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Now, I'm very new to the Doom3 engine and am no expert so please don't take this badly, but looking at those shots there is room for improvement in a lot of areas. First off is the sense of scale which just doesn't seem right. Whether this is just to do with textures I'm not sure but i would say it's a fundamental brush sizing as well. The roof just doesn't seem to leave any headroom, I wan't to crouch already! Secondly is the detailing. It doesn't seem natural or of any use. Check out the cutouts of the wooden panneling. What's the purpose or use to this? Detailing plays a large part of making a good level excellent, but it won't save a poorly modelled one. Thirdly I'd say is the structural integrity of the area. A "game based on the Thief universe" can use a lot of fantasy and mystique but I think a structurally believable area always works to encapsulate the player in the world. The stair well just doesn't fit the bill for a number of reasons. It's fine to say you're still learning the editor, something I'm currently trying, and I really don't want you to take this the wrong way... I can see a big improvment over your first work. I've tried to be constructive and hopefully you'll end up producing sprawling mansion of epic proportions for us to all sneak around in! Mike

You can skip step 1 if you want - entities with a "fixed size" such as models do not require a brush to be drawn first.

The only thing I didnt make is the lamp post. There is virtually no brush work either. The geometry is a bunch of ascii scene exports from 3DS Max. The shadows under the plants are simply decals: Infact, I used alot of decals in that map to add dirt and such like. I find its sometimes a good way to break up a surface and hide the fact that a texture is tiled. That way I dont have to resort to stretching textures out over a large area, and loose resolution. I moved to Belgium in February, but before that I was living in London and I took alot of inspiration from the decaying Victorian infrastructure. You know, things like Baker Street Tube Station were of endless facination to me, and was something that I tried to capture in my textures. But never fear there is lots of inspiration here in Gent.

I've mostly used Cubase earlier, but have switched to Reason for it's midi capacities. I was wondering if any others use Reason, and maybe if you have any general or specific advices concerning making ambient music in this program? Let this be a thread for us (I presume there are more than me) who use Reason and who want to share our thoughts, tips and tricks about it with the other contributors/team members. Since I believe most people that make ambient music use Reason, I thought this thread justified in the DarkMod forums. One thing in particular I would like to know is recommended patches for bass ambience, like the one in 'Outside the Mansion' and 'Defiled Church'? I've tried a lot of patches, but can't find any that really has the right Thief-sound, not necessarily like in the aforementioned tracks mind you. (I may just be picky, but that's better than sloppy methinks) /K

So....how many of the changes I just finished making to the mesh two weeks ago are now obselete? http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?s=&am...st&p=151102

I think there is some misunderstanding about my problem with the entity list size in my post @ http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showt...st&p=142541 It's not the panel size (though that needs saving as well) but the entity list itself (see the image of waste space in the picture in that post and the tiny entity list.) So this problem is still present in the latest snapshot. I only see 2 or 3 lines of entity properties with a very large empty panel. Does nobody else see that?

And you're absolutely right about that too. I'm a very confused person. Weirdly enough I start to think of the Grid8 Units as DoomEdit Units whenever I do the basic brush architecture and texturing. Probably beacuse its easier to operate with the smaller numbers. Very much embarrassed, gleeful

I'm fairly sure Doom 3 reads the texture names from the post-BSP processed map, not the original .map. This is because is needs the texture info per-triangle (in the .proc) not per-brush (in the .map). I'll check how these textures look on my rig when I get home.

The monster clip is especially important, this should be used everywhere it can. Basically anywhere a monster cannot go can be sectioned off by adding a brush textured with the appropriate clip texture to remove the geometry from the AAS. This includes, for example, putting a clip "wall" over a mesh or patch fence which the AI cannot get past.

Fidcal also has been working in this, you can see his thread in the member forums below

I've had training, but it wasn't my focus... the rust on that would be a lot thicker. I'd have to practice. I know enough to help though, and actually I would love an excuse to brush up on my animation skills a bit. Probably best to start me off on simpler animations first.

Sure can, especially the texturing. There'll be no problem with modeling either, I'll just have to get software reinstalled for that and brush off a small bit of rust, but that's easy enough. I understand there are a variety of 3D packages being used in the modeling work on this project? My primarily familiarity is with Max, though I've played a little with Maya too.

In my experience, Far Cry is wonderfully easy for outdoor areas, but I found it very tedius and limiting for indoor areas. In Far Cry, all indoor areas have to be built from props. If you want to make a wall, you can't just create the right sized brush and texture it however you want. You have to find a pre-existing model that's the size and texture you'd like. And if you need something oddly shaped, or you'd like to use a new texture you created, or you'd just like to use an existing texture in an odd way, you're out of luck unless you have modelling software. The overall appearance to the player looks good (perhaps comparable to D3), but it's a pain for mappers, and to me felt a little cookie-cutter in places. If you like making maps in TDS out of mostly props/models, you might not have a hard time getting used to Far Cry. D3 on the contrary excels at indoor areas, and at least for high-tech bases, you can make surprisingly nice looking maps even without using any models at all. D3 supports patch meshes which allow for mappers to easily create high-poly arches, pipes, hills, etc without needing to purchase and learn expensive modelling software. Many of the bloody tendrils throughout D3 were done with patch meshes, as were the railings, pipes and most wiring. PS, about Far Cry, I must admit that I had great fun sledding down mountains in a rubber-dinghy in the editor.

Oh on the Doom3 forums they said that parallel lights should be at least twice the size of the map link Relevant part: This also tends to make parallel lights dimmer than their point light counterparts, so you often need to increase the physical size a parallel light's volume well outside the area of a map you want to influence in order to get an equivalent brightness to that of a point light. Keep this in mind when designing maps that have outdoor and indoor areas, you need to keep and eye on light volume overlaps.

Is that right? Let me check some more items. Edit: I think you're right, I'm getting really, really fucked up behavior from D3Ed. More bugs? I create a book, change the skin, everything's working. I drag a new brush, New Model... it, select the scroll, and the origin is waaaay off center, like 10 scale feet away. Then, I can't select it - because the origin isn't part of the model. So I select the book - and in render mode it turns into the scroll. Cam mode, book, render mode, scroll. Could D3Ed have more problems?

Welp I was dead on about Deus Ex 3. Soon the prophecy shall be fulfilled and Deus Ex will return to it's glory. It shall fulfill it's destiny. However this post isn't about Deus Ex, it's about Thief, specifically Thief 4. There's a curious little tidbit located at this webpage. http://www.eidosmontreal.com/en/games.html AAA games, with high quality licenses that offer exciting challenges – e.g., the first two games we develop will revive successful franchises Games for next-generation consoles – Xbox 360, PS3, PC, and Wii What other franchise could they revive other than Thief? Man I would love to work on those games. Anyway Thief 4 perhaps in the year 2011. Just remember, Unstop told you first. He can see the future. By the way here's the new and improved Deus Ex 3 forum. You can use your regular Eidos forum name and password. http://forums.eidosgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=252

that doesn't matter at all - I think he used "textures" here because he was generating a normalmap for a brush texture and not for a model. but this doesn't matter, as it's just the path of the **_local.tga and the name of the material. I think it would make things easier if you could upload your lowpoly and highpoly + your mtr-file here so that I can take a look at them myself. otherwise I'd have to guess what's wrong

Fidcal, have you read this thread? Was the crate you attached a moveable? http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=7637

@New Horizon: Can you set kshatriya up as Contributor and give him (am I right assuming you're male?) access to the sound forums?

Yes, there's definitely interaction. Contributors are allowed to air their opinion just like everybody else on the team, so Contributors are definitely not second-class team members or production slaves. It basically reflects how much you want/plan to be involved in the project. Team Members are the full-time employees, and Contributors are the freelancers, so to say. Team members are expected to show somewhat more dedication, time-wise. They are expected to stick around, and pull on the same string as the other team members to get the mod done. Sometimes this includes doing stuff which is not that much fun. Contributors can choose to work on whatever they wish. They may also take requests from Team Members to work on something specific. They are more loosely bound - as the name states, they contribute assets (textures, models, sounds) like freelancers and everything they share with the team is appreciated (this applies to Team Members too, of course). Everyone is happy when Contributors are sticking around nonetheless, that's for sure - but people are less surprised if Contributors are disappearing after a short amount of time. There are certain forums, which are only visible to team members, but these generally don't matter to Contributors. Valuable Contributors who stick around are eventually becoming Team Members anyway, the status is not set in stone at all. So it boils down how much motivation and dedication you're willing to offer - we surely need your help, but the decision is yours.

To Komaq Who are you talking to? If you want hard puzzles, there's always Riven. A great game, too. But I certainly don't like OoT for puzzles. "Don't be ridiculous, you can't learn a language by reading a foreign book, unless you have some pre-existing knowledge of the language, or some kind of rosetta stone for transcription purposes, such as a copy of the book in your own language as well." I had a Russian-English vocabulary. At first I was translating every word but then I just started ramming though it... "How could I learn Russian only by reading a Russian novel, I don't know a single Russian word, and never would no matter how long I stared at the pages" Russian is a bad example, it's a lot more complicated than English. English is a very intuitive language. You need to know a few words, but what is more important is the ability to recognize a noun from a verb. My vocabulary was pretty non-existant, it wasn't even the 300 ESL words. I understand that not everyone can drone onto a book like that. I can. "You obviously had many other resources available to you for learning English, and reading English novels did nothing but help straighten out your grammar a little." Complete rubbish. The vast majority of my vocabulary, and pretty much 90% of my grammar knowledge and feel (since learning English grammar through rules is pointless) came from Harry Potter. You obviously have no idea how the brain works when it reads books do you? Never tried it yourself, have you? I go as far as I want to go, and I find proper to go. And where did you draw that conclusion? What tells you that I am obsessed with Oblivion, for that matter? Last game I played was Lander for like an hour (that game won't let you play it too long). I haven't had Oblivion installed for like a year now. Well, that's your opinion on games. But not mine. I wouldn't know, didn't play BG much. I played NWN as NWN. Nope it doesn't. It just means you don't like certain games, that's all... And you hang around a forum. I don't see a difference. IRC is just another medium (which I only use for the Project Offset game at the moment because, you know, the forums are down). You should understand that the medium is not the message if you have brains. Oh, but, you know, while people join games on SC, they also sit in bnet, discussing the game, which is pretty normal for anyone who wants to be good in that game. Where the heck did that came from? lol I am probably less obsessed than most people on this forum. <quote>First of all, what matters or what doesn't each person decides for themselves. To some, music making matters, or drawing matters; to me, computers, and what they include, particulary programming and gaming matters, and also I watched movies who's names you probably never heard of. Gaming is a hobby just like anything else is. Even then, I don't spend that much time on them. I actually do my homework, and I have some sports to do, and I read (reading Dune at the moment), I exercise, I expore the robotics field on occassion, I program, and I play my games. Don't accuse me of the obsessed scheme, please. I simply don't agree with the label of "horrible" applied to a game that perhaps is not great, but is certainly not horrible. "Anyway, I can tell you're quite a young person, so I'll assume for your sake that you'll grow out of all this nonsense at some point in the future." I am only 17, and already a lot more mature than you are, and I suggest you are past 20. That's kinda sad.

Show me a game like OoT which is not kiddish and I will play it. But the only games designed like OoT that I know of are heXen and Turok 2, and very few others (that mostly suck). The genre of of hub-based fantasy fast-paced games is extinct, and OoT is one of the few ones that I found in addition. There is no game like heXen, Turok, or OoT, and until that genre becomes popular, I'd play anything from it as long as it's worthwhile. Graphics to me don't matter. Your statement that adults can't play games like OoT is similar to football athletes saying tennis is a girly sport. I read the books, that's where I learned my English from, and I'd like to see you read Harry Potter in a language you know 5 words in. Tell me how "childish" that is. No, it can't. TV is not interactive, and is limited in video image. OoT is a lot more than just that video image that annoys you so much. I understand that graphics ward you off, but please don't call a great game horrible just because it was intended for children, but it has such high gameplay quality that adults love it, too. No value for you doesn't mean no value for me. It's a battleground for me where I can forge my own history, especially with the editor. The thing about Oblivion is that it doesn't really matter what you do in it. You do not appreciate that, I understand. I do. I love Gothic 1 (Gothic 2 wasn't my cup of tea, or Gothic 3), and I like it better than Oblivion, but I also think it's pointless to compare it to Oblivion. Moreover, Oblivion is not what I call an RPG. It's more of a free ride action game with dialogs for me, but not really what I view as an RPG. You can accept Gothic with a low amount of detail, but not OoT with childish design? Inconsistency. If you actually believe advertisements, I wonder how you live. Advertisements are a bureaucracy curse, they are to be completely ignored, disbelieved, and despised. To consider what a game represents you look at what company made it, the name, the team, the design, and the gameplay. Not what someone said in the PR department to make the game sell a bit better. That has nothing to do with the programmers and designers of that game, they did not generate that advertisement. Speaking of advertisement, this may give someone a laugh, a guy criticizing Bethesda's Fallout 3 promotion tactic and Fallout 3 previews: http://www.diablo3.com/forums/showpost.php...amp;postcount=1 And you are...? What makes you better than people who like FF? You remind me of this guy from Twin Peaks, Albert. He was really good at something, too. But he was an ass. And that's what the sheriff told Albert: "I hear that you are real good at what you do. And, well, that's very good. 'Cause normally when a stranger walked into my station talking this kind of crap, he'd be looking for his teeth two blocks up on Queer Street." But I am used to such ignorance. I got kicked out of an IRC channel for liking LEXX and got accepted into another channel for the same reason. Members of the StarCraft Battle.net think I am some freak because they believe StarCraft and girls don't go together. Then again some guys don't want to talk to me because they are aware that I think bisexuals and homosexuals are people, too. All I can say that, unless you change your attitude, and stop being so shut down, you'll miss out on a lot of things in life, be it games, people, or anything else. Perhaps you like it that way, I don't know.

I made a new thread for this discussion, and uploaded videos of Oblivion AI sitting http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=7618

http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=76471

Ok, I'll open a thread in the Level Editing forum then. http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=7623