So, what are you working on right now?

[Springheel]

No, a decal is the right way to go, it just looked like that rectangle shadow might be the bottom of a small brush that is casting a shadow.

[Rooz]

Wow, I completely read your post wrong. I figured out what those shadows were. I had two extra patches under it. Anyway, I'm working a fake job for the next two weeks where I get a lot of time to sit around and do whatever I want on my computer. Im looking forward to making some good progress.

[JackFarmer]

The Order of Thieves: Qualifying Examination

 

I have connected all areas of my island, and what shall I say? It works! (oh yes, oh yes, oh yes).

 

Let's celebrate with a few new shots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next week I will start to create new patches in order to replace ugly cliffs and rocks I created from simple patches and brushes. Subsequently I will start adding AI, some more models, readables and a few switches and mechanical devices I have left out till now. I hope to start with beta testing in August...maybe earlier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Epifire]

Some very intriguing designs you've got there Jack! As a firm believer in the use of material blends, I'd suggest a vertex paint for cliffs if you hadn't considered it. With newest versions of DR able to support LWO format, it's a fantastic way to fake depth and crevice information (visually). Last year I put together a tutorial just for that purpose (of painting DR based geometry)... http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Vertex_Painting_in_Lightwave

 

More reading on the subject if you're interested in the method... https://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/idtech/vertex-texture-blending-applied-to-models.php

[Aosys]

Seem familiar, anyone?

 

 

 

 

 

[Spooks]

Hey, friends, here's an update for you. I've wanted to post this since last week but never could find the time. I've shown various pieces of content over the past months without a lot of explanation of what's from where and when you might expect a real release from me.

 

I started a speedbuild shortly before the release of 2.06, not really expecting to meet the release window. Still, I've made some good progress for 35 hours of mapping and I intend to stick through this one to its completion. I'm lucky to get 4 hours of free time a day nowadays, so progress is unfortunately slow, but know that I am still dedicating a large portion of my time to TDM regardless. I currently do not have screenshots of this speedbuild to share with you as I am in the trenches of the environment pass stage, where everything is half-finished. I'm aiming for, at most, 100 hours before I take this map to beta testing, so let's just cross our fingers and hope for the best.

 

I have two, bigger maps on the backburner, which are a part of a campaign, and another one-off which I don't plan on touching until those are done. If you enjoyed the background for the new TDM site design or the 2.06 release image, guess what? They're from one of those maps! I provided some screenshots to Springheel and I am really happy that he gracefully chose to feature them. It is my hope that, if nothing else, my snazzy scenes spark up some interest for the mod from outside viewers. There is an additional screenshot in the Media tab of the website that is also by me, if you haven't been there I recommend checking it out.

[R Soul]

Making a chain using Blender's physics engine (to get it to hang right):

 

At any frame the object can be merged and exported as a static mesh. We can also use the array and curve modifiers, but the latter distorts each mesh.

 

More info in the video description.

Edited June 18, 2018 by R Soul

[Dragofer]

Update: The ship's exterior is fairly mature by now, and I've lifted the piers from Wrecker's Reach and made a modular set out of them. (Technically this screenshot is a little worse off because I used a different hardware setup... just imagine the sky and water as it was in the old shot if you will)

 

 

 

Original message:

What started as a cog for Petike has received its stern:

 

 

There's a much bigger fish out there for me to fry, however, and I've been doing a lot of frying on that one lately...

Edited July 23, 2018 by Dragofer

[RPGista]

So lovely... Looks so nice with the dark grey environment, and that water. Brilliant.

 

A lot of good work lately. Sppoks, that homepage screenshot is amazing.

[Goldwell]

Just wanted to post an update on the status of my current FMs.

 

 

 

So there is good news and bad news, and lets get the bad news out of the way first.

 

The accountant 3 is on indefinite hold. Over the last couple of years I have come up with a lot of ideas and concepts on how to finish the series, some have gone so far as to have basic maps crafted but ultimately most of the concepts for this FM just weren't what I was hoping they would be. Either there were technical limitations for what I wanted to do or the story didn't feel right to me. But sadly ultimately I feel it's best to lay this project to rest for the time being and focus my time, effort and energy on finishing the Shadows of Northdale campaign which is in a much healthier state.

 

And that brings me to the good news...

 

I am currently working on three missions to wrap up the Shadows of Northdale campaign. My original goal was to have Act 2 release shortly after Act 1 however after doing some mapping soul searching I decided that I was unhappy with how my layouts were for a couple of crucial spots and decided to re-order them and merge them with other unreleased missions. The story has gone through many revisions as well and I have finally settled on one that i'm really excited for.

 

As it stands now Act 2 is a city mission taking place in the usual city hub from act 1, however this time it's set at dusk the very next day and so there are different shops and places to explore in the hub this time as well as discovering what your actions from Act 1 have caused to the residents of Northdale. The main goal of this mission is to break into the Northdale Imperial Bank and Trust and find out what that safety deposit box key from Act 1 unlocks. In terms of genre this is a city mission and a bank mission all rolled into one.

 

Act 3 is set in the Grimwood district, it takes place later on that night from Act 2, and has the player traversing through the city to the mage tower and a couple of other points of interest in the city to discover more information about the tablet you found in Act 1. This mission has been a lot of fun to create because for the first time I have aimed to create a mission that is based around a lot of dark horror elements.

 

And finally there is Act 4 which is the last mission in the Shadows of Northdale campaign, I don't want to give away too much so all i'll reveal is that this a snowy mission.

 

As for when will these be released, well I have clearly missed the mark on guessing release dates in the past so I don't want to commit myself to any concrete dates but to help give everyone an idea of where I am currently. Act 2 is about half way done, Act 3 is very close to being finished and Act 4 is still in the early days. However Act 4 is the smallest mission out of the bunch, so this shouldn't take me a long time to finish. I'm taking turns working on each of the missions so as to avoid any burn out and keep the mapping landscape fresh for me.

 

Now when the time does come to release these I figure that rather than slowly drip feed these out to everyone as they are finished I plan to get all of them to a final state and release them all within the same time frame. So while you wont see any releases from me for a while, when the time does come there will be three brand new missions to enjoy.

 

And on that note i'll finish off this post with a couple of new and unseen screenshots and a little video ambient teaser from the last 3 acts in the Shadows of Northdale campaign.

 

This is the city hub in Act 2

 

And here is a spoiler free screenshot from Act 4

 

And finally a little ambience video from Act 3 (keep in mind there is rain but youtube's compression makes it quite hard to see)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz4zJ1U5fxM

 

 

[JackFarmer]

Hello Goldwell,

 

Great. As always. Wizard.

 

Regarding picture #1: is this a new skybox or is it something I can find in the standard package as well?

[Goldwell]

Hello Goldwell,

 

Great. As always. Wizard.

 

Regarding picture #1: is this a new skybox or is it something I can find in the standard package as well?

 

There are a few elements at play there, for one the skybox is a custom one created by the very talented Sotha, he used it in his final mission for the Thomas Porter series called The Lich Queen's Demise. Additionally there are also some lighting and fog tricks that help to add to that dusk feeling.

[Springheel]

Love the morning ambience in the first shot!

[RPGista]

Brilliant indeed!

 

Just reading your roadmap makes me tired, I really admire your effort and talent, man, I mean, Ive been wrestling with a concept map for months now, and its barely more than a few skteched scenes. Good luck with it, looking great so far.

Edited July 20, 2018 by RPGista

[peter_spy]

That morning screenshot looks really promising, I like how the lighting is carefully matched with the skybox

[Dragofer]

Exciting, can't wait to see what we'll find in that safe

[JackFarmer]

@Goldwell:

 

The "rainy street in Grimwood district" video with its hypnotizing calm reminds on the latest Frost/Lynch TV series I watched last week with its long scenes without movement - and I remember your "Red Room" like music in AC2 when talking to the thief...

 

After connecting the dots I come to the conclusion that you must be a huge fan of Twin Peaks!

[Goldwell]

@Goldwell:

 

The "rainy street in Grimwood district" video with its hypnotizing calm reminds on the latest Frost/Lynch TV series I watched last week with its long scenes without movement - and I remember your "Red Room" like music in AC2 when talking to the thief...

 

After connecting the dots I come to the conclusion that you must be a huge fan of Twin Peaks!

 

Thank you! I try my hardest to create really atmospheric scenes so it makes me happy to know that it's working

 

It's funny you bring that up because i've never seen Twin Peaks, but a friend has been recommending I watch that series for a while now. So I guess it's all just a happy little coincidence

[Springheel]

Ah OK, I grabbed that off a random model.

 

The stand is almost there, some touch ups and a shadow model. I'll probably do an lod too, it's at 3000 tris right now.

display stand.jpg

 

Any chance these ever ended up in a repository somewhere?

[peter_spy]

Making new furniture, having fun with shaders, while still getting optimised results. It's great that you can do so much with glass, basically every aspect is covered in the engine. I can control transparency, specularity, add fake cubemap reflections, and control refraction. And I can still do it all just with base set of _d, _n, _s textures and proper unwrapping.

Edited July 26, 2018 by Judith

[Bikerdude]

Very impressive.

[Goldwell]

Damn that looks amazing Judith!

[RPGista]

Indeed, very good texturing... I like the subtle warp effect on the glass, and specially like the metal work, how it stands out on its own. Great job. Just be careful when mixing this with stock furniture, as most tend to have texture maps with lower resolutions.

[peter_spy]

Thanks, it's always nice when someone notices the details and amount of work that goes into this For my project I'm making every model, surface, and texture from scratch, so using 2k textures won't be a problem, but when the model pack gets released, mappers will have freedom to scale it down, if they want to mix it with base TDM assets.

[Bikerdude]

Making new furniture, having fun with shaders, while still getting optimised results.

Dont suppose you would like to recreate some of our more basic furniture models...?