(no subject)
Apr. 16th, 2023 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kradeelavso i'm fully lost in the sauce of making ps1 graphics / the birdman game!
last post I made, talked a little about my beginner experience with godot and blender. i've also been hugely beefing up on noclip.website (where you can check what classic N64 games look like without vertex shaders and/or textures, and also see flat textures), this writeup about how PS1 graphics "tick", this video about recreating the vibe in godot, this image that talks about how vagrant story uses vertex shading. lots of engineering/tech meshing with art, which I personally love.
after that I started beefing up on creating a bunch of textures - notably also inspired by okami which has a strong illustrative style despite comparatively low polys.
but then yesterday I found blockbench through violet who does some extremely cool retro console work ..
anyway, blockbench (free, open source, on linux!) is basically a lowpoly version of blender ... JACKPOT. blender almost has too much complexity built in, but blockbench almost feels like a stepping stone between that and google sketchup (what i've been using for the last 10 years). it was originally created for minecraft mods, but has recently graduated to way beyond just pixel textures and cubes - you can do all sorts of low poly work! and the UI is almost a straight 1:1 for both godot and blender so there's a very natural interoperability that already feels familiar.
interestingly, i'm also getting a sense that this PS1 era / low poly vibe has only very recently gotten a revival in the last 5-3 years, judging by the dates and timestamps of all of these resources. very new! i kept being annoyed at myself for only NOW getting into this when i would have killed for it 10-15 years ago, but like, the resources literally didn't exist lol.
so today, after being reminded about twitter's 256 polygon challenge, i started sketching out some potential character models just to see what works and what doesn't, both in terms of polys and UV maps. obviously the blorbo's not going to be in the birdman game, lol, wanted to have more than one model, and having Radiant Dawn's map sprites as an animation cycle reference also helps enormously, as far as like, oh shit, characters actually move even when they're standing! how do i make it look like they're breathing! XD
i've changed my plans slightly to where i think i'm going to try to build the mini sandbox of textures, and the 3 models in blockbench - and then once when there's a proof of concept there, then import into godot. both programs support the same .cue and .obj files so knock on wood, I don't think there should be issues exporting it. (blockbench also works on my mom's computer that i'm on right now, so it's a perfect little mini deadline of 'get it done before yours come back, but you win either way' lol)
anyway, i was also musing that this feels genuinely fun b/c I was that only child that loved playmobile models so much, and would spend hours silently creating little stories and worlds ... gamedev honestly just feels like a more .... expanded, immersive version of that? it activates many of those same neurons that have laid dormant for years, and also low poly work honestly feels attainable versus some crazy AAA level of work. and even if ultimately nothing came out of this, i feel like i have a far deeper appreciation for what old devs/game designers had to squeeze into some tiny resources (eg why does OG FFVII cloud look like that).
last post I made, talked a little about my beginner experience with godot and blender. i've also been hugely beefing up on noclip.website (where you can check what classic N64 games look like without vertex shaders and/or textures, and also see flat textures), this writeup about how PS1 graphics "tick", this video about recreating the vibe in godot, this image that talks about how vagrant story uses vertex shading. lots of engineering/tech meshing with art, which I personally love.
after that I started beefing up on creating a bunch of textures - notably also inspired by okami which has a strong illustrative style despite comparatively low polys.
but then yesterday I found blockbench through violet who does some extremely cool retro console work ..
anyway, blockbench (free, open source, on linux!) is basically a lowpoly version of blender ... JACKPOT. blender almost has too much complexity built in, but blockbench almost feels like a stepping stone between that and google sketchup (what i've been using for the last 10 years). it was originally created for minecraft mods, but has recently graduated to way beyond just pixel textures and cubes - you can do all sorts of low poly work! and the UI is almost a straight 1:1 for both godot and blender so there's a very natural interoperability that already feels familiar.
interestingly, i'm also getting a sense that this PS1 era / low poly vibe has only very recently gotten a revival in the last 5-3 years, judging by the dates and timestamps of all of these resources. very new! i kept being annoyed at myself for only NOW getting into this when i would have killed for it 10-15 years ago, but like, the resources literally didn't exist lol.
so today, after being reminded about twitter's 256 polygon challenge, i started sketching out some potential character models just to see what works and what doesn't, both in terms of polys and UV maps. obviously the blorbo's not going to be in the birdman game, lol, wanted to have more than one model, and having Radiant Dawn's map sprites as an animation cycle reference also helps enormously, as far as like, oh shit, characters actually move even when they're standing! how do i make it look like they're breathing! XD
i've changed my plans slightly to where i think i'm going to try to build the mini sandbox of textures, and the 3 models in blockbench - and then once when there's a proof of concept there, then import into godot. both programs support the same .cue and .obj files so knock on wood, I don't think there should be issues exporting it. (blockbench also works on my mom's computer that i'm on right now, so it's a perfect little mini deadline of 'get it done before yours come back, but you win either way' lol)
anyway, i was also musing that this feels genuinely fun b/c I was that only child that loved playmobile models so much, and would spend hours silently creating little stories and worlds ... gamedev honestly just feels like a more .... expanded, immersive version of that? it activates many of those same neurons that have laid dormant for years, and also low poly work honestly feels attainable versus some crazy AAA level of work. and even if ultimately nothing came out of this, i feel like i have a far deeper appreciation for what old devs/game designers had to squeeze into some tiny resources (eg why does OG FFVII cloud look like that).
(no subject)
Date: 2023-04-17 07:34 am (UTC)Your textures are lovely. I like that floor tiling the most, the texture on it hits just the right amount of oldness/dirtiness that jumps out at me lol.
Ah, it all does seem like a lot of fun! I'm enjoying your journal entries about it. And thanks for linking all the resources.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-04-18 01:43 am (UTC)floor tiles are so much fun - I'm glad you noticed those, spent the rest of the day staring at the hardwood floor in the house marveling at the lighting and textures of it, haha.