So, what are you working on right now?

[LEGION]

I like #3 more...

 

But Bikerdudes Cathedral-shots are looking a little bit better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That´s what the space is for, dude, to make you feel that was the whole post and therefore NOT a joke!

But I hate that spaces too so I didn´t made mine so big and won´t do it ever again. Erm where was I? Ah YES, TERRIFIC shots, BikerDude!! I can´t wait to see Builders patrol through that shots. If I know you right you´ll surely build an outdoor-version of that cathedral, won´t(didn´t) you?

I love that rounded or arched ceilings. Sometimes those things look completely round.

 

Hey, that makes me remember of early Quake3 promos there they said Q3 had completely rounded brushes! But in the final game I wasn´t able to spot some.

[Serpentine]

Hey, that makes me remember of early Quake3 promos there they said Q3 had completely rounded brushes! But in the final game I wasn´t able to spot some.

 

Yeah they used a lot of material shader tricks in their promo shots which were later removed for release, you see them in doom3 SP in some areas. Some of the vertex manipulation you can do with the material shaders is pretty nifty, but it comes at a cost

 

Anyhoo back to this hot ivy-on-wall action I have going on... Aww yeah.

[nbohr1more]

That comment needs more screen-shot...

[Fidcal]

Serp: What's two-stage alpha blending? How would that look in the shader and what does it actually do?

[Serpentine]

Serp: What's two-stage alpha blending? How would that look in the shader and what does it actually do?

 

So far it's a bit sketchy as to how well I can control it. While I can get the surface to light, controlling just how much it is lit is a bit of a tricky issue which Im going to spend a bit of time playing with, as you can see in the following screenshots, there's still a way to go! but considering how theres pretty much no information/post/pics of people doing this in tech4 it's all a bit of 'suck it and see'.

 

What is it? well traditionally in doom3 etc if you blend something with alpha it becomes really bright because it does not get any lighting information. Because of this everyone just uses alpha-testing which is a bit like a cheap and more primative version. The other problem is that a material that is blended can not get most types of lighting information, so people just left it alone. I was having a look through the material parser that doom3 uses for something else I'm doing and realised that you could stop it making the texture stupidly bright or 50% transparent if you used a little trick, which this is quite handy it still cant be lit, which is a bit of a problem. So combining the normal alpha tested material with a 2nd stage alpha blend, you get the best of both worlds and with a littl luck you come out with a texture that is both lit and blends with what's behind it.

 

What it offers us is more usable areas for foliage and similar things. This is a little test texture I very roughly made transparent earlier. Just like the previous pics it's pretty horrific and in no way near TDM standard stuff. It's high res, because most people just go to 'high res' to get away from the hard edges problem, I wanted to see if it still had merit there.

 

Normal alphatest | Jiggery pokery and some blendering

 

I think that looks quite a lot better, even if the leaves dont get as much light (which is fixable I have since realized). Another benefit is that it doesnt alias nearly as much if you had to tile it all over a wall or something and look at it from a distance.

 

Another unintended benefit with my trick is that it allows trees and "bushy things" to be lit less harshly, instead of one side of a static billboard being dark and the other light, they both have the same ambient brightness and rather increase in brightness when lit, close to what you would expect. Errr I forgot to take pics

[nbohr1more]

(against my better use of language)

 

MOAR!

 

Thanks.

[LEGION]

Yeah, MOAR!!! That looks damn realistic! I would say it´s ready to go.

[Fidcal]

Ah - jiggery pokery eh? We await the final results with interest when you've perfected it then.

[Mr Lemony Fresh]

[Berny]

cute but seems very very young!

[Mr Lemony Fresh]

<br>cute <img src="http://forums.thedarkmod.com/public/style_emoticons/default/wink.gif" class="bbc_emoticon" alt=""> but seems very very young!<br>

<br><br>Oh really? I was worried about that, I have a habit of drawing people around the same age as me and it hadn't occurred to be she was that young!<br><br>I'll change it when i model it. That way i can fine tune it.

<br><br>EDIT: I've taken away the freckles, which seems to have aged her half a year<br><br>I'll also make her arms and legs a tad bit more long.<br><br>I think the main thing that is making her look young is her stance and the way her hands are fidgeting, but i wanted to make a girl who had come from a horrrible cult background which left a mark on her, giving her a lack of trust for everyone. She ran away when her community tried to sacrifice her and she ran through the countryside looking to get away from nature but unable to get work until she stumbled upon this tavern and the guy hired her because the town is small and doesn't attract many people. Since she has not seen much of the outside world, the tavern owner managed to con her into working by giving her modest food and water instead of actual pay.<br>

Edited September 19, 2010 by Mr Lemony Fresh

[STiFU]

Even if she looks a little young, I wouldn't mind. After all diversity is key. But keep in mind that the pagans are a nature-people, so colored cloth should not be used, as well as moccasins for a barmaid.

 

Edit: Actually the whole design of the dress does not seem very practical, so it is rather unsuitable for a pagan girl.

[Mr Lemony Fresh]

Well the bar owner made her wear it to make the tavern look classy, the only thing that is still pagan is her shoes because she made them herself and she wears so she has something familiar with her. It's the only thing she hasn't given up in terms of habbits/routine that the bar owner has bothered her about, and since it's so minor in comparison to all the near-free labour he's been getting.

 

Yeah I thought this through

 

EDIT:

 

Also I've noticed that colours on my drawing tablet and on my normal screen are completely different. My tablet's colours are perfect, and the other screen's is too vibrant/high contrast (and yes, I've done a lot of adjusting to no great effect)

 

So in case you think it's too bright/colourful for the dark atmostphere try printing it out with colour and it should give you an idea of what I saw on my screen when I painted it.

Edited September 19, 2010 by Mr Lemony Fresh

[STiFU]

Ah ok. Now I get it. I thought she was planned to be a new general purpose character, but you design her specifically for a background story for your FM or something like that, right?

 

Anyway, another thing you might try to make her look older is giving her a smaller nose.

 

Nice drawing by the way. I always love concept art.

[Bikerdude]

Ok spent the last 12 DR hours optomizing and dirting up the inside, so here are some progress shots...

 

Edited September 19, 2010 by Bikerdude

[Tudor]

Oh lord!

[Melan]

Oh Master Builder, more like!

[Springheel]

keep in mind that the pagans are a nature-people, so colored cloth should not be used,

 

Quite the opposite, actually.

 

 

From the wiki:

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Pagans

 

That said, there's nothing about the design (nice drawing, btw!) that suggests she is a pagan. Most peasants would wear simple leather shoes like that. If you want her to look pagan, tattoos or strange hairstyles would be the way to go.

[STiFU]

Ah ok. I wasn't aware there was detailed description of it on the wiki, sorry. I was just coming from the fact that colored clothes require more progressive production steps and that pagans rather wouldn't have the utilities (and skills maybe) to pull it of.

 

@Biker: Sweeeet!

[Bikerdude]

Oh lord!

Oh Master Builder, more like!

Added another screenshot, as idea I had turned out rather nicely...

Edited September 19, 2010 by Bikerdude

[SiyahParsomen]

@bikerdude

 

just an advice;

 

I don't know the concept, but all those beautiful details are nearly gone becaues of lack of lighting. Most players don't stop for seconds to check out details in dark. I realized that from myself after I started mapping. I don't say increase the ambient light, some areas are great in darkness (especially last shot:wub: ) but some areas needs more lighting if it suits with the concept imho (especially light radius of chandeliers in first shots).

 

 

your work is stunning as usual

[Diego]

Ambient light wouldn't help in bringing the details back, anyway. if you want to show details of the geometry you need shadows and reflections.

[Bikerdude]

Siy

 

In game its looks better, unfortunately the gamma in screen shots didn't came out as id hoped - hence the images looking to dark..

[Baddcog]

You should export those pillars as objects. Would be a great addition to the models collection.

[Bikerdude]

like all my maps, after I have released them, people within the TDM community can use them etc. But yeah at some point i have to release all my prefabs etc for inclusion in TDM or for use by the community etc....

Edited September 19, 2010 by Bikerdude