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I managed to get it sorted out, I didn't need any .def file actually, just wrote a material shader. I got the lightwave normal map plugin working (I just needed to get the LW8 version) so I didn't have to bother pissing about with renderbump. I can tell you now how to get a complete textured, normaled, speced static mesh into Doom using Lightwave, but since no one else here uses LW, there isn't much point As for getiing animated characters into the game, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it...

The theme is: Mansion. Influences: T2-style Gervasius, Truart, Running Interference type mansion, T1 Bafford & petit Constantine, T3 Overlook Manse, Perry Castle thingummy. Models Furniture http://www.sandersontx.org/victorian.jpg http://images.oneofakindantiques.com/2210_...ned_chair_3.jpg http://www.deaneupholstery.co.uk/images/ch1%20(exview).jpg http://oldimports.com/400/414.jpg http://www.furniture-furnishings.co.uk/Fur...ng_table_lg.jpg http://www.victorianfurniturereproductions...im ages/6505.jpg://http://www.victorianfurniturereprod...m ages/6505.jpg http://www.herringport.co.uk/images/oak/four-poster-bed.jpg Light Objects http://www.llph.co.uk/Chandeliers%20and%20Lights/ELLB175.jpg http://images.oneofakindantiques.com/2399_...light_1_mid.jpg Torch (I couldn't find a suitable image; you know what these look like) Textures More of what we already are making, please!!!! We need more flooring, marble floors especially. And carpet. Lots of carpet. Use original Thief games for inspiration in all cases. More to come, don't harass me yet. :lol:

True, that one was the quickest piece I whipped up and it didn't have much to it. I really like what you've done with it though. The boots are great. When you redo the textures, could you darken them a bit? The red is showing a little too pink for my tastes...the builder colours I used were as close to blood-red and dark iron as I could get. I see you've got a banner of some sort in the background...we have yet to agree on a Builder emblam...have you come up with one?

Okee doka. I know that this is a minor detail that can be figured out in the future...but when I get an image burned into my head with such clarity, I really have to conceptualize it somehow. I made up a little animation to demonstrate exactly how I see the arrows behaving in my head. When the arrows are stored in the Thiefs quiver they are inactive...don't really know why that is but I'm sure there is some Thieflike universe reasoning. They will have no light coming from them when they are first in our view...you will be able to see that they are an unlit blue/ green or in the case of this demonstration redish colored crystal. Once they come into contact with the Thiefs bow however, they start to glow and then exhibit some effects as to the arrows use...water/ fire/ gas/ moss. The glow doesn't truly begin until he starts pulling the arrow back though, so it's rather quick. It would be like....puuullllllll.....Fwooosh flames. After thinking about it...there may still be a very subtle glow off of the arrows as their taken out, but they would only be at their brightest when they are fully pulled back in the bow. Anyway, this would be rather cool in action.

Sounds good in principle. I'm still not 100% married to the above concept (and by that I mean mine, not yours) if someone could come up with something better.

Come off it? I'm not referring to 'problems' with steam - it's larger than that. If you are comfortable with their 'delivery system' and what using it involves and means in the big picture, okay. I'm not. I happen to think it's another case where producers of a product are forcing something on people, and people are bending over and taking without protest. There are countless products and companies that can serve as further examples in everything ranging from automobiles to toothpaste (yes, toothpaste). I don't want any part of it; though, as I said - it's probably the way of the future, and there's no avoiding it as long as the masses accept it. That topic alone could spark a huge philosophical debate about the "way things are" versus the "way things should be"... but I don't feel like it right now.

Oh come off it, steam isn't that bad. Yes it's got some flaws but i haven't had many problems with it.

I don't get it - what's wrong with the corners ?? The problem with the model is that there are some really unnecesarry faces (for example on the back chair-legs) that are even so small that it's a pain in the ass to UV-map it. I don't where they come from and I also don't know, how to handle this. I'm still a noob at modelling.

Hey, it still looks pretty damned Good Springheel. Good job. It will come together I'm sure.

That's what I've always said. BTW, you asked, so I spoil it for you - YES, the scenery does change eventually. Well, the tension comes from that a monster can spawn or break out behind your back at any time, but what makes it scarey is that it looks so damn realistic. This game engine is so awesome. So awesome that they didn't even need to make a real game Heheh. Doom 3 is okay. It's not like the repetative battles are actually hard. I just played my way through with a frame rate that was 4-8 fps half of the time and 15-30 fps the other half of the time, and every battle can be played the same way as Doom 1 and 2. Each monster has a "best" way of killing it, that you soon learn: Imps - Wait till their fairly close, dodge the last fireball, and run right into their face and fire the shot gun. Can even be done easily with multiple enemies around. Etc. etc. I won't tell you my tactics for all the others, cause I'm not sure what youve' seen so far (so as not to spoil it), but they are all as fairly straight forward as that. And then the general tactics - which basically consist of - if there are multiple enemies, backtrack to a choke point and shoot them as they come through one by one. (The level designers obviously knew about this, so sometimes you open a door and find some enemy in your face that wasn't there before. It's usually just a soldier or imp, and their main weakness is a shotgun blast to the head. Works really well.) Or if stuck in a tight spot, run to the nearest corner and jump out and shoot them when their footsteps are loud enough. I don't know what exactly you liked more about Doom 1 and 2 over 3. They played exactly the same way as Doom 3, and a few slight scenery changes that were really just different textures. Everything still looked like the same old boxy graphics. Doom 3 just has more cooler features, like better graphics and physics. And when the scenery does change, it REALLY DOES change.

My limitation was objects. I needed so many bloody torches to light up my palace, that there weren't enough objects left to make the rest of the city, forest, etc. Another thing is, the main reason I felt I needed so many torches is because you couldn't carry them around with you like you could in real life back in those times. Cellars etc. would have removable torches in the doorway (in the same way we have our light switches at the doorways of a room) so that you could light the torch (if nessecary) and carry it down with you, and put it back on your way out. Another limitation was that all guards would hate you. For that, I had to make up some crummy curfew into the storyline (like so many other fan missions have done). Unless they had the frontgateguard property on. But even then, if anything got them mad (eg. zombie), they would hate you when they next saw you, wether or not you were the cause of the problem. I tried to explain it by adding a "you're the stranger and if anything goes wrong, you'll be the first suspect" thing into the plot, but it was even more crummier than the curfew idea, so I went with the curfew idea... Also, I wanted to have text come up instead of recordings, when someone spoke, because of the fact that I couldn't find any decent voice actors, and it's a lot of trouble. I'd just like to release it with text-only dialogue, and then put voices in when I can find the time. You could do this in DromEd, but it was really fiddly. I'd like it to be easier.

I figure some of us will just be messing around in Photoshop and come up with miscellaneous Thief-related artwork from time-to-time that may or may not be usable for DarkMod. Such an occurrence just happened for me. I was just messing around in Photoshop and made this flaming hammer, with Springheel's priest in the background. Nothing special; just did it for fun. This thread can be used by anyone who just happens to whip out some miscellaneous thief-related artwork and wants to post it for others to see. Since we all love Thief, I'm sure we can all appreciate thief-inspired artwork, no matter how great or small.

Well, I hope I'm not stealing your thunder, but the prodigal son has returned. Attached is the stack I made, the UV map for it, the normal map for it, etc. I recommend you use the same rez as the normal map, but it's your call. The colors should map the normaling, naturally, but other than that, it's all good. I've come to grips with the fact that my computer is out of commission for a week more at least, so now I've returned this one to its former, old-but-working state. Expect more models soonish. There are three stacks included - a tall, a medium, and a short. They all use the same normal map, and should be able to use the same diffuse/specular as well. ~Christian COINS.zip

Rather than posting lots of pictures, I'll just keep updating this one. edit: A new version. I made a totally new room, with wood trim. Woot! I'll have to come up with some more ceiling choices.

Perhaps. I was mostly thinking towards something for replay value. But yes, it might be an "iffy" thing. Maybe a more refined idea could come from this. Wait, how about then, instead of random loot spawns... randomized (within set locations) loot locations! I forget what game it was, damn... some game that was out a while ago had you looking for...um.. something(?!) and each time you played it could be in a different location. *WRACKS BRAIN* What the heck game was that? Anyway, imagine hitting Bafford's again, only to find that the scepter is NOT in the throne room? That instead, he left it near his fireplace in his bedroom. That little feature could add replay value to a mission - random choice of special loot (ugh, did I just use that phrase?) placement points. Maybe objectives would/could/(should?) change to go with it. "Steal the scepter. Lord Bafford has been sick recently, and hasn't been to his throne room for weeks." Right. As I was mentioning, it always struck me (only bothered me a little, but it bothered nonetheless) odd in Thief that sometimes people are just pacing. Guards? Yes, that's fine. But when a servant, or Lady of the house or whatever, is just pacing back and forth for no apparent reason, it just seems odd. It would be much better if they actually appeared to be doing something (which rests on the shoulders of the designer, ultimately), but if they can't be made to look like they're doing "something", every little bit that actually helps them look alive, helps. Incidentally, why a new thread? Or was that just a posting error? I feel a spotlight on my back! *runs and hides*

We had briefly discussed (in a different thread) using different sounds for the same object in relation to musical instruments that a player might come across (e.g., a harp). I thought it was pretty much a given that we'd want to do this for most sound effects.

That's a bit of a problem because there can be all kind of missions. Since DromEd allows you to create arbitrary missions the only thing you can do to avoid this is either have more general bakrs, or you must record voices suiting your environment. That depends on the environment. I guess if you come across a dead body of a guard in a museum you are set to guard you should expect it to be a Thief (or something not belonging here anyway). Why? That's a nice idea.

I haven't played T3, but from my Dromed 2 experiences: One thing that I find frustrating is the AI not being able to differentiate between a mansion and the streets of the City. In T2, I've often heard a guard say "I think there's someone in the building", despite not even being in the grounds of a building. The ability to only allow certain schemas to play if there is a certain property on the AI (which is added/removed depending on evironment) would be useful, and would make the AI seem more intelligent. Another thing that bugs me is that the AI know the intruder's a Thief even if the only evidence they've come across has been a dead body. And if you KO/kill an AI, it should be possible to put it onto a bed and so if it's seen by another AI, it assumes it's just asleep. An AI should not be able to patrol past a sleeping AI without waking it up. If a sleeping AI wakes up and eventually decides there was nothing bad there, it should go back to sleep.

intelligent ai behaviors, such as in far cry, ai rush to an injured friend, draw weapons, then start searching, you hear them shout commands to each other as they move. the entire search is systematic. convincing keepers assasains, come on, silentsleep did better in equilibrium with the dark engine then ion storm could do in their fancy engine. a wider variety of weapons, i made gas bombs in dark, i almost made moss arrows choke ai like in deadly shadows in dark, the motions were wrong. it would be interesting to see the player pick up a mechanist mace and smash in a door instead of just throwing it at the door until it opens. a simple scripting language for scripted events. there are many times in dark where i could write a script to create an effect but have no idea how to. so resort to a rube goldberg system of buttons, emitters and s/r in a blue room to do it. yet if i used the simple construction language of a TI-85 calculator i could do all the same things in a flash. a shame really that the most powerful tool in dark is still the least accesible to the common dromed user.

I've uploaded three versions of the Lightgem model (.lwo files) to the FTP site. They are in /models/lightgem. The whatis.txt file gives a basic description of what each file is. The lightgem.lwo file is the high detail model that we probably don't want to use. 2.5 k polys The lightgemr2.lwo file is a medium detail model that renders nearly as well as the high detail model, at 1024 polys. Still probably too high, plus there are some non-planar quads that may cause problems. The lightgemr3.lwo file is a lower res model that looses some visual detail and has 770 polys. Still might be too high, and the nonplanars are still there... The lightgemr4.lwo file is a algorithmically reduced object with 692 polys. These are all tris. The mesh is quite messy in comparison, but the model doesn't render too badly. We may want to use this. The reason I provide all these models is so we can choose which model is the best size and complexity. Also if someone is better at reducing models than I am, they can give it a crack and perhaps come up with a better result. Material definitions are all procedural and stored within the lwo files. I also changed the point colors a bit. Here is a new sample:

Damn good job man. When I come off my self enforced break tomorrow (wanted to step back for a second to get a fresh view on things...and World of Warcraft kinda came up) I'm gonna try to figure out how to do multilayered clouds somewhat similar to the original Unreal. Skies are one of the least regarded, but one of the most important, aspects of creating a cool atmosphere.

He's a little less experienced, but I'm sure I'll be able to coach him through without much of a problem. They're just quick samples, so with some time spent on the actual recording he should come out great.

This looks very cool. I want those spider webs! Any idea how they might have accomplished that? http://mods.moddb.com/gallery/image/17163/ Come to think of it, are there spider webs already in D3?

I've been looking for a good spiderweb texture for a long, long while now. I've tried everything, even dog fur, but so far haven't come up with anything wispy enough. Dom...I don't remember spiderwebs being in the game. I've looked through the editor but haven't found anything even remotely resembling them.

Ok, Pak and I have been swapping ideas...goldfish too. Stealing from both of them, I've come up with this: The title would have to be bigger, and the clock needs hands, but what do you think so far? I think something needs to be added to the sides, but I'm not sure what. Comments welcome. Btw, Pak, what did you do to the font to get that effect? I've tried duplicating it, but can't get it exactly.