peter_spy

Unless it does something magical to number of cores used, or raising the number of DCs before the framerate goes down, which I doubt it will, not much will change for TDM. You already can have 2-3 M triangles per scene, as long as you have decent GPU and if you keep other stats down.

That's why I really hope AA games are on the rise. I don't need 200+ hours of meaningless AAA busywork. I like smaller games more and more. Brothers is a good example. In Life is Strange you can play one episode per evening, so it's also good in terms of pacing and your time management. I also loved games like Stanley Parable, Ethan Carter, or Judith Finch, and I'm really looking forward to playing Hellblade. All these games have smaller scope, high production values, and they're not afraid to try something new, because devs don't have a bunch of dumb excecs looking over their shoulders. And they cost half of what you need to pay for AAA title.

You don't have to convert your model to tris for .ase, in fact you can even leave all stack modifiers without converting poly to mesh. At least 3dsmax exporter is fine with this.

He already has setup instructions in previous posts. I suspect it's something with the model itself. Last thing I can do right now is to post my notes for my 3dsmax workflow, maybe you can adapt this to Blender:

Since I'm going on holiday and I won't be able to help you much for next week or so, here's my example of a model, a wooden panel: 1) I have my main mission directory in fms folder called "do", as for mission initials. Since I want to have all my models in a separate foklder structure, but quickly accessible from the model browser, I put them in fms/do/models/do folder. Only the last "do" folder shows up in the browser. 2) My textures for the models are in fms/do/textures/do/mesh folder; my material file is fms/do/materials/meshes.mtr 3) My material definition looks like this: textures/do/mesh/cor_woodpanel01 { // tile, carpet, dirt, gravle, grass, rock, twigs, foliage, sand, mud, brokeglass, snow, ice, squeakboard, // puddle, moss, cloth, ceramic, slate, straw, armor_leath, armor_chain, armor_plate, climbable, paper, hardwood surftype15 description wood qer_editorimage textures/do/mesh/cor_woodpanel01_d bumpmap textures/do/mesh/cor_woodpanel01_n diffusemap textures/do/mesh/cor_woodpanel01_d specularmap textures/do/mesh/cor_woodpanel01_s // TDM Ambient Method Related { if (global5 == 1) blend add map textures/do/mesh/cor_woodpanel01_d scale 1, 1 red global2 green global3 blue global4 } } The material path is "virtual", but it mimics the texture folder structure to make things more simple. (It's not always this way, e.g. with light shaders, but more on that some other time). Also, I skipped the frob stage since this mesh won't ever be frobbed. 4) My .ase model looks like that when opened in Notepad: *3DSMAX_ASCIIEXPORT 200 *COMMENT "AsciiExport Version 2,00 - Fri Apr 21 17:29:10 2017" *SCENE { *SCENE_FILENAME "" *SCENE_FIRSTFRAME 0 *SCENE_LASTFRAME 100 *SCENE_FRAMESPEED 30 *SCENE_TICKSPERFRAME 160 *SCENE_BACKGROUND_STATIC 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 *SCENE_AMBIENT_STATIC 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 } *MATERIAL_LIST { *MATERIAL_COUNT 1 *MATERIAL 0 { *MATERIAL_NAME "//base/textures/do/mesh/cor_woodpanel01" *MATERIAL_CLASS "Standard" *MATERIAL_AMBIENT 0.5882 0.5882 0.5882 *MATERIAL_DIFFUSE 0.5882 0.5882 0.5882 *MATERIAL_SPECULAR 0.9000 0.9000 0.9000 *MATERIAL_SHINE 0.1000 *MATERIAL_SHINESTRENGTH 0.0000 *MATERIAL_TRANSPARENCY 0.0000 *MATERIAL_WIRESIZE 1.0000 *MATERIAL_SHADING Blinn *MATERIAL_XP_FALLOFF 0.0000 *MATERIAL_SELFILLUM 0.0000 *MATERIAL_FALLOFF In *MATERIAL_XP_TYPE Filter *MAP_DIFFUSE { *MAP_NAME "Map #5" *MAP_CLASS "Bitmap" *MAP_SUBNO 1 *MAP_AMOUNT 1.0000 *BITMAP "//base/textures/do/mesh/cor_woodpanel01" *MAP_TYPE Screen *UVW_U_OFFSET 0.0000 *UVW_V_OFFSET 0.0000 *UVW_U_TILING 1.0000 *UVW_V_TILING 1.0000 *UVW_ANGLE 0.0000 *UVW_BLUR 1.0000 *UVW_BLUR_OFFSET 0.0000 *UVW_NOUSE_AMT 1.0000 *UVW_NOISE_SIZE 1.0000 *UVW_NOISE_LEVEL 1 *UVW_NOISE_PHASE 0.0000 *BITMAP_FILTER Pyramidal } } } Actually, you don't need that path in material name, this was one of my first models and I didn't know this was unnecessary You can put it in BITMAP section only, and you'll be fine. Hope this helps somehow.

It is at first, it's much faster once you get used to proper workflow. The material looks fine, although you have the same material path and diffuse texture path. I'd make some prefix for diffuse, just to be on the safe side. Also, did you export the .ase with texture applied, and from an empty scene? .ase format saves all the materials you have in your scene, in the model file, so that might be the problem as well. When you open the .ase file, you should have material count 1 and material 0 as the only material.

To avoid problems, you can use simple material definition for now: just _d, _n, and _s textures. http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Basic_Material_File#Full_example Btw. you don't need a separate _ed texture nowadays, just paste the path to your diffuse. Also, it's best to use software like Notepad++ for editing material files. Not only does it inform you about e.g. open brackets, but it also contains line numbers, which is useful because in-game console will output line numbers in its error messages to help you debug.

As for testing your model and textures: 1) Use .tga textures for your material, so you can update and preview them instantly. You can work on Gimp files and use Export shortcut repeatedly (Ctrl+E). If you're working with layers, Gimp will export it as RGBA image, but don't worry about it now, you can save it as flattened image later. 2) When you update your texture(s), use reloadimages command. You can type it in console or better, bind to a key of your choice. Create a text file called autocommands.cfg in your root TDM folder and paste this command: bind "DefineYourKeyHere" "reloadimages" 3) Every time you change something in material definition, use reloaddecls command to refresh material declarations. You can bind it to a key too. 4) Some changes in material definition won't be reflected right away, like noshadows keyword for example. If reloaddecls doesn't help, check vid_restart command, or reload your map. 5) In some instances even that won't help, like when you overwrite your .ase model with newer version. Use reloadengine command, or exit the game and run it again. (There's an exit command which is faster to type than navigating through the menus tbh)

You need to export your .ase model with a single texture applied. Then open the .ase file in the notepad. Go to the *MAP_DIFFUSE section. Paste your material path in the BITMAP section, but use //base/ prefix, e.g. //base/textures/etc.

This will get you up to speed when it comes to configuration. It's slightly outdated (e.g. you can alt-tab in full screen now), but it will do. The actual workflow depends on chosen format. I use 3dsmax and .ase, so I can help you with that, .lwo requires a bit different approach, AFAIK.

Sorry, I missed that. TDM uses either .ase or .lwo, I think there are proper Blender exporters for that. .lwo tends to be a little bit slimmer than .ase in terms of weight.

Hi and welcome to the forums! If you use 3dsmax Blender, you may export your models in .ase format (remember to change it from .ASE to .ase, TDM doesn't like caps lock). You can also use .lwo with certain exporter plugins (I use 3dsmax, but other forum members should be able to help). Also keep in mind that the triangle count should be relatively low for TDM models, so stuff like tiny beveled edges should rather be baked to textures. Any low poly tricks you know will be more than welcome in that regard. If you need detailed instructions on how to export and test static meshes in TDM, either use TDM Wiki or let us now here, if you encounter any problems.

What Stgatilov said about ROQ. As for materials, I didn’t test it super-thoroughly, but did some tests in my WIP map thread, as I was curious why my 500-tris model shows us as a 3500 tris in a caulked room. Apparently both ambient light and fog light add the initial number of tris to the model, as every additional light touching the model will do. Same applies to material complexity. When you have a simple material with diffuse, specular, and normal shortcuts, they don’t have any additional cost. But every stage defined within {} brackets adds the base number of tris to the model (and some drawcalls too). While idtech4 seems to be pretty generous in terms of number of tris per scene (we’re talking millions of triangles, literally), I’d rather be on the safe side and have that overhead for AI, animations, transparency, things like that. You never know when you might need it

I think we’re fine here. Grand visions are cheap, everybody has them. It’s the actual tiny steps in a consistent direction that are the hardest. Also, while not trying to be normative in any way (I’m definitely not the one to judge), I think we should get used to the fact that both TDM and TTLG Forums attract all kinds of peculiar people. Some just have short fuse, others may need counselling, meds, or both. That should not distract TDM team too much, nor it should lead to any doubt about the work that has been done. The progress is steady, the subsequent changes are consistent and more than welcome.

I was thinking exactly about this. With 1k or 2k textures it's not much of use. That first example is a huge overkill, to put it mildly, you're basically multiplying the number of tris on a model by 23 (!), not to mention additional drawcalls. That said, using video for this seems like an unintuitive idea as well (and not exactly cheap, performance-wise). Usually 2-3 scrolling tileable textures is a way to go:

All the examples you mentioned don't need movie files, all this stuff is made with scrolling textures and tricks in materials. Using video files for that is actually an overkill.

Wonder why he calls it level designs, when these are environments, and it’s not meant for gameplay. Also, while he uses quality models (often made by someone else), IMO there’s not enough intention in his work. Alchemist shop looks pretty decent, but I wonder whether this is just because it’s set in a daylight, and most of the work is done by the lightmass engine. That throne room was made later, and has barely any lighting design or intention to guide viewer’s eye in whatever direction.

Pyre, a new game from SuperGiant studio is out. And it's amazing. The concept, art style, characters, the world, everything.

Yeah, weird. I turn off my monitor too.

Yup, but I think this is still more like a tech-enthusiast perspective. It’s 2017, and, according to Steam poll, the biggest group of gamers still use video cards with 1-2 gigs of VRAM. My guess is that they won’t jump on a new CPU platform so readily and easily.

But there's no reason to switch to 8 cores or more if games aren’t using them. Also remember that changing CPUs is not like buying a new GPU. You need to buy a good motherboard, fast compatible RAM, stable PSU, good cooling, etc. That will cost you a lot, so people make that purchase once a 6 years or even more, to have a solid foundation for GPUs they buy every 2-3 years or so.

I had blackjack to be picked up as a mission objective once, but I deleted it from player's inventory. The player had to follow an NPC, who was leaving it for another character, but all I did was two scripts: one making invisible blackjack visible in pre-determined spot when NPC was performing an animation; second one made blackjack model disappear after frobbing and the proper item was added to player inventory. That assumes you need a scripted and controlled event though. More systemic approach might be more tricky.

No and no. At least for games, it's mostly unnecessary, as they still use 4 cores, and that won’t change much until next generation of consoles comes along. It’s still hard to say when that happens, as Sony execs say there’s PS5 in the works, while MS execs state that “console generations are over” and it’s time to switch to incremental updates, as with mobile hardware. I’d be switching to some better hardware mostly due to better Mental Ray performance, and video encoding. Since that’s a hobby, I can wait long after prices drop. If gamers are really moving to 8-16 cores, we'll see that in Steam hardawre poll sooner or later, but I don't think so. Edit: link to steam hardware CPU trends: http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/cpus/ It looks like only recently users with quad core CPUs made more than 50% of the total.

I'll set up my tracker account eventually. But I agree that if such change might break something or will be ignored by the engine, it's not really worth implementing. In the meantime, I'm off to check the final release Edit: there's a sort of workaround for that as well. You can use a scaled-down _ed texture in DR, so you'll be able to use values with fewer digits. The engine will match the high-res texture in game accordingly.

As of now, the engine uses old RoQ format https://modwiki.xnet.fi/ROQ_%28file_format%29 There are plans for including .mp4 in the future. The question is, what do you plan to use it for? Both video files and gif-like animations for textures are extremely inefficient when it comes to large surfaces and tiling textures. In shaders, it's better to fake animation with instructions like panning, zooming or waving/distorting.