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Author Topic: Spore & The Creature Creator  (Read 111239 times)
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on: June 17, 2008, 04:45:08 AM

Spore & The Creature Creator

UPDATE: Crisis averted. Spore.com is back up and running.

So. The creature creator. The precursor to what will probably be the most talked about game this fall, unless Nintendo adds a taller white board as an expansion to Wii Fit thus making it the Wii Stairmaster, is coming out today. There's a trial available for the uhmm trial. Of the game. I don't even know where I'm going with this. Anyway, I got a copy of it to futz around with and found myself floundering around trying to make a human that didn't fall flat into the uncanny valley.

Lots more after the jump, including my widget where you can access the 21 things I made.

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schild
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Reply #1 on: June 17, 2008, 05:37:01 AM

Oh right, forgot. One of my favorite features - exporting avatars:

« Last Edit: June 17, 2008, 05:40:30 AM by schild »
Sky
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Reply #2 on: June 17, 2008, 05:50:06 AM

The game is seeded with other people's creations. Now they'll have a bajillion seeds when the game launches, as opposed to a few days later :) That's a pretty good idea.
Quote from: schild
In the final release I'd really like to see a lot more datamining and 'friends' integration. I've tried to put myself on something of a blackout for the game so I don't build it up in my head before release since this sort of shit almost always falls flat. Molyneux-Carmack Syndrome, I suppose.
Since they're shooting for social networking, I think the friends stuff should be pretty solid.

I've also been on a self-enforced blackout, except I just call it Molyneux Syndrome, Carmack has always been Carmack but I used to think Petey might come up with something amazing (and fun). I even listened to a video of WW talking and turned off the monitor so I wouldn't see game footage. I'm exploring the galaxy in Mass Affect, wishing I could zoom down onto planets with the Normandy and shoot some womprats in Beggar's Canyon. There's no way it can live up to my internal hype, but it should be a hell of a lot of fun anyway.
Murgos
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Reply #3 on: June 17, 2008, 08:29:10 AM

They want 10 bucks for the creature creator?  Did I read that right?

Meh.

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schild
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Reply #4 on: June 17, 2008, 08:29:57 AM

Takes $10 off the game, also there's a demo of the creature creator. Blah Blah, said a million times in a million places. Anyway, even if it ends up not taking $10 off the actual game, it might as well be considered $3 a month just to get the Sporepedia integration. It's all very neat tech. I just wish the modeling were a bit more... complex. I imagine it will get there by release though. Hopefully? Maybe?
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Reply #5 on: June 17, 2008, 09:12:33 AM

So can you create the complex creatures with muliple mouths, arms, legs, etc like in the Robin Williams demo vid, or just these early protozoa giblets?  If it's the latter, I can't imagine spending the time DLing the demo much less paying $10 for the "creature creator"

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schild
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Reply #6 on: June 17, 2008, 09:13:41 AM

You can do multiple arms, lets, etc. But the body itself can not be complex. If we're tied to spheres on a spine at release, Maxis is doing it wrong.
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Reply #7 on: June 17, 2008, 09:31:16 AM

It's been stated multiple times that their creature animation engine is based around the single-spine model, so I don't think we're going to be seeing multiple spines at release.  You can still do a lot of crazy stuff like putting arms on legs, though, which I'm guessing is how people have been able to do complex stuff like the Buttsex Monster linked in the earlier thread.

"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
kaid
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Reply #8 on: June 17, 2008, 09:32:10 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u1uRs3Dt7U

This makes it look like you can do some pretty interesting things with the main body you may want to check the vid and see if that helps you out at all.
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Reply #9 on: June 17, 2008, 09:34:21 AM

if you call yourself editor, does that make us commentators?
Samwise
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Reply #10 on: June 17, 2008, 09:36:59 AM

Thanks for that link, kaid.  I wouldn't have figured out that limb-splitting trick on my own.  Very interesting.

"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
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Reply #11 on: June 17, 2008, 09:40:28 AM

Nothing more complex than my 'human mess' was done in that video.

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if you call yourself editor, does that make us commentators?

Uh. yes. >_>
kaid
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Reply #12 on: June 17, 2008, 09:40:51 AM

I was looking around their sporepedia thing I saw a really good trogdor critter hehe I may have to make a race of trogdorians to burninate the galaxy.
Samwise
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Reply #13 on: June 17, 2008, 09:57:14 AM

Nothing more complex than my 'human mess' was done in that video.

Some of the techniques open up some new possibilities, though.  If you can make single limb segments and attach them together at arbitrary points there's not much you can't do.

"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
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Reply #14 on: June 17, 2008, 10:03:49 AM

Nothing more complex than my 'human mess' was done in that video.

Some of the techniques open up some new possibilities, though.  If you can make single limb segments and attach them together at arbitrary points there's not much you can't do.

Once you mess with it, you'll understand what I'm saying. Without being able to change the whole base "spheres on a spine" platform (as in, they pick the front back and top and bottom for you), it limits you immensely. I'm not making up limits for the sake of making up limits. That would be stupid.
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Reply #15 on: June 17, 2008, 10:16:08 AM

Once you mess with it, you'll understand what I'm saying. Without being able to change the whole base "spheres on a spine" platform (as in, they pick the front back and top and bottom for you), it limits you immensely. I'm not making up limits for the sake of making up limits. That would be stupid.
I'm not sure there's much of a way around that. Given the way they generate movement, dance, all that jazz -- if you didn't start out with the "spheres on a spine" bit, I'm not sure you'd have a solveable problem.

A human animator can make anything work, given time, but procedural generation probably has to have some limits. I'm not sure there's a better trade-off anywhere. (It's really the spine, not the spheres -- you could contract the spheres to basically just outline the spine, right?).

I could certainly see them working on it for an expansion, but I'd imagine doing something spineless would require a whole new set of algorithms for generating animation. But true exo-skeltal insects, or things like jelly-fish or octupi -- I think cutting those out was probably necessary. Multiple spines, or split spines, runs the same set of problems.

I think if I had to wait another year or two for them to work out how to handle multiple spines or split-spines (much less invertebrates), or take "Verterbrates only" in three months -- I'll go with what Maxis did.

If nothing else, hopefully it's a sign they were pretty ruthless about design creep.

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Reply #16 on: June 17, 2008, 10:24:54 AM

Nothing more complex than my 'human mess' was done in that video.

Some of the techniques open up some new possibilities, though.  If you can make single limb segments and attach them together at arbitrary points there's not much you can't do.

Once you mess with it, you'll understand what I'm saying. Without being able to change the whole base "spheres on a spine" platform (as in, they pick the front back and top and bottom for you), it limits you immensely. I'm not making up limits for the sake of making up limits. That would be stupid.

I messed with it this morning, actually.  The biggest problem I ran into was not being able to create arbitrary chunks of body with arbitrary joints.  Which is what the limb-breaking would let me do.   DRILLING AND MANLINESS

"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
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Reply #17 on: June 17, 2008, 10:26:55 AM

One of my biggest problems was I needed asymmetry. That's the one thing I couldn't do with the extra stuff (like horns and shit). They pretty much automatically split into two. I fucked with it for for 5 hours and couldn't figure it out.
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Reply #18 on: June 17, 2008, 10:33:12 AM

One of my biggest problems was I needed asymmetry. That's the one thing I couldn't do with the extra stuff (like horns and shit). They pretty much automatically split into two. I fucked with it for for 5 hours and couldn't figure it out.

That goatse thing in the other thread had a single eye, but it was, ahem, centrally placed.

So you're saying that you can't move a single eye out of the center? Once you move off center (i.e. asymmetry) you get two?

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Reply #19 on: June 17, 2008, 10:34:08 AM

Correct.
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Reply #20 on: June 17, 2008, 11:12:39 AM

You using the Trial (locked parts) or an early version of the full thing? one question is once the full game launches are you going to be able to reverse evolve your creations into the sub games or import them somehow? or is all of this just to build a database of monsters for the game world ;)
schild
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Reply #21 on: June 17, 2008, 11:13:27 AM

Early version of the full think. Pretty sure spore.com explains they are importable. The latter part of your comment would be... interesting.
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Reply #22 on: June 17, 2008, 11:21:38 AM

I've been following the development of this game for quite sometime, I've even referenced it in a paper I wrote about procedural generation for a report writing class. But now that I think about it , it is rather a master stroke on their part of have a ready supply of advisories to populate into the "creature phase" when the full game launches. I also just realized that this is only purchasable via the EA store which seems to think my province isn't part of Canada (when it has been since about 1945). I'll try my luck though.

Edit - Yup, no joy on a purchase because of the same error I got when I tried to order WAR CE.
« Last Edit: June 17, 2008, 11:25:34 AM by Kirth »
Samwise
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Reply #23 on: June 17, 2008, 12:37:01 PM

I suspect the creatures won't be usable in the story mode of the game until you've earned enough "body points" to cover the creature you've built.  It seems like the creature section of the game is built around "levelling up" your creature with more/better parts over time, so starting your evolution with a maxed-out Chompasaur would probably mess up the flow a bit.

"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
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Reply #24 on: June 17, 2008, 12:41:08 PM

Want to know the coolest part about the Spore creature creator?



See those pictures there? They're also the save files for the creatures. Copy them into your SCC Creatures folder, and they should be ready to be loaded into the editor.

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Reply #25 on: June 17, 2008, 01:03:42 PM

I cant play with the free creature maker.  It requires OSX 10.5.3.  Jerks.


Samwise
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Reply #26 on: June 17, 2008, 01:11:02 PM

Maybe you should install Windows.

"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
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Reply #27 on: June 17, 2008, 01:58:08 PM


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Reply #28 on: June 17, 2008, 02:40:43 PM

I see your murlocs and I raise you a burninator http://www.spore.com/sporepedia#qry=srch-trogdor
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Reply #29 on: June 17, 2008, 02:52:25 PM

Needs more majesty.

"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
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Reply #30 on: June 17, 2008, 03:59:50 PM

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Reply #31 on: June 17, 2008, 04:04:13 PM

Ok, this is pretty damn fun with just the trial version.  I know when the wife gets home I'm going to have to buy it for her.  Damn you maxis.

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Reply #32 on: June 17, 2008, 06:07:24 PM

Couple of comments :

You can't change the size of your creature?  I tough you could do small creature that swarm enemies and giant one that obliterate them.

There's lots of clipping.

Remove every hands and feet, your creature will turn into a big bag of uselessness.

From the look of it, it's not a munchkin wet dream.  You can design a useless blob and he'll have the same stats has a mighty predator.  It's just an addition of body part, it doesn't calculate how well they are placed. 
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Reply #33 on: June 17, 2008, 09:10:36 PM

So the only way to get the "complete demo" is to buy it? I don't understand why you don't get the unlocked version for free with a pre-order. Oh wait. EA. Thaaaaaaaaat's right.
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Reply #34 on: June 17, 2008, 10:11:57 PM



Awesome.

"I have not actually recommended many games, and I'll go on the record here saying my track record is probably best in the industry." - schild
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