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schulz.12
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Post by schulz.12 » November 2nd, 2017, 12:03 am

Hello to you all,

I am a newcomer and newbie to both the psxdev community as to game programming itself, learning to code and program in different languages and how to manage 3d characters, figures and maps on specific softwares as of now.

My GOAL is to be able to create a game utilizing a graphic structure similar or identic do Final Fantasy VIII, for a "quest" "survival game"

I´m trying to find which tools the Square team used for such a complex games, and if I could grab a hold of some of their softwares, or even low poly base mesh for the characters, I´d be extremmely glad already for that would allow me to start the work...

If anyone has any info on that please let me know, and thank you for all the patience that´s given out to newcomers.

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Shadow
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Post by Shadow » November 2nd, 2017, 2:31 pm

The tools the Square team used were custom Unix designed programs. In order to develop said games like that requires a lot of work in both the programming department and graphics department. If people could make games as good as that, it would be extremely easy, but it requires a lot of hard work, skill and time which is why such rare games looked as good as Final Fantasy and Crash Bandicoot for example.
Development Console: SCPH-5502 with 8MB RAM, MM3 Modchip, PAL 60 Colour Modification (for NTSC), PSIO Switch Board, DB-9 breakout headers for both RGB and Serial output and an Xplorer with CAETLA 0.34.

PlayStation Development PC: Windows 98 SE, Pentium 3 at 400MHz, 128MB SDRAM, DTL-H2000, DTL-H2010, DTL-H201A, DTL-S2020 (with 4GB SCSI-2 HDD), 21" Sony G420, CD-R burner, 3.25" and 5.25" Floppy Diskette Drives, ZIP 100 Diskette Drive and an IBM Model M keyboard.

schulz.12
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Post by schulz.12 » November 2nd, 2017, 8:06 pm

I´m willing to put out the work necessary, and that being said, take 8/10 years or how it does take to do it, I am considering Final Fantasy VIII, as the best playstation game in the graphic department, and Crash Bandicoot (both Gran Turismo entries were also pretty good...). I am trying to understand what are the limits of the playstation 3d capabillities.

For exemple, on a 3d character model, in the low poly base mesh, how many vertices it (playstation hardware) can handle, how many polytgons can I dedicate per character, etc...

I am pretty good in the graphic department at both drawing polygon by polygon till I reach a realistic image, and spreading with through several 3d faces, I lack the knowledge in the coding and programming department, but nothing that a 5/6 years of trying won´t do to help...

That being said, I really like the "charm" that Playstation games had, and how much the limitations of the console forced the creators to invest both in the storyline and playabillity.

Any softwares you would recomend me to...?

I am already considering to purchase a similar motion capture equipment to the one Square Enix used, and just to make clear I DO NOT WANT TO MAKE OR REACH THE LEVEL OF GRAPHIC DETAILS OF FFVIII´S INTROS OS CUTSCENES, just the "in game play".

If anybody else wants to join me in this project let me know, I was already able to make a low poly mesh base of Rinoa, and modified it to look like someone else, and I´m working on the bones and skeleton now, and a few variants on facial expression, like blinking, talking, and sad/happy. Which is basically what I believe is the maximum capabillity of the console, using very low poly counts...

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Post by schulz.12 » November 2nd, 2017, 9:52 pm

Forgot to mention, CAPCOM´s Resident Evil 3, and Dino Crisis 1, and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver were also extremmelly competent in the graphic department.

I just won´t list Konami´s Metal Gear Solid in here because it´s poly count was really low, shades, and shadows, and lightning was good, but graphics overall were pretty bad...

Kudos to the sound, and dubbing though... Great Stuff...

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Post by CodeAsm » November 2nd, 2017, 10:53 pm

trow away all these 3d ideas for now. put em in a freezer if you will.
Can you program in C or Cpp ? there is a section with examples: http://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=40
you should check some out, and setup a dev system with tools and compile a few examples.

[EDIT] I dont want to seem like I know it all. but basicly start slow, start with programming some basic programs like hello world, some 2d text on screen, moving images and maybe colision.

its a long way from Ray casting ;) but either learn most of the basics (find a book on 3d programming) or grap a gameengine with its tools for PC (easier and free) like Unity or Unreal. 3d games isnt easy, not if you have to write everything from scratch, on a platform like the Ps1.
Development Console: SCPH-102, unkown clone Modchip, PAL , FTDI board build into the case (microUSB) for Serial I/O.
Development Computer: GNU/Linux, Arch x86_64 Linux 4.20.3, i7-3632QM [8x3.2GHz], 11,8GiB, 1366x768 GeForce GT 630M (Optimus tech), lots of gig of storage

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Post by schulz.12 » November 3rd, 2017, 1:50 am

Got it, will make sure I do that... Best starting point then would be...? simple programming for 2d games, and after a lot of knowledge in that push foward... I still have the next 10 years ahead of me so, I ll take the time to go slow and right then, like you suggested...

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Post by Shadow » November 3rd, 2017, 2:59 am

Right, well the best starting point is to check out the Sony examples, and start using the MIME rigging stuff to do facial animation. From there, you can improve and create your own version of it to get the desired outcome you're looking for, but again, it is not going to be easy. You need extensive knowledge in MIPS assembler and need to understand the limitations and workings of the GTE.
Development Console: SCPH-5502 with 8MB RAM, MM3 Modchip, PAL 60 Colour Modification (for NTSC), PSIO Switch Board, DB-9 breakout headers for both RGB and Serial output and an Xplorer with CAETLA 0.34.

PlayStation Development PC: Windows 98 SE, Pentium 3 at 400MHz, 128MB SDRAM, DTL-H2000, DTL-H2010, DTL-H201A, DTL-S2020 (with 4GB SCSI-2 HDD), 21" Sony G420, CD-R burner, 3.25" and 5.25" Floppy Diskette Drives, ZIP 100 Diskette Drive and an IBM Model M keyboard.

schulz.12
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Post by schulz.12 » November 3rd, 2017, 5:49 am

Thank you very much, I ll make sure to face those things, and I shall try to post progress while I go so the most experienced my point me the right direction when it comes to the order of which I´m required to learn to obtain the knowledge and experience necessary to create something from scratch.

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