So, what are you working on right now?

[kyyrma]

Been so busy these last few days that I've been able to work much less than I expected.

 

Still, a proper scene is finally starting to take shape. Here is a before and after of the alley the player starts off at:

 

Rough outline

 

First detail pass

Edited November 30, 2013 by kyyrma

[161803398874989]

Are you implying there will be more detail passes for that scene?

[kyyrma]

Are you implying there will be more detail passes for that scene?

 

Yeah, at least one more pass, although at a later time. It's good to leave an area untouched for some time and then come back to it later. You usually get a new perspective to it

 

Here is a closer look at that gate. I'm trying to make it look like junk has been picked up by rainwater flooding the streets and then got caught on it. What do you think?

[Goldwell]

@Kyyrma very nice man!

 

You should add that rain splash effect to the floor too!

[Xarg]

It might just be the angle the pic is taken from, but it looks like the gate is very close to if not almost touching the ground, the first thing my logical brain said was "if that gate is touching the ground, how did the wheel get partly under it?". I just assume the barrel under that spouting was moved back into place to catch the water. Also feels like the dirt could have had some streaks from the gate going back to the big mound of dirt behind it, or streaks coming forwards from the dirt depending on which way the water drained as it receded.

Edited December 1, 2013 by Xarg

[PranQster]

Some more of my WIP. I've been updating my pagan village this past week. Today I added sunset lighting.

 

A little overview of the village in its current state...

 

Closer to the fire...

 

Visitors warmly welcomed...

[Goldwell]

<snip>

 

Very nice! Reminds me of that part of the campaign where you encountered those ape like creatures in Thief 1.

[PranQster]

Very nice! Reminds me of that part of the campaign where you encountered those ape like creatures in Thief 1.

That was the original inspiration for the tree huts.

I just added an excellent glare effect to the skybox, in the perfect spot to appear to be setting behind mountains in the distance. It works very well with the mountain sunset sky and makes the lighting in the village much more believable.

I currently have 3 sunset light sources in my map and need about 3 or 4 more... Each one seems to be noticeably increasing the dmap time. That might be my imagination, but it seems that way.

[Obsttorte]

Very nice! Reminds me of that part of the campaign where you encountered those ape like creatures in Thief 1.

This was in thief 2, but yeah, it looks similar.

[kyyrma]

Sigh. I was supposed to go for a speed-build with my latest, but here I find myself obsessing over the tiniest details of a single view.

 

Check it out in motion, I'll probably leave it at this point. Now you can see that the closed-off ward is flooded by the rainwater.

 

Xarg: I dirtied up the street, although you can only see it partially in the .gif. Also the wheel lodged on the gate is actually broken, so that is why it can be positioned like that

 

PranQster: Looks really cool. Distantly reminds me of the Telvanni towns in Morrowind. I could see Shamans shaping trees and roots in a similar fashion.

Edited December 2, 2013 by kyyrma

[Goldwell]

Check it out in motion, I'll probably leave it at this point. Now you can see that the closed-off ward is flooded by the rainwater.

 

Nice! I love TDM missions that have rain, it just adds this cool atmosphere to things and makes it very moody and the sound of the rain is very calming (even if it does make our leather squeak like rats )

 

And having that lower part flooded was a good idea too!

[DeTeEff]

Yes, rain is very atmospheric but be careful with open areas as the rain hogs performance...

 

BTW, is there any good way to prevent the rain from falling through roofs, like a small shed?

[PranQster]

Yes, rain is very atmospheric but be careful with open areas as the rain hogs performance...

 

BTW, is there any good way to prevent the rain from falling through roofs, like a small shed?

Yes, you can. Since rain is best implemented through many particle emitters, space them so there is one directly above the shed. Then make that one higher than the rest of the emitters by the height of the shed. When tweaked properly, you'll see the rain hitting the roof on the outside of the shed, but nothing coming through the ceiling on the inside. -- I had to do this for the roof of siegeshop (main building entrance... I didn't do this for the awnings near the archery range).. Edited December 3, 2013 by PranQster

[kyyrma]

Yes, rain is very atmospheric but be careful with open areas as the rain hogs performance...

 

I've tried to set-up the rain effect with minimal amount of rain emitting patches. I noticed the rain particles in-game actually cover a much larger area than shown on the editor, so I've used a small patch of rain per visportaled "room" on the streets. Same thing with the splashes. Despite the long gaps between patches, in-game it gives a pretty good illusion of consistent rain with less performance loss.

 

Goldwell: Agree with you on the rain, definitely a mood-setter! Remember when I mentioned about those poop logs you posted earlier inspiring me to do some cigars as loot items? Here is a WIP, don't mind the boring box. I'm still contemplating if they fit the setting of TDM or not though. I'm going to do a few different types of boxes, and eventually make it so that only the cigars with the golden label are lootable and the rest are junk.

 

A question regarding building with patches: How would I go about offsetting something from the grid? I feel building small objects is really restrictive, as I don't see any way of going smaller than one Doomunit in the editor. I'm probably missing something here?

Edited December 3, 2013 by kyyrma

[Sotha]

On patches:

You can still build with the very small grid size: 0.125.

 

Your patches will be poorly tessellated when you to such a small scale, however, you can enable manual tessellation (check the "fixed subdivisions" marker and increase the horizontal/vertical values) with the patch inspector and still make them tessellated how you want.

[Goldwell]

Goldwell: Agree with you on the rain, definitely a mood-setter! Remember when I mentioned about those poop logs you posted earlier inspiring me to do some cigars as loot items? Here is a WIP, don't mind the boring box. I'm still contemplating if they fit the setting of TDM or not though. I'm going to do a few different types of boxes, and eventually make it so that only the cigars with the golden label are lootable and the rest are junk.

 

I think if you put them into a warehouse down by the docks or if you don't have that then a special import store in the city. Possibly even place readables near it explaining they were imported from a far away exotic land. Or you could even place them in a nobles house in a library with some alcohol nearby.

[Springheel]

I don't know, I can't picture a TDM character smoking a cigar, although they're not really anachronistic for the time.

 

 

I can't help thinking of Dishonored whenever I think of cigars now.

"Shall we get together for whisky and cigars later?"

[Sotha]

"Shall we get together for whisky and cigars later?"

 

...Aand given the frequency of that bark, the only thing that the DH guards do on their free time is whisky and cigars.

[Sir Taffsalot]

@ PranQster: Those screenshots are awesome man! You must have put in awful lot of work because apart from the Pagan Orb I can't think of any other Pagan models you can use. Also to get a nice natural effect you have made all the Pagan buildings out of patches. Out of curiosity what FPS are you getting as it appears that most of your settings are open plan so visportal placement looks like it might be minimal.

 

@ Sotha: I could think of worse things to do with my free time. Ha! That could be a Dishonored drinking game. Buy a bottle of wiskey before you play DH and have a shot every time you hear that line.

[Goldwell]

@ Sotha: I could think of worse things to do with my free time. Ha! That could be a Dishonored drinking game. Buy a bottle of wiskey before you play DH and have a shot every time you hear that line.

 

I think you would die from alcohol poisoning before you finished the game

[Sir Taffsalot]

Well its got to be better than dying from the rat plague.

[Obsttorte]

A question regarding building with patches: How would I go about offsetting something from the grid? I feel building small objects is really restrictive, as I don't see any way of going smaller than one Doomunit in the editor. I'm probably missing something here?

Creating details does not always need building off grid, especially when using patches. Personally I avoid it as much as possible. The lowest scale is, as Sotha said, 0.125 doom units. But this is really small, I mean you could almost not see it. I fairly doubt that it is neccessary to add such small details, as the players may miss them anyways in most cases. And you should also consider performance in that respect.

 

Tons of details does not neccessary make a good mission.

[kyyrma]

Creating details does not always need building off grid, especially when using patches. Personally I avoid it as much as possible. The lowest scale is, as Sotha said, 0.125 doom units. But this is really small, I mean you could almost not see it. I fairly doubt that it is neccessary to add such small details, as the players may miss them anyways in most cases. And you should also consider performance in that respect.

 

Tons of details does not neccessary make a good mission.

 

Fair point, but in this case I felt the small detail was necessary to flesh out the object. The first version I feel is so basic that it could even be immersion-breaking.

[Goldwell]

Fair point, but in this case I felt the small detail was necessary to flesh out the object. The first version I feel is so basic that it could even be immersion-breaking.

 

Heh thats cool as!

 

I love little details like that!

 

And your instincts are right because it looks much better with a more detailed box and hey I guess giving extra details to the occasional special item, something where the player has to get up and close to check out shouldnt reduce performance that much but still add a nice touch!

[Sotha]

Fair point, but in this case I felt the small detail was necessary to flesh out the object. The first version I feel is so basic that it could even be immersion-breaking.

 

OMG! Soon we gotta get that "Shall we get together for whisky and cigars later?" bark for our AI too.

 

Maybe I should make some AI with arrows in the knee?