Blobby-object engine

Here is a very recent screenshot from my blobby-objects engine. It is produced with real-time blobby objects under OpenGL which morph and separate fluidly based on proximity to each other. In this particular example I used a specific shape of energy field for each blob which actually inverts the blob curves to produce convex blob shapes and blobs of various different sizes and shapes. There is also a more animated version which causes the blobs to wobble and have a more `rounded square` look to them. In this pic you can see small `bubbles` of blobs that bubble up as the objects move around. Currently runs well over 30fps at 1024x768 with about 30 blob objects in 32-bit color, on my nVidea GeForce 4MX - 1GHz G4 iMac.

I keep polishing it up and experimenting with different shapes and colors, etc, but eventually this is going to be a game engine where you navigate around energy fields and use your blobby-aura to attract different kinds of objects and events to you. There will eventually be a particle system based on blobby objects of different styles, a fully blob-based menu system and some very artistically styled gameplay.

Let me know your thoughts, impressions and suggestions. :-)

You can see some other pics and info in my worklog (see sig).

This looks brilliant. I love the area inside of the blobs.
I am very impressed :)

I can't imagine why your screenshot went down so far in the gallery :(


Now... A game that comes off of that effect will be very interesting indeed. Good luck! Don't blow it :)

is this animated? why not post a movie so we can see the effect ;)

Thanks!

I think some particular individuals gave it a lower vote. I was watching it for a while and it peaked at 4.54 at the #4 slot of all time :-D ... but then it went back down, people either giving it 4 or less than that. I just today submitted the shot above, perhaps people will like it better. Also the vote scores in the gallery are so tight, if you drop a few points you move down about 20 places, it's like the athletic sprints where hundredths of a second count.

What I'm aiming for with the game so far is to have some kind of character or ship or whatever that the player controls and moves around to navigate through the blob area. This entity will have one or maybe several `bands` of aura around it, also made of blobby objects, which usually will just show as conforming to the contours of the entity. But of course as it approaches various objects or other entities, which also have auras, the auras will interact depending on the color. When you get a blob area form between the player and the object there begins to be a magnetism that draws it toward them. Thing is, of course, some aura colors mean different things so this attraction might be undesirable.

Another big aspect of the gameplay will of course be to do with remaining with the boundaries of the constantly moving play area, finding ways to create bridges to other areas, `docking` with the play area to merge with it for various purposes (to leave an imprint which saves game position, for example), etc. With more than one player of course there's going to be an exciting element of dynamic gameplay because the blob play area will be moving around and transforming - so I'm adding the element of being able to influence the energy field to force gaps to close or pathways to open depending on what you collect or whatever. Should make for a really fun `catch me if you can` kind of scenario.

I'm also planning a very original splitscreen effect hopefully using blobby objects to dynamically reshape the screen shape and merge them together in blobby fashion when the players are occupying a close location. If I decide to have some kind of menu's the operation of the menu's will be using blobby objects and the manipulation of those objects will be how you control the menu options.

I really should stop tinkering around with different variations of the above effect and get down to adding some new visible features. :-D

Yes this is absolutely fully animated. You're only looking at a static shape because I took a screengrab, which doesn't do the effect justice.

It's made of realtime blobby objects so when any of the blobs moves or rotates or whatever, the whole shape transforms in realtime. Pieces of blobs bulge up and change color while others diminish and transform. I might consider showing a movie but I don't have anywhere of my own to host the file. Suggestions?

I'll try to generate some movie files before the weekend is out.

Ok. I made 3 short movies, they are between 9 and 11 megabytes each. Where can I upload/send them? I looked around at free file storage websites and they're all so misleading.

?????

See my new thread with blobby movie's in AVI format..

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=45427