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RPGista

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Posts posted by RPGista

  1. A bit surprised by the banning, but now after reading through all of this, I understand it completely.

     

    Listen, Bikerdude is a good guy. I shared some beers with him and Sirtaffsalot, back in the day. Hes helped me, as well as others. Obviously, he has been going through personal issues for a good while now, things which we all must eventually face, one time or another. Pretty sure he'll find other avenues for his creativity and new places where to find a sense of belonging. If I could suggest something, it would be to take some art classes, cool way of making new friends. Totally respect the team here. These are all good, generous people themselves. We are lucky to have them - lots of knowledgeable, helpful people to go around. TDM community is covered.

     

    We are all coming and going, sometimes we have to move on, sometimes we feel we can contribute yet again. Maybe some of those people will feel like coming back in the future and doing some more great work for us. Steve, Airship, Shadowhide, even Biker himself... Either way, the work theyve already done is here for us to enjoy.

    • Like 3
  2. Thats pretty cool. But Rich's color grading shader is far more powerful, in the sense that you can actually regulate the saturation to whatever you want, from oversaturated to black and white, and you can also increase constrast, darken or lighten the result, and things like that. We should really look into adding that to tdm somehow.

  3. For the patches to match you need 3 things:

     

    - The same number of vertex rows (along the edges you are going to match);

    - Make sure the patches are snapped to the grid (while selected, press V to enter vertices edit mode, box select all of them (Shift select) and CTRL+G if needed);

    - With both patches selected and on vertices edit mode, just move the vertices that need to be "joined" by dragging them manually, either as a group or individually, so that every vertex from one patch shares the same coordinate (on the grid) with the respective vertex from the other.

     

    You can find further information on this wiki article I wrotte back in the day (english not that good): http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Patch_constructions

     

    Either way, in masonry construction, very rarelly do you see clean, minimalistic shapes meeting each other. You'll usually find structural elements where different surfaces meet. Even if sometimes that does happen to be the usual way of building, no one will mind if you place structural elements wherever shapes intersect, not only does that help you fix any alignment issues instantly, it also makes the whole geometry far more interesting to look at.

  4. Im not sure I quite get it, but the secret to working with patches is to master the vertex editing. They work in a vertex points + control point relationship. Using those, you can build pretty much anything using separate pieces. As long as the vertez points share the same position, and the control points are coplanar, the mesh will work. I have written a couple of patch articles in the wiki. There are a few videos on youtube as well that are very useful, I remember some good ones by Komag.

  5. You can create stairs any way you like, as long as you later "cover it" with simple invisible material brushes that will be used to create the aas and provide the physics (stepping sound). That should probably be a solid mass, with no gaps. Something like the second of third sketch should do. This way you can create a stairs with organic touches, like broken down steps or rounded stone edges (by using patches) and that wont be a problem for AI as you will be covering it all later with invisible brushes which they will be actually using to navigate.

     

    Ninjaed by ERH+.

    • Like 1
  6. Wow, those models are really absolutely stunning. Im particulatly impressed by the serpent staff, he even remembered the blinking, which is a touch I always loved about that weapon. The difference in quality between these models, effects and animations with the other models they remade for the game is jaw dropping. Someone should really hire that guy to remake the whole game with that level of detail and finesse haha.

  7. Lowenz - Those old game remakes are incredible achievements, but for me, its the original pixel art all day...

     

    5mJwC0N.png

     

     

     

    As for the Hexen Edge of Chaos, it looked stunning:

     

    shot17.jpg

     

     

    I think the problem with their project, as well as Arx and many others, is that they put this insane weight upon themselves of developing a complete gaming experience for the fans, all the art, a campaign, everything. This is simply too much work. I wish they had just released their assets and made the community work on improving the game with the team, creating maps, putting together a campaign or simply contributing any way they can. Thats the genious behind TDM's success. Aiming to release a complete set of tools that allows people to create the game experience they want to see. This makes the community responsible for the final product just as much as the team, instead of assuming the role of consumers, and wait for people to do all the work for them.

    • Like 2
  8. I was the biggest hexen fan back in the day. It was my first computer game, that I owned. I loved Heretic and Hexen was just more... epic, with the different player characters and the more unique scripted environments. It was the mix I had always dreamed of, take the cool elements of fantasy rpg and make it a badass fps game. I played it to death. The levels were very unique, brilliant atmosphere, a lot of mysteries to keep you guessing. Unfortunately, back in those days, a lot of games were about cryptic puzzles and less than believable world building, and Hexen suffers from that, a lot. Some of the maps are just big abstract puzzle stages, and I hate puzzles. The expansion pack had some of the coolest maps ever, they took the engine as far as it could go. Theres a gameplay mod for it called Korax' Heritage, and it makes the game amazing to play again, very challenging. I havent played it in many years, but it added things that should have been in the original all along, like experience points, player progression, more effects for the weapons (and the fact it makes it possible to finally slash with the sword, how I missed that!), much more challenging monsters.

     

    As for Hexen 2 I remember playing the demo and being intrigued by the first castle stage up to a point with the first few steps you had to take, but really underwhelmed by the weak melee feel and the complete lack of character. I mean, Hexen's atmosphere was so strong, the art direction was so amazing to me, but in Hexen 2 it just felt generic, not nearly as epic. I never actually played it. After watching a bunch of videos on it, Im glad I didnt, as the puzzles seem to have been taken to ridiculous levels of intricacy and randomness. For some reason they associated the Hexen series with deviously hard puzzle games, when in fact it should be all about atmosphere and great fantasy combat.

     

    Theres a Hexen TC for doom3 that looks amazing, but unfortunately it seems to have died out... A few weeks ago I watched a review of a game in development that seems to have been directly inspired by Heretic/Hexen. Same feel and gameplay. Gonna have to get back to you on that.

    • Like 2
  9. DR is a lot like playing chess. I too came from a modeling background when I first started using it, and missed the intuitive building workflow I had in sketchup, where you build as you go directly from perspective view. But once you get used to its core mechanics, you start to apreciate some of the wisdom in this building methodology as well, and kinda switch gears whenever you are using the tool. Its very very feature rich.

     

    Its all about spending enough time with it, limitations and all.

     

    Luckly Greebo is still around mantaining and improving DR, so yeah, the more suggestions the merrier.

  10. Jeebus, guys. Easy on the paranoia stuff, lets all read more, why dont you opt for peer reviewed articles and analysis from responsible sources instead of the usual plataforms? Be a bit suspicious of whatsapp, facebook bubbles and other echo chambers. If someone tells you exactly what you wanna hear, scrutinize that guy, because if someone is trying too hard to convince you, maybe he doesnt want you to make up your own mind. Science has been warning about the likely effects of global warming for decades. Its a public fact that corporations have used massive amounts of resources and political persuasion to bury that, and keep business as usual as the norm. We have seen it everywhere, in the tobacco history for example (but maybe you dont believe that evidence either). Think what you want about socialist conspiracies and green utopias and what not, but people will continue to, for no personal gain, try to warn others about the consequences of continuing on the path we are now being led, while others will continue to, for a lot of financial gain and institutional support, spread misinformation to preserve the status quo. And thats whats gonna happen, what we can observe historically, no matter what we choose to believe.

    • Like 2
  11. Also, and Im sure youve thought about that, but what about other Doom3 open mods? I bet theres a lot of stuff out there that would be interesting for you to bring in from mods like Arx, Blade of yatuja, Prometheus, etc. Like Gui tricks, or some AI behaviour, or a weapon script.... Do you think that would be possible, to get some collaboration going with a few of them? That would be pretty nice too.

  12. Hey, that is cool! From those shots the tdm makeover/TC is visually pretty much complete. Noticed the little icons to symbolize the different projectile types, nice. I think most huds tend to have all the info on the botton, so the lightgem at the top would need some getting used to. Maybe test it at the botton as well, see what works better for you. Again, fantastic work, you are probably the only person today, as far as I know, doing work on so many fronts at the same time with the engine - new characters, new weapons mechanics, new hud GUIs. Thats insanely cool. Hope you are taking this to other forums, like the Xonotic community (do they have one, I wasnt familiar with the game). Its been very quiet around here, a lot of crickets. Just the usual suspects posting. So it would be nice to spread the word a little bit.

  13. I like the tone of the story. I think there are possibilities for some creativity as well. High tech armor is probably gonna be immune to gas (breathing system). Certainly impossible to KO with a club. They would probably pick up sound much better with their helmet sensors and whatnot, and would be able to see in the dark with infra-red. So, future Garrett would need to loose the wooden shoes, wear special gear, so maybe sound is not as much of a problem as it is visual clues, in terms of sneaking. He cant really rely solely on shadows (sensors can see in the dark, pick up heat signatures, etc), so maybe the player would need a cloak like the Predator's or Ghost in the Shell or something (theres a working one for a AvP doom3 mod (though I think its just the visuals, it doenst actually have an impact on AI)). Anyway, things that technology would change in the gameplay as we know it from thief/tdm.

  14. Looking good. Are you sure you put the .skin file inside a skins folder, and that you have directed DR to your project's location? Also, check spelling and the paths inside the text file, thats often the cause of problems.

  15. Great to see work continues on this front, and its actually very impressive, the amount and quality of things you are bringing in. I think I said it before, but I quite like the idea of a single main weapon that adapts itself, changes, and provides you with most of the gameplay mechanics you need. You will have a trusty "tool" and it will cut back considerably on having to model and animate several random guns you might come across in a setting like the one you are aiming for. It has much more of a megaman feel to it, of a hero that relies on something, rather than a faceless marine that will pick up any gun he comes accross and fire away. Im really impressed by your work and would love to be able to bring in new enemy characters and player weapons with the ease you show here. The rifle itself looks real good, reminds me of the pulse rifle in Aliens, whats not to like about that. Loving those gui screens on it.

    As for the aesthetics in general, I wanna insist a bit on what we were talking about the other week. Even though its tempting to try and recriate a bit of a Deus-ex feel, with the high tech stuff and shiny metal world, I still believe that TDM's engine, with the tools we have today, would be much more of a fit with a "low key", future-gone-bad kind of scenario. Something that goes for a Escape from New York, Johnny Mnemonic, Shadowrun, or a Blade Runner look and feel, with rund down, post-capitalism hellish urban-landscapes and that 80s scifi vibe. Why? Because its a much more believeable environment in terms of sneaking gameplay and the minimalistic aproach to design and features we have here. Even though its the future, things have decayed so much that it becomes reasonable that this is a place you can hide in the shadows and disappear. A place where its always night and dark, most of the streets are abandoned, its dangerous to walk around. Its not this ultra high tech world where we would expect to face a cctv camera on every corner that can instantly scan your dna and electric signature, and big brother is everywhere and no one can go unnoticed because the tech makes it impossible. But again, this is your mod, you go nuts, will be interesting to see what you come up with.

    • Like 1
  16. We do have the portrait of our Thief that appears in the main menu as well as the DR launch window. Its a pretty good picture, I quite like it, but havent seen it available on its own anywhere.

     

    menu1.jpg

    • Like 1
  17. Open Thief... Hey, I like that! ;) Thing about the TDM guy is that hes often reimagined by mappers, though we all use the same HUD arm model. We do have a full player model, which is not that different from the new Thief character, and its been used for ingame cutscenes and trailers before, but its not high poly enough and not meant to be seen up close (I believe some animations are missing). I guess some sort of artwork would probably be easier to come by than a great looking, original rigged model you can use to render shots from. But thats not that easy to come by either... I guess just our clockwork logo and architecture shots will have to do for now.

  18. No, bikerdude is right, standing inside the light cone shouldnt make the entirety of the room appear brighter. You can see it clearly in one of the previous screenshots ( http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/19659-feature-request-emissive-materialsvolumetric-lights/page-3?do=findComment&comment=428009 ).

     

    PS: This is becoming more and more impressive by the minute, duzenko. Great work.

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