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Author Topic: 360 camera?  (Read 7926 times)

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TheCountJames

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360 camera?
« on: August 14, 2014, 05:07:57 AM »

How exactly is a 360 camera achieved like it was for Dark Fall: Lost Souls?
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Azrael

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Re: 360 camera?
« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2014, 07:25:57 AM »

I think that for "Lost Souls" they used a cube actor with a texture that is the 360 scene. So when you look around the cube turn and it seem that the scene is rotating.
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odnorf

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Re: 360 camera?
« Reply #2 on: August 14, 2014, 07:30:31 AM »

Lost souls is using a WME feature in unconventional ways to achieve that. Scenes in the game are 3D objects with the texture and camera inside the object. But, since you can't animate the camera, the result lacks. For a node based game (360 camera) I'd consider other choices as well. Like the opensource Dagon which is designed specifically for node based games. What it lacks is tools & development is frozen atm so game development will be more difficult compared to WME. Another choice is a full 3D engine like unity which can be used for prerendered games but it will require more work since it's a general purpose engine.
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TheCountJames

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Re: 360 camera?
« Reply #3 on: August 14, 2014, 11:28:51 AM »

http://forum.dead-code.org/index.php?topic=4601.msg26684#msg26684

I just came across this, but 'tis a shame the link is dead. I looked into Dagon but it seems a little too complicated for me. There's no GUI and you have to compile everything. I did check out that Asylum teaser and was impressed that you could maneuver the scenes as if it were 3D by just dragging the mouse toward the edge, but I would actually just be satisfied with something Dark Fall: Lost Souls uses on WME even if it isn't really fully 360 and you're forced to "click" to initiate the 360 movement.

I might have a couple theories on how it could work like Lost Souls and be plausible for WME.

Theory 1:

- Build your scene in a 3D application.
- Create your final scene render similar to an HDRI sky image (one that stretches around a full 360 degrees, or 180 degrees, depending on the size and preference).
- Create a large sphere and map your 360 render to the sphere.
- Create your camera inside and center of the sphere, presumably based on your final scene camera.
- Export your 3D file and use the camera data for your scene (3D hidden geometry scene).
- Export your sphere with the mapping coordinates and texture map and create it as a 3D actor.
- On your scene in WME, write a script that tells the sphere actor to rotate a specified degrees on left click on hotspot.
- To simulate the bobbing of the head effect, have a scripted timed interval rotate the sphere actor slightly up and down, at random.

Theory 2:
- Build your scene.
- Render a perfectly timed .ogg video depicting the transition (camera rotation) from one still to another which will be initiated from the scene script (on left click on hotspot).
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TheCountJames

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Re: 360 camera?
« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2014, 11:49:46 PM »

« Last Edit: August 30, 2014, 01:22:14 AM by TheCountJames »
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TheCountJames

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Re: 360 camera?
« Reply #5 on: October 12, 2014, 12:41:56 AM »

I found that the best engine to use which is easy and straight forward for 360 panoramic games is Adventure Maker. No scripting or programming even required it's just straight forward WYSIWYG and their tutorials are super simple and straight to the point. :) Also Max has a built in panoramic exporter that lets you export to a .mov file or save it as a spherical or cylindrical image file. Despite what some say the exporter works fine on 64 bits (at least for me) and it also works perfectly on mental ray. You just have to increase the resolution to something like 5120x2822 or higher for the best quality results, which will increase render time.

Hope it helps anyone else that wants to build this type of game:
http://www.adventuremaker.com/help/360_degree_panorama.htm

By the way, slightly off topic but what ever happened to WME 2.0? I heard it was supposed to support 360 panoramic scenes but the site has been offline for awhile and no updates have been posted.
« Last Edit: October 12, 2014, 12:46:03 AM by TheCountJames »
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