Reality Factory

Hey ya'll!!! I just discovered Reality Factory and it sounds like what I need to make games for fun. (Light on the programming. The closest thing to programming I've ever done is modifying some of the script files in STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. Basically just changing numerical values to stuff like weapon damage and time-scale and spawn-rates.) I've tried FPS Creator,.. but it's way too limited in what it can do. I've never modelled, animated, or made textures before, but I guess I'll have to if I want my own content in a game. It seems very intimidating though. I never had the patience to figure out Photoshop. Am I biting off more than I can chew? I have no friends so if I want to make a game it will just be me all by myself.

I see there are different versions of RF with the patches, but from reading through some of the posts some newer versions have new bugs. What is considered the best version of RF by the users ?

Also,.. some questions that weren't in the FAQ or forums:

1. What about AI? Are there pre-made AI templates for us to tweak and alter for enemy behavior?

2. What about physics? Is there a built in physics system for objects to be knocked and thrown around?

3. Is a large open game world possible similar to GTA or Elder Scrolls?

4. Is a hub style level format possible? (like in Postal 2 or Stalker)

5. Is a one-man development team a stupid idea? Should I just forget it? Can a single guy make something more complex than a Doom clone in his spare time after work in less than a year? I've never even made any user-maps or mods for games before.


thanks.

creeper wrote:Hey ya'll!!! I just discovered Reality Factory and it sounds like what I need to make games for fun. (Light on the programming. The closest thing to programming I've ever done is modifying some of the script files in STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. Basically just changing numerical values to stuff like weapon damage and time-scale and spawn-rates.) I've tried FPS Creator,.. but it's way too limited in what it can do. I've never modelled, animated, or made textures before, but I guess I'll have to if I want my own content in a game. It seems very intimidating though. I never had the patience to figure out Photoshop. Am I biting off more than I can chew? I have no friends so if I want to make a game it will just be me all by myself.

I see there are different versions of RF with the patches, but from reading through some of the posts some newer versions have new bugs. What is considered the best version of RF by the users ?

Also,.. some questions that weren't in the FAQ or forums:

1. What about AI? Are there pre-made AI templates for us to tweak and alter for enemy behavior?

2. What about physics? Is there a built in physics system for objects to be knocked and thrown around?

3. Is a large open game world possible similar to GTA or Elder Scrolls?

4. Is a hub style level format possible? (like in Postal 2 or Stalker)

5. Is a one-man development team a stupid idea? Should I just forget it? Can a single guy make something more complex than a Doom clone in his spare time after work in less than a year? I've never even made any user-maps or mods for games before.


thanks.

1. yes.

2. not really but fredeco is making rf with basic physics or tokamak

3. no unless ur really good at optimizing but even then itll still lag.

4. whats what? i never played those games

5. not at all. but ur game will take much longer to complete. try some smaller scale projects before heading out to a serious project.
use the latest rf, rf75c. dl 75a and patch 75c over it.
u have no friends?

4. (hub level system) whats what? i never played those games

A Hub level system is where you have several levels linked together by "load zones" and you can go back and forth between different levels to give the illusion of one giant level. Basically you start on level 'a' and in level 'a' there are several "loading zones" going to levels 'b' , 'c', and 'd'. One zone will trigger a different level to load. But then you can just walk back into the "load zone" and go back to the level you came from. For example: You have a large map of a farm. If you walk all the way down the road next to the farm the game loads another map where you start out on the farm road that leads to the supermarket. If you want,.. you can walk back the way you came and it loads the farm map with the player starting all the way down the road. Postal 2 and Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl use this method to give the illusion of one giant game world. It's a nice work-around if the engine can't handle a GTA style game world.

u have no friends?

I have no friends. The friends I did have all started families right after high-school and have no time to do anything. We just drifted apart. (they wouldn't want to try to make a game anyway.)

my advise to you is if you havnt got any experience and no one to work with look for a mod team, people who make changes to a game, become a modeler or texture artist in the team, they will hopefuly suport you and help you and because its not a full game its not demanding and can be acompleshed by a small team, how ever, not to run you down, but doom was a massive game (in terms of popularity and how many copies it sold) they had a team of many working on it, not many games now are made with just one person, only simple flash games, because as you said, you havnt modeld, animated, textured i have been working on my project for ages now, i originaly thought of doing it all myself but soon realised that a, there was just too much for me to do (i thought of an ambitious project) and also never had the time to learn animation, texturing, modeling, story writing, level design, audio, scripting/programing to make a game by myself, i now have a small team in different areas that i have gatherd from of the net, people i have never met and dont know that much about, so while it is imposible, i doubt that you make a game in a year, but maybe a mod for a game by your self in a year with good planing and design.

scott wrote:my advise to you is if you havnt got any experience and no one to work with look for a mod team, people who make changes to a game, become a modeler or texture artist in the team, they will hopefuly suport you and help you and because its not a full game its not demanding and can be acompleshed by a small team, how ever, not to run you down, but doom was a massive game (in terms of popularity and how many copies it sold) they had a team of many working on it, not many games now are made with just one person, only simple flash games, because as you said, you havnt modeld, animated, textured i have been working on my project for ages now, i originaly thought of doing it all myself but soon realised that a, there was just too much for me to do (i thought of an ambitious project) and also never had the time to learn animation, texturing, modeling, story writing, level design, audio, scripting/programing to make a game by myself, i now have a small team in different areas that i have gatherd from of the net, people i have never met and dont know that much about, so while it is imposible, i doubt that you make a game in a year, but maybe a mod for a game by your self in a year with good planing and design.

well,.. I had a feeling that I was being delusional. I guess I can just save myself some headaches and frustration and skip this idea. I guess game-making is too much work for a single person to do just for fun.

I quit before I even downloaded and started. That's gotta be some kind of quitters record, right?

no no no no no no...... no no, dont give up, just practice for a few months doing stuff, dont bother tryng to make you game, like modeling, start of with random stuff, simple things, you learn techniques that you will use later on in the game, i was in exactly the same boat as you, i didnt have a clue about anything when i started but now i have started an ambitious project that if succeeds will be exelent, the worst thing to do is put a finish date or say what can i do in a year, until you planed it out and confident in the section you are good at eg. scripting, story design or what ever at wich point you know your limits and so might be able to put a time plan in place.

scott wrote:no no no no no no...... no no, dont give up, just practice for a few months doing stuff, dont bother tryng to make you game, like modeling, start of with random stuff, simple things, you learn techniques that you will use later on in the game, i was in exactly the same boat as you, i didnt have a clue about anything when i started but now i have started an ambitious project that if succeeds will be exelent, the worst thing to do is put a finish date or say what can i do in a year, until you planed it out and confident in the section you are good at eg. scripting, story design or what ever at wich point you know your limits and so might be able to put a time plan in place.

well,.. heh heh. I was being kind of sarcastic with my quitting thing.
I mean,.. RF is supposed to be for total noobies, right? I've done a lot of HTML and I've modded scripts in one game a little.(even fixed some bugs in conflicting scripts by reading the crash logs) Before I found RF I was using FPScreator and I learned my way around it in a couple of weeks,.. but modelling and animating scared me off,.. and then I figured if I can't have custom content in my own game then what's the point?(plus it was limited to FPS only and levels could only be made in square sections.) I can learn almost anything with detailed step-by-step tutorials though. The modelling and animating and texturing is still scary to me,.. mainly because I don't know if there are tutorials for them specifically about modelling, texturing , and animating for use in games.(or even better, specifically for RF.) If I have step-by step tutorials that leave out guess work, then I'm sure I can do it.

The first thing I will do is just play with RF and existing content and learn the editor and scripting. Then after I'm familiar with RF and confident I will take the plunge into modelling ,animating, and texturing.

I'm a really creative person,.. but I'm horrible at math. The whole point is that I think it would be really fun to make my own game and have my own characters and ideas playable. And RF makes it easier for us non-programmers to have a foundation to start with.

sounds great, thats what i did, started with RF, found its modeling limits and went to milkshape, now i use photoshop aswel, and animation after learning to model i found easy (too easy, could i possibly forgeting something or doing it worng, time will tell) but yea, i made a simple modeling tutorial on how to make a car wheel using milkhspae, its not the fact its the wheel its useful, it gives tips and methods of doing stuff, that can be used in any modeling, texturing is the newest thing to me, its not as easy as modeling (yet at least) but im learning, doanything and everything, if its wrong that dont matter, just learn from it i wont say its the only way but it is really good way to learn these programs.

you mentiond you was going to start with RF first, i started learning RF using this great site, the last few tutorials arnt done but for the beginer its exelent.
http://www.jlstsi.com/genesis3d.htm
this uses an older version of RF but all that is different is the position of the buttons, search around qucikly and you will find where its moved to.
and as mentiond above the ebook is also very useful
http://www.realityfactory.info/cms/inde ... umentation