Improving some low-quality original objects?

The_Dude on 1/6/2005 at 09:06

Someone's going to be pretty damn busy..... :cheeky:

G'len on 1/6/2005 at 10:59

By the way, do doors work well when they're a complex object rather than a box with a texture and a handle?

As I said, we should make a list of objects/textures/AIs (do we want AIs?) to be replace, a list of modellers to replace them and a project leader to remind the modellers to do so.

G'len on 1/6/2005 at 11:05

Quote Posted by Eshaktaar

While I find improving Thief's objects a good idea, I'm a bit vary of a general Thief Upgrade Pack. Why? If the new objects show up in FMs where the author reskinned existing objects/meshes, the resulting mishmash will most likely look totally wrong (wrongly textured AIs/objects, resized furniture that doesn't fit, etc.). Basically, mission authors would lose some control over what their mission looks like, since players could have installed the upgrade pack.
I'd rather see it as an enhancement package for mission authors to use at their discretion.

Couldn't this be remedied by a slight alteration of DarkLoader? Just make an "Original T2 with New Models" category, and when an FM will be loaded, the updates will be moved to a backup folder. And if an FM author would want to include them in his/her FM, they'll have to be in the FM's ZIP archive.

EDIT: You could also try and insert them (by an installer, mayhap?) into the original CRFs, and thus they'll be overriden by any new model present in an FM.

Christine on 1/6/2005 at 11:37

Quote Posted by Eshaktaar

I agree, also some FMs have high Poly aerea with original (low poly) Objects. Maybe some fms will crash if there were high poly objects or have slowdowns...
I'm pretty sure, some of my old fms will do.... :sweat:

ataricom on 1/6/2005 at 16:04

How would this be any different from DEDX2?

Well, besides it being worked on by a whole group of people.

G'len on 1/6/2005 at 16:25

DEDX is a package of valuable resources for FM makers.
This project aims at improving some of the old Thief 1&2 extra-low-poly objects with newer ones, and some of the old low-res textures with new ones. It should improve the game itself rather than add to it.

Ofcourse, DEDX and our project combined will be a very nice resource for FM makers :)

Oh, and in order to prevent excessive frame rates, we should aim to remedy more with high-res textures (which require less graphical resources) than with models, unless nesscery.

TF on 1/6/2005 at 16:27

I've crowded 10000 object polys on-screen once and I didn't get a crash, not even a slowdown with a machine that's already well-dated by now. Anything more than that and I got a slow-down though, anyone else willing to experiment and reach for the limits?

G'len on 1/6/2005 at 16:29

Troutpack on 1/6/2005 at 17:59

If someone's played my FM, Right up there in the Mountains, you may have noticed the gramophone, with the spinning record and handle. They need to be triggered via scripts, though. I think it looks slightly better than the original victrola, though. :erg:

Nameless_Voice on 1/6/2005 at 23:09

Oh, one thing: the new objects should be identical to the old ones in terms of shape and size, to make sure they work properly in all situations.
So far, I've done:
table (table)
tableold (old table)
CoinsGol (gold coin stack - needs better side texture)
CoinsCop (copper coin stack - needs better side texture)
CoinsSil (silver coins stack - needs better side texture)
Bottle2 (green wine bottle)
TrBottle (fine wine bottle)
door1 (3.5x7 wooden door)
door91 (4x8 wooden door)
door2 (3.5x7 reinforced wooden door)
door92 (4x8 reinforced wooden door)
cloisgat (Cloister gate; as seen in 'Hazelshade Cemetery' - but I'll have to ask for Vigil's Okay for one of his textures which I used for it.)

Some of the loot really needs redoing...

G'len: you forgot to mention Vigil's excellent objects/retextures!