Search the Community

Yup, it's a necessity I'm afraid to avoid being blowjobbed to death by all those drooling teenage girls who just can't get enough of us CG artists. I had to shoot three last week alone.

http://graphics.csail.mit.edu/~rjagnow/research/ That first entry on the page seems to be about taking a photo of some rocks, feeding the photo into some program, and it spits out a procedural texture - for use in volumetric rendering (wrong term), I mean how you cut away a peice of the geometry and you see exactly what you would see if you cut into such an object in real life - not a stretched texture of what was outside instead. We know procedural texturing has been around for some time, but this is the first time I've read anything about automatically generating a procedure by showing the program a photo.... There is some other cool stuff on that page to, that oDDity might be interested in, like "Stable Real-Time Deformations" which is about using bone type animation but when you bend things to extremes, they don't look wierd, like they normally do. More cloesly deformingn things the way they do in real life. Oh boy, this one blew me away; scroll down to "Real-Time Simulation of Deformation and Fracture of Stiff Materials" (last one on the page) It's got an animation of a brick actually breaking appart in real time because it hit something!!! Apparently thats the real physics at work, its not a pre-made animation!

First one is myst. Didn't recognise the second one and realised I don't have enough time for this. ...ah what the heck. I'll give it a go I like this stuff. Me and my brothers invented the "Video Game Head" game when we were bored, travellng once. Equivelant of "Celeberity Head", but you chose a specific video game character, and not nessecarily the lead roles. You'd be surprised how much fun it is. 2: Never played it 3: Scorched Earth, who could forget? 4: Sky Barons or something... I forgot 5: Jill of the Jungle, many fond memories 6: Hexen, one of my most favorite games ever! 7: Blake Stone, gave new life to the Wolfenstien engine 8: Earth Worm Jim - anyone seen the cartoon series? They are hilarous. 9: Crusader- No remorse/regeret, can't tell which. 10: hm... someone introduced me to that recently I think. Never played it though 11: BIOFORGE!!! I LOVE THAT GAME! I still have the original CD - I got it when it was released as a classic, years ago. 12: Dune 2 - the game that introduced me and my brothers to the concept of the RTS. So many hours spent on that. Also I got to show my brother's friend how having a sound card enables you to hear narration and people speaking in the game - grr, bad memories of so many people thinking sound blaster was some new fangled thing that made your PC speaker louder or somethng and it was a waste of money, without even HEARING IT! 13: Dark Forces - that one does'nt seem so old. I read the novel of that. The last chapter follows the first level down to the polygon, and still makes it realistic and entertaining! I was really impressed. 14: I think that is system shock. Kick me for never having yet played it, to this very day. 15: Tomb Raider. I'm sure some people still care about tombs... and the raiding thereof. 16: Commander Keen EGA - the only good platform game on the PC at the time. 17: I don't know but it sure looks cool. I want it. 18: That would have to be Blood or ... Shadow Warrior? The one starring Lu Wang or something 19: Looks like my roll has ended. Never played this one 20: Or this one. Looks like an Elite clone. 21: Ultima Ascension? That was a game that didn't rely on ambient sounds. If you heard a wolf howling in the distance, its because there really was a wolf howling in the distance... 22: Don't know. Looks cool. 23: Ditto 24: Ditto 25: Don't know but doesn't look that cool. 26: Half Life? I see a pattern. I'm not playing as much games as the years go on. ... 30: Is Thief Can't tell if its 1 or 2, so I failed that. 31: Looks like a LucasArts game, but I never played it. 32: Giants, one of my other most favorite games. MP is awesome.

I've spent the last few days searching the net for Doom 3 editing tutorials. Whilst there's a plethora of mapping video tuts, which were extremely helpful, I failed to find any weapon modelling/editing tutorials. Character production (in Max) and implementation tuts were equally lacking. I decided to ask for help on this board because I'm very impressed with the work that you're all doing and am hoping that you might be able to pass some wisdom on to me. So how about it? Any aid for a wannabe modder?

It's kind of strange to click through this photoalbum. I know many of these places from the shot because I grew up there, and this guy even took a shot which is very near the place where I spent the last ten years before I went germany in 2000. I forgot to mention. The interactive floorplan is in german language, but there are some boxes you can click on to see different shots and floorplans of various floors. You might just have to try it.

My posting was not aimed at you, as I understood you psoting in such a way that you are not of this opinion. Could be. But I think that in a ny fanforum this happens. Not just TTLG. Yeah. Matrix is really a good example. The second part head at least some very good SpecialFX but the story was already dragging and the last one. Well ... Yup. Well. That's life.

I'm not saying I agree with the sentiment, nor am I downplaying or underestimating any of TDM's prowess as professionals. Underneath all of the adoration and praise that the T3 devs get from TTLGers is the marked sense of dissapointment that a franchise that was so loved and supported is met with a mediocre reply (namely T3). A game that is only still remembered because of it's PC fanbase, is given to the console gamers in such a way that even the console gamers turn a nose up. I mean really...how stupid does Eidos and Ion really think X-Boxer's are? But in the end, T3 is the only other "official' continuation to the story, and just like the Matrix Trilogy, die hard fans are willing to swallow anything handed to them as long as it has farmiliar names on it. People still defend last Matrix movie, even though it was so obviously sub par at best. Just like the Wachowski Brothers, Eidos and Ion manged to fuck up an unfuckupable franchise. All I guess I'm saying is not to take it so personally. Alot of people over there have made thief thier lives, even if just on a subconcious level. It must hurt to realize that a game can end up sucking just as much as real life does. Hylix.

Much appreciated. We're all very happy to see it released at long last.

Does Doom 3 save information from the last loadzone when you go into a new area? If I killed a man in loadzone A, and went to loadzone C, when I returned through loadzone B would that man still lay dead?

I've come to realise that the way our current directory is set up is a bit....counterproductive. You can blame it on me considering that it was originally my idea, but I was more of a stark newb then and I now have a better idea of how to approach this. The biggest problem with the current directory is that it's a pain in the ass having to jump from folder ot folder just to load up specific textures that you need. None of the other editors out there, be it vanilla Doom 3, Unreal, Farcry, or whatever, are set up this way. I'm thinking of modeling it around a theme specific setup rather than the set/subset dealie we have now. For example, instead of: Mansion/walls/stone/mansion_wall_stone01 Mansion/doors/wood/mansion_door_wood03 or Crypt/doors/metal/crypt_door_metal01 Crypt/Floors/stone/crypt_floor_stone06 ..it'll be designed to load up every specific texture for that theme and organized by name. Like: mansion/mansdoor02 mansion/mansdoor04 or crypt/crypfloor06 crypt/crypwall07 That way a mapper won't have to jump back and forth between folders to have access to all the specific theme textures. If he wants to get to the door textures all he has to do is scroll down the window til he reaches em then jump back up to the walls later. Easy as that. Plus we have to consider that we're wasting tons of space by having an extra _ed file in there when we can just use the diffuse for both. This is how Id has it set up and we could easily cull an extra 60 meg from the mod by doing this. It'll take alot of material rewriting and texture renaming, but it won't be as difficult as last time thanks to Blackthief reorganizing all the materials into seperate files. The only problem I see with it is if we get ALOT of textures, as in more than 200, in a specific folder....but overall this is a much better setup. Your thoughts?

Except the zombeh they were all made last week specially for this reason. Macsen - the older ones are not that great and yes, most of my artworks for the HI are useless, as there aren´t many new models and objects being created. Here at the DM it´s the other way round.

I honestly haven't seen you around evilavatar, so I'll ignore the last comment. Everything else is fine with me really. qxD is my signiture, and there's nothing wrong with laughing a lot Hahaha have a lot of <_< folks! Peace out, Liquidize105

Well, I liked the number given in the last interview, Pakmannen saying the audio was "18.3% done". Could you present that information somewhere, for that and the other areas, updated occasionally? Also, why not have all the various screenshots put on your site, instead of scattered across multiple sites and interviews as they are now?

Someone isn't keeping me up to date on the situation here...last time I asked I was told that we could no longer link directly to files on the FTP due to the minihack. I just put the link up to the FTP cuz it was all I knew how to do.

Currently not. But ensuring that it will finally run on Linux is one of my priorities as I run Linux as my main system. It's not as bad in this case, because the only issue we can get is compiler errors. Operating system platforms should be minor because we are coding within D3 and not withing an operating system. Well, this sounds like you could be our Linux tester. My problem is that I can't run D3 on Linux right now, because I have no sounddriver for my card Creative Audigy ZS 2, which I bought specifically for T3. Maybe there is already a driver available because this was some months ago when I last checked.

Wow, I got my own thread. I am humbled. I really don't want to drag my personal life into this, so only a little background: *Old-die-hard-thief fan. I played it when it first came out. Somebody might infer a lot from the type of games I own, but then, I have also played games that I don't own and I own some games that I never played Anyway: http://digital-conquest.ath.cx/wiki/index.php/User:Tels * I am a full-time programmer by living. I code usually in Perl, but have done my share in C, XS, Pascal, countless other programming languages, assembler (back in "teh dayz" when you called yourself "coder", drank lot's of coffee and went to bed when the sun started to get so bright that you couldn't see the letters on the monitor anymore - e.g. right at dawn). However, the language you use does really not matter, because saying C is better than C++ or vice versa is saying that Russian is better than Esperanto. Use the right tool for the right job. * I gave up on windows a long time ago. (Before that, I used OS/2. Damn, now I feel really old * Beside programming, I also take apart other programs, fileformats etc. (See Cowgen Anyway, I am not qualified for C++ 3D coding. D3 scripting looks easy, though, after reading the tutorials. As soon as I get the dang radiant working I'll have a go One of the things that "bothers" me is that even nowadays, you always start mapping from scratch. I mean, you take an empty space, and add brushes. And if you want a staircase, you build it yourself, out of tiny, weeny, little solid slabs. Sounds manly, but boring - that is sooo 1995. I thought in the last 5 years people would have finally gotten the idea that doing this wastes a lot of time and automated the level creation process (see Cowgen, again . So currently I have the idea that I can write plugins/tools/extensions to radiant, that lets you automate boring tasks, like creating a staircase, or other often needed things. Another possible idea is to build "building blocks" like archs, staircases and have them as pre-made "stubs" that you can insert into your level as to not waste time just because you need a 12x8 staircase *now* Well, guess that doesn't sound all to impressive since I don't have definite projects or materials to show ) If you'd ask me what role I can see me in (in no particular order): Mapper (I love architecture, especally red brick churches , Scripter, Betatester extraordinaire. If I had to describe myself: "Hacker" (in the old-school sense Tels

http://www.bloodgate.com/perl/packages/cow.zip - Warning! Last modified Januar 2001 (e.g. four years ago...) Email is on the way with my new adresses. (I had to disable the taffer@ and thief@ adresses due to too much spam )

apt-get for Suse is, well lets say, vastly inferior to both Yast and the real thing on debian and emerge. Last time I used it, it completely fubared my system :/ I think we should continue the OS discussion elsewhere, if you want to chat about that sort of stuff Anyway, I'll find a way to install gtkradiant... Tels PS: Yes, would like to dabble in coding for dark mod, the doom3 engine impressed the hell out of me and the first thing I thought "wow, that would make a good Thief engine.."

Helo Dram! Do I know you? (Just kidding, because every Thief knows every Taffer Anyway, I asked about Linux, and I doubt that Doom3.exe will work here good enough. Thanx to the gtkradiant link from somebody else, I forgot about this one. Last time I looked, it barely had doom3 support and this version wasn't available for linux. Now it seems that should work, downloading it as I type this... Excuse me, I have a program to install Tels

That's obviously quaility work, but I'd need to see more complete models that that before judgment commences. Have you done any complete characters? Also, the last thing we need is another modeller who can't texture his own work, our texture artist can't keep up as it is, so show us some textured models if you have any. If your modeling is really awesome to behold you can probably get in on that strength alone, but if it's only good, you'll need to be able to texture them as well.

I also never had any real issues with Windows needing to reinstall. I had it a few times (more often then with Linux, where this was never required) but it was not THAT often that I really would complain about it. At least I only had a few occasions because of Windows crashing. What is usually the cause of new installation is when I do a hardware upgrade. This happened in the last two years three times where I was forced for a complete re-install. Linux is much better in that regard, because I never needed a complete re-install. Compiling a new kernel and that's it. The system works as before without any addtional installation required.

actually there was one major weakness to the T: DS way of doing it over T1 and T2 - there were no "unpickable" doors.. sure you might say a master thief like garret could lockpick anything, but then again in the first mission of T2 he is not portrayed as such, and has to rely on basso to open the door holding Jenivere. This is just my opinion, but in T1 and T2 unlockable doors greatly enhanced the gameplay. it meant that there wasnt one surefire way to get in anywhere, and required actual hunting for keys and clues to complete a mission. The whole concept of unlockable doors melded into the game remarkably well too. The importance of this shouldnt be underestimate - while a lot of freedom was given to the player, thief missions did not reflect real robberies - they presented the player with lots of unrealistic albeit fun stumbling blocks that required a change of appraoch. This diversified the gameplay somewhat, and unpassable doors were one very popular way of stopping the players advance. They also gave mission designers far more freedom to make interesting missions which people didnt fly right through. The darkmod doesnt have to emulate the Thief 3 way of lockpicking. Im sure there could easily be a way to make unpickable doors, but it would be more challenging to meld this concept into the actual game without creating disbelief - after all, once the player has to exercise skill to pass an obstacle, they expect that skill to be able to pass another obstacle of the same type. A detached approach as in thief 1 and 2 ensures that the player never percieves the bypassing of the lock as being in their full control, and so isnt as frustrated when it is not possible. In Thief 3 doors would become a testing ground for how fast you could get through them, and not being able to pick them at all would have proven very frustrating. I think each approach needs to be looked at in quite a lot of detail, as it does make a large difference in the game. A detached system such as in t1 and t2 can be made to be very simple yet just complicated enough to give the player the sense that they can speed the process up in some way. In thievery players would only use one set of picks and frob a door for the required time. This proved infinitely more boring than the pretty simple system of having 2 sets of picks that require switching. The advantage of a system like this is that the player never feels that they ought to be able to get through any door and therefore isnt frustrated when they cannot, the system is simple and melds easily into the game, is relatively easy to do yet satisfying while avoiding the random frustration of a more involved system. This is because a more involved system involves chance as you scout for pins, and missing the mark repeatedly can be very frustrating - the player is relying on their skill, and having youre picking time slowed down due to mistakes is not going to go down well. In essence the T1/T2 system is a very DEFINITE system - you can switch picks quicker, but other than that theres nothing you can do to speed the process up - it doesnt require much concentration, yet is still quite entertaining. It melds in easily enough, and seems very similar to using a key - this is important as similarities between picks and keys should be emphasised to create credibility. Finally the player isnt frustrated when their options are limited by unpickable doors, as they never had all that many options for unlocking doors in the first place. The player also never gets the feeling that they entered a minigame. An involved system such as in Thief 3 invariable requires a lot of concentration and ends up quite complicated. Compared to T1/T2 system, it is far more prone to chance, and at the end of the day never really stops the player getting through the door. All that such a system does is provide an interesting minigame and a chance to influence picking times with the players skill and a little luck. This is gonna create large disreptencies in the picking times between players. This type of system has almost exactly the same result as the more simple model - that is to open a door - as it is unlikely to involve so much skill as to make some doors impossible to pick. However, it does so in a more interesting, rewarding and deep, albeit more complicated and frustrating way. In the end the important thing is that player's experiences on this subject in thief 3 differed, so players should be given an option as per springheel's post. However, even in such a case it may be more difficult to include doors that cannot be bypassed by lockpicking without creating disbelief and/or frustration. This is a stiff negative. Another negative is the inherent difference in operation this will likely create between using a key and lockpicking, again taking away from credibility and detracting from the feeling of a common, universal and intuitive way of doing things. The third option is to create a system that is so scalable and yet so difficult at the high end that only highly skilled players will be able to pick the best locks, and yet even the lowest skilled able to pick simple locks. This would most reflect the real process of lockpicking, where an unskilled user will take a half hour, if at all, to pick their front door lock, while a highly skilled pro will pick almost any lock in under 30 seconds (personal experience!). However, it is a bit much to expect that such a system could indeed be made in a game without extra sensory inputs. I agree with Oddity that it is mostly improbable that the skill associated with lockpicking in real life can be even partially translated to a game. This system would also prove very complicated, frustrating and difficult to meld into the game, but would be very rewarding. Nevertheless, ruling the last system out, it comes down to which abstraction would prove most fun and flexible for both players and map designers. Both will serve no other purpose than to abstractly make the player feel that opening a locked door takes time and is difficult, creating tension and atmosphere. This is their primary role. Giving the player a choice as to which system to employ is probably the safest bet, but when you look at the purpose of lockpicking in the game in this way, it seems illogical to make an involved system so easy as to involve almost no delay in breaking in at all, and likewise illogical to prove slower than doing it the good old fashioned click and wait way. This combined with the difficulty of making an involved system convincing and not seem like a minigame means that even a system giving the player a choice is not going to be easy to implement. This is a very long post and probably excessively long, so i apologise to those who have managed to make it even half this way. I hope some of this helped!

We've discussed so many issues over the last 6 months, it's hard to be sure with out a search (and I can't be bothered) but I don't thionk we have decided yet. My personal opinion is that lockpicking is the most tedious of procedures in a game, and cannot be made interesting no matter what. It's only exciting to pick a door when there is a chance a guard is going to patrol past you at any second, so it creates a sense of urgency and tension. Having to pick a lock under any other circumstances by any means is utterly pointless and irritating, and the skill required to do it cannot be transfered to a game, wiht out making it a separate mini puzzle game (which everyione would despise even more) I think we should keep locked doors to a minimum (who locks internal doors anyway?) and only to areas with AI patrols. THe problems with having the hamds coming out, holding lockpicks like in T3, is that you have to have a 'suck in' animation to hold the player in the right position so the animaton lines up with the lock. No one here is a fan of sucking in. I always prefered to have to find keys to open important doors. Picling them always seemed too boring and easy asnd definite. I prefer the automatic door opening if you have the right key. Either that or you have to try every key you have, not having any idea which one it could be.

Taz, you have a good point, however (here's an idea), what about the rumours of zombies, tree-beasts, pagans, haunts, spiders, etc. I personally think that if I heard a rumour that zombies walk around the place where I'm planning to taff next, I would most DEFINATELY grab the sword any day over the dagger, the last thing you want is to be stuck against the wall when a tree-beast charges at you, yeah, i know, you could use a flashy. But the point is, a sword is much more appropriate in the world that Garrett lives in then a pissy dagger. Also, he could carry the sword on his back with the bow , though it is true that he carries so much crap that he must be Hercules. But anyway, good point --Dram

Ahhh, the hud.gui file. Indeed. I think it's these last two values: windowDef Lightgem { rect 250,400,100,80