paper on Spore's animation system

[CoolColJ]

If you have heard about the game Spore - where all the creatures are created by the player and procedurally animated etc

then this should be of interest

http://www.chrishecker.com/images/c/cb/ ... raph08.pdf

[CTZn]

No I had not heard about Spore, and yes I'm interested !

It's typically a dream for me to code proc behaviours...

Found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(video_game)

[CoolColJ]

dude your missing out of the game of the century

best seen in motion to understand the true impact of the game!
Even Brian Eno has a hand in the algo generated music system it has!!

these creatures are taken from Spore - they were made by a Spore dev
http://innerfeelingsfromouterspace.blogspot.com/


and the game itself


The video is really long - talks about the Spore game tech and other stuff. You can hear Brian Eno pieces being played while Will Wright is talking about the game

Video bookmarks on the bottom to skip to http://fora.tv/2006/06/26/Will_Wright_and_Brian_Eno

in German though...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiCka_jIOew


rough translation

I know a bit of German and tried my hand at translating the voice over. Its not exactly a professional translation but its a fair approximation of what he's saying. Attention: Quiz Question, who is that? No, not the woman on the left she is Shana Dietermann. No one is interested in her. I mean the guy with the funny haircut. And the uhh… intelligent looking face. I’ll give you hint. He invented two very famous video game series: namely SimCity and the Sims. You get it now right? The man with the glasses is Will Wright, the famous game developer and visionary. And his newest work is called SPORE. An evolution simulator in which you play out the development of your own creature through five phases: Cell, Creature, Tribal, Civilization, and Space. So in this first little bit I’ll show you a quick shot of the game’s opening. The game naturally begins with the Cell phase, which begins interestingly enough with a comet traveling through space which breaks up and impacts a planet. What does that mean? It means that the comet seeds this world with microorganisms. Out of a small piece of that heavenly body oozes out your first creature which you control and protect. [I’m not quite sure what he says next but it sounds like you go into the creature editor and create your creature before the comet piece breaks apart.] I chose this little black thing with bug eyes. With my little amoeba I have to scoot around the primordial ooze and first of all, find something to eat. The whole process reminds me of Pac-Man. I grow larger as I eat and I earn points which will later be used [in the creature editor] to purchase upgrades. [Once again I’m not sure about what he’s saying but I think its approximately something like; “The camera will occasionally pan out to show these little cut scenes This one leads to me getting my first genetic evolution.”] [I think he’s talking about a play mechanic wherein different creatures will posses a creature part which you can take and then use in the creature editor after you kill them. But really, that’s all just speculation on my part.] With this I can now outfit my creature with spikes. Now I enter the creature editor where I can change the construction of my creature along with its appearance. [He then chatters amicably about how he changes his creature’s appearance to be more eye-catching and appealing.] Now, here come the spikes which I can use to attack other creatures. Then I put on a pair of fresh eyes and a mouth so that my creature can eat. Now my new creature comes back with its spike which gives me a bit more safety and allows me to attack other creatures. Now I can move around with confidence but I still must avoid the creatures which are larger than I am. But just wait, I’ll keep eating and keep growing and eventually I’ll conquer the world. The next phase is the Creature phase where my creature crawls out of the ooze and walks upon the land. In building the creature you must position the body where you want, it is very simple. Just click on one of the vertebras and change the body’s position, and by rolling the mouse wheel I can make the body thicker. Then you add a mouth and eyes, perhaps a pair of spines. Oh and arms too, those are probably important. I’m especially proud of the poison-spitting gland on his tail which I just have to try out. You can also change the paint scheme of the creature so that I can make it look just how I want it; for example like this. With this six-legged [not sure what he calls it, sounds like a mash up of different animal names] I go on a little journey of discovery. The goal of the creature phase is just like the cell phase: eat, grow bigger, and evolve. I earn new body parts by eating other creatures [or by finding them on the ground if you’re a vegetarian maybe, I think he said that he won a mouth after clicking on the bones and that now he can eat the flesh of other creatures]. When my creature needs to do battle I can pair up with some of my fellow kind. In fighting against these demons in a group, I earn points which I can use in the creature editor to buy upgrades. With these points I can increase the fighting ability of my creature, or maybe give him better dance moves. The creature phase is very much an action game. [I’m pretty sure that he says that part of the goal of the creature phase is to collect a group of your creatures together and to begin leading them so that you can later bring them together in the tribal phase.] My tribe starts out with a small group of tribe members, a campfire, and a hut. At first they walk around aimlessly but I’ll change that right now. That creature with the hearts around its head is the chief. This phase is very much about strategy. You give your tribe goals by clicking on what you want them to do. [He seems to select the creatures with a yellow box selection cue and then clicks on the fire to give them all the order to dance.] Here I choose to have a little fire dance. I find it a very amusing thing to do. But in addition to its hilarity such a ceremony has its tangible advantages such as making them [he says ‘flinker’ which means either “nimble” or “speedy” so I guess dancing makes your creatures more coordinated and faster.] The animations for the creatures are created automatically from the construction of your creature’s body. So a two legged dinosaur will dance very differently than an eight-legged flesh eating sausage [I believe he specifically called the creature a ‘Teewurst’ which is a type of pork sausage.] The most important activity of my tribe is obtaining food in activities such as hunting. Here I kill a couple of these green things so that I may eat their meat. Then they take the meat back to their village so that it may be preserved for new tribe members. And so my little group slowly expands wider and wider until they conquer the, Oh my God! What the hell is that!!! [Paraphrasing his astonishment.] Oh, it’s a giant creature which seems to have an appetite for my dinosaurs. Oh man, he ate my entire village. Only my chieftain survived. Perhaps hunting is a bit too dangerous. I guess I could go collecting berries but that’d be boring. So, instead I’ll invest in a new fishing hut— the armory is, unfortunately, still too expensive. So now my lonely chieftain stands on the edge of the beach and fishes. Well, this would be quite the sad ending if I stopped the video here so I’ll quickly talk a little about the other two phases— which EA won’t let us release any video of. As your tribe grows and you merge multiple tribes together, eventually you’ll build a city which you will then use to expand your rule over the entire world through war, trade, and diplomacy in the Civilization phase. When you finally unite the world you can build a spaceship, explore the galaxy and meet different alien races in the last and endless section of SPORE.

[CoolColJ]

the creature editor/creator demo is out next month

pretty amazing stuff - you can model way faster in this than any other 3D program!!!

One day all 3D modellers will work like this

[CTZn]

Brian Eno has a hand in the algo generated music system

Amazing !
I haven't read that text nor listened for Eno for years but you get me excited !

And wow the video lasts 1h38 !

That track of mine features a lot of random controls, for instance the beat box is not sequenced.

EDIT: since I'm at posting my own by myself stuff, this one has tracks old up to 15 years (most recent: 2000). Sound's crappy, original Q is not excellent but web format is even worse... Brave the one who can take it all.

[CoolColJ]

interesting music - sorta like modular synth noodles
What did you use to do it? Software or hardware

there is a video showing Brian Eno's algo system in effect in Spore. It changes as you play the game, tempo slows the longer you have played and if your working on a darker more evil creature the music goes more minor key etc. When you mouse over buttons they add their own notes that are in tune and timing with the music!
You can even make you own themes for your cities


Creature Creator Hands-On - note the algo music
Part1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKYEmnElxY8&fmt=18
Part2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLg3VHFkGtc&fmt=18

--

The official Spore site was updated with two new official videos!

The first one shows a bit of every stage, while Will Wright himsel is talking. There are some vey cool scenes, and weird planets.
http://www.spore.com/screenshots.php?movieID=10&play=hi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7F1nuuT9vA&fmt=18

The second one is about the creature phase. It seems to be sure that there is no blood in the game any more. The grass and other small plants seem to be more realistic than before.
http://www.spore.com/screenshots.php?movieID=11&play=hi

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b64su5FdFQU&fmt=18

[CoolColJ]

lol this is weird

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCsiVH3uHIQ&fmt=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq6cmk5BrYo&fmt=18

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGc08y-k2q4&fmt=18

the demo of the creature creator will be out next month - so we can try it ourselves

[Phr0stByte]

CoolColJ
Oh! Welcome back! Long time no see...

[Kram1032]

lol vids
Great game, really

[CoolColJ]

CoolColJ
Oh! Welcome back! Long time no see...

Hey, I've been in and out , here and there


New spore overview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EZghUGBETc&fmt=18

edit - link for high quality version

[CoolColJ]

Demo of Spore Creature Creator

190 megs

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6FTRF99I

[CoolColJ]

behold my NinjaSaur - silent, flying killer

He has a poison spit'er on his chin








head in a different position
http://www.members.optushome.com.au/bli ... df_ful.JPG

[Kram1032]

Woot the demo is out, thanks
nice creature, btw^^

[Kram1032]

DAMN
"psapi.dll not found" - at least 10 times per starting it
When I google, most of the stuff I find is the inverse, where psapi makes problems and you need to turn it off to get stuff working...

'Till now, when such a message popped up, I never managed to fix it

[CoolColJ]

reinstall windows?

my 2nd creature - Spiderbot

I made a video within the editor, which you can upload to youtube later on.
I'm impressed by how well it animates!