Baddcog

It doesn't change the brightness, it changes the height of the light volume.

One point about those lamps, in 1.08 all chandelier entities have a 'taller' light source. They don't get wider but they reach the ground much better. Still, that room is very tall so they might not. (that setting can be adjusted though in the editor)

Just one monitor. The skybox rotating is horrible for sure, and that only takes one second to notice. I have never had 'swaying', other than 'swaying/bobbing' skybox in tests I did quite awhile back. Due to how the camera follows the players head or some such, don't think it was driver related at all. One other issue I have always had on my ati card, but can't remember if it effected my nvidia (and I can't be arsed to test now). When I go underwater the moon shifts in the sky 20-30 *. It's not THAT big of a deal, I have mentioned it but nobody else has ever said anything... My card is at 45* steadnow, mightve been gameplay just had it hot...

Well, I was on 10.11 because it was the latest I had tried with the ability to turn off Catalyst AI and keep the sky correct. I just loaded 12.4 which is the latest. On 10.11 my idle temp was about 52* and seems to be the same now. (seems like it was lower a couple days ago, it's cool in here and I was just playing games - with the fan cranked up while playing-I dunno, I don't keep to logs or anything) Now the temp is fluctuating 46*52 so I don't think it's different as far as that goes. I'll check the sky tomorrow. ------------ EDIT damn, lol. I uninstalled catalyst instal manager and all components. This made my resolution go really low and reboot. Then installed the entire 12.4 package and reboot. Back to higher res desktop. Looking at the settings in catalyst ai it says I'm using 10.11 still. Hit update and it says 12.4 available, WTF? Installing that now, will try again. ---re edit idk wtf, I just dl/installed the 12.4 through catalyst control, it still says 10.11. Not gonna reboot again tonight.

I assume Xnormal would work fine with XP. a 3ds or obj file works fine with it. From Max you can even use the xnormal format. ase might not be the best file to use, and it really doesn't matter. The exported objects are only for baking, they don't have to be the exports that end up in game. Shouldn't be too hard to learn to bake with it if you get past the issues. It's just adjusting numbers if you need the rays to reach further, etc.. Until we have compressed normal maps (maybe 1.09)? normal maps are the biggest files and add the most bloat. So refusing to make a specifc diffuse but saying you'll do multiple normals (for tiny bumps i assume) doesn't make much sense (If I read that right)

Wow, I would have never guessed that would be a problem. To all the AMD naysayers and Nvidia luvers out there ;P Nvidia has GOT to have a fix for that. It's nice to have the ability to run multiple monitors but being forced to, that's bad. Good to see you've got it pinned down though. (And it's not the case!)

The first one is called 'floating polys' since they are floating obviously Sometimes it depends on the engine. In T2 having a solid hull like the bottom was best because the top one would cause a lot more tris during conversion if they even slightly crossed each other (it basically did a boleen function but didn't delete the extra tris). Most modern engines (Doom3) can handle either. We don't have to worry about tris too much, so for only a few more tris #2 will give you better looking results (depending on what you want of course). #1- allows the possibility of tiny gaps (we had some on a old generator model), light can shine through/player can see through if they are lined up right. So that's worst case scenario. (Better for shadow meshes to keep them as low poly as possible) #2- makes it easier to get rid of those possible gaps. It also allows you to have the entire edge as a smooth group (#1 would have 2 pieces to smooth). ( If you want hard edges you need to split the mesh between smooth groups btw - Doom3 only does 1 smooth group per model, so to have multiple groups the model needs to be several pieces)

A quick search of your mobo didn't produce any results for settings. But it Bios settings so it might be hard to find on the web. It does seem low though I'm no expert. That's green so it should be lower. One thing you can do is reset cmos. If your mobo doesn't have a switch you can probably jump it with a screwdriver. Unplug power, jump for 5-10 seconds. Or remove the CMOS battery for 5-10, jump the power switch with a screw driver (to clear residue energy), replace battery and see what happens. (thats stuff i was told to go through when trying to get my Bios up and running... it amazes me that these new mobos have all these bios issues- my current one was set to use onboard video, but i don't have an HDMI cord, so I had to boot from my GPU, but it wouldn't detect until I changed it in Bios, so seeing Bios on screen... well what a pain.) -------- Did your mobo not come with a manual? The last two I got had pretty in depth Bios menu manuals.

Well, as far as footsteps. The player basically hears what the guards hear. It's not the player is stomping and the guard can't hear it. Player can't hear own footsteps while sneaking, neither can guards. Player hears own footsteps, you better be careful because guards can too. It's a good gameplay mechanic for feedback. My point was that in real life a cutpurse would wear softer shoes to minimize the noise. That just doesn't translate well into gameplay, the footsteps sounds add challenge, without them you could run around at will, as long as they didn't see you. While i don't think we need to make everything super realistic difficult, that's one area where it helps to add a challenge without making it impossible. ----------- Lockpicking isn't the same. It would add extra difficulty while you have you back turned, are trying to focus and concentrate on a task. Not like a book, 'cause you can read a book, while in a shadow AND looking over the corner for someone coming. Picking a lock you are looking at the door. Also, the player can hear the lockpicking because they have their face in the lock. While it might be 'unaturally loud' , augemented for easy of picking (in real life you could feel the pins clicking), it's not immersion breaking imo. But the player is right up next to the lock, guards are several feet away at least. It would be like hearing a drip of water, up close it might seem quite loud, several feet away it's barely audible. Instead of the lockpick making noise to make it hard authors should make it tense by having patrolling guards and light, forcing the player to be smart and quick about it (hopefully not too quick, sucks to have to try and pick a door ten times because the patrols are too tight)

I think he meant there was no normal map on the marble material that he stole the diffuse from for his model.

From my recent build issues I have learned to always breadboard first. ie: Build the system up on a table. Put it on cardboard so it doesn't get static. If everything runs fine then assemble. I wonder, are you using offsets or anything on your mobo? I don't think you want the mobo actually touching the wood. Don't know if that matters much, but I'd only want it touching spacers under the bolt holes, not anywhere else. Other than that (the typical questions): All new stuff right? So untested before. Do you have another card to put in and test? Is your card in firmly? Does your card need power cords? Are they plugged in? good? Sounds like it works fine with the onboard graphics. So I'd say it's either the card, the pcie slot (test with another card), power to the card... I'd think drivers would be less of a bet, especially if you've tried several. --------- You haven't over clocked yet i imagine. Idk, I'm no pro, those are the things that come to mind.

Yeah, the power supply switch just lets power go through it, you still gotta kick the pc into action with a button, you could probably use just about any button fro ma hardware store, light switch, toggle, etc.... Interesting having all the hook-ups on the front for easy access. You can do a test to see if your system runs by putting a screw driver across the two pwr prongs for the case power switch. Then you'll at least have it up and running. From the looks of it those connectors are probably top back corner of the mobo..

You can have Noshadows selfshadows On the rock. Then use shadow2 for the shadow mesh so it doesn't cast weird shadows and it should be right.

Well Gabe did say IF they needed to make a machine they would, though he wanted to leave that to the experts. Then again that could be safe speak for 'we're baddling but don't want anyone to know'

A year or two ago they said NO. More recently I had seen rumors at Spuf. Valve has been promising a 'surprise' along with the upcoming 'Meet the Pyro' video for TF2. Every 'Meet' video has been released with some major updates. This does sound a lot more official now. The Mac release was a very big deal too, players that installed TF2 on Mac's at time of the update got earbuds to wear in TF2 (which are now an expensive trading piece - can be bought for $30 each). ---- Would be very cool, this was one of the major things keeping me from delving deeper into Linux. Ironically now TDM is having linux issues

Aight, you got me there, I did not see you were aware of shadows2, the second quiote I took to mean you may be making it more complex to avoid that.

You did ask for opinions and my opinion was that it is too grainy. The 'c' shape is the 'ceiling' one remember that discussion? You can use the material shadow2 (instead of shadow). It casts no self shadows, so it lets you be rougher with the shadow mesh (can stick out of model and not have those weird shadows). In most cases the player won't even notice because the model still has shading from lights (so it's already shaded where self shadows would fall anyway - for the most part) --------- And can't anyone find better pics of these objects that aren't taken in a dark cave?

Just seems too grainy too me. Should be buttery smooth limestone. Also needs a 'c' piece for above it imo.

It would suck to be alerting a guard behind the door you are picking (don't know he's there), or when you are last minute picking a door to slip inside and hide and an approching guard gets suspicious. Falls into the same category as click-clack shoes. No a thief wouldn't wear them, but it's an audio feedback for the player. It's also something to make the game more difficult.

But there are a lot of times a guard is stationed right in front of a door and you can open/look/even got and BJ him. Having them look at every door would break those situations. Sometimes you are in a bright area going through a door, an ai looking could bust you quickly when it's hard to see them. I think doors are fine being flagged if the mapper requires it. Other wise give the player a break. Doors suck in TF2 also for basically the same reason. A player can be standing there with a rocket launcher, door open, boom you're dead, because you can't see what's out there. Sure you can try and fake an possible player out by opening the door a tiny bit and jumping back, etc... But since doors frob all the way open, or you have to grab (close) / open it... to stop it a little, then continue to open I think it would be too much to 'be careful' at every door. If they moved with the grabber it would be better to have because you could slowly crack it, then continue to open. Having to frob open/closed everytime just to crack it would be lame.

You can use a bank account transfer, just takes a few days to go through. A credit card is instant.

well, i've got a z68, so I could drop an ivy in. But i just got my i5 and it's running pretty nice.

I'm not having issues with L4D, was just saying it's a dark game, so would be hard to see the artifacts if they were present. So I had dismissed it as a TF2 issue.

Posted a release note on steam group.

'tis true, I haven't played completely through any of them yet, but what I've seen so far is just 3 really goood well rounded missions.