Darkmod: Inspiration thread

[peter_spy]

Don't need a huge budget or teams of people to make low poly HQ models, just a great workflow and technique. Once upon a time i was that good in 3dsMax, and just now starting to get there in blender. It helps to study 3d models from other games and figure out some of the tricks by reverse engineering, not to use the original models, but study how they are put together, and how easy it is to trick the eye into seeing higher detail.

 

Bingo. As long as your project has a sensible scope, you can be a modeler, texture artist, and level designer. Actually, you should be. There are tons of great stuff to learn, and it's a great creative freedom for you.

 

I'm going through my old sculpting and texturing tutorials right now, man this is fun.

Edited January 27, 2017 by Judith

[stumpy]

sony own the models from that 'the order:1886' game, getting permission off them would be like asking a wolf to stop eating a moose's leg.

[Anderson]

sony own the models from that 'the order:1886' game, getting permission off them would be like asking a wolf to stop eating a moose's leg.

If anyone has time. It won't hurt. They don't bite.

[Bikerdude]

I cant see how they would allow use to us them with a Creative Commons license...

[peter_spy]

They'd have a good laugh for sure.

[Anderson]

They'd have a good laugh for sure.

Don't think so. Just a slight awkwardness to kick off another letter. Or not.

At least an opportunity to practice writing formal letters in an unstandardized way for a change. If you like doing that.

[peter_spy]

I mean, they paid tens of thousands of dollars for the 3dsmax, Z-brush and other software alone; then a few hundreds more for the work (the game was in production since 2010 or so, made by a big team), and now someone approaches them asking to release that work for free.

[jackiebean]

I mean, they paid tens of thousands of dollars for the 3dsmax, Z-brush and other software alone; then a few hundreds more for the work (the game was in production since 2010 or so, made by a big team), and now someone approaches them asking to release that work for free.

 

That is exactly why i got mad at Microsoft for pushing updates after Vista, because all of the sudden my expensive programs (photoshop, 3dsmax, sound editors) stopped working in windows 7. No way am i going to keep forking out money for programs that are just fine one day and then obsolete the next due to a new OS.

 

they probably would not even get through the letter once they got to the sentence that starts going into asking for the models.

 

It would get tossed in the trash.

 

I had a similar experience asking for source code to crack the exact model structure for Kotor models, but it ended up being a very polite goose chase that ended up nowhere for a while, and eventually 10 years later it finally gained a bit of traction through a third party who was entrusted by the original Kotor developers with the source, but had moved on to other things.

 

There are plenty of creative commons models and textures out there if one is willing to look and willing to give attribution. But most of them are so crude they are not worth the time needed to make them more detailed, or they are so over detailed they don't work in game engines all that well.

 

The models they did make are pretty simple in terms of geometry, but the detail is added through normal maps and bump maps. It makes a very simple model appear to be way more complex and ornate.

 

These guys probably turn out models in their sleep, which is possible after getting familiar with how to do it (repetition) but they get paid a bundle for each contract to stay cutting edge too, and their work is also the property of the company that developed whatever game they helped build.

 

The real work in developing comes with the testing of areas, placeables, looking for ugly seams, or obvious gaps between prefab objects.

 

All those areas are assembled out of prefab items with development tools, so each stick of furniture, plate, candlestick, wall section, archway, pillar... was all finished and then imported to the level building tools. Heck most video games have proprietary tools or plugins for 3dsMax or blender, and if modders are lucky we get a dumbed down version of them to add new content to a game several years later, if they didn't throw those away or lose them in some archive in a forgotten storage drive somewhere.

 

the team here is doing great, individual modders or small teams making these Dark Mod levels are doing this for the love of it, and being that is what it is, they have a lot more to offer.

[Melan]

Nürnberg, 1912-1919:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at that little piece of tourism industry in the last picture!

[Bikerdude]

I can imaging building a flophouse as per the 3rd image, and as a thief climbing out and making my way across the roof tops...

 

I assume that large opening in the middle is essential a front doort and how good and furniture get in/out of the said upper part of the building..? I wonder how and if the upper part was segregated from the lower and weither the lower part was a shop or some other non-residential fucntion..?

[peter_spy]

When it comes to environmental storytelling, there's one area of photography that's pretty good learning material: the urban exploration stuff and the whole "abandoned places" theme. There are a lot of tacky and bad sites out there, but I know at least two that are good:

 

http://opacity.us/locations

 

http://www.forgottenheritage.co.uk/

[Epifire]

What a find Judith. I'm still reading the backstory of locations on Opacity and scrolling through endless images with commentary. Who needs Netflix when you can binge out on architectural photos instead!

Edited January 30, 2017 by Epifire

[Destined]

I can imaging building a flophouse as per the 3rd image, and as a thief climbing out and making my way across the roof tops...

 

I assume that large opening in the middle is essential a front doort and how good and furniture get in/out of the said upper part of the building..? I wonder how and if the upper part was segregated from the lower and weither the lower part was a shop or some other non-residential fucntion..?

It would be interesting to see, if the building still exists. As the pictures are before WW2 there is a good chance that they were destroyed later on. Unfortunately, there are no more hints as to where or what this building could be. Else I could ask some friends if they could help me to find it (I live 30 mins away from Nürnberg, so I could acutally visit the place without much problems and provide more pictures an info of the lower part).

[Obsttorte]

From the geography and the name of the inn on the last shot I assume it is near a castle. Although there might be several in Nürnberg (never been there before).

 

The scripts on the buildings are however quite interesting. The building in the third shot is a labour exchange, whereas the one in the fifth is a refuge for street women. The woman in the sixth shot with the funny hat looks like he is a postwoman. I'm not sure whether the building in the last shot is really intented to attract tourists. Such small diners are pretty common here in germany.

 

However, very nice shots.

 

Edit: The diner still exists (it is an restaurant today) and is near the Kaiserburg. This is how it looks today:

 

[Melan]

I'm not sure whether the building in the last shot is really intented to attract tourists. Such small diners are pretty common here in germany.

I figured it was a touristy place because it is uphill right next to a castle, and the sign says "Nürnberger Bratwurste". If it was just for locals, it probably wouldn't say Nürnberger - because that much would be obvious.

[Obsttorte]

You may be right.

 

However, the names of food doesn't neccessarely reflect where they are made, but more often how. And for tourists it would be obvious either that they are in Nürnberg.

[Destined]

From the geography and the name of the inn on the last shot I assume it is near a castle. Although there might be several in Nürnberg (never been there before).

True, but most likely not all shots are from the castle (there is actually only one castle in Nürnberg). Although one of the buildings is the city's employment office and one is a homeless shelter for women, which are at least administrative buildings. The "Wirtschaft Peter Vischer" might be a bar called "Vischer's" today (I cannot get a good picture from google street view though), which is near the cinema not the castle. Still, for the building of Bikerdude's interest, I cannot say where it might be...

[Sotha]

 

For that claustrophobic underground crypt / catacombs mission feel and inspiration.

[Destined]

Just saw this post about a couple of medical procedures and tools of the Vicotrian area on 9gag. Might be useful for people who want to make prop tools for doctors or maybe posters in doctor's offices. It is quite graphic, which is why I rather post the link to the page than the picture itself:

http://9gag.com/gag/a2rND8w

[peter_spy]

I don't mean to advertise anything, but I bought these two tutorials long time ago, and learned a ton about making meshes and textures. If you want to be a better modeler, this is a pretty good place to start. Skip one new game (or two), it's worth it.

 

http://eat3d.com/pillar

 

http://eat3d.com/texturing

Edited February 4, 2017 by Judith

[NeonsStyle]

OMG Melan, those images are gorgeous.

[nbohr1more]

Some more great retro stuff from Sock:

 

 

http://www.simonoc.com/

 

Pretty much vanilla Quake 1. Can you imagine if Quake 1 looked like this on release? (Though this probably has a higher texture memory budget... )

[Epifire]

Some more great retro stuff from Sock:

 

 

http://www.simonoc.com/

 

Pretty much vanilla Quake 1. Can you imagine if Quake 1 looked like this on release? (Though this probably has a higher texture memory budget... )

 

Texture and face count for that matter. But I see lightmaps, gimmie dem lightmaps!

[nbohr1more]

 

gimmie dem lightmaps!

 

Closest we've got:

 

http://www.lunaran.com/page.php?id=165

 

 

(Parallel ambient lights with custom textures fitted to the room shape.)

[Epifire]

Not to get too off topic but I hadn't realized he'd passed the texture information to be used in the light. Guess I had missed that the first time I looked over that page. So what you're saying is I could bake out the pattern of a roof top to get gradual moonlit shadows you say?!