After finishing my entry to the CTE contest and taking a break, I finally resumed work on my non-contest mission, Disorientation. Disorientation follows up on the events and themes of Bad Debts - it's a largely non-linear mission focused on exploring a dark cityscape, collecting loot and running into a sinister plot or two. Since Bad Debts was a bit sparse looking because it stretched over such a big area, I went for slightly more "intensive" architecture: the overall space is smaller, but it is more open, with ledges, rooftops routes, and waterways (which were almost completely missing in Bad Debts). The mission is shaping up to be a rather big one, and I have only used 2000 terrain brushes so far. I just hope I won't hit one of the more obscure limits such as pathfinding or cells.![]()
One thing the intensive use of space means is that locations are much more interconnected: the architecture, while not as continuous as Calendra's Legacy or Rocksbourg 1, proved to be harder to work with than I initially anticipated, especially since I built the damn thing into the side of a hill *with* a canal running down it, and somewhat overdid the elevation differences (as it is, there is ca. 140 Dromed units between the highest and lowest streets, not counting the considerable rooftop areas). Still, so far, no disasters happened.
Another feature of the level is that I use a lot of textures imported from TDP. Although this means the mission will not look as fancy as the Seven Sisters or Broken Triad, the results look satisfying and are visually cohesive (here, again, Bad Debts had problems - a clash between traditional and more modern textures). I even use TDP versions for a lot of the basic textures, such as windows.
Well, so much so far. Only the first screenshot has lights, as I did not yet place them elsewhere because it's nice if large area brushes portalise/optimise fast, and lights tend to get in the way of that.
The release date is "when it's done". Since I still have 2000 more terrain brushes, it will take some time, so I guess early 2009 or thereabouts. Hopefully.
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That looks great. Why did you use full bright images, though? Too dark? I can give you some tips on brightening them up if you'd like.
Digital Nightfall: I haven't placed lights in most areas yet, since they really slow down the portalising process, and I wanted to be able to build in large areas.
If you set the lighting to quick-light then it should take no time at all.
Or keep it as one object and make use of joints and sub objects.
The bracket could be the base object, and the joint would run vertically in line with the chain. The chain and light could be the sub-object, whose position you could change via the Shape > Joint Positions property.
Hm, I hadn't thought of that. I shall look into it, thanks for the suggestion.
To avoid having to change the light offset for every single one that you place, you'll probably want to make the lamp the base object and the ceiling bracket the translating joint.
Is it not possible to put in a vhot that references the light part of the object?
Say the base is called aa, and the light is @s00bb, and a vhot called @h01bb, would it not move with the sub object?
I still working on "Legend of the Four Elements III" this is the last part of the serie.
Nearly done with this model - I need to make the texture for the grey area of the base, then it should be pretty much done...
(Full size version)
Last edited by The Watcher; 11th Sep 2008 at 09:13. Reason: Updating image and link to completed version
Looking good! It's nice to see new streetlights that still use the good old thief-world technomagicary.
Trying to find where I squirreled all my DROMED-related files away.
:/
Very nice The Watcher, will you also make a lamp post with just one light? I will definately use those in my next mission.
That's an impressive object! Would be perfect for rich areas.
This lantern is beautiful, great job!![]()
Between Dreams and Shadows - missions, objects, textures and more
Missions: Shadowed Mayfield · Xavier's Library
Great streelight indeed, very close to the original streetlights design.
(Could have been in MX...)
Oh snap!
I just played through DP2 PreBeta for the first time through Thief (but not Darkloader yet). I have the usual list of about 20 minor things to go fix, then after another playthrough it will be time to try and ZIP it up for Darkloader. Unfortunately, Will gave me tons of stuff, and only some of it is being used, so I have some work to do in getting the right stuff in the ZIP. Main concern is lots of extra sounds and music, which will really swell the ZIP size if they're in there but don't need to be.
One rather creepy note - on my first playthrough, at some point I unexpectedly got the sounds of haunt voices playing constantly (and not an environmental ambient either, those continued to play and change as expected), and they never went away for the rest of the mission. Not sure if it's a bug or some weird fluke, but it freaked me out just a little. (Like that time where I swore I saw a haunt cross the hallway in the distance even though there were NO AI in that part of the mission yet. Just Dark playing tricks on me, eh?)
What's that, dear? Oh right...
I LOVE DROMED, OH YES I LOVE DROMED! SHE'S THE GREATEST EDITOR EVAH!![]()
@Yandros...[DromED]That's better BITCH![/DromED]![]()