Springheel

"It would be interesting to see if we could create 'AI objects' that could be interacted with by AI in the area, like a chair that they might wander over to and sit in, or a fire that they warm their hands at, or a book they look down at and flip a page. Little touches like that could add to the realism of the situation. The interaction could probably be scripted and attached to the object itself, so than any non-alerted AI (or perhaps only civilian AI) that comes near the object has a 20% chance of 'using' it. This might require extra animation work, however, unless we stick to things that are already going to be animated. I think the idea has endless comic relief value as well. For example, creating a wine bottle that AI occasionally stop and take a drink from, or a painting they occasionally stop and scratch their head in front of." Just wanted to get that idea posted here. My thought was the either 1) individual objects be created with this property, or 2) normal objects can be someone gifted with this property when placed in a map. The idea being that AI will not stop and sit in any chair they pass. A single chair would be defined (somehow) as 'AI-usable'. Any calm AI within a certain radius may be affected (perentage chance each time they come within range). If they are affected, they 'use' the object. In this case, they would sit down for a small amount of time before getting up and resuming their patrol. We would have to come up with objects that either use an existing animation (like sitting) or could use a generic animation. I can expand on this later, just wanted to get it down.

I agree with the pacing issue. We'll definitely be looking at it, but I don't know how difficult it would be to make them interact with their environment more. The random paths is already something we're planning, and that would certainly help. It would be interesting to see if we could create 'AI objects' that could be interacted with by AI in the area, like a chair that they might wander over to and sit in, or a fire that they warm their hands at, or a book they look down at and flip a page. Little touches like that could add to the realism of the situation. The interaction could probably be scripted and attached to the object itself, so than any non-alerted AI (or perhaps only civilian AI) that comes near the object has a 20% chance of 'using' it. This might require extra animation work, however, unless we stick to things that are already going to be animated. I think the idea has endless comic relief value as well. For example, creating a wine bottle that AI occasionally stop and take a drink from, or a painting they occasionally stop and scratch their head in front of.

Spar, I have a question about resolution. You've said that Doom3 resolution is at 640x480 (or something like that). So why is it that when it is stretched out to 1024x1280 (my monitor's resolution), it doesn't look pixelated? Is there something specific that needs to be done to keep it looking sharp?

Actually we were planning on implementing both of those ideas...certain environments, as designated by the author, would limit an AIs ability to hear. This could include rooms with machinery or crowded streets.

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http...6lr%3D%26sa%3DG A lot of good stuff.

We should have lots of different sounds for opening doors, and for locked ones, and then we can select them randomly. In terms of assignments, these sound effects are probably more immediately useful than dialogue.

Really? I didn't realize it was already in Thief. Things I'm thinking of, like the sound of a water arrow hitting something, or a torch being put out, always sounded the same every time (at least in T3). Even footsteps did, AFAIK, unless the kind of flooring changed. I would love to see multiple versions (min: 3) of the following sounds: water arrows torches going out broadheads hitting surfaces sword impacts jumping (landing) being injured doors opening (a biggie, this was always the same for each door type)

I was reading through some of the SDK development kit, and noticed that Doom3 supports random sounds. That is, there are half a dozen different sounds for bullets hitting a metal surface, and the engine randomly picks one each time it is triggered. I noticed in our list of sounds, we haven't specifically talked about multiple versions of a particular sound(other than dialogue, of course). Do we want to do the same thing? And if so, for what kinds of sounds? I personally think this might be a great idea for things like water arrows (heck, even noise arrows), or other sounds. Opinions?

This might be interesting for those creating skins for the game... http://www.doom3reference.com/images/models_materials.gif

Hmm, Terragen is a little more limited than I thought. Trying to get a city-scape skybox is going to require some serious playing, at least on my end.

Well, I've downloaded Wings too, so I'll look at them both. Just from what I've seen with the Blender plugin, though, we can very easily work from the same character template for human models. A good question to raise now, is do we want to? I think there are probably some benefits to working with models that are basically the same size/shape. All the animations would be re-usable, for starters, and it makes it easier to swap skins/heads, etc. On the downside, it might make things unrealistically uniform if everyone was the same height and weight. And some individual style might be lost if we are just using default templates. I'd like input from people who know more about modelling and animations than I do. What do you think about using templates?

Well, I've downloaded Wings too, so I'll look at them both.

I'm downloading it now. Even if it's too difficult for me to learn to model from scratch (as I have zero experience with that), I might be able to do something with the character template.

Does anyone have huge moral objections to sharing the necessary software among the development teams?

Ok, well, how about I give you the bowl and plate models to start with? plate ref= http://home.southland.net/~bettyg/mattprat.jpg (probably more for the skinner) Those kinds of easy things I could probably skin myself, I just need the UVmap. Any interest in doing objects in the meantime NH? (Also, check with Sparhawk about that blender template he was talking about...we shouldn't rely too much on oDDity, since we don't know if/when he'll be back.)

Hmm, that symmetry is really annoying. The head looks great from the side, but from the front the pattern on top reminds me of darth maul. I think it's looking really good. I'm glad you are using the T1 zombies as a reference...are you going to be able to add just a hint of pale blue colour here and there? We're going to have to get a nice little map going to show this guy off when he's done. Perhaps Ren's crypt.

I think you should probably stick to the programming stuff, personally. You're our head programmer and the most productive programmer we've got on top of that. It doesn't matter how many models we have in the grand scheme of things--the code is the most important. Now, if you know you absolutely need to have a break from coding, and it's a choice betweeen modelling and watching tv, then that's different.

Hmm, some bones showing through would be nice anywhere that the model is thin enough (like the chest, etc). I think he should have skin most places though, just very rotted. Almost mummy-like. edit: when you get a chance, could you upload the head dds to the ftp site? I'd like to compare the before and after to see what you did.

Looks DAMN good BT! I say it's definitely scarier than the original. Looks like it's been rotting in the ground for a long time. Edit: BTW, is this a naked zombie? I don't remember any in the game, but he doesn't appear to have any clothes on...wait, is this the model for the children of hell? If so, good choice!

Looks very cool to me. Is that the actual model? <laugh> Looks like the body is mirrored also...he appears to have stigmata. That's a pain in the ass, especially for zombies, who need lots of mucking up.

Well, when I open the zombie .dds files, I get this: I don't understand what the significance is of the repeating-into-infinity images. I also have a hard time telling what image belongs to what body part. I think I'm going to focus on the skybox for now, so if you'd like to tackle this, feel free.

We've been planning on using the zombies since forever. As far as using them for civilians, I don't know. I think we will want all of our human AI to have a consistent look and feel to them. It's something to consider though.

Well, that's a bit of a pain, especially for zombies. What do we do in order to make one with a bit of rotting on one side but not the other?

Ok, I've been playing around and have learned to make basic skyboxes. Here's one (I didn't do the graphics). Next step is to create a night-time one with a city-scape on the horizon, for use in the city maps. We'll need one for our main menu graphic.

I can't do anything more until I talk to the person who will be coding this. I sent Napalm a PM a few days ago.