Open Book

[Springheel]

[New Horizon]

That looks great Springheel! For journals and such I have the old T1 and 2 hand written font available. I also have the q3font application for making fonts in Doom 3.

 

I can whip them up when the time comes.

[sparhawk]

Wow! Looks really cool!

 

But next them you do something like that please tell me. You can't know whom I assigned that to and we want to avoid doublework.

[pakmannen]

Very nice!

[Springheel]

But next them you do something like that please tell me. You can't know whom I assigned that to and we want to avoid doublework.

 

I mentioned it indirectly in my weekly update, but you're right, I should have been more direct. My plan is to see if I can do both the readable books and menu screen GUIs. I'm starting with the books because they should be easier (since they aren't interactive). I should have a nice mock-up of the main menu animation by some time next week.

 

So don't hand out those tasks (in terms of scripting) until I give it a go...if I find it too complicated (and so far it doesn't look that bad) then I'll let you know. I'll definitely need some programming help at some point, but I'll see what I can get done on my own first.

[SneaksieDave]

Ha! WIP? It's already better than the ones in TDS.

 

One request: (from either you as designer or whoever codes it, for I don't know which person this should be addressed to) If possible make it so there's no resolution change (probably won't be an issue, as the PDA doesn't do it). That's one thing they got right with books in TDS.

Edited December 8, 2004 by SneaksieDave

[sparhawk]

The books are interactive. After all the user must be able to turn pages when the text is to long.

And one thing would be nice if we could add this. If we could include images into the book.

[Springheel]

Oh crap, my first editing mistake. Sorry Spar, hit edit instead of reply. I tried to reconstruct your post as best I could.

 

The books are interactive. After all the user must be able to turn pages when the text is to long.

 

Ah, you're right, of course. So it will require two potential interactive 'buttons'. Still easier than the main menu.

 

And one thing would be nice if we could add this. If we could include images into the book.

 

You're right, it would. I don't think that would be too hard, although getting them to look like they mesh with the page might. I'll look into it.

 

If possible make it so there's no resolution change

 

Hmm, not sure what you mean by this, Dave.

[BlackThief]

Hmm, not sure what you mean by this, Dave.

the thief1/2 main-menu, books, etc. have a different resolution than the game - so it always takes some time, when you want to read a book, or your objectives, because the game first has to change the resolution.

Edited December 8, 2004 by BlackThief

[Springheel]

the thief1/2 main-menu, books, etc. have a different resolution than the game

 

Oh, ok, I didn't remember that. I don't think that should be a problem here.

 

One thing that *might* be a problem for me is making a page-turn animation. Actually, I'm thinking we could probably cheat and do something that is only a single frame or two, but I'll probably need some help scripting that. Won't have to worry about that for a while yet though.

 

I also have the q3font application for making fonts in Doom 3.

 

Ah, that's good. I was wondering how we would get our fonts in there....

[sparhawk]

You're right, it would. I don't think that would be too hard, although getting them to look like they mesh with the page might. I'll look into it.

They should be positioned randomly from a selection the author can provide. And the should not be on a fixed position always. IMO it should look as if the book always has a new page when you look at it. Don't know if you can do this with GUI scripting only, though. But maybe a simple support from the SDK can help there.

 

Actually it would suffice if you have three or four positions where the images could be placed. Then you can randomly assign a place (or none at all) and display it. Should be rather easy to do. IMO it is similar to how I scripted the lightgem textures.

[Springheel]

Actually it would suffice if you have three or four positions where the images could be placed. Then you can randomly assign a place (or none at all) and display it. Should be rather easy to do.

 

I wasn't thinking about position so much as how to make the picture look like it is drawn on the paper of the book. Text comes with a transparent background automatically...it is much harder to do that with images and have it look good.

 

I might be able to fake it with some kind of border or something...I'll have to look into it.

[sparhawk]

I wasn't thinking about position so much as how to make the picture look like it is drawn on the paper of the book. Text comes with a transparent background automatically...it is much harder to do that with images and have it look good.

 

I might be able to fake it with some kind of border or something...I'll have to look into it.

BUt how the image exactly look should be a problem of the author. So if he wants a border he just has to include it in the image. This way he can also create transparent images which would fit perfectly in the book then. Like these old wood cuts (don't know the proper english term for that).

[Springheel]

Well, to a certain extent it is the author's responsibility, but we shouldn't include it as a feature without making sure it can be done well.

[New Horizon]

In regards to page turning. Just wanted to drop my two cents on that. It would be nice if we eliminated the "turn page" arrows of T3, in favor of a simple...click the right hand page to proceed, click the left hand page to turn back.

[Springheel]

I already have the page curls done.

[sparhawk]

In regards to page turning. Just wanted to drop my two cents on that. It would be nice if we eliminated the "turn page" arrows of T3, in favor of a simple...click the right hand page to proceed, click the left hand page to turn back.

If somebody puts in that arrows I will code them out. And if I have to put in an image detector to do this.

[oDDity]

That's great, better than any of the thief games I'd suggest.

I could have a go at a page turning animation for you, it shouldn't be too difficult to morph it in Lightwave. You'd just need it in a series of bitmaps, right?

 

edit: Also, about it changing resolution when you open a book, it depends which resolution you're playing the game in. THe book defaults to 640x480, if you're playing at 1280x1024 then the book would have to be brought up to that resolution to avoid a screensize change, and would probably look very jagged as a result.

Edited December 8, 2004 by oDDity

[sparhawk]

That's great, better than any of the thief games I'd suggest.

I could have a go at a page turning animation for you, it shouldn't be too difficult to morph it in Lightwave. You'd just need it in a series of bitmaps, right?

Yes. That should do it. 7-8 should suffice?

[oDDity]

Well I'll need the texturess then - are they on the FTP?

[Springheel]

This isn't going to be something I need anytime soon...I need to get everything else about the book working first.

 

[sparhawk]

This isn't going to be something I need anytime soon...I need to get everything else about the book working first.

 

Still, if oDDity can do it now, then it's finished when you can use it.

[Springheel]

And if I change the size or colour of the book in the meantime? Then it has to be done over again. It's not like we're desperate to find something for oDDity to do.

[pakmannen]

How is the animation going to handle the text that is written on the page?

[New Horizon]

How is the animation going to handle the text that is written on the page?

Since it is more or less an overlay on top of the page, it would probably have to quickly fade out and fade in after the pages has turned. Just guessing on that one though.