Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 3.4. Visualizing in-game asset density using MATT heat map module.
pyOpenGL for optimal speed, it was incorporated into the MATT tool painlessly,
bringing even more analysis information together underneath one unified tool.
In order to effectively tie the operation of the separate modules together, each
module drew from a shared library of internal functions. These functions parsed
every element of the game world XML as separate hierarchical objects with as
fine granularity as possible. While the MATT tool interface remained the same,
internally it was reconfigured to consider traditional assets as conglomerations of
subassets,suchasmeshdata,materials,andtextures(see Figure3.4 ) .
In short, rapid application development in Python allowed us the necessary
speed and flexibility to accommodate a far wider range of features and functionali-
ties than we initially anticipated. Multiple tech artists worked on individual MATT
features simultaneously, and the amount of time spent building the MATT tool and
associated infrastructure ended up amounting to a few months, compared to ongo-
ing years of maintenance using the manual method on previous Volition projects.
We surpassed the capabilities of a traditional project asset tracking system almost
immediately and were soon able to dedicate all our time towards specific module
optimizations and features. Within a year, Red Faction: Armageddon had entered
post-production and the MATT tool had expanded to govern material library stan-
dardization, texture usage and optimization, and the high-poly source art library;
supported instant drag-and-drop into 3dS Max; to graph arbitrary asset data in
heat maps; and to parse the entirety of the game asset tree in a hierarchical tree-
view.
 
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