What are you working on RIGHT NOW - T1/2 Dromed Edition

[redface]

We all know it's just a typo. Right? RIGHT?

[Yandros]

Nope, just trying to be realistic.

[The Watcher]

Which is all anyone should ask for, really! I'm looking forward to it, but I'd prefer it to take longer and be done well, than rushed and less than it could be...

On an entirely unrelated note, I can not believe it has taken me this long to notice I've been forgetting to put Object System -> Immobile on my torches. The effect is... requiring me to tweak the vhot location, but even now it looks so much better...

[R Soul]

I don't think you should. In my opinion torch shadows look silly.

[Yandros]

Agree with you Chris, I picked that up from Sliptip and used it in Hammerite Deathmatch, it looks great. As I recall I had to adjust the Z coord of the AnimLight property to get what I wanted. I also recall quad lit making a pretty drastic difference with torch shadows.

[Lady Rowena]

I agree about the torches. I'm using the ntorch by The Watcher and not only I put Object System -> Immobile, I even set the Y offset to -0.5.
I know, it's not realistic, but who cares? The torch is a bit more enlightened and imho it looks better.

[Sliptip]

Actually I never turn immobile on for my light sources (takes too long to render). Instead, convert your model so it's upside down. In game you flip it right side up again which allows you to apply a spotlight that faces upwards. Change the spotlight settings so that you have a really wide beam (almost 180 degrees). Something like (140,170,0) so that all you have left is a thin sliver of shadow beneath the light.

I think this saves rendering time. . . I think

[Mechs Delight]

I've spent some time the last week playing with fog in DCE, and have captured and uploaded some new screenshots. I think the Dayport map looks especially nice with the traditional white fog.

Take your time with the mission; as another poster just said, better to take your time and have a great product than rush and have a not-as-good one.

Besides, I can't currently run Thief on any of my computers without issues, though I'm hoping the ATI 5870 I'm ordering will resolve that problem.

[Yandros]

DCE's been in progress off and on since 2002, so I'm clearly not rushing it!

I just hope we beat the 10-year anniversary.

[clearing]

I've spent some time the last week playing with fog in DCE, and have captured and uploaded some new screenshots. I think the Dayport map looks especially nice with the traditional white fog.

Looks great

http://www.wearytaffer.com/screens/dce/dce_b04.jpg
http://unitedcreations.blogspot.com/...hedral-sp.html

[Yandros]

I think you meant to compare with this one: http://www.wearytaffer.com/screens/dce/dce_a04.jpg

But I do see the similarity!

[The Watcher]

I agree about the torches. I'm using the ntorch by The Watcher and not only I put Object System -> Immobile, I even set the Y offset to -0.5

On the subject of my ntorch object, I've just uploaded an updated version (currently top of this page, you can see the old and new here). It's nearly a drop-in replacement (size is very slightly different), but it also has an adjusted vhot so you might need to tweak any existing offset.

[LarryG]

Looks like some minds think similarly! Here's my own version of that torch. I put a spark arrestor on mine. Maybe it will make ZB happy to see it ... nah!
dump048..jpg

[Lady Rowena]

On the subject of my ntorch object, I've just uploaded an updated version (currently top of this page, you can see the old and new here). It's nearly a drop-in replacement (size is very slightly different), but it also has an adjusted vhot so you might need to tweak any existing offset.

Thanks, it seems interesting, but.....I may be stupid but I can't see a link from where to download the object......

[The Watcher]

I can't see a link from where to download the object......

Bottom left corner of the entry for the torch, or click here

[Lady Rowena]

Bottom left corner of the entry for the torch, or click here

Sometimes I seem to be blind. Thanks again.

[Independent Thief]

I'm dead in the water for now I've had a cascade of errors over the last few days with my main system after I made the mistake of installing windows service pack 3 and I can't seem to set things in order so I'm out of the game for now. Screw Bill Gates!

[darthsLair]

Progress for Otto's Contest : @50 percent complete. Dark is the Lair is on hold until this is finished.
A nice break from a mission that is way to big for me

[MoonAchilles]

I've spent some time the last week playing with fog in DCE, and have captured and uploaded some new screenshots. I think the Dayport map looks especially nice with the traditional white fog.

Beautiful. Makes me long for Dromed 2

[The Watcher]

I decided I was Less Than Satisfied with a built-from-brushes boiler in the basement of the library, so I did some research on old boiler designs, and started work on this beast:



Still needs texturing, obviously, and additional pipes to connect it up to water pipes, exhaust flues, and so on...

[LarryG]

It's easy to resize those dialogs with Res Hacker. The DarkDlgs.dll that comes with the DromEd Toolkit already has some of them resized.

You're right, it is easy with that app. Thank you!

[casalor]

I managed to get my hands on Si02's ddfix fog fix and it has made a ton of difference to the feel of my mission. I've set the fog_dist to 160 which feels right (and which only makes a small but atmospheric difference to a couple of interiors). There are a few outside long views I've incorporated but nowhere does the poly count go over 900ish. This wasn't always the case and I've had to work hard at reducing the strain on Dromed and my patience. One particular place was a problem where I had a long view from the high up the side of a building whch would have broken the immersion. For that I had to be really creative and used a physical method to break the line of sight that I haven't seen elsewhere except in one original mission...

Tonight it felt like I had reached a milestone when I felt able to offer an alpha version to my trusted tester. I'm expecting a huge to-do list but thats fine by me. In a lot of places I've used stock objects and textures except where I felt it was appropriate and it maintained the original 'thiefy' feel. One of the exceptions is those awful streetlamps in the screenshot which I'm going to replace.

Honestly, I'd have had a few small missions out by now but I fell into the trap of thinking I could do 'the ultimate' one fairly easily. Am I preaching to the choir with that one?

[nicked]

I chucked some fog into my current mission to see how it felt and it looks good! So good in fact that I'm considering turning it into an early morning mission rather than nighttime.

Also just built a series of guest rooms in my castle, all roughly the same, but colour-themed (red room, orange room etc.) Will post some more screenies when the lighting is done.

Still struggling to settle on a plot for the mission though. There's just so many ideas I want to squeeze in somehow.

[The Phantom]

casalor: Keep up the good work Nice pic.

In a lot of places I've used stock objects and textures except where I felt it was appropriate and it maintained the original 'thiefy' feel.

Now that's what I like to hear

[Wille]

Yandros you should really replace the sky in DCE with jermi's superior skies. Or at least make it compatible with his pack somehow .