So, what are you working on right now?

[stumpy]

canal map, just adding secret place beneath church. Not actually secret place for player to find more like secret place for storyline, atmosphere. although I seem to have spent about two months on church.

Edited December 14, 2010 by stumpy

[Noisycricket]

This isn't exactly the right place, but i wanted to post these shots i took of 1.03 tonight while testing.

From Somewhere above the City

 

From Flakebridge

[Sotha]

This isn't exactly the right place, but i wanted to post these shots i took of 1.03 tonight while testing.

From Somewhere above the City

From Flakebridge

 

Are these with the new postprocessing effects? Looks great! Like an entirely new layer of detail had been added. Or maybe it is because your higher res monitor?

[Serpentine]

Are these with the new postprocessing effects? Looks great! Like an entirely new layer of detail had been added. Or maybe it is because your higher res monitor?

 

It's the new HDR+ambient, it really brings out a lot of subtle detail. Will most likely need to tweak a couple of textures here and there to get it 'perfect', but its not overpowering and, personally I think its the only time I've ever liked to see postprocessing/hdr enabled in a game

[Aprilsister]

Yeah I think I see a lot of goodness there.

 

But those 'shrooms still look like something from T1. I don't believe I'm one to get too bugged about imperfect graphics, but, frankly, those mushrooms drag that scene down quite a bit.

[Serpentine]

But those 'shrooms still look like something from T1. I don't believe I'm one to get too bugged about imperfect graphics, but, frankly, those mushrooms drag that scene down quite a bit.

 

I'm not too partial for the uniform brightness of the texture, however it's pretty hard to make it more contrasting without making it look like the pools of light should be really small. But if you feel like helping it'd be nice if you took a screenshot where you think one/two look bad and then alter it to look 'better', I can try matching the style and such with textures and maybe make something useful of it. But at the moment I cant really see a 'nice' way of doing it without making the light radius look silly

[New Horizon]

But at the moment I cant really see a 'nice' way of doing it without making the light radius look silly

 

I think they were talking more about the physical mushroom model looking low res.

[STiFU]

It could also be the lightcolor that makes it look so odd. White makes everything look weird. Mix some blue to it and it'd look much more interesting. Although the blue probably wouldn't go so well with the torchlight.

[7upMan]

Personally, I like those contrasts. I mean, if you're looking for bland, uniform colors, go play Thief 1. Its 256 color palette didn't allow for such eye-percing goodness. 

 

Also, since making FMs is a learning process, authors will adapt to the HDR feature and build their maps accordingly. As a first attempt I think those two screenshots deserve our praise. 

 

P.S.: If you've ever tried shroomz, you'd smile, fondly remembering seeing those colors... 

 

 

[Serpentine]

Personally, I like those contrasts. I mean, if you're looking for bland, uniform colors, go play Thief 1. Its 256 color palette didn't allow for such eye-percing goodness. 

 

I was talking about the ironically bland texture that the mushroom caps use. The rest of the scene+models I think are pretty good

 

Anyway, I did think of something potentially interesting... mmm

[STiFU]

Also, since making FMs is a learning process, authors will adapt to the HDR feature and build their maps accordingly. As a first attempt I think those two screenshots deserve our praise. 

Just to be clear on this, Somewhere Above the City was inarguably very well done. But there is always something on every map, that could have been done better... And this doesn't apply just to maps!

[nbohr1more]

I can see why Tels was doing some LOD experiments with Mushrooms. That is definitely a good usage case: "up-close nice and round, far away a little decal blob".

 

Too bad you can't automatically update old maps with LOD replacements. I don't think grayman would want to go through the pain of placing those again...

[Bikerdude]

Might have some more Rttcu screenies for you this evening...

[Tels]

I can see why Tels was doing some LOD experiments with Mushrooms. That is definitely a good usage case: "up-close nice and round, far away a little decal blob".

 

The details on the mushrooms aren't really the problem, even if you double there tris, the game will not get slower. However, each mushroom is one model and if you combine them all into _one_ rendermodel, it will use less drawcalls and thus render much faster - even if you use 5 times the tris per shroom

 

As for the texture, well, duh, it is self-lit! Things that are self-lit usually look flat. One could of course experiemnt with adding dark spots (and using a spotted-soft-shadow light texture). But the not-dark-spotted parts would still look flat.

 

Too bad you can't automatically update old maps with LOD replacements. I don't think grayman would want to go through the pain of placing those again...

 

I think it will be possible to automatically update the map with a small script or so. You basically just need to replace every func_static with atdm:our_new_selflit_mushroom and it will be ok. But that is for later.

 

Edit: I am more bothered by the wrong-looking tracks in the image But getting these as a prefab would still be sweet.

[nbohr1more]

Thanks for those details Tels!!!

[grayman]

I don't think grayman would want to go through the pain of placing those again...

 

I'm still half-blind in one eye, and the other eye twitches now.

[grayman]

I am more bothered by the wrong-looking tracks in the image But getting these as a prefab would still be sweet.

 

 

What's wrong with the tracks?

 

 

[nbohr1more]

They don't have the metallic sheen of worn old tracks but that may be intentional (rusty corroded unused tracks)?

[grayman]

They don't have the metallic sheen of worn old tracks but that may be intentional (rusty corroded unused tracks)?

 

Absolutely. Haven't been used in years. If the place is wet enough to grow mushrooms, it's wet enough to have rusty old tracks.

[Fidcal]

Things that are self-lit usually look flat. One could of course experiemnt with adding dark spots (and using a spotted-soft-shadow light texture). But the not-dark-spotted parts would still look flat.

Yes, that's what I said in the thread about extinguishable mushrooms. By adding dark markings they can still be self-lit but have some character and shape and be more interesting.

[Tels]

What's wrong with the tracks?

 

The profile looks a bit to simplistic to me - it seems to be just a rectangular brush?

 

Looking at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_profile there seem to be a wide vary of shapes used, but I am not sure what older, simple rails looked like, maybe they even were so simple as yours? The Wiki says that a lot of the profiles stem from 17xx, so they are fairly modern.

 

Now I wish I had paid more attention when I looked at medivial rails

[grayman]

The profile looks a bit to simplistic to me - it seems to be just a rectangular brush?

 

If you ever find me down there amongst the rails trying to get the cross-section historically accurate, please feel free to shoot me. It would save me from making the mine carts historically accurate, and the support beams, and the chains supporting the bridge ...

 

As it was, planting all those mushrooms into curved walls, ceilings, and floors had me foaming at the mouth and blinking hysterically. I literally felt a sense of freedom when I left the mine and ascended into the tower.

[Springheel]

If you ever find me down there amongst the rails trying to get the cross-section historically accurate, please feel free to shoot me

 

[nbohr1more]

Ah HA HA HA!

 

Classic!

 

You should've written memoirs:

 

 

Day 6 in the mines:

 

I finally planted mushroom 412. I haven't seen world ambient in days... I made an NPC drink from a dirty puddle so I could live vicariously in a moment of refreshment...

[grayman]

You should've written memoirs:

 

Day 6 in the mines:

 

I finally planted mushroom 412. I haven't seen world ambient in days... I made an NPC drink from a dirty puddle so I could live vicariously in a moment of refreshment...

 

HA!

 

Instead of leaving Penshawk's journal in the chest, I should have left my own ...

 

There's a light at the end of the tunnel. Is it freedom? Or an oncoming train?