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I'm back from my trip to the castle with a bunch of photos. The 1st texture is already on the ftp: http://208.49.149.118/TheDarkMod/Textures/door2.jpg @renz I don't think we should downsize the textures, just that they fit easier. IMO there won't be any problems with huge high-res textures, cauze 1. our mod will take some time and people will have even better hardware than today 2. HD space also shouldn't be a problem - today almost everybody has more than 100gb HD.

I was just reading the update on moddb for "A terrible Secret" and I must say I'm quite surprised. First they claim that Doom 3 didn't allow them to create their set because they didn't intend to create so many custom textures. But than he says that HL2 is so much better with it's physics (which is certainly true) and with the proper artistic team they can also create the dark envirnonment that they envisioned. Now I'm a bit surprised because I wonder what that "proper artistic team" is supposed to do. Does have HL2 so many different textures set? And if so why would he need that "proper artistic team". If not (as I understand the text) then they will still have to create their custom textures, which implies to me that this is not the reason why they changed to HL2. Well, it doesn't really matter, just being curious as I liked the story from that mod and it's sad that they switched to HL2 and so I likely can not play it if it comes out.

I mentioned it indirectly in my weekly update, but you're right, I should have been more direct. My plan is to see if I can do both the readable books and menu screen GUIs. I'm starting with the books because they should be easier (since they aren't interactive). I should have a nice mock-up of the main menu animation by some time next week. So don't hand out those tasks (in terms of scripting) until I give it a go...if I find it too complicated (and so far it doesn't look that bad) then I'll let you know. I'll definitely need some programming help at some point, but I'll see what I can get done on my own first.

Renz: Nice as your room is, and 1337 though your skillz be, there are some problems. Did you test the map in game mode? You can't have done, seeing as it is not buildable in it's current state. Even though I added an end wall, it still 'leaked', because the other walls were too thin. Make them thicker. And no gaps. Also, the scale is a bit off, as seen here: I know walk-in fireplaces might be considered a luxury. Anyway, otherwise it looks great. Put in a scientist for Great Scalability.

I can do that. No problem with that. You just add the textures one by one on the FTP and every now and then you tell me to re-create the archive. I can download them and put them in the archive. I have flatrate so it doesn't really matter to me. What I also could do is to set up a cronjob on my server that will run once a week automatically. Or more often if need be but I think a weekly update is enough. Maybe that is even the best solution.

Short sword. No problems.

WOOHOO! I CAN POST AGAIN! lol, anyway...I have a few wallpaper textures of my own to contribute. None of them are quite as Thiefy as Blackthief's, but I'm sure they'll have their place in the game somewhere. This one turned out great ingame, but alas...it's sort of a funky hell of an ugly wallpaper. Could fit for bathrooms, though. This one is more intheme, but it looks more like a carpet than a wallpaper. They're not bad, but I like the ones posted above a helluva lot better. So far I have about 27 textures from various sources ingame with about 5 or 6 of them refusing to show up properly. Originally I thought tweaking the color levels confused the editor, but after some tweaked textures showed up I'm starting to believe it has more to do with either the directory structure or just plain randomness . Since some of the default Id textures refused to show up even before I started modding it's hard to say. Edit: Once again I have to bring up how much better it is to do normalmaps by hand... In the end it makes it far cleaner and looks a good deal better. It's not that hard to do either, I've never done any texturework before I started this project so I'm sure some of you photoshop pros won't have any problems at all.

Cool! Keep me posted, so I can update our 'requests' thread. This is more like it!

I sent PM to him three days ago for an update on the progress and got no response. I guess I will have to do this myself.

Yeah, she's going to be great once we get down to the real work. Very versatile actress. I worked with her back in 1996 on three different productions. I should have another audition up tonight. Update: Just uploaded the vocal tests of an actor named Ernest Murphy. Hope you enjoy.

Here is another quick update...I have added a little extra detail. I have made the shoulder 'things' larger springheal. I am planning on taking the model into zbrush to add extra detail and creating a normal map from there …has anyone done this ..if so what were the results ?

Within the next few days I'm gonna be reorganizing the texture pack so it'll be easier for us to plug textures into our cooresponding packs with only minimal fuss. Not only will the directory structure be changed, but I'm gonna adopt a new naming system that's more homogenous and easier to manage. First off, instead of just having 3 main catagories (Walls, Floors, Objects) I'm going to sort them into themes. For now I'm thinking Mansions, Cityscapes, Churches, Factories, and a misc catagory for things that can easily overlap among all the themes. The directories below these will still be the same, a folder for each type and material. This is open for discussions, of course, so if anyone has a better idea of how structure the texture tree feel free to add to the discussion. Next comes the naming scheme, we're gonna keep this as straightforward as we possibly can. If you have a wood floor that'll go well in a mansion then it'll be called Mansion_Floor_Wood0x to coorespond with the directory it's gonna be placed in. Any variations on the same texture should have a letter applied to both...like Springheel and I both have Jay's tile floor in our respective packs, but somewhere down the line I changed mine to a black and white marblesque texture, so Spring's version will be Floor_Tile03a and mine will be Floor_Tile03b. Simple, straightforward, and easy to change if we have a naming conflict. If we do it right we can all send each other small updates that can be plugged into our material files easily without having to worry about sending increasingly larger packs to keep up with. Another thing to keep in mind is making similar textures share the same specular or normalmap. Once again I'll bring up Jay's floor texture for the example. The changes on mine are just cosmetic, so both can use the same local and spec and save on some file space. Just name it Floor_Tile03_local or _s and direct the material file entry to it. If you want to make 2 versions of the same texture with different overlays or material properties, like a really shiny version of a brick wall that has an ultra reflective spec or a glowing fullbright window, just name them what you think is appropriate..like wall03_wet for the shiny wall or Window02_lit for the fullbright window. Nothing complicated there. Taking this and the above change into consideration, we can have entire families of similar textures that can be swapped back and forth easily. We'll have to keep track of what we're all doing for awhile, but once we get this rolling it shouldn't take much management to keep things running smoothly. Blackthief: You'll need to get in the habit of doing this, too. You don't have Doom 3 yet but you will eventually, getting into it now will make things easier for you when you do. Just remember to name your dither as x_x_d and the normals as x_x_local and save em as TGA files...rar em up if you're worried about them being too large, they compress well. That should about do it. I'll also post an update listing all of our current textures once we get this squared away.

I whipped these up right fast cuz I thought we could use a few more shots for the website. I decided to stretch out the texture window to give it a nice cinematic widescreen (everyone loves a good widescreen shot) and threw in one of the old lightgem drawings to give it an ingame look. lol, I had to go to the old boards to find the lightgem I had in mind...it was a blast reading through all the old posts and seeing how far we've come in just a couple of months. Anyway...on with the show. This is my semi finished art gallery, what originally started out as quickly built room designed to help Springheel test out his textures turned into a 500 brush monster that's probably one of the better maps I've done in awhile. I dunno if I like the angle of the screenshot too much, but eh...I've already doctored it up. Oh yeah, I also added a specular to the beige wall, which improved it considerably. The Gallery And the tried and true basement shot with a slight specular added to the wall texture. I'd replace the old basement shot on the webpage with this one. The Basement Also, see if DeepOmega wants to post his newer Thief model up in place of the old one. The face, along with the smoother look, is worth the update.

Well, I've gotten a few requests from people asking for direction in terms of concept art. I think what I'll do is post a few things that we need to have done and see if there are people willing to do it, for the moment. Currently, I'm going to put god_is_my_goldfish in charge of designing the arrows (since he has already done most of them, as well as the mechanical player tools (mines, flashbombs, etc). He has also requested the Belchers. I am currently working on character designs, including a few new Builder sketches. From there I'll move onto city guards and the like. What I'd like some volunteers for is: Player weapons: the sword is done, but we need sketches for the blackjack and bow. Main Menu: rough sketches of what the main menu might look like Beasties: We will need some kind of craymen or kurshok-like creature. Should be basically humanoid...something that could live underground or in pagan environments. If you can think of something that would suit D3 models/animations, so much the better. Environments: Any type of environmental sketch is good as a way of inspiring our texture artists and future mappers. Other things will have to wait until we sort out our priorities in the other threads. I'll update these later. If you would like to volunteer for what's already up there, please let me know.

Minor update, which most will be from here on out. Added volume and folds to the hood, lots of finger details, the quiver is now strapped in place, the sword and sheath are a more reasonable scale. Right now, I need to decide if I should model in the rest of the details, or texture it in.

Two exams and two projects later, finally, an update. Hood was majorly reworked, along with a little of the face. Knocked up the basics of some of his equipment - Springheel, if you could give me some nice, clean drawings of engraved patterns I could slap onto the sheath and the quiver, I'll add those too. Added metal to the knuckles (and gave them a bit more definition, too).

Right on, yeah I agree with all that was said. I'll try to get them to be smaller images later tonight or tomorrow, and have the images show up in the post instead of as links. Good idea! Not a problem. [uPDATE: Done.] I agree that the room is bland and I actually, honestly, kind've hate it. It looks better in-person, when standing way far away (LOL) -- actually kind've looks real. BUT (and this is a big BUT) it does lack A LOT of the dynamicism and moodiness we all know and love about Thief. Fortunately, I already realized this and won't be doing another room like that I think I did that room as almost a "study," if you will. I was using Thief 2 as a reference and was seeing how they did the panels on the wall, etc., though I know I erred on a couple things. When i look at that room though, I'm like 'borrrrring' I have a feeling the drawings will get better over time. I'm actually working on a different room scene right now that I think you might appreciate more when I'm done. There's more life and moodiness, in general, to it -- and it feels more Thief to me. I'm using PhotoShop and the coloring will be much better. Once I get a digital pen, I have a feeling you'll be seeing a lot more cooler things, too. Thanks for the feedback guys. Let's rock this thing!

UPDATE! HE HAS A HEAD! Just look at the sculpture of that nose. Oh baby.

Yup, Dom, Blackthief needs to get the game so he can have as much fun with it as I am. Yet another quick update, this time with BT's blue windows in tow. I really need to learn how to make light materials, once I do I could get the shadows being cast on the floor to mimic the window perfectly and get a nice crosshatch shadow setup going on.. Whoop But as it is it looks pretty alright. Needs furniture and light fixtures...and a ceiling still...and maybe some more tweaks on the lighting...but anway, there it is.

Update - he has a hood, plus some more buckles. The hood is the big thing. Squinted the eyes a bit, slimmed the cheeks - jaw, upper lip, lower eyelid need work yet. Obviously needs hands, plus probably some more detail on the clothing, seams and suchlike, as well as all his props. The meshsmooth isn't optimized at all, either, so there are some floating elements (the little metal stud kinda things are the obvious examples).