Shader Technology, VFX, Models, and Hello

[Charlie]

This is my first post to this project, so a bit of introduction is in order.

My name is Charles Allensworth, and I've worked as a game developer and modder for the last 3 years, and as a jackofalltrades artist for another three on that.  I'm a member of the IGDA, though I forgot to pay my dues last year (whoops) as I was on sabbatical in New Mexico, studying wildlife and plants.

My first question is shader technology and if it were possible to graft this onto the current engine; I understand it's Quake 2(?); to implement cube maps, as well as some bump mapping, and even possibly normal or paralax mapping for those of us with fancy-shmancy video cards.

Would someone point me toward the direction of necessary 3DSMax plugins for creating models and exporting them.  Also where should one post conceptual sketches, for the use by the team, mostly because I believe the plasma weapons appear to be flattering Bungie's fine work a bit too much.

Is there a master list of icons and illustrations that need to be completed? If so where might one look to find it, and who is the lead artist we send stuff to for review?  Also, is there a styleguide for people to follow, so everything plays together, and person-x's artwork doesn't try to knock over percon-y's sandcastle, or even well established sancastles?  There's never enough of those little flags, and seashells mashed along the ramparts, possibly with a moat of flaming diesel-fuel.

Regarding Visual Effects and the famous Gibbs system Quake fame, could someone point me towards the necessary resources for cooking up visual effects, as well as decals for things like bullet-holes, scorch marks, bloodspray, etc?

-Charlie
p.s. I seem to be labeled "cannon fooder", or is that fodder? Hm.....

[Winter]

Is there a master list of icons and illustrations that need to be completed? If so where might one look to find it, and who is the lead artist we send stuff to for review?  Also, is there a styleguide for people to follow, so everything plays together, and person-x's artwork doesn't try to knock over percon-y's sandcastle, or even well established sancastles?  There's never enough of those little flags, and seashells mashed along the ramparts, possibly with a moat of flaming diesel-fuel.

Can't help you with most of your questions, but this one I can answer. I have creative control on most artwork and other non-code submissions. We don't have a style guide so much as a general guideline of keeping as close as possible to reality and what's already in the game.

We have a list of needed models here: http://ufoai.ninex.info/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1302

For 2d artwork there's a whole lot of stuff we need, but no list has yet been assembled due to the volume of still-needed material. Competent 2d artists are in very high demand.

Could you post some samples of your work so we can get a picture of what your contributions would look like?

Regards,
Winter

[Mattn]

you can find the max scripts here: http://ufoai.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/ufoai/ufoai/trunk/src/tools/ use the md2 exporter and importer script

about the shader questions. of course it is possible - some other extended quake2 engines did that, too - but ufo:ai has currently no working shader support (just some basics)

[Charlie]

K, thanks for the quick feedback, and here it seems someone has already been monkeying around with the Q2 engine and shaders.  It's also open source.

http://q2graphicsmod.sourceforge.net/

someone also called Quake2 Evolved, seems though they shifted into trying to make an MMO or something.

http://www.quake2evolved.com

Here's a bit on ... bitmaps for those OpenGL programmers.
http://www.paulsprojects.net/tutorials/simplebump/simplebump.html

Lo, and there were normal maps!

Oh, and does Quake2 support cube maps?  In my experience, they really really add something to cars, pools of gore, as well as anything metalic.  Environmental maps are your friend.