TheoLabs: updates on TheoWorlds Builder v2

TheoWorlds Builder v2 (TheoSDK 2) - the next generation platform for building online games and avatar chat worlds (currently in development) - has been updated with new features:

• Mouse support. Now you can use the mouse to move your character around.
• Path finding algorithm. Calculates the shortest walk path for the characters. Supports elevations ("hills") and collision detection (avoiding obstacles like other characters).
• Chatting. Avatars can now exchange text messages.
  
• Avatar bots. Characters that are controlled by computer. In this example they randomly walk around the map and chat.
  

Here is the link that demonstrates those features:
www.theoworlds.com/labs/theolabs_03.html

Check the blog posts for other updates on this project.


For those who are interested in this product, but don't want to wait for the release, check TheoAvatar SDK and TheoSDK - our existing platforms for creating online games and multi-user 3D chats like TheoAvatar in Flash. Both come with Map Editor, source code and documentation.

Creating avatar chat characters

Our artists at TheoWorlds.com just finished creating a new set of characters for TheoAvatar chat - they can walk, sit and even dance. Each character's animation is made from 32 frames with multiple matching layers of clothes. It took about 400 images to assemble each character.

In case you are planning to create your own The Office Space game or the next Habbo-like online community, here are some tips from our animators on drawing avatar characters in isometric view:

• If you are trying to draw realistic human avatars with high level of details, you'll need to use references. There are two options here: 3D and photography. If you choose 3D, the easiest way is to use characters libraries from Poser. If you are more comfortable with photography, you can just capture your co-workers on the camera. Just make sure they know about it. We used the latest approach as it was more fun. Doing it in 3D would, probably, be faster.
  After you resize down these reference pictures, you can draw on top of them, adjusting the details on the pixel level.


• Use minimum number of frames to represent each animation. Try to keep your total files size small and also reduce the amount of work. To keep it as smooth as possible, make the differences between frames smaller. For example, if you draw the walking animation - try smaller steps and less arm swing.


• Animate the characters in Flash early. Don't rely on animated GIFs. Moving the characters around in Flash will help you test the animation early on. You can do corrections while it's not too late. It also helps you find the optimal animation speed.


• Draw symmetrical characters so you can "mirror" their animations of opposite directions. For example, our characters are moving in 8 directions, 3 of them being just "mirrored".


• Less is more. If you are using multiple layers of clothes (for customizing the look) you will have to animate each of them to match the character's animation. So more character animations you have - more clothes animation to create. It grows almost exponentially, so stand the temptation of creating a lot of "cool moves".

For inspiration, check devianART gallery on pixel art isometric characters:
http://browse.deviantart.com/digitalart/pixelart/characters/iso/?order=9&alltime=yes

How fast is our Flash isometric engine

A lot of questions on our Flash isometric engine (http://www.theoworlds.com/tie.html) are about performance. The most common one is: how many characters can we have on one map, without a significant slowdown. We did put together a simple performance demo:

http://www.theoworlds.com/avatar/performance/performance_demo.html

It's a large map with 20 characters moving simultaneously and using collision detection. As you can see, it runs just fine.

This test doesn't do any network synchronization (which is used in mutiplayer games and chats). It just tests the Flash rendering/calculation speed. In out TheoAvatar chat we limit the number of users per room to 10. It's not because of synchronization issues, but because having overcrowded chat rooms makes it very difficult to communicate. It's better to have multiple smaller rooms.

If you want to create your own Flash games and chats using our engine, check the information on TheoSDK and TheoAvatar SDK pages.