Congratulations And 2 Questions.

[Lady Rowena]

Hello everyone! First of all I want to congratulate with you for the very interesting project. I'm one of the many who didn't like TDS and I hope that the Dark Mod can be the future for the FM makers.

 

Well, it was my intention to ask about water, and I just saw the thread below: "Weapons in water wish list". So it is confirmed, there will be real, swimmable water in the Dark Mod?

And what about loading zones? I don't dislike them too much, expecially if the dimensions of the levels are limited by the game engine. Is it your intention to implememt them in the Dark Mod?

 

Excuse me for my bad English. Again, many compliments for the work you have done so far.

[Springheel]

Swimmable water=yes.

 

Load zones=not needed unless the levels are quite large, but possible.

[Gildoran]

Don't worry, D3 can handle T1/T2 sized levels without need of loadzones.

[OrbWeaver]

Load zones are supported by the base D3 engine, so it will be up to FM authors whether to use them or not. As the others have said, they are not necessary for ordinary (T1/T2) sized levels.

[oDDity]

Since everyone insists on answering the same question several times when it's already been answered:

No, as Springheel AND Gildoran AND Orbweaver have already said 3 times, you wont need load zones for ordinary Thief sized levels.

[Dram]

No you won't need load zones :P

[sparhawk]

For normal levels of the size as seen on original Thief, you wont need any loadzones.

[Ishtvan]

Yes, we do have swimmable water, thanks largely to the folks at Doom3World.org. It's pretty close to completely implemented, we just need a visual filter for when you're underwater.

[Bukary]

Are there any Doom 3 maps (for download) with implemented water?

[OrbWeaver]

Are there any Doom 3 maps (for download) with implemented water?

 

Search for After The War on D3World.

[Bukary]

Search for After The War on D3World.

I've just played it. The water looks good (from the outside). Yet it is very buggy if you swim (the sky is switching etc.). And the fps is really low. I hope it's not because of the water.

 

How was it done? Is water some kind of a brush?

[OrbWeaver]

I've just played it. The water looks good (from the outside). Yet it is very buggy if you swim (the sky is switching etc.). And the fps is really low. I hope it's not because of the water.

 

The FPS is low, this is mainly due to the total lack of visportalling and the fact that the entire map is illuminated by a giant shadowcasting light.

 

How was it done? Is water some kind of a brush?

 

I believe the physics for the water is done via a volume brush, the surface is in fact two flat patches - one to do the reflection and one to do the distortion. This is no longer necessary now somebody (I think pbmax) wrote a combined shader that does both.

[Bukary]

I believe the physics for the water is done via a volume brush, the surface is in fact two flat patches - one to do the reflection and one to do the distortion. This is no longer necessary now somebody (I think pbmax) wrote a combined shader that does both.

I was asking, because I am wondering how beta mappers build their maps now, if they want to include the water in the future. I guess they just leave empty space(s) surrounded by solid brushes for future liquids.

[oDDity]

You can already use water now, you don't have to leave spaces.

Some of the fancy reflective shaders are really sore on computers though, but there are less fancy water surfaces than run fine.

[Dram]

yeah. And you don't need to use reflective water everywhere - you can easily not use it if the water is virty or whatever.

[Ishtvan]

Yeah water is in the current build, beta mappers can have swimmable water right now, AI will even drown in it. The only thing missing is the water overlay and sounds, and the physics of forces being applied underwater to AFs needs to be modified a bit. You have to put in a water brush, give it surface common/clip (I think), and make it a func_liquid entity.

[Dram]

pretty much sums it up

[Domarius]

Wow, Lady Rowena herself! Hello again, nice to hear from you. You, I worship for "The Curse of Lady Rowena", it's right up there with Ominous Bequest, but has a special place in my mind because it seems a lot like "The Ring".

 

Load zones will be a supported feature, since there will always be a point where you could reach the limits of level size on your target system - load zones are a feature that theoretally allows you to make levels of infinite size And like the others have said, with the D3 engine you will able to do T2 size levels without load zones. It's just if you wanna go insanely huge, you can, by using load zones.

[Order of the Hammer Bureaucrat]

Load zones are supported by the base D3 engine, so it will be up to FM authors whether to use them or not. As the others have said, they are not necessary for ordinary (T1/T2) sized levels.

 

Muhahahahaaa! I shall spend 5 years recreating the entire downtown core of my city in TDM with 50 loadzones!!@

[Dram]

O.o someone just went crazy lol...

[Bukary]

Yeah water is in the current build, beta mappers can have swimmable water right now, AI will even drown in it. The only thing missing is the water overlay and sounds, and the physics of forces being applied underwater to AFs needs to be modified a bit. You have to put in a water brush, give it surface common/clip (I think), and make it a func_liquid entity.

By "water brush" you mean brush with water texture? If I make brush with water texture, give it com/clip surface and make it func_liquid entity, I always get some strange texture flickering: the "bottom" of the brush is just water (blue, not transparent) texture which flickers. Should I add some patches somwhere?