After Dm Is Done

[sparhawk]

Considering that I myself also created two models, the standards can not be THAT high.

 

Seriously, if you created some nice models, which you want to submit, just send it to us. Only thing youl should do though, is to also UVmap and texture them, because we have enough untextured models and we can not really use more. Best to ask Spring or Blackthief though.

[New Horizon]

Considering that I myself also created two models, the standards can not be THAT high.

 

Seriously, if you created some nice models, which you want to submit, just send it to us. Only thing youl should do though, is to also UVmap and texture them, because we have enough untextured models and we can not really use more. Best to ask Spring or Blackthief though.

 

Yup, that's about the only real stipulation we have for contributions. They must be uv mapped and textured. If we get a bunch of untextured models, they're just going to sit around.

 

There are different levels of novice. A novice can likely make a crate, or texture a set of wooden beams that would look every bit as good as what someone who can do more complicated architecture could do.

[Maximius]

Considering that I myself also created two models, the standards can not be THAT high.

 

Seriously, if you created some nice models, which you want to submit, just send it to us. Only thing youl should do though, is to also UVmap and texture them, because we have enough untextured models and we can not really use more. Best to ask Spring or Blackthief though.

 

Unfortunately I havent done any of the above before. I dont even know what UVmapping is. Ill shoot a message to Spring/Black and see what they say but from your description Im guessing Im too much a newb to be any real help at this point.

[sparhawk]

If you want to get started with any kind of modelling, then you will have to learn that anyway. Or you will always have models in that nice 3D app gray.

[Skol]

Unfortunately I havent done any of the above before. I dont even know what UVmapping is. Ill shoot a message to Spring/Black and see what they say but from your description Im guessing Im too much a newb to be any real help at this point.

 

Really basic, I hope:

A model is made up of polygons, which are made up of vertices. Each vertex has an x,y,z coordinate. A UV map is generated by "unfolding" a model into a 2d space, and giving each vertex an additional u and v coordinate (you can move stuff around on the UV map without moving it in actual space). So you can create a table, and make a UV map with distinct areas (e.g., top, bottom, sides, legs).

 

Then you can draw on it. The top, bottom, and sides of the table can be basic wood, and the legs can have some decorative design, or whatever. If you've ever seen a picture that looks like this or this, you've seen a textured UV map (really, a texture map (the face) over the UV map (the polygons); I don't know if they're interchangable). The face model has been unfolded to lay flat, which is why the face looks so distorted.

 

Most/all engines have vertex data with UV coordinates. The texture map (and normal map, et. al.) can be seen as a UV graph, so that a vertex of a model with such-and-such texture map can interpolate a texture across a face.

[demagogue]

This isn't a request by any means, this is just thinking aloud.

There was an old (2004?) press release re-posted recently that if they did make Thief 4, it wouldn't be medieval but in a different time and setting, and some people balked.

 

But at the same time I think there is untapped potential here as well.

I remembered that one of my favorite Contest Missions was Thief Noir, which had a 1930s-1950s flavor which I thought was cool, and there are parts about thief gameplay that could really fit well in a more modern setting... I particularly thought about like pre-WWI London (or like some synthesis of 1880s-1950s, the City 200 years on), like Jack the Ripper turf, or Sherlock Holmes style badguys, and the PC is more like a cat-burglar, wall climbing and jumping, and the watch are like old school bobbies with nightsticks and in an emergency maybe have a small pistol (maybe they go for tackling and handcuffing the PC, not sure?), and tommie guns might make an appearance, and gangsters, and the PC still has lockpicks, a grappling hook (effectively just like a rope arrow), maybe a swtichblade for an emergency, no gun, and still the blackjack of course. Not sure about working vehicles, but maybe just models. Mostly stylistic differences, I wouldn't want to change the gameplay, but new objects and AI. Not sure how flexible the toolset will be to add this kind of stuff, sounds like a lot of work.

 

But anyway I was just thinking aloud about how it'd be cool to have the ability with TDM to start adapting thief gameplay to a variety of different periods and settings once the core gameplay is under wraps; at least the potential is there. I mean, if work grew on trees, it'd be cool to have a Jack the Ripper thief, Noir thief, contemporary thief, SS2 period thief (ZB already brought this last one up in TTLG using dromed, but TDM seems the way to go IMO), etc. At this point, though, I'm just thinking aloud about it, putting it on the table to deal with much later, "After Dm Is Done" as the topic says.

Edited July 20, 2006 by demagogue

[New Horizon]

After we release the toolset, anything is possible. I certainly don't think you would find many TDM core members sticking around to create another variation of the toolset, that would probably take another two years or more or work, but once we release the toolset, the community can go wild and push our Thief inspired universe in directions they never could before.

 

I just hope we get to see lots of traditional Thief styled missions before all that happens.

[demagogue]

Yes, of course.

[bob_arctor]

Well doing London early 20th century shouldn't be too hard: If TII resources are included there will be victorian style grand architecture, like what many north London streets are like, and this could easily be adapted to any period, seeing as only the cars and people have changed since then really, as long as the enterable buildings are done in an old style. (people in real life have houses done up in old fashioned ways).

 

1900 would be especially easy once a car model and NPCs are done. And weapons. So a fair bit of work, but built around existing resources. Yes.

[Order of the Hammer Bureaucrat]

Not sure about working vehicles, but maybe just models.

There is hardly any difference between automobiles and horse-carts. Both are not working vehicles, just models.

[Ishtvan]

D3 can do working vehicles.

[Darkness_Falls]

Yes, Mike_Mayday, oDDity speaks the truth. We discussed zillions of options, many of which had page after page of debate. Getting down to the core of what was needed was essential so things could get done. You mentioned encumbrance and a loot bag. Those two topics happened to inspire some of the most controversy internally, to my recollection. I don't think any of us wish to re-visit all of that again any time soon; especially not on the public forums

[demagogue]

Ever think about publically archiving the team forums when everything is finished?

Just to see its genesis. It'd probably be valuable to see these debates years down the road when future people revisit certain ideas. Anyway, another question for after it's done.