About
Waveform is designed for game developers who don't have the time to create 3d artwork for their project. The idea is that by simplifying the tools down to programmable blocks and 2d curves, developers can make much better 'programmer art' that is not just cubes and spheres.
Being able to quickly UV, rig, animate and attach a ragdoll to a 3d model in a day, opposed to weeks, is a huge game changer. It allows the programmer to quickly get back to concentrating on writing the game mechanics, but while still being able to use functional art pieces in their prototype. Additionally the non-destructive workflow means that, like programming, they can change any part of the process at any time, and let Waveform simply re-generate the final output for them.
Download it from here.
When artists later join the product, they can effectively hit the ground running as they know:
- exactly what art style the game developer is after,
- how many 3d models the developer wants, and how they should look,
- what animations are required,
- and charge fairly, for a known quantity of work, safe in the knowledge that they are building the programmer exactly what they are after.
Models can be exported in OBJ or FBX format. The Unity Engine sample (as seen in the video) project is also available to download. This comes with the scripts required to setup the FBX models with their physics ragdolls (stored in a separate .ragdoll file) as they were in the editor.
About the Developer
Alex Lynch is a Computer Scientist who graduated with First Class Honours from Hull University in 2014. Since then he has strived to design better 3d tools for developers, after getting frustrated with what was on offer in the existing market. Waveform is the result of that undertaking, and he hopes it will encourage more indie game developers to create better 3d games, and have more fun in the process too.