Spore creature creator is out

Just thought I'd share this. The demo for the Spore creature creator is out now. The $10 version is supposed to be out by tomorrow. It's fairly fun and a really nice look at how procedural content can be used. Mac and PC.

http://www.spore.com/trial

http://eu.spore.com/whatisspore/creaturecreator.cfm

EDIT: added a pic of one of my stabs at it.

 

This is one amazing piece of software and its only a trial Been playing around with it the last couple of hours and must say i`m überimpressed. I love how the creatures come to life instantly and get their own funny characteristics. Can`t wait for Spore to be released!

Here is my first creature



BTW... someone have managed to "abuse" it too, but thats how it is in this open internet-age:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/230016.html?playlist=featured

 

preordered it together with spore and got the creature creator today. haven't had any time to use it yet but definitely will do so soon as I think spore might be the "new Civ II"

 

I've been amazed with this - and just with the trial version as they don't have downloads of the full version for Mac yet. My four-year-old daughter was able to make her first creature in a few minutes and has been churning out several new creations a day. EA did a fantastic job.

What I am really curious about is how in the world they did this turn-a-png-thumbnail-of-a-creature-into-a-model thing where you can download a 60 KB png, drag it into Creature Creator and get the full model! Does anyone have any clue as to how they are pulling that off??

 

Actually, Maxis appears to be doing something almost unnecessarily clever for that creature metadata. It looks like it's stored in the least significant bit of each of the RGBA channels.

Random blogger's discussion of the technique

I'm not sure if this actually any more efficient than storing it in the image comments (because you may not be able to gain as much from image compression), but it's cooler.

 

Interesting. I would have thought you would need bigger file sizes to store and pass around the relevant info.

 

Demo scene stuff like that always baffles me. Watch out though, the mojo dreams one had a trojan horse in it. Or at least so said my anti-virus.

 

It often comes at the price of some waiting for things to load tho and we all know we want our cookies now!

 

No I hadn't. I feel a little embarrassed by all this at how bloated my latest project has become - I'd better start optimizing!

 

I REALLY don't like how the app always runs in fullscreen. I looked for ways to make it windowed but I found nothing. Very annoying. I haven't got a chance to play around with it yet, too busy trying to make the thing obey and window.

Interesting. But how do you know it's Maxis? EA and Maxis are working together on this one, so it could be the EA guys.

heheh, I'm just kidding with ya. :wink:

 

I FINALLY gave up with the video and decided to try this thing out..

I was astonished! This thing is the ultimate character creation tool! It's like building with Pla-Doh in 3D, with Mr. Potato Head parts for eyes, feet and such. Very cool!

<prediction>

Spore is going to have a very large user/fanbase when it's released! :wink:

</prediction>

 

Your predication is wrong ;-)

It already has an incredibly large user/fanbase even before it is released...

 

Not necessarily. There will be a large user/fanbase, because there already is one, and it will not get any smaller. So, at the time of release, there will be a large user/fanbase.

See? I tole ya. :wink:

 

Your guess is spot on. If you pay attention there is a reason they don't allow you to pick custom colours or create new mappings on the fly. The PNG itself is somewhat non-standard and uses some of the reserved space for all the extra information.

Having seen the other editors in action (building, vehicle) this is going to be one hell of a game and destroy productivity for WAY too many people. I do wish you could export the things created in their editors as it would be a very simple way to build a ton of models quickly.

 

Here's another cool related thing. They've released a prototype that they created on the way to making Spore.

http://www.spore.com/comm/prototypes

I think that it's really cool that they are sharing those kind of things (although the code would be even better).

 

Here's a thought provoking headline: 'Strong possibility' Spore creations will be exportable to Maya.' http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/16/strong-possibilty-spore-creations-will-be-exportable-to-maya/

Imagine populating your own Unity games with Spore generated creatures! The mind boggles!

 

As long as the Spore Creature Creator license allows for it, that is. If it did, it could be a lot of fun! Even if not, it would still be fun to see what people came up with!

 

Just wanted to update the thread, it's in fact possible to get spore creatures into Maya. The textures and the rigging both come through, so all you have to do is animate it and the animations come in really nicely into Unity. I wrote it up if anyone is interested.

 

Yoe can get them also easy into Lightwave 3D. There is somewhere a pdf file that explained the way how to and maybe that can be adapted to other 3D software as well.

 

Great fun

Dave