Some recent findings from the Gemini Project and a progress report

It is currently undergoing somewhat suitable progress with many essential discoveries being made and here is another progress report.

Project considerations

There’s a lot of technical aspects of the Gemini Project that are currently performing badly, but that is acceptable because, one, performance is the most flexible constraint for this Gemini Project, and two, its purpose is to facilitate the means and experience needed to develop a 3D multiplayer game.

Technical aspects of developing a 3D game

Some findings and lessons learned or discoveries made with the Gemini Project at its current stage:

  • I have determined that a fixed camera angle subsystem is much more simple to develop and maintain than a dynamic third person camera subsystem.

  • I have discovered that the use of 3D level creation is unfavorable as I have determined that the need to export a 3D level’s meta created in the Blender 3D modeling utility into the Babylon.js game development framework is a nontrivial and costly effort.

  • Using JavaScript’s addEventListener feature to primarily handle player input for a player character mesh in a Babylon.js game is the best choice as it is much more simple and convenient than using Babylon.js’s concepts of actions and observables.

The ease of development of 3D games

The following .gif shows the game with a hemispheric light source positioned in the sky. Also, I recently added particles as I gained the capability to use particles in the Babylon.js utility.

Atmosphere comparison

Shown along with a change in the nature of the particles, a simple change of the hemispheric light’s position resulted in a drastic change of the game’s atmosphere, albeit subtly:

Atmosphere demonstration

My conclusion from this nature is that developing 3D games is so much better than developing 2D games.

Regarding the art style

I intend to diverge from the simple character art style that I’m currently using, and post-Gemini Project I will, but first I must undergo the iteration process that will facilitate that divergence.

The business aspect

I play to win, but what kind of economic game do I want to play? I want to become a superstar innovator and enjoy monopoly profits in my chosen market. But as I endeavor to achieve that, I must remember that I am essentially a small business owner operating and performing in a unique space with unique constraints and a unique goal. With great courage, integrity, confidence, commitment, and strength as they are essential utility factors for my success.

December 27, 2018