So, what are you working on right now?

[New Horizon 539]

Wow, they didn't fool around back then. Love the candle.

[Bikerdude 3742]

Like so....

@GW, would you like me to build this for you..?

[Deadlove 260]

GW, those shots remind me of classic Thief visual / atmosphere. Agreed with Biker the textures should be added to the core mod.

[Atheran 40]

Dammit! If I was at my desktop I'd start working on that toilet you posted right now!

 

Very good job people! Can't wait for them to be released! I like city missions a lot but... That creepy atmosphere of Moonbo...Speechless.

 

@Obsttorte Man I wish I had your eyes Besides the staircase wallpaper from taffsalot I can't see any other missaligned textures

Edited August 27, 2014 by Atheran

[Obsttorte 1556]

Panel at the bottom of the corner, right below the candle in the center of the image

 

To be honest, I suck at this. There are people who are much more aware of such things, and who drive me nuts everytime I make a betatest for one of my missions.

[Goldwell 2499]

@GW, would you like me to build this for you..?

 

Thanks for the offer but for now i'm just going to leave the toilet. I know you guys love to pick stuff apart but when playing the game it doesn't look unnatural/feel unnatural so i'm going to leave it. If I come back to the room later and it feels wrong then, i'll try changing the chair myself and ultimately if that fails then i'll shoot you through a PM with the room so you could play with it yourself. But yeah for now i'm just going to go on working on other rooms

[Springheel 4676]

(I was mostly being tongue-in-cheek...as you say, players won't spend two seconds thinking about it).

[Bikerdude 3742]

I know you guys love to pick stuff apart but when playing the game it doesn't look unnatural/feel unnatural

Only coz we care and want to see you create the best stuff you can etc, and on that front the bath is some of your best work yet :-)

[Kvorning 140]

Okay time for some spoilers!

 

"What are you working on right now", might not be the right phrase, as I'm currently neck-deep in another project on another engine, which has taken up most my attention the last 3-4 months. I'm afraid that I don't know when I'll be able to find the energy to work with TDM mapping and I said I wouldn't give spoilers until I knew a likely release date, which now is: No clue!

 

First up: "Ascension"

 

 

Right after my last mission I started on this little thing which has taken about 6 weeks, though not yet done. It was meant to be a small vertical level, where the gameplay is a series of puzzles to climb to freedom. Felt the need to make more in the theme of my sewers from L&L. Before I could finish it, I got drawn in by my friend's idea for a mission.

http://youtu.be/rHjhdAXYp6A

 

 

[Kvorning 140]

Next: "Monastery"

 

 

Just a working title as we haven't come up with anything proper yet. By "we" I mean, "Deathblade2014(Deathblade-thblade-blade-ade..)" and I, and by "yet" I mean "No clue when!".

 

The two videos are from the final two rooms. We started with the Cathedral for the level as it would be the hardest. If we couldn't make that, there would be no point in making the rest. It should be said that Deathblade wanted it to be a small chapel, but I was like "AWW HELLS NO!", so we made a cathedral during last December. After we were 'finished' with it, work began on the rest of the level to get a good baseline up until around April, where we both were too busy with other things to continue and the project has been still since then.

http://youtu.be/eVySrDk8448

 

 

 

 

Finally: "The Cave"

 

 

Which is basically just the 'room' before the cathedral, but it was a lot of fun to shape and I think it's a good entry point to how it should look. The facade was extremely frustrating though, but had to live up to the interior.

 

 

[nbohr1more 2239]

WOW!!!

[Airship Ballet 881]

I hear you there, Ancient Dragon. Pretty damn impressive stuff, especially the lighting in the cave. Consider me stoked.

[Goldwell 2499]

Holy shit! Those look absolutely incredible!

 

Wow...

[Vae 60]

Here's a bathroom that I spent building and detailing for the past couple of days.

 

Beautiful work, Goldwell...I can't wait to be there...

 

 

Okay time for some spoilers!

 

Very nice, Kvorning...Dark and grey, with an ominous feel.

[Obsttorte 1556]

Awesome, Mista.

 

But you know, once you add some lights to the cathredal performance will be a kick in the ass

 

EDIT: Can you export the cathredal as a model and tell us what the tris/vert count is like? Just corious.

[Deadlove 260]

Thanks for the offer but for now i'm just going to leave the toilet. I know you guys love to pick stuff apart but when playing the game it doesn't look unnatural/feel unnatural so i'm going to leave it. If I come back to the room later and it feels wrong then, i'll try changing the chair myself and ultimately if that fails then i'll shoot you through a PM with the room so you could play with it yourself. But yeah for now i'm just going to go on working on other rooms

 

Yes, most players ''won't give a shit'', pardon the pun. :-D I couldn't resist LOL

[Airship Ballet 881]

pardon the pun

no

Edited August 28, 2014 by Airship Ballet

[Bikerdude 3742]

First up: "Ascension"

To use that much over used but quite appropriate phrase, Oh... My... God, is this in the TDM anymore, its that good! need some better falling water sound now though :-)

Next: "Monastery"

To use another similarly much used used but quite appropriate phrase, Oh... dear...lord... Its like the cathedral from my Stac mission but on steroids - extremely impressive. A small crit, you need to turn the self shadows of on the base's of the columns, or create a better shadow mesh for them

Finally: "The Cave"

The scale just knocked me for six... had to pick my jaw backup...

[Obsttorte 1556]

Biker nailed it to the point. No more comments allowed

[Kvorning 140]

@Obsttorte

Don't know how to export/view the tris count, but the draw count is about 3400 from the void and it's still running +60 FPS. Having good hardware definitely helps with that point. And yeah, there's definitely a challenge when having to add more than ambient light and inconsistency to the environment, without hitting the software limitations. Careful planning and good use of non-dynamic lights is a must, for that size room. I think its worth taking a note out of the "Thief" playbook, as that game has -amazing- static lightning.

 

On the upside, I haven't added visportals yet to the arches, so on that point it's looking positive for further building.

 

@Bikerdude

I really like the stock sounds from TDM when it comes to water, but some HQ custom sounds for the scene would not be a bad idea!

 

Deathblade2014666xxXxx is doing the textures, so far the only custom ones we've used are the beige stones you see in the Cathedral. They would probably be improved in a polish phase later on, as the shadows does "skip" around the surface as it is now.

 

Btw it should be noted, that there's no external models used, it's all primitive patches and brushes, made into func_statics. The result is a higher load time, but the performance is excellent. The downside to this, is any change to an FS requires me to replace every similar FS, rather than just "reimport object". I've also been very careful about having verts line up, to avoid shimmering on surfaces, which seems to also have eased the strain on the engine as well.

 

That last part might be wishful thinking, but worth pursuing when building for the sake of good order and compatibility.

[Bikerdude 3742]

Btw it should be noted, that there's no external models used, it's all primitive patches and brushes, made into func_statics. The result is a higher load time, but the performance is excellent.

You could improve the perf a little bit more by converting all the identical FS to .ASE models.

[Kvorning 140]

If it means more performance, then it's definitely a thing to do when/if I continue work on it

[Bikerdude 3742]

If it means more performance, then it's definitely a thing to do when/if I continue work on it

If you need any help, drop me a PM.

[Obsttorte 1556]

Don't know how to export/view the tris count,

Select everything and use the DR ASE exporter. Reload the models and you will see your exported model in the model browser (if you have exported it either to the models folder in the darkmod folder or in your fms folder. The latter works if you set the fms path in the preferences).

 

In the model browser you can see the tris/vert count by selecting the model. It's shown in the lower left below the model list.

 

Compartmentalizing the cathredal and using low poly lod models for distant views may be a good way of dealing with performance here. n addition, the lod system can be used to toggle the shadowcasting on distant objects.

 

I think the most important thing to consider is that if you place lights, they should not overlap each other. In addition there is something else that may prove useful. http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Light_Textures_and_Falloff_Images It's quite some work and I didn't tried that myself yet, but may be useful to create good looking lighting.

[Kvorning 140]

@Bikerdude

Thanks man, will do!

 

@Obsttorte

Took about 2 hours for DR to convert it into 671mb .ase and looked like it was either gonna take as long just to inspect it or it had crashed while trying, so I shut it down.