Epifire

Thanks for the kind words all! Pretty excited since this Painter is a whole new front for me to explore. Really hoping the in-game result will do it some justice. @ Springheel, I'd be very interested in finding out about that material to handle the active gauges. On that note I was considering what it would take to have a lit/unlit mode and what that would offer for mappers? Obviously a very visually informative trait but again I know nothing of this engine's workings past the art. That would mean this would require a separate text file to define special entity functions I presume? Mirceal all discussions of intent or influence aside, the best thing I could give you advice for is material definition. Any kind of brushed normals in the fur to keep it from feeling flat would help it immensely I think. Right now you have color but not really any depth to the material (in an engine where nearly everything has normals on steroids). How you manage that is up to you, but that's my two bits if I were to give any artist advice. PS: Random thought but if you were to make something with glowing eyes in the form of a dog/wolf, what about one with a twist? Egyptian hounds like a kind of warrior from the afterlife? Except like a hard helmet instead just an optional idea too. Gives way to a whole different kind of enemy though. Depending on the art a good deal mysterious too! A really different style, if you had some kind of old tomb spelunking kinda mission but a rough example...

Sorta have had a haphazard workflow going in Substance Painter but here's a screenie inside the app for what hopefully may somewhat resemble the final in-game version... NOTE: Gauges still need work and the white inside the release wheels will be rendered transparent! This should be the standard (sorta dirty/mostly clean) city version. I want to do two more skins yet. The super clean and well maintained mansion version and a derelict one with busted out gauges. On a separate note I'm wondering how I might be able to bring better effects on these gauges. Right now I have only the flat reference to put a needle on top of but I was wondering if making the needle separate may be helpful for possible animations later? I thought a little harder and wondered what it might look like with that in addition to having it recessed and put underneath a layer of glass shader to give it a little more depth. I'm sorta out of my league with any cool things like glass readouts or anims so I figured I'd at least put the idea out there.

One thing I'd recommend spooks is looking at joint/filler supports for breaking things up too. Basically so you can encase the main sections in and seal things off for a separate underlying mesh. What's nice about relying on secondary models for that (besides breaking things up) is overlap. Because if something is just a bit too long for your needs often you can shift the underlying (flat) wall a bit into out of bounds or unplayable area. Since if you break it up into two layers it gives you just a bit more to work with. Another way of looking at it is moveable seams to your walls. Lend an eye to this fine representation I've conjured! Now I'm not suggesting you map everything like that as that'd be a pretty sloppy mapping suggestion. Buuuut in a pinch it gives you flexibility without having to go in and edit existing assets, just in case.

I definitely will have to download this when I get my desktop online again. Always like the in depth missions.

I'm getting ready to go watch the new Star Wars here (so I doubt I'll be able to start tonight) but this all sounds very promising. Bookmarked that wiki page too. Also just something to note, I left the lever and release handle as floating geometry. So basically it was left open to be easily animated, that is if anyone feels up to making a lever anim in the future (may ship the source files in that case). I'm just trying to grasp basic things with the D3 workflow. Also given how much this engine seems to hate my Softimage|XSI exporter for basic static meshes, I really don't want to push anything complex like that. Though you know I would if I could.

Back to one of my many questions! So I'm about to start texturing my arc transformer here shortly in Substance Painter and it starts with a calibration for engine type. The D3 engine is based off of OpenGL right? If so that's really all I need to know. My current setup is based for working in Unreal Engine 4 which runs with DirectX. Not sure what all the difference is on the texture but I'm trying to see what all I can do in Substance for an older (non-PBR) engine type.

Thankyou! I'll definitely see what I can do as I've already baked down a lowpoly and am getting ready to paint in the details. Do you guys usually modify based by a shader color override? Or is it customary to use a separate texture sheet entirely? I kinda wanted to make one rusty derelict version and a clean city version. Maybe a more ornate one for a place of royalty (or religious zealot adornment?). At first I wanted to establish brand names on readouts, but I realized this isn't based in an age of industrial enlightenment. I'm assuming most high tech stuff in TDM would be commissioned directly to the Builders so that's why I was steering clear of elaborating on company signage. That would be greatly appreciated. I'm also wondering how to implement different LOD meshes because I have those iron panels/readouts baked into the flat surface beneath too, so it would take a bit of the edge off the polycount with ease. It's also extremely situational (given it needs to be against a wall) because it doesn't have a solid back or bottom as to save on precious UV space. I could just insert a world texture as a space filler but I really wanted to keep it from being used that way. In the future I may work on more power equipment that can be viewed from all sides but this one wasn't made with that in mind.

Good to see some really interesting levels in the works. I really like that corridor you've setup there Melan. It reminds me of the setting with Rutherford Castle in TDS. So I've taken a short breather from my work in UE4 to make somethin for TDM again. I hadn't seen a lot of electrical equipment in the props section for Dark Radiant, so I thought I'd try and contribute something small. Here's the complete highres mesh (with some lighting and effects)... A lot of cast iron and I tried to limit the tech to fit the time as best I could. It has a very primitive cooling system which is what the pouring spout and release levers at the bottom are for. In theory you're supposed to fill it from the top and empty it from the bottom when servicing. A fan seemed too modern to stop overheating in the pylons so this method seemed appropriate. In my own rough estimate it's a standalone power unit for remote locales. It's old though, so it'll have some distress and corrosion in some spots. I'm wanting to get started on a lowres final and get to baking it. The whole unit should almost stand head height to an NPC when in-game. This should also be a fun test to see how my Substance Painter skills hold up for a non-PBR based prop.

Ahh, yeah I wasn't sure if this version of Id supported that. I know with some stuff such as Unreal (sorry I know it's a lot newer engine to compare) where you can pack all the channels of a utility image. Basically you can have emissive (glow) and any other masking images that rely on grayscale values into a single image. Up to four that is. Other people have made different accusations stating that different channels (or green in particular) hold better definition for specific functions but I'm no expert. Either way I thought it was worth looking into just in case.

I figured to most who know their way around the shader lines this is a no brainer but I was wondering if there was a way to call up channel specific info? For instance, if I wanted to run specular through the alpha channel on my normal map can I just call that up in my shader and save using an additional file? I assumed there's a way since it's the best way to limit draw calls and file size, but I'm kinda curious how that works with D3.

Looks great. Makes the motions feel blended. Only thing the wood door was missing was that slight return you had in the animated mover version (on the door_open sequence). Though for obvious reasons, I can understand why the entity based version wouldn't handle that. Will be keeping this in mind though for when I'm actually able to get to work on my own FM. It really is the little things that add a whole new level of polish.

I'm assuming it's a heavily modified version of id5 then. Which may also be fundamentally different depending on how far they branch off from the original tools. I mean look at Source, that was originally based off a modified quake engine.

Honestly I don't see why they wouldn't just stick with tradition and move up in the Unreal branch (with UE4). One of the most powerful engine's to date which I could even see the pre-render being close to. PBR certainly isn't exclusively featured to UE4 by any means, but it's very well suited and designed from the ground up to harness the new tech. Lighting and particles in UE4 and absurdly good but the only thing I've found lacking is the physics simulations, especially for the practical usages.

Or open your mouth before taking your meds. I don't mean to detract from the conversation but I couldn't resist that

Makin me really giddy when lookin at dis. Also liking the soundscape on a side note. Only thing that stuck out to me when I saw the video was that I must have set noselfshadows on the chair's material (since the moonlight was casting through the back). That reminds me I still need to figure out what's up with my custom collision/shadow meshes when I finalize the exports with Blender. Someday I may be able to give you the optimized version. One that also allows the other ottoman to be moved around as a phys object. Yeah honestly if this were done on pretty much all hinged doors that would be fantastic. No prior knowledge on animations within id4 myself, but I know ease in/ease out really helps the believable factor 10x.

Thought I was going to be the only one making an ottoman, but this is great! You actually modeled in some recesses for the pulled fabric whereas I just relied more on normals for mine. Very impressed with how your fine details came out with that. After painstaking amounts of time dedicated to a matching chair I ran out of energy quick when finally getting to the requested ottoman. While I was aiming for something a bit different I think yours was more on with what the actual request was. Curious though, I baked out my maps at 1024x textures what size are you running for this one?

It will mess up the screen for a second but don't fret it will return to normal. Thank you, that's exactly what I was needing! Will that set the screen output size from then on? Or does that have to be done per usage? Because being that I have to time it well, I may have to just spam that till I get a reasonable result. I almost wish there was a gameplay pause/freeze command that would hault or resume gameplay onscreen. Then I could just stop it where I wanted and use just about anything to screencap with at that point.

Ah yeah see that's kinda how it goes in my head but when I hit the editor I realize I know absolutely nothing about working the animations or scripted sequences. I'd been looking into it a little bit today but couldn't get much luck with even making the thief look over. I just had to wait in-game till the default sit_idle pose made him look over slightly. Otherwise I think what we'll do is use this slide and make three panels out of it. Basically focusing in on the player, once on the two guys at the table and then maybe a full shot when fading out. I wish I could just save static poses somewhere and load them manually just to envelope during runtime. Then I could have one of the guys at the table leaning one arm as he listens, as the other guy (explaining the whole bit) is sorta exaggerating things with his hand as he talks. There were two shots I scrapped that made me laugh heuristically because all the NPCs facing roughly towards the camera were all looking directly at it for some reason. I basically just take lots of shots and pick the one that has the best head angles. Besides painting overlays, I'm also considering a barrel lens warp to focus the scene even more. But yeah all things to consider. Atm a buddy is wanting me to remake the combine citadel for UE4, so I'm sorta torn as to what I want to do. EDIT: Other thing too is that this scene is built to only support the one view angle. It looks awful if you turn it around because I don't even have any walls on the side not seen by the camera. I spent like 12 compiles just adjusting chair/character placement. Just seeing what complemented different light sources mainly. I can't count how many times I moved that barmaid around while redoing that spot. She's also standing on a fake platform since I raised everything up that's behind the bar. Somehow it helps create this sloping effect towards the middle of the room so I kinda rolled with that.

Random one here. I'm making a series of scenes for usage as slides on a intro video where the protagonist relates about something overheard at a local tavern. This is the one I plan on painting over to get a different look and feel to, but it will be overlayed, so that the original image is only masked. Should hopefully provide that vibe of "as I recall it" kinda thing... Overheard a couple of locals at the briqshine discussing an interesting item recently brought into the city... Been adding tons of really small lights just to get rid of the harsh shadows on people's faces. So far I'm liking the results but I only wish I could screencap at a higher resolution. Since I'm painting over it I may be able to bump it up in the next version. Let me know what ya'll think. I would have liked to have had some other scripted animations running for hand gestures and such, but so far this is what I've had to work with.

I'm not on the dev team, but were I payed I would basically work full time on my content (because screw crappy Walmart jobs). But yeah in order to donate money/receive funds you'd have to go from mod status to Indie. And that's the other thing because with an Indie you start off knowing who's on the team, as they're legally hired onto a company however small or large it is. With a mod it's basically all up in the air as you get what help you can but everyone works on the basis that it's something you do on your own time. I'm getting into work here just because I'm actually wanting to make a career out of what I do. Naturally that would be elsewhere (the career part) but this is a great mod to gain experience on and a good team to work with.

Alright, trying not to get too hung up on one thing right now, though it would be lovely if I could find what was wrong with those blend textures. I did send a PM your way SteveL, not sure if you ever checked that since it had been a while. Anywho, tryin something really different here for an intro video to a new project I'm working on with a friend. Basically it sets up a mission in the old fashion way, with shots of the level or even additional art for previous areas that setup the story. What I'm also doing is I'm painting over shots I'm taking from in-game shots off these (story rooms) to give them that recalled from memory "paintery look". Current one being a conversation overheard at a local pub. Okay so for the questions on this one. I'm trying to get the shot as close to the end goal as possible (so that I wont have to manually paint it in). And the only thing that's getting me now is NPCs. Being that I have no idea how to script them, other then checking off patrol mode and making them sit down. I would like to be able to find out how to control the direction the NPCs are looking (with their head not just their body) and what animation they're using. In Hammer we had a special entity to control animated sequences, but I'm not sure what something like that would take in DR. For look direction we'd simply add a target entity in the world and send a command to the NPC to look at it. The main NPCs I want more control over are two NPCs that are supposed to look like they're talking to eachother at a table, and a player Thief character sitting at an opposite angle that's turning his head to listen off in their direction (all inconspicuous like). I could probably get by with just the common anims that play ordinarily and just wait for the thief character to turn his head for the shot, but it wouldn't be near as convincing.

This could be absurdly cool. I kinda think of the shops in TDS now, since graphically that looks closest to what we do. One thing that I'd think about (just for effect) is defining more with lights too. Because it's only a certain room viewed once from a specific angle so you could probably detail the crap out of it. Like really soft cheap lights with a tiny radius that could give potions a kind of nifty glow. Or even getting some shadow mapped light panning across a wall, with some interesting pattern. I'm doing something similar (though not quite) where I'm building specific rooms in DR to be used for a certain view point only (mainly for an intro vid on a FM).