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Note: This post is also over at http://www.indiedb.com/games/a-dark-storm-is-coming/news/dark-storm-post-black-friday-update-operation-mocap

This is the actual Trello board we use for overall progress of the game throughout the team. I'll be updated constantly as we progress.


Greetings again!

By now now you are probably sick of left-over turkey, so we decided to give you an early update. Yeah..those two things don’t even relate. I know.

This week these updates are both a combination of Dark Storm: VR Missions and Dark Storm: Ascension.


Last time we showed you quite a bit of animations using various methods. We’re concentrating on animations more now, and what you see currently is a work in progress.

Furthermore, we have a bit more on our plans for animation below.

Here is a bunch of animations in gif format. Did you have that grandma that had a room full of dolls that creeped you out?

Enjoy!


Brisk jog animation:



Light jog animation:



Damage reactions due to bullet impact (holding revolver):



Single death animation (this is presumably a bullet to the chest):



Now these are all key/target framed animations. We’re hoping to blend these with some mo-cap or varied animations in the future. Death animations will be dependent on what type of fatal wound you receive.

Vaulting over objects animation:



These below here are mocap animations using the Kinect. Which does a decent job of capturing basic mocap animations.

Idle walk using Kinect MoCap (hands are meant to hold rifle):



Idle stand using Kinect MoCap (hands are meant to hold rifle):

https://youtu.be/idAn--NJBQo

But that isn’t enough for us. No sir!

We’re also setting up a mocap session.

We’re working on implementing a full space for most of our team (mostly the voice actors of course) to arrive and perform motion capture for Dark Storm. The motion capture system will be used for cut scenes, and some other gameplay related scenes.

We’ll be using software built for this known as iPi Mocap Studio. iPi Mocap Studio is a software program provided by iPi Soft LLC for tracking an actor’s motion by analyzing multi-camera (or depth sensor) video recordings.

Below is a demo setup that will be similar to what we come up with (what is pictured is not our setup). What’s interesting about this setup is it’s capability of capturing 3 actors at once in the field, which makes it ideal for cut scenes. This will take roughly 3 to 4 computers to capture and process. The cameras? The Playstation Eye believe it or not (along with special depth sensors). With a circle of up to 12 of these you can capture every detail.

We’re still gathering all the gear (*cough*black friday*cough*) and peeps for this currently, but we’ll be ready to start in January…..ish.

Here are some photos from the software website to show how it'll work:

The PlayStation Eye



You can use three of these cameras in a minimum set up. However, we're going to use 12.



This photo shows how the cameras are set up, to capture every angle, and in some cases multiple actors at once. What this does is allow us to create scenes and interactions without trying to run one actor at a time and then implementing them with each other in the engine later on. So if you see a character being assaulted by another character. Those two are actually being played by two people interacting at the same time within the mocap session.



We’ll be covering a lot of the mocap sessions with a monthly diary, as well as some video of it once it begins!


Programming currently is in tandem with the animations above. Animations are key right now because after animation there is of course..sound design. Generally if you do all these items in the proper order production runs much smoother.

We’re also working out all the kinks and bugs in the animations as they are integrated into UE4, as well as creating what are known as “blueprints” in the UE4 engine. A super brilliant system that makes us absolutely love Epic Games, as it removes a lot of the painful C++ coding that previous versions of Unreal had.


We promise, this is probably the last art concept you’ll see about the Z1200-BA “Devastator” shot gun. We’re hoping to show a 3d model next time!

The photo below shows the new sights we have set up for the weapon, to give it a more advanced look. Within the story, some of the weapons by Kronos industries are prototypes. The shotgun is arguably the most advanced out of all of them.

Because...boom stick.



Below are the various color schemes we’re looking at in the final design of the Devastator. We’re aiming towards the aluminum or carbon look. Which do you prefer?



We meant to show this last week, but this is the sub-machine gun concept art. This is meant to be a fairly small weapon but with a lot of firepower. Like the pistol it has a lot of options when it comes to the attachments available.

Hmm..what name and model number should this one have?




Recently we’ve been updating on mostly weapon models, but we’re getting into the stage of modeling other aspects of Dark Storm. Below is a current model of the officer you saw last week. This is still a work in progress.



That’s it for now, but in the next few weeks we’re hoping to show some more weapons, animations, models of main characters, and possibly some sound and music.

Keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook as we’ll be starting our Twitch streaming sessions again, along with a Q&A with developers of Dark Storm on the current progress of the game.


Sincerely,

This is the second November update we’ve had and it's huge. Though for me, this is the pre-Egg Nog edition :)

We are coming close to a possible update to the current VR missions build, but we have no definite date yet. Needless to say, it’s being overhauled like crazy.

*The following are entirely VR missions updates, and will be included iteratively with multiple updates. Every item of content you are about to see is not finalized.*


Feast your eyes on the fancy hallway that you spawn in initially in Dark Storm: VR Missions. This hallways exhibits the high tech look of Irving Industries, and the huge budget of the custodial department. It leads to the Insertion Room, which we’ve also posted below to show the similarities.

Hallway leading to Insertion Room

Hallway opposite side

Insertion Room - note the black doorway. That’s where the Hallway connects.


The VR environment has been painstakingly tweaked to get the right look, and this time around we think we may have found the sweet spot. (Of course, VR is a subjective environment)



A majority of the maps playable in Dark storm VR missions will be scaled with a mechanical / gameplay influencing sense of verticality.

Providing several vantage points and avenues of approach, locations can be accessible via teleporters / stairs / and hidden paths.

Progressing in each VR mission not only will be exploitable in a tactical sense for the player, but they will also offer the enemy a key vantage point to pinpoint your position and hunt you down. Therefore making stealth to be of utmost importance to finding the proper approach to a specific vantage point.

This also transfers over into VR mission based objectives in that each map will have a specific goal. Some more violent such as neutralizing an officer, and others requiring a more tactical approach such as reaching the extraction zone within a certain time frame, or bypassing objects impeding your ability to complete the level.



With these objectives, later VR missions will make use of scalability and verticality to increase the challenge of needing to move up or down to a position that is vulnerable until you have a way to gain intel on it.

Both of these will simply be introduced, but gradually change the farther you progress. It offers a sound challenge with each map presenting its own gameplay twist and quirks to work around.







Here’s a quick walk-around video of the current VR hub:

Dark Storm VR walkthrough - Indie DB


Last update you saw the Kronus Z1200-BA* “Devastator” Single-Barrel Pump Action Shotgun*, this week you can see a different perspective of the design, and some of it’s features. Note, this is not a final design. The shells are probably are going to be well..bigger.

*Named and model changed. Can you guess what the BA stands for?]

Ironsight perspective. Art concept.

At-the-hip perspective. Art concept.

Introducing the Kronus Z900 Tactical Assault Rifle

Assault rifle art concept

Assault Rifle Modeling in-progress

Several weeks ago we showed you the pistol suite. Below is a current model with the silencer attached.

Pistol with silencer modeling in progress.


We’ve shown you the good characters, how about some bad ones?



Art concept of the standard grunt. You’ll be fragging a lot of these guys.



Art concept of the officer. This unit is not only tough, but buffs all the other units through leadership.

Current modeling progress of the officer.


As you know, the animation portion of any video game is the most taxing. We’ve been trying different methods such as target framing (or keyframing) and motion capture. Below is a current work-in-progress of several animations. These are absolutely subject to change.

https://youtu.be/nhOT3PQRwQ4


We have refined the design of the launch of Dark Storm: VR Mission. A launcher that will also include updates and news about Dark Storm. Below is a work-in-progress.

(Note: The background around the edges of this image is the user desktop, not the launcher.
The launcher is meant to preserve transparency.)

Did you see anything you liked, or perhaps...didn’t like? Please comment below!

Sincerely,

LEVEL DESIGN

This week we are going to show a bit more of the new VR environment we are developing.

With the new VR missions being done in UE4 it was important to make sure every aspect of the game offered something interesting and fun to play mechanically. This stems off into the tutorial missions as well as every other aspect of the game.





Meet Sya! One of the more interesting supporting characters in Dark Storm.. Sya is an AI that is integrated within the game. Besides being heavily integrated with the story, she is also a part of gameplay.




Quote:
Description of Sya:

Sya is the world’s most advanced computer intelligence, or AI, and while she isn’t the first or only AI in the world, in only three years she has shown greater levels of development, cognitive thinking, and social abilities that mirror a human more so than any dozen AI’s current in service. However, Sya is primary kept a secret at the time of Dark Storm: Ascension, as she is still considered to be in the prototype phase of her development.

While a great many hands have been involved in Sya’s development over the past decade – as she is only one of many that Irving Dynamics has created over twenty years, the bulk of her creations came into existence because of Jill Haley who, while still in college created a revolutionary algorithm that would lay the groundwork for what would become Sya’s primary code. As a result much of Sya’s own personality and mannerism are modeled on Jill, although she has been giving the opportunity to grow and expand completely on her own, resulting in a unique new form of computer lifeform.

And finally, we have Jill. Another main supporting character that intertwines throughout Dark Storm and Amber’s overall life.



Read the rest of the article on Indiedb here!

Greetings everyone!

Dark Storm has been under going a lot of development and planning lately, and we'd like to update you on our current progress. Expect updates more often in the future as we ramp up to the Dark Storm: VR Missions update for all current owners.

Here's a quick list of what we're aiming for:

• A whole new build using the Unreal 4 engine.
• A revamped AI system
• New sound design and implementation
• New level design and aethestics
• Detailed lighting using Unreal 4
• Brand new weapon and character models
• Overhauled animations

Ideally this update will be available the end of this year for free to all current owners of Dark Storm: VR Missions.

Without further delay, let's go to the details!

Please note: Some of these updates do not apply to Dark Storm: VR Missions, but rather to our long term project: Dark Storm: Ascension. These differences will be noted.

CORRECTION (10/24/2015) - Level Design clarified to be for Dark Storm: Ascension.


AI Mesh and Test Field - Indie DB
In this video I demonstrate the AI nav mesh and the current test field in its first stage. Over the course of the next week, we'll add cover objects and use iit for testing patrols and AI abilities.

Patrolling System Test - Indie DB
This video demonstrates the patrolling system we've done in UE4 porting it over. We're planning on improving it slightly with more waypoints over the next few days plus support for pre-defined focus points.

AI Wandering/Roaming System - Indie DB
This video shows the AI Wandering/Roaming system. They will search and scourge the level . It’s their generic way of searching for the player and roaming about having being knocked off a patrol route. Roaming is almost complete. It requires some bug fixes to AI collision and more variation to some of their movement.

Moving forward from the original Dark Storm VR missions built with UDK (Unreal Development Kit) we have adopted Unreal Engine 4 which allows us a quicker workflow and improved handle over design with the additional toolset provided in the newer engine.

Furthermore the VR design has shifted from its original simplistic and minimal design to a more abstract digital world design using various voxel shapes in addition with specific light hues / patterns / and moving outlines to the VR foundations. We will be using moving blocks and environments providing a dynamic background landscape and an overall more interesting dynamic world.

As the player explores the background surroundings will move, hovering drones will fly by illuminating darker segments of the background. All the while Amber can take a moment to look at the scenery before completing her mission.





The VR Hub serves as your gateway to the VR with an armory and pathways to the VR Missions / Tutorial Missions / and Arena which will be further explained in the future.

The Hub will be accessible easily throughout your time in the game to drop out and in various scenarios.

A couple of months ago we made the decision to scrap our current rig as we we're having difficulties with it in UE4. This means that we would have to start all the animation from scratch…so I started looking into mocap, and it seemed like some other indies managed to use the kinect as a mocap device.

I decided to try it out myself, and after a few hardware upgrades to my pc and purchasing a kinect to pc cable, I managed to get a basic test in…just to see if it's worth pursuing.

MoCap Test 1 - Indie DB

Using a trial version of IPI soft, I managed to get my first test in. A bit of set up was involved before the test such as eliminating any natural light from the room ( the kinect doesn’t like that ) and adjusting the camera to fit my entire body, and I was recording in a matter of minutes.

MoCap Test 2 - Indie DB

MoCap Test 3 - Indie DB

When the recording was done, I edited it slightly to select the correct amount of frames and exported out the rig information. I replaced this soldiers reference rig to the new exported one with the animation and he started moving! To clean it up a little, I simplified his curves in maya to remove most of the jitter.

Everything seemed to work smoothly and efficiently, so in the next few weeks the animation team will be digging further into this by testing out some more complex animation and using multiple kinects for better motion readings.

To avoid throwing out all our animation and starting over, I looked for a method of transferring over the animation on our existing rig over to a new one and at the same time able to use that same method to import mocap data.

I came across the HIK tool in maya, which seemed to work flawlessly with everything we wanted. By that I mean we would be able to use this tool to create our new rig and attach it to our characters, transfer animation from our old rig to a new one (animation retargeting) and import mocap data.

Here is a quick couple of videos showcasing an early test I did using some pre-existing mocap animation from maya's library.

ReTarget 1 - Indie DB

Our new character rig was set up using the HIK tool by telling maya which bones on our rig match up with each part of the body. After that's set, the source animation was imported in and made selectable using the drop down menu on the top left.

ReTarget 2 - Indie DB

Here is what it looks like using a test mesh using our new rig.

Currently we are waiting on the final rig to be skinned (using this same tool) so that we can start importing our animation to this new and improved rig and get a good base going in ue4. Hopefully in the next post, we can show off some of our mocap and retargeted animation working inside the engine.

In Dark Storm: Ascension, we've been working hard on blocking out the game. The blocking phase is finished, so we're now focusing on the stealth pass of the game, adding in vents the player can use as cover.



To start, I needed to block out an entire level consisting of 42 separate rooms and a network of hallways.

What's this? Dark Storm in Unreal Engine 4? Looks like the VR is getting an engine upgrade in December. Stay tuned more details are coming...

Details will be coming within the next week but for now enjoy this screenshot from the in progress Insertion room which is nearly done. We will be continuing to support the VR Missions for a while to come. Apologize about the brief quiet regarding all the work we've been putting into the conversion.

More Crash Fixes for different hardware configurations and we temporarily changed the VR tutorial rooms. Expect bigger updates in the coming weeks related to gameplay as the builds stabilize out across the different platforms .

• Disabled Ambient Occlusion isn't needed for a VRish type world still requires a few last minute tweaks to resolve some remaining lines
  
• Reworked the tutorial rooms with placeholder graphics since it was discovered for a lot of users with different driver variants it was causing to many crashes (Render Exception)
  
• Current Known Issue: Noise Maker Ball Size / Encounter Room experimental AI sometimes causes crashes with some of their "special abilities". We are looking into these next as with more animation varients/fixes int he next few days. Stay tuned!

More Bug Fixes are inbound within the coming days, stay tuned and if you have a suggestion or problem occurring to you post on our community forums here!
Community Forum

We have adjusted and cleaned up some shaders plus adjusted some of the AI . Expect bigger updates in the coming weeks.

• Recompiled all the shaders and cleaned up some materials this should resolve some crashes for lower end hardware. (Noise Maker Size Bug is next)
  
• More safety checks added to the AI decision maker class to resolve fall through code.
  
• Lighting Rebuild in the VR and more LOD's added to the levels

More Bug Fixes are inbound within the coming days, stay tuned and if you have a suggestion or problem occurring to you post on our community forums here!
Community Forum

We will be pushing out an incremental updates Sunday-Wednesday to address a few shader related issues that sometimes make the loading screens longer.

We also have marked several poorly made objects and will be replacing them since the light-maps were found to be causing instability in lower tier video cards.

The Tutorial rooms will be revamped .As we have discovered a bug in the BIK format we use to play the videos and we'll be converting them to scaleform flash videos over the weekend and pushing that out in a separate update. This should resolve the Rendering Exception Error some users are getting around this hub.

We thank everyone for your continued support and once the stability issues are addressed we will be adding in new features/components. We also will be putting together a bi-weekly to monthly twitch where we showcase our progress on the VR Missions plus progress on the main game Dark Storm Ascension which we are aiming to playtest next summer 2016.

Stay tuned you guy are awesome! =) and remember a Dark Storm is coming!

This update allows users that have bought the VR Missions to play it on their Mac without having to re-buy the game and has more stability fixes that have been addressed by the community.

• Fixed the Animation Issue where soldiers guns would sometimes tilt the wrong direction
  
• Spec Ops Animation Idle and general movement has been smoothed out
  
• Objectives added to some of the VR levels will be activated in the coming weeks.
  
• Patrol Animations have been revised more variants incoming
  
• Officer Skinning issues have been resolved.
  
• Several adjustments have been made to the way AI verify and process information to resolve some crashes.
  
• Fixed a issue that was disabling the Action music when the player was spotted or engaged in combat, it now properly always plays.

More Bug Fixes are inbound within the coming days, stay tuned and if you have a suggestion or problem occurring to you post on our community forums here!
Community Forum