Search the Community

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.

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.

I dunno. Everytime I try to add "heightmap <map>" on a seperate string the editor starts reporting errors and won't display the texture in render mode. I've seen other material files on D3W that do it that way so I must be missing a step. I'd love to see our own parallax map mod, but we gotta find someone that can write GLprogs to do it right. Spar might be able to, but he's already got alot on his shoulders already. Think Nex or Oof would be up to it?

lol, don't ask. YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW! Looking damn good, man. I'm impressed. I've started getting into the materials a bit more deeply over these last few days, and I've finally discovered the joys of heightmaps. I used my most recently wall as an example since I already had a greyscale height on hand....and this is what I came up with. Doesn't look vastly different at first glance, but the sense of depth is a little better and the shadows seem to contour to it a bit more realistically. I added this line to my bumpmap material to achieve it...addnormals blends heightmaps and normalmaps (or 2 normalmaps) together to achieve both a sense of depth and detail. I wanna get into more, but since the editor crashes or bugs the texture when I try something more spectacular out (even stuff I rip already proven to work perfectly) I'm stuck with the basics at the moment bumpmap addnormals(textures/dark_mod/crypt/walls/stone/crypt_wall_stone02_local.tga, heightmap(textures/dark_mod/crypt/walls/stone/crypt_wall_stone02_h.tga, 25 ) ) Edit: The forum wrapped the text around...the bumpmap command above should all be on one string.

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.

There should be two model files, three texture files and some definition code (like the material definitions, but for models) that goes in a central def file, for each model. It would be best to have a folder for each model, or zip file.

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

sound shaders, my dear friend Pak, are basically like material shaders in that they tell the engine how to mix the sounds with other sounds and which sounds to play. So you could have a sound shader which is called, but actually references several sound files, and randomly plays one each time, for instance.

No reason why a simple, generic cube environment map could be applied to the material. But it would reflect the same in any location. Still would look pretty cool, though.

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

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.

Yeah, the original render was large to show off detail, and the screenshot was just a quick drop in photoshop. It looks good as it gets smaller, although I'd be concerned that it will be hard to see the direction indication if it gets too small. The color of the gem itself...erm...sure I guess. A material shader with a shader parm representing the desired gem color might be possible. Getting the light color in the area might not be too difficult either. Don't really know at this point.

What I'll do is build you a simple 2 room map with a door in the center using the new texture structure so you can test out the frob effect. I'll do it before I go to bed tonight. I'm finishing up the new material file now. After that I have to do some 40 odd specular maps and redo the textures on my maps (plus finish up the gallery, which'll take about 5 minutes), plop it in Darkmod.pk4 and I'll finally be modready. Speaking of the speculars....Spring, could you give me a hand with em? We'll split em in half and work on em seperately so I don't have to worry about rushing through it and compromising the quality.

It's done. All I need to do is make the material file and we're good to go. While I was finishing up I decided that it'd be a better idea to just upload everything in the texture pack to the FTP in the current directory structure so we could all follow it. If you intend on adding a texture just go to the proper folder, check your file name against what's there, and upload away. Basically what will be sitting on our server IS the texture pack, anyone that's interested in doing textures or maps at all just needs to grab the dark_mod folder and drag it to their base/textures folder in Doom 3. It won't overwrite the old darkmod directory just yet, that'll still be in use til I port my maps over to the new texture set, but it's there for anyone that wants to use it.

If you want to stay free, use Blender (someone wrote an exporter for D3).... You could learn Lightwave and I'm sure it's great, but I think there has been an exporter written for 3DSMax also. Not sure though...check the D3W forums.

Not sure if I know exactly what a Kurshok or Crayman looks like, but I recently played T1 a little and think I found one. This concept is loosely based on that guy I saw. Drawn completely from scratch without looking at anything, so I don't imagine there'd be any copyright issues unless I have a photographic memory and am an autistic savant in the closet I was thinking the little green belly thing could be a weak point for arrows or something... (ensuring a one-shot kill). I'm not sure if the concept captures it very well, but since the guy has crab-like pincers, I was thinking his chest, shoulders, pincers, parts of his exoskeleton body and legs could be made of a hard shell-like material. I envision fleshy (or not as hard parts) around his rib-cage, biceps, neck, and possibly parts of his legs and feet. Click here for larger version of same pic. Note: I didn't work on the legs or feet much, so they lack detail. I can work on them later, if needed. I figure I should at least create some feet. I envision him having a clicking sound of some sort, as his somewhat insect-like. I think this may be the sound the similar creatures in T1 had, but can't remember.

I think perhaps I'll have to pick up Blender to carry us over our lack of 3D team....that is, only one modeller. Adverts have gone on D3W, ttlg & polycount: any of you advertise on any other suitable forums too.

If I ever manage to get some extra time between all the mapping, texturing, and bossing people around with impunity (haHAAA) I might consider helping make a town map or dungeon for you. I love me some Secret of Mana, and it'd be fun to do a little something for your mod later on down the road. Just keep an eye open for potential copywrite infringements. Square-Enix shut down that really cool Chrono Trigger remake recently, and they might eventually look your way if you stay too close to their material.

The face sketch is here: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?act=S...3&st=0#entry796 I wasn't sure whether a side view was necessary...if you'd like one just let me know.

I placed a few sound samples from my keyboard over in the Art > Sound > Sound Effects/Music > "Sound Effects, Ambience, Music" thread. Please check out that post: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?act=S...=findpost&p=779

Another problem is the material .mtr file. I had added some new ones to mine, and then downloaded a new version from Renazatic. I either had to go in and do all kinds of swapping and cut and pasting, or just make two different .mtr files...one for ftp downloads and one for my own textures. It's a piecemeal solution though. One problem, Ren...what happens if we all make a mansion_wood_01? How do we avoid duplicating names?

Hmm, something does look familiar about it to me. Maybe it was only used in certain books or certain notes lying around? Here's the post I got it from: http://forums.ionstorm.com/index.php?showt...ndpost&p=355674