sparhawk
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Posts posted by sparhawk
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"This software accompanying this license remains the copyrighted property of Looking Glass Studios, Inc. You are entitled to use this product for your own use, but may not modify, decompile, reverse engineer, sell, rent, or lease this software to anyone else without the prior written consent of Looking Glass Studios."
Of course this doesn't say anything about reconstructing it, as you are not doing anything of the above when you create a new map in a new engine and use an existing level as a template. You are not modifying it (obvisly) and you are also (obviously) not decompiling it. A laywer might construct a "reverse engineering" out of it though, but that's IMO a far stretch, because if you just run thorugh the level, note down some details and build your own level similar to it, I don't think this could be called reverse engineering. But that would depend on a judge and even there you could easily get different oponions depending on the ctual judge.
But of course may argument here, shouldn't be a defense because I honestly think that creating a new map, which might be inspired by an existing map, is much better and more interesting to build and to play. So it's only my opinion on how I would interpret this license in regard to a lawsuit, but I'm not a lawyer so they might see it differently (and probably will
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A single light with a light texture would be ideal in cases where it can be used, but again, I'm not sure how this setup would work for the wall lamps. Unlike streetlights which can use a light that only points downwards, the lamp needs to illuminate the wall and the ceiling without a shadow, but project a shadow on the floor and lower wall. Using an omnidirectional light with a shadow texture would (AFAIK) run into the "stick of rock" problem, whereby the shadow would be extruded vertically up the wall and onto the ceiling, not just projected onto the floor.
I don't think it needs to be to complicated. If there is a dark blob on the wall, that would already make it look more realistic. It doesn't really need to be a well defined shadow even.
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Has anybody played Outcry?
I installed it a few days ago, because I liked to play a nice adventure again. From the atmosphere this game is really my style, but somehow I can't really get into the game. I thought it might be because I haven't been playing a lot lately, apart from some small fun games that you play for a a few minutes for relaxing.
I alerady feared I might get to old for playing, but now I found this review and the first paragraph really describes what I also had problems with.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/outcry/review.html
"Adventure gamers looking for something off the beaten path get more than they bargain for in Outcry. This point-and-click exercise in the surreal from Russian developer Phantomery Interactive is certainly a step removed from the norm, but it's also so relentlessly strange and impenetrable that it's nearly impossible to play. Style has been elevated over substance in every aspect of the design, resulting in a trippy game that's appealing only for its bizarre atmosphere, philosophical pretensions, and striking visuals. "
I guess what erally makes me like it despite the problems is described by this:
"Every scene is overlaid with an aging filter loaded with dark sepia tones, skips, a main light source that dims and shines like a strobe effect, and other film flaws that make it seem as though you're viewing a long-lost movie reel. Some scenes are even in black and white. Because this layer is placed between your first-person perspective and the backdrops of the adventure, everything seems like a dream or an old memory."
Well, I definitely keep trying to get into it, but somehow it's really hard for some reason.
Wonder what others think about it.
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So what is the conclusion? I don't really want to add an extra workloadprior to the release, but I always thought that the lamps suffer a lot from not having any shadows. Adding a decal seemed best to me because it doesn't take so much performance. If this blend stage has the same effect its fine for me.
You just have to keep in mind a long floor with such lamps in regular intervals, which is a very likely scenario. So this should be be able to be processed on a reasonable machine setup.With this blend stage, can this be added as a prefab or so? This would be best, because it's hard for mappers to place all this stuff if the have to add each detail individually, and especally such lights are probably used a lot (same would go for torches I think as well).
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I just read the thread from Vorob http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?s=&am...st&p=180349
I think the lamps on the walls look really unrealistic and ugly without a shadow. Since there are the issues with the shadows, I think it would still look much better if we cerate a simple shadow texture as a decal and maybe a prefab for such lights, so that a mapper can put them on the wall. Of course the shadow wouldn't move, but it would still look MUCH better with a static (and performancewise easy) shadow, than none at all.
It would still look better if we had just a dark generic blob, that can be used in such cases as a shadow replacement. No details, just a shadowy blob. In older games this was used as well, because shadows were not realistically implementable on older machines, but it still adds depth to the image, as the shadow is an important tool of judging distances. The lamps always look like floating somwhere indefinitely.
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Having a first post pointing to some commercial website is a surefire way to get marked as spammer.
I guess in this case it's ok though, because it's related to the mod and the tool is indeed free for non-commercial use. Don't know how good it is though, as I usually use Blender. -
You can ignore that. It's complaining because I don't have an officially registered certificiate, which is not going to happen anyway. So it's up to you to trust me or not.
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Believe me, by the end you are starting to miss having little ammo. At the beginning it's a real fight of survival, which creates a lot of immersion, but later it becomes too easy, when you have the nice weapons and ammo en masse (and skills of course).
I'm currently at level 6 (almost 7) and already have lots of ammo now.
I'M stealing quite a lot, which is bad for karma, so I bought some old used metal for cheap and gave it to the waterpipe guy, which raised my karma so much that I'm now almost a saint. -
The thing is Eidos Montreal is specifically created with these goals in mind:
What else do you expect them to say? Of course they have to say that they will deliver high quality games and offer a friendly work environment and whatever else ... Anything different would be pointless to be posted.
I get every two weeks a mail from my boss (not my direct boss but frmo the upper management). I don't even bother to read those mails, because they are full of such hollow phrases that I know that he probably didn't write it himself anyway. Sounds like some textblocks from "Motivational Managment Phrases Package 2.0", just like that you posted here. Seems to come from the same library.
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You mean it really needs a border as it would look odd just stuck in the middle of some plain metal texture? Also that would help if the mapper wants it to protrude slightly.
I think the border might be helpfull. In cases where the border is not needed, the mapper can still stretch the texture, so that it is no longer visible.
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This is the replacement I've committed. I just modified one of our existing metal textures. Not certain it is ideal but it is so small in-game you can't see any detail. It can be redone if necessary.
Looks fine to me. Do we have a texture that fitrs the material of the keyhole as well? It looks a bit strange if the keyhole is a different metal then the surrounding metal. That's also a reason why I downloaded this one, because I figured that it looks similar enough and it had those lines along the border to set it off a bit.
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If you like that kind of adventures you should give "Edna bricht aus" a try. At least if you know german.
It's hillarious and really done in the spirit of Monkey Island. The developers are fan of it, and they tried to make a game in that spirit, and they definitely succeeded.I found it in some torrent news because they were complaining about torrent downloads, and I immediately bought it, because it's really good. And best of all, it doesn't have a copy protection as well, because they figured that it wouldn't be worth the hassle to implement one.
Wikipedia says that there is an english version as well "Edna & Harvey: The Breakout" so you might look for this instead. Haven't checked though. I think it was done by a german team, so I don't know the value of the translations, but the german dialogs often enough give me a laugh. Especially with their veiled references to all kind of things you will probably know.
Edit: Another site claims that the english title would be "Edna breaks out!" wich sounds like a straight translation from google. I just sent a mail to the creators and asked them to make sure though.
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I think I uploaded it, but I think it should be replaced. I just put it up because there was none available and I think I found it somewhere on the internet, so I don't even know about it's legal status for sure.
I just used it for my testmap, but it would be nice if it weren't just deleted but replaced by something better.
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I just tried the "Scratches" demo but there's is only one puzzle and right before it starts to get interessting its over. Not enough to decide if I could enjoy this game.
Well, maybe you should download it somehwere and see if you like it. Since it's quite old already, you should definitely buy though if you like it, because it's well worth it.
Another good one is Black Manor.
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Quest for Glory IV, Shadows of Darkness: The ending of QFG3 spooked me. QFG4 (the sequel) takes place in a translvania-like land. Complete with vampires, undead, and some really creepy Hexapod creatures. There was this old monastery where these demented monks did some evil rituals. You, being the hero, have to break into it and look for clues. But theres a stone hexapus (a six armed cephalopod) that comes alive and grabs you if you don't have the right means of entry. That always scared me when I was younger. The death screens and the dying music changed to a really dark mood.
That was a really good one. I found it quite atmospheric, and it was quite creepy when you played in the night in a dark room, and then you walked through that forrest.
I loved it.
I even replayed it on a DOS emulator only recently because I liked it so much. -
Currently playing Fallout 3 and I must say I really like it.
I only hate it, that I'm notoriously short on ammo, but I'm only at level 3 at the moment, so I hope that this is increasing. I'm trying to build my character as a thief with some explosives, but so far the hiding is very dissapointing.
Otherwise the game fells quite good. I was a bit suspicious when I learned that it was from Bethesda, because I didn't really like Oblivion and expected similar here, but so far it doesn't seem to be the case.
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The only thing I have a problem with is when you buy a digital download, you don't get the box/manual/cd.
That's exactly why I don't buy usually online games. For small Indie games that's ok, but not for the big titles.
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Yeah. I meant Scratches and misspelled it.
If you like classic point and click adventures then this is definitely a really good game.
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Is this multiplayer only or also SP?
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Oh, sure. I have to deal with it (or choose not to) anyway. It's just not very nice to throw it in my face, even if it is a joke.
Think of it as exposure. Especially for good Indy games, with a reasonable price, the people who appreciate it will buy it for sure and most others wouldn't have bought it anyway.
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If you like horror in games, a really good one is "Scratches". It's and adventure I played last year, and the atmosphere was really awesome! I hate movies that rely on splatter effects, because in most cases they just look ridiculous. I always prefer the psychological horror, that starts to build up in your head.
EDIT: Corrected the name.
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Cool!
That's how this game should be played. -
It's part of the business.
Art Dispute
in Off-Topic
Posted
Usually I don't agree with Domarius but in this case I do. I also had once a friedn and she came to me every time complaining about all kind of things. I gave here advice in the beginning because she asked for it, and I thought I could help her. But after some time I realized that she doesn't follow my advice anyway (which is not reall the problem) but she still came always to me asking me for advice the same things over again. After realizing this, I told her that she doesn't heed my advice anyway, so why bothering with me, and since she persisted I told her to leave me alone with this crap. Well, it was not my girlfriend, so it was not really that bad for me.
As for the drawings - I don't really like that anime stuff. The drawing on the frontpage of the voting I thought not so good and almoste voted for bad, but when I noticed that there are other images I changed my mind. The only issue I have with the characters and also the animals is, that they look to static. They don't have much personallity IMO and look to stylized to me. But I think that can be worked on with time. Nobody starts at a professional from the first moment.
Apart from that the images look quite good and some really got a nice atmosphere in them, but of course characters are always harder to catch.