How To Guide: Convert Thief1/2 into Thief 3 (mis2t3d)

deadman on 28/2/2005 at 23:06

Quote Posted by plebeian

I have the entire level in lightwave, and could easily pick and choose which parts I wanted to be brushes and which I wanted to be static meshes - as well as detailing eveything up while keeping it totally accurate to the original.

How exactly did you do that? I'd be interested in figuring out how to import an entire mis's brushes into Maya. What file format are static meshes anyway? I know I have a convertor that can translate a Maya binary into 3DS, but I'm unschooled on the intricacies of static meshes...

:erg:

deadman.

Ulukai on 1/3/2005 at 00:12

Quote Posted by New Horizon

Sorry, when I read "copyright interests" I equated part of that with losing money...which is most likely a huge factor.

Erm, first you say you you don't see how Eidos would lose money, now it's a huge factor. :weird:

I give up ¬¬

Tch on 1/3/2005 at 00:30

Quote Posted by deadman

Look at the argument over converting Thief 1 to Thief 2 missions. The argument is that, potentially, someone who doesn't own a legal copy of Thief 1 can download the converted mission and play it scot free in Thief 2. If we are agreed that Eidos primarily is concerned about money, we can be damn sure they could get angry about converting Thief 1/2 missions... Eidos would want all those newcomers who only own the latest installment to first purchase both originals before they'd like them playing the conversions.

That may be, or may not. I certainly don't know, but I personally doubt Eidos is overly concerned about whether people buy a game as old as the original Thief games are, ones that are available from as many sources used as new, and can be had for under $10.

Nevertheless, I'm not too attached to this line of reasoning. I think the changes to the original geometry is a more robust defense, if it's an issue at all, which it may not even be.

plebeian on 1/3/2005 at 01:03

Quote Posted by deadman

Just import the .t3d into UnrealEd, build the geometry, go to file-export, and choose 'obj' from the dropdown filetype. You can then load that into any 3d app. It's an exact copy of the level. The city from 'ambushed' is 60,000 polys when tripled, but that's one of the biggest missions.

deadman on 1/3/2005 at 01:18

Quote Posted by Tch

Don't get me wrong, I have the same exact view as yourself. It only becomes a problem when taffers like Jason, who is probably better at keeping himself out of court than both of us (by staying on the side of caution), refuses to host converted missions because of an unclear legal stance or hypothetical legal stance on Eidos' part. Jason hasn't made a position on this yet, I'm just saying neither of us (you and me) have space to host this stuff, so it's pointless what we feel :laff:

Quote:

Nevertheless, I'm not too attached to this line of reasoning. I think the changes to the original geometry is a more robust defense, if it's an issue at all, which it may not even be.

I agree wholeheartedly, and do hope this would be the case, though, if for nothing more than the novelty factor, I'd like to run through an unedited mission or two, just for old times' sake ;)

deadman.

jay pettitt on 1/3/2005 at 01:38

I'm not one to be saying anything for sure on someone elses behalf. But Eidos clearly has commercial style, and very much ongoing and current agreements with 'Sold Out' and maybe others as regards to distributing T1 and T2.

I'd be very wary of taking anything I'd read on the intahweb (including anything from myself) as 'word' regarding copyright issues, law, or Eidos' stand on copying levels from other games.... That isn't to say that I don't think Eidos is 'cool' about such things; just that I wouldn't want to take it for granted.

Tch on 1/3/2005 at 01:55

Quote Posted by deadman

I'm just saying neither of us (you and me) have space to host this stuff, so it's pointless what we feel :laff:

True enough. And now I'll stop talking about it, because this isn't really the topic of the thread anyway. I just had to speak up about the difference between copyright and trademark.

Krypt on 1/3/2005 at 02:01

I think it would be a safe assumption to say that you would probably run into some legal troubles if you tried remaking all of the old Thief levels and releasing them as a mod. Besides, people have been playing those maps for 6 or 7 years now, I think the time would be better spent making some new ones :D

deadman on 1/3/2005 at 03:00

Quote Posted by Krypt

While I see your point, and it is a very good one, I know there are many of us who have dreamt of and would like to see the 'original' Thief missions brought up-to-date graphically with a much greater attention to detail (as well as getting out of the old 8 bit constraints). It would be neat using just textures and meshes from Thief 3 and seeing how well we could emulate the originals. Forgetting about any strict conversions, like Tch, I would suggest that adding detail and changes would lessen the likelihood of Eidos wanting to take legal action.

Of course, you used to work under them (indirectly), so you know best :p

And thanks, plebeian :thumb:.. Wait, there's no 'obj' file type under File > Export, at least not in the Thief 3 editor. I don't have Unreal Tournament, I hope obj exporting isn't only available from within that?

deadman.

plebeian on 1/3/2005 at 11:46

Deadman, obj export is obviousy another feature they ripped out of the unreal editor.
Tell me which levels you want as obj and I can email them to you, they're only about 500kb when rar compressed.
As for making the old levels, there really isn't a damn thing Eidos can do about it, if it's just individuals lovingly recreating their favoutire thief level. If it was a concerted effort to remake the entire game by an organised group, that could well run into trouble.