So, what are you working on right now?

[someTaff]

 

It is absolutely hideous... The stuff on nightmares...

 

But I made it with blender. And it contains two material textures in a single .ase. And I got it into DR and in game. And it seems to work. And it is ingame and exactly the size I wanted it to be.

 

Progress. Now I have re-learned something I knew how to do few years ago. (The workflow how to get blender created models into TDM.)

Great! Can u by chance outline basic steps for that?

[Sotha]

Here's a random video I posted some time ago at TTLG:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5FALO9HB7U

 

It's a bit too sped up. Maybe you haven't seen it yet.

 

Mighty impressive and hypnotic. Just out of curiosity, how much was is sped up? How long did the whole process take real time?

 

Great! Can u by chance outline basic steps for that?

 

Sure, I'll open another thread for this.

[Obsttorte]

Definetely inspiring. Although I think this can be done at the same speed (ignoring the speed-up) in DR. It's like in Blender a matter of practise.

[Arcturus]

how much was is sped up? How long did the whole process take real time?

Original videos are 2h 12min. That doesn't count some planning between takes.

Definetely inspiring. Although I think this can be done at the same speed (ignoring the speed-up) in DR. It's like in Blender a matter of practise.

The point of this video was to show that you can do things in Blender (or other editor) that are impossible in DR.

[Obsttorte]

The point of this video was to show that you can do things in Blender (or other editor) that are impossible in DR.

Didn't want to say anything against this approach. But just out of curiosity: which of the things shown can't be done in DR? (I must admit I only watched the first half of the video or so, so maybe I've missed the significant parts)

[Sotha]

Didn't want to say anything against this approach. But just out of curiosity: which of the things shown can't be done in DR? (I must admit I only watched the first half of the video or so, so maybe I've missed the significant parts)

 

Well, like the part where he makes bricks of uniform texture material (the arch above the door), simply by adding vertices and scaling the verts small. That was cool. Sure, one could try to do it in DR, but it would be ultra-clunky when compared to Blender.

[Arcturus]

I wanted to show that you don't have to stick to the grid at all. That angles don't have to be straight and that all corners can be smoothed.

 

[Bikerdude]

Thats bloody awe inspiring that is!

[Arcturus]

Thank you. That's what you can do even without touching more advanced functionalities like mixing textures with vertex painting or baking normalmaps and ambient occlusion maps. All using stock TDM textures.

[Lux]

I'm curious, Arcturus, some of the things you've done in Blender I've seen other tutorials on that are using COD Radiant which I guess was made to create COD4. It is also freely available.

 

It does blended textures for surfaces, e.g. roofs, walls, terrain paths, etc. and seems much more natural when working with vertex manipulation using a 'weld' feature to connect patches or manipulate patches.

 

It seems to handle visportals completely differently however I'm curious if we could use CODRadiant with TDM textures to create maps for TDM? Is the compiling process different or what would prevent this?

 

I ask this being ignorant of how game engines and offshoots of the same editor function differently so keep that in mind.

Edited June 26, 2013 by Lux

[DeTeEff]

How much impact on the tris count is all that softening up?

Edited June 26, 2013 by Fieldmedic

[rich_is_bored]

It's obviously going to increase the total triangle count by a considerable amount but there are steps that can be taken to negate the performance cost. Building modular reusable pieces and simplified shadow meshes are two examples.

[Sotha]

...And one could also have LOD models. Either there is flat textured geometry underneath the beveled detail piece and the detail piece is hidden when the player is far away.. Or two LOD models with the bevels and without them. TDM would then switch between these two LOD stages based on player distance.

 

I'm not sure which one is more feasable and will it be worth it with many modules in sight: the LOD models need to think as well, eating CPU time. Making a LOD piece without the creases wouldn't probably be a big chore if you have your workflow done right: build blocky model, texturize it, save as separate file and export. Then make bevel details, tune textures for bevels, save, export the detail piece. The LOD system has not been explored much in TDM. It could be the perfect friend for Blender built modules!

[Obsttorte]

I wanted to show that you don't have to stick to the grid at all. That angles don't have to be straight and that all corners can be smoothed.

 

Look's a bit like wonderland, everything is skewed.

[Goldwell]

Just lurkin' around in the shadows. All going well I will be uploading a small clip of gameplay footage tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

 

[Sir Taffsalot]

@ Tyler: Looking good. However, you might want to rotate your wood textures on your door frames. The grain of wood always goes in the direction of the side thats longest.

[Goldwell]

@ Tyler: Looking good. However, you might want to rotate your wood textures on your door frames. The grain of wood always goes in the direction of the side thats longest.

 

You mean so they are like this right?

 

 

 

 

 

[Sir Taffsalot]

The ones on the side of the door are correct. The top one needs to go in a vertical direction.

[Goldwell]

The ones on the side of the door are correct. The top one needs to go in a vertical direction.

 

Heh I never would have even thought of that, thanks for pointing that out

 

Now I have a couple of doors to change!

[Sir Taffsalot]

No probs.

[Sotha]

Heh I never would have even thought of that, thanks for pointing that out

 

Now I have a couple of doors to change!

 

Heh.. Sounds familiar. This is one of those things in reality nobody pays attention to.... Unless they are mappers.

 

Three years ago I was building something and Fidcal pointed me to the same thing.

 

As your mapping skills evolve, you start to see new details in the world around us.

[Sir Taffsalot]

I used to make guitars for a hobbie so I have a pretty good understanding of how wood is supposed to look.

 

It's kind of cool when one hobbie makes you better at another even though the two are completely unrelated.

[Lux]

I've done quite a bit of construction/renovation stuff which should also help but I like mapping much more, no sweating, swinging hammers, running saws, etc.

 

Just QE and Clip, baby!

 

Tyler, looking good! Just remember to look at the door frame as three boards, not three brushes. Wood grain always goes with the length of wood unless you're using a wood (or texture) that doesn't have specific directional grain. Wood is strongest with the grain.

Edited June 27, 2013 by Lux

[Springheel]

There are also a couple different model doorframes you could look at if you like; just make sure to seal everything with worldspawn brushes (models don't seal areas).

[Bikerdude]

I wanted to show that you don't have to stick to the grid at all. That angles don't have to be straight and that all corners can be smoothed.

I am half tempted to do a "and this is a video of how to do this in DR"...