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Baddcog

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Posts posted by Baddcog

  1. I always loved TR on the playstation, but I tried a more recent one on the keyboard and wasn't digging it.

     

    I think one of these days I need to get a controller, kick back and try some games. (I bought an Prince of Persia (liked the first on console) but never played past the first part for the same reason)

  2. quote= it's not that far off... *couldn't find the post to quote

     

    Well, those posted pic by biker after that really look nothing like it. They have structure all the way up the walls. Not just one huge brick wall 200 feet high. They have windows and arches... Much more interesting and also believable as there is actually something there.

     

    There is only the canal pic, the pic looking up at the tower and the cathedral that have anything near that scale. Everything else is 3 stories max and MUCH more interesting. Also more believable.

     

    This last posted pic is the best, it has a grand scale arch there that makes the player feel really small, and the proportions make it very believable. Concept artist very often go overboard, then when you see it in game it is actually much tamer and realstic. It helps them push the mapper towards a more interesting scene but the mapper has to get good gameplay areas set in place.

     

    I completely disagree, sorry. In medieval cities you can definitely find high walls like these and sometimes crazy elevation, maybe not as tall, mind you, but pretty similar anyway and I know what I'm talking about. Besides, it doesn't look out of place at all in TDM and Sotha's points are very true. Daytime lighting may make it look 'flat' or something, but I'm sure that with proper night-time lighting it could be more believable for you.

     

    I for one would love to roam around in a city such as this in TDM.

     

    I still disagree, part of it isn't only looks but gameplay space. Like I said in TF2 it would give soly and demos room to jump around. In TDM from the ground level all you would see is one huge tiling wall of small stones. From the camera position the scene is interesting but would it be from the playable area?

     

    Likewise, I doubt I would like it anymore from night lighting than daytime lighting. It would just be a huge wall of stone in the dark. What's going to make it so interesting? A few little dots of yellow where there are windows? They are too far away from anything to light anything else up (ground/other walls).

    A couple street lamps lighting up a tiny portion of the wall and some ground? You'd barely be able to see any stars. Just some huge dark walls.

     

    A large part of the scene is that the huge walls (with a few windows) imply that there are inside spaces. But they only put 1 small window on every other floor? Why would they build a 100 foot wall to stick a 10 foot tudor place on top?

     

    Not knocking biker's rendition, I already said he did a good job recreating it. Just saying the concept is not that great to begin with. It's over done and over exaggerated. (though I could nitpick things like the over hang tudor... there's no way those little and very long planks would hold the weight of that and the roof...If that concept/map shot were shown at polycount it would be ripped apart for the inconsistancies)

     

    Whether or not you like to have realistic proportions in TDM or not. Overdoing exaggeration that much looks pretty bad imo.

  3. Can't tell you specifics but that dynamic ambient light IS all about zones. So yes by rooms he means zones. *Tels did all this if i remember correctly.

     

    Pretty sure that the added multiplier is per light . I doubt Tels would have set it up so it stacked to .15. The cutoff is .01. He's pretty meticulous about his work and testing it. And I've never noticed really bright ambient set ups in any maps.

  4. I really liked the idea of city sections in TDS, but the execution was piss-poor, like a lot of things in the game. The engine they're using is powerful and capable of doing wonderful things, so there's hope these sections will at least be decent and better than those in TDS. If not, well...

     

    Me too, the city hub is fine with me. T3 probably could have pulled it off better but it's a nice idea. It's that 'time off between jobs'. It's actually an idea I was working on for a t2 campaign thing that never quite came to be. If done right I think it could make for a great campaign.

     

    Typical campaigns feel a bit linear, due to being locked into one mission area at a time. This helps break that and make you feel like you are working a large surrounding area instead of going on a quest.

  5. Awesome. We always need voices.

     

    The first one was really good, a righteous english prick :D Would be a great vocal set for a noble man.

     

    The old man was good too, surprised it's the same person. Can you do an old english (err european) chap?

     

    The King one was awesome too, that would be great for a voice over in a video after an assasination by poison mission. The echos might have been a bit much, but I guess that depends on how the video was done.

  6. :P

     

    One small issue left with the texture but I'm calling these done. Spent too much time fighting myself on it. Still need to make smaller versions and entities for LODs. Waiting to hear back from a PM to Tels on that, anyone hear from him lately?

    Basically want to see if we can change the LOD code for lowest settings to just force a lower model detail, and quite possibly just force the highest details for the highest settings. That would still leave 3 stages in the middle to swap models at distance.

     

    Not sure about sizes though... it's a lot of work to rescale and make sure everything is aligned properly and whatnot (especially with all the pieces).

    I'm contemplating 3 sizes for pillars (these are the size of the current 'huge' pillars). maybe one 75% of this size and one 75% of that.

     

    But most likely I won't do more than 2 sizes of pieces (that's 12 LOD's).

    I also want to add a few broken pieces.

    post-1981-0-65672400-1362625756_thumb.jpg

    post-1981-0-21806900-1362625796_thumb.jpg

    • Like 1
  7. Problem with this as a game mechanic is that the player has absolutely no feedback. They don't know how far their smell goes, or how badly they stink, so they don't really have any control over that stealth element. How do they 'hide' their stink without adding new specialty tools to the game?

     

    Is this stink affected by anything else in the game? What if the player just swam through a river or crawled through the privies?

     

    Seems like a lot of extra consideration for one rare monster that is almost never used.

     

    This seems more like something one map would have rather than game wide imo. Much like the keepers in T2 Equilibrium. They went invis in shadows and the player had to avoid them.

     

    It's a cool idea for a werewolf FM. But it doesn't need to be mod wide, if anyone else did it they could use the same system.

     

    S&R would be the way to go.

     

    I would recommend several stink stims. Stink_light would be a large radius and would trigger sniffing. Stink_medium would trigger more alert/searching. Stink_heavy would be full alert. Say maybe 5-8 feet away from player?

     

    There could be a stink bomb that would draw the wolf away, much like a noise arrow. Maybe even noise arrow mechanic as a base, but the player would see a gas cloud, not hear noise.

     

    Maybe a water stim on the player would cancel the stink stim for a time period. couple minutes?

  8. Er, when was the original; deadline, as another 4 months is a bit much..

     

    Not like I'm the one that suggested it anyway. I only put my name in the ring as a possible contestant because the original deadline was moved back (I only started weeks ago). Really doesn't matter to me either way, I'm just plugging along on a map whether it's done or not...

  9. SomeTaff,

     

    Nice screens, the areas are cool but I agree, the lack of textures makes it pretty bland. Might be realistic actually, old places were made from local materials and all... But even putting in a large stone texture for foundations (I don't think tall buildings like that would stand very long being all small stones anyway) could break it up alot and give a lot more vertical interest.

     

    Even having some tudor rooms jutting out up high would help a lot. Adding some wood elements.

     

    If you need some help figuring out street portalling before you get too far let me know. You really don't have to worry about how tall they are. That tut linked above shows how you can fake rooftops and stuff easily. In my current project I have actually been going pretty tall with portals. Your streets are narrow (and twisty) enough you shouldn't have any problem getting it optimized very well.

  10. I did watch the video, I also played with the whole skybox thing a long time ago.

     

    'moving with the player', what other context is there? If it 'moves' with the player it moves. If it doesn't...

     

    The issue WE need to fix is to have a stationary skybox that doesn't 'bob and weave' with the players head.

    ---

     

    I've been saying that for years but nobody seems interested. If we want good rooftop missions we NEED it.

  11. I find Biker's painting inspired work great. The Z-dimension is too often forgotten in TDM maps. If you think about TDM maps overall, they actually are quite flat. They don't need to be.

     

    While the proportions are indeed unrealistic, I find them great regardless. TDM is a game: gameplay trumps realism. TDM mapping can also be considered as a visual art: an interesting scene trumps a less-interesting realistic scene. Very often artists intentionally skew the proportions towards the unrealistic regime in order to make the scene look more interesting. This painting and Biker's excellent version is a great example of this habit. I think TDM mappers should do more: be a little bit more bolder and take a few more steps from the realistic regime. Exaggerate a bit.

     

    There is a lot to be learnt from these shots.

     

    There are other reasons why such tall buildings are great.

    1) Compartmentalization: they are high walls. Players cannot get too high. I admit the vista-ranges get a bit high, but maybe LOD model building facades will help?

    2) Gameplay. The mapper could have a ground-level access route and then an alternate balcony route in the same area. Rope arrows will work fantastically in such environment. If large walls compartmentalize the gameplay area edges, some less tall buildings could allow some roof-top routes, Dishonored style.

     

    Very, very inspiring work! It would be cool to see a larger area inspired by this kind of architecture.

     

    Yeah thanks for the design lesson.

     

    Yeah yeah, games aren't reality, blah blah.

     

    This scene as it is would fit perfectly into TF2, a game of comical proportions.

     

    TDM is based on realistic design. Nothing wrong with a little over exaggeration, But hyper proportions like that just can't be taken seriously.

  12. alright: opinions needed.

     

    Figured I'd try without the bevels also knocked down a few polys on the trims and reshaped the bottom.

     

    middle one has same poly count, just made the bevels a lot smaller. right one has no bevels (big poly reduction), texture breaks at sections but they are noticeable with a plain texture.

     

    Still think I prefer the original with the new trims.

    post-1981-0-37662900-1362272986_thumb.jpg

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