<html>

<head>
<title>loonygames presents: Beaker's Bent - game design 'rants</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<style type="text/css">
a { text-decoration: none; }
a:hover { color:000000;  text-decoration: underline; }


</style>
</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFF4D0" link="#3333FF" vlink="#000000" alink="#000000">
<center>
</center>
<table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#3596B3" height="58">
  <tr> 
    <td height="69" width="29%" align="left" valign="top"> 
      <div align="left"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF"><b><i><img src="../../images/logo_new.jpg" width="182" height="63" border="0" usemap="#logoa"> 
        </i></b></font></div>
    </td>
    <td height="69" width="29%" align="center" valign="top"> <center>
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "ca-pub-2373963192914918";
/* 468x60 */
google_ad_slot = "3417104156";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
</center>
 
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#3596B3" height="29">
  <tr> 
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../about.1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF"><b><font size="2">about</font></b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../feedback.1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>feedback</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../archives/index.html"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>archives</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <b><a href="../../../submissions/index.html"><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">submissions</font></a></b></td>
  </tr>
</table>
<div align="center"> <br>
</div>
<table width="100%" border="0">
  <tr> 
    <td width="72%"> 
      <h5><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">//<a href="../../../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">loonygames</font></a>://<a href="../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">issue 
        2.7</font></a>://<a href="index.html"><font color="#7C420E">beaker's bent</font></a>://<a href="index.php"><font color="#7C420E">1</font></a>, 
        <a href="index2.php"><font color="#7C420E">2</font></a>, 3</font></b></h5>
    </td>
    <td align="right" valign="top" width="28%"> 
      <div align="right"> 
        <h5><a href="http://www.loonygames.com/includes/printme.pl?url=/2.7/bent/"><img src="../../images/icons/print01.gif" width="27" height="27" align="baseline" border="0" alt="switch to printer-friendly version"></a></h5>
      </div>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<br>
<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
  <tr> 
    <td align="center" valign="top" width="25%"> 
      <table border="0" width="99%" bgcolor="#D7B582" align="center" bordercolor="#E0E0E0">
        <tr> 
          <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> 
            <!--#exec
cgi="/includes/rand_quot.cgi"--> </font> <p><webdog><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#0022A8"><b><font color="#693A0C">What's 
           new today:</font></b></font> 
          
<p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../../index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">New!!!</font></b></a><br></b>
  The archives have been cleaned up, dead links fixed, and the printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments on the main page!</font></p>

 
<p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../2.15/feat/index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">Livin' 
  With The Sims</font></b></a><br></b>
  theAntiELVIS explores the wild and wacky world that is Will Wright's <b>The Sims</b>, 
  asking the inevitable quesiton, &quot;is <b>The Sims</b> the first step toward a virtual 
  life where everyone is Swedish?&quot;</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../2.15/pixel/index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">Pixel 
  Obscura </font></b></a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><br>
  Josh Vasquez on <b>Omikron: The Nomad Soul</b>.</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../rl/index.html" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">Real 
  Life </font></b></a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><br>
  Check out our newest comic strip, <b>Real Life</b>! Updated daily!</font></p>
<p><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><a href="../../uf.1" target=""><b><font color="#00025E">User 
  Friendly</font></b></a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><br>
  Updated daily!</font></p>
<p></webdog> </p>
 
            <p></p>
            <p> </p>
            <p></p>
            <!--#include virtual="/includes/includes/commerce_ssi.htm" --> 
            <!--#include virtual="/includes/includes/art_ssi.htm" --></td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      <br>
      <table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#D7B582">
        <tr bgcolor="#D7B582"> 
          <td> 
            <div align="center"> 
              <p align="left"><font size="-1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2" color="#0022A8"><b><font color="#00025E">Random 
                Feature:</font></b></font> </font> </p>
              <p><!--#exec
cgi="/includes/rand_thumb.cgi"--><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"> 
                </font> </i></p>
            </div>
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
      <br>
      <table width="99%" border="0" bgcolor="#D7B582">
        <tr> 
          <td> 
            <div align="center"> 
              <form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" name="">
                <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><b><font color="#339900">Search 
                the Archives!</font></b></font> 
               
                 <INPUT TYPE=text name=q size=12 maxlength=255 value="">
 <INPUT type=submit name=sa VALUE="Google Search">
 <INPUT type=hidden name=cof 
VALUE="LW:216;L:http:/home/loonygames/loony.timedoctor.org/content/images/logo1.jpg;LH:55;AH:center;S:http://www.loonygames.com;AWFID:13a298c7abe84fd0;">
<input type=hidden name=domains value="loonygames.com"> 
<input type=hidden name=sitesearch value="loonygames.com">               
</div>
              </form>

              <p align="left"><i> </i></p>
            </div>
          </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </td>
    <td width="75%" align="center" valign="top"> 
      <table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="0" align="center">
        <tr> 
          <td width="50%" valign="top"> 
            <table width="98%" border="0">
                <tr> 
                  <td width="55%"> 
                    <div align="left"> 
                      
                    <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><font color="#904C10" size="3">Beaker's 
                      Bent: <br>
                      Making the Outdoors - Part 1</font></i></font></b><br>
                      
                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 

                        Rich &quot;<a href="mailto:rich@loonygames.com">Beaker</a>&quot; 
                        Wyckoff</font></div>
                    </div>
                  </td>
                  <td width="45%" align="right" valign="top"> 
                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 7&nbsp; <br>
                      December 22, 1999&nbsp; </font></b></h5>
                  </td>
                </tr>
              </table>
              <loonystart> 
             
              <p align="right">&nbsp;</p>
              
            <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In the real 
              world, even man-made objects usually have much different details 
              on their sides than on their bottoms instead of a single texture 
              wrapped around all sides. Of course, transitions and details are 
              generally non-tileable, which means that if your entire cliff (or 
              building wall) is one very tall face, you will either be limited 
              in the amount of texture detail you can use (because you won't be 
              able to tile it up the cliff or wall), or you'll have to forget 
              about the transition altogether. Depending on the engine, the best 
              solution to this is to build special geometry to accommodate non-tileable 
              transition textures, or to use a decal/texture-layering system if 
              one is available.</font></p>
            <p></p>
            <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Finally, even in large 
              areas without transitions, such as a field of grass or a large rock 
              face, it is very important to have specific and non-repeating details. 
              Again, it is important that the entire area not be one single face 
              from a texturing standpoint, or else it will be impossible to put 
              these details down. The erroneous solution in games of old to avoiding 
              the repetitious look across large tiled faces has been to try to 
              paint more interesting detail into the tiled texture. Unfortunately, 
              our eyes are incredibly sensitive to patterns, and as soon as a 
              texture which looks very natural and interesting on its own is textured 
              across a large area, it will form into a big repeating pattern. 
              This is very evident with many of the rock textures in <b>Unreal</b> 
              - they were evidently ripped from photographs, always a dangerous 
              way to start an outdoor texture because of the non-repeating nature 
              of the real world. These photo-manipulated rock textures mostly 
              include a couple very distinctive dark shadows, and they look like 
              very nice pieces of rock in the texture browser, but become a series 
              of dark swirls in the world.</font></p>
            <p></p>
            <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A better approach to 
              realistic textures is to start with a very plain base which tiles 
              with little visible repetition, and then to create &quot;highlight&quot; 
              pieces. These highlight pieces can be little more than the same 
              base texture with a single detail added, such as a cluster of rocks 
              in a field of grass. The important thing is not to tile this detail 
              endlessly - instead, it should be placed on a face where the texture 
              doesn't tile much, if at all. As the player runs by, what they should 
              see is a large field of grass broken up by a single clump of rocks, 
              rather than a large field of plain grass, then a large field of 
              grass with a clump of rocks repeating every few feet, then maybe 
              a large field of grass with the same pattern of little flowers. 
              In any engine which allows decals or layering, the details can be 
              placed without regard to the base texture - so long, of course, 
              as they are placed where it makes sense. Positioning that clump 
              of rocks detail so that it wraps halfway up a steep cliff should 
              be an obvious no-no, but it happens more than I would expect.</font></p>
            <p></p>
            <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is a good place 
              to end this column - lighting and texture variation is a large subject, 
              and it can be practiced no matter what the underlying geometry of 
              the level is. What I thought was going to be a simple discussion 
              of some ideas about building levels gained from my now-cancelled 
              project is actually shaping up to be a fairly major dissertation, 
              so next time I'll continue and talk about realistic outdoor geometry. 
              It is also necessary to address the vagaries of game design in outdoor 
              areas, but that may not even be possible in the next column. Until 
              then, keep the initial point in mind - making pleasing outdoor areas 
              requires far more effort than a simple set of gray corridors, but 
              it is becoming more necessary every day, unless you want to be stuck 
              playing in and making corridors for the rest of your life.</font></p>
            <p align="left"></p>
              
            <p align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><i>- Richard 
              &#147;Beaker&#148; Wyckoff is a game designer, not a level designer, 
              damnit</i></font></p>
              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font></p></loonystart>
              
            <table width="100%" border="0">
              <tr> 
                <td width="50%"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="index2.php"><font color="#7C420E"><b><font size="+1">&lt;&lt;Prev</font></b></font> 
                  </a></font></td>
              </tr>
            </table>
     
            </td>
        </tr>
      </table>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<br>
<table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#3596B3" height="29">
  <tr> 
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../about.1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>about</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../feedback.1"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>feedback</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <a href="../../../archives/index.html"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF" size="2"><b>archives</b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="25%" align="center" valign="middle" bgcolor="#86531A"> 
      <b><a href="../../../submissions/index.html"><font color="#FFFFFF" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">submissions</font></a></b></td>
  </tr>
</table>
<table width="100%" border="0" bgcolor="#3596B3" height="29">
  <tr> 
    <td height="20" width="35%"><a href="../../../index.html"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF"><b><i>loonygames</i></b></font></a></td>
    <td height="20" width="65%"> 
      <div align="right"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#FFFFFF"><!--#exec
cgi="/includes/rand_bot.cgi"--></font></div>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. Beaker's Bent is &copy; 1999 Rich Wyckoff. All other 
  content is &copy; 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited, 
  so don't do it or we'll sick our lawyers on you. Muhahahahahahahah. ph3ar our 
  m@d l3gal sk1lz y0.</font></i></p>
 <map name="logoa">
  <area shape="rect" coords="52,47,112,59" href="http://www.bluesnews.com">
  <area shape="rect" coords="3,3,179,46" href="../../../index.html">
</map>
</body>
</html>
