Development Zone

JUNE 13TH 2023STARVIEWER EVENT YIPPEE!!!!


FINALLY.
the starviewer is. Done. For now.
I wish it didn't take two years. But it did. It's done now though!
THANK YOU, DENIS. Without his help in programming the database and accessing it, this still would be undone to this day. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
If you aren't a viewer of my streams, this update is pretty pointless - it's just for accessing items that viewers unlock during the show.
HOWEVER! THIS IS NOT WHERE THIS PROJECT ENDS! We're just getting started.
I don't want to spill the beans, so i'll be vague. If and when I ever get this project done, you'll be able to interact with the Warp Zone in a whole new way. It's going to take time, lots of programming and modeling, and yelling.
If you'd like to get behind the scenes information and help me out with development, there's a membership tier on my Ko-Fi that grants access to the Warp Zone development discord. Totally not necessary, i'm working on this no matter what, but it would go a long way towards getting everything done in the next decade.
I also added a few art pieces and touched up the cabletwo page. See ya!

MARCH 19TH 2023ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT A SHRIMP???


well. um.
It's nullcasting. hey folks, long time no post?
The seasonal depression hits hard and does NOT care if you have multiple goals to complete by the end of the month. Unfortunately i don't think my redebut assets will be done in time, but you'll hopefully be pleased to learn that I am making real progress! with animations! and VOICE ACTING (i'm so unimaginably excited you have no idea). when it gets done (if), it's going to be incredible. It may not be done for my birthday, but uh. hopefully before the summer?
NOW ONTO THE CONTEXT FOR THIS UPDATE: SHIMPS.
did you know? i love aquariums, and all sorts of strange little critters that you can keep in your home! my favorite though are shrimp - they are just so cute and active! I decided (in all of my depressed genius) that a second aquarium in my room at all times would help me feel better during the winter months, and somehow that idea spiraled out of control and led to me learning how to self-host webservers and... (takes a deep breath) use linux.
I know! Me? Using a good tool instead of bad stuff? unimaginable! Don't worry though, it went terribly for me lmfao. Debian is good though. love you debian.
really, my main issue is that you need to use CLI for things that would be a million times easier if i could just... drag and drop / run an EXE. namely, installing OBS. if i ever need to reinstall obs via CLI again, i'm going to shit a raspberry pi.
I'll spare you the long explanation. TLDR: Null gets a bad idea, spends a lot of money and time on said bad idea, prays to whatever diety is listening that they strike down the creator of (insert-annoying-linux-distribution-here), it miraculously works a week later.
The stream SHOULD (hopefully) start and stop when the lights turn on and off - 11AM EST, 9PM EST. I am formally asking that, if you notice anything going wrong, to please get in contact with me - I am just one wizard, and not a very good one at that. I hope you enjoy watching the sheimps as much as I do. Oh - and if you can't find the way to get to aquarium.html normally (i have been informed that my website is 'a labrinyth and bad to navigate'), there's a button in aboutme.

DECEMBER 19TH 2022OH GOD ITS ALMOST CHRISTMAS


I'm Mz. Web wizard, i'm ms. fool
i'm your friend nullcasting, i'm not sure how to finish this rhyme to match the original source material
Anyone else having a hard time during this seasonal depression time frame? I am! Just last week i had an anxiety attack over the concept of the passage of time. Like??? Hello? What's goin' on there?
It's been admittedly a little difficult for me to work on the things I really wish to work on (this website, solo debut assets, warpzone remodel, starviewer). Instead, i've been working on smaller, stupider projects!;
  • Personal VRChat homeworld with a fishtank that i purchased from Vket. Status: Modeled a whole house using a 1998 Home Depot branded floor planner, now having to redo the whole thing because it's not meant for modern viewing
  • Several dragon pixel concepts for Dragoncave. Status: Need to redo all the colors on the one i've uploaded to the forums, other two ideas are hilariously underdeveloped
  • Learn how to use mastodon. Status: Grave danger (why can't i see my like amounts? i need that serotonin, toot platform!!!)
My hope for the new year is that i'm able to redebut by my birthday (end of March). We'll just have to see if I can get there!
AS for today's update, I've made a small pack of free to use images for you to use to decorate your site. I was hoping to get even somewhat close to the halloween pak in size, but again, energy LOW right now. I hope you enjoy them, and happy holidays!

DECEMBER 2ND 2022 THE PASSAGE OF TIME BRINGS ME NO JOY


Brrr, it's cold out, close that door, please!
ah, that's much better. Hi, it's Null :). Minor updates to the site this time around. I've added like 3 more images to Art Zone (the art gallery in the about me section), and i've attempted. to increase the security of the guestbook.
Hi. hey. you. reading this. do you do backend website development? Do you understand 'authentication' and 'api'? Do you take cash?
Please let me hire you.
Ok but seriously, I'm looking for someone to code a bit of authentication stuff for the starviewer to work. Email or dm me if this is up your alley. This is a cry for help.
thanks for all sticking around! hoping to actually get more stuff done soon...

NOVEMBER 10TH 2022OH GOD ITS ALMOST DECEMBER


Hi hi hi it's me "Null's Casting". How are we all enjoying the implosion of twitter? I've had some folks recently ask me for tips in regards to 3D work / etcetera and figured that it would be a good idea to start doing what every website on here does: compile a huge list of potentially useful links!! ;D
If you have any that I should add, send them to me.
Oh! and just in case twitter fully dies; you can find me at these other places.
  • Posting.Cool (i'm currently a little inactive, but it's a very good forum.)
  • Tumblr (Opens in new tab)
  • Yesterweb's Mastodon @Nullcasting@social.yesterweb.org
  • Cohost.org (made an account, not approved to post yet, though!)

OCTOBER 25TH 2022 I AM TESTING THE LIMITS OF NEOCITIES FILE UPLOADS


BOO! Just kidding it's me nullcasting. that's a little 'halloween joker' for you.
So, BIG UPDATE TODAY. I've added the 'art zone' to the about me section. This area is going to essentially act as my digital portfolio, seperate from my IRL professional portfolio, where i can keep all my goodies gadgets graphics and images. It won't work on mobile sorry!
The big fun thing i'm hoping to include all the time here is the 'FREE STUFF' section. It is my hope to create many sets of free to use old ass graphics for people to use on their pages. This first one is for HALLOWEEN (which is 6 days away OOPS) so please go download that if you'd like!!

OCTOBER 4TH 2022 Clipshow + update info


Hi, yall!! ... wow, it has been longer than intended. Sorry about that. The start of fall always signifies a slight uptick in depression (even though i fucking LOVE autumn, so what gives?) so i've been struggling with motivation for a bit. I think i've finally got a good handle on it, and I can get back to my favorite hobby: being mad about web design!
did you know? that you cant? style scroll bars in firefox??? ....WHY???? All i want is a scrollbar with BORDER:OUTSET applied to make it look EXTRUDED and TERRIBLE. web design is a curse. TANGENT ASIDE, THE NEWS:
FIRSTLY, WE'RE ON THE FRONT PAGE????
dont really have any words besides "hell yes" and "thank you" and "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (i don't think that last one is a word) like what the fuck 🥺.... its so amazing to see people's reactions to the site, considering how much i struggle with getting it to work. Thank you thank you thank you!!! AND, if you've checked out my streams because of the site, THANK YOU THE MOST IN PARTICULAR!!!!!!!
now, onto the update! i've made a small addition to cabletwo.htm; a clip viewer, where i can upload some of my favorite clips from my past streams for viewing!! I will admit, i won't be able to tell how objectively funny any of these are to new viewers, but they make even me crack up, and i was the dang streamer!
I've got some big stuff in the works for this website, AKA actually getting the starviewer done. I'm in talks with some freelance programmers to help me out since i'm clearly not great at solo devving. I'm hoping for it to be done very, very soon, excluding all the extra secret stuff i'd like to add to it.
I'm also working on an announcement vis-a-vi me streaming, but i'll hold off on spoling anything until it's time. ;)
final note! i'm working on something for the yesterweb halloween event, but that'll take a lil while longer and i wanted to push an update out. Happy october!

AUGUST 12TH 2022 THE ONE WHERE I PUT OFF THE STARVIEWER FOR A WHOLE YEAR


Hi, everyone! long time no update. here's what's new:
firstly, im not going to grad school lol.
Secondly, The model update is much closer to being done; i've been able to do a few tests of it on my streams!!! (cough cough sundays and wednesdays 6pm EST https://twitch.tv/cabletwo) .... or, you can watch right from this website by going to warpzone.site/Cabletwo.htm! :) I've embedded a twitch viewer into this site, included a spot to put a much nicer schedule in the future, plus a link to the amazing cabletwo neocities maintained by captain arby (o7). I'd like to add much more functionality to this page in the future.
Finally, i've added the art I recieved from the latest Artfight (plus one piece of fanmail i got ;u;) to the character gallery. I was unable to successfully get the Misc. gallery to display, so if you'd like to see that before i have a chance to fix the flash file, go to [...]/gallery/characters/Misc.
I hope to make many more updates this summer!! It's been far, far too long.

JUNE 18TH 2022 OH GOD ITS ALMOST JULY


good morbing, morbheads. it's null casting
It's very, very close to artfight. can you feel it in the air? all the art trades that are going to get made? my time management, going out the window?
i've finally finished* my redesign of wizona. She's a lot cooler looking now B). I say finished with an asterisk because the process of getting the model ready for vtubing has hit an unexpected roadblock: i have no idea how to get the damn mouth to work proper. Somehow, I thought it would be easier to do than my hacked image plane setup i used to use, but this is NOT the case! I was hoping to get it done before artfight, but decided to just say "screw it" and upload what the design looks like, just in case I can't. Anyhow, click here to go to my Artfight page if you'd like.
Goals this summer:
Finish starviewer
get model update working
remake overlays
prepare for grad school

MAY 29TH 2022 HOWDY NEIGHBORS


HI GUYS ITS NULLCASTING
I've been on vacation. This has impacted both my ability to work on my website and also my ability to supress complaints about my knees (my knees are so fucking bad) but i have WONDERFUL NEWS!!! I have made it into the Silicon Valley neighborhood on neo-neighborhoods!!! I'd like to extend a "hello" and "great 2 be here" to my new neighbors :) and I hope you all enjoy the rest of May!

MAY 18 2022 THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF VODS


Hey Vsauce, Nullcasting here. It's been a bit, hasn't it?
I've been wholly preoccupied with commissions, preparing for vacation, and playing FFXIV when I should be doing the first two things, but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about SICK SITE IMPROVEMENTS. One of my main goals was to create a cute way for people to watch old streams they might have missed, specifically focusing on full game playthroughs (not to say my one-off streams can't be funny)
There's been two wrenches thrown into this plan, however. One, I simply do not understand how image maps work. Two, and more unfortunately, some of the vods didn't archive properly, and thanks to twitch's commitment to preventing me from having any fun, those vods are likely lost forever. I still think the streams that remain are FUNNY, but there may be a few context streams here and there that simply are lost to the ether. Ah, well. I've placed my WIP version of the log on the site. To view, go to the ABOUT ME section of the site. Enjoy!

MAY 06 2022 MADE MY OWN GUESTBOOK


So, yesterday (5/5/22), suddenly out of nowhere, my original guestbook that was hosted on freegb.net just... vanished. along with the entire site. Accoding to wikipedia, a 410 error means that whoever was running the site deleted it deliberately to make my life miserable, so that's awesome! OTL.... essentially, i've lost everyone's very nice messages. This led me on a spite-filled quest to make my own guestbook. Sadness @sadgrl.online has a great tutorial that tells you how to do this with PHP and CPanel, but i hate paying money for things, so i decided to take a trip down the path of darkness and evil: making a guestbook with Google Firebase.
This should be easy. by all accounts, it really, really should. hell, there's even a tutorial for using firebase that walks you through, step-by-step, making a guestbook! Fun, right?
no. web development was a mistake. everything is terribly designed and no one wants you to use their tools.
i spent like 6 hours on a voice call with real programmers frank and peter (hi, guys!) who both had tried doing firebase integration before, and my god it was a nightmare. just... look, if you want to do it, i encourage you to look at the page source and just try and swap out values. seriously, steal my code, because i am literally incapable of understanding it now that its written. i will be completely unable to help you if it doesnt work. it's a miracle that its functioning at all.
dramaticism aside, if you'd be so inclined to leave a new message on the guestlog, i'd appreciate that - they're a really great motivational tool for me. :')

APRIL 19 2022 Tried writing a tutorial (top 10 webdev decisions made before disaster)


its nullcasting. hey look i've had some folks ask me how to make "retro 3d graphics" so i thought i'd try my hand at writing some little notes about making 3d stuff look old. it's kind of a word salad right now lol. one day i will rewrite it

APRIL 16 2022 DEV UPDATE "OH BOY IM UPDATING THE MODEL AGAIN"


well i am stupid and foolish. hi its nullcasting.
so basically here's what happen. i play a funny game on warp zone. we have a great time. i ask chat who i should raid. Dalm (@dalmationer) links another vtuber with impeccable style, poly [@PolyAlphanet]. i see their whole setup and i go "well shit i gotta update my model again". it always happens that i get the thought to do this riiiiiight after making a reference sheet LMAO. i think it's because working with the model so hands on versus just puppeting it around unconciously on stream makes me realize how much i can improve it. This does mean i have less time to work on other things while i overhaul my overlay and stinger and textures and mesh and yadda yadda.
(between you and me, if i had the funds i'd commission someone else to deal with it. i do NOT want to have to weight paint this jacket again (;´д`)ゞ )

APRIL 12 2022 ADDED 6 REFERENCE IMAGES


hello gamers its me again. your friend nullcasting.
i've started the process of making updated character reference sheets both for Artfight 2022 (a lot of the models changed a LOT over the past year) and also just for my own personal reference :) there's... a lot of weight painting that needs to be done and i am not looking forward to it in the future OTL. in the meantime, though, enjoy the updated fancy dancy sheets! theyve got color palettes* and everything!
*legally just snippets from texture files
in the future i need to add a button with a link to my neocities profile on the front of my site so people don't get lost. someone remind me to do that ok

APRIL ??? 2022 ADDED DEVLOG PAGE


WOWIE ZOWIE A DEVLOG OH BOY!!!
It's been very very funny building this website. i feel like i'm starting to actually understand how websites work. (i still hate it, though.) ok so i dont need to do br tags for the paragraph part. awesome!
I will be using this part of the webpage for stuff not in "keyfabe" as it were - talking about actual development, 3d modeleing, etc. you know, the stuff that typically isn't canon :P i will hopefully also get around to adding tutorials and other fun stuff. woo!! man, tables are fun! at first i was really hating it but now that it's working it's my best friend.

art of midra and wavekingI also made some art. check it out!

This is some more text so i can test the scrolling bar on the right. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc massa orci, convallis non ante at, rhoncus porta velit. Proin placerat arcu ac eleifend porta. Suspendisse nec magna eu magna fringilla tempor in et tellus. Cras tempor ornare nisl quis scelerisque. Phasellus at imperdiet sapien. Pellentesque posuere sodales lorem ut finibus. Donec in vestibulum lectus. Curabitur condimentum purus efficitur dolor faucibus, ultrices iaculis risus consectetur. Duis feugiat, mauris in aliquam faucibus, risus diam facilisis lacus, ut egestas erat mauris at mi. In et odio urna. Ut id accumsan orci, a auctor elit. Cras lacus diam, posuere et nibh vel, rhoncus scelerisque diam. Proin dapibus posuere luctus. Duis dignissim, orci ac pretium scelerisque, nisi est tempus lectus, venenatis tristique nisl neque nec massa. Suspendisse facilisis quis nunc eget maximus. Fusce placerat eleifend leo, id sollicitudin ligula euismod fermentum.

Character References


These files are large!! watch out. they will attacka your puter....

Wizona's art reference

WIZONA || OPENS IN NEW TAB

Midra's art reference

MIDRA || OPENS IN NEW TAB

Shopkeep's art reference

SHOPKEEP || OPENS IN NEW TAB

Cyberbot's art reference

CYBERBOT || OPENS IN NEW TAB

PROTAG's art reference

PROTAG || OPENS IN NEW TAB

Whirlibird's art reference

WHIRLIBIRD || OPENS IN NEW TAB

The Mayor's art reference

THE MAYOR || OPENS IN NEW TAB

Hypertext's art reference

HYPERTEXT || OPENS IN NEW TAB

Waveking's art reference

WAVEKING || OPENS IN NEW TAB

Chrome Devil's art reference

CHROME DEVIL || OPENS IN NEW TAB

The Professor's art reference

THE PROFESSOR || OPENS IN NEW TAB

Image of the Professor.

✰TUTORIALS???

Welcome to the Tutorial center!

During my time in the 3D/Dev game, i've accumulated a few tips and tricks. Nothing here is particularly good for professional projects, and i'd highly recommend listening to some reputable source FIRST, but if you'd like some notes of dubious quality, this is the place to be!

✰Retro CGI principles ✰

I see a lot of people asking about creating retro-looking 3D/computer generated graphics online, and as the resident "crusty bmp render" enjoyer, i hope I can explain some of the key elements that make things seem "old" in 3d renders.
Firstly, there is a misconception that all old CGI must be low-poly. This is not the case! While video games were struggling in the polygon mines, movie / still image projects were able to use high poly models! In fact, anything that needed to appear realistically smooth needed to have high poly count, since Pixar hadn't invented subdivision modeling yet (unless you're referring to Nurbs surfaces, but I still am not sure what those are. Thanks, university!) Sculpting seems to be less common than it is now, and bump maps (a black and white image that is used to fake depth from certain camera angles) were much more used than normal/displacement maps (which can affect the model's verticies). Lots of flat brick walls are not out of place in the realm of vintage computer graphics. Essentially, you're dealing with smooth surfaces with little detail - unless you're aiming for retro game aesthetics, in which case, you have no smooth surfaces at all! The level of detail really fluctuates in gamedev, so i'd reccomend checking out https://www.models-resource.com/. It's a FANTASTIC resource for examining the typical polycount of different game consoles. Spheres are so annoying in games that a lot early on are just images that are billboarded to face the player. TEXTURING
Movies/still renders have the advantage here again. It is generally less computationally expensive to make textures "procedurally" by programming a color ramp, or generating a checkerboard, than it is to load an image in from memory. Additionally, image file sizes were more restrictive in the past, so textures would be rather low resolution compared to modern times (a popular render resolution for an entire character texture in the retro playstation art community is 128x128, for example! Think about how hard it is to get detail into that...) Not having to render in realtime means artists can assign multiple Materials to a single character / object, allowing for relatively larger image files to be used. (Woody's eye in toy story was unlikely on the same texture sheet as his shirt. probably. idk i don't work there). This would incur larger render times, so if you're aiming to replicate hobbyist renders, I'd stick to mostly procedural textures. It's a different story in games. Typically, what you see are lots of very small (32x32) tiling textures used for surfaces. Code has to be as small as possible to fit on cartridges, and that limits procedural effects. Characters typically have a single texture sheet (besides a sprite sheet for expressions, if they are done via image and not via animation). I'd recommend finding ways to reuse sections of the texture sheet in creative ways with UVS, like stretching a part of a shirt to make a gradient for the pants, or something. IDK look at Shiek's model from LoZ Oraccina of time to understand what i'm talking about.
The shader model you use is also important. For those who want to not think, just for for lamberts, blinns, and phongs. For the rest of us morons, here's a non-exhaustive list of features that you want to use sparingly/avoid altogether in your shaders: Do not use: Metallic (does not exist yet), Subsurface scattering (DEFINITELY does not exist yet. BTW, anyone who complains about how humans look in Toy Story 1 is a coward who doesn't appreciate that it phyiscally wasn't possible to do skin yet.) Reflection IN GAMES (simply does NOT exist yet. duplicate your models and put them on the other side of a plane of glass. Alternatively, make a reflection map (may not be historically accurate but it feels right?)
Avoid heavy use: Transparency (COSTLY!!! if you have it at ALL in games, you either have something be completely opaque or completely transparent.) Refraction (Limit your light bounces. Think about how much your little GPU from 1990 would cry if you tried to render a realistic bubble.) Reflection (costly. so so costly. even today, this is still really goddamn annoying)
very casual guide: if it isn't a property in blinn, lambert, or phong, probably best to avoid it.
LIGHTING
This is the big one. The big kahuna. the one i see people mess up ALL THE FUCKIN time. if i had to pick ONE CHANGE TO MAKE TO YOUR ART that will make it look older, seriously, just change your lighting setup. you do NOT have ambient occlusion. you do NOT have ambient light bouncing. if you so much as show me a render that has inderect lighting, you've instantly made your render look TOO NEW. Stick with spot/point lights (maybe a directional light, as a little treat), and turn down every single light sample that you can in your renderer of choice. the more light bounces, the less realistic it is. Alternatively, if going for real-time, congratulations! you have no lights. you have a single ambient light. all shadows are faked. :)
DITHER THE SHIT OUT OF IT
ok this is one i kind of overuse, but MAN it helps. Older computers simply had less colors they could see. our modern computers are descendents of shrimp, so they have all the color receptors and can render all the colors (do not look this up). Simply bring your final render into a photo manip tool of your choice, and tastefully posterize/dither. Procedural diffusion is a good model to go for (i personally love windows pattern. it looks so shitty.).
i'm probably forgetting details, but i hope this helps some folks who are struggling.