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Fidcal

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Any of you dabbling with Dark Radiant but not yet ready to commit to building a full FM? Why not produce some useful prefabs to share? Here is one idea that anyone can contribute to:

 

Street Building Facades

This is how it would work. You create just the projected front end of a building - a dwelling, shop, chapel, factory, whatever, as a solid body with roof. The building wants to be significantly deep - maybe past a first window on the sides. A variation on this is to produce the lower half and upper half separately. Depending on building type, it is often possible to mix and match. Sometimes the halves can be somewhat different with say, a red brick lower half, then lathe and plaster upper.

 

The above are of course for mappers to use when building streets. They insert the prefab into their street base. They can drag the facade forward or push it back as far as they wish so the same facade won't look exactly the same in all FMs. In one it might be actually pushed back *between* two projected facades either side so you only see its face; in another it protrudes just a couple of feet; yet another it sticks out half way.

 

Only moderate detail should be used. A street with 20 or 30 of highly detailed facades might grind to a halt on a low end machine. Just use normal trim, recesses, beams, buttresses whatever. A few extra details are nice like smoke from a chimney.

 

The mapper can quickly make up streets by plugging in different facades. He is free to modify each and any facade, to customise it for his FM, or just leave it as is. He can insert 'real' buildings here and there as needed - ones you can enter.

 

Details of prefabs at:

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Prefabs

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Prefab_Comments

 

Anyone interested? You can make these and contribute them to a pool for all to share. You make a couple and get bored? No matter - that's two more for general use.

 

Any other ideas for prefab projects? Browse through the prefabs already provided in the release for ideas. For now you need to extract these by unzipping darkmod\tdm_prefabs01.pk4 (rename temporarily to zip) and extracting to the darkmod folder. Prefabs are really flexible and powerful and can save a huge amount of time.

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That'd be a good idea.

Ha! So what if I am, huh? Anyways, I work better when I'm drunk. It makes me fearless! If I see a bad guy, I'll just point my sword at him. And saaaaaay "HEY! Bad guy! You're not s'pposed to be here! Go home or I'll stick you with my sword...'til you go...'Ouch I'm dead!' Ahahahah (hic) See? Ain't no one gonna be messin with old Benny."
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nice idea! Besides, if someone attemt to build a FM but couldn't finish and decided to abandon it, then it's better to share it in this way instead of being waste.

There are a few buildngs that I already build. I can share them here after some optimization.

 

btw. I'm not sure about moderate detail. For instance buildings in thief's den 1 fit in this criteria? maybe it'll be better defining max - min limit for brushes on that.

 

 

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I have been thinking of this possibility ever since I saw Komag's recreation of a small Scottish keep. Imagine something like that looming in a mission background. Dromed2 had its object buildings, but they were mostly boxes with a window and roof texture - sometimes nice to save polys and increase level depth, but not quite as much as could be done with prefabs, which seem to have the virtues of multibrushes without their problems.

 

I will contribute if I have stuff that can't fit into a FM, but may be useful to others.

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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nice idea! Besides, if someone attemt to build a FM but couldn't finish and decided to abandon it, then it's better to share it in this way instead of being waste.

There are a few buildngs that I already build. I can share them here after some optimization.

 

btw. I'm not sure about moderate detail. For instance buildings in thief's den 1 fit in this criteria? maybe it'll be better defining max - min limit for brushes on that.

Yes, something like in Den, even Saint Lucia. They can be more complex but I'd avoid *very* complex ones. There'd be no cut off point so don't be afraid that a compex one would be 'rejected'. A wide mixture of very simple up to complex is fine because the mapper could pick and choose. He might put 8 simpler ones in with one more complex one. All I'm trying to avoid is have 20 complex ones together if you see what I mean. So avoid for example having glass windows where you can see inside. Let's put this another way, if you look at the first main street in Saint Lucia. In total the frame rates are reasonable there for most everyone. So use that as a rough benchmark.

 

I'm sure if someone produced 20 complex facades they wouldn't be wasted! So no worries. :)

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Good idea. A fun way to learn Radiant too. Would even be nice to have really simple building shapes text in black for skyline.

 

Like a box with a pyramid on top for a tower. All they will do is block sky anyway, I think Fidcal had stuff like that in TD I.

 

I was planning on doing some arches, shelves with food, etc... out of my mission once they are detailed enough. I used one for the dining table, it was awesome, 3 seconds and an 8 person table was set (I think I made that prefab in the first place, but...) then spent a few minutes tweaking to mission specific detail.

---------------

 

It would also be good to make all terrain brushes in a prefab func_statics. That way an author can import, deselct and reslect the whole thing easy. If they want to modify...they can revert to world spawn.

Of course that doesn't work with objects, patches. Not sure if there is a 'group' function in Radiant, I haven't seen it yet.

---------------

 

I would also like to see the chest prefabs fixed. I had them built correctly along time ago (I believe my chest prefab map is still in maps folder.

 

The chests have a proper lockbar. Currently the prefabs use the wall lockbox lockbar.

--------------

Should we prefab doors? I know we have entities but it seems like some have handles, some don't...

Dark is the sway that mows like a harvest

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It would also be good to make all terrain brushes in a prefab func_statics. That way an author can import, deselct and reslect the whole thing easy. If they want to modify...they can revert to world spawn.

Of course that doesn't work with objects, patches. Not sure if there is a 'group' function in Radiant, I haven't seen it yet.

There's layers - Ctrl-L. When the prefab is selected they can right-click on the geometry and use Move to Layer... Very useful.

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Any of you dabbling with Dark Radiant but not yet ready to commit to building a full FM? Why not produce some useful prefabs to share? Here is one idea that anyone can contribute to:

 

Street Building Facades

This is how it would work. You create just the projected front end of a building - a dwelling, shop, chapel, factory, whatever, as a solid body with roof. The building wants to be significantly deep - maybe past a first window on the sides. A variation on this is to produce the lower half and upper half separately. Depending on building type, it is often possible to mix and match. Sometimes the halves can be somewhat different with say, a red brick lower half, then lathe and plaster upper.

 

The above are of course for mappers to use when building streets. They insert the prefab into their street base. They can drag the facade forward or push it back as far as they wish so the same facade won't look exactly the same in all FMs. In one it might be actually pushed back *between* two projected facades either side so you only see its face; in another it protrudes just a couple of feet; yet another it sticks out half way.

 

Only moderate detail should be used. A street with 20 or 30 of highly detailed facades might grind to a halt on a low end machine. Just use normal trim, recesses, beams, buttresses whatever. A few extra details are nice like smoke from a chimney.

 

The mapper can quickly make up streets by plugging in different facades. He is free to modify each and any facade, to customise it for his FM, or just leave it as is. He can insert 'real' buildings here and there as needed - ones you can enter.

 

Details of prefabs at:

http://modetwo.net/d...p?title=Prefabs

http://modetwo.net/d...Prefab_Comments

 

Anyone interested? You can make these and contribute them to a pool for all to share. You make a couple and get bored? No matter - that's two more for general use.

 

Any other ideas for prefab projects? Browse through the prefabs already provided in the release for ideas. For now you need to extract these by unzipping darkmod\tdm_prefabs01.pk4 (rename temporarily to zip) and extracting to the darkmod folder. Prefabs are really flexible and powerful and can save a huge amount of time.

 

I have a staggering amount of beautiful street facades, as well as hollowed out functional buildings. Very pretty! I will have to donate them.

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Yes, something like in Den, even Saint Lucia. They can be more complex but I'd avoid *very* complex ones. There'd be no cut off point so don't be afraid that a compex one would be 'rejected'. A wide mixture of very simple up to complex is fine because the mapper could pick and choose. He might put 8 simpler ones in with one more complex one. All I'm trying to avoid is have 20 complex ones together if you see what I mean. So avoid for example having glass windows where you can see inside. Let's put this another way, if you look at the first main street in Saint Lucia. In total the frame rates are reasonable there for most everyone. So use that as a rough benchmark.

 

I'm sure if someone produced 20 complex facades they wouldn't be wasted! So no worries. smile.gif

 

 

Good. I redesigned some of my buildings to be sure of getting good frame rates in future FMs. They are from my mansion and city missions. So there is a kind of spoiler for you. Here they are:

 

 

asdj.jpg

 

 

 

ops can't attach a file. seems I'm not permitted.

so, grab them from here: http://rapidshare.co.../SP_prefabs.rar

 

 

 

both of them are less than 100 brushes and used old textures because I designed before the release, but can be changed. if you liked, feel free to use them in your missions.smile.gif

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  • 2 weeks later...

Did some prefab work today:

 

Some of them could use some updating. I didn't quite firgure out the system with the chests to copy over to the lockboxes and have them ready to go, so that needs done.

 

Looks like I need to fix lockbox_02 texture AGAIN. Not sure how my stuff keeps getting screwed, this is like the 3rd time I've fixed those now.

 

 

Fixed chest prefabs to have correct lockbar:

 

prefabs/containers

chest_metal.pfb

chest_wood.pfb

footlocker.pfb

 

added prefabs for:

 

mechanical/switches/

 

flip_switch.pfb

switch_rotate_lever.pfb

switch_translate_lever.pfb

 

locks/

 

lockbox_01.pfb

Dark is the sway that mows like a harvest

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Good. I redesigned some of my buildings to be sure of getting good frame rates in future FMs. They are from my mansion and city missions. So there is a kind of spoiler for you. Here they are:

Just to report, I used the house on the right as a background building in the non-gameplay area of my FM. Nice enough for eye candy, low-poly enough not to adversely affect performance. Thanks for making it available. :)

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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Ah no worries Fidcal. Was easy to swap 'em. I was just bitching about the lockbox texture that I've had to re-uv twice already and now a third time...

Adn was kindof sore when I found my steambot all screwy, trying to call guard voices, crashing when I touch him... He was working perfect last time I spent hours and hours making him work. Now I have to redo that and the lockbox... And the steambot will probably take hours again because I forgot all that stuff and have to relearn it.

Dark is the sway that mows like a harvest

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Well, he was all set to go. He would patrol (still does), his AF was perfect (that's probably why he crahses now, there's a 'body...' error. He had steam particles, which are now black squares. He had an alert sound and anim which he played, now he stands there still and silent...

This is just basic behavior stuff that I had worked out and now it all needs fixed. I may have back-up files but not sure.

 

There really wasn't anything else he needed to do except patrol, spot you, raise alarm. Unless we want him to spray sleeping gas or something.

Dark is the sway that mows like a harvest

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Yeah, I feel your pain. Unfortunately that is what happens during development, things have been heavily in flux since 2007. Two years of non-maintenance and there you go.

 

Rest assured that we'll get him in-game again, you don't need to fix these things if you're fed up with that.

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