The Houseguard

[BlackThief]

didn't have any time to overwork the old textures yet (was working on the wardrobe and the texture-map), but can you please upload the new model in the lwo or obj format? I only have maya PL and that really sucks....

[Corth]

K, I put the obj in the rar file

[BlackThief]

ok, I think this is finally done I adjusted the diffuse to the new layout and overworked the normal a bit (I also changed the fingers a bit, because the nails turned out black ingame - so I stole the fingers of Oddity's Prelate normalmap )

The boots look now ok ingame - I'm not totally happy with the hands yet, but I hope they will look better with proper smoothing in md5-format.

 

 

Here're the textures:

http://www.thedarkmod.de/darkmod_files/hg_textures.rar

 

 

btw would you mind sending me the head+texture? I've got some head-textures laying around here I did some months ago and I think we should have at least 3 different heads anyway.

[Corth]

just uploading the head with the textures now, it's an obj too.

 

HGhead.rar

 

how come you blurred the background on that pic? it makes my eyes go wonkey

[Ishtvan]

It looks like a motion blur was applied to the whole image... how did that happen?

[BlackThief]

lol I actually did that just for fun (but it's only the background - the model is still sharp. )

[Corth]

Ok, this is the last update for this head (unless someone doesn't like something about it )

 

Before:

 

After:

 

My next post should be his walk cycle

[SneaksieDave]

Nice, quite realistic. The holes-for-eyes raises a question I've been wondering for some times. Are we going solid, non-animating eyes (most of the existing models, or at least, from screenshots) or animating eyes like this model, and T3?

[Springheel]

Animated eyes would be best, I think. Ren and Corth were really pushing for facial animation as well. I think that's something we should only worry about after the initial release, but the modelers can certainly rig them now if they want.

[Ishtvan]

There was a lot of code in D3's source (idActor class) for animating eyes, looking at stuff, blinking, etc, so it's definitely possible to do. This was used for some of the D3 NPCs that would keep looking at you, they knew when they could follow you with their eyes and when they had to turn their head, etc.

 

Maybe we could set up some sort of conversation between two AI walking around where each turns their head / looks at the other one when talking, like have them do this when they pass eachother and issue greetings. That would be cool.

[Springheel]

TDS did this as well, at least the turning head part.

[sparhawk]

For some characters this looked quite cool. I remember ne guy sitting in a corner and he was looking at me and followed me with he eyes and it looked quite convincing.

[SneaksieDave]

Head turning can be extremely effective. Let me add (in case it's not obvious, which it might be, so bare with me - I'm figuring anyone who hasn't bothered with TDS beyond the OMs might not be aware) that the line of sight also realistically follows the head turning - it's not just window-dressing. The map I worked on till recently has patrols where the guards look down hallways perpendicular to their route, and they even look over their shoulder/behind them, when rounding a corner.

 

It's not only extremely cool looking (makes me laugh every time I see it) but it also leaves a smartass player shadowing a guard less room to get cocky. Definitely something to add if it can be done (easily enough).

[Springheel]

Yep, we're planning on this.

[Ishtvan]

Indeed, the idea is to make them occasionally look around / look over their shoulder at random intervals, like a real person on guard duty would. D3 can also do FOV linked to a bone. Although I guess I should modify the sight code at some point to take into account how close to the center of their view you are, so it depends if they're looking right at you or if you're in their peripheral vision. Right now it's just an either or - in FOV cone or not, which is not so good.

[Springheel]

That would be great. I don't think any of the previous Thief games made use of peripheral vision.

[Ishtvan]

They had peripheral vision in that the vision cone expanded out beyond what they were looking right at, but I think it was like you're either in or out of the cone, the calculations didn't take into account how far toward the edge of the cone you were.

[Corth]

Alright... I have no idea how to get this guy inside doom3. I tried adding him to a map, but no go. Ahh well.

 

Anyway, here's a walk cycle (not yet complete) for you to see in quicktime. I have to fix the legs snapping and the 'bob' only happening for the one step.

 

But ya... not being able to see this guy inside doom is pissing me off.

[god_is_my_goldfish]

Not bad at all though, i like the subtle realism of the arm swing as well

[oDDity]

Seeing the static model insdoe doom is easy enough, but for the animated guy you could use the same mesh and anim files names as one of the AI already in the game and just swap out the relevant files. Since you've only got a walk so far you'd have rename every md5anim to 'walk' or whatever you've called it. THat's assuming you have Doom and the Dark Mod installed.

That's a good cycle though. I know doing walk cycles is one of the hardest things to do well, but he does seem to be taking rather short steps for a lanky male, almost bird-like. Maybe that's the character you wanted him to have though. I think just a little wider home position might improve it.

[Ishtvan]

You'll have to make a def file for the AI that lists the animations and points to the right files. If you want, you can look at the prelate and revenant def files for an example.

 

Of course for some reason beyond me, the Prelate has trouble turning at sharp angles when it plays his walk animation, while the revenant does not have that problem. I'm hoping that once we get more AI ingame I'll be able to see the pattern, 'cause I can't figure out why that's happening so far.

 

Anyway, once you get the anims in, you can play them in DoomEdit (if you open up the entity there's a little pulldown menu saying "anim" and there should be a play button and slider bar).

[ascottk]

Here's some tweaks I did to the model:

I thought the legs looked too skinny so I resized the thighs and the lower leg coming out of the boot. (Oops, the legs are clipping out of his tunic . . . ) Don't pay attention to the textures since this is a cheap maya render.

 

Here's the original mesh before the tweaks:

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?act=A...ost&id=1195

[ascottk]

Should be going up on cvs now. He might need a loop for his sword (to replace the sheath).

 

You know, he might make a good archer . . .

[Springheel]

Thanks!

 

I'll have a go at the texture...looks like he could use some stronger normalmaps on those arms.

[Springheel]

Just took a look at him ingame--he definitely needs some work. The normal for the padded tunic is good but the rest--not so much.

 

And I'm really not sure about the head. It looked pretty good in some of the screenshots above, but in game it looks low-poly and kind of harsh--not to mention the eyes are just wierd (no doubt because Corth left them empty originally).