The Dark Mod: Teaser 2 - July 8th, 2006

[ZylonBane]

Does the frob highlight snap on and off instantly, or fade in and out like in Thief?

[Dram]

Huh? I don't remember it fading in and out in T1/2 Perhaps it was because of your monitor? As in, when it's bright it leaves a kind of after-image?

 

Our one snaps on/off atm btw

[ZylonBane]

Nope, it definitely does. It's subtle, only a fraction of a second, but noticeably more smooth than the simple snap on/off of Deadly Shadows. Try firing up Thief and playing with highlighting something large like a door. You'll see it.

[Gildoran]

Currently, it doesn't fade in/out, but the textures are set up to allow that in the future. It's just that right now we have other priorities than coding a fade in/out system, which has only a minor - if admittedly nice - effect.

[Komag]

I've never noticed a fade hilight in Thief, but I'll check again...

 

EDIT - Well, I can see it now. When I hilight a door it VERY quickly lights up, almost instantly, so it's hard to tell, but then moving away I can definitely see the fade out. It is also quick, much less than a second of course, perhaps 1/10 or 2/10 of a second.

 

I don't mind insta-hilight though, since the fade times were so very short I never really noticed until I looked for it just now.

[Dram]

Now that I think about it it did do it. I remember highlighting keys on a guard's belt and watch the fade out. Heh, well at least it's possible with our way of setting things up

[ZylonBane]

I don't mind insta-hilight though, since the fade times were so very short I never really noticed until I looked for it just now.

That's what's so great about it. The fade time is so quick that it barely registers on your conscious mind, but it still generates the impression of a smooth transition.

 

Little "smoothers" like this are all through the game. AIs going up steps don't "snap" to the next step. Doors being opened and closed have a slight acceleration period.

 

Just goes to show what a fanatic attention to detail LGS had.

[Komag]

That's what's so great about it. The fade time is so quick that it barely registers on your conscious mind, but it still generates the impression of a smooth transition.

 

 

But that's just it - it was wasted on me becausee I never had the impression of a smooth transition. On the contrary, I always thought it was instant, and so I accepted the instant variety in TDS just fine.

 

Though I do like the door acceleration and other good Dark Engine features that they did well.

[demagogue]

Well, a lot of it may be subliminal but contributes to an overall impression, even though you couldn't put it into words. So I don't think it was "wasted".

 

But anyway, all of these sorts of issues seem to be exactly the sort of thing you want to bring up near the *end* of the process, to tweak and polish and smooth everything out. Nothing really to worry about at this point, it seems (although probably still worth putting on the table for future refrence).

Edited July 13, 2006 by demagogue

[Darkness_Falls]

That's awesome, Zylon. Thanks for doing the research on that; I was going to check that out. I just happened to bring the idea of fading highlights up to the team the other day and we were discussing right now whether or not fade highlights should be incorporated. I strongly prefer that fades are used and I can't imagine a Dark Mod day without them.

 

BUT, I'm not a programmer. So they ultimately make the decisions as to what to include/not include, depending on time constraints.

[oDDity]

Does anyone truly give the slightest fuck whether they fade over a fraction of a second, or instantly?

(apart from ZB, that chronic nerd and lifetime member of the International Pedant Society, who probably uses a stopwatch to time how long it takes him to do a shit every morning)

It matters so little, that none of you could even remember how it worked in Thief, wihtout checking.

[Dram]

Where's my popcorn!?!

[sparhawk]

It matters so little, that none of you could even remember how it worked in Thief, wihtout checking.

 

That's my point. Its quite pointless, it adds a lot of unneccassary overhead, depending on the implementation it can cause memory fragmentation, for what? For nothing really.

[OrbWeaver]

"Not consciously remembered" is not equivalent to "pointless".

[Subjective Effect]

I actually agree with ZylonBane. It's small things like this that make a game look really polished.

 

You may think you don't notice it but it's the small things that can make something great instead of just good. Of course when you have a fantastic concept like Thief to hang everthing off it's a detail. Nevertheless it's important.

[ZylonBane]

I never noticed it either, UNTIL I played Deadly Shadows, and noticed that the highlight activation was more harsh than I'd remembered from Thief (even taking the Atomic Frob into effect).

 

It's one of those things that you don't notice until it's gone.

 

And no, I wouldn't complain (much) if it was missing from TDM, but it would certainly be a nice bit of detail to preserve.

[Dram]

We have a new record -

Most users ever online was 332 on Today, 01:14 PM

 

[Komag]

It's the teaser's fault!!! - folks are getting wind of it and getting curious

 

(or it could be a big fluke today, random roll the dice luck, like five sixes when playing Risk!)

[demagogue]

They're not posting, though. I agree it's the trailer.

I wonder how much exposure this is getting outside the Thief community.

Do you guys have a feel for that?

[woah]

Ah! But who submitted the news to www.planetdoom.com ???

 

 

*giggles*

[bad marine ass]

It's been a while since I've checked back on the Doom 3 community. I want to congratulate you guys for making progress this far!

 

Too bad I never really got around to offering my assistance. Time constraints and all. I'm working on some stuff in Jedi Academy now, but I'll see if I can offer a hand in any way possible (now that I have a little more animating experience). Good work anyway team!

[Darkness_Falls]

Does anyone truly give the slightest fuck whether they fade over a fraction of a second, or instantly?

I do. It adds polish. After scanning items on a desktop in Dark Mod and watching *blink blink blink* it looked unpolished and unprofessional and I wished something could be done to refine the jarring illumination behavior.

[sparhawk]

Ah! But who submitted the news to www.planetdoom.com ???

*giggles*

 

Me. Didn't get much response there though.

[woah]

Me. Didn't get much response there though.

I did too, and for some reason the whoever posted it on www.planetdoom.com website used my horrible description. Do they usually just copy and paste news submissions?

[Arumakani]

For a stealth game the environments seem very bright. Will this be toned down slightly? Or will that be the job of the level designers?