Monthly Archives July 2015

New GameMaker example: 3D Starfield

 Martin · 8 years

I've updated another of my old GameMaker examples to be compatible with GameMaker: Studio! This time, however, I've completely re-imagined the old example, and replaced it with something that demonstrates the same principles, but in a totally different way.

The new example is a 3D Starfield simulation, and it replaces the old 3D Night Sky file.

This new example uses the same technique as the old one, creating a model and using primitives to add points to it which draw as our "stars", but this new example also adds some linelists to the mix, as well as some infinite motion. I think it's a much more fun way to see this technique demonstrated, and it wont feel quite as redundant when I get around to updating the day/night cycle example as well.

As usual, you can download this new example over at my GameMaker Examples & Tutorials page. Thanks for checking it out!

3dexamplegamemaker
1217 83 0

3D Animated Water example updated

 Martin · 8 years

I've updated my old 3D animated water examples to be compatible with GameMaker: Studio today, combining the two former examples into one superior example.

The previous examples used two methods for creating the water effect. The first used layers of scrolling, textured 3D planes drawn with an additive blend mode to make a detailed, if not always pretty, body of water. The second used a pre-animated texture, created in PhotoShop, to create a similar effect. A skybox was also employed, to make for better background scenery.

This new example combines methods from both of these files to create, in my opinion, a superior effect. With this updated example, the layers of scrolling texture have been relegated to a surface, which gets updated each step. This surface is then drawn over a base color plane for the water, all over a skybox with pre-baked reflections built in.

The effect could probably be more detailed, or could benefit from shader support for true reflections, but for what it is, I think it's a notable improvement.

You can find the updated file for this example on my GameMaker Examples & Tutorials page.

3dexamplesgamemaker
1039 102 2

Update to Blender addon for exporting 3D models to GameMaker

 Martin · 8 years

I spent some time experimenting with my Blender addon and GameMaker's 3D the other night, and I realized that the models it was creating were not entirely how they should be. It seemed that if you used the option to flip the object's Y axis on export, which is often necessary because GameMaker and Blender's world axes are different, then the model's normals would be flipped.

This wasn't immediately obvious to me, since the correct orientation of GameMaker's built-in models has always been kind of ambiguous, in my opinion. After following the code in the manual to make some of the primitive shapes however, I compared the results to what my Blender addon was creating, and came to the conclusion that the output from my addon was not quite correct.

So after a lot of tinkering (Python and Blender API are not my strong suits) I believe I've finally got the addon updated to export models that are oriented correctly and which should always have correct normals. Additionally, I added a feature which a friend of mine had built into his own version of the addon, which will let you output the model script in an alternative way, to more easily allow you to add it to an existing model in your game.

You can download the updated version of my Blender addon at the original page, which I've changed to include the newly updated addon. That will always be the place to go for the most recent version.

3daddonblenderexportgamemakerimport
1147 95 0

GameMaker: Studio fireworks example

 Martin · 8 years

A little late for the 4th of July holiday, but nevertheless, I'd like to present a new GameMaker: Studio example - particle fireworks!

This is a pretty simple example which procedurally generates everything you see, using GameMaker: Studio's built-in functions. Most of the effects, such as the fireworks, smoke, and stars, all use the particle system. The sky is made with colored shapes and the land is a primitive.

Even though I started this from scratch, I consider it the spiritual successor to one of my really old game demos, which was also a fireworks simulation. I created that one to test out the particle effects in GameMaker, back when they were somewhat new. Here's what it looked like, in case you want to see how far things have evolved:

I think it's safe to say that both GameMaker and I have gotten a lot better at particles over the years!

Anyway, I hope someone out there finds this new example useful. You can find it on my GameMaker Examples & Tutorials page.

examplesfireworksgamemaker
1091 97 0