Easy Radiant Question

[sparhawk]

ASE can not be really used perfeclty because you can not import it. So you always have to have a modelfile and convert it to ASE. Also I haven't found a way to properly set the material as you can in Maya and Lightwave, but maybe that is because I haven't tried so hard.

[obscurus]

IMO it makes sense to use a real 3D app. If I would create a completely new game I woudl take the same approach. Why spending years of work to create a working 3D app, when there are already existing tons of excellent 3D application? You have to spend a great deal of time developing this and what you get is nowhere near the class that a good 3D app achieves. This time is better spent to write an importer and on the game itself. And with the increased capabillities of games it will become harder and harder to keep up with 3D apps just to have an editor. I always thought that it would be much better if I had a game which could import a 3D file from i.E. Blender as the map geometry instead of learning yet another new editor.

 

 

If they would support Blender natively, this would alerady be a big step. After all it's free and it can do all the stuff that you need. Of course for big comapnies they do not care much about the license fees for Maya or Lightwave.

I see your point, it makes good sense for developers, but it really hampers modability for the average gamer with a taste for tinkering with games..

 

I know some games don't even have their own editors, they just write plugins for Max, and use Max for everything... I guess my real problem is that game devs always use file formats that shareware or low budget modelling can't use, or can't use well... I have a number of 3D programs from Computer Mag CDs that are easy to model with, but I cant save in any formats that preserve texture UV coordinates that game editors can use, and it is very frustrating to be able to have models, but have to go to painstaking legths to get the texturing right in the game..

 

It is good to see .LWO format being used a bit more, as a lot of apps support that format nicely, but very few programs support .ASE, which is what a lot of game editors use. It is nice that a lot of the big 3D apps have special learning editions of their software, but they are often so restricted that people would learn more by using a pirated version of the real thing than the cut down version.

 

Does anyone think that Id will release a GMax gamepak for Doom 3? It would be a really good thing for modders, but may well not be worth the effort for them, given Kinetix's massive licensing fees...

[OrbWeaver]

Does anyone think that Id will release a GMax gamepak for Doom 3?  It would be a really good thing for modders, but may well not be worth the effort for them, given Kinetix's massive licensing fees...

It's not really something I can imagine Carmack wanting to do - pay large licensing fees to a 3rd party for the privilege of allowing modders to use their proprietary tools. He's very much an "open formats" kind of guy.

 

If you haven't tried Blender I suggest you give it a go - there is a steep learning curve (as with any full-featured 3D editor) but it supports both LWO and ASE very nicely and is open source, so you can't get much more low-budget than that.

[obscurus]

Yet Discrete/Id did release the Tempest Gamepack for Quake 3 (not that it was overly good though, and I am not sure if Id actually paid anything for it)... about the only other games that support Gmax are a few Microsoft games - guess they have the cash to splash around on that sort of thing. I'll be giving Blender anoter try, methinks...

 

Can you bake normal maps in Blender?

Edited June 15, 2005 by obscurus

[OrbWeaver]

Yet Discrete/Id did release the Tempest Gamepack for Quake 3 (not that it was overly good though, and I am not sure if Id actually paid anything for it)...  about the only other games  that support Gmax are a few Microsoft games - guess they have the cash to splash around on that sort of thing.  I'll be giving Blender anoter try, methinks...

 

Can you bake normal maps in Blender?

Not yet, at least not within Blender itself. The best way to do this is by exporting models as ASE with the fast Doom 3 exporter (http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=10999) and using the freeware ORB RenderBump tool (http://www.pcgamemods.com/11163/).

 

You can also export to LWO and use Doom 3 to renderbump but this gives very inferior results in my experience.

[tnl]

I hope darkmod works good in my pc and pcs with same power,

and how this great work completd in not too far time.

 

I still teach the editor and found how possible make very nice

texturised lights. If all thing okay i want make maps for this mod!

[Dram]

...are ALWAYS coded in such a way...

I think this is exclusively the case with T3Ed, cos UnrealEd 1,2 etc, both give you access to the code for weapons and stuff. I heard that T3Ed does not allow you any access to coded stuff like weapon functions (eg: the code required to make the bow shoot). I have'nt tried T3Ed and will rather not, I am used to D3Ed now, so i don't want to have to go back to my UnrealEd past. Though I did enjoy how easy it was to just go and stuff around in the code for the weapons and they would just work but that is even easier now with D3 cos its in the .def files

 

Anyways, I'm glad to have left UnrealEd, and i think many UnrealEd mappers will run into EXACTLY the same problem as me: using brushes for everything (like door arches and stuff).

 

I've gladly gotten off using brushes too much though, Renz's whip is a nasty one...

[Fingernail]

I'm still somewhat perplexed that neither Unreal nor Source have actually got patches or something like them. I'm replaying HL2 atm, and always notice the angular tubes etc...looks like something out of Thief 2 in some cases! Whereas D3 has nice and smooth surfaces.

[Maximius]

D3 is incredibly smooth, I think this is the reason the outdoor segments look so good. The "faceting" effect has been reduced considerably, rocks actually look rounded and weather worn instead of angular. The overall effect is really natural looking, at least compared with other games Ive played.

[obscurus]

Yeah, it is definately a top notch engine, if anything can wean me of UnrealEd, it has to be D3Radiant!

 

Though I'm sure I will be making maps for UnrealEngine3 when it makes an appearance..

But I get the impression that the D3 engine is capable of a hell of a lot more than D3 (the game) lets on...

 

BTW, has anyone checked out these mods for the original Quake? They have re-written the Qake 1 source and added per-pixel shader effects and dynamic lighting... looks eerily like Doom 3, I wonder what could be done with them...

 

http://tenebrae.sourceforge.net/

 

http://www.tenebrae2.com/

[Dr.Spangle]

ZDoom and some other modifications of the Doom engine have done similar things. I think there's some big limitations though, at least as far as the Doom engine modifications go, since it's based on BSPs, while the newer engines are based on a mix of a variety of 3d techniques.

[Renzatic]

If we had the time and resources I would've voted going with Tenebrae 2. It comes surprisingly close to what Doom 3 can do, and since it's completely open source we could add in anything we wanted to at any given time.

 

The only tradeoff is that the performance isn't quite on par with D3.

[obscurus]

It doesn't look like much has happened with Tenebrae 2 in over a year, so it might well end up being another one of the many vapourware game engines that constantly pop up only to dissapear... But being open source, anyone could pick it up again and work with it, and maybe even optimise it to the standard of Doom 3, who knows...

 

Though I guess by the time someone did, Doom 4 will be out

[Maximius]

Maybe D4 will be a stronger game than its recent incarnation, too. Im currently "playing" D3 in what my old Doom 1 buddy and I used to call "ArchAngel Mode", God on, Clip on, fly around, see the sights, kill everything with the chainsaw. I used to wait until I finished the game, but D3 suddenly became very, very boring. Gorgeous and dull as dirt.

 

Any suggestions out there for a new game to purchase? I am done with unrealistic shooters, thats for sure, except maybe online if I get DSL. I pretty much limit my gaming to epic space battles ala Homeworld or Thief.

 

I wont bite on HL2 though, I hear its a bug hunt through sewers and little more.

[Springheel]

Actually I quite enjoyed HL2. Lots of variety in terms of mission levels.

[Pyrian]

I pretty much limit my gaming to epic space battles ala Homeworld or Thief.

Thief has epic space battles? :lol: J/k.

[obscurus]

Oh yeah, in Thief 1, in Constantine's Mansion, in that section where you go into that wierd void, you can just make out the epic space battles in the distance if you squint really, really hard

[Maximius]

"I pretty much limit my gaming to epic space battles ala Homeworld or Thief."

 

 

Doh, that line didnt make much sense.

 

Maybe I'll give HL2 a whirl after all. Its only 12 bucks or so on Ebay, if not less.

 

BTW, anyone see the PC gamer article about the new Star Trek massive online multiplayer game? You can captain a ship and engage in space battle, then beam down to a planet or station for some FPS action. Build a crack crew, upgrade your ship and equiptment, all kinds of ways to pixellate your brain cells. It sounds pretty wild, Im not a Trekkie by any stretch but dang...

[Dram]

Which game? damn sounds good.

[obscurus]

I played through a few levels of HL2 at my brother's house, I quite enjoyed it, very pretty graphics... But I'd be inclined to buy it and then use one of the cracks rather than go through the hassle of Steam... I'm on 56K (still)... I have heard so many horror stories about people waiting for over 18 hours before they can actually get the game to run after installation, that I have thus far decided to give it a miss... If I can't install and start playing the game within 15 minutes, I will probably not bother unless I really think it is going to be something special, and while HL2 is good (what I have seen of it), I'm not convinced it is worth the hassle...

 

Oops, this thread seems to be wandering off topic pretty fast, I'd better end my anti-steam rant right there

 

There is an interesting idea, Thief with epic space battles. Maybe you could make Darkmod into a game like GTA, called "Grand Theft Starship", and run around spaceports joyriding TIE fighters... :lol:

[Dram]

I'd better end my anti-steam rant right there...

I fucking hate it too. I got HL2 and immediately installed the crack. I hate something that forces me to do this or that AND in my own private home too.

 

meh, we all hate it.

[sparhawk]

HL2 is quite good as a game, but I wouldn't buy it (or even take it as a present) because of Steam.

[Pyrian]

I downloaded it from Steam and never had a problem.

[sparhawk]

I didn't mean that there is a technical problem with Steam.

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=886

[Maximius]

Which game? damn sounds good.

The interview is here:

 

http://www.pcgamer.com/eyeonline/eyeonline_2005-03-03.html

 

Its not yet a game, only a project, its a long way off, sorry for the false alarm.

 

Whats the deal with HL2 and Steam? Why would I need a crack, not that Im against using one, Im not familiar with any of this.