Game Programming on Ivan Hawkes

Chrysalis Update for 2020-08-02

Sun, 02 Aug 2020 21:48:08 +1000

In this article I will cover recent progress on my project, Chrysalis.

Adding EnTT ECS to Chrysalis

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 22:48:08 +1000

In this article I will discuss the process I followed and the results of integrating the EnTT Entity Component System (ECS) into Chrysalis.

Switching to CRYENGINE 5.3 New Entity System

Sun, 08 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In this article I will cover the changes I made to Chrysalis for the release of CRYENGINE 5.3. Some were required due to old code being deprecated, others were simply improvements over the previous way of doing things.

First Person and Action RPG Cameras

Wed, 14 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

In this article I will introduce you to view management within CRYENGINE and then use the existing view management to build a camera manager, a first person camera and a third person orbit camera (action RPG style).

Controlling an Animated Character in CRYENGINE using C++

Sun, 10 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Making an animated character move around the screen in CRYENGINE requires many thousands of lines of code and a lot of time and dedication. This series of articles will show you how to control a character animated in CRYENGINE Mannequin using C++ code.

CRYENGINE Flowgraphs - Blacklists and Substitutions

Fri, 20 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

On a large project, such as a game built using CRYENGINE, structure, clarity and consistency can provide decent gains in productivity by reducing the time it takes to comprehend and perform simple tasks. Blacklists and substitutions for Flowgraph Nodes are one way to improve these parts of your project.

Joining StoneRage

Mon, 02 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I decided to place my own projects on hold and join a team working on a game - specifically the StoneRage game. The developers seemed organised and were well advanced in terms of graphic and environmental production.

How to Make .PAK Files With Your Assets

Thu, 25 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Something that doesn’t seem to receive much coverage is what to do with all your awesome assets once you’ve made your game. You’re going to need to ship them to end users, and the best way is within a .PAK file.

Building A Cheap Motion Capture Studio

Tue, 16 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A while back I became interested in motion capture as a means to easily get basic animations into the game I am working on. Using reasonably priced software from Brekel and a cheap Microsoft Xbox Kinect camera you have the beginnings of a motion capture setup.

Dealing With The Difficulty

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been working on my pet project for almost five months now and I must admit that some parts of the project are easier than others. I don’t actually get a choice about which parts I will try and deal with, but I do get a choice about the order in which it happens.

On Building a World

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

To date I’ve been focusing on making my little zone with little regard for the world around it. Till now it’s been acceptable to know just the prime locale of the zone, but it’s been niggling at me that I don’t know it’s location on a world map, it’s climate, or even the location of the sun.

Creating Interesting Terrain

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

At first blush terrain might seem like a fairly easy thing to be able to create, and at it’s simplest it might well be. Toss a few mountains about, some rolling hills, a valley or two, a little water, and you’re done - or are you?

Sunset Oasis

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

My first effort towards building a CTF style game went a little awry. I tried tinkering with the gameplay parameters and added in extra elements and came up with a hybrid that might be interesting when I get back to it. My big mistake though was to create a landmass about 8 times bigger than was really needed. Even using much of it for ocean, I was still left with these way too large spaces for the tight gameplay I wanted.

CryEngine3 and UDK3

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been playing games for over 30 years now and I’ve seen them progress from simple text based games through all the iterations to give us the amazing looking games we have today. I have at times written my own games; most were very simple - due to the nature of the machines at the time.