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RPGista

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Everything posted by RPGista

  1. You could easily turn that wall into a patch surface - it will be a clean, smoothed surface. They will act as models and wont interfere with your brushes, as far as I remember.
  2. Good news boys, I was able to get the hang of it, Im bringing several test models in game - so far, I found Keless exporter to be quite reliable, been using it with the 2.72 version to do the exporting. Will do more testing with the Arx one later. Will be posting a quick guide soon, with the needed details. Thanks again.
  3. That looks beautiful man, shinhy and tempting. Very, very cool!
  4. I was using that modelviewer before but it was so unstable, cheers for the reminder, I completely forgot to set it to compatibility mode. It seems a bit more workable now. It loads the tree model and animation successfully. Arcturus, sorry to be a pain, but do you mind posting the def file you used to test the tree in game? I have been using the flag and your tree ones as examples, but I cant get the model to appear in game. They look fine in DR but wont show up once I load the map. Heres the one I tried last: Im getting a NULL JOINTS on the mesh warning.
  5. So lovely as well, the blue distance fog looks so good... And I love the detail of the vegetation growing on the old walls. Indeed, hadnt even noticed those sexy soft shadows. I really love the whole scene. So lovely as well, the blue distance fog looks so good... And I love the detail of the vegetation growing on the old walls.
  6. That little forest section is gorgeous, the assets are great looking and the way you organized them feels natural and rich. Brilliant work! You really feel like climbing all over the place, getting to the top.
  7. Yeah, thanks a lot Arcturus, I guess the process is actually working then, should be able to test more stuff in game soon now. And Epi, yes, if you cant find an exporter for your favourite modeler, Blender is always there, and it has pretty good animation capabilities. A bit of a learning curve to get there, but nothing you havent seen before.
  8. HMart - thanks for the suggestion. Indeed Noesis imports the model and it looks correct! I can see the armature in there with the mesh, and I can play the animation separately, working fine. Unfortunately, it seems you cant have them both at the same time, I can only inspect the mesh or the animation at one point, would be great to see them working together. I was using open3mod and it still shows a heavily deformed mesh. Now I have no clue if the problem is in the mesh or the viewer. The armature is a simple FK one from the ground up, the first bone being called origin (no parent) and 3 or 4 more bones from that. Its true, I was reading that vertex groups and weights are a problem for the exporter, but it all seems correct to me (bones and vertex groups have the same names, cant see any issues on weight painting mode, etc). Obvisouly theres something Im missing. I parented the mesh to the armature with automatic weights. Tried renaming everything with simple short names (materials, objects, bones, etc). The process I used for exporting was the one described by sotha, with the exception that I set the bones layer on 1. Arcturus - Im linking the blend file, in case you have some time to take a look, thanks a bunch. https://1drv.ms/u/s!Al4XNpzYMsVvcgfKkF6bQ179nBc Epi - Tackling MD5 is kinda scary for sure. The modeler version and plugin version combo alone will keep you guessing for a while. I dont think the armature hierarchy is essential in this case, though you do need a root bone called origin located at zero, like HMart said. I think the rest is pretty much free? Hopefully as I progress with it I'll be able to post enough info to help others with this process.
  9. Hi, I thought I should document this discussion here, for future reference, as info on this subject has become quite scattered and out of date. I've been wrestling with MD5s for a while now with no success. Importing works but the meshes and armatures are problematic. I decided to start with an animated model from scratch. Followed a few instructions in videos or tutorials (most recently trying out Sotha's solution http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/14970-blender-rig-for-standard-male-npc/?do=findComment&comment=325423 ) but have yet to be able to export successfully. The animation oddly enough is working correctly (on the model viewer, havent gotten into the game yet), but the mesh itself is getting horribly deformed. Im using the io_scene_md5 importer/exporter. Going back to version 2.72 didnt solve it for me. In blender After exporting Any thoughts?
  10. Pretty neat drumming! I dont actually know anything about playing an instrument, but it all sounded pretty good to me, nice work man. So youre gonna be in a band touring soon huh?
  11. Thats a good start. The proportions seem right and reasonable. Artistically however there's room to grow. Do google searches to see how roof tiles are built if you want to keep it visible from the inside (you are missing a lot of elements). Avoid long, mathematically perfect brushes. Break the geometry in sections, so the object wont be overly simple, and the tiling not so jarring. Search for how historical buildings are actually constructed. An example would be how a big opening like that entrance door has to be done in a masonry construction. Dont try to wing it, copy the examples, mix the references to create your unique building. Dont let the character walk around the whole of your structure, dont let him see the entirety of the inside space at a once. Create limited spaces the player need to find the exit from. Study Melan's, Springheel's or Bikerdude's architecture to see how it is done.
  12. Also missing is the inventory system, though Ive read that a point and click system has been implemented. And of course, a hundred things that make npcs and a world come alive, mostly new animations and art assets (theres very little material available for outdoor scenes, or anything in daylight). But Im sure you are aware of what would be needed to achieve your vision. Its been a while since I played the game regularly, and some of what I mentioned might have changed or improved. Either way, the best would be to play the hell out of the game and really get the feel of it. Making a mission will also make you pretty intimate with what the game offers or lacks. Maybe you already did/is doing that. Anyway, there is a rpg game based on doom3 also, called Arx end of the sun, somwthing like that. You should definitely check it out if you havent already.
  13. You read my mind, man. Always thought TDM would be a wonderful base for a cool action rpg. Like you said, its got a very interesting base - an agile player that can climb and physically interact with things, a deep combat mechanics that is criminally overlooked around here, accurate representation of light and shadow as cover, and AI with complex senses and reactions. With this, you can already go into some great storytelling experiences, as many missions here demonstrate. Add rpg mechanics to expand on that, and you got a cool little game to immerse yourself into. The thing you will have to consider though is that since tdm specialised itself entirely on thief like gameplay, theres little to no support for other mechanics in game. There is no npc behaviour for example. Npcs are basicly disabled enemies that wont react to the player. There is no conversation system (shadowhide provided some scripted ways to achieve it but they were meant to be very simple). AI combat behaviour is minimalistic, aimed at one on one indoors fights - it struggles with a quick player that wont stand still, doesnt exactly work as a group in melee situations, cant use spears, shields or ride horses like in mount and blade. There are states that are missing too: wounded, limping animations and behaviour (and the dying state from stalker), ability to take cover or block (against the players arrows), ability to climb and go after you in uneven terrain (not saying it should mantle like the player, but at least be able to climb stuff thats 1 meter high, like tables or raised floors), ability to be knocked down and get up again, etc.
  14. Hey, no pressure, this is about having fun. Give it the time it takes. Just make sure you are back on your feet soon, feeling great. Will be looking foward to this.
  15. The color grading shader isnt about greyscale, it can give the mission any tint you want, as was demonstrated in the thread. You could have it sepia, or natural colors but slightly desaturated, increase the contrast, or maybe you want the dark colors to be blueish, etc. As for the things you want to achieve, unless you want to be able to look through those windows directly to the outside and thats crucial to your gameplay idea, you would be better off using an opaque window glass texture and fake the moolight by using a light with texture beaming inside. Loads of examples to look into. Outside, you would need a parallel light, sure. Since it showers everywhere, it will be hitting a lot of geometry, so you have to take care all unnecessary props will be noshadow, etc. It will get into unsealed rooms as well, maybe thats what is giving you bad performance (as the geometry adds up or other lights are getting overlapped). Just seal everything. Make sure your exterior is not a single space with the house in the middle, break it up into narrower sections, spaces you can seal with visportals.
  16. For a true desaturated look, or any other kind of color grading, what you want is Rich's awesome Color Grading Shader: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18972-color-grading-shader/ It has huge potential in giving each mission a unique look, or at least scenes inside a given mission, like a dream sequence you want to have in black and white or something. As for the moonlight, Im sure there must be more missions nowadays that use it, though I havent played any. But you can always check out mine and see if that one works for you. Just copy and paste it into your map.
  17. Hello longmeg, great to know you are planning on contributing with your ideas and work. I loved that ambiance soundtrack, specially the build up to the instense section there in the middle, I could see it working wonders in a horror themed mission. Here in the tdm community we have a bit of an anarchist environment, theres the team always working on adding new features and maintaining the code, and then theres the people working on their missions, creating their own content with the core assets available. Since the core assets are meant as a generic base for most missions and grows slowly (only when it makes sense to add to it), new assets are always sought after by mappers, to give their missions a few unique touches here and there. Like myself and many others, even if you are not busy creating your own mission, you can bring new material for the community to play with, and thats just as fun. So what I would suggest is for you to look around and play some missions and any work that might be inspired by that and you choose to share with us, would be appreciated.
  18. Yeah, life is short, we should indeed always remind ourselves of all the little things we have going on that bring us joy and brings us together. Cheers!
  19. Amazing work, goldwell. Narration sounds great, the premise is fun, and the production value is through the rough with all the artwork, effects, and even animations! Brilliant.
  20. Thats amazing man, been meaning to look into photoscanning for a while now, the result is fantastic. I also loved that armory engine there, sweet animations on the player character, cool physics, great looking lighting... It seems its not free though? Thats a bit of a shame.
  21. Not sure if its possible or not, but before you get tangled up in technicalities, I would first consider if rogue like, random dungeons is what you think would work best in your vision for TDM gameplay. Nothing against a well designed maze-like mission (not really a fan myself, but Im sure a lot of people like that), but by definition, a well designed mission of any genre needs a lot of detailing and storytelling. Tels was trying to go for a system where you would get a certain quantity of "blocks" that had a lot of content in them, templates that you would then expand upon by adding in your storyline or scripted sequence or whatever. My guess is that you would first generate a random map, and then you would dive into it and change some things around and add readables and patrols and what not. This system in itself is not bad at all, though the amount of work to make blocks that are actually useful for mappers is a pretty daunting task. What Im not certain about is the necessity of making it random, I cant really see an advantage to it instead of just making it a prefab pack with examples and ready made scenes people could use to create their own maps deliberately, by hand.
  22. Sure, whatever floats your boat. But these guys put a lot of work into making the TDM AI responsive and interesting when alerted. Lets give them a chance, shall we? One can always load the game afterwards, no harm done. This is joking, by the way, things can get a bit uptight around here.
  23. I would use Blender for that. Apart from some issues with performance, it has an amazingly versatile video editor in it.
  24. Should be great to observe the fighting ai routines, and animations.
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