Baddcog

sorry, what's the EOC forums?

Hey, could someone help me set-up an Af file for this switch. It should be fairly simple but all I have to reference is character and the rope which all are overkill. I've been messing around with editaf editor but can't get this to work. I think corpse as contents is probably the prob.

Well, I officially got a switch in game animated, I had watched it before in der_tons model viewer but not actually in game. Now to figure out the AF file. Then we'd need some scripting action I guess to actually make it do anything, send signals/ switch anims.

Well Dromeders are used to a limit of 2400 objects. That includes Ai lights, of course it can easily be changed also, but there is a limit to 125 on screen objs that can't be changed. In my largest maps I don't think I exceeded 4000. And Left 4 Dead was pretty big by Dromed standards.

I know I could make one but spending so much time on other stuff, would be nice to have someone pumping out specific textures. I actually did notice one in DR after I posted this, but would be nice to have 3-4. But I explained it wrong. It should probably be more lik 8 blocks high, but only one wide. Tiling so you never see the left/right edges of block, that would be terrain. That way you'd get more variation vertically and use the tex space better.

I really like the cobbles. The hedge could come in handy too. I like the door also, would be good to have one without the ring to apply to door models (just one door not 2) Windows are needed for sure. I'd also like to see some more 'trim' stone, like a big solid block texture, but only one brick tall (maybe 64x512) and no seperations for the length of it. These are really handy to texture things like pillars when you want like 12 bricks tall, but want it to look like one block on top of another and have no seams. And no alignment in editor trying to get rid of seams.

Those are really nice. I especially like the green one, very cool design. That bird is tattoo worthy (sign skins, hint hint... I'll whip up a shield styl one too)

I think the trick to the specular on natural stuff is to just use VERY little of it. I found that you almost have to use some just to make the bumps on normal maps show, but if you get the specular down to 0.05-0.085 range it can look very good on cloth, ect...

Looks good, the more loot the better. Maybe you could make a silver skin? maybe not needed as the smaller one will obviously be a lower value.

I second that, we're all in trouble I think most of that is brushwork, but I know the barrel is an obj. Honestly I don't think that is even the best screenshot that could've been taken of that level. I'm just starting to mess with the editor, in some aspects I think it's going to be easier than Dromed. Other aspects I'm still wrestling with. But I've only been doing it for about 2 days, Hard to remember but I think it took me at least that long to get anything done in Dromed too.

OK, guess this is the correct place to mention it. When starting the Mod, the splash screen with clock. The clocks hour hand suggests that it is about 5 minutes to midnight, but the minute hand suggests it is 11:20

I guess this might fit here as long as you're talkin splash screens. Do we have any plans of updating/correcting the current splash? The hour hand on the clock says it should be about 11:50, but the minute hand is at 20 minutes.

OK, texture repository now being used

Sure. Do you have any other shapes in mind? I saw one in Aspen awhile back that I was thinking about coping for a pub, it's a wooden keg hanging. I think it would look pretty cool having a small barrel with tap above a pub. I was planning on making a keg sometime too anyway.

Spiral staircase, gonna touch up the tex a bit. Make a skin or 2, one with metal stairs. Thinking about changing shape of handrail post, maybe just another model with different posts, something rounder. Possibly a 'broken' model too missing stairs. This is a full 360 staircase, 256 units high (hopefully about one floor for mappers-would be great if someone could test it) Thinking about doing a 1/4 model and 1/2 model too. Somehwere around 2200 polys

OK, I guess with the designation of Art Dept Lead it would be your dept. Guess I'll post in the level edit forum?

OK, I've checked the elite city guard in DR. He's right at 84 units tall. If 6 feet that means 14 units = 1 foot. (ah, too bad it's not 16 for ease of calculation) I'm sure you guys don't want to resize Ai /player so this is fine with me. It sounds like the doors aren't set in stone, which is good, I think it's very important to have set standard sizes for them. I almost never used anything in Dromed except 4x8. I know the grid in DR isn't as touchy, but I think same principle applies, it should be consistant and easy to use. I can see standard door sizes being: (the units conversion isn't perfect but it won't matter, it's all relative really. for instance 3.5 would be 49 units, I'll round to the most logic unit - 16's if possible to make matching with editor grid easiest) 7 x 3.5 feet = 96 units x 48 8 x 4 feet = 112 x 64 10 x 5 = 132 x 64 (less than 10 -looks like 10 in game easy enough -and a bit more than 4 wide) 4 x 4 = 64 x 64 (airducts, vents, ect..) Of course there will be odd doors like the 'old door', due to the shape it can never be exact in height, but it should match a width. Anyway, if that's cool with you Springheel, I can resize the existing doors. They will be .ase, and they obviously won't fit perfectly in existing terrain, but since they will be a different format we could try and phase the old ones out. I think the doors are the biggest concern, windows can be variable size. And other arch details like chimenys won't matter. I think the doors are close enough anyway that most of the frames should be alright. ---EDIT--- On this note also, I think we should almost go for 16 units being a foot on other stuff. For instance, I'm working on a spiral staircase. I spaced the stairs 8 units above each other so the top of the stairs is 256 units (16 feet) above the bottom floor. I suppose most authors are going to build on a 16 grid, not a 14. This will most likely leave everything seeming a bit tall which IMO is actually a good thing. I like it when levels feel taller and more granduer. But things like door and Ai that players interact with need to look right. Of course I haven't done any mapping yet so I'd like to hear how the mappers are using grid size.

Well, I have been able to align objects quite easily in DR by adjusting the grid size. Since I have been setting the objects on the grid (z=0), that's no problem. But I'm not applying Dromed units. I used 'Generic Units' in Max: 1 = 1 dromed unit. -------- OK, I imported the larger door. Forget about feet. I assume that that door is supposed to be 10 feet as that's how big it seems in the mansion_alpha map. I set my units back to generic. Sure enough, that door is 132 units tall x 64 wide. Which is the same grid units it is in DR. So from here on out I'll assume that 13.2 units = 1 foot. Close enough. ---------- As for door sizes, I got quite a mix when I rendomly created doors in DR. 132x64 120x57 108x60 100x50 Is there any kind of convention going here? Seems like it would be difficult to build around these specs. I'd think we'd want to units of 4 at least.

Alright, you all probably know by now I'm using Max. Most of you are using Maya, Blender or Lightwave. So, we can each model according to a relative sized Ai. But how tall is that Ai, and which one? Now this is fine for most stuff no doubt. A knee high ceramic pot is a knee high ceramic pot. Who cares if it's 3.0 feet or 3.1 feet tall. I sure don't, as long as the flinderz match But seriously, I was just starting to work on a door, so I imported a few doors to match em up. The mansion doors and windowed doors are the same size. According to the scale I've been using those doors would be 11 feet tall by 5.325 feet wide. I figured those should be approx 10 feet tall, so I changed the scale and now they are 4.841 wide. If I bring it down to 8 feet tall it is 3.873 wide. So you can see the delima: First I'm not sure exactly which size it should be, but these are big in game so I'd say 10 feet. Second, they aren't very accurate h/w. I'd think they'd want to be 10x5 or 4x8, but even dimensions at least. From another modelers program, what size are these doors? Why can't all programs just default in feet? Let the euro's figure it out I haven't imported any door frames yet, and maybe they are filling the fractional gap, but what if author wants to just use brushes for doorframes? Or are we aiming for using object door frames on all doors? Anyway, I think it'll be nice for modelers later to have specific numbers to work with any program they choose.

Yeah, it seems like to me a combo object is preferable for now. I'm thinking that a machine with say 3-4 gears is going to be fairly hi-poly adn we probablt don't want all polys to be checked all the time. All moving parts animated, then a base model with collision data for the entire thing. We could always have that 'kill me' tex or whatever around serious moving parts like big gears. There are probably exceptions too like sparhawks watermill. Large parts like the stone wheel need to be seperate and able to crush player (I stood in front of it and it just stopped-I know it's just a test). But the arm holding the wheel kept going, so that would need to be one piece. Still figuring this stuff out myself so if I say something obvious forgive my ineptitude.

That suprises me, he's such a stickler for detail. It looks broken to me.

Awesome. We (I) need someone to make a bunch of cool building so when I get around to making a city it's all but done. But seriously, I think it would be good to have someone making buildings(prefabs) for the mod for this reason.

Yeah, looks like we have to have an af file for collision models, based one the bones. Then we would need combat model 1 for projectiles. I'd say for animated objects like a machine or clock the AF file is required, having ai and player walk thru is just wrong. Having projectiles, if it eats up processing resources, to me isn't that important. We've lived with T2 terrible physics for years, shooting an arrow thru something that you most likely wouldn't shoot an arrow at anyway, no biggie. There is always the pobbility of using 2 objects for alot of stuff anyway. I think for a grandfather clock with would be more than adequate. You have the wood shell around the outside, that's shadows and physics. You have the moving parts inside, no need for physics. There are alot of objects that could be done this way, maybe gears inside a wall behind a metal grate ect... We could have a turbine body with collision model that goes around external gears, then have animated external gears. Of course there might be oddities, set a cup ontop of gear but it stays 'cause it's on collision model, not gear. But again, who's gonna set a cup on a gear? ease of use/setup vrs any possible outcome you can imagine..

I did post at doom3 world. Sounds like it needs an AF file and the bones are set to a size I believe. I looked at it a bit, but the AF files say to edit thru editor, that complicates things as I'm not sure what to do in the first places. I suppose one of these days I'll look into it a bit more. For now simple static models.

I have noticed the arm blocking my view a bit now that I've gotten in some maps and played around a bit. Not sure how that'll be affected by the updates. One thing I have noticed is when the bow is in hand, but not raised, the top of string attachment has some really bad distortion, like the top of bow above string is pulled back 2 inches.