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peter_spy

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Posts posted by peter_spy

  1.  

    In your context, 'plane' = 'patch'. 'patch' is the terminology used by DR, so that's how mission authors (and all the documentation) refer to it.

     

    'Pressing Shift+P, hit Enter' gives you a patch that matches the size of the last object selected in the editor, as viewed in the currently active Orthoview. If a brush was selected, the default is to remove the brush (which might not be what you want, in which case you need to uncheck the 'remove brush' box). If a model was selected, the default is to simply give you the patch.

     

    You then size your new patch to the opening you want to place the visportal in, texture the patch's face with the Vis Portal texture, and now you have a patch which at first glance might appear to provide you with the visportaling function you desire.

     

    However:

     

    1 - A patch has no depth, so it's a line in the orthoview when viewed from the side.

     

    2 - A patch has no back face, so the camera view won't show it when viewed from the back.

     

    3 - (And most importantly) dmap ignores it, so the visportal doesn't work.

     

    You're better off creating a brush the size of the visportal you want (sealing the edge faces to worldspawn), and pressing 'Brush->Make Visportal'.

     

    Yup, that makes more sense, thank you. I don't mind the lack of backfacing, that's how ZonePortals worked in UE2 as well, but if DMAP ingores it, there's no point in using it.

  2.  

    Generally I've noticed ase files tend to store redundant file data whereas a lwo file is usually more slim. My main thing is the plugins I've tried with Blender were pretty buggy for ase, combined with the fact I didn't want to manually have to edit paths afterwards. In my time working with models on the id4, lwo files are just present less headaches as they've been more straightforward.

     

    They do, it's info on other materials used in the scene model is exported from. To counter this you have to save your scene, use Max's Reset function, and import-merge the model into a fresh scene you just created. After that you edit two paths in the notepad and you're done:

     

     

     

    *MATERIAL_LIST {

    *MATERIAL_COUNT 1

    *MATERIAL 0 {

    *MATERIAL_NAME "textures/do/base/ground01"

    *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 #1"

    *MAP_CLASS "Bitmap"

    *MAP_SUBNO 1

    *MAP_AMOUNT 1.0000

    *BITMAP "//base/textures/do/base/ground01"

    *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

    }

    }

    }

     

     

     

    It's not the fastest workflow, but it's alright – if you know what you're doing. When you're a 3dsmax user, you don't have other choice, actually.

  3. Usually, movies and games use captions in the lower part of the image, because we read images from left to right and from up to down (in western civilizations, at least). If you leave captions at the top, the audience will focus on the text only. Besides, if you don't see the guards and they're not immediate danger, the information about who stands where is kind of redundant. Unless the two guards are shouting to each other across larger room, they would sound as standing in one spot anyway, as people generally stand close to each other while talking.

  4. I'd say out of respect for themselves, but that never happens with video games :)

     

    I liked ME2 for the art direction and pace, but the story was basically "You must gather your party before venturing forth." Wow, Hero's Journey looks super inventive from down here.

     

    If you don't mind spoiling first hour of play a bit, you might want to see this one below. Still feels kind of generic. They definitely went back to "light" SF with this one. Humans look like millennials or hipster baristas dressed in some totally different clothes. Basically the same thing happened in Horizon ZD. Also, there's something very wrong with the faces. Is it uncanny valley yet? Characters seem to have some kind of twitches or nervous reactions that look really odd. It's awesome that your dad is voiced by Clancy Brown, but he's got super greasy complexion and raises his eyebrows almost randomly while talking.

     

    • Like 1
  5. Would it be a good idea to build a "FM location->song" kind of information repository? When people listen to ambients and find particular ambient from a certain site/package and feel it would fit a manor, church, or graveyard, they would then post their findings for the mappers to discover.

    The format could be like

    Quote

    Manor ambients:

    Site, collection name, link, song name

    If mostly high quality songs would be added, that would give the mappers a nice shortcut, because they are guided towards the good stuff and they do not need to spend a lot of time to filter through the mediocrity. If the mapper is looking for an ambient fitting for they manor setting, they would have a nice set of recommended tracks at hand.

     

    This doesn't make much sense, as music can convey more general impression: dread, relief, sadness, etc. This is not limited to a certain location type. It might be useful for local ambient sounds that are location-specific, like pub, church or forest.

  6.  

    I meant walking up the stairs as well as down the stairs. I want NPC animations to fit the stairs and not come across as hideous or buggy.

     

    You can test it yourself using either brush stairs or slopes, but generally sticking to 22,5° is mostly fine (e.g. stairs that are 128u high and 256u long). You could get away with 45°, at least with sloped surfaces, but the way AI bends their knees looks rather jarring at that angle.

    • Like 1
  7. These are not bricks – it's tiles. Normals are automatic njob work, so I'll redo at least some of them later. The wall will have its proper paint as well. This is all with bloom on to take it into account, so it's kind of a bit brighter. I'm not sure I'll leave it like that, but going under 96 or 64 with texture levels seems to be too subtle in many cases.

    • Like 1
  8.  

    Interesting, you never step learning. Looking into it, the used algorithm is called spectral noise gating and it is actually quite simple. I should really get more into audio signal processing. :-)

     

    This is a good place to start:

     

    This channel, along with Curtis Judd Audio, is very good, I learned a lot from this guy. At one point it basically saved my recording, it was a concert in very unfavourable conditions, and with constant hum from nearby lamps.

    • Like 1
  9. OK, CameraCubeMap is also a winner because it requires only two transformations, Up has to be rotated left, Down – right, and the rest is unchanged. As with TDS, brushes don't use the coordinate system well, so looking at them at different angles changes how cubemap sides are displayed, but that shouldn't be a problem with regular static meshes.

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