New Horizon
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Posts posted by New Horizon
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Surely a 3D model would be best?
It would. The gem is a fixed part of the compass ring. While it doesn't spin left and right...it does tilt up and down with the compass ring. It's the difference between changing a few numbers to alter the perspective of the gem and creating 16 totally new textures every time we have to alter the perspective of the gem. Trust me guys. 
I can understand wanting to save some polys, but the lightgem only appears once in the hud...the gem shouldn't impact too badly.
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New Horizon, there is no confusion, 'cause this idea was never meant to replicated T3's light gem. It is a completely new idea.
It would definately use fewer polys, but if the compass is going to move up and down in addition to around it, the illusion will be lost. The design was made to fit snugly inside of the compass ring.
This can still be done with the true 3D gem.
I screwed up your post Domarius....LOL I keep hitting the bloody "edit" button instead of "Quote". ARgh. Anyway.
This idea has the advantage of;[*]Using much much less polys - the sphere takes up the most, and needs a decent amount to actually look round.
It would definately use fewer polys, but if the compass is going to move up and down in addition to around it, the illusion will be lost. The design was made to fit snugly inside of the compass ring.
[*]Looks better - the 2D gem can be pre-rendered with all sorts of cool radiosity effects to really make it look like a beautiful translucent gem, with reflections inside it, etc.This can still be done with the true 3D gem.
[*]Easier to program - the gem is just a sequence of pictures, just by changing the texture on the 2 poly square.The gem is still just a sequence of pictures on the 3D model...the only difference is that it is skinned on the model and therefore you don't have to worry about getting a screenshot of the gem at a specific angle. It will also allow us to tweak the angle of the gem with little effort. It's not that it has to be like the T3 gem, but in order for it to do what it was intended to do, it needs to be a 3D gem.
Also a 2D gem would have a fixed perspective when the compass tilts up and down. If it's not 3D this will look really bad as the perspective of the gem has to be able to change with the compass ring since it is supposed to be snug inside of it.
With a fixed perspective, we're not as flexible. If the compass ring is to tilt upwards with the 2D gem we would get this.
Not trying to be difficult on this, but I'm just saying I'm familiar with the system from pulling T3 apart. Unless we plan on redesigning the gem into a more rectangular T 1,2,3 style gem, the perspective isn't going to work.
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I'm liking what I see here.
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Just so we're all in the same playing field, I've drawn up an example of what we should be talking about here.
You can see that whoever is putting the gem together needs to do the rendering, because it must be positioned just right, to maintain the illusion that the gem is 3D like the compass (when it is actually a 2D image).
Eeek, I think there is some confusion here.
I've pretty much ripped the guts out of T3 and the gem wasn't 2D.The Gem is a 3D object, just like the compass. It is simply skinned with a 2d texture.
The texture will wrap around the gem, and in this way...the gem can be placed in any position we need it and then anchored there while the compass rotates around it. I've checked out the textures oDDity supplied and they should work perfectly.
Just a quick shot of the skinned gem model.
This is the T3 gem. I used the t3ui.ini to scale it up in size and turn the end towards the player slightly. It's a full 3d model. Just wanted to make sure there was no confusion there. That should help get things moving along.
Another shot...angled up and exposing the edge of the gem.
Since the t3hud files enabled scaling through the t3ui.ini I'm hoping that there is a similar way for us to do this in doom 3. Having to resize the gem and compass and export it each time we want to try a different size would be time consuming. I've tried the d3world forums but wasn't able to find anything about scaling ingame hud items. I'll send an email to id support.
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Having some troubles here. I can't find the exporter file to save an altered lwo file as a .ase file.
Anyone know where to get this plugin script?
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You know, it's a good thing we get along Spar, because we almost NEVER agree on gameplay ideas.
:lol:
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But it doesn't solve the problem of not being able to see North. In fact, the more spherical you make the gem, the more of a problem this becomes. Let's face it, most of the time you are looking straight ahead, and an edge-on view of the compass is useless. I don't want to have to start looking up, down, and all around to try and get a good glimpse of my compass or lightgem. They should simply be static, as they were in T3.
I never had a problem determining whether I was looking up or down in T3, or in any other FPS with modern graphics.
I think there may be some misunderstanding as to what Sparkhawk is proposing. In this instance the default straight on playerview would still be angled to appropriately see the northern tip of the compass. So when we're walking around it would look like this.
It would only be when you looked up or down that the compass would tip accordingly. It shouldn't pose a problem really. It should work nicely I think as long as the underside of the compass and gem are detailed.
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I will see how much this really affects the gem when it is implemented.
As long as the gem is visible on the underside of the compass it should be fine. Having the compass identical on the bottom as it is on the top should solve that.
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When the player looks up the compass should rotate on this axis also. That's the only chance for the player to actually KNOW that he is looking upward. This might sound funny, but when you are in caves then you can easily loose the sense of direction and the compass should provide this. To make sure that the gem can be seen at all times, it has to be tweaked in such a way that with the most probable angle the gem is still seen.
Hmmm, in that case the light gem would have to be mirrored on the bottom half to look exactly the same as the top..making the gem a perfect sphere in this case I think. I know they tilted the compass in Thief 1 and 2 but omitted it in 3 due to the obstruction of the gem no doubt...but if the gem is a perfect sphere, perhaps we can avoid this...although it may be best to leave it stationary and only rotate left to right.
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In T1, 2 and 3 the compass was a 3d model that rotated. The light gem was a model in all three games as well. I've played around with the old gem in T1 and 2. The metal housing around the gem could be skinned separately from the light gem itself. The compass simply rotates around it as stated earlier, but is not affected by looking up or down..otherwise it would obstruct the view of the gem since it is now part of the compass.
oDDity, the little demo above looks great by the way.
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Is this Blender? http://www.blender3d.com/
I'm not a modeller at all, but did some Anim8or tuts a few weeks back, and it was enjoyable. Is Blender worse/equal to/better/far better/so much better you should be ashamed for asking, than Anim8or?
Seems to be free, or at least I can't find a purchase link... is it?
/OT
I hear it's a pretty good program, but I must be really stunned or something because I just can't get my head around it. LOL
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Pak, I dled that file, but I get nothing when I try to play it.
You'll probably have to install the proper codec to view it. I would suggest downloading the latest release of XVID. It supports xvid and divx.
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Hmmm, where to start!
The Dark Project:
Baffords
Cragscleft Prison
Assassins
The Sword
The Lost City
Song of the Caverns
Return to the Cathedral
The Metal Age
Life of the party
Shipping and Receiving
Framed
First City Bank and Trust
Trail of Blood
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I think as long as it doesn't resemble what they used ingame we should be fine, and it's only based on the concept art. I would say there are likely plenty of games out there with creatures that look like this.
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Welcome back oDDity. Excellent Builder model by the way.
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Well, I think I now understand the resolution issue...or at least what it is, if not why.
I've gotten ahold of a pretty good gui tutorial, so I'll see if I can design a main title screen...it's very easy to substitute different graphics later, as long as the interactive parts don't move.
Cool. Is the GUI tutorial online? I would love to have a look at it.
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I haven't seen the HL2 menu, but I'm not sure I like the idea of an in-game shot...it could wind up just distracting from the interface. A few pre-chosen animations (like flickering torches or something) should suffice.
Actually, as I'm reading up on GUI coding, I'm starting to get some new ideas. I'll have to see if I have time this weekend to put any together.
I agree, it would be best to have a few animated objects.
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How does that explain why Garrett is better seen when he has the arrow nocked?
Thanks.
As soon as he seats the arrow on the bow and begins pulling back his visibility increases slightly due to the glow, the arrow erupting in flame explains why the flame arrow is more visible than the others. All the other arrows would only contribute a slight increase due to their glow alone.
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Okee doka. I know that this is a minor detail that can be figured out in the future...but when I get an image burned into my head with such clarity, I really have to conceptualize it somehow. I made up a little animation to demonstrate exactly how I see the arrows behaving in my head.
When the arrows are stored in the Thiefs quiver they are inactive...don't really know why that is but I'm sure there is some Thieflike universe reasoning.
They will have no light coming from them when they are first in our view...you will be able to see that they are an unlit blue/ green or in the case of this demonstration redish colored crystal. Once they come into contact with the Thiefs bow however, they start to glow and then exhibit some effects as to the arrows use...water/ fire/ gas/ moss. The glow doesn't truly begin until he starts pulling the arrow back though, so it's rather quick. It would be like....puuullllllll.....Fwooosh flames.After thinking about it...there may still be a very subtle glow off of the arrows as their taken out, but they would only be at their brightest when they are fully pulled back in the bow.
Anyway, this would be rather cool in action.
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Excellent news!
We can put those to good use. -
Once I get all my programs reinstalled, hopefully today, I'll do up a little slide show of how I see it in my head.
Just to give a clear image of what I'm going on about. :lol:
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I had an idea that may make everyone happy. I don't know if I could buy into the destructive force of a rag burning on the end of the arrow..[ sorry sparkhawk
]..but how about this.Since these crystals have somewhat magical/ enchanted elements...it might make sense that they do not become active until they are drawn. For example....
Player selects a water arrow. As the arrow is drawn back on the bow...it slowly begins to glow that familiar blue color and a drop of water rolls off the tip of the crystal.
For a fire arrow. As it is drawn back on the bow it slowly glows and then a flame erupts around the crystal.
In both situations, the crystals are completely darkened before coming into contact with the bow. Should be possible with the D3 engine.
Essentially, some of the more volatile elements could have a small animation as the bow is drawn back for firing.
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It may even be easier to control with programming, since it will just be a series of frames that show a dark gem gradually becoming a lighter gem. The glow at full brightness could be a wonderfully radiant effect that you just couldn't do in real-time.
This is how it was done in T3. The compass was a 3d object and the gem itself was skinned with 16 different stages of the gem from light to dark.
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I'll keep working on it.
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:lol: The guards pause to admire it...giving you time to free yourself and escape!