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Spore Patch Nearly Lets Creatures Into Other Games
Dalambertian writes "The release of Spore's Patch 5 lets players export their creatures (and soon vehicles and buildings) in Collada format. This includes textures, bump mapping, and rigging for animation. Maxis developer Ocean Quigley recently posted a nice tutorial for getting said creatures into Maya, and other 3D packages are soon to follow. This could have a huge impact on the games industry, and the indie games scene in particular. Unfortunately, if the patch falls under the usual EULA, then any legitimate use of the art assets outside of the Spore community becomes impossible. EA is apparently just teasing us with its taste-but-don't-swallow policy, and at present it's not clear whether the genius that came out of Spore's development will ever truly be accessible to the game dev community."
I'm a programmer and not an artist. I wrote a 3d fighting online game that is fun, but has no art other than boxed meshes that form a fighter(www.roamingdragon.com). I abandoned it because I was like,"I have no money. How could I possibly attract artists to make models and levels for me? I'm not going to do it myself because I have no skills as an artist or model creator.". If someone could explain to me how I can get someone to make me models that would look like Tekken or Virtual Fighter characters, I'll jump back on the horse and finish my game. It only has about 3 more months of work(all I need to do is add moves through my animation maker), and I have spent on and off for 6 years making it.
God spoke to me.
My whole point was: If there was an easy way to create models for monsters in my game, I could rapidly develop the MMORPG part of it! The limiting factor that I perceived was enemy models. I can't make them, nor do I know anyone who can. If Spore would allow crowdsourcing to make a ton of free models, I'd be back on my feet immediately instead of looking to become a Starcraft 2 pro gamer.
God spoke to me.
You would have done better to realize sooner that a game is art, not just a collection of technology. Then you wouldn't have wasted all that time.
My Photography - http://ian-x.com
The Deathlings (comic) - http://thedeathlings.com
Future generations will look back on this moment with their multifarious eyes as the moment that started it all. You know, the *other* singularity ...
While it's sad that he spent 6 whole years on the project with not much to show for it, I'm sure it wasn't a complete waste of time. Look at the skills learned here: latency-minded networking code, 3D graphics, control basics... it's not like he spent the time watching trash TV.
I'm glad to see they finally are fulfilling some of the promises they made before release.
EA is apparently just teasing us with its taste-but-don't-swallow policy
'Nuff said.
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Why not talk to Artists? I see this shit over and over again from aesthetes and geeks both where one whines, " I could never afford to do x____ really cool project because I can't afford to pay ( geeks/artists ) money. "
You know what this is the fucking time to go make some new friends. Hell, go out tonight its Friday and artists don't turn down drinks no matter how geeky you are. I suggest art openings in the inner city and start asking around, here in PDX you can't pull out your laptop without hitting like 3 of them.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
at present it's not clear whether the genius that came out of Spore's development will ever truly be accessible to the game dev community.
Are you telling me they uploaded the developer tron-style and he's in there, right now? Because that's the only way "the genius" got into Spore.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
It only has about 3 more months of work(all I need to do is add moves through my animation maker), and I have spent on and off for 6 years making it.
I checked out your site and from the list of things it "will" do, it looks like you have far more work to go.
That said, if your passion is for Tekken/Virtua Fighter style of thing then go for it. But if you want it to be tremendously popular, why not make a Babe Fighter? Here's your first models:
http://www.buy3dmodels.com/3dmodels/bustybabe.php
http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=78246
http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=73390
http://www.the3dstudio.com/product_details.aspx?id_product=69243
For a few hundred bucks, you could have a real crowd-pleaser! Or search on those sites for other models. Yes, they're out there and most cost under $100... peanuts really.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
think that EA is taking a step in the right direction here. Good Job Mates Keep it Up
I develop games (I do the art and the scripting, use a freeware engine), and I just wanna say if your interested in trying for your self, 3d modeling isn't all that hard to pick up. Even if you don't plan on making models for your game, it's fun just to mess around-hell, it might turn out that your good at it. Here's some freeware I use:
http://www.gimp.org/ Not as good as photoshop, but it works for me.
http://www.blender.org/ This thing is awesome. 3d modler, animator, rendering app, you name it.
Both of those run on Mac, Windows, and probably Linux.
As for getting other people do make art for you---post on some forums, but don't just say "I need models plzz", people will think you're just another noob who will never even start the game. Show off what you have done, ask if anyone is interested. Many people will probably decide to try and "help you", but don't listen to them, find someone who actually wants to be on a team. Crowdsourcing the models would suck as models have style, no matter how realistic, every artist adds their own touch to them. If each model is by a different person with no collaboration, it will look like a bunch of random models that happen to be loaded into the same game.
Good luck and I hope it works out, I know what it feels like to work on something and never finish it, I've had enough failed projects for my time.
If I write a document in Microsoft Word, does Microsoft own my paper? If I use Photoshop, does Adobe own my image? If I Auto-Tune my song, does Antares own it?
I thought there was a law that prevented the makers of the tool from grabbing the rights to its user's creations.
Based on what I've seen, this seems to be the primary use of the game. Not sure why exporting this to other programs is a good thing...
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Thats funny because I AM an artist but have very limited programming experience. You just need to find the Yin to your Yang to help you finish your game, I'm sure there are people out there (like myself) that have the time and enjoy doing it enough to do it pro-bono. You just need to look around.
All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be. -PF
Opening the source has several advantages:
* if you have no money, you need models for free, and nobody will give you models for free if you aren't willing to give the code for free
* it will allow you to use code repositories you otherwise couldn't or would have to pay for, such as launchpad, or savannah, or cvsdude. Your current solution for distributing programs isn't working. Error. The file could not be found.
Here is a small list of sites where you can find free 3D models: http://wntrknit.freeshell.org/free-3d-meshes.html
Have you even *looked* at any game development community? Ever?
Modelers and level builders outnumber programmers about 1000:1.
A typical forum will have the following threads:
etc, etc, etc.
The long and short of it is that there are many, many more modelers and level designers than there are programmers in the gaming world. The barrier to entry is easier, and yes, a lot of them suck. But there are probably as many talented modelers and level designers as there are good and bad programmers combined.
If you aren't developing because you don't want to deal with the art, the only thing I can think of excuse wise is that you don't want to work with a team.
Touch everywhere, even when inappropriate.
"Unfortunately, if the patch falls under the usual EULA, then any legitimate use of the art assets outside of the Spore community becomes impossible."
Impossible! Nobody can penetrate their EULA! EULAs are like the devil's contract. Legally and spiritually binding.
However, most clauses that have been tested in courts have been found to be not enforceable, and I doubt that EA can actually claim ownership of the creations customers make with their tools.
Much appreciated. I'm familiar with Gimp. I downloaded Blender, but it seemed to complicated for me to understand. If you think I should try 3d models out myself, maybe I will. I think I'm going to make a stable build of my game and see if anyone wants to pitch in through forums. Does anyone have advice on what forums are good?
God spoke to me.
I couldn't get past the first level on Spore - you know the boss that emotes "you have 2 CDROM drives!" and then installs a rootkit. Any tips on how to defeat this boss and get to level 2?
Maybe that's why artists don't want to work for geeks? You keep hitting them with your laptop.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/ http://www.cgpad.org/forum/
Theres gotta be some sort of upside to watching TV, some sort of skillset to be gained from years of doing it.
I expect games that allow user supplied avatars to be a fad soon. A network of model makers like turbo squid could keep churning out cheap ($5 a model) quality models to give decent variety. Software that auto rigs models in the anatomical pose to the game standard would go a long way in achieving this. MMO's having to download other players models is another issue, but I'm sure some games would benefit.
Rogue-likes, MUDs, puzzle games don't need sophisticated assets. You're generally only limited by your own ability to doodle or type in those cases.
Virtua Fighter (the original) characters should be pretty easy to do yourself if you just sit down and work through about 6 or 7 of the Blender tutorials over a weekend.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
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Theres gotta be some sort of upside to watching TV, some sort of skillset to be gained from years of doing it.
It's called "watercooler conversation material gathering" ;-)
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
Spore... That would be the game that had the 3-installation limit when it was released, which was such an offensive practice that I decided I'd never buy or install this piece of garbage, and would return for refund (unopened) any copy given to me as a gift.
EA can continue to suck it.
I'm sure there's plenty others on here that didn't buy a legitimate copy to begin with (uhh cuz of the lame copyright scheme, right guys? yeah...) so I wonder how long it'll be until some of you come up with a way to export models so they can't be traced back to Spore... Sure, it may technically still be copyrighted, but it's not illegal if you don't get caught! Or if you're the President of the United States, for that matter.
As one of the 3 people that actually enjoyed playing Spore, I'm glad that they fixed the issue where you couldn't completely defeat the grox without cheating. I'll probably get a legitimate copy of the game now.
I got my spore character working. It's actually a pretty cool idea to export spore characters and use them in other games. I'm really curious to see who picks up on this.
Start out with Google sketchpad it is embarrassingly easy to use.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
I believe he means Google Sketch Up
http://sketchup.google.com/
I know this is really late, anyway...
I am the one who replied, if blender is too complicated, try buying the book "The Essential Blender", or using wings3d.
www.wings3d.com (also free)
Blender isn't all that complicated once you learn it, but at first it is a pain.
Wings doesn't have as many features but is easier to use, I've seen people make amazing models in both whichever way you go it's all about your skill. Even expensive modelers won't make your models better, though, they will probably allow you to make them faster and more efficiently.
Do not under any circumstances use google sketchup for modeling game models. Sketchup is designed for architects and produces horrible geometry when exported will kill your fps and render horribly.
As others said, cgsociety and the like are good, just make sure to display what you have already completed so people understand you're not just another noob asking for models, there are far too many.
Even if you decide to model for yourself, I recommend joining some modeling/game design related forums so you can ask people questions. I would never have got very far without forums.
If you want to learn for yourself, that blender book I reccomended is great, but it has a lot of info that you won't need games as well. If you want a free alternative you can try Blender Noob to Pro.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro
I really reccomend buying that book though, as it will introduce you to everything. It does not teach you how to model, however, just how to use blender.
If you want a book on modeling for games, try Game Modeling Using Low Polygon Techniques.
http://www.amazon.com/Modeling-Polygon-Techniques-Charles-Graphics/dp/1584500557
Or, again, you can just google around and find tutorials on modeling humans/whatnot. Here's a good human modeling tut by the way:
http://www.bakaneko.com/howto/computer/3d/character/page01.html
With modeling for games, one rule that will save you a lot of time: Never smooth. Ever. Please. This may sound dumb or pointless, you might find the smooth button and think it will make your model better->don't. You can click it to see what happens, but please, do not use smoothed models in a game. It is never a good idea, it's not what smoothing is for. Smoothing is only useful in games when you're sub dividing to make a high poly model that you will make normal maps from, and I doubt you'll be doing that any time soon.