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

[Wille]

There are some brick debris objects in T2 too but they are all single objects. What I'm looking for is an object that would have scattered pieces of brick and stone on a 8x8 DromEd unit area or near that.

[LarryG]

Can you be more specific. What texture(s) do you want used for the blocks? How many blocks in the 8x8 area? How high do you want them stacked at most? Do you have a sketch of what you would like it to look like? Or better yet, could you build it in a standalone MIS file using standard objects? I could then make what you did into a single object. You are aware that the area would be treated like a single 8x8x box? The player could not walk through the seemingly empty spots. Because, really, scattering a few blocks around and turning it into a BIN is not hard. I could do it for you if I knew more of what you needed.

[Wille]

I'll try to explain.

The 8x8 area would be rather flat with small pieces of brick and stone scattered around unevenly. In modern games normal or parallax mapping would probably be used to create a similar effect.

Replace textures (those light blue ones with "0" and "1" etc.) would be a good choice for them.

I would use the objects as simple decorations with no physical dimensions. The brick and stone pieces thus don't need to be large. For larger pieces I have the stock T2 resources available .

[LarryG]

I'll try something and PM you. PM me if you have more specific requirements. Let me know when you "need" it by.

[Wille]

Take your time, my mission is in early stages anyway .

[qolelis]

I have finally started building the demo mission showing off my portable rope arrow target. I plan on finishing it in 72 days.

[LarryG]

I have finally started building the demo mission showing off my portable rope arrow target. I plan on finishing it in 72 days.

Hoo boy!

[Digital Nightfall]

Larry, did anyone ever make a more detailed fireplace set for you?

[LarryG]

Not yet. I'm getting better at Anim8or, so I may give it another try. The fireplace tools decal that I made with the puffy broomhead looks OK, but I think I could do improve on it. If someone else makes a set, that would be right nice, too.

This is what I started with:


This is another of a similar vein.

[R Soul]

For some time now I've had a conv between an AI and Garrett, but the setup made it quite difficult to change the lines. Garrett's lines are controlled by VOTraps, activated by the AI. Of course the AI doesn't know that it should wait for the VOs to finish before saying his next line. So step 2 was for the AI start saying line 3, and trigger the VO for line 2, but with the line 3 wav file having a pause equal to the length of line 2.

I wasn't 100% happy with the script but the hassle of changing the pause length put me off thinking about any changes. Finally I followed Telliamed's recent advice of copying how it was done in Precious Cargo. I now have an invisible AI in place of Garrett, who says quiet versions of his lines and triggers a VO linked to the normal versions.

And it shows subtitles. Using just one object for them all. And just one object for all of the VOs (plus one to increment a Qvar). That's why I like custom scripts. I want to keep down object count and turning pipes and tables into 8 plaques and 4 VO traps would have made things quite hard to keep track of.

And the invisible AI is just a marker with a metaproperty containing the bare minimum properties to get it to work in a conversation. Again, object count. The marker is needed for the AI to go to at the end of the conv.

[LarryG]

Larry, did anyone ever make a more detailed fireplace set for you?

Just made a new set. I'm still not 100% satisfied. But this is all 3D geometry at least.

[Wille]

Looks good LarryG . Are they using stock T2 object textures? There's a broom texture that could be used for the swipe.

[LarryG]

There are 5 custom textures used, one for each piece. I think all I want to do is improve the broom head texture a bit. ...

Ta da!

[ZylonBane]

Aha! At last I have found Lord Bafford's legendary solid gold broom head.

(frob)

(BARRRING)

[Lady Rowena]

Aha! At last I have found Lord Bafford's legendary solid gold broom head.

(frob)

(BARRRING)

Maybe a more discreet one?

[LarryG]

I tried that one. It looked awful in DromEd. That's why I switched to this one. It has enough color variation in the broom straws to work in a low-res image. It looks great in DromEd. No one would mistake it for gold.

[ZylonBane]

That looks brand-new, or as if it's only been used for light dusting. An actual fireplace broom would be covered in soot.

[Digital Nightfall]

I'm wishing that I wasn't so secretive anout what I've been worked on.

Larry, excellent work for a beginner (and I say that as a beginner myself) - but you really don't need five textures for that. Each tool can use the same texture, with just slightly different UV mapping (and very different in the case of the broom). You could even include the top band in the same texture.

[LarryG]

I can't get Anim8or's UV to work properly. I tried LithUnwrap, but could not figure it out. But I have had great success with UVMapper. The downside is a custom texture for each sub-object. I turn this


into this



and it works.

Sure I could have a texture for the handles and a texture for the hooks, and a texure for the iron rods, and a texture for the broom head, and a texture for the shovel blade, and ... but this lets me customize the texture to the artifact.

I may try LithUnwrap again some day when I have time to figure it out, but right now I have so much to do, I tend to stick with what works.

[Digital Nightfall]

I've only ever used the UV mapping in 3dsmax, so I guess I don't know how difficult it can be in other programs.

[LarryG]

That looks brand-new, or as if it's only been used for light dusting. An actual fireplace broom would be covered in soot.

Yes. And I dirtied up the bottom of the broom quite a bit from the original photo, but there is only so much you can do and still see that it is made of individual straws. There has to be a compromise between "reality" and what looks best. Of all the combiinations that I tried, and there were over twenty (!) different shadings of the broom head, the one you are seeing looked the best to me. You also can't see in these screenshots that the poker, shovel, and gripper are dirtier on the bottom half than the top half.

Shall we suppose a very tidy housekeeper and let it go at that? Besides, how much ash have you ever seen in a Thief fireplace? If you look at the fireplaces, the bricks always look brand new. I've never seen anyone take the trouble to make them look dirty or ashy, have you?

[Wille]

Here's a good LithUnwrap tutorial LarryG:

http://members.lycos.nl/jonim8or/shiptex_tut.html

[LarryG]

Here's a good LithUnwrap tutorial LarryG:

http://members.lycos.nl/jonim8or/shiptex_tut.html

Sure makes it look easy ...

[HipBreaker]

Eclipsed Resonance will now be known simply as "Eclipsed"


(I know my rotation on the wood is off...it is a bit, impossible, to change that at the current time.)
Also the screenshot shown has been shown before, but things have changed.

[LarryG]

As long as I now have 3D fireplace tools instead of just a puffy decal, why not go 3D all the way? Introducing the fireplace tool stand: