try to drive around it. It comes with three models you can drive- a basic mini van, a semi truck with a trailer, and a tow truck with a vehicle chained to it. The main point was to learn to script a vehicle for movement. Once I learned how to properly script a vehicle, what was next was to enhance this model to something I am more comfortable with and can use to make 3D racing games with. I actually had to use a combination of Truck Town and a certain vehicle project from one Godot programmer.

The driving model is nowhere near perfect. On top of that, I am not planning on making some hardcore driving sim. A lot of the issues were mostly ironed out. The car tends to get jittery when stopping. Also, there are times when the vehicle model would do hard braking when I let go of the throttle. It also would have the tendency to spin out 180° when I let go of the throttle or

The scene I set up for Project Rhiannon is a simple plane that the car drives around on. While I have a basic plane for a driving surface, I also have a voxel model that I used as a tile for a race track. I don't think I have properly set up that voxel model tile, so the car runs through it when the car should be trying to either hit or drive onto it. I feel I will have a lot more special plans for my work once I successfully develop a race track. I want to make sure there is actual gravity involved.

A New Voxel Vehicle Plan?

I had initially planned to offer my voxel vehicles made in MagicaVoxel available for download and/or sale. However, as I became intrigued by setting up my static model voxel vehicles through Godot, I figured this could be an opportunity to create a full-fledged game. So what I might do is take my voxel vehicle creations and give them plenty of life by coming up with a variety of options. What has to happen is that I give each vehicle its own sort of identity and performance characteristics. In other words, I want my compact cars to perform differently from my trucks. What I will have to do is look up a variety of car specifications to develop material telling of their performance.

To get an idea of my voxel vehicle model creations, take a look at this post:

Future Goals of "Project Rhiannon."

Here are various other plans I hope to accomplish as part of Project Rhiannon. They all represent a number of issues I want to correct or want to start:

• correct issues with handling model
• develop a race track
• set up waypoints/checkpoints for the race track
• set up a race system
• create racing AI (artificial intelligence)

These are among many goals to accomplish. Actually, I begun working on trying to make some kind of track, but not too much progress has been made on that front. I am still testing out options and trying to find something I can work with. I do think I am getting better here. Just still a long way from something really complete.





I will keep you all posted on any updates. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Project Rhiannon

My first #GodotEngine 3D project is what I am calling "Project Rhiannon." Project Rhiannon is a racing game project inspired by the 2011 independent/indie game "3D Pixel Racing." I am inspired to "build a better mouse trap" with Project Rhihannon. There were faults that prevented 3D Pixel Racing from being better than what it could have been. To this point, I managed to try to learn using 3D in Godot Game Engine by coming up with my own racing game project.

I am using a lot of studying of "3D Pixel Racing" as well as the 3D Platformer template to help me conceptualize building a proper prototype from "Project Rhiannon." Important in the creation of Project Rhiannon is that of building a 3D world along with a proper vehicle setup. This project was to be a 2D-style racing game in the mold of several Mode 7 games on the Super Nintendo. I chose this method first because I wasn't comfortable with 3D and using 3D in Godot. Over time, I felt my project would be better served in a proper 3D space. Considering my love affair with voxels, I wanted to make a proper 3D racing game utilizing those voxel models.

While I have not come up with a proper prototype, I did take some of my past assets to build a conceptual idea for a racing game. I may plan to design exclusive vehicles and such just for this game should I develop it. I will keep you posted if I do come up with any interesting material for any racing project using voxels. Here is a picture of what I have conceptualized in the meanwhile:


^ This is a concept of Project Rhiannon using one of my past voxel vehicles made in MagicaVoxel.

So now you know about Project Rhiannon! :) I'll keep you posted if I come up with something cool! To see my other Godot material and projects, visit my link on my Weebly site here: My Game Devlopment Portfolio.





Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Project Veritas

Project Veritas is a prototype for a 2D top-down game in Godot. I have a picture of my work as of the typing of this post, but nothing real interesting to share. It was formerly named "Project Missoni." My biggest problem is in the collision detection. I had to adjust a previous top-down project substantially because of a wonky collision model I had set for it. That is why I suspended trying to come up with a top-down game made in Godot. That is, unless I learn how to better apply collision details for tile maps for top-down games.

Any Top-Down Games in the Works?

There are a number of top-down game concepts I have in mind. These include:

• a Pac-Man style maze game.
• a top-down action game similar to Smash TV.
• (possible) a top-down action RPG similar to The Legend of Zelda.

I have another top-down game in mind, but it is a racing game, and I want that to fall into a completely different project.

Considerations for Beta Projects.

I am considering looking for certain sites to host any kind of games I come up with. I may use the popular itch.io basically for sharing demos. I will use my blog(s) and my Weebly site to promote any real games I come up with. My ultimate goal is to make a game of any kind and be able to release it. I am eyeing Windows, Google Play, and HTML5. With more resources, I may test offering games and apps for Apple and iOS among other platforms in addition to the main sources I am targeting.





Stay tuned to this blog for more updates! The best way to do so is to Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in some capacity. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Do Indie Game Developers Get a Bad Rap?

#indiedev #gamedev is often dismissed by gamers. They get a bad rap from a lot of people. Most of this is because a lot of indie games seem to lack the polish of AAA-quality games. However, the indie gaming scene is unique in that you don't have to have world-class talent and exorbitant amounts of money to make a game. Even hobbyist-level and casual-level gamers have produced games that can still be fun to play. Trouble is, some people think the only games that matter are those from major developers. It is as if indie gamers are not supposed to challenge even the best developers. This blog post shares my ideas in regards to how independent developers are treated vs. most of the major developers and games.

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Do Indie Developers Get a Bad Rap?

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To further expand upon my points, I want to share a number of different aspects about indie gaming and indie game development. So please read on to get my full thoughts.

The Appeal of Indie Gaming.

In any arena of competition, one is driven by the prospect of taking on the best of the best. Even those who don't have otherworldly talent are still able to keep pace and challenge the best. You see it all the time in sports. Take college basketball, for instance. You may be from a small university or college that no one even knows where it is (or cares where you are from), yet you can still defeat even the better teams in the sport. That prospect alone of being talented enough to defeat the bigger programs is motivation to be your best. Game development can be quite the same.

What may be one of the biggest independent games of all time is Minecraft. Look at the success Minecraft has garnered even in the wake of all the Call of Duty games and stuff. Heck, there is even a channel on Pluto devoted to Minecraft! If Minecraft was able to achieve this level of success, ANY game (even from indie developers) can reach incredible levels of success. Another game I want to mention in regards to the appeal of indie gaming is an emotional indie game called "That Dragon, Cancer." The game was about a father whose son is dying from cancer. I remember I was crying when I saw the trailer for that game. "That Dragon, Cancer" even won awards, and even the acceptance speech had me crying. Well-executed indie games can be just as incredible as even the best AAA titles. Some independent games probably introduce concepts and ideas that a lot of mainstream and well-recognized developers wouldn't be able to mimic or better. That is what makes the indie gaming scene mostly unique compared to mainstream developers.

Maybe the biggest deal about independent gaming is the different ideas and execution. So many different developers in the indie scene are all about procedural material and complete randomness. These indie games usually want to produce experiences different from the mainstream. These ideas show a lot of times with their work. Not many can appreciate the greatness provided in a number of independent games.

Hobbyist Indie Gaming.

What about hobbyist and inexperienced game developers? Some people don't even have the resources and/or time to make a AAA-style game. Can a game still be fun even if from a hobbyist developer? Absolutely. Trouble is, people think the only games that matter are major titles from major developers. So hobbyists don't get any kind of recognition or respect from discriminating gamers. The mindset is usually that a lot of independent gamers make came that are done in only a short amount of time and doesn't stack up to larger titles. Or, people will fall into the presumption that ugly-looking games don't equal great games.

The Indie Gaming Challenge.

Some people might even feel indie games are either ruining gaming or just flooding the gaming realm with substandard games. One thing that makes indie games unique is their varied and diverse ideas. A number of games introduce concepts mostly different from a lot of AAA games and game developers. Some indie games can be challenging. Sometimes, TOO challenging. It can also be challenging as an indie game developer when you don't have any real recognizable name. These reasons, among many others, is why not a lot of indie game developers prosper as much as they could.

Just like any arena, there are multiple entities with varying levels of talent. So you shouldn't feel bad that your level of talent is not at the level of various other developers. You work to the level that you are most comfortable with. You also should improve your craft when you can however you can. Indie games may not reach levels of success like Minecraft, Stardew Valley, Elliot Quest, Fist Puncher, Guacamelee!, or anything like that. They don't have to. I remember when some kids were trying to code for the OUYA Android gaming console. They were as young as 8 or even 12. Is anyone going to look at their code as being the absolute best gaming experiences? I doubt it. Again- success will come if people enjoy your work. Just don't be disappointed because you feel like an also-ran in the gaming realm. You are part of a scene that is unique, distinctive, and somewhat rebellious as an independent game developer.

One more thing to think about with indie gaming is their impact to certain platforms. For example, a lot of game developers have been a good bit intrigued on the Nintendo scene. Indie game developers made their mark on Sony systems, Microsoft systems, and even various computer interfaces. Those who market for mainstream platforms just want to share the spotlight with popular systems. Developing for such systems can cost a lot! I read it costs about $500 USD to develop [as a registered developer] for Nintendo platforms. For Sony platforms, a license to develop for Sony systems can cost you $5K USD! I am not sure about XBOX development costs, though. It is not as if indie games should be relegated to sites like Newgrounds, Kongregate, or sites like that.

Lessons from the OUYA.

What does the OUYA have to do with indie game development? The OUYA taught me a lot and helped me appreciate the indie scene. It made me see what even non-attractive names can still produce quality games. I am not expecting games to rival AAA games from AAA developers, and I don't only want to play games that everyone talks about. Some of the best titles may be games that are NOT talked about. Some games produced to the OUYA are excellent; some others are very cheap games that someone made over a weekend or something. Regardless, it helped me to realize what all is possible in game development and the level of skill of various developers.

SIDE NOTE: Games made for the OUYA are nowadays on the Cortex Store and for the Razer Forge TV.


Time now for some final thoughts.

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Final Thoughts

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Independent game developers may not get as much attention and praise, but they are very much a part of the fabric that makes up gaming in general. Indie game developers are in no way any disappointment. Indie game developers are not filler for gaming libraries. We are all a part of the vast and expansive world of gaming. We make and play games and put our hearts into all of our work. I just wish a lot of people would stop assuming that just because a game is made by an independent that it is not supposed to be as good as major titles. Maybe people don't want indie games to overtake various top-level games. I also wish people would stop thinking that games that don't look pretty or polished aren't good enough to be in gaming libraries. Okay- so maybe a game looks like a bunch of school kids designed the art in Microsoft paint. It can still be a good game as long as it is well coded and is engaging. Even a hobbyist or a casual-type game developer can produce quality games even if people think indie games aren't all that good. Some people even disregard indie gamers for lacking the polish to be great games. Just like top-level developers, even indie gamers have their own levels of talent.

In conclusion, I think indie game developers get a bad rap. Indie game developers shouldn't be so disregarded, but they are disregarded among certain discriminating gamers. Don't kick down the indie developers! Instead, give them a chance. Treat indie game developers like small businesses- they may not be the biggest names, but they are at least trying to make a living and establish a name. Even hobbyists and small teams (even solo game developers) just want to make games for people who play and enjoy. If you care so much about only top-level games and developers, support them and stop bashing the indie scene. Just don't get upset when indie games ultimately get equal or similar attention to top-level developers. Also, don't feel as if indie game developers can't cut the mustard with major titles that they have to *settle* for not-so-popular gaming platforms (such as OUYA/Cortex or Kongregate).

Respect every and all game developers- hobbyists to professionals, no/low budget to high budget, low income to high income, and entities like that.





Those are my views regarding whether indie gamers get a bad rap from gamers in general. Let me know what you think:

Do you think independent/indie gamers get a bad rap? Why do you feel the way you do about this topic?

Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Project Antoinette

In my #gamedev adventures using @GodotEngine, I have developed "Project Antoinette." Project Antoinette is my development base made in Godot Game Engine to make a 2D platformer and various assets for platformers. I plan on making characters also with different abilities. Project Antoinette is not meant to be a proper game. Elements from it, however, may trickle into individual game projects. For now, I am simply trying to slowly learn the ins and outs of game development while trying many different concepts.

As of the initial date of this blog post typing (June 11, 2018), I have mostly followed different YouTube tutorials and Godot Docs notes to build my character and design worlds. What I HAVEN'T been able to do yet was code for collectable items and taking on coding enemies. These are only a few different platformer elements I have not yet perfected or mastered.

Project Antoinette does not resemble a proper game I am working on. Project Antoinette is more like my sandbox for trying different elements of 2D platformer games. There may be child projects that may stem from the parent of "Project Antoinette." That is what I am at least hoping for with this project. For now, I have a somewhat better understanding of what I want to do with platformers and how I hope to pace everything.

I will not post any sort of pictures on Project Antoinette until I make something actually interesting. Though in future posts, I may fill you in on my learning of game development using Godot with Project Antoinette as my base.





I am pleased for you all to continue to check out my work. Let's keep that relationship going, shall we? Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Godot Game Engine

I have never made any kind of game. Attempts at doing so have hit multiple snags, either trying to learn code or simply trying to build everything. The Godot game engine provides new hope for me. For most of this weekend, I learned from a tutorial series on how to make at least one kind of game. All that remains is to put my skills into practice and try to develop something special. This blog post is a look at the Godot game engine and what I hope to accomplish with it.

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Godot Game Engine

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Let's get to know Godot and get my thoughts on it.

A Brief Overview of Godot.

Godot is no Johnny-come-lately or overnight success. It was earlier in March 2018 when Godot version 3 was released. Godot is a completely free and open-source engine for making various games. I believe I read its programming language is a variation of C and C++. You can export games into various formats, including (but not limited to) Android, Blackberry, HTML5, and Windows Desktop among others. This game engine has come along very well as a free alternative to Unity. While game engines like Unity3D and the Unreal Development Kit are free to download, you won't have to pay anything for Godot or to use various resources.

Why Godot?

For most people, I would be asked about why I didn't create something with Unity. Unity is, after all, the most powerful program for making even basic games. One could even write a game using something like Visual Studio or Netbeans. To be honest, I haven't had the patience to learn Unity. Even with Godot's strengths and weaknesses, I seem fairly convinced that I can confidently make games using Godot. Godot just has a certain feel to it to where I felt more able to envision and create whatever it is I want to create for a game. I never felt confident *trying* to be patient with Unity.

Unity is more 3D based even with 2D games. Godot seems more pure 2D, though you can create 3D games with Godot. For those who do not have lots of money or skill, Godot is a true boon towards the game development realm. There is not too much a learning curve with Godot. Yet, at the same time, you don't feel entirely lost using Godot as opposed to Unity or any other game development kit. After seeing a few videos, I thought a good bit about how I can develop some kind of game. I felt as confident to make a game with Godot as I was in making 3D models using Wings3D. Anything to manifest and instill confidence is always a plus.

An Ambition Reborn... Again.

Every past attempt to try to make something has hit some kind of snag to where I eventually put it aside and almost never return to it. This time seems different with Godot. As I learn to better structure my visions, I feel better able to create something I can actually be proud of.

Let me share some back stories. It was back in 2012 or so when I bought an OUYA with the intent of making games. While the OUYA's success was mixed (some will say total failure), I saw potential in it to design games with. I do not own any kind of smartphone, and I rarely use my WiFi Android devices for gaming. I had a Google Nexus Player for possible Android TV game development. I did everything from buying new PC monitors and even an HDTV to simply try to get all of this to work. It was always a vision of mine to make a game. However, I was never on the mindset of it being a life goal to make a game.

With all of this said, Godot is not my last chance at making a game, but it is my best chance of making one. You can be assured that I will share my material across social media as well as here on "John's Creative Space" should I create something worth sharing.

For More Information...

So... do you want to try Godot for yourself? Please visit the following website to begin your game development journey with Godot: godotengine.org! You can visit this site for documents to help you with Godot Version 3: Godot Docs - 3.0 Branch.





I will keep you posted on all of my creative works. Until then, I'd like to thank you for taking time out of your day to visit my blog. Support is always special to me no matter how much it is. I am just glad you can provide your own support to help keep me relevant. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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My Assetto Corsa Teams

In #AssettoCorsa and with Content Manager, I assembled some teams. And in this "John's Creative Space" blog post, I will share you those team creations of mine. This continues my groove of car skinning for Assetto Corsa. You can view all of my work on my Weebly site, but I want to share my work here as well to keep this blog flowing.

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My Assetto Corsa Teams

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When creating liveries for Assetto Corsa, you can just create a basic skin for any vehicle. You and then program any number of racing suits for the driver and the team.

But before I show you my team liveries, let me share this with you...

Skins... AND Team?

I practiced looking at making a car livery along with making a team and driver set to make a complete team. This was my first practice:


This was practice on making a team. What isn't visible are the headphones on the teams underneath the tent.

There is an ac_crew.dds file to each skin in Assetto Corsa. The elements of that file determine the image details expressed by the team. Assetto Corsa offers a good array of default racing gear to where you feel you lack enough quality suits, gloves, and helmets. You kind of have to play around with the options of already-available content, but you should be fine unless you want to make completely unique racing gear.


Now on to my team liveries. I will share with you three teams I created.

Team: Victoria's Secret Racing.

This is "Victoria's Secret Racing" with some very sexy BMW Z4 GT3s.

My first team I attempted to put together in a team picture is "Victoria's Secret Racing." This is a team of thee BMW Z4 GT3s. The premise was to make a sexy set of paintschemes for a sexy race car. I initially planned on all cars to be black with pink accents. Eventually, I chose to make only one of them black with pink accents. The other two were two shades of pink and pink with white. The cars represent three different lines from the Victoria's Secret line. The first one is Victoria's Secret itself, the second one is the Juniors-oriented Victoria's Secret PINK line, and the third one is the Victoria Sport (or VSX) line.

Team: Sodexo Sport.

Three Porsche 911 RSRs make up this French team of the French brand Sodexo.

Sodexo is a company that specializes in quality of life services. It is a French company I learned of when I was hospitalized last year. I mostly know them for providing good food to stay nourished. In making my Sodexo team, I had trouble wondering how to utilize the template for the car. So I did my best and came up with the scheme you see for this team in Assetto Corsa.

Team: Roshfrans Racing.

Meet this Mexican team of BMW M3 GT2s.

Of the three teams I am featuring here in this post, "Roshfranz Racing" is the only team based on freely-available cars in Assetto Corsa. So this is not downloadable content for AC. Roshfranz is a Mexican company that produces car care products. I picked to paint the cars black, but each team car features the three different colors that make up Roshfrans. Also among the sponsors is Volaris. Volaris is a Mexican airline.


Now you know about the teams I created. For more plans with my work, visit the next section.

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My Plans With These Assetto Corsa Teams

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Thank you for looking at my teams! I want you to know something if these pictures have interested you, though. I am thinking of providing my skins and other work to sites like RaceDepartment or NoGripRacing. I hope I can generate enough interest to be able to offer my work to all of you. So if I somehow get a good amount of interest, I will provide my work online for you to enjoy. Just be sure to thank me, of course!

All of the teams do not have actual drivers assigned to them. I'll leave that up to you in case you want to set up team liveries and such. To see all of my work work for Assetto Corsa, please visit my Assetto Corsa portfolio on JMDesigns.





I hope you enjoy my work here. Glad you could drop by! Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Project Defiant

Project Defiant is the codename for my ambitious eBook project. Previously, I made two eBooks as part of my "Proof Posi+ive" series- both nonfiction. This other eBook project is ambitious for many reasons. For one, this is a fictional piece of mine. I will tell you more about this project I am working on.

About the Label: Projects

Blog posts in this category relate to certain projects I am working on. They will fall under certain names and do not entirely represent the final product when finished, if projects are indeed finished.

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Project Defiant

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Here is a look at the basics of this eBook fiction I am working on.

Basic Overview.

A young male bored with masculine fashion plans to try a new sort of lifestyle. He decides to try wearing feminine clothes and try to live life as a male in feminine clothing. His journey and his adventures lead him to many different changes in perception and in acceptance. He finds out more about himself, and perhaps also take on new responsibilities and new perceptions. All the while, he begins to take on a new personality and has new thoughts about himself and the world around him. How far can his experiences go?

The "Ambitious" Elements.

I feel like this is an ambitious project because it involves elements much different from what I normally would focus on. For one, a few LGBT-style references are exhibited. I also have introduced romantic and seductive elements. Needless to say, this one will not be as friendly to all audiences. However, if I am going to express these elements, I am going to do it smartly and not casually swear on a constant basis. I am also not going to casually throw around seductive references just to remind you that this is not some not-safe-for-work piece of literature.

Inspirations.

The main inspiration is in the beauty of male androgyny. The protagonist of my story is an androgynous male who is (to quote from the LGBT realm) passable, or the ability to be perceived as a member of one gender as opposed to the one assigned at birth. I have no actual inspirations. It's more just fantasy.

Conversely, you could say that the beauty of the male body being as enticing as even the most seductive females is a major inspiration to this project. This project of mine does have some LGBT elements to it, but this is not meant to be exclusively LGBT literature.


Now that you know about some of my project, let me explain a little progress.

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Project Defiant: Progress (as of February 14, 2018)

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When I looked at my previous two eBooks, I noticed I have typed more than 50K characters for my work. My novel currently is at about 63K characters. I am carefully planning my story. I seem more interested in trying to piece together individual experiences rather than properly structure a story from beginning to conclusion. Formal writing is not my forte. So I am somewhat casual with putting the story together. I am doing things like limiting contractions, avoiding double negatives, and stuff like that.


I may want to try to provide further details of my work on Patreon, including some details too good to share in a blog post or even in a free post on my Pateron page. Even if just to revive my Patreon page, I'll do what I can to share some extra details about my work. Want to contribute to my work through Patreon? Here's your invitation:

John on Pateron





Once I complete my project (or if I do), I will surely share my work with you all to enjoy. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Assetto Corsa Skinning

Skinning for Aseeto Corsa cars is something I've done lately in trying to learn how to mod cars for this game. I have used GIMP for my skinning of cars. The really nice thing about this game is that all cars have templates for them supplied by the developer, Kunos Simulazioni. Part of the process is in trying to learn how to properly put in my material. I will share with you some of the skins I made for Assetto Corsa and what I have learned.

First, here is a decent skin I created:


^ This is a 2016 Audi R8 LMS colored in my Moonlight Motorsports livery.

This skin was created by me after learning how to properly design liveries for cars using GIMP. Part of this involved some trial and error. Making a skin with GIMP is not really difficult; it is just not as efficient and intuitive as with Photoshop.

What are my recommendations? First off, save the PSD format template to GIMP's proprietary XCF format. If you try to save over the PSD in GIMP, you will lose the texture group information- and you don't want that. So try to save the PSD file into XCF before doing any painting in GIMP. Assetto Corsa uses the DDS format for textures. The recommended format is DXT1 for textures that do not use alpha channels. Use DXT5 format DDS for images that have transparency to them. Transparency options usually are reserved for things like windshield graphics and some car skins that are basically overlays to cars.

When you save a DDS file through GIMP, the car skin will appear light at first. It is as if gamma correction is provided when a skin is successfully loaded into the game or through some external viewer. Also, pay special attention to what layer is active in GIMP, because the active layer will be exported when you try to load the skin onto a car. So when you're done with all of the livery graphics, flatten the image so all visible layers are applied to the car. Make sure also to not have the wireframe layer active if a skin has a wireframe layer. What about the colors? The method I use is to darken the color lightness and add some saturation. Use the "Hue-Saturation" option from the Colors menu in GIMP. The settings I use are Lightness at -75 and about Saturation of 15. After doing this, the skin comes out properly when I upload the skins into Assetto Corsa.

So in review, here is the skinning process:
• paint your livery onto a given car
• flatten the image
• darken the Lightness of the image and add some Saturation
• save the DDS file in DXT1 format, and also generate mipmaps

If you have Assetto Corsa, I recommend using "Content Manager" to preview skins for cars. The program updates skins in real time, so you can edit the skins as many times as you like to sample your skin before playing it in the game.


Now for the trial and error process. Consider the following:

Skinning Too Light.

^ This was a Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport appearing too bright.

With this effort, the colors appear faded, like badly worn jeans or other clothes. The colors are not rich enough and real enough for my tastes. Actually, I had previously added more saturation just to make sure the colors appear right. Even still, there was that sort of gamma correction that made the colors appear brighter than they should be. I didn't want that kind of gamma correction hampering the quality of my livery designs.

Skinning Too Dark.

^ This Mazda MX-5 Cup test car was colored darker than the original image.

There was a point where I sampled colors too dark. What I did was apply an all-black layer and gave it some opacity. This would darken my image without needing to apply Lightness or Saturation once I flattened the image. This worked well. However, it made some of my skins appear darker and less saturated than what they should be. So I then retired that method.

Lessons Learned.

Until I find a way around gamma correction, this is the method I use to try to apply proper color quality to my car skins in Assetto Corsa. The cars still come out beautifully once I import them into the game.





Happy new year, mates! Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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