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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.

Yeah. That sums it up pretty well for me. I try to avoid this topic like hell. Don't want to start it up again.

yes, but people always think and talk in polygons 2000 triangles/1000 polys is quite alright, isn't it ? BTW already started UV-mapping it, but I had to start again, cauze there was something missing on the model. I'm going to use the same texture as the coffeetable - there's so much space left and I can use the wood-texture for the chair as well. this way we'll safe memory

I think the table is ok. It's the environment where the table doesn't really fit in, though. I don't know. The question is how this impacst performance. Of course the stuff should look good, but will there so many books at once that we will get problems of this? Of course you always have to keep the whole picture in mind. Teh game shouldn't start to get a slidshow when three Ai's are coming in the room. I noticed that you spelled the names differently. One time you wrote coffetab1 and the other one you wrote coffeetab1. After I realized that the table showed up in the editor as well. And of course you must set the game to darkmod as well, but I think you already did this.

well it's a coffeetable - they are very low in RL - for example: well of course they'll look better with a normalmap, but is it really worth for such small objects ? remember - each normalmap needs graphics-memory. I'd rather prefer to have more high-res textures and skins instead of normal-mapping every tiny little object regarding the specular - that shouldn't be a problem, however I can't get the objects working in the editor myself - dunno why - they are all black cubes in the editor, but they work when I start D3 and load the mod

Yes. It would definitely be great if we had a level mapper now who can start using these things. I uploaded it here: DarkMod-0.005d Don't delete your old directory. Just extract this one over the current one. It doesn't include the DLL or anything.

I know a few of them. Could ask. But I seriously doubt they'd be willing to start another huge project so soon after T2X.

Before you start serious skinning make sure the size is correct.

Nice to hear. As you may have noticed a lot of our modellers disappeared. So next time it would be great if you could drop a line. It's very frustrating when suddenly all are gone without notice. Maybe this is a coincidence, but of course if all of them suddenly vanishes then, at least I, start to worry a little bit.

The lighgem is already copiued to the server and looks quite cool. Since I'm almost finished with my current tasks (for now that is) I would like to start working next on some gameplay HUD elements. For this I will need a skinned lightgem. I can do easy stuff, but the lightgem is beyond me for now. Anybody available for that? BlackThief? When you are finished with the table can you do this? The lightgem is in lightwave though, so probably we will need somebody who can use this.

With the help of Jay and some threads on D3world I finally managed to create my own custom model and import it into D3. And it is already frobable, but that is probably to be expected now. Don't expect to much, because it is just a simple bowl, and I think it might be much t heavy for such a simple object. It's a drab bowl and it has 84 faces. The problem is that i don't know how to lower the polygons while maintaining the detail. Maybe somebody could explain that to me. At least it is a start and I can now create my own objects for testing until I get good models from our artists. Are there any still around, or did they all leave now?

I just noted that the lightgem model is on the FTP server. This is good to know. Unfortunately it is in a non-ASCII format and thus we can not edit it. I don't want to install lightwave just to be able to to open the file and I wouldn't even know how to do this in ligthwave. Ignoring that fact that I don't want to install a pirated copy of Lightwave as Blender perfectly serves my purpose. As the lightgem is only a static mesh, I expect that I can easily import it into Blender. Of course to avoid such problems in the future you should always assign the material name right from the start. I think we should create a HUD directory in the models section where we can store the respective HUD models. So the lightgem would have a path like this in the material: //darkmod/models/hud/lightgem Also always provide a textfile with the authors name/email, what the file contains and which version this is. oofnish did that in this case, but we should make this as a rule. Since we will store other HUD elements as well the description file should be name <modelname>.txt --------------------------- Author: Name <email> Version: 0.1 Description: this is the most woot model for our mod. ---------------------------

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.

Ok, well, how about I give you the bowl and plate models to start with? plate ref= http://home.southland.net/~bettyg/mattprat.jpg (probably more for the skinner) Those kinds of easy things I could probably skin myself, I just need the UVmap. Any interest in doing objects in the meantime NH? (Also, check with Sparhawk about that blender template he was talking about...we shouldn't rely too much on oDDity, since we don't know if/when he'll be back.)

I was thinking of trying out some modeling myself, but would really like to work off of Oditty's templates to keep things consistent. I also learn from disecting things as well so I think it would really help to have a perfect specimen to work with. I'll have to try and contact Oditty somehow and see if he'll post them on the ftp. Life in the vocals world won't get super busy until we start recording and that's not going to be until I have the cast finalized....which is looking to be a few weeks away yet. This is more of a ...I'll try it in my spare time and if I suck, you won't hear a word from me about it. LOL

Whew. Hey everybody. Here's what's up. Over the past few weeks, I've been trying to set up a new computer - dual processor workstation, basically, since this guy is coming to its knees over the thief model. A 1.5 GHz box with onl 512 megs of RAM won't cut it anymore. So last night, I finally got all the parts to the new computer. Put it together. Aaaaand... nothing. Wouldn't post. No warning beeps. I've ordered a new power supply, as the one I have may not be enough, but now I'm suspicious that it may be my motherboard, in which case I'll have to get that replaced by Buy.com. This, combined with school work, has kept me drowning for a while now. Now, if the power supply works, I'll be all set on monday - but this is looking less and less likely. Expect a week or two to get the new mobo if that's necessary. I'm really sorry about all of this - but believe me, I'm no happier about it than all of you. I'm going to try to compile everything I've done to date into a handy dandy package (normal maps and so forth plus models for the lamp and the coins, as well as the models of the arrows) and upload them soon. For those interested, however, this is why this whole ordeal is worth it: ASUS NCCH-DL motherboard - dual Xeon capable, 800 MHz FSB, 4 USB 2.0, AGPx8, 2 PCI-X, 2 PCI, board-native optical audio out and game controller. One Xeon 2.8 GHz 800 MHz FSB to start, with another later on when I can afford it. 1 GB Kingston PC2700 RAM 512 MB Kingston PC2100 RAM GeForce 5950 Ultra FX 256MB ...So as I said. This is WORTH IT. Doubling my processor speed with an option to redouble it later, tripling my RAM, getting a waaay fatter FSB... yeah. So wish me luck, friends!

I was just thinking I could supply anyone who wants it with a male and female template, they're anatomically correct, and just have to be pushed , squashed, resized, tweaked etc. Of course it doesn't make it any easier, and it isn't cheating, you still have all the modeling to do on top of it, but it does give you something perfect to build the armour/clothing around, and saves the time modeling hands and feet and a new head for every character.. I use them as a base for all my characters, even monsters. I was just thinking that it may halp some people wo want to model but aren't confident enough to start a character from scratch. I'l post shots of them later.

This post is specically intended for BlackThief, but also to others with that expertise, but BT is the only one whom I found as being registered as skinner. BT: I know that you are busy with textures, but I think for now we have at least enough textures to make simple rooms (the gallery is a wonderfull example of this) and so I wondered if you could start on skinning some of the models that are already available. I know that the AI models are not ready, but there are some items that should be ready. Flashbomb, stack of coins and the lamplight. It would be very helpfull if these three could be already imported in-game as they represent three different set of objects I could use pretty soon (or even already).

well first I need a "texture template" and the 3ds file from the modeller, otherwise I can't start.

I think the one thing holding you back is that you don't have enough actual game experience just yet. Doing some mod and map work, not just for ours but for a number of other projects down the line, could help bolster your resume and draw some more attention to it. Doing stuff like this is how a number of people got their start. If a company sees that you understand how to make game enviroments, something that plays as good as it looks, then they'll be more willing to look your way. Edited for teh grahm...graim...good wordin.

can I get a copy of your templates oddity? I am going to start modeling the noble man. How many triangles are in your main characters so far ..how many should I use for the noble man ? I checked out your work when I signed up …very nice indeed , especially the builder priest. I take it this particular model is a high res static mesh mainly for concept ‘ing’ .

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 ?

Whoops - good call, Springheel. Will start a thread.

Thanks, I'll try some of that out. I'll probably start out with a fairly basic brick texture, set it to 30x30 lines on the width and height and edit the vertices and do extrudes to get the depth and shape right. I'll post it when I have something interesting to show. Oh yeah, I tried the cut tool right fast and it seems fairly chaotic..I might have to track down a good tut for it.

That's perfect. Great work! EDIT: i'll start working on loot objects unless you want me to work on something else