Marimba
By Maja - CEO, Concept Artist
I am focusing on completing as many NPC concepts as possible, and this month I’ve come even further. I’ve already introduced the Patreons to Marimba. Marimba is a shopkeeper in her newly started business, focusing on fashion and riding attire. A place to shop for everyone in Eldheim, including equestrians.
And since then I’ve made two more NPCs. One that is done already and another who is nearly finished. I will write another Patreon-post very soon! So for each of these NPCs I make a mood board with lots of references fitting to the idea I have for them. Sometimes the idea changs a little bit, because I get new ideas I like even better.
Nordland & Tack Fitting
By Mathilde - Community Manager, 3D-artist
Another month has come to an end! This month, I have been continuing the work on the Nordland horse and I was able to finalize it. As usual, this included finishing the low-detail mesh, sculpting and finessing the high-detail mesh, baking them together, then adding even more detail by painting on top of this.
After finishing the model for the Nordland horse breed, fitting tack to this horse was next up on the list. While fitting the tack for the Nordland, I went back to tweak the fitting of the tack to the previous breeds as well.
In addition to this, Tirna gave me the textures for the new brushing boots that we hope to introduce to the game in not too long.
As an added bonus, I thought I'd share a few photos from the tack fitting process. Here is the Jutland horse getting the bridle fitted, and the Arabian horse model with the tack fitted and ready to go.
Knock On Wood
By Tirna - Project Manager, 3D-artist
This period has focused heavily on behind-the-scenes development, but I do have some updates to share. A lot is happening with the Horse Creator in Astride, and I hope no one will miss the old background—we certainly won't! For now, you can create your horse with a neutral background or inside this little forest.
Forests and textures have been my main focus, along with paperwork, planning, and other behind-the-scenes tasks. I’ve also started experimenting with fog and how the transition between forest and field can look. This is still a work in progress, and I’m learning as I go.
At the moment, I’m working on something bigger that, unfortunately, I can't show you just yet. I’ve worked hard to get it somewhat ready, but I think this little wall here might give you a hint about what’s coming next! The material on the wall is from a large texture pack, filled with beautiful textures and materials that will make my work on buildings faster and easier. But that’s not all! It also works on other objects like trees, so we can finally have those characteristic birch trees we’ve wanted for so long. Recently, they’ve been glowing with beautiful colors (in real life, that is). I’m really looking forward to the last few weeks of 2024!
Lead Changes, Refusals & IK Systems
By Marius - Animator
Setup for lead change
At the start of October I sat down to look at what I needed to make, to be able to add lead changes to the game. The animations for the lead change itself were done quite some while ago, but to be able to set up lead change I would need to roughly double the amount of animations. I was hoping to see if I could avoid that, since it would take time and make the horse rig heavier in the game. And by that I mean look into a way to just mirror existing animations, but from what I have been able to look into in between higher priority tasks; that possibility is excluded because the horse is not human. This is because human rigs use its own specific setup that is more rigid in how it should look, but opens for a bigger variety in what you can do with the rig; one of those things is mirroring animations.
So when I finally had time to actually try and make the lead change setup I had to double the animations that needed to mirror them by hand, luckily the process did go faster than I first anticipated. While going through the animations I also got to fix some minor and bigger issues that I had previously overlooked or been unknowingly added by accident while working on other stuff; like this fine foot placement:
The setup is now in place, might need some tweaking; but generally it just needs to be programmed in for true testing.
Jump avoidance
For future use I made an animation for the horse to avoid the jump instead of stopping completely when we add failing jumps into the game. This animation is made in preparation for the future and probably will not be available in game for some time as we need to fix other stuff with the jumping before we add failing.
IK systems for riding
Now the biggest task I did this month (and into November) is making an IK setup and system for the character when riding. An IK is a controller that overrides animation information to rather decide where a limbs end should be placed and where the bend should be pointed; at least, that is the most common use. The limb end and bend in this case is the foot and knee.
The main reason to override my own animations in favor of this is that animations are rigid in how they behave, it only moves as it has been told to move when making the animation and if you need to make it possible to have the same motion only slightly different, you would need a whole new animation. But if you have the setup to make an IK work for your purpose, you can avoid that as the IK ideally calculates that motion on the fly. This will be pivotal for when we have different horse breeds and sizes. Here’s a test from after IKs started working on a very tiny horse:
I needed to brush up on some stuff, but the setup itself was easy enough to make. Now the programming for the IKs on the other hand were and are another issue… While the IK setup worked as it should, it is not finished as it needs to know how to behave; that’s where the coding comes in, and while I am far from a true programmer the IK system should not be above my ability. So the other programmers can focus on the bigger tasks.
To make the IK system work, I had to change the character rig to make it possible to control the IK properly though. As the old rig had some features that did not work correctly with the normal IK setup. This did take quite a while as I needed to adjust skinning and re-bake all the animations.
And while I won’t go fully into detail I can say that it needed some trial and error to get to where I am now, which is not finished, but looks to be close. I’ll close on this hilarious first failed test of IK on a different horse size:
Horse Creator
By Ouroboros - Programmer
It feels like October flew by in the blink of an eye. I have been busy implementing the new UI. which includes a complete overhaul of the horse creator. I did a lot of work on the UI back in January where I changed over to UI Toolkit from UGUI. The result of that was a UI that looked very similar to what we already had, but it was completely different under the hood. Now we have finally reached the point where we are ready to update the visual part of the UI as well. The new main menu (including the options menu) has required some changes to the code, but not a lot. The horse creator, however, is a different story.
As I mentioned, the horse creator is getting an overhaul. This means that I have had to make some changes to the code that decides how the horse looks (textures, blendshapes, scale, meshes). In other words, it hasn’t been just the UI I’ve worked on. Breeds have been set up in the code and added to the horse creator, and I’m implementing a new system for color genetics that should make it easier to add breeding later on. The result of all this is that my brain is filled with information on different horse genes. I’m trying to get everything implemented to a working state first, and then I’ll do the polishing and debugging.
Fountain & Rune Stones
By Darline - Internship
October was the last month of my internship at Raidho Games and once again offered me exciting
creative challenges. This internship enabled me to gain valuable insights into the world of 3D modeling
and game design. The opportunity to be part of the team behind the game Astride was a great
experience for which I am very grateful to Raidho Games. The support and friendly atmosphere in the
team in particular contributed to me feeling comfortable and motivated here at all times.
A central project this month was the design of an artistic fountain made of marble. This fountain adds a
unique element to the game world and was intended to subtly reflect the Viking style. The fountain is
made of fine, light marble and is designed so that a small, detailed Viking shield sits on top. The water
flows from this shield and creates a special flair. The interplay of simple elegance and Nordic symbolism
makes this fountain a special eye-catcher that enhances the mysticism and atmosphere of the game
world of Astride.
In addition to the fountain, I also worked on a classic stone well, which is intended to be a simple and
functional element to round off the rural environment in the game. This well has no special decorations
or inscriptions, but is characterized by its robust design that fits well into the natural environment and
creates an authentic, down-to-earth atmosphere.
Also in the works were rune stones, which I decorated with symbolic signs from the Viking Age. The
symbols on these stones are stylistic elements that hint at Nordic culture, but without making a direct
connection to the game's story. The rune stones should appear ancient and powerful, so that they
appear as mystical relics in the landscape. The rough texture and the engraved symbols invite players to explore the environment and let them immerse themselves deeper in the game world.
In addition to these new objects, I revised and improved some existing assets in October. Many models,
such as the fountain and smaller decorative elements, required fine-tuning to further optimize the
textures, shapes and details and ensure perfect integration into the landscape. This post-processing
enabled me to further refine the overall image of the game world and learn how important care and
attention to detail are in the final touches.
Looking back, my internship at Raidho Games was an enriching experience. The friendly and helpful
nature of my colleagues motivated me and gave me the opportunity to develop professionally and
personally. This internship not only strengthened my skills in 3D design, but also cemented my interest
in the games industry. I am grateful for my time at Raidho Games and look forward to being able to
apply what I have learned in future projects.
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Please be aware that the content featured in these devlogs represents an ongoing work in progress and may be subject to further changes. We are committed to continuously developing and refining our game. To stay informed about the latest updates and connect with the rest of the Astride community, we invite you to join our dedicated Discord server community here! For additional information about Astride, please visit our official website.