Crispy on 9/2/2006 at 09:45
Looks good!
Some more decoration would probably improve it - though as it's a haunted house, perhaps it's better if it looks a little desolate? *shrug* Something worth considering, perhaps - not that I'm really qualified to make that kind of judgement. :)
Van Valentine on 9/2/2006 at 13:02
Yes there will be more decorations, but Im far from done so that's why :)
ProjectX on 10/2/2006 at 07:51
Well it looks cool so far, keep up the good work!
Ziemanskye on 12/2/2006 at 20:36
Just the 4 lights? (It looks like the two torches, something in the arch, and a blue ambient between the roofs)
Ought to run fine with just those, so long as you don't decide to put loads of plants in or anything.
Nice to see people actually achieving work though :p Keep it up :thumb:
GlasWolf on 12/2/2006 at 21:27
The "loads of plants" (pants?) are on the other side of the house, the sea is behind the far wall. I know you've mentioned plants as being a performance killer for you, I wonder if they're ok as long as they're right up against a wall?
Actually Z you may be able to offer some advice here - you can see that the moon is very low in the sky and I want it to illuminate the upper half of the house wall that's directly facing it. (The boundary wall will cast a shadow on the lower half.) You did a similar thing with the morning sunlight on the front of the church in the entry map for Schism. I've tried shining spotlights on it but it doesn't look right - any advice?
Ziemanskye on 13/2/2006 at 07:23
I used hugely inefficient directional lights (but they did look good)
The main problem with them is that they shine through things, and can carry shadows a long way (the inside was a seperate map from the outside partially because of this - it was killing the performance to have all the inside walls at the front cast shadows so as not to see the directional)
If you're careful with them (or if you can work out the seemingly bizarre bit of math that controls the DirectionalClipHeight property) you might do better, just be careful and make sure you check the effect it's having inside the house too. (also, you might need to cut the world a little further out than the wall, like in the OM castle at the start, and put the light in there to make sure it carries the wall's shadow right)
The much cheaper alternative would likely be just to add a few more normal light sources, or add a collection of cheap AmbientVertex lights about the place to pick out highlights rather than have a "beam"
As for the plants - they mostly seem to kill performance when up against other plants, I just didn't think they were dense enough so always try to use too many to make it look beter, which lowers the frame rate quite drastically.
GlasWolf on 13/2/2006 at 19:27
Cheers Z, I'll give that a shot.
Incidentally, I realised I forgot to post the re-jigged shot of the entrance hall after STiFU's advice: (
http://www.glaswolf.net/images/thief/t3ed/litton3b.jpg) clicky. It all looks a bit bare of course, still a lot of set dressing to be done. I've now got the border textures running up the stairs as well.
ProjectX on 14/2/2006 at 09:14
That's a nice shot. I think you should add a piece of trim between the two wall textures (the wood and the marble) like a pillar or something in the wall. This'll ease the flow between the two textures. Also, I think you've got too much light in there, maybe lower the brightness of that blue ambient light? 2 ought to do as a good value.
GlasWolf on 14/2/2006 at 19:30
Good idea, thanks. And the "blue ambient" is actually just the level light and gamma settings for the screenie, there are only the four torch lights you can (almost) see in that room. There needs to be some light on the upper level so I'll probably remove the torches against the stairs and change it around.
