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Epifire

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Epifire last won the day on May 26 2022

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About Epifire

  • Birthday 06/03/1995

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  1. Sadly, this build had canceled the much anticipated prop hunt mode; as the team concluded the player hiding in plain sight as a household object might break realism.
  2. Yep, that'd be the one! I had some issues with minor syntax errors, when setting it up; which is why I'd still opt to write a short guide about it. The one click, do-all option is really nice. I've only had one issue (only tested with Maya) that has UV borders being rendered as hard edged in the final product. I worked around it by doing one final export with Lightwave, as it seems to be a smoothing issue. Other than that, it's worked flawlessly for me.
  3. I hadn't tested the importer yet but looking at it now, it indeed looks to just be the FBX converter that Greebo integrated. @greeboCorrect me if I'm wrong but I don't think the Dark Radiant model converter supports OBJ yet? Because yeah, datiswous brings up a pretty good point as I don't think DR can handle OBJ files directly right now. @datiswous In this case I'd recommend the FBX to LWO batch converter for heavy use. I wouldn't expect anyone to really know about it, as I don't think we've really talked about this anywhere yet. I'd intended to write an article on the wiki to document how to set it up, but that kinda fell by the wayside since Greebo directly incorporated it into DR. In the FBX to LWO batch method, you just export your models to a mirrored folder structure. It's hierarchy is identical to the folder paths that your final models are contained in, within the target FM's model directory. So all you have to do is export to your FBX folder, run the batch file and it automatically replaces the meshes in the output directory. Big thanks to Greebo on the converter system! I originally had reached out to him over the idea a while ago and he made it into a full fledged feature. I can't tell you how much time this saves when working almost entirely with models in a level. If anyone would like to see the setup on that, lemme know and I'll try to get a wiki page made to document the process.
  4. You'll be happy to know then that we just added OBJ as a supported model format! I've not branched out from using LWO myself yet but that helps make modeling in TDM, a lot more accessible. Congrats though on starting your first FM!
  5. It's definitely still a really big deal but normally I've seen specific artists/studios have a streamlined setup for this. While I'm a Substance guy through and through right now, I can still see a benefit of grabbing accurate, real-world data to layer into a complex material. On games that are gunning for photorealism, I've even seen Photogrammetry experience listed as a plus for hiring.
  6. Ooookay, yeah that must help with depth processing. to have multiple light capture angles of the same object. I saw one video on SM4 where the guy was just using it like the old Crazybump. The tripod setup looks like it would do a hell of a lot of good. For me I'm starting to branch into making my own tiling textures again. As trimsheets and just full tiled materials are actually becoming much more feasible in modern engines. As a traditional old-gen modeler, its strange to me to see a detail mesh get four different tiling materials to build it's primary details. This certainly is interesting territory we're getting into for games. Glad we got your main issue figured out though and thanks for elaborating on the process!
  7. I've been interested in getting into Photogrammetry myself but the equipment right now has been a bit cost prohibitive. I'd be keen on hearing more about the process if you care to write about it sometime! I more so pointed it out, as just straight image conversion tends to be a bit iffy on results. Is your capture method able to convert the input images to create a height map? Heightmap is king but If you're not creating the data from the ground up, that's easier said than done.
  8. The spec is basically on point with the original image (for overall tone). Really the only thing standing out to me now is that there's something funky going on with the normal map. The grout work was treated like a ridge, rather than a valley; so I'm assuming that has to do with the way the normal map was generated.
  9. Thanks for the clarification. My understanding of that comes more from a GI usage too, which makes sense as both engines I've used (separate to id4) have some manner of lightmap propagation. id4's system always felt to me, like a wholesale way of modifying the light color. Where in other engines, the intensity seems like an alpha slider against the RGB of the light's coverage. Having only used the systems (rather than work on them), id4 just feels a tad pickier. I say, "feels" because I only can point to seat-of-the-pants experience from one engine to the other, vs actual hard numbers. What I notice is that it feels like it's a lot easier to blow up the brightness/saturation levels and that if something looks off, I usually end up needing to tweak the color values as well as the brightness to fix it.
  10. I find this is mainly due to only being able to set light color (not actually refining it with an intensity setting). Personally, I've found no specific way to remedy it but I more so just work around it. It's also the no.1 reason I tend to only use spec maps on very smooth surfaces. While technically a lot more things could probably use a specular map to have more pop, it's my artistic preference. As I prefer some materials to be a subtle base layer and really not attract too much attention. But without dragging this out, I've seen this even in the most basic material setups. Bloom makes it way worse. It's usually just too much lighting contribution combined with a hard limitation of our shader systems.
  11. Yeah agreed. I'd really only make a concession for knee high (short objects) but even then, this should be executed very cautiously.
  12. Excellent! I don't have screenshots of the first missions in hand right now but I've definitely studied a lot of Brosius' work (man responsible for the original Thief OST). He employs the use of a lot of reverse tracking, to layer into the mix. It's two fold as his work is usually supporting as a soundscape, just as much as it is a soundtrack. The deadly shadows OST is by far his best work in my opinion. I've done only a bit of audio work in my personal projects and the best way I can describe the method is drone mood. More dangerous areas are overwhelmed by hypnotic yet dissonant drone, that has area relevant sampled audio strewn throughout. Samples might be things like bells, or scraping metal, or even incoherent whispers. The samples walk a fine line, as they need to remain relevant but not mislead the player as mistaken directional sounds from within the game. Less dangerous areas should be more calming in mood. My recommendation (depending on the theme) is to have two versions of the same track. Sharing the same theme and tempo but one handling tension and the other being more calm. These are extremely useful as well, since a single area may have the same theme but also share more dangerous sections. A tavern for instance, inside and outside. Outside theme would have semi hypnotic drones but the inside version (that the game would activate when the player heads inside) would be an alternate version that breaks much harder into the mix. This helps keep the area thematically wrapped up in a single track but with it's own sort of onion layers that the map script can toggle through. It's less work on your end, as there's less to compose but it keeps the areas feeling very organic and memorable. This is definitely aided by knowing the theme to these sections. You then really control the reigns as to setting player expectations, based solely on what they're hearing. It definitely helps to know the intent of the project/level, so my recommendation is just to play the two missions and get a feel for it yourself. Feel free to message me or hit me up on Discord (Epifire#9773)! as while I'm no professional, I love audio work. I have some personal examples to draw from in a shelved FM I was heading off, so I'd love to chat more if you about the venture.
  13. Welcome! I'm curious, do you have examples of your work uploaded anywhere? Would love to hear it!
  14. Mods said it'll stay open for 24 hrs. I'm on a later schedule in US central time, so I only just now am catching up on the AMA. I'll be sitting in and watching the thread for the rest of the day. I guess this is why we share a dev team that spans multiple continents.
  15. Heyo! So the render is coming out pretty snazzy so far. My only big criticisms would come down to just maybe adding some extra edge bevels (even if they end up being baked into the normal map), just to make the case/door edges a little more interesting. Now honestly this could be achieved via some crafty texture work, or just hard modeling the details. I did a safe set some time earlier for TDM and I think I went the material route to highlight the edges. Albeit, a bit more edge distressing than I might do now, this is essentially how I handled it for those... So while I've tried to refine my detail masks a bit since these two were made, I'd still suggest a tad more on the grunge side. Main reason is that the assets that already exist for TDM are far from clean. While this does come down to the case usage (posh manor vs dock foreman office) is trying to match the current look of the game. I initially had a harder time making assets too clean and just had to develop my own style based on trial and error... or too many complaints Also, golden inlay can really pop if you highlight it more on the specular channel vs the color itself. Or at least so I found. Lastly, just make sure you mind the hinge alignment. I export the individual pieces from the same scene for this reason. As you've gotta remember, the mapper must reassemble the parts in Dark Radiant. So they'll have to line up on the grid somehow, else you might have gaps or little inconsistencies. Same goes for knobs and levers. My suggestion is to try and orient those pieces on your own gridsnap (in whatever app you model with) so that they just turn out this way by design. Nothing feels worse than importing a switch, just to see it clips oddly into the adjacent bezel. So basically, plotting the position of those things ahead of time saves the trouble. All in all I think your safe looks pretty awesome. I tend to make my stuff pretty loud but part of that is my own personal style too. Some of the things I like to go off on, are bits about how this mechanism would look with primitive casting & machining techniques. CNC machining is a pretty modern thing, so in the Dark Mod you can imagine a lot of metal details should appear to be cast iron or rolled steel plating. Otherwise man, I'd say you're pretty close already. Maybe just some extra detail to tie the door details together a bit more and just some general (natural) wear patterns.
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