Planet Postmoderna Blog

We have been plugging away and now producing some new additions to Postmoderna’s Base Camp.

One of our newest team members Jitse “Ion” Akse, created a few new models for the Base Camp POI in our Entropia Partner Planet Demo of Planet Postmoderna. We decided too to have a little fun with the screenshots from the Multiverse Prototype and dressed up the images using ComicLife. Testee-bub is my testing avatar.

Ion created the new models using Blender and I took the diffuse texture and made the spec and normal maps from it. Being that the model was made in Blender the units of measurement are pretty small. I had to scale up the model before I could create the collision volumes for it. After that exported the model to Collada format and converted it into a Multiverse mesh.

After playing around with it a bit more, we got this.

We also worked on a portable reactor model. This one was a little tricky with the color balance and normals but I think we got it where it needs to be. The neat thing about a project like this is, you are always bound to get feedback and that is a good thing. We then can always make changes based on that feedback.

The reactor is a portable power source for the field.

Up and coming is the foreman’s shed. This structure will be placed in areas where construction is planned. It is built from parts from the equipment pods, pod parachute material and resources from the nearby land.

One of Jitse’s Poser Models, is showcasing the concept for us in this shot. Maybe we should name her.

One thing that I have always noticed about any project or business is that you can take away product, you can take away the money, you can take away all the glitz and glamour but, when it comes down to the true value of what you are doing or working on, it is all about the people.

I am reminded about this countless times, not only from the great people I work with in my real job at Quadrant but by the interactions I have with people on this project team. It’s about people and relationships. I am not the best at managing them. That is evident when I throw my family, all my friends, the parents of my kids’ friends, the band parents at my son’s high school, my daughter’s soccer team and the members of the life group I meet with every week. The things is that no matter what, people are what matter.

This project has added a new dimension to relationships. It is now more exciting not just because of good ideas, concept and storyline, nor because some day we might be a partner planet for Entropia Universe (which I do love to play when I actually have time to do so) but it is because I have had the benefit of meeting some really neat people from around the world.

In addition to the great people on the project team I have also met people beyond the scope of this project. I have met owners and team members of other projects. I have met people from other virtual world companies and people from virtual worlds and games like Entropia. A cynic might think you can’t forge friendships that way but I am sorry, you can. You can build some pretty good relationships through the common interest of the virtual world or MMO games.

Games like Entropia, Second Life, World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, and many others, have blurred the boundries between countries and cultures and brought people together on a even playing field (pardon the pun). In times like today where anytime you turn on the tube, there is one tragedy or another one bad news or another, it is good to have small distraction like a virtual world or game or even miracle of Facebook (another subject altogether). One might think that you will never know who the RL person is behind that avatar in your game, but the truth be known, people do. They are building friendships not with imaginary characters but the real people behind them.

Not only has this project been the ultimate example of that but I think of all the great people I have met that I would not have met, had it not been for MMO Games and Virtual Worlds.

So, when I talk about plugging away at the basics, I remind myself that the “basics” are really the valuable relationships you forge. No one endeavor can ever succeed without good quality people and the relationships that you surround yourself with. I really don’t think anything on this world is meant to be done all by yourself. Well, I guess you could but, why would you want to? That’s no fun. This is especially true, when you realize that the hidden gems that make life worth living are those that come from the lives you touch and those that touch you back.

This is why I am proud that Postmoderna is a project based on people. We have so much to learn from each other and so much to give back as a result.

That’s right! Thanks to one of our talented artists, Jitse Akse (Holland) and , whom created the original New Worlds Inc, Postmoderna logo used in several concept renders, we have a new project logo. I have to tell you I love it!

Both of these artists are veterans of the MMO Game and virtual world, Entropia Universe. Jitse is one of the project’s newest volunteer members and has shown his quality talent on many occasions.

We also made a fan icon available for purchase on Entropia Planets by fans of the project and members of the Entropia Game Forum site. No real money is involved here! Just EPDs (Entropia Planet Dollars) that you earn by participating in community discussions.

Again, thanks to the team and the fans for this exciting new image. It represents the virtual world indie project, Planet Postmoderna, very well.

**Note: The did not want to be connected with the logo. Bummers really. I think it is awesome. I tired to credit him with what he did for the original logo but couldn’t find it on the forums. I think the link broke. Sorry.

I have to say that it took me a horrible 2.5 hours to get this one right. I was hoping to reproduce the process I used with the Fort Ash Domes with the Comm Tower. I actually created the collision volumes and rebaked the textures with no trouble. It was after that and trying to figure out the proper axis alignment for the model so in Multiverse, the model would point up. It took me several tries to finally figure out that I could have just looked at the axis arrangement of the Dome model. Duh!

Blender has a totally different configuration than 3dsMax (used as the tool of choice in most of the Multiverse documentation), etc. I had to make sure that the model was positioned with the Y axis up and the X to the right. This way up was really up in Multiverse.

After that it was a matter of tweaking the textures in Photoshop, producing the Normal map in XNormal from the height-map image I created, and then using the Multiverse Conversion tool to transform the model into what Multiverse uses. After that? I had to move the files onto my server and rebuild the assets file manifest. This creates the patch file that tells you World Browser what is updated and what to download. I am sure I have left out some steps I am forgetting but it still took me two and a half hours.

I am sure professionals in the industry would laugh at the length of time for my one-object workflow but hey, I’m learning! I figure by the time I have all the main Base Camp objects moved into Multiverse, I’ll be a real “professional amateur.” All kidding aside though, I am learning a lot. I am rather proud of what I have learned so far and without any formal 3D Modeling Training. Of course all also got a lot of input and help over the last year from team members.

Comm Tower in the Distance

As you can see the Comm Tower is positioned behind the Domes. It is one of the many structures that the Heavy Lifters were able to bring to the surface before the space-tear collapsed in on one of them and destroyed it and any chance of bringing anymore intact structures to the planet.

The Comm Tower Up Close

You can see the effect of the texturing of the metal which is really a semi-glossed formed material, pocked with nicks and dents. The visual effects created from the textures not only helps portray the material it is constructed of but it also reminds us of the torture the tower endured from being put up.

I have to say I wanted to jump for joy. I followed the instructions given to me by demi over at the Multiverse forums. It took me awhile to digest his instructions but I finally got it. Not his fault. It was all me.

I was working on some modeling in Blender yesterday and figured out some issues. I will pass these on to you so maybe it help you get the collision you want.

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This was a small victory for me and for this project because now I can properly convey how this process works to anyone else on the project that might create or be working with model using Blender.

Here’s an overview of what I did.

I took the dome model and created individual boxes or rectangles and placed them in the location of each segment of wall in the dome. You can see the collision volumes in red.

Collision Volumes

Each individual object was named mvcv_obb_ as seen below. The “mvcv” stands for “Multiverse Collision Volume” and the “obb” is the designator for a bounding area box. In this example the object was called mvcv_obb_Tube_01_08.

Collision Volume Naming

Now after that I had to embed a small dummy object for each collision volume within the area inside or near that volume. This one was called Tube_01_08. It was just a tiny box (See below). The purpose is to give the collision volume a fixed object to reference back to. I tried originally to create the volumes and reference them back to the dome object but that didn’t work. As Demi shared, this was the only way to make it work using Blender.

Collision Volume Dummy

Collision Volume Naming

Now after each was placed and named, the whole object (the dome, the dummy objects and the collision volumes) were exported from Blender using the Collada 1.4 export tool.

All Volumes in Place

Colloda Export

After that, I had to run the resulting *.dae file through the multiverse conversion tool per the Multiverse documentation. The conversion created a mesh object, the physics object and the material file. I modified the material file to match the template file I am using (another discussion). The physics file had to be edited to remove the “mvcv_obb_” reference. It is not automatically removed as would be the case when converting via the Collada export tool using 3dsMax. I made that change using my favorite text editor, Notepad++. (See below)

Renaming of Physics references

Now, after a process of moving the files over to my server and booting up Multiverse, I was pleasantly surprised to see the collision volumes on the model. I used a little trick available in the Multiverse World Browser designed to view the volumes in development (CTRL-H).

Collision Volumes Visible

The Volumes invisible

Of course, I had to run into the building from all angles to make sure the collision volumes worked and yes, they did! Bust open the champaign! I was pleased that I could stand in the dome and out of the upcoming weather too (which I just imagined was coming).

Out of the weather

Again, I want to thank Demi for all his help. Now that this model is done, I can start porting the rest of the initial work done by our team of volunteers into the Postmoderna Project Demo.