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I did this for Phantom a few weeks back, it'll tell you everything you need to know getting textures into the game...along with links to an indepth normalmapping tut. http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=101 It sounds like you've already found the proper way to add a light, you just didn't switch to the renderer so you could check it out in realtime. To do that just hit F3 to switch from the cam to the renderer, and then F4 to enable realtime updating so it'll apply all your lighting information. When you say premade room do you mean one of Id's maps? For that you'd have to find the name of the texture you wanna replace, open pak001.pk4, track it down in there, and replace the 3 dds textures with your custom one. But that could lead to some really funkified results cuz their texture could've been applied to the wall in some weird way which might stretch and distort yours out of proportions if it isn't the right size, it'd be better just to make your own simple room in the editor for testing purposes. To do that all you'd need to do is make a texture set and use a generic name like Wall_Test01 or something like that. Plop it in a certain folder for easy access like base/textures/darkmod/test, make the appropriate .mtr file, then build your room using it. If you like it you can just rename the 3 textures and move it somewhere else, if not you can just make another set with the same name and overwrite the ones you have in the test folder. The next time you reopen the editor it'll have the new textures already in place to check out. I do something somewhat similar to that. If I find something about the texture I don't like while I'm working in the editor, I'll close it and zip up the current files, change it to fix what needs fixing, then just overwrite the files with the new texture and fire up the editor again to check it out.

I'm starting to play around with Builder Priest concepts. This is the first one I've come up with, but it isn't drawn in stone. Some things I've thought about: Metal is almost a religious substance to builders, so even the priests should wear some metal. So I gave him some chains and metal shoulder plates, among other things. Hammers are their holy symbol, so even the priests should carry one, and be able to use it in melee combat if necessary (though less effectively than the guards). I presume we will want them to throw fire like the original games? That's easily done. Should they do it from their hands? A wand? Or perhaps the hammer? I was also wondering if we should give the priests other abilities? Someone mentioned a shining hammer in another thread, what if the priest could use his holy symbol to light up the area around him? Anyway, all comments welcome. Edit: Ok, a new version, Oct 11th I've made the shoulder metal smaller and more decorative. I've also given him a hat and more robe-like clothing. The strips at the bottom of the robe are decorative metal, and there are metal plates on the scarf-like things hanging from his shoulders. A ceremonial hammer completes the outfit. It could be used in combat if necessary, and could also function as his wand (which always struck me as too 'magicky' for a builder). What do you think?

I'm gonna condense our two sticky posts into a single thread and outline exactly what we need to do in the next few. First off the themes a'la Fingernail: City Textures - very similar to the Thief 3/2/1 City. Slightly Tudor/medieval, with elements of neo-Classicism and gothic. Also steampunk - ie. pipes, chimneys. Vaguely Victorian. Basically it's melting pot of styles - a bit like London, a bit like Prague, Paris and Vienna in my mind. Mansion textures - similar to the T2 style/Moira's manse from T3. Wood panneling, rich wallpaper, carpets, shiny wood flooring, elaborate doors, grand staircases, large windows and roof lights. A bit of art-deco influence ala T2 would be nice. Church Textures - should be Alexius' speciality wink.gif . High Gothic, St Vitus, Notre Dame, large stain glass windows, many vaults, columns, transcepts...you get the picture. Stone mainly. Some 'Hammer-equivalent' logos would be nice. Catacomb/sewer Textures - just some boney, wet, damp rock & brick. Quite a small section. Core Textures - very crucial. All the standard bricks, wood, flooring, tiles, edging, grass, that would go well in pretty much any situation. Water Textures - new shaders should be made. This should probably involve new fragment programs, which means someone should have a bash at learning the fragment language (check D3W for scant details). Glass Textures - people have windows, ya know. All styles. Door Textures - some pretty general wood & metal doors. Metallic Textures - all the shininess: pipes, grates, fans, valves, infernal machines. Go crazy & nuts with this one, I want to see all sorts of Edward Scissorhands craziness. These will be our basic catagories. I might edit them down later on into more specific catagories, but for now they'll work fine. __________ The first thing we're gonna concentrate on are mansion textures. I'm gonna be a bit more specific here and say that we need to take everything into consideration, from the basement (my current project) all the way up to the attic. We'll also need to split each texture into 2 catagories: 1. Clean, pristine textures. These will be used for our well maintained mansions. A few marks here and there will be good for portraying a lived in look, but for the most part these should be nice and pretty. 2. Grunged up and decaying. The same textures with grime, torn wallpaper, and watermarks. These will be good for our abandoned or haunted mansions that have been unkempt and exposed to the elements for awhile. Windows will be cracked or grimy, doors will be warped, and floors should have a nice layer of dust and other debris layered about them. Each catagory will have it's own specific textures of course, but making dual versions will help keep the style consistant and will save us on some time. __________ Last night I've come to the realization that we're missing quite a few detailing textures. I've spent most of my time working on walls and surfaces, and when I started to build my map I realised that I could desperately use some trimming details, decals, and other small miscellaneous textures. It's these textures that add life to a map, without em everything we build will end up looking bare and spartan. So for the next few we need to concentrate more on making these than anything else. Windows, trim, support beams, a few more doors, decals (such as books and whatnot)...aim for these rather than wide surfaces.

god_is_my_goldfish, please post all art and comments related to noise arrows in this thread.

If possible, would you be able to load smaller images of the drawings and link to them with the tags in this thread rather than a listing of links? That'll make it easier to see the drawings. Springheel made this comment for some of my drawings a while back and I think it makes sense It helps to view them and compare them. For drawings that contain extreme detail, keep the smaller images, but link to the larger versions with http:// links. Just a thought. I'm on 56K dial-up and it takes a while for those images to load And yes, I like the drawings also, but I agree a joint might be missing in the hind legs. I haven't studied animals a lot so I usually mess up the structure of the hind legs myself because I haven't commited their joint and muscle structure to memory yet. But I have a book on drawing animals, and if we're to take the common structure of animal legs, then another joint should be drawn. There seem to be 4 main joints in each hind leg (starting at the hip, working down) for animals. (This might be easier to see in rams, deer, bulls, horses, etc.) It looks like your creature has 3 joints and would thus have some mobility stiffness to it. Not a bad thing, just a visual 'non sequitur' (does not follow) thing that I think people are picking up on.

Greetings Everyone! I wanted to start this thread on behalf of the DarkMod team to help keep our guests informed on our progress; to let them know there's DarkMod life in the project even when it may seem there is none -- and to keep them updated as such. There won't be a set schedule as to when this thread will be updated, but maybe check back from time to time. Anyone can post here and I'm sure you'll hear from other team members here in the future. Although many visitors might already have http://www.mindplaces.com/darkmod/index.htm bookmarked to see updates on screenshots and concept artwork, etc., some don't have it bookmarked and may not know about it. Other forums actually point to our site here and I figured there might be some benefit to providing occasional updates here via this forum, too. As an update for our guests out there, I can say that I've seen a LOT of activity from our team members behind-the-scenes on this DarkMod project. There are many discussions going on and a lot of concepts being worked on. As a team member with a primary focus on artwork, I've personally created a few concept drawings and have seen fellow artists showcase some very nice concepts. Our programmers, 3-D modellers, audio experts, etc. are also very active in these early stages of the project. I want to assure our guests that there's a lot of DarkMod life behind-the-scenes that you might not otherwise see from the outside. We have a long road ahead of us, but we have an enthusiastic group working on this and I'm confident you'll be happy with our DarkMod work once complete. Stay tuned, as I'm sure there will be many more updates in the future! Until then, may shadows continue to guide your journeys. Darkness_Falls

Or register here at the forums, so you can see the rest of the boards.

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=159 The second post in this thread is the important one. The aim of this thread is to collect all information about what we want to do on a more detailed level but not TO detailed. So discussion about conecpt art should be here, but the information that this beast should be done shouild be posted there as well. You should also look through the document and add items in the lists, if you think that they should be included and I forgot them. For example: I listed a number texture themes and what each theme must provide for. If you notice that a theme, or a texture for a theme is missing, the list it, there so we can keep track of it. You don't need to be specific, but specific enough that we know what you are talking about. Of course even if you are an artist, that doesn't mean that you may not look through the other sections to check if we forgot something. If you decide here that you want to do a belcher but the coders don't know about this, you can not animate your model afterwards.

Where is the project definition thread? Can a link be provided? Being a concept artist, I hardly ever delve into the other threads and there are lots of threads to try and figure out which one you're referring to

Same here. Please post such things in the Project definition thread as well. We need this information so we can start thinking about properties of the AI.

If you agree or decide something like that, then you should post it in my project definition thread, so we can include/remove it there. Not everybody is following all the threads, but we should all know about these things. That's why I started this thread. http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=159 Usually I don't look much into the Art threads, because I'm not an artist and can not contribute much there. So most of the time, when I look at these threads, I just look at the pictures and hope that the first mod is appearing fast because of the great graphics. But I don't read all the postings here. I guess there are others as well and we shouldn't rely on this when deciding what we want and what not. Especially since a thread has only a limited time and after that only few remeber it and what has been decided. Don't forget. If you decide something here, then the coders will also have to know about it, to give it life.

Please post all comments and concept art for the Belchers in this thread.

Darkness Falls will be working on creating a creature to fill the roll of Craymen/Kurshok. That is, a mysterious humamoid race to populate deep out of the way caverns or pagan areas. I would prefer leaning more towards the craymen than the Kurshok. DF, post any and all work related to this project in this thread, please.

Brr...you must run these things by me first, and instead of an open free-for-all thread, you must assign individual tasks by PM using the format detailed on the sticky thread link, after people have volunteered. Since you are concept art, each task reference should have the following prefix: ACn followed by a four digit number, for instance: ACn0001 might be the main menu concept, etc. etc. And then you have to PM ME with the tasks so that I can keep track of who's doing what. Don't fall out of line, please. It's so difficult to keep things organised.

Mechanics of lockpicking is discussed here http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showforum=14 and here http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=170. This thread is actualy only about the position of the locks. Or did you mean that? Not sure about this.

I'll work on these. PS: I just posted a sample environmental scene in the Art section: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showt...findpost&p=1795

Here is the best budget 3D rendering info I have ever read. I love it because I actually preffer the tools involved over the proffesional ones, because they are simply geared toward video game models, and you can make high quality ones too, for the normal maps. Check out this thread; http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/vie...t=wings3d#10937 This post specifically; So basically; Wings3D = Modelling LithUnwrap = UW mapping CharacterFX = Animation As an example of what he does with this setup, check out his home page http://members.lycos.co.uk/arras1/ Click on "Gallery". It's worth it. Some of that stuff would fit right in with the Thief world. His humans are awesome.

Good idea, but I feel that we need West and East pointed somehow. There are some good pics in this thread. I LOVE that one god_is_my_goldfish made, except that it's probably a bit too ornate, and has too many thin bits that will be blurred up when scaled down. HUD items have to be very clear.

great crystals ! As I mentioned in the other thread I'd prefer your 'old' noisemaker made of porcelain.

Sounds good, i'll work on concepts for the following, to be used at the team's discretion- A good mine concept Some elemental crystal concepts A simple broadhead concept. A gas mine Lockpicks (though we should probably clear up how lockpicking should be first, I'll start a thread on it if there isn't one already) The short sword Some simple enemies (Quick question, are we bringin back burricks or something burrick-like?) And,... um, yeah.

I'm not sure if we decided to insert gas-bombs in our mod. To be honest I don't like them much, cauze I think they make the game too easy. We should discuss that in the Devchat Forum. But I like your noisemaker It looks great and the way it emitts noise is IMO the best solution for an arrow. I don't like that fireworks stuff in thief 3.... However I'd prefer a crystal moss-arrow as I mentioned in the other thread.

LOL, ummmmmmm.......someone has my login I think -- or the forum's trippin'. I didn't write this. Considering this other thread that's going on (http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showt...st=0entry1247), I'd say something's amiss with the forum.. or someone's playin' gamez.

We've had this discussion already. Check out: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showt...%20dagger&st=50

This question was asked in the Ion Storm forums a while back. I thought it might help us to conjure up more resources and spur more creativity... Source: http://forums.ionstorm.com/index.php?showt...ndpost&p=290033 The City is an amalgamation of times and places, both actual and fictional. Medieval & Victorian London and France, modern-day Prague, and even parts of Boston (home of the ghosts of Looking Glass) have been mentioned as real places that influenced the look & feel of the City. Some oft-cited art references are The City of Lost Children, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Name of the Rose. The works of Mike Mignola (Fafhrd / Mouser stuff), Tim Burton (Mr. Wrought Iron Himself), Jules Verne, Charles D-i-c-k-e-n-s, and Alan Moore / Eddie Campbell have also been mentioned a fair few times as influences. That's just a sampling, there are dozens of others .

Whoa, can we shrink that image down a bit? Images should be kept at a reasonable size on the forums...if they absolutely need to be bigger than 800x600, then we should use a link. The cathedral doesn't look bad, but that tower really looks familiar. Is it based on something? I originally thought of Orthanc, but I know it isn't the movie version.