Jump to content
The Dark Mod Forums

Nightblade


Bikerdude

Recommended Posts

That trick is more for giving flat, low-poly, leaf cluster in trees the appearance of 3d volume by making the light hit the surfaces at artificial angles.

 

This trick:

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/11515-real-translucency-anyone/

 

...would be the closest we have to Alpha blending but it requires a secondary light source to see it.

 

Having real alpha blending would allow for multiple texture blends on both sides of the leaf.

 

But a well designed texture that includes all the "alpha-layers" might still look as good (if not better) when combined with that translucency trick. A decent specular map (and perhaps a cubemap as well) could be used to realistically approximate the leaf-sheen as well.

 

But having real alpha blending would be easier...

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They are nice shots.

 

I don't think alpha blending is holding us back much on plants though. Sure it can make the edges smoother (less pixelly) but higher res textures can also do that.

 

I'm starting to work on baking down hi poly models into leaves and such and it's working pretty good so far, we'll have more/better plants in the future.

Part of it is plants have always been tough (I'm realizing now though that we need to throw more polys and higher res at them for them to look good), part of it is we already had some so other models took priority.

 

We also have the LOD system now so I'm gonna make some hi poly stuff to be seen up close.

 

(see 'what are you working on thread')

Dark is the sway that mows like a harvest

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah... Every time people read the "Vertex Normal Trick" thread I get to relive the embarrassment of mistaking Vertex Normals (smoothing groups, etc) for Normal Maps... :blush:

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like a lot of those shots, but a lot of them just reek of mutli-player blandness, the lack of anything personal, just a laid out "space" to run around in and kill kill kill. They're all kinda lifeless and empty. So "fill them up with stuff" you say? But they are designed with performance in mind and need to be empty because of that. I prefer smaller more "cozy" areas with more details and life, more full and real, instead of just a "stage"

shadowdark50.gif keep50.gif
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like a lot of those shots, but a lot of them just reek of mutli-player blandness, the lack of anything personal, just a laid out "space" to run around in and kill kill kill. They're all kinda lifeless and empty. So "fill them up with stuff" you say? But they are designed with performance in mind and need to be empty because of that. I prefer smaller more "cozy" areas with more details and life, more full and real, instead of just a "stage"

 

Wholeheartedly agree!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some gorgeous shots (especially the very first one of the series), yum.

 

I'm surprised to hear that from you, considering how you rate TDS as "too cartoony and fake looking".

 

Not a criticism, just surprise.

 

I like the shots as well, but still find TDM superior as it is very much more realistic. It's cool to have an occasional mission wherein the style of the presentation is completely customized*; but I'm certain that if the above was the look of TDM and we then saw some shots of what TDM does look like, we'd be much more "oooooh" and "aaaaah". :)

 

*There is one coming up for T2, which looks to be very "cartoony"... and which despite the fact that every T2 mission built is a wasted opportunity, I will probably load up to wander 'round... at the very least...

 

...

 

Anyway, I think I might have played this? A couple or few years ago? There was something thiefy built in a completely different engine. The name Nightblade and the look seem to ring remembrance...

 

It was cool, in that it was quite an accomplishment and interesting to play with the other engines mechanics and whatnot. BUT in the end the mechanics were not an improvement at all, as we have with TDM. They were even more "fucked up" (a bit harsh, but there it is) than T3.

Edited by aidakeeley

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would stipulate two things on that:

1. Different expectations for unreal. Unreal is... well, unreal. Thief I like to be realistic. Somehow, even T1 and T2 look more believable to my eye (probably because the mind's eye fills in the blanks and details) than does TDS.

2. And fantasy-like or not, this is simply better. I think that's undeniable. I'd rate TDS' art direction in every way save a few excellent textures to be very poor. Most textures are poor (till JohnP did his best to fix them while preserving them), models look out of place and slapped into the world, the world is boxy, and the characters... oh man. I cringe to this day.

 

I've always liked fantasy, but TDS does a lousy job at it.

 

Edit: One fosters a fantasy-based suspension of disbelief, while the other just looks bad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, again, not a criticism of your taste at all. I'm actually happy to hear you say that the "cartoony" motif is not really a problem per se... rather, maybe, just the T3 shakeout... Which I think maybe is "colored" by T3 in general. ;)

 

 

I rate T3 as the best game of whatever year it came out in, btw. What was it Shalebridge Cradle? Excellent. Epic. Legendary. But still T3 was certainly a disappointment overall. Some critical and overarching "failures" for sure. I just don't hate everything about it. And compared to the shit that streams daily off the production lines? It was ahead of the game from the get go.

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just googled and saw that you can export UT2004 to ASE.

 

Not sure if the light-map will come along for the ride though (be baked into the diffuse already????)...

 

(would take a bunch of chop, chop, chop, in Blender to visportal...)

Edited by nbohr1more

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just googled and saw that you can export UT2004 to ASE.

 

Not sure if the light-map will come along for the ride though (be baked into the diffuse already????)...

 

(would take a bunch of chop, chop, chop, in Blender to visportal...)

 

I would have liked to port the brushes and architecture then I can have NB running in a window and then slowly work on said map in DR etc..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just googled and saw that you can export UT2004 to ASE.

 

Not sure if the light-map will come along for the ride though (be baked into the diffuse already????)...

 

(would take a bunch of chop, chop, chop, in Blender to visportal...)

 

Most likely UT does it like Hammer, but I really don't know.

 

The textures never change, you put the base tex on geometry. Then during bake time it actually makes a bunch of new greyscale 'overlay' textures for the entire map (and file size swells up ALOT) and packs them somewhere in the map to be read by the engine, so most likely NO you wouldn't see them outside of unreal.

Since file size gets so large you also have the choice to optimize by setting lightmap scale (luxels) per surface (at least in Hammer). So roof tops get a very large grid (less pixel density) and very noticable places get a small grid (very small grid if you want good shadows from chain link fences and whatnot).

 

We're taking a non-lightmapped map in Hammer being 20 MB, a decent looking lightmap being 50MB. Huge difference.

Dark is the sway that mows like a harvest

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ut2k4 does support ASE however it's very basic and the parser is quite different to doom3, some assets can be shared but there are plenty of inconsistencies and its the avoided model format, a bit like md5mesh seems to be in tech4 communities.

 

Other than that the textures are what I grew up making in my spare time, they're a load easier to make because they focus on diffuse and are greatly helped by the ever present detail texture overlays and good rich baked lighting. The time it takes to make a single 'good' tech4 texture works out to around 3 of them depending on a few things.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, those maps are what you get when you use almost exclusively custom-made textures and models as assets. <_<

 

TDM is what you get when you have a wide array of widely useful resources.

 

Exactly. Even if TDM had the same graphical capabilities, very few people would be able to take advantage of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

so no way to do a simple export import then by the sounds of it..?

 

Nightblade or UT assets?

Nightblade, I'll happily batch convert whatever we have permission for (not into a usable state, just convert the geometry so that people can texture/skin/do whatever), pretty sure my batch converter can manage it.

UT, lets not go down that bridge :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recent Status Updates

    • Ansome

      Finally got my PC back from the shop after my SSD got corrupted a week ago and damaged my motherboard. Scary stuff, but thank goodness it happened right after two months of FM development instead of wiping all my work before I could release it. New SSD, repaired Motherboard and BIOS, and we're ready to start working on my second FM with some added version control in the cloud just to be safe!
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer  »  DeTeEff

      I've updated the articles for your FMs and your author category at the wiki. Your newer nickname (DeTeEff) now comes first, and the one in parentheses is your older nickname (Fieldmedic). Just to avoid confusing people who played your FMs years ago and remember your older nickname. I've added a wiki article for your latest FM, Who Watches the Watcher?, as part of my current updating efforts. Unless I overlooked something, you have five different FMs so far.
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer

      I've finally managed to log in to The Dark Mod Wiki. I'm back in the saddle and before the holidays start in full, I'll be adding a few new FM articles and doing other updates. Written in Stone is already done.
      · 4 replies
    • nbohr1more

      TDM 15th Anniversary Contest is now active! Please declare your participation: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22413-the-dark-mod-15th-anniversary-contest-entry-thread/
       
      · 0 replies
    • JackFarmer

      @TheUnbeholden
      You cannot receive PMs. Could you please be so kind and check your mailbox if it is full (or maybe you switched off the function)?
      · 1 reply
×
×
  • Create New...