Dev Blog
Hi, this is the Stranded III development blog (see also Forum Thread, Comment Thread).
Entry 98 - Growing Cycle - December 24, 2020
Banana Plants
It's time for some models again! I already had a single banana plant model but I now added a few more variants for the different states. To be able to do so I had to do some research first and learned a lot about banana plants. The resulting models are very far away from being botanically accurate but they are much much better than the ordinary banana plant in Stranded II which just spawned single bananas every few days and which did not look much like a banana plant at all.
Click for bigger version
1. young plant
2. medium plant
3. fully grown plant
4. starting to bloom
5. banana start growing
6. ripe bananas
The screenshot is maybe a bit misleading because of the badly chosen viewing angle. Ooops. Plants 3 to 6 have exactly the same size.
Once the bananas are ripe (6) you'll have to harvest them all at once which will also reset the state of the banana plant (to 3) and initiate a new growing cycle for the next fruits.
Having mutliple models for different plant states is complex, much work and requires slightly more (V)RAM.
I will only do so for some selected/important plant types. Especially for stuff which can be harvested and were it is important that the player can easily see the current status.
For most other plants I will use simple methods like scaling and coloring to represent the different states. Just like I did in Stranded II already.
Pumpkins
Same procedure for the pumpkins! I made 4 new models for the plants.
They work a bit differently: Once harvested the plants are completely gone. If you want more pumpkins you have to plant more of them!
Click for bigger version
From left to right:
1. young plant
2. blooming plant
3. pumpkins start to grow
4. ripe pumpkins
By the way: I use one texture for all growing states of a plant. This increases rendering performance and lowers video memory requirements.
Click for bigger version
Merry Christmas
That's it for now! My plan is to use the free days to work extra intensively on Stranded III. Let's see what I can do!
Thanks to all of you for reading this blog and following Stranded III's seemingly eternal development.
I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year! Stay healthy!
It's time for some models again! I already had a single banana plant model but I now added a few more variants for the different states. To be able to do so I had to do some research first and learned a lot about banana plants. The resulting models are very far away from being botanically accurate but they are much much better than the ordinary banana plant in Stranded II which just spawned single bananas every few days and which did not look much like a banana plant at all.
Click for bigger version1. young plant
2. medium plant
3. fully grown plant
4. starting to bloom
5. banana start growing
6. ripe bananas
The screenshot is maybe a bit misleading because of the badly chosen viewing angle. Ooops. Plants 3 to 6 have exactly the same size.
Once the bananas are ripe (6) you'll have to harvest them all at once which will also reset the state of the banana plant (to 3) and initiate a new growing cycle for the next fruits.
Having mutliple models for different plant states is complex, much work and requires slightly more (V)RAM.
I will only do so for some selected/important plant types. Especially for stuff which can be harvested and were it is important that the player can easily see the current status.
For most other plants I will use simple methods like scaling and coloring to represent the different states. Just like I did in Stranded II already.
Pumpkins
Same procedure for the pumpkins! I made 4 new models for the plants.
They work a bit differently: Once harvested the plants are completely gone. If you want more pumpkins you have to plant more of them!
Click for bigger versionFrom left to right:
1. young plant
2. blooming plant
3. pumpkins start to grow
4. ripe pumpkins
By the way: I use one texture for all growing states of a plant. This increases rendering performance and lowers video memory requirements.
Click for bigger versionMerry Christmas
That's it for now! My plan is to use the free days to work extra intensively on Stranded III. Let's see what I can do!
Thanks to all of you for reading this blog and following Stranded III's seemingly eternal development.
I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year! Stay healthy!