RPGista

Things I think you could work on (though I understand your reasons from beginning from scratch, reinventing the human body is very hard to get right, I would still use accurate models as references, personally, its the same for drawing, for example): The shoulders are too "glued" to the torso, there are muscles on the shoulders that really makes it stand out from the upper body where they connect, which you havent worked on yet, there should also be a direct connection to the chest muscles (easy to see on doom's models); The same can be said of the trapezius and neck area, still needs to be defined and modeled; From the 3/4 angle I cant be sure but it seems that the ribcage is wider at the top and slimmer at the botton when it should actually be the opposite (easy to see on the first picture); I like the hips but the legs are not very well defined - they should probably be longer, have more solid and bigger knee joints, thinner ankles as compared to the knee joints, and the shin cannot curve inwards like that. Legs are not that difficult to understand as a solid once you get the hang of them, but you'll need to draw them profusely (or use references) if you want to get them right. Its a bit more complicated because its a decayed leg, you should probably start with a healthy one and then experiment, perhaps...

Well, analysing Doom's zumbi models (which for the most part are pretty cool IMO), you can see that great care is taken to accuretely represent the face and hands (which is exactly whats missing from your WIP hehe), and as far as anatomy goes, even though you can sense some parts (extremeties mostly) have slightly exaggerated proportions, they are quite good in detailing the body decay on different levels, but still mantaining a generic look to them so they wont get too easily recognisable as a repeating model. I think this is what Baddcog was talking about, regarding the body decay and the expression of the bones underneath: Or in this case, the opposite hehe

Yes, very cool, he seems to get real life photos and then paint over them on photoshop? Not that it matters much, but off the top of my head (its been many years) the oonly/earliest painter that would create portraits over a blurry background was Velázquez, he might be a good reference for grumdrop:

Those look pretty cool if you ask me, though one could argue that creating surfaces that have very clear marks (like the last one) is going to make it easy to recognize them as a tile when repeated - very complex textures (with top and botton, or a certain mark in the middle like a patch of missing mortar (with exposed bricks)) are welcomed (by me anyway) when they are vey big and can be used to cover an entire wall - but they do need to be made based off an existing "bland" texture, so you can tile the specific one inside a composition of others. As far as the team, I'll leave it to them, but if you take me, I've come up with a couple of simple models (a bench and a window grate), untextured, and I intend on simply releasing/contributing them to the general forum as is, so anyone can pick them up, and either finish it off and release it again to the community, or use in his own mission - this would share the work load, you get something that already has a base for you to complete, and I dont see why you couldnt do the same (just keep releasing them and someone will surely pick it up and use it on a map, or maybe give it the bumpmaps and whatnot, etc).

The current zombie with the rotten skin works very well in my opinion and should probably be studied. I agree with Baddcog about using an accurate human body as a base for your model (thats not to diminish your current work which is looking quite good so far, specially the head). Im sure there are dozens of free human models around for you to work upon, wouldnt that be easier? As far as the actual zombie, Im not really up to date with modern game zombies, so wouldnt know about references, but you could probably make a choice between two types - a somewhat intact zombie like you see already in the mod or in most movies (walking dead series, 28 days later, etc), like this: (Maybe this is free, I dont know? Zombie Model Pack) Or a really decomposed one, getting pretty close to being a skeleton: I would also either go for a naked zombie or a fully clothed one, but in rags, like the pic.

@ Fidcal - I was (finally) able to make the teleported AI work again, by remodelling several elements on his path (monsterclipping and visportaling for ease of pathfinding) and/or by adding a connection between the trigger and the AI through the trigger relay, though I'm sure this wasnt needed on the test map (in fact, for all I know it might not even matter, and it was the pathing problem all along), so the sequence would be: Trigger > trigger_relay > atdm_teleport > (AI) (Trigger > trigger_relay) > AI > path_waitfortrigger > path_corner

Can you please elaborate more on that last part? I got this to work on a test map, imported the whole thing to my main map, and now the ai wont move again after teleporting. He can move normally when he spots me, and there are plenty of ai around, so its not the lack of pathfinding... Ive tried creating all the entities involved from scratch and still nothing, the ai would indeed have to cross 3 visportals between the point of teleport and the first path corner, could that be the problem?

Update: Door done! Success my friends, I got the peasants to attack the player, I used the setrelations entity instead, its simpler and blunter (it turns everyone in a certain team against you, not just specific ones), because in my case, it wont matter, as the only neutral AI guys are together in a group and should be alerted all at once anyway! Its pretty abrupt and what they say might be contradictory most times (as there's no controlling of speech and no gradual increase of alert level), but it works!

Indeed, but it meant scripting and i just want a simplified version of that, so i remembered about the triggered detection Sotha sugggested. Will try to implement right now before I loose track of it again.

Thanks guys, thats exactly what I needed. Sorry if I wasnt so clear, but I indeed meant alerting AI with the player spending too long inside a trigger multiple brush, there are a couple of neighbours chatting outside their houses, which are locked, I wanted to add this so they will turn against the player if he decides to pick the locks ( and thus, spending a few seconds in front of their doors in order to do it - crossing along wont alert them, but suspiciously staring at their doors will; they'll definetly turn agressive even if the player picks the key off of their belts, and enters quicky, as there'll be a trigger once just for that behind the door (the men will be pretty close so there's no way they'll not see the player getting into their homes). Thanks for the detailed walkthrough Sotha, that secondary trigger that regulates the AI warnings is very nice, hopefully I'll manage to include it... Two obscure features down, now to implement them in game!

How to set up a door as locked and unpickable and then unlock it by way of a trigger? Is there a way to make a neutral ai become agressive by standing inside a trigger multiple for too long and/ or by stepping inside a trigger once?

Haha, Sir meant weeks, Im sure. Its going to be tight, but I think you guys will like some of the spaces inside this mission. AI placement - 75% AI pathing - 0, havent really started and this part is kinda of worrying (there are some tough problems here to crack actually) Brush geometry is around 95% I would say, but Im not counting decorating/furnishing rooms which is around 75%, Im gonna have to finish as I go about placing AI, items, decals, etc. (Patchwork, who knows indeed, its through the roof). The chapel building is killing me, though its looking as solid and sober as I wanted. All the doors and windows (around 80% placed) still need to be linked to keys, locked, all those things (hoping its gonna be simple). I had to ditch some triggered conversations, there'll unfortunetely be no time to learn, test and implement them, which is a shame... Some of the complex stuff with AI was tested but I stll need to place in the map, link to objectives, etc. Objectives - 0% too, still have to understand it from scratch haha, there's only one in there though and a possible hidden one, we'll see. Time for sprinting!

Nice work man, but Im afraid Im going to need ALL the available time, still got some nice stuff to do and real life work has been going crazy... But if you want to release your map sooner, I dont think there's a problem? Would be nice to have them all released more or less at the same time so people can vote with a fresh appreciation of all of them, though. Would have to check with with the team members, not sure whats the procedure here.

Woah, this is awesome, will definetly go through these, there's always something you can learn. We are lacking Dark Radiant tutorials for sure... Everything I learned about spawnargs, triggers and other basic functionalities, was from Doom tutorials, which are scattered, and 50% of the info didnt apply directly to TDM anyway. We are in need of tutorials on many things like triggers (specially), useful spawnargs and their effects on AI or entities, controlling the complexity of patrols (Im looking at you Sotha! ), basic engine effects like teleporting, light usage, moving stuff around, and the like... As well as interesting construction such as this one - I know some of these topics are documented in the wiki, but a lot of the times its as much about inspiring the imagination with interesting examples (like the tower here), not just stating how to get something done.

Very nice biker, I love the mix of blue and yellow light. And yes, more models, more, more!!! Assets are never enough.

Thanks boys, will give it a try, though Im afraid Tels solution might be a bit too complicated for now... By the way, is there a list of weapons suitable for being branded by AI? Ive tried def_attach the roman gladius and the battle axe on two separate occasions and got fatal errors both times. Would be really nice if we could get a menu to choose the AI weapon as we do for heads or skins. My suggestion would be: handy menus for choosing AI's heads, skins, voice set (all already done), weapons, acuity levels (base values for distracted, normal, alert/sharp), speed (a mix of reaction and movement values) and melee skill level (as it is now, trained, skilled, etc.) - right now you need to tweak several different variables, guess the results of the changes, copy and paste weapons or skillset names after first finding AI that possesses the spawnargs you need, very unintuitive...).

Fascinating stuff, I must say I really admire the art direction in this mod because it was able to create its own identity (which means creativity boldness) but at the same time being quite economical and choosing a very appropriate "realistic" feel to the project. You can see the influence of historical material on the designs, which simply gives them a kind of "makes sense" feel, which I guess a lot of people overlook when there's freedom to design potentially anything you want.

Nice...

Is there any kind of skin or light setting that I could use to quickly fade a certain space to complete darkness? I've read somewhere that setting a fog light to black and make it thick could simulate this effect, is that correct? (I have a pit that I need to fade to complete darkness, so you cant see the botton (you can see it fairly well because of the ambient light, but limiting this area and giving it another ambient light would be very complicated, its inside a bigger area). And oh, simple one, whats the water texture for black, reflective water (the one you cant see anything other than the surface)? Any tutorials on using diffuse textures (that cast light), using light textures to simulate light going through windows, and light beam decals/effect?

^ Nice work man, keep it up! Like I said, I like how you modeled the train itself, it feels right, fair proportions and the detailing seems to be going in a very good direction. It would be awesome if we had more variety on the NPCs models... Then you could really populate that train! 90% of the work for the mod has been devoted to the mission contest, but I was watching this tutorial the other day about modeling and inserting models into Doom, the example was a simple cave - this is the model I came up with, going to try maybe this weekend to insert it into TDM (for time trying to get a model in the mod), and see how this looks, hopefully wont be too difficult.

Yeah, pretty cool, I'm learning to play guitar, so you just gave me some inspiration. For some reason this tune, even though it has hardly anything to do with it, kept me thinking about Scar Tissue from Red Hot Chilli Peppers. I guess it was maybe the solo part at the end?

I saw a video of his many moons ago, the train is a LOT more detailed now, and I like that the object itself seems to have good proportions. Maybe he got a contributor? I like this one for the Indiana Jones feel to it, to go through or over narrow train cabins, but also a big one like the Blood train could be nice... Good work. He's got take it to the next level and make a mission out of it!

Hexen was the best game ever when I was a teenager, first pc game that I owned actually. I played it top to botton many times, a friend then gave me the Dark Citadel expansion and I was blown away, the maps were gorgeous, a pity they didnt do any new art assets, as that could have been a whole new game (and a pity they didnt add awesome RPG elements like the Korax Mod crowd did). Anyway, this mod is brilliant and its definetly on my list for when I get a bit of real free time, great work guys (and also the community spirit, pretty cool).

Thanks a lot guys, for the tips and explanations. Its always like that, you do this on your free time, you kinda discover stuff as you go along, no time to master all the basics. I did let Hexagon triangulate as he pleased, should probably have cut up those npolygon faces a bit more to help him out, maybe thats part of the problem. The "render" however is just a shaded view from another program, that already show the messed up shading, rendering also showed problems, I was kind of afraid hexagon wasnt trustworthy (which would be a shame, as its very easy to use man). Anyway, I'll look into this, I intend on posting whatever models I come up with on the public forums so anyone can pick them up if they want. PS: I dont think there are a lot of nice free renderers... Kerkythea is one of them, but I use it mostly for work, nothing fancy at all, probably isnt even close to 3ds max or modo or the one you mention. But its free and open, so might be worth to take a look.

Yeah, Baddcog's method is the cleanest, most professional way for sure (should go right into the wiki by the way , along with your other awesome tutorials), but its cool that you were able to sort it out regardless. Nice thinking on the rotation center thing.