Reaction To New Update.

[Slash]

nice job. i realy like the scrolls. and how it doesnt switch in to a new screen, it just pops up in front of u. vary nice work. and the new in game screens are fookin amazing. the lighting effects realy make the game look like a vary realy thief like world. hats off to guys. this is the best mod i have ever seen, the best detail and effert. can wait to start playing. is there going to be a single player story line released with the editor or is the editor going to come out and then you will start your single player game. if you guys make a fucking amazing single player game i beat u anything ID will look at it and go wow we could sell this game. and as a free game pritty much everyone would play it. keep us up to beat on the game guys. latz

[Dram]

Thanks for the nice comments slash

 

Yeah it's going toolset first then campaign.

[ZylonBane]

Well, you've got the thumbs-up from the semi-literate demographic.

 

Anyway, how will readables be rendered in-world? Will you just use a generic illegible-scribble texture, or is there any chance you could display the actual text? Seems like it wouldn't be too hard to auto-generate a low-res texture based off the full-size view.

Edited March 10, 2006 by ZylonBane

[Dram]

I'll put it to you this way, D3's default guis can be read even if they're sitting on a tabletop, so that means so can ours

 

Basically you can read a piece of paper even if it's on the ground without frobbing it to read it properly. Of course, that is only if it's one page, otherwise you'll have to pick it up.

 

This is what it looks like when you put it to your face (frob), while this is what it looks like when it's on the table.

 

As you can see they're both legible, and whatever you write on the GUI will turn up in the gameworld, and it isn't some bullshit trick either.

 

Ignore the hud - that's a placeholder.

[Gildoran]

Thank you for the praise! I'll hopefully be able to do more work on the readables during spring break. The current plan is that readables will have %100 detail in the game world, and will perfectly match what you see on-screen when you read them. Here's a high-res cropped image of the readable on the desk, where I got very close to it, but didn't actually use it. (the reason Dram's readable appears brighter is because it's highlighted by the frob code in that shot)

As you can see it's exactly the same as what pops up on-screen while reading, except that it interacts with lighting.

[Dram]

I think it might be nice if every now and then we chucked a couple of new pics up to keep your interest (Thief Community that is)

 

But it'd be best if it was'nt once a week or whatnot because then it might annoy you if we don't manage to get a pic up or whatever, so I think I might pop in a few shots of this and that every now and then - but not stuf we want to keep for a surprise or whatever!

 

 

 

Hows this sound NH? Perhaps make a sticky which is New Pics and all of us can pop in a pic or two if we want or whatever, of course we'll have to watch what we put there - some things are best as a surprise. What do you say NH and the rest of the team?

 

Basically sorta like the "Look! I'm working on a tree! Isn't it nice?" type thing

[sparhawk]

We are already doing regular updates, so I don't think we need to increase the frequency.

[Fidcal]

Great work Gildoran. Like the real game time reading without pausing. Looks flawless.

 

Will all readables be take-away or some nailed down so have to be read in situ?

 

Any thoughts on T2X type books which open at first frob then are readable. One advantage is you can see at a glance if you've already read them. Though I thought T2X had too much unnecessary reading so that was probably a good thing!

[Springheel]

Zy: There will be premade 'blurry text' parchment skins, as well as blank skins authors can put their own text on. The in-game model of the parchment will be affected by lighting conditions, but you can conceivably read it without frobbing it.

 

Fid: Books and scrolls will be able to be carried in your inventory. When you 'use' them, they will pop up a GUI similar to the parchment one. Parchments nailed to a wall (and plaques, etc) will be read using the above system. The FM author can override the defaults on whether something is to be read on the spot or go into inventory, however.

[ZylonBane]

Sounds shiny!

 

It'll probably look a bit odd when you walk right up to a parchment, click it, and a clone of the parchment appears floating in front of you, but I guess there's no way around that.

[New Horizon]

Sounds shiny!

 

It'll probably look a bit odd when you walk right up to a parchment, click it, and a clone of the parchment appears floating in front of you, but I guess there's no way around that.

 

Doesn't look too bad at all really.

 

@dram

 

Nope. We're not making any changes to the update structure.

[oDDity]

Sounds shiny!

 

It'll probably look a bit odd when you walk right up to a parchment, click it, and a clone of the parchment appears floating in front of you, but I guess there's no way around that.

 

The entire illusion of three dimensional space on a two dimensional surface kind of looks a bit odd close up, but there's currently no way around any of it.

[ZylonBane]

Doesn't look too bad at all really.

Yeah, I figure it'll probably be one of those things that take two minutes to get used to. I'm just imagining-- "Hey look, I can read this parchment on the wall!" *click* "Woah hey, now there's two of them! Ahhh, it's on my face, get it off!!!"

[Macsen]

Yeah, I figure it'll probably be one of those things that take two minutes to get used to. I'm just imagining-- "Hey look, I can read this parchment on the wall!" *click* "Woah hey, now there's two of them! Ahhh, it's on my face, get it off!!!"

If that is a problem you could always forgo the *click* part.

[Dram]

@NH: alrighty

 

@ZB: it looks very natural, because the actual 2d ppaper covers the parchment most of the time. When you frob it and look too much to one side it'll disappear again in a fade out, it's very nice

[ZylonBane]

I'm sure it is. I thought I made it fairly obvious that my last post was being silly.

 

However, now a serious suggestion-- how about, when viewing a readable, slightly blurring everything behind the readable? Y'know, to simulate the player focusing on something close. It would serve as nice subtle indicator that the player is in a "mode".

[Dram]

hmm..dunno if we can do blur...plus it might get annoying after the wow factor

[Macsen]

However, now a serious suggestion-- how about, when viewing a readable, slightly blurring everything behind the readable? Y'know, to simulate the player focusing on something close. It would serve as nice subtle indicator that the player is in a "mode".

The player's eye will blur the text/background naturally depending on which he's looking at. There's no point coding what nature has taken care of for us already.

 

Preventing the player from looking at the background would pretty much negate the point of not pausing the game and going into 'read-a-book-mode' in the first place.

[Ombrenuit]

Ok, thats it. I'm ordering Doom 3 as we speak.

[New Horizon]

Ok, thats it. I'm ordering Doom 3 as we speak.

 

Sweet, another true believer.

[Puddle_of_muck]

Kinda off topic , but i didnt want to start a new thread for such a small query -

Wil there be an option to grab and throw non inventory objects (ie splinter cell, thief, deus ex), perhaps even to create a distraction? If it hasn't, i thought perhaps a modded grav gun mod may work (VERY modified)

Edited March 11, 2006 by Puddle_of_muck

[ZylonBane]

The player's eye will blur the text/background naturally depending on which he's looking at. There's no point coding what nature has taken care of for us already.

Okay, no more Sugar Frosted Lead Paint Chips for you.

[New Horizon]

Kinda off topic , but i didnt want to start a new thread for such a small query -

Wil there be an option to grab and throw non inventory objects (ie splinter cell, thief, deus ex), perhaps even to create a distraction? If it hasn't, i thought perhaps a modded grav gun mod may work (VERY modified)

 

Definately. That's a fairly basic function in the Thief games.

[Gildoran]

However, now a serious suggestion-- how about, when viewing a readable, slightly blurring everything behind the readable? Y'know, to simulate the player focusing on something close. It would serve as nice subtle indicator that the player is in a "mode".

Currently it doesn't blur the background, but the background does darken some to indicate the player is in a "mode".

[Domarius]

Darkening is good.

 

Blurring is a good idea in principal - in fact, the new XBox game "Black" - when you reload your gun, your view goes blurry but your gun stays in focus, to simulate focusing on doing the re-loading, its very effective.

And Doom 3 can do this.

 

BUT, the Doom 3 blurring effects only show up on certain video cards, so that makes it a bad choice of effect for showing the player is in a mode, since some people won't even see it.

 

The player's eye will blur the text/background naturally depending on which he's looking at. There's no point coding what nature has taken care of for us already.

Haha, don't know what you're smoking, but you need DEPTH to have things go in and out of focus, and the monitor is FLAT.