Campaign Announcement

[Goldchocobo]

Hello everyone,

I'd like to "officially" announce a 3 mission campaign for TDM. It's been in the making for the past 9 months, and I excited to let everyone know that it, well, exists.

Each level follows a wonderfully convoluted storyline, and is T2 size. My play throughs of the campaign are taking me longer then beating many modern day FPS games. I find this satisfying, and I hope everyone else does too.

 

We are currently bug testing, cleaning up, making cutscenes, doing voiceovers, etc... rather then pin the release date it on an actual date, I'll simply say "when its done sometime within the vicinity of next month". So yes, hopefully next month, everyone will have a nice juicy injection of TDM goodness!

 

Here are some pics:

 

Nothing like a good ol' B & E.

Towering towers are towery... a lot of effort was put into making the city portions feel big.

 

 

What's a good thief level without a bar?

 

 

Each reed/boat move and sway in the wind/water, rather then sitting stale.

 

 

Again, each flower sways in the wind. Looks very nice in game.

 

 

Literally over 4000 trees have been hand placed.

 

 

Veer from the path to find secrety goodness!

 

 

Note: The inn on the right is enter able - there are many secrets and B & E's to be done in the city portions. Search hard enough, and you'll even encounter new, optional objectives.

 

 

Some more city. Again, many back alley's to run around and explore.

 

 

Again, the city is very large in scale, but performs quite nicely. Details without the slowdowns.

 

 

I hope everyone enjoys the pics... be sure to let others know of the upcoming campaign, and to download TDM!

 

GC

[jdude]

Personally I can't wait! This pictures look amazing!

[STiFU]

Ah GC, you just know how to do it!! That stuff looks just sweet.

 

Little sidenote on the third screenshot: The brick-wall texture on the left is misaligned.

[Serpentine]

Whoa there, looking awesome!

(and now a reason to get my textures into svn asap! - that grass looks far too sickly for a forest! )

[Bikerdude]

Jesus, you'd better post some minimum system specs... that is unless you have some how become the shadow shifting master of darkness and figured out a secret squirrell way of keeping FPS down through the mystical manipulation of Vis portals and other such arcane skills with a obsessively compulsive super human attention to detail...

 

Here are some pics:

• Nothing like a good ol' B & E.
• Towering towers are towery... a lot of effort was put into making the city portions feel big.
• Each reed/boat move and sway in the wind/water, rather then sitting stale.
• Again, each flower sways in the wind. Looks very nice in game.
• Literally over 4000 trees have been hand placed.

 

Ok I have to ask as Im sure other want to know aswell...

 

• how did you do the dust/mist beams on the lights..?
• How did you do the mist in the tower..?
• Now your just showing of, I didnt know doom could do physx..
• Is this a stock entity/object then that has a param for movement..?
• 4k of trees..? how the F.... is it possible to have that many objectes, verts, polys and not have a slow down..?
• And lastly I didn't think it was possible to link one mission to another to form a campain...?

Awesome screenies btw

 

ps. I want to learn about all the above skills btw, so no holding back over in the editors section and if you need any voicing done I'm happy to offer my generic english accent to the mix.

 

 

.

Edited March 19, 2010 by Bikerdude

[Bikerdude]

(and now a reason to get my textures into svn asap! - that grass looks far too sickly for a forest! )

Hmm on that subject, we need decals or something where the water meets the side of the bank and where the grass meets the gravel path..

[Serpentine]

Hmm on that subject, we need decals or something where the water meets the side of the bank and where the grass meets the gravel path..

 

OT:

Sure, I'll make an alpha edge piece for my grass (the current ones dont have blades etc, so it would look pretty random) - it wont always be useful but under low light it should be fine. Good idea

[STiFU]

Hmm on that subject, we need decals or something where the water meets the side of the bank and where the grass meets the gravel path..

Textures can be blended. I guess that technique should rather be used here or even better, a combination of both.

[Bikerdude]

Textures can be blended. I guess that technique should rather be used here or even better, a combination of both.

What, we can do that with the D3 engine, how exactly..?

 

nb. Sorry getting of topic, gold maybe you should start a thread over in the editing section so I can ask lost of annoying questions over there lol

Edited March 19, 2010 by Bikerdude

[SiyahParsomen]

looks gorgeous!!!

 

I really would like to see it perfect when it's released. So what I see is missing on those pics are decals. In streets there are cobllestones, walls seems clean. I hope you consider this.

[STiFU]

What, we can do that with the D3 engine, how exactly..?

 

nb. Sorry getting of topic, gold maybe you should start a thread over in the editing section so I can ask lost of annoying questions over there lol

I am not very familiar with the details, but just to point you in the right direction, go here. The technique applied here is called vertex blending and it can only be used on models. So you would have to export your map geometry and do the rest in your preferred 3d app.

[Goldchocobo]

I am not very familiar with the details, but just to point you in the right direction, go here. The technique applied here is called vertex blending and it can only be used on models. So you would have to export your map geometry and do the rest in your preferred 3d app.

 

If i could get help doing this, I am open to the suggestion... I've tried finding someone to help with to avail.

[Goldchocobo]

And to everyone pm'ing me and replying to me, yes, I have secret OCD induced techniques for visportaling and optimizing

[Mortem Desino]

SHHH ITS A SECRET

 

(I've spent well over 70 man-hours in the past several months helping script special content, bugfix, cleanup, and optimize these maps)

 

EDIT: surprisingly, most of my optimizing was NOT concerning visportaling. Clever use of func_static has boosted my framerate +10 in large indoors areas. Obsessive-compulsive light placement, and custom-drawn light textures, has reduced/removed the need to make models cast shadows in a few outdoors.

[Goldchocobo]

SHHH ITS A SECRET

 

(I've spent well over 70 man-hours in the past several months helping script special content, bugfix, cleanup, and optimize these maps)

 

EDIT: surprisingly, most of my optimizing was NOT concerning visportaling. Clever use of func_static has boosted my framerate +10 in large indoors areas. Obsessive-compulsive light placement, and custom-drawn light textures, has reduced/removed the need to make models cast shadows in a few outdoors.

 

Ah I really should have mentioned... MD here taught me everything I know regarding map optimization. He's also my "main man" for the campaign, including writing insane AI relations scripts...

[Melan]

This is absolutely beautiful. New standards are being set.

[Fidcal]

Big congrats on the advanced stage of your campaign. I'm sure those pics only show a tiny fraction of the goodies in store. Bad time of day (early morning) for me to be seeing them at their best but those images still look good.

 

Learning how to model your terrain is a lengthy task at this stage unless someone else can do it for you. I've been struggling with slow progress. Two other options for blending:

 

Crumb textures. If you look at some of the dirt decals and ash you can see how it's done. A grass one could be made using the same alpha map and existing grass texture. But it's not perfect. I tried supercrumb but there were issues with variations with the player view.

 

Another possibility I've only just started exploring is model generic blending panels that can be modified to any two textures. But this is in an early stage and I am currently trying to get the scale to match our default brush textures. My idea was to make a few rectangular and curved panels that one could overlay. Problem is of course they would be limited in shape so I don't even know if it's worth proceeding: This is a test panel I made. No bump map on this and its very low res but you get the idea. The panel could be changed to any two textures and overlaid to align with existing textures. Basically I'm just trying to find a method to make it easier for mappers. You can hardly tell on this but yes, that's grass texture and some stone or other. I'll try and do a better quality one.

 

[Goldchocobo]

Big congrats on the advanced stage of your campaign. I'm sure those pics only show a tiny fraction of the goodies in store. Bad time of day (early morning) for me to be seeing them at their best but those images still look good.

 

Learning how to model your terrain is a lengthy task at this stage unless someone else can do it for you. I've been struggling with slow progress. Two other options for blending:

 

Crumb textures. If you look at some of the dirt decals and ash you can see how it's done. A grass one could be made using the same alpha map and existing grass texture. But it's not perfect. I tried supercrumb but there were issues with variations with the player view.

 

Another possibility I've only just started exploring is model generic blending panels that can be modified to any two textures. But this is in an early stage and I am currently trying to get the scale to match our default brush textures. My idea was to make a few rectangular and curved panels that one could overlay. Problem is of course they would be limited in shape so I don't even know if it's worth proceeding: This is a test panel I made. No bump map on this and its very low res but you get the idea. The panel could be changed to any two textures and overlaid to align with existing textures. Basically I'm just trying to find a method to make it easier for mappers. You can hardly tell on this but yes, that's grass texture and some stone or other. I'll try and do a better quality one.

 

TBH, unless someone wants to do it for me, it won't happen. So many other things to take care of.

[Chiron]

Those screens look fantastic!

Looking forward towards the release !

[STiFU]

Hmn, lengthy task? Select the parts of your map, you want blended, export, import into 3d app, perform blending (colorize verts), export. I'd say, Two to four hours depending on your experience. I would even do it for you, if I knew Lightwave or Maya. At this point, I am still trying to find proper ways for working with 3ds max and TDM.

 

Maybe ask in the private forums if someone would do the vertex blending for you. It would definitely improve your visuals. But considering they are already pretty damn impressive, you might as well keep it as it is...

[Arcturus]

 

Did you perhaps put an animated flag on the mast I made for the ship's model? I really would like to see it in game

Those shots are really good btw. Good job!

[Tels]

Wowsa, looks really good! The only thing one could critize is that in the city, allmost surfaces on the street are flat and allmost all of them are at the same level (e.g. some hills, stairs, streets on different levels, sidewalks etc) would enhance it. It is clear that you already tried to "break" up the flat streetlevel by adding broken out blocks etc, but I think it could be done a lot more.

 

Basically, the ground looks like you started with a flat ground, then added little details - instead like in reallife, where the ground isn't flat, and you start to make it flat so people don't break their neck when they go out of the door

 

Anyway, looking forward to playing this. Must look wonderful with HDR!

[Tels]

Big congrats on the advanced stage of your campaign. I'm sure those pics only show a tiny fraction of the goodies in store. Bad time of day (early morning) for me to be seeing them at their best but those images still look good.

 

Learning how to model your terrain is a lengthy task at this stage unless someone else can do it for you. I've been struggling with slow progress. Two other options for blending:

 

Crumb textures. If you look at some of the dirt decals and ash you can see how it's done. A grass one could be made using the same alpha map and existing grass texture. But it's not perfect. I tried supercrumb but there were issues with variations with the player view.

 

Another possibility I've only just started exploring is model generic blending panels that can be modified to any two textures. But this is in an early stage and I am currently trying to get the scale to match our default brush textures. My idea was to make a few rectangular and curved panels that one could overlay. Problem is of course they would be limited in shape so I don't even know if it's worth proceeding: This is a test panel I made. No bump map on this and its very low res but you get the idea. The panel could be changed to any two textures and overlaid to align with existing textures. Basically I'm just trying to find a method to make it easier for mappers. You can hardly tell on this but yes, that's grass texture and some stone or other. I'll try and do a better quality one.

 

 

Also don't forget the grime decals! Even a simple "blob" of (mostly darker at the center) decal under each tree would improve it quite a lot. Right now the grass has the same color, near a tree, far from it etc. Adding stains and blobs and decals would help a lot to break the "sterile" look.

 

Of course, that is quite tedious

 

Edit: Also the trees seem to miss their base (where the trunk gets bigger and has roots as support). Maybe someone can make a model that one could "stick" at the base of each tree?

[Fidcal]

Hmn, lengthy task? Select the parts of your map, you want blended, export, import into 3d app, perform blending (colorize verts), export. I'd say, Two to four hours depending on your experience. I would even do it for you, if I knew Lightwave or Maya.

Well you are describing how long the task itself would take. I was saying learning how to use a modelling program enough to do that task is lengthy.

[Tudor]

Fuck me sideways.

sorry for the obscenity, but christ this looks so good. And I was just getting done with all the other missions on their hardest.