What new features would you like for the next NewDark update (Suggestions) - by Cardia
Cardia on 17/3/2018 at 09:31
Hi Vaughan what a surprise! Yes mirrors that reflect , that would be very welcome.
Voodoo47, as for the textures, sure you can use many hi-res textures up to 2048x2048 if your map is small, or using mtl. format allows you to have more hi-res textures, but personally i don't like the way how mtl. textures are displayed in game mode, they look crappy pardon me my language, but for big maps like the ones i have in my previous mission i was forced to reduce many hi-res textures resolution in order to run properly the mission and to avoid video mode changes or textures being displayed in a messy way, i had many textures in 1024x1024 and i had to reduce all of them to 512x512 except two, the skybox and the mountain texture, and i had to reduce many textures from 512x512 to 256x256 resolution.
Objects with 2000 faces is good but thay are still very low-poly, for example these trees pack are of low-poly:
(
https://free3d.com/3d-model/trees-saplings-low-poly-83892.html)
However each tree model has to many faces , i reduced their faces to 2100 faces each object seperatly and they looked messed up, whether the leafs or the trunks. There are many low-poly objects out there that have much more than 2000 faces. so if objects were to be accepted with 4000 or 6000 faces in dromed that would be ideal.
when i mention high and low it means that ambient music when played in game mode have slight fades in and fades out unless you remain still or always in movement, in that case the ambient music will always play in the same volume, and the fades are more noticeable in musics with beats. It would be great if this could be improved
sure you can have long musics up to 20 minutes or more ,but to have them play this length of time you have to reduce their quality around 2205 Hz or less, but only up to 5 or 6 minutes of music you can have a quality of 48000 Hz, either way you can't have a 30 minutes music, and for longer missions it would be amazing to have many musics playing.
For authors who like to have maps well detailed, like for example have a huge square filled with people, tables, trees...etc that would be a dream realized for some authors, to have all the objects rendered at the same time when all of them are being viewed in one perspective. someone could say it looks like an 3d object asset store, but in fact it looks more realistic, that's way recent games are very detailed regarding objects, they are filled with many objects, so they can look more realistic and rich in information.
the errors of complex scenes are very rare, but they still appear in some circumstances , why not allow constructions even more complex?
as for objects that use transparent parts, i used png,tga,pcx,gif, mtl format , i set different values in transparency in the object property and they still don't render well, for example in this bush pack:
(
https://opengameart.org/content/bushes)
i tried to have all models to be render properly in game mode, but with no success , this has been discussed here and no solution was given so far.
However Sluggs tree pack work well in dromed , they are well rendered with no issues at all, i don't know how he did that, or even the tree models from thief they render well even if sometimes we have to set their transparency to 1.00
Tafferwocky on 17/3/2018 at 10:15
Some Dromed and general utility features would be nice.
* The ability to resize and maximise the Dromed window as you can with modern desktop applications, rather than needing to mess with Window Size config options.
* A 3D render/preview of objects in the object hierarchy, which would remove any need for the T2 Object List utility.
* The ability to copy-paste to and from the command terminal, as well as being able to cycle through previously entered commands with the Up Arrow.
* A save prompt when you close Dromed (or try to load another mission) after having made changes to the mission you had open. A nice safeguard for the forgetful :D
* Fix for the skyhack flickering issue (visible in the void area of The Sword with NewDark).
* Dynamic light shadows. We know it's possible and it looks fantastic: (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jrEgdbRmGA)
* Removing that frustrating issue where Garrett 'lands' loudly on an object after mantling on top.
* Allowing use of the quickload keyboard shortcut in menus, plus preventing the player from quicksaving when Garrett is dead (I've seen people do this a lot, and done it myself a few times).
* More save slots?
* Support for high resolution, widescreen menus and cutscenes, not just upscaled 640x480. Not essential, but might be nice to have.
Will add more if I think of any!
qolelis on 17/3/2018 at 10:55
The main thing that comes to mind is more room brush shapes. Considering how important proper sound propagation is in Thief, it is a little surprising that we get only simple blocks (/cuboids) for the room brushes while at the same time being able to build pretty complex shapes using the terrain brushes, shapes that don't lend themselves very well to being covered by blocks (without leakage, improper overlaps, "near-infinite" subdivision, etc...). Adding just a wedge-shaped room brush would probably make a big difference.
Exposing more engine features to give script authors even more control would be nice. Being able to crouch under water could also be nice: I've always found it a little odd that Garrett cannot enter the same spaces under water that he can over water (few people swim vertically, but, apparently, Garrett does, so allowing underwater crouching would compensate for this).
ZylonBane on 17/3/2018 at 17:27
Quote Posted by Cardia
What new features would you like for the next NewDark update (Suggestions)
Translation: Make NewDark run my ridiculous vanity mission because I have no idea how to work within reasonable technical constraints.
voodoo47 on 17/3/2018 at 18:10
well, that's why I was saying that a lot of that stuff sounds like a result of bad practice. basically, if something isn't working right, the reasonable thing to do first is to check whether one is not doing something wrong.
Quote Posted by Tafferwocky
The ability to resize and maximise the Dromed window as you can with modern desktop applications, rather than needing to mess with Window Size config options.
The ability to copy-paste to and from the command terminal, as well as being able to cycle through previously entered commands with the Up Arrow.
Fix for the skyhack flickering issue (visible in the void area of The Sword with NewDark).
- oof, you want dynamic resolution. while possible (Doom4 on the Switch is doing it to keep the framerate up, iirc), I don't think it's being used in any modern pc games, because it most likely is all sorts of pain and suffering.
- you can cycle previously used commands with tab.
- is that the thing where parts of the level are popping in and out if you build it with impossible geometry? I think there is a var for that.
Tafferwocky on 17/3/2018 at 20:55
Quote Posted by voodoo47
- oof, you want dynamic resolution. while possible (Doom4 on the Switch is doing it to keep the framerate up, iirc), I don't think it's being used in any modern pc games, because it most likely is all sorts of pain and suffering.
Not really dynamic resolution, just a resizeable editor window. I'm pretty sure other editors allow this, even if it might require a brief black screen in the 3D viewport as it reinitialises each time you resize it.
Quote Posted by voodoo47
- you can cycle previously used commands with tab.
Good to know! Still, copy-paste would be nice to have.
Quote Posted by voodoo47
- is that the thing where parts of the level are popping in and out if you build it with impossible geometry? I think there is a var for that.
Yeah, that's it. The config option indicates there's a compromise where the bug won't occur, but you'll also have less accurate rendering. Would be good not to have to choose.
Sluggs on 17/3/2018 at 22:23
Hi Cardia!
Reflective surfaces would be good for things like a solid sea (like in my Jetpack demo).
@Unna Oertdottir: I'll download that vid next week when I have more credit in my phone. Thanks. :-)
I would like to be able to make a larger air brush too, without errors, so a bigger world to work in would be nice! :cheeky:
PS. Would it be possible to use say, .obj files as well as/instead of .bin files? Would save a lot of messing around!
Cardia on 18/3/2018 at 17:05
great suggestions Tafferwocky , i love the idea of Dynamic light shadows.
nemyax on 21/3/2018 at 07:22
OpenGL 3.3 (or later) core profile renderer with order-independent transparency.