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Articles by Venatus Games
Nightfall
Nightfall is a block/voxel type game being developed by Venatus. It is an open world sandbox game that pits you against dynamic and dangerous enemies along with other players. You can work together or go it alone to try and survive the harsh nights of Nightfall. Nightfall is almost entirely a modifiable sandbox where players can do whatever they want. To survive, players will need to gather resources and construct a shelter. However, when night falls, things get much more difficult.
Engaging Independent Creative Professionals
Creating a win-win Relationship This is a short list of tips for Indie Game Developers who want to engage Independent Creative Professionals such as Audio Designers, Artists, Writers and the like. In this article, I will be addressing common issues from the standpoint of an Audio Designer or Composer. Outsourcing work to contractors can be extremely rewarding and efficient, or it can an extremely painful road, littered with distrust and vague agreements.
Fast GUI Rendering using Texture2DArray
A lot of the times when working with custom game engines the UI has always been a struggle, both when it comes to usability and performance. To combat this I have worked a lot with GUI rendering in mind when structuring the engine, and with this article I want to share my results.
C++: Custom memory allocation
Fast memory allocations along with memory leak detection can have a big impact on games performance. C++ provides two well known functions to allocate dynamic (heap) memory (malloc and new), these functions are usually very slow because they're general purpose functions and in some implementations require a context-switch from user mode into kernel mode. These functions also do not provide any kind of memory leak detection system natively.
YAML Basics and Parsing with yaml-cpp
YAML is a general-use data serialization language. Its most common uses are storing configurations, data persistence and online software messaging. As its name states, YAML is not a markup language, and this allows for more readable code.
How To Make My Sample Library Sound Good - Part 1 Staccato Strings
Velocity, timing and duration are very important. The use of 'expression' CC can be a key to an appealing performance. Strings are indeed one of the most difficult instruments to sound 'convincing' Edited December 13, 2017 by Big Impact Sound Composer for Media
Composing Music For Video Games - Tempo
Hi Matmilne, Thanks for your response and I completely agree. However this singular post is part of a series. The first of which is already on here and the next of which I am currently writing/doing the video for. These tutorials as stated at the start are an overview of areas composers need to be aware of when working with visual media. And they aren't specifically aimed at us composers who already have experience, but people looking to get into the field.
Skinned Mesh Animation Using Matrices
This article describes a method of animating skinned meshes using matrices. Games often use animated characters which walk, run, shoot, etc. Those animated characters are often rendered using an animated skinned mesh. Such skinned meshes and animation sequences can be created using several modeling programs (such as Blender). Those models can then be exported in a format compatible with various API import routines.
How to Work with FBX SDK
I have wanted to make an FBX Exporter to convert FBX files to my own format for a while. The entire process is not very smooth, mainly because FBX's official documentation is not very clear. Plus, since FBX format is utilized by a number of applications, rather than just game engines, the sample code provided is not using the more common technical terms we use in game development.
10 Things You Didn't Know You Needed from Crossplatform Mobile Game Engines
When 2 years ago I started looking for a crossplatform mobile game engine, it was really hard to find one that matched my needs, because as it turns out, I did not actually know what I needed. I was choosing them by completely different characteristic that proved to be irrelevant in the end. For example, I wanted an engine which provided development in the language I already knew and was comfortable with. That actually put a very strict limitation and I was missing out on many great engines.
Custom Deleters for C++ Smart Pointers
Originally posted at Bartek's Code and Graphics blog. Let's say we have the following code: LegacyList* pMyList = new LegacyList(); ... pMyList->ReleaseElements(); delete pMyList; In order to fully delete an object we need to do some additional action. How to make it more C++11? How to use unique_ptr or shared_ptr here? Intro We all know that smart pointers are really nice things and we should be using them instead of raw new and delete.
Shadows and light on Kepler 22
As many of you know lighting a wide environment on a mobile game can be quite a challenge. Static appraches, like lightmaps, require far too much memory and dynamic tecniques too much cpu and gpu power.
Game Engine Containers - handle_map
This article explores the creation of a data container for game programming. This container is meant to take the place of C++ standard library containers such as std::map and std::unordered_map, with an alternative that stores data contiguously in memory. Data should be contiguous to maximize cache locality when iterating over the data, resulting in faster performance vs. containers that individually allocate elements on the heap.
Top 5 Most Expensive Game Localization Mistakes
This article was originally posted on Level Up Translation's blog on August 19th 2016. Gaming is one of the few truly global industries, filled with passionate fans (like us) who really care about their favorite titles. Which means simply doing localization isn't enough. You have to nail it. Poor localization can make your games more expensive to produce, hurt sales and create all kinds of bad press. Yet we see publishers large and small making the same mistakes time and again.
3 Steps to Mastering Your Game's Soft Launch
In one of the largest supermarket outlets in the whole of the UK, just down the road from where your humble blogger lives, sits a kitchen. Built in plain sight, this bizarre little pantry feels a somewhat curious companion to the seemingly endless run of aisles selling all the goods you'd expect a supermarket to sell.
Pupping - a method for serializing data
Serialization is the process of taking structures and objects along with their states and converting them to data that is reproducable with any computer environment. There are many ways to do this - it can be a struggle to figure out something that consistantly works. Here I will talk about a pattern or method I like to call pupping, and it is very similar to the method boost uses for its serialization library. Pup stands for pack-unpack, and so pupping is packing/unpacking.
Five and a Half Steps to Efficient Meetings
Meetings are boring, overcrowded, take up much of your valuable time and don't produce the desired results. Or they can be interactive, efficient, goal-driven, interesting and sometimes even fun. So how to go about planning and running successful meetings? Five and a half Steps to successful meetings Running successful meetings is not difficult; it just needs some preparation and a bit of practice.
Automata, Virtual Machines and Compilers - Part 2
Welcome to the second article on the topic of Automata, Virtual Machines and Compilers. This time around I'm going to show and explain how to extend the original source code in the first article I wrote on this by adding variables into it, and of course operators bound to them. Please read the first article if you have not already, otherwise this one may not make much sense for you. As for the required knowledge, understanding the previous article and topics in it is most likely enough.
Discussing Errors in Unity3D's Open-Source Components
Unity3D is one of the most promising and rapidly developing game engines to date. Every now and then, the developers upload new libraries and components to the official repository, many of which weren't available in as open-source projects until recently. Unfortunately, the Unity3D developer team allowed the public to dissect only some of the components, libraries, and demos employed by the project, while keeping the bulk of its code closed.
GameDev Protips: 5 Basic Yet Highly Effective Marketing Strategies
Indie developers are mostly brilliant when it comes to constructing their game but when release time comes many are often left with the question: "How do I get people to notice my game?" There really is no secret. The ones that find the most success are usually the ones with the best presentation and marketing alongside a solid core gameplay experience. Here are a few tips on how to get your game out there to the masses the right way.
Procedural Modeling of Buildings with Shape Grammars
Improvements in computer hardware have made the reproduction of larger and more detailed urban environments possible and the users are demanding the full use of such capabilities. However, these environments are complex spaces, offering a wide variety of elements and modeling them, using traditional tools, may take several man years since every urban element must be modelled in detail.
Elegant Design: An Applied Example
Foreword Learning to make content for games is a journey that never ends, but trying to break in for the first time is a difficult process. When I started several years ago, I came across too many theoretical articles on content creation for games and too few applied examples. To this end, I've put together this brief article on elegant design, but decided to do so from the vantage point of an applied (theoretical) example.
GPS on the Microsoft Hololens
The Microsoft Hololens technology provides a myriad of possibilities, from its speech recognition to the gaze and gesture controls, all in an untethered environment. But there is one glaring omission, the lack of a GPS sensor onboard the device. This article provides a way to transmit a Bluetooth GPS signal from your smartphone (in this article, an Android OS) to the Hololens. This technique leverages Bluetooth LE advertiser/watcher technologies available on the Android and UWP platforms.
Intermediate Advanced Mercurial DVCS (Hg) tips
Mercurial (Hg) is a powerful and sleek distributed version control system (DVCS). It's quick and gives you the ability to do anything you'd ever want with source control. It is an extendible platform because it provides a base command set, while more advanced commands have to be explicitly enabled. It is made to be user-friendly and makes sure you know what you're doing. Some user-made extensions can even be downloaded externally and can become a part of your standard workflow.
Anomalies in X-Ray Engine
The X-Ray Engine is a game engine, used in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series. Its code was made public in September 16 2014, and since then, STALKER fans continue its development. A large project size, and a huge number of bugs in the games, gives us a wonderful chance to show what PVS-Studio is capable of. Introduction X-Ray was created by a Ukrainian company, GSC GameWorld, for the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.
Rapid Prototyping Tip: Defining data as code files
>> It's barely a little bit of extra syntax fluff, >> Yes, it does require more syntax fluff, the extra keystrokes for coding is nothing compared to the extra keystrokes for implementing a data driven solution with parser, data files etc. this makes non-data driven a very powerful tool for increasing productivity - but one which is most useful to solo devs, and not really an option for non-coders or large teams.
20 Best Unity Tips and Tricks for Game Developers
Unity is a popular game development platform. It is impressive regarding functionality, and also caters to the different game development requirement.
What Languages to Localize Your Steam Game Into?
By mujina What could be a way of avoiding using inheritance and virtual methods when designing components for an entity-component-system? I'll be more specific about my design issue: I currently have different classes for different kinds of colliders (let's say, CircleCollider and LineCollider).
Frustum Culling
Frustum culling is process of discarding objects not visible on the screen. As we don't see them ?EUR" we don't need to spend resources on computer to prepare it for rendering and rendering itself.
7 Effective Tips To Create an Engaging Game Level Design
A good game speaks for itself; the design, gameplay, plot, user interface and every aspect of the game would be well-thought and planned to complement each other. There are multiple factors to be regulated to develop an enjoyable and engaging game, and that's what mobile game development is all about. Most popular games have a very clear storyline, making it easy for the players to understand what their role is and what they are expected to do.
What's Game Seasonality And How Can You Calculate It? (+Free Template)
As the old saying goes, we have good news and bad news. The good news is that we're already half way through summer. The bad news is that the revenue of a mobile application, game or any other product often drops during the hot months, which has a perfectly reasonable explanation. In this article, we'll talk about such a phenomenon asseasonalityin the values of key project indicators, discuss how to find it and use it for your own good. WHAT IS SEASONALITY?
Navigation Meshes and Pathfinding
I recently worked on a path-finding algorithm used to move an AI agent into an organically generated dungeon. It's not an easy task but because I've already worked on Team Fortress 2 cards in the past, I already knew navigation meshes (navmesh) and their capabilities. Why Not Waypoints? As described in this paper, waypoint networks were in the past used in video games to save valuable resources. It was an acceptable compromise : level designers already knew where NPCs could and could not go.
Creating a Holographic Animation in Toolbag
In this article, 3D Environment Artist Aditya Rajani goes in-depth in how he created a Ferrari Formula 1 car in 3D using Maya and Quixel. He shared insights on how to avoid some common mistakes while modeling and texturing and achieve realistic results.
Ray Tracing - Part 1
Welcome to this first article of this ray tracing series. We will be building a fully functional ray tracer, covering multiple rendering techniques, as well as learning all the theory behind them. In this part we will whip up a basic ray tracer and cover the minimum needed to make it work.
Inverse Lerp - a super useful yet often overlooked function
Hello everyone I am here to gather your opinion, remarks, ideas or any constructive criticism you may have about what I am going to present. Don’t be shy! A bit of background: I am working alone on an indy web-based game, a simulation of RPG (idle game) where the player controls a group of 4 characters that he can sent into battle and that will fight automatically based on some AI preference that are similar to the FF 12 system (but more complex / powerful).
Overview of Modern Volume Rendering Techniques for Games - Part 2
I also agree with TheItalianJob71. We know what voxels are, and even if we didn't, a few links to a really good resource would be sufficient for getting up to speed. You could remove that whole section and just point to a reference so that you can focus on stuff which can't be easily found in a wikipedia article or quick google search. Same with the section on the marching cubes algorithm.
Physically Based Shading For Artists
Thank you very much Azaral! You should start with node-based shader creation tools like in UDK or Unity(plugin). It's really not that hard to get into but really opens your mind to the possibilities of shader work :) There are also quite a few useful DVDs from Eat3D and 3D motive. Best of luck! Andrew
When a Game Teaches You
Grab your beer, your cup of coffee, or whatever... The tale begins here. A year ago, we met some lovely people from a training center. They had this training course in programming and were looking for a game to help their participants learn programming more efficiently. They didn't have a ton of money but the idea of making a game about coding was enticing. There is no need to tell you how coding is important in video games development, and at Fishing Cactus, we really do love making games.
Beginners Guide to User Testing With Children
this is not trolling but joking, can you understant that? Anyway jokes apart, the legal aspect is very important, what I wanted to bring in evidence, is that not only the "environment" must be child-wise, but also the "game", there are many aspects and laws that limit the game content. So what exactly a game must include? Is that only "PEGI" stuff or there's more?
Ditching Diffuse Maps
One of the most amazing things for me as an artist that current generation brought with it was the introduction of the concept of shaders. No longer did we describe surfaces merely by flat images that already incorporated the majority of the lighting. Our materials became vastly richer with much more dynamic per-pixel lighting as well, and hands down had the biggest impact on the visual definition of the current generation of real-time graphics.
Programming By Example - Adding AngelScript to a Game Part 2
For Part 1, please click here: Programming By Example - Adding AngelScript to a Game Part 1 For Part 3, please click here: Programming By Example - Adding AngelScript to a Game Part 3 Introduction This is part 2 of the article Adding AngelScript to an Existing Game. This article series focuses on how to add a scripting language to a game and goes beyond just teaching a scripting language's API. Using the XACTGame example from the Microsoft Direct X SDK, I will detail the entire process.
Math for Game Developers: Geometry Testing
We are looking for qualified game developers to participate in a 10-minute online survey. Qualified participants will be offered a $15 incentive for your time and insights. Click here to start! Take me to the survey!
Indie Device Anxiety Syndrome (IDAS)
If there was an Indie Anonymous Meeting where I could stand up and tell my story, this would be it. I have the same fear every morning when the post arrives on my doorstep. The fear that Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo will deliver me the hardware SDK for their current consoles, just because I applied for a license to develop for their platform.
Making a Game Engine: Core Design Principles
This barely scratches the surface of game engines.
The Complete Guide to Free Commercial Use Music & SFX That Don't Suck!
So you're a filmmaker entering post-production on your film, a game developer working on music and audio triggers or perhaps a YouTuber wanting to enhance your videos. You need SFX and a music soundtrack but you might not have the budget to hire a professional composer or audio engineer. The question is: Can you still have a great commercial soundtrack and great SFX for your project utilizing only free resources? Definitely.
Creating a Very Simple GUI System for Small Games - Part II
In the first part of the GUI tutorial (link), we have seen the positioning and dimension system. You can also look at other chapters: Part I - Positioning Part II - Control logic Part III - Rendering Today, before rendering, we will spend some time and familiarize ourselves with basic element types used in this tutorial. Of course, feel free and design anything you like. The controls mentioned in this part are some sort of a standard, that every GUI should have.
Setting an Appropriate Tone for Your Game
"The term embodied cognition is a philosophical term which has also been studied in psychology and it basically means that our rational thoughts are interconnected with our sensory experiences." As someone well familiar with the work of one of the major figures in the field, the neurologist Damasio, I'd like to point out that the definition you give is misleading as it only looks at one half of what the body provides to cognition--sensory input.
Composing Music For Video Games - Key & Tempo
I have to be honest, I find this tutorial to be pretty skim on the details, examples and suggestions on how to handle different types of media/situations. For the past few days I've struggled with what exactly to say because I don't want this to come off as super negative or insult either of the authors. But this read more like the introduction and less like a full article. For example: "We're massive Star Wars fans and love the work of John Williams. The music he composed enhances the scenes.
The Latest Evolution in Microtransactions
Its not too often you see a thoughtful article on micro-transactions; many are screeds posted in anger over being nickle-and-dimed to freely progress, or simply to optimize the grinding experience. I think if you take the article to a logical conclusion, although it wasn't explicitly stated, it re-enforces the notion that a player should pay something to experience the fullness of the game, and receive something worth experiencing in return.
Creating a Very Simple GUI System for Small Games - Part I
If you are writing your own game, sooner or later you will need some sort of user interface (or graphic user interface = GUI). There are some existing libraries lying around. Probably the most famous is CEGUI, that is also easy to integrate into OGRE 3D engine. A good looking system was also LibRocket, but its development stopped in 2011 (but you can still download and use it without any problem). There are a lot of discussion threads that deal with the eternal problem "What GUI should I use?".
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