New Version Added: November 08, 2012
Game Size 51 MB
Screenshots:
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Joe’s Garden
New Version Added: November 08, 2012
Age Of Oracles: Tara`s Journey
Pulled from her own world into a foreign and mysterious realm, Tara must meet the difficult challenges set before her by a magical talking peacock! Discover a wonderful and hilarious cast of characters that will bring Tara closer to her destiny in this fun and exciting Hidden Object Adventure game. Explore the lush and gorgeous landscape as you journey back to your home in Age Of Oracles: Tara`s Journey.Game Size 58MB
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Parallax trix
Since many seemed to enjoy the parallax mapping showed off in the material editor, I just wanted to show off the more advanced way of doing it and also giving some explanations.
No Parallax
This is when no parallax effect is added, just boring and flat. What happens is that the engine simple interpolates the uv-coordinate (the position on the texture map) according to the vertices (the points) of the model.
Offset Parallax
This technique is really just a cheap trick and as seen in the picture it fails at steep angles. Despite this, as the material editor video showed, it still gives a good effect in most cases! The way it works is by adding an offset to the uv coordinate depending on the height of the height map and of the angle of the eye (compared to position of the pixel). The biggest problem with this is that a pixel can never occlude (be in front of) another.
Relief mapping
This algorithm is a lot more accurate than offset mapping, but also a lot more expensive. This is no longer a cheap trick and works by casting a ray from the position of the eye and into the height map. It is then computed where the ray first hit something and the uv coordinate of that point is used. This sort of ray casting is used in all advanced parallax techniques, but is implemented differently. In relief mapping, one first steps along the ray at certain intervals and looks for an intersection. When one is found a binary search is used between the intersection and the eye position to pin point the exact intersection point. The binary search means that the distance between eye and the first found position is halved over and over, locking in on the intersection.
Other techniques such a cone step mapping give even better results but require the height map to be set up with certain extra data that is calculated before the rendering starts. There are also techniques for letting the height map not only occlude itself but also the other objects in the scene. It can even carve the actual model to better fit the height map, see "Relief Maps with Silhouttes" here for an example. This really takes the technique to new heights (ha..ha...) and it is really cool how much can be done with what starts out as a flat surface!
No Parallax
This is when no parallax effect is added, just boring and flat. What happens is that the engine simple interpolates the uv-coordinate (the position on the texture map) according to the vertices (the points) of the model.Offset Parallax
This technique is really just a cheap trick and as seen in the picture it fails at steep angles. Despite this, as the material editor video showed, it still gives a good effect in most cases! The way it works is by adding an offset to the uv coordinate depending on the height of the height map and of the angle of the eye (compared to position of the pixel). The biggest problem with this is that a pixel can never occlude (be in front of) another.
Relief mapping
This algorithm is a lot more accurate than offset mapping, but also a lot more expensive. This is no longer a cheap trick and works by casting a ray from the position of the eye and into the height map. It is then computed where the ray first hit something and the uv coordinate of that point is used. This sort of ray casting is used in all advanced parallax techniques, but is implemented differently. In relief mapping, one first steps along the ray at certain intervals and looks for an intersection. When one is found a binary search is used between the intersection and the eye position to pin point the exact intersection point. The binary search means that the distance between eye and the first found position is halved over and over, locking in on the intersection.Other techniques such a cone step mapping give even better results but require the height map to be set up with certain extra data that is calculated before the rendering starts. There are also techniques for letting the height map not only occlude itself but also the other objects in the scene. It can even carve the actual model to better fit the height map, see "Relief Maps with Silhouttes" here for an example. This really takes the technique to new heights (ha..ha...) and it is really cool how much can be done with what starts out as a flat surface!
Sally's Quick Clips
While reflecting on her years of success, Sally's mind drifts back to her humble beginnings when, fresh out of beauty school, she jumped at the chance to appear on the hit TV Show "Styling America" and a chance to win $100,000! Arrange scissors, dryers, hair color and more into matching groups of three or more to gather resources for the special services you'll provide to your choosy clients. Match your customers' tastes and make them look sharp in fun mini-games.
Enhance your supplies with all-new upgrades and use special power-ups to give yourself a winningedge. And calm your cranky customers with hot tea, magazines, and more. With your help, Sally'ssure to win the big prize on this dazzling TV competition!
I'm a Material Boy
Sorry for the long period with no tool show off. Blogging sure takes time :P
Here's the HPL Material Editor, our latest addition to the tool suite. This is what we use to create, edit and preview materials with. In a nutshell, a material is what's gonna determine how an object is going to look like in the engine. As of now, we have three basic types of materials:
- SolidDiffuse, which we use to model solid surfaces. Take a bit of a bump map, and another bit of a heightmap and you will have a more than convincing rock like material for example :)
- Translucent, to create a "glass like" look - Windows, ice... transparent stuff falls in this material type.
- Water, the most bleeding edge feature in the engine right now, used to simulate "liquid objects". Just like water in Penumbra, but now with more Reflection(tm).
Of course, it wouldn't be a HPL2 tool if it hadn't a realtime preview window, which is what really makes the tool worth it. In the good old Penumbra days, one would have to edit the material using the HPLHelper app, but then testing how the material looked meant having to start an independent viewer program, a bit of a pain if you ask me. The preview window features cubemapped and flat colored background, different preview models (ie cube, cylinder, sphere and plane), and lighting with customizable colors.
And last, but not least, here's a little video showing the Material Editor in action, in standalone mode (yeah it is also integrated in the other editors)
By the way, that "blackness" artifact at the edges of the water plane are caused by the current preview window setup. Looks like I'm gonna need to fix that... :P
Here's the HPL Material Editor, our latest addition to the tool suite. This is what we use to create, edit and preview materials with. In a nutshell, a material is what's gonna determine how an object is going to look like in the engine. As of now, we have three basic types of materials:
- SolidDiffuse, which we use to model solid surfaces. Take a bit of a bump map, and another bit of a heightmap and you will have a more than convincing rock like material for example :)
- Translucent, to create a "glass like" look - Windows, ice... transparent stuff falls in this material type.
- Water, the most bleeding edge feature in the engine right now, used to simulate "liquid objects". Just like water in Penumbra, but now with more Reflection(tm).
Of course, it wouldn't be a HPL2 tool if it hadn't a realtime preview window, which is what really makes the tool worth it. In the good old Penumbra days, one would have to edit the material using the HPLHelper app, but then testing how the material looked meant having to start an independent viewer program, a bit of a pain if you ask me. The preview window features cubemapped and flat colored background, different preview models (ie cube, cylinder, sphere and plane), and lighting with customizable colors.
And last, but not least, here's a little video showing the Material Editor in action, in standalone mode (yeah it is also integrated in the other editors)
By the way, that "blackness" artifact at the edges of the water plane are caused by the current preview window setup. Looks like I'm gonna need to fix that... :P
Paradise Beach
You have been selected to become the manager of some of the world`s leading beach resorts in Paradise Beach, a fun and exciting Strategy game! Create your dream retreat as you construct buildings, plant pretty foliage, and even design the layout of your peaceful getaways. Travel to different islands and use your imagination to keep your customers nice and relaxed as you plot the perfect Paradise Beach!
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Farm Mania
Game Size 26 MB
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Recommended for free users: Use Jdownloader to increase download speed!
Recommended for free users: Use Jdownloader to increase download speed!
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