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Springheel

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Posts posted by Springheel

  1. Quote

    And, newest titles have been managing this quite well, with just being selective (and consistent) with objects that are within player agency. You can do the same in TDM

     

    You seem to be approaching this as if TDM is a single production team working on a unified, limited series of missions, which it clearly is not.  Without rewriting history, how exactly would you suggest "being consistent" with more than one hundred missions created over 15 years by dozens of different authors using assets created by dozens of different artists, some of which are custom to those particular missions?

    Even if you could remake all the core loot models in a way that is both significantly different enough that they can be distinguished from other objects, but also similar enough that they don't interfere with existing missions that use those models (something I highly doubt can be achieved), that STILL doesn't solve the problem, since custom loot objects are used in dozens of missions, along with objects that look like loot but aren't.

     

     

    • Like 4
  2. 9 minutes ago, peter_spy said:

    Again, that's up to the mapper to establish what should be interactive or not, loot junk or otherwise. You're trying to 'fix' bad design with UI.

    And what would your solution be to fix this bad design, given that neither redoing all the loot models or redesigning all the existing maps is practical?

    • Like 2
  3. 24 minutes ago, peter_spy said:

     Separate loot highlight is another in-your-face solution, while distinct materials for loot items (d/n/s + cubemap for silver, gold, etc.) as opposed to duller ones for e.g. wooden goblets would be more subtle and less hand-holding.

    It would be, but that's not the situation we have.  Our models come from a dozen different sources with different styles, and people have added loot entities to the core mod throughout history without any concern for consistency--loot paintings (that are worth as much as 10 other pieces of loot) that look exactly the same as non-loot paintings are an obvious example.

    • Like 1
    • Sad 1
  4. There are already plenty of low-poly hedges mappers can use in areas where that is needed. 

    There are also multiple transparent foliage textures mappers could use to create their own "shells" if they want to do so.  You could create a couple Russian-doll-like shells of semi-transparent foliage and drop a few low-poly foliage models in the center to create leaves or branches that stick out.

    And there are high-poly hedge models for use where that is appropriate.

     

    No one is opposed to new models if someone wants to make some, but there's no point in reshaping a wrench so it becomes better at hammering nails.

     

    • Haha 1
  5. 2 hours ago, HMart said:

    I most say ddaazzaa is right, I add a look at that model in modo and it is full of two sided planes, making up 5128 polys just for the planes alone.

    Like OrbWeaver said this model doesn't need two sided planes, one side ones, looking in different directions, imo will be good enough to keep the intended illusion and bring the poly count down plus increase the possibility of using more models per level like ddaazzaa wanted.

    attached as demonstration is the "cleaned" model itself (2660 polys) and a very basic Modo render, sorry for the quality but I think it passes the message across.  Is not exactly the same but I bet if you increase the leaf count in the plane texture itself, it will look exactly like the double side one.

     

    hedge01_square_long.lwo 167.32 kB · 0 downloads

     

    Double-sided textures do not cast shadows, IIRC, so changing the model in that way will mean only the square in the center would cast an--obviously incorrect--shadow.  While that would be fine for a medium LOD stage, it shouldn't replace the original.

    You might also make a decent medium LOD version by just turning shadows off on the leaf planes at a certain distance.  Poly count by itself is rarely the issue when it comes to performance--it's shadows and the number of lights hitting any one model.

  6. 3 hours ago, A_2 said:

    I have three questions regarding texture alignment across vertex-manipulated brushes. 

    1. I am making a cavern in DarkRadiant. I am doing this by using the "clip" tool to cut brushes into wedges and then moving their vertices around. It is my understanding that making irregular/'terrain'-type geometry out of brushes will result in some degree of performance improvement versus making it out of either patches or imported models. Is this correct?

    2. While I have had no difficulty getting these brushes' vertices to align, I cannot say the same about their textures, which seem to require a great deal of fine-tuning, not only through panning, but also stretching and rotation, to align adequately. None of the "surface inspector" tools seem to help. I recall that Source's "Hammer" editor had an "align textures to camera" function[1] which could be used to avert this kind of thing. Is there anything like that in DarkRadiant?

     

     

     

    You can use quite complex patches if you want, although multiple, small patches are better than one giant one.  Performance hits come more from lighting and shadowcasting than number of polys.

     

    This might be helpful: 

     

    • Thanks 1
  7. 5 hours ago, wesp5 said:

    Speaking of which, it a guard notices the player, but does not find him for several minutes, does he assume he is gone, sheath his sword and goes back to unalerted? I mean he wouldn't walk around the whole night with his sword drawn, right?

    It depends how alert he is.  If he has accumulated enough evidence to know there is an intruder, then he will.  If he didn't see the player and hasn't seen other evidence (bodies, missing loot, etc) then he won't.

    • Like 1
  8. 2 hours ago, stgatilov said:

    Caulk surfaces are not rendered at all, normal surfaces are rendered, even through you don't see them.

    No idea how big the performance difference is. I bet the actual rendering of invisible brush surfaces takes negligible time, but additional frontend processing and shadows might take some time. I'm not sure it is worth wasting your time replacing the brushes now. But it is probably a good idea to use caulk in future missions.

    We've run those tests before, and there was no performance benefit to using caulk.  

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  9. 4 minutes ago, wesp5 said:

    So what is the magic happening for guards with metal helmets then? They can be KO'd fine with their helmet on as long as they are not alerted! One second later, no way.

    Setting aside the snark, when a guard is relaxed, it is assumed that the player has time to plan out a careful, aimed strike to the base of the neck.  When the guard is alert, it is assumed the guard is tensed up and reacting too quickly for the player to aim that carefully.

    The other option would be to treat guards with metal helmets the same as guards with no helmets, but that would be equally "magical", wouldn't it?

     

  10. 1 hour ago, wesp5 said:

    The main issue I have is that you can't blackjack guards that are alerted even if you are right behind them and they haven't drawn their weapon, because they magically become k.o. immune.

     

    That's not accurate.  Guards that have metal helmets cannot be KO'd when they are alert.  All other guards can be KO'd when alert as long as you hit them from behind.  Civilians can be KO'd from any direction, any time.

     

    Quote

    This is where I always had to reload the game and it stopped me from feeling like a master thief. IIRC in Dishonered you could take out NPCs from behind with a little animation. So that you don't had to aim blind for their head somehow. This is something I feel would make it easier for me as an optional feature for taking out opponents. Has that already been considered at some point?

     

    Yes, we've essentially agreed that we want to do something like this, but it will require someone with the right skill set who is prepared to take it on.

     

    • Like 1
  11. 30 minutes ago, New Horizon said:

    Could the issue be remedied by taking into account how much of the player is blocked by an object + lightgem level + distance.  The game already takes distance + lightgem level into account when determining how quickly the guards react.  A further check could ease things a bit.  Deadly Shadows was able to handle it that way.  It checked something like 12 individual points on the player model

     

    That's something I always wanted to see.

     

     

  12. Put a third box on top of the others and see if it still happens.  If the player height when crouched is taller than the boxes, he could be spotting the top of your head. 

    It's also possible something specific was done in that mission that is causing the problem.  It is a very old mission, one of the first few ever created for TDM.  Have you noticed this behaviour anywhere else?

     

  13. Guards can't see through objects, but it's impossible to tell what is going on here from this kind of video.  AI only need to see a single piece of the player, so if there is a gap between the pillar and the boxes, it's possible a trace went through that gap.  Does that AI have special settings on it to increase its visual acuity?  Is there another AI down the hall that is spotting the player from another angle?   There are multiple things that could be going on.

     

    You could get more information using the following console commands:

     

    tdm_ai_showalert 1

    Shows the AI's current alert total and alert state.

    tdm_ai_showfov

    Shows the AI vision cone so you know where they are currently looking

     

    • Like 1
  14. 32 minutes ago, Frost_Salamander said:

    What is the primary reason for this, besides being able to set things like 'noshadows' on the func_static?  Is that the only reason?  Does is 'hurt' to just leave them as worldspawn somehow?  I mean, I've started doing this as well without really understanding why, just that we 'should'.

    It doesn't really hurt to leave them, but if you make all non-sealing brushes into func_statics, you can remove them from your DR view quite easily, which can make tracking down leaks easier.

    • Like 2
  15. 3 hours ago, Gadavre said:

    The entrance to the church is guarded by two guards. I showed myself to both of them and ran away from them. I climbed up on the elevation so they wouldn't kill me. They tried to hit me with a weapon and apparently one of them struck another with a sword. The two guards began to fight among themselves. I walked to the main entrance of the church without any problems.... It was easy.... And it was very strange...

     

    None of the guards in that mission have swords, so it's hard to figure out who you're referring to.   If I had to guess, it sounds like you were out of melee range, so one AI tried to throw a projectile, and hit another guard with it.  When AI are hit by projectiles, they consider the person who hit them to be an enemy. 

     

    Quote

    But how then to get good statistics. if you want to complete the mission without killing???

    If you want good statistics, you need to avoid getting chased in the first place. 

     

    • Like 1
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