Search the Community

This may be applicable to this idea, I don't know: If you want to trigger the built-in animations just add a "target_ai_followalternatepath1" and Ctrl-k it with the character you want to animate. Then add a "path_anim" and give it a Key "anim" with a value of whatever anim you want like "cower" or "run" or whatever anims that character has. Select the character and give him a Key of "alt_path_1" with a Val of "path_anim_1" or whatever you named your path_anim. When you trigger the target_ai_followalternatepath1 with a trigger_once or you trigger it in a script, your character will perform that animation. If you're using this animation in a cinematic make sure you give all entities the Key/Val Cinematic/1. I was going to add this to my cinematic tutorial, but I'm too lazy.

FTP server. I would say you should use: models/character/noble_male_001 Is that ok Springheel? I would suggest that we use a seperate directory for each character because we probably need to add addtional files or versions per character and we don't want to clutter a single directory with it.

Slow down, NH. See above post. We should be very careful about not letting our own enthusiasm dictate what we show the public. We could post something like this in our own public forums, but I wouldn't make it a public release, UNLESS it was combined with some other things, like mentioned above. In all seriousness, if we had the following: The bedroom map (in-game, with fire going), The ability for objects to vanish when frobbed At the very least, removing the D3 HUD and crosshairs THEN, I think it might be worth releasing a new video. But not until then. IMO, it's better to have people wondering what we're up to than it is to release things that make people (who know nothing about how hard things are) say, "THAT's all you've got so far??"

Okay, since it hasn't been done yet, I'll kick it off. First let me say, I assume this thread is to contain requests out of the ordinary, as stated by sparhawk at the TTLG forums: QUOTE I'm not talking of the standard features like buttons, switches, or similar stuff. Rather I'm thinking of things you might have wanted to implement in an FM but you couldn't because of limitations in the engine or in DromEd as opposed to the obvious, like rope arrows, swimming, etc. So here's a few ideas just to get things going. -random treasure spawns. An author would place a piece of optional treasure, and set a percentage chance that it will appear or not. -optional path nodes (although I think this might already be possible with Dromed). The AI can choose to ignore a node or go on a different, separate path altogether. -AI actions similar to NOLF2. I never played the game myself, but I'd heard they do things that are unexpected, at unexpected times. Many times I've played Thief and thought to myself, "why is that cook just pacing back and forth?" Clearly for gameplay, NOT realism. "Why would a guy just be standing here in a dark room, facing the wall, then turn to the fireplace, back to the wall, back to fireplace, etc?" Again, gameplay, not realism. I'd heard that in NOLF2, AI will often kick a can around, or fidget (already in Thief), or even leave patrol to go to the restroom. That sounds like a fantastic addition that might really lend some tension to the overall experience. -AI ladder climbing. Touchy subject, that, as it eliminates some safety and comfort in the game, but probably a good addition. Okay, there's a few for now. What ideas would you suggest?

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?

If you look for some tutorials you can learn the basics in a few hours. It is really hard to learn when you just want to experiement with it, without looking at a manual. Fomr the big apps you can usually do a lot just by clicking around. Not so with Blender. On the other hand, the interface is asboluelty streamlined to support the workflow. If you learn the keys you must use you can do a lot of stuff in a short time once you are used to it. I saw on the blender forums that there are now also video tutorials available. This might be helpfull. Search on D3World for "blender tutorials" and you can find them easily, there is a direct link to these.

This workflow I highly recommend, not because the 3 programs suggested here are FREE, but because they are the best at what they do, IMO. I love these 3 programs. You will LOVE wings3d for modelling, if you are like me and HATE Blender's nerdy complex interface. (this is from http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/vie...ic.php?p=21397) Where to get these programs: www.wings3d.com (for modelling) CharacterFX www.insanesoftware.de (for animating) Lithunwrap (for texturing) is discontinued and available free at arras's site http://members.lycos.co.uk/arras1/ Also check out arras's site to see what he has been making with this workflow. Bloody awesome game objects. They are all very low poly though, for older systems. Look at the gallery forums at the www.wings3d.com forums to see the high-poly stuff people are making with wings3d. It's just as well suited for low poly as high poly - it has always used the "box modelling" interface, which only the latest versions of big name 3D apps have just made it the new pseudo standard for modelling. The reason this workflow is so good is because each of these programs has a specific purpose (modeling, texturing, and animating) and they are all VERY GOOD and VERY SIMPLE TO USE at what they are for. Ever hard of the term "jack of all trades, master of none"? That doesn't apply to this workflow

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.

I was just looking on blender.org to see if a new version is available and I found out that there is now a plugin that supports character modelling. I know that there exists a plugin that would create heads/faces based on parameters so that you can easily create different faces with a few minutes. I guess this character plugin is similar but for entire characters. Since we have not enough modelers right now, this might help in creating basic characters at least. Something like Oddities templates. And of course the advantage would be that we would have a consistent look (though I'm not sure that a consistent look is needed on characters or rather if this should be avoided). Edit: I just read the various releaselogs to see what has been added to the new versions. It seems Blender now contains good support for UV mapping which may be good for skinners. So it might be worth to check this out nevertheless.

I was thinking that maybe I can help out with some modeling. I have limited experience with Blender, but don't expect to much from me. I can do some of the props which are not to complicated but I can't do character modeling and most certainly I can't do faces. Of course my priority is on programming, so I don't know how fast I am and I don't know much about low poly modeling. Nevertheless I think I'm able to do stuff like bottles, flowerpots (withouit the flowers) and some of the less ornate furniture. While that is not much it might help a little.

Isn't it obvious? This is for LOD. Level Of Detail. When the object is farther away you don't need so much details. If you calculate this automatically then it might look queer because the computer doesn't know about it. Providing these images will ensure that a character looks good no matter if he is far away or near.

There's no technical limitation; it's just the way ID did it, right or wrong, for many models. We could make each character texure 1024x1024 if we wanted, but it may cause performance issues. I think that's what they were being mindful of.

I finished the highlight for doors and changed the behaviour for items as well. Now the highlighting works in a uniform way for all entities. As you can see on the screenshot it may not be to nice for ingame, so I would need a texture that can be used for the highlight. Currently I simply use this one for testing: base/textures/base_door/doorlight_grn.tga http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showt...st=0entry4929 I think the texture should probably be just a white one so that it will brighten up the object in a uniform way but with lower brightness. Probably a moderately light gray. If you want to test the texture you can do the following: I used the frobTest.map. In materials/custom.mtr you (Renzatic) added this material description and I added this texture to it. Textures/Dark_Mod/Mansion/Doors/Mansion_Door02 { qer_editorimage Textures/Dark_Mod/Mansion/Doors/Mansion_Door02_ed.tga diffusemap Textures/Dark_Mod/Mansion/Doors/Mansion_Door02_d.tga specularmap Textures/Dark_Mod/Mansion/Doors/Mansion_Door02_s.tga bumpmap Textures/Dark_Mod/Mansion/Doors/Mansion_Door02_local.tga { // if ( parm11 >= 0.5 ) blend add map textures/base_door/doorlight_grn.tga colored } }

Yes, this is a 'feature' of Doom 3. The faces are mirrored, often with a VERY UGLY seam down the nose...something Carmack has commented on being a combined fault of him and the artists. Anyway, I believe that this is done so as to confine all the character textures to 512x512.

I've been very pleased with the early tests so far. I just want to assure everyone that the acting quality is not reflected in these tests. They're just quick snipits for vocal quality so I can judge what their voices will be best suited for. I think we'll get a few charactes out of both Ernest and Jen. They're both very fun to work with so it will be a very enjoyable experience. I had one guy email me when he saw the poster I put up, but the part about "acting experience" didn't seem to register. I gave him an appointment anyway, just in case he was a natural born talent. Sadly, he was not. Nothing against him personally, but it would taken a lot of work to coach him through each role to get a quality performance. No energy for that. The great thing about the people on board so far is that all I have to do is work out the character with them...and they'll improvise all day for me. It's a pure delight. On the subject of the northern lights. I agree, they are phenominmal.

Whoa, nice. I like it. A few suggestions, though. I'd make the clock a little more ornate. By itself it looks okay, but with the gears in the background it'd look better if you had a more complicated face to go along with it. The blank spot in the center would be good for adding some extra detail...if we had a symbol for our mod it'd be the perfect place to throw it. Instead of having the thief's shadow cast on the clock, why don't you make a rooftop in the lefthand foreground and have him standing on top looking down at the city, his silhouette marked by the clouds in the background. That way the clock's face won't be blocked and you'll still get your character in the shot. The clouds themselves...I think they'd look a little better if they were less defined and more whispy. A flat storm sky with the occasional moonglow reflected off the clouds might work better. Other than that everything is fine. The city, the gears in the background...you've done an excellent job.

Hey I would like to personally thank you for your help on the doom3world forums for various questions I have asked. Thanks for the support and the help! Good Luck on your mod!

Hi this is bad marine ass from the Planetdoom and doom3world.org forums and I just thought I'd stop by to wish you guys good luck. I'm both a Doom and Thief fan, and I can't wait to see what happens when the 2 games get married I'm also a solo modder (current project is Doom 3 Aftermath), that means I do most of the work by myself like mapping, modelling, coding and texturing, and since I'm relatively new to the modding scene, I hope to learn more from teams like yourselves and I'm sure I could help out a bit with you guys if you're too busy or anything. Best of luck to the Dark Mod!

I thought about that too at first, but upon further thought I don't think it would be a good idea. It would be distracting, first of all, since the HUD isn't supposed to be in the 'game world', so it would be weird to have it be affected by the game lights. Secondly, it makes it more difficult for the player to read it effectively. Is it light because the character is in the light or just because a game light is hitting it?

Sure, you can tackle the nobleman. Be sure to check the concept art thread. http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=344 As far as the technical details, that's outside my area of expertise. You'll have to ask either Deep Omega or oDDity about that. As well, oDDity has made available a male and female template which I am encouraging people to use as a base for our characters.

I will start on the noble man if that’s ok with you springheal. what is my triangle limit for this particular character? I will use a 512 by 512 texture size and can I use the unwrap uv's in max for the texture projection ...or do you use a different method for the game engine ?

You could jump in at the deep end with the noble man or woman: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=362 http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=344

great, when do i start ..and what do i start with. I wouldn't mind doing some character stuff, models, textures and concept designs. you will have to give me some polygon limits and texture size limits ..just so I know what to use.

I think there is a problem with putting something back. It is the physics engine. My guess why this doesn't really work in any game (none that I remember at least) is that it requires special coding to provide for it. If some object is standing in a i.e board, the character can not reach it really. So this means he he blocked by the bounding box of the board. To take the object the code simply looks if the player is near enough and then removes it from the world into the inventory (or players hands). If you would have to put it back, this would mean that the player would have to be near enough. But the bounding box prevents this. It would require a high precision to place the object back. But I think we can do this by either providing a seperate button OR by assuming that the player wants to put it back if the view vector and the distance is in a position near enough of the original position. We cimply must store the original location of the object and replace it in the case that one of the above is true. The nice thing is, that, if we allow this, we could even programm the AI to recognize moved objects. It could work like this. The player takes an object (i.e. a book). When he wants to put it back the object is placed randomly within the original region. If the player holds the button down for a longer time, the object will be adjusted and shift to it's original place. After a certain time it will reach the original place but that takes time. If the object is carelessly placed then the AI could recognize it. If the player takes the time the AI won't recognize it afterwards. What do you say?

Here's the first character for our Mansion Pack. I'm modelling the clothing after late 15th C. fashion.