Judith on 5/6/2012 at 22:22
Maybe it's a bit too early to post this, but (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94149&p=2128168&viewfull=1#post2128168) Scumble encouraged me to do that, so here goes. I'm working on a mission loosely inspired by my own city, full of old tenement houses and abandoned textile factories from industrial revolution. I want a classic mansion mission with proper infiltration and at least two distinct locations. Right now I'm thinking about garden / mansion grounds + inside.
I made a few technical assumptions to make my work more consistent, stick to one style and to decrease the FM file size, if possible.
First of all, the stock assets won't serve my purpose and their textures are too low-res. All static meshes have to be made from scratch. Also, Flesh supports textures up to 4096 px. That won't be necessary, 2048 is a reasonable maximum (even in most games today). That allows me to use techniques like digital sculpting, unwrapping (instead of simple UVW mapping with tiling textures), baking AO and such.
Secondly, I'm giving up on normalmaps and speculars. The former require to be saved in uncompressed .dds format to avoid blocky artifacts, and that impacts the FM filesize like hell. Besides, apart from guards with torches players won't see that much dynamic changes in lightning, so this won't even show. It would have make sense if the speculars had been functioning properly, but we all know they're borked. I might use a cubemap here and there, but that's all. Also, it's a nice challenge to put all the effects into a simple diffuse texture, it's an art to make it look right ;)
Right now I'm focusing on making proper set pieces, things for mansion exterior. A few examples:
(
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/220/wallposty.jpg/)
Inline Image:
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/7282/wallposty.th.jpg (
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/696/lantern01.jpg/)
Inline Image:
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/4233/lantern01.th.jpg (
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/13/entranceb.jpg/)
Inline Image:
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1959/entranceb.th.jpg (
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/29/buildingsection.jpg/)
Inline Image:
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/6705/buildingsection.th.jpg (
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/40/bench01i.jpg/)
Inline Image:
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4341/bench01i.th.jpgAs for other elements, I'd love to make T1/2 style intro, preferably (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_lp7QfZACw&hd=1) something like this. At some point I'd need help from our talented voice actors, I guess :) It doesn't have to be Garrett who does the narrative, it could be his employer. That could be nice, I need to work on story details to figure it out. Also, since I'm not English native, I'd probably need help in editing all the spoken lines as well. I actually thought about some audio excerpts from mansion's owner diary, since I'm not big fan of readables. That will also depend on how detailed the story will be and whether I find someone willing to record all this stuff.
Anyway that's it for now, I'll try my best to update this thread with finished models or locations, without revealing too much at the same time :)
Beleg Cúthalion on 6/6/2012 at 08:06
As I said earlier, it looks great. Knowing these kinds of buildings from my own region I think I can relate to this. Funnily str8g8's more industrial approach to TDS (almost seven years ago by now!) made it look like T1/2, despite the fact that pure industrial architecture is rare even in the first two games.
I'm a fan of normal maps, though, so maybe for brick walls etc. or where torches burn (they move without being carried by a guard) it might add a nice effect. Do you know if the smaller normal maps you tested actually spoil the 3D effects on higher-res textures?
Judith on 6/6/2012 at 11:10
I think it worked only for tiling textures with regular shapes like bricks so that might do the trick. On the other hand, I use unwrapping even when it comes to brick walls, so I'd have to test it again to see whether it works or not.
nickie on 17/7/2012 at 16:12
I meant to say before how much I love these. They're wonderful. And I'd particularly like to have that bench myself.
Judith on 17/7/2012 at 19:26
Thank you :) I'd love to see that bench and other meshes in Thief 2 as well, but the polycount and texture size limit might be a bit too low... I'll ask in T2 guild about specifics. T3 might be a bit off in terms of gameplay, but it is generous when it comes to visual quality, it handles 1024 and 2048 textures pretty well, and the objects up to 2000 polys are pretty safe to use.
nickie on 17/7/2012 at 19:33
:) I meant I want it in my garden - when I get one!
IronEagle on 2/8/2012 at 00:22
Quote Posted by Judith
Maybe it's a bit too early to post this, but (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94149&p=2128168&viewfull=1#post2128168) Scumble encouraged me to do that, so here goes. I'm working on a mission loosely inspired by my own city, full of old tenement houses and abandoned textile factories from industrial revolution. I want a classic mansion mission with proper infiltration and at least two distinct locations. Right now I'm thinking about garden / mansion grounds + inside.
I made a few technical assumptions to make my work more consistent, stick to one style and to decrease the FM file size, if possible.
First of all, the stock assets won't serve my purpose and their textures are too low-res. All static meshes have to be made from scratch. Also, Flesh supports textures up to 4096 px. That won't be necessary, 2048 is a reasonable maximum (even in most games today). That allows me to use techniques like digital sculpting, unwrapping (instead of simple UVW mapping with tiling textures), baking AO and such.
Secondly, I'm giving up on normalmaps and speculars. The former require to be saved in uncompressed .dds format to avoid blocky artifacts, and that impacts the FM filesize like hell. Besides, apart from guards with torches players won't see that much dynamic changes in lightning, so this won't even show. It would have make sense if the speculars had been functioning properly, but we all know they're borked. I might use a cubemap here and there, but that's all. Also, it's a nice challenge to put all the effects into a simple diffuse texture, it's an art to make it look right ;)
Right now I'm focusing on making proper set pieces, things for mansion exterior. A few examples:
(
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/220/wallposty.jpg/)
Inline Image:
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/7282/wallposty.th.jpg (
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/696/lantern01.jpg/)
Inline Image:
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/4233/lantern01.th.jpg (
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/13/entranceb.jpg/)
Inline Image:
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1959/entranceb.th.jpg (
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/29/buildingsection.jpg/)
Inline Image:
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/6705/buildingsection.th.jpg (
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/40/bench01i.jpg/)
Inline Image:
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4341/bench01i.th.jpgAs for other elements, I'd love to make T1/2 style intro, preferably (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_lp7QfZACw&hd=1) something like this. At some point I'd need help from our talented voice actors, I guess :) It doesn't have to be Garrett who does the narrative, it could be his employer. That could be nice, I need to work on story details to figure it out. Also, since I'm not English native, I'd probably need help in editing all the spoken lines as well. I actually thought about some audio excerpts from mansion's owner diary, since I'm not big fan of readables. That will also depend on how detailed the story will be and whether I find someone willing to record all this stuff.
Anyway that's it for now, I'll try my best to update this thread with finished models or locations, without revealing too much at the same time :)
Very Annoyng
with a little imagination you could make that with the brushes and Some Static mesh.
I am free to Explain my opinion. ?
are you using HDR textures? not seen, indeed seem something of an old game. like duke nukem..
Beleg Cúthalion on 2/8/2012 at 08:30
I'll just put it here to avoid further mud-wrestling in the more public forums:
Quote Posted by IronEagle
if i can say something about yuor objects
among other objects that you created with 3dsmax 5.1 are of different periods, and are slightly out of place.
I want you to remember that Thief is a game purely medieval. that is, between 1000 and late 1500. no further.
Victorian-style added to thief 2. ( ok
We can only afford to (ok it's done by lgs ,is ok :)) dates back to 1800. but you went further. your items are too modern.
Yeah, but glowing psychedelic castles and colourful skies are more Thief-like, eh?
By the way, the Victorian age was, like Queen Victoria, a development of the 19th century, (
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epoca_vittoriana) up to freaking 1901! In that respect, Judith's style is perfectly in line with original (even pre-TDS) design.
