I’ve said before that I’ve been beta testing Silo 2.0, and it’s no secret to the people that I work with that I love Silo as a modelling package. It’s small, fast, lightweight and it feels right to model in. I can’t say what projects I’m working on, or have worked on, but I’ve used Silo 1.4 several times in the pipeline.

Silo 2.0 has been released as a public Beta, and I think that it’s time the word went out to as many game industry artists as possible – Silo 2.0 is a joy to use, and you need to try it. Character artists are the people who will benefit from most of all, due to it’s stunning displacement painting. You can create a low level base mesh then subdivide and sculpt it as much as you want, but unlike Zbrush you’ve got access to all the standard 3D modelling tools at any time on any subdivision level.

You could even start with a high poly model, and then build a low polygon version from it using the topology brush. The topology brush allows you to create new geometry simply by drawing a new mesh over the old one, retaining all the shape. I can also take my high resolution model and generate a normal map for my low poly mesh using it’s UV’s – UV’S that I’ve laid out in the superb LSCM based UV editor.

If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to check the video, and read a description of all the features.

Taking it forward, I’d love to see the Nevercenter team implementing .fx based shaders, meaning the model we see in Silo is very close to the model we’d see in our games. This is a wish that I have no doubt the Silo team would have little trouble implementing.

Comments?

Technorati Tags: 3d modelling, Art, silo

I’ve worked on games with bugs – every game released has bugs. I remember developing at Ubisoft and we had a bug on Bear where the game would only work on Purple Gameboy Colours. No lie – and when you’ve had 10 hours sleep in 3 days at it’s 4am and you get a bug like that, you want pack it all in.

Gabriel the code monkey figured it out (I have no idea what it was), and the game shipped.

Console games usually have less bugs than PC games. Partly this is down to the standard hardware in the consoles, and party because each hardware vendor has it’s own internal test department who won’t let you release buggy games (although they differ from region to region, Nintendo USA passed Super Bubble Pop on the Gamcube and Nintendo Europe didn’t).

With all that in mind, I was surprised to see freezing issues with Major League Baseball 2k6. There are possible methods to fix it, and a patch is to be released, but I’m hoping this was a one off. Patches for console games? Please, let’s not go down this road.

Technorati Tags: bugs, Games, software patches

I love the Google Calendar – I’ve given up on iCal and switched to it for all my task management. This is mainly due to it’s ability to add calendar entries based on recognising English – like “Dinner at Suruchi 7pm Next Friday”. others are not so Keen, and Paul Scoble has written a post on what he finds wrong with it – much better than just saying that it’s rubbish.

Sometimes I forget that people are actually reading my ranting and expect more than just “I hate it.”

It makes interesting reading, and I have to agree with some of his points. It is an online calendar, so if you don’t have access to the net, you don’t have access to the calendar. For me this isn’t a big issue, but I can see how it could be for some people, thoguh I can set up iCal to also update itself from gCal.

Technorati Tags: Blogger, google calendar

The guys at Nevercenter have just got around to releasing a public beta of Silo 2.0. This will ONLY work if you already own 1.4 and have a valid serial. This is for Windows PCs only.

Of course, you could buy 1.4 for $109 and download the beta.

I’ve beta tested many versions of this for months, and really is top notch.

Technorati Tags: 3d modelling, beta, silo

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Lots of people ask questions about getting a job in the games industry – just look at the wiki for example – so I thought I’d pull together a list of top tips for the interview. Most of these as it turns out apply to any job interview.

• Be on time for the interview – actually be a little early. This is pretty obvious, but there is a reason – you will more often than not be asked to take a seat in a area where you can observe the environment for a few minutes.
• Wear something suitable – try to find out what sort of clothing most people that work in that company wear, and then wear something similar but smart. This will say “I’d fit in with you people, but I’ve made an effort’
• Research the company and their games – how long have they been around, how many games have they made, how well did the last game sell and how were the reviews for it. Look for interviews and features on them on the internet. Be able to show that you have some knowledge.
• Play their last game! Be able to say what you did and didn’t like about it, and don’t be afraid to be critical of some areas to show that you have your own opinions. You will often be asked questions about the last game, and trust me, if you try to bullshit this you will look stupid.
• Ask questions. Be prepared with a list, and ask relevant ones. Don not be afraid to ask what the benefits are – what the pension scheme is like, are there bonuses, does the company provide private healthcare, are their training courses.

Technorati Tags: interview tips, getting a job

You will probably have heard of games being classed as first party or third party, but what does that mean? Why first and third, but no second?

Well, there is a second party, but it’s rarely used and most people consider it to be 3rd party. Also, the party system only really applies to console games – since PCs have no single manufacturer (and Apple don’t develop games), computer based games would all be third party.

First Party

First party games are developed by the hardware manufacturer and published by them also. Nintendo is a classic first party developer/publisher. Often the developer may have a different name to the parent company, but are a wholly owned subsidiary.

There is one party of people involved in getting the game developed and published.

First party games only appear on one manufacturers hardware.

Second Party

Second party is more common than people think – in fact few people have even heard of it. Second party is where the hardware developer publishes a game developed by another studio, and that studio develops only for one platform. In many respects Rare was a second party developer for Nintendo for a number of years.

There are two parties involved: the developer and the hardware manufacturer who publishes the game.

Second party games only appear on one manufacturers hardware.

Third Party

Third party games are developed by a company with no hard ties to any particular hardware manufacturer and usually develop for multiple platforms at the same time., and then published either by themselves or by a publisher who also have no hard ties with the hardware developer. Ubisoft for example is a both a third party developer (and self publisher) and a publisher of other third party titles.

Third party games may only appear on one hardware platform, but are much more likely to appear on multiple formats.

NY Bridge

Originally uploaded by Rick Stirling.

This bridge was near Harlem