The Houseguard

[ascottk]

Just took a look at him ingame--he definitely needs some work. The normal for the padded tunic is good but the rest--not so much.

 

And I'm really not sure about the head. It looked pretty good in some of the screenshots above, but in game it looks low-poly and kind of harsh--not to mention the eyes are just wierd (no doubt because Corth left them empty originally).

The eye's material is translucent (taken from d3) & the eye sockets are flesh colored so it looks like the eyes are empty. If the eye material isn't translucent then the eyes look like they're bugged out (a la TDS). One solution is to make the eye socket on the head texture white or light gray so the eyes won't look so empty. I'm experimenting with those & I haven't settled with a good looking eye.

[Springheel]

Well, it's no great loss if the head turns out not to be useable--it isn't terribly different than some existing D3 heads. Don't spend a lot of time on it unless you're enjoying the challenge.

[ascottk]

Well, it's no great loss if the head turns out not to be useable--it isn't terribly different than some existing D3 heads. Don't spend a lot of time on it unless you're enjoying the challenge.

I added a variation to the d3 eye material in chars.mtr (they have separate left/right materials whilst the variant only uses one). I did this because the big thug's head has separate eye meshes because I wanted more possibilities for heads. Now the eyes can be animated like the rest of the head by moving the eyecontrol joint left or right. I want them to look natural w/o the cartoony look of tds.

[Springheel]

I just checked and it looks like the normalmap for the houseguard might be reversed. That would explain the weird shadow problems. Is there any way to invert a normalmap in photoshop?

[ascottk]

I just checked and it looks like the normalmap for the houseguard might be reversed. That would explain the weird shadow problems. Is there any way to invert a normalmap in photoshop?

I use the gimp but the normal map tool might be similar. Try normalize only & invert y.

[squill]

I just checked and it looks like the normalmap for the houseguard might be reversed. That would explain the weird shadow problems. Is there any way to invert a normalmap in photoshop?

 

in photohop you can invert the green channel which reverses the normal map.

[Springheel]

Thanks! That's a handy tip.

 

Turns out I was right, that was the problem--the head looks much better now:

 

[New Horizon]

Looks great! Sadly, the poor bastard can't hit the broadside of a broad broad.

[Springheel]

The texture still needs work, especially the hair, and the transparent eyes obviously need to be fixed. But I think he'll be useable.

[Crispy]

That's much better.

[Springheel]

Here's an update of the houseguard texture. I've fixed the normal-map and added a lot more detail to it, and tried to make the textures look a little more realistic (there was lots of flat colour before).

 

I'll probably still make some tweaks here and there, but it's far enough along to upload. Still working on the head.

 

 

[ascottk]

Here's an update of the houseguard texture. I've fixed the normal-map and added a lot more detail to it, and tried to make the textures look a little more realistic (there was lots of flat colour before).

 

I'll probably still make some tweaks here and there, but it's far enough along to upload. Still working on the head.

I'm working on the mesh for the head (he has holes behind the eye balls) & still coming up with the best way to deal with the eyes. Nice texture

[Springheel]

I'll stop playing with the head texture until you're finished with the mesh then.

[ascottk]

I'll stop playing with the head texture until you're finished with the mesh then.

It'll use the same uvw map so you can keep working on it. The eye "patches" are separate meshes that match the current uv.

[ascottk]

I had to remove the short sword from his def file. For one thing, the orientation doesn't match the long sword & there's no collision model for the short sword or the dagger.

[Springheel]

For one thing, the orientation doesn't match the long sword &

 

I'm still not totally clear on how the dynamic reattachment works. Why does it need to match the longsword? Isn't it possible to set the offset values independently for the different weapons?

[ascottk]

I'm still not totally clear on how the dynamic reattachment works. Why does it need to match the longsword? Isn't it possible to set the offset values independently for the different weapons?

It isn't dynamic yet. It's just easier to copy/paste offset values from the longsword to the shortsword & dagger.

 

EDIT: Besides, when you place a longsword in a map, it's going to lay there flat. The origin of the longsword is where I wanted the sword joint to be so no more messing around with the offset there. And it'd be nice to have consistency.

[Springheel]

If you want to make them consistant, that's fine with me, though I'm hoping our system will work in a way that doesn't require mappers to do that any time they create a new weapon.

 

When we start using dynamic attachment, we'll need to have offset values for the sheathed weapon and the held weapon, right? I'm assuming it works much like the way AI drop weapons--when the AI is in the middle of the 'draw weapon' animation, we pick a particular keyframe for the hip sword to be destroyed and spawn a new sword attached to the AI's hand?

 

AFAIK the code is all finished for that, so what do we need to do to actually start using it?

[ascottk]

If you want to make them consistant, that's fine with me, though I'm hoping our system will work in a way that doesn't require mappers to do that any time they create a new weapon.

As a mapper (putting my mapper hat on, strangely there's a feather sticking out . . . ) I would expect all melee weapons to have the same orientation. Also as someone who does the actual attachments could just copy/paste decls with minor modifications instead of trying to figure out where to place the origin or rotation.

 

When we start using dynamic attachment, we'll need to have offset values for the sheathed weapon and the held weapon, right? I'm assuming it works much like the way AI drop weapons--when the AI is in the middle of the 'draw weapon' animation, we pick a particular keyframe for the hip sword to be destroyed and spawn a new sword attached to the AI's hand?

I still haven't taken a close look at it yet but from what I see, I don't really understand how to implement it

 

AFAIK the code is all finished for that, so what do we need to do to actually start using it?

If I understand it

[Springheel]

Uh oh.

 

I hadn't actually lined up the houseguard next to any of the other models until now, and I just noticed that he is significantly taller than the other guards. He was probably done to the same scale as our other guards before they were resized. He needs to be resized to about 94% to match the other characters. I don't know how much of a problem other people feel this is, but I find it pretty noticeable when you put mixed characters into the same room.

 

How much of a hassle would it be to resize him at this point Ascottk?

 

[ascottk]

How much of a hassle would it be to resize him at this point Ascottk?

No problem The heads might be too big for him but we'll see.

[ascottk]

He's resized (well crap! forum attachments rarely work for me:

THE FOLLOWING ERROR(S) WERE FOUND
The total filespace required to upload all the attached files is greater than your per post or global limit. Please reduce the number of attachments or the size of the attachments.

& the image is no bigger than other pics I attach

 

 

Anyway, he's up on cvs & resized.

[Springheel]

Wow, that was fast, thanks!

 

& the image is no bigger than other pics I attach

 

I get that too sometimes, don't know why...

[Springheel]

I would expect all melee weapons to have the same orientation

 

You know, I just thought of something. Currently, the longsword spins on its point like a top when you throw it, in a most unrealistic (and rather silly) way. Is this because of the position of the origin, or because of its mass? If we're going to have all the weapons have their origin in the same point, isn't that going to cause them to react very strangely when thrown, dropped, etc?

[Crispy]

Good question. Is the centre of mass always equal to the origin in Doom 3?