Cello Fortress

[Oogst]

New trailer! The most unique part of Cello Fortress is of course that it is controlled by a live cello. This trailer explains how the cello controls the game:

[youtube]Zc2VapNISNk[/youtube]

Also, I have written a new blogpost that gives a lot more background information on how it works and why it works this way:

Blogpost: How the cello controls the game in Cello Fortress



Next step is to finally start working on the graphics. I have some cool shaders and effects in mind (tilt shift, woohoo!), so hopefully this will result in some nice pictures that show the strength of the Ogre!

[Oogst]

Woohoo, this trailer made it to Rock Paper Shotgun, Kotaku, Destructoid and many others! Nice!

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/05 ... -fortress/
http://kotaku.com/see-how-four-players- ... -493186954
http://www.destructoid.com/cello-fortre ... 3327.phtml

According to Rock Paper Shotgun:

[Oogst]

I wrote a blogpost about the tech I created to detect notes live from a microphone. Pretty complex stuff, but to my surprise I managed to figure out a pretty simple core algorithm!

Detecting notes from a live cello: the core technology of Cello Fortress

[Oogst]

I am finally working on the graphics of Cello Fortress. I want to add a tilt shift-like depth of field blur to it, so I am adding foreground blur to the depth of field shader I already had in Proun. Note that all the models and textures are still rubbish, I don't have proper art in the game yet.



This turns out to be a bit more complex than I had expected, but anyway, I am getting somewhere with this now. My main problem now is that when a blurry foreground object is in front of a sharp object, the blur goes wrong and makes the blurry foreground object too strong, as you can see in this image:



I have some solutions in mind for that that I am experimenting with.

If anyone has any links to any hot high-quality DoF algorithms that I should check for the best foreground DoF algorithms, I'd love to read those!

[Oogst]

Playing around with better shadows and my own breed of depth-of-field-blur. Still need to do the actual graphical design for Cello Fortress, but it is finally starting to look like something interesting visually!



Next up: bokeh lights in the background, fixing/improving the shadow maps, and terrain deformation around explosions and bullets.

[cybereality]

Looks really interesting.

[Oogst]

Added a simple form of HDRI. I love how that makes bright objects look so much brighter in the depth of field blur, like here with the yellow flamebullets at the very top.

[Oogst]

I added bokeh! One of my favourite effects for the coming console generation: the hexagons around bright lights when blurred.



Usually this is a pretty expensive effect to do, but my own implementation uses a really simple trick: after rendering the depth of field blur I just add billboards on lights that are blurred. A very limited technique, but also very fast and very high quality, and thus perfect for Cello Fortress. The quality here is much higher than with the more complete implementation I experimented with in Proun.

[Oogst]

It has been a while but I am actually still working on Cello Fortress. Today I wrote a blogpost on how I implemented the bokeh trick in Cello Fortress. I came up with a really simple trick for high quality bokeh that uses hardly any performance. It is limited but works really well for Cello Fortress and I imagine many other games that don't need all the details of bokeh could also benefit a lot from this simpler and faster approach:

A simple trick for fast high quality Bokeh on lights in Cello Fortress

[Enhex]

Why limit it only to cellos? Couldn't it work with any instrument? Or even with music files?

[Oogst]

I do plan to make it work with other instruments in the future as well. That requires a lot of tweaking per instrument though, but it would indeed work. It is about cellos now because that is what I play.

As for using music files: that would be lame because the whole point of Cello Fortress is that the musician actually controls the game and reacts to the players. A music file won't react to what the players do and would thus flush out a big part of what makes Cello Fortress special.

[Oogst]

Playing around with the colour scheme for Cello Fortress, what do you think?

[spacegaier]

I somehow prefer the warmer look from the "after" image. But I guess that is highly subjective, so my second thought was: Why not make it a customizable setting in the game for the user to choose?

[Germanunkol]

I'd also go for the warmer look: It looks more "comfortable", in a way.

Great project, keep it up!

I'd love to play this with a few friends and a projector... though I'll have to wait until a non-chello version comes out (Acoustic guitar, maybe?)

[Oogst]

... Why not make it a customizable setting in the game for the user to choose?

Cello Fortress is a performance played live on a stage, so things like menus and options don't exist.

[Oogst]

For Cello Fortress I came up with a new technique for Depth of Field blur: area based. (Or at least: as far as I know it is a new technique...) The idea is quite simple so I have written a blogpost explaining how it works:

Area based depth of field blur

[Oogst]

It's been a while since I last posted about it but I'm actually still working on Cello Fortress. I'm currently working on the graphics. Robin Keijzer recently sent me some awesome concept art:



Robin is actually a really good illustrator / concept artist, check his portfolio here.

I've been trying to recreate this in 3D. This is not in-game yet, but I'm pretty confident lightmaps can make it look pretty much the same. Which do you like better, the top one without textures, or the bottom one with textures?

[NotCamelCase]

It's been a while since I last posted about it but I'm actually still working on Cello Fortress. I'm currently working on the graphics. Robin Keijzer recently sent me some awesome concept art:



Robin is actually a really good illustrator / concept artist, check his portfolio here.

I've been trying to recreate this in 3D. This is not in-game yet, but I'm pretty confident lightmaps can make it look pretty much the same. Which do you like better, the top one without textures, or the bottom one with textures?

I say the bottom image looks really beautiful. Cool concept arts!

[Oogst]

Thanks for the feedback! Most people I've asked seem to like the wood texture better, so that's what I'm going for. Also, the wood texture is turning out really nicely with the little tanks and cannons I'm putting in there.

Here's some more concept art that Robin Keijzer drew. Really nice idea: brass tanks attacking the cello!

[xrgo]

cool concepts, I prefer with texture too =)

[Oogst]

Looking more like a game now: I've added brass tanks for the players and ballistas for the cello to control. Time to start working on bringing this concept art into the actual game!

[c6burns]

I love this art!

[Oogst]

Tried adding some details to the world: battlements and gothic windows. Not sure about this: I liked the contrast between the big shapes of the giant cello and the little tanks and ballistas, and that contrast is kind of gone now. What do you think?

[c6burns]

The funny thing is I really can't level any specific criticism of the details you added. They are tasteful and blend into the design, but yes ... something about it does pull a bit of focus away from the figures which held all of the fine detail previously. But the additions do look quite nice ... I bet when the little figures start to be animated by the game it will pull that focus back on them and it might be all the better as a whole.

Then again I'm a programmer, so what do I know about aesthetics haha

[shadowfeign]

Still looks great, but feels off I think. How does it look with the windows, but not the battlements? My best guess of why its not quite working for me is that its breaking up the smoothness of contours that was there before. so we're not getting that sleek cello feel as much?