Lightgem The Third

[V.D.]

Fiddling with a few knobs in Lightwave I came up with this. Maybe the darkest one needs to be darker though.

IMO this light contrast fits well...

[New Horizon]

Yikes. They both look really nice. I'm still unsure about the remnants of the housing on the ring. I don't want to see anyone to end up wasting an excessive amount of time on this, but it is important that it look right.

 

I suppose we could somehow make it that when you toggle the compass off, the gem image is replaced with the one having part of the housing still intact.

 

At any rate, I would like to test both ingame.

 

BT, if you use the citytest2 map and just run down the middle of the street, you will get a very smooth transition on the gem. That's how I've been testing it with yours and it works beautifully. Transitions are very smooth. Great work.

 

oDD. I would also like to test your version ingame as well, to see if it looks good without the additional housing.

[Springheel]

I suppose we could somehow make it that when you toggle the compass off, the gem image is replaced with the one having part of the housing still intact.

 

Remember, you don't toggle the compass on and off in game. It is either on or it is off at the beginning of the mission. That frees us up, since the two gems don't have to look like they interact. Hell, they don't even have to be the same gem.

 

edit: BT, what method are you using to create the .bmps?

[New Horizon]

Remember, you don't toggle the compass on and off in game. It is either on or it is off at the beginning of the mission. That frees us up, since the two gems don't have to look like they interact. Hell, they don't even have to be the same gem.

 

edit: BT, what method are you using to create the .bmps?

Ahhh, I thought it could be toggled off ingame. That wouldn't make sense though, since there would be a compass in their inventory if they chose compass off. Doh.

[oDDity]

I made my bitmaps and put numbers on them to get a better idea in-game of the values.

It seems that even when you stand in the brightest light in some maps, it never goes above 11, so the brightest 5 bitmaps are not being used. The sensitivity is going to have to change I think.

Also try it on the blackjack test map, you do hget a full range of values there, but they don't make sense. If you gounder the ramp into the corner, it goes to bitmap 1, indicarting you're in total darkness, but looking at that area under the ramp, it's pretty well lit.

[oDDity]

THe FTP seems to have speeded up again so I uploaded the numbered and the unnumbered ones to the miscellanious folder.

[New Horizon]

Checking it out now. I think this one will work best for the Lightgem + Compass Combo and BT's for the Stand Alone Gem. Have to see what the ingame result looks like.

 

Thanks.

[New Horizon]

Just a little test, works great ingame. Spar is working on doing a real 3D check of the lights instead of the current method. This should clear up a lot of the issues, but as it is it works fine.

 

Just a quick screenie from a test I did with oDD's version.

 

oDDity, I think you were right about the darkest setting needing to be a bit darker. It should be almost completely black. That being said, looks great.

[oDDity]

I think we should have the Thief style oval lightgem for people who want just the solo gem. THat's maybe oval enough though, it's only a matter of throwing together a model witgh a little more detail so it deosn't looks as bare as in that pic - you know, some gothic curly things round it or something. THe model will be part of the bitmaps too in this version.

[Darkness_Falls]

Fiddling with a few knobs in Lightwave I came up with this. Maybe the darkest one needs to be darker though.

I think there should be more amber tones to the glow and yes, the darkest should be darker, IMO. Good progress guys! PS: I kind've miss the subtle highlights on the top/bottom of the gem as in BlackThief's version.

Edited February 6, 2005 by Darkness_Falls

[New Horizon]

My suggestion would be to incorporate the style that BT has used into the minimized Gem oDD. Essentially it's just a trimmed down version of the full compass. We had settled on that style in an earlier light gem thread, best to keep it simple at this stage. We're hoping to get the rotating compass in ASAP.

 

 

The angle of the gem you presented is pretty much bang on with the angle I demonstrated earlier. From this angle the tip of the compass is visible, but does not point too high in the air.

 

If you would be willing to incorporate BT's design into your existing gem oDD, I think we would be able to put this to bed. Finally. I'm not sure that we need to have more amber in the light though, the color you have used is softer...I like it. If you do add more amber, perhaps only just a smidge. I also don't think we should add more specular to the gem, ingame it draws attention to the fact that the gem isn't affected by lights, in my opinion.

 

Once that is done, we just need a reduced poly version of the compass with the texture. Right now it's at something like 4000 faces I think. I'll get that packaged up once it's finished and send it to Spar so he can get the compass ingame.

 

If you have any trouble with the FTP, just send it to my gmail address, tgormley@gmail.com

 

The work that both of you have done to get this finished is greatly apprecated. I can't thank you enough.

[oDDity]

YEs, but for the compass-less gem, I think it's best to stick to the old fashioned way. That gem without the compass looks like a UFO.

Here's a couple of examples.

How is the 3d compass goiong to be incorporated anyway, will you need a md5mesh of it being rotated over 360 frames?

[oDDity]

...or the classic

[New Horizon]

How is the 3d compass goiong to be incorporated anyway, will you need a md5mesh of it being rotated over 360 frames?

Hmm, I don't think it needs to be an md5mesh, just a low poly version of the compass in .lwo format. The northern tip is then associated with North on the grid...where ever we decide that is.

 

I'll ask spar about that md5 question though as I'm not 100% certain.

[New Horizon]

...or the classic

I see your point. Okay, lets go with the classic look for the gem minus compass. The gem retains a similar look, so that should provide the continuity. Do you have a copy of this to test ingame yet? Just want to see how it feels on screen. I think it looks fine as presented. The dark vs. bright also looks perfect in my opinion.

 

The compass model texture just needs to have some rougher metal on it with a red tip for the north. Spar should then be able to put it ingame.

[sparhawk]

...or the classic

Personally I would prefer the classic one. It looks really cool!

[TYROT]

dear Team

 

please choose one of them ...i m choosing oDDity's lightgem over mine

 

best

[New Horizon]

Okay, so we're going with your classic look oDDity and for the compass / gem combo we will use the version you posted on the ftp. The compass needs to be in .lwo format as I just confirmed with spar.

 

Thanks.

[oDDity]

I don't understand how you're going to rotate it though if it's just a static model. Wouldn't it be easier to have an animated model with 360 frames, one for each degree of turn, then in the script you can just point to the approprate frame number.

[oDDity]

...also - what size do you need it to be? Or does it matter?

It's TYROTs model anyway, so he can do the low res version himself.

Edited February 6, 2005 by oDDity

[BlackThief]

let's go for the classic-look for the lightgem without the compass. that looks really great

 

I think the health-bar should have the same design.

[New Horizon]

...also -  what size do you need it to be? Or does it matter?

It's TYROTs model anyway, so he can do the low res version himself.

Don't worry about the size. If it's too big or too small, I'll resize it during the tweaking process. That's about the only thing I know how to do in lightwave, might as well make myself useful. I asked id about it and they said models have to be resized manually but apparently the next version of the editor will allow for ineditor resizing.

[New Horizon]

I don't understand how you're going to rotate it though if it's just a static model. Wouldn't it be easier to have an animated model with 360 frames, one for each degree of turn, then in the script you can just point to the approprate frame number.

I think Spar is doing it the way they did in T1 and 2....not that I know how they did that, but it was just a model that rotated on an axis.

 

I ripped a quick copy of the classic gem from the gif with Image Ready. Looks really cool ingame. Not the highest quality having been converted from a gif and I didn't create an alpha. It still looks and works great though.

[Springheel]

The classic one looks great, oDDIty. Good work. The style of the two gems is quite different, however, so we'll have to give some thought to making a healthbar that fits well with both of them. Unless we make a different one for each option, which wouldn't be much extra work. Your design already has given me some ideas for a healthbar that would fit the same style.

[New Horizon]

The classic one looks great, oDDIty. Good work. The style of the two gems is quite different, however, so we'll have to give some thought to making a healthbar that fits well with both of them. Unless we make a different one for each option, which wouldn't be much extra work. Your design already has given me some ideas for a healthbar that would fit the same style.

That was my concern as well, but I'm hoping we will be able to tie it all together with one healthbar design, just to keep some unity between the two setups.