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DCUG: Released But Still Under Construction

Started by BentonGrey, March 19, 2010, 04:39:56 PM

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BentonGrey

God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

BentonGrey

Alright guys, I'm working on updating my SUPER ad hoc Atlantis map from my last full release.  I made it when I knew less about basically everything and had a lot less energy, so I'm trying to make a nicer version of it now that it'll feature in the Aquaman campaign and as a RR map.  I've got a lot of ideas, most of which I probably won't be able to bring to fruition, but here are a couple of the things I'm working on.  Let me know what you think:

I wanted some more set dressing appropriate for an underwater setting, so I've been working on creating some new objects.  One idea I had was to have 'coral hedges,' so I slapped a coral texture on the German hedge object, then colorized it, and here's what I've got.  How does the purple look?


I also wanted something like trees, but obviously actual trees would look super weird if we're supposed to be underwater, so I took the German poplar object and skoped a bunch of Cuban aloe plants onto it to create something like a kelp forest.



Hard to get a good picture of them in the editor.  I'm fairly proud of myself for sorting their textures out, as that kind of thing is usually beyond me.  And I think the end product doesn't look half bad.

Finally, (for tonight) I created a new statue object out of RD's imported dolphin mesh.  I put the coral/marble texture I used for the palace's columns on it, but it didn't look right on a column, so I copied the basketball object and stuck it under the thing, and now I think it looks rather good on the pillar.


I've got a lot more work to do, but I've updated some of the textures on the map and have some new objects to play with.  What do y'all think so far?  I'll post some more WIP pictures tomorrow once I get a little further along, and I'd like some opinions on them when I do, as I'm torn on some thing.  To start with, I'm not quite sure what textures to use with the pillars the dolphin is on.  I don't love the ones from the palace map, but I'm not sure what to replace them with.  Any thoughts?
God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

Randomdays

A greenish - marble look might be good, but there's already so much green and blue it may get lost.

Were you able to fix your darkness problem with the banner?

BentonGrey

Thanks for the feedback, RD!  Yeah, I tried a greenish texture, and I think it does blend in too much.  I found a nice Greek column texture and made it a bit blue.  I think it works okay:

It might be too dim.

Unfortunately, I couldn't solve the banner issue.  I've got no idea what the deal is.
God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

deanjo2000

It looks good though. A bit outside the box but maybe a nice bronze texture??
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/da3a3y1ac4uqp/FreedoForce

"sorry she couldn`t wait" superman to wonderman jla/avengers.

Randomdays

Benton - At present, I've restored about 30% of my files. Go ahead and send the banner over if you want. Also, what were your thoughts on the second form for Topo to make him more usable?

RD

BentonGrey

#216
Great idea, Dean!

Slowly but surely, I hope, RD!  Will do!  Would you remind me of your suggestion?

So, I tried out a couple of oxidized bronze textures for some statuary, and I'm fairly happy with the results.  Now it's basically done.  Let me show y'all a before and after, and y'all can let me know if you have any suggestions.  As before, I'm basing all of this off an existing map.  This time it's the Ancient City map by the HumanTon.  As always, I'm standing on the shoulders of giants.

Ad hoc Atlantis: I threw this together just to have something for a base scene and in the hopes of using it in the future.  One of my only real contributions was to use simple color edits on some of the textures, because that's about all I could manage.

I actually sort of like that blue sand-ish texture that I slapped together, but I think Cmdrkoenig's are, of course, much better.




Atlantis 2.0: A ton new here, and I've created custom objects and more to go with it.

I'm using one of Cmdrkoenig's udnerwater textures for the ground, and I think it works pretty well. 


Here's an underwater garden, complete with bubble-fountain and cultivated coral.  I'm not sure about the coral hedges.  What do y'all think?  Too bright?  Too big?


Aquaman and his subjects take a swim in the garden.


Based on the amazing work of RD and 'Mato, I've got a really cool seahorse mount for the Aqua Family.  It isn't fully animated, so they won't be playable, but it will make great set pieces for cutscenes, and I was able to find a bonus use for them too!  Check out the bronze warrior-maiden statue that adorns parts of Atlantis:

You can't see it very well here, but I added a skysphere to the map.  The whole thing is quite dim, so I'm thinking I need to change the lighting. Does anyone remember where the lighting info for a map is stored?

:EDIT: I found it.  Apparently ambient lighting info is stored in the map's script, either danger.py or mission.py.  That's super helpful to know.
http://www.freedomreborn.net/archive/index.php?topic=48659.msg665008#msg665008

Here's the skysphere, looking as it should with a cool underwater texture, and check out the brain-coral texture I put on the stones of the plaza.:


I tried to add a sky sphere directly to the terrain.nif with Nifskope, but apparently the game interprets it as terrain when you do that, and all the characters show up ON TOP of it.  So...that's not great.  I'm going to try adding sky spheres to some of these missions, but I'm wondering if they'll play nicely with the campaign.  I suppose I'll just have to try it and see.

So, that's my updated Atlantis map.  I'm reasonably happy with it, about as happy as I ever am with things I make myself.  What do y'all think? 
God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

deanjo2000

Now that's Atlantis, just so many good things here and I think the hedge is fine.
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/da3a3y1ac4uqp/FreedoForce

"sorry she couldn`t wait" superman to wonderman jla/avengers.

BentonGrey

Thanks Dean!  That means a lot!

Though....grr...I JUST realized that apparently the texture I used for the brain-coral stonework has a watermark on it!  :wacko:
God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

BentonGrey

#219
Okay...I'm not positive it will work in game yet, but there's a chance I've just discovered a way to combine maps in Nifskope, so that, at the least, I can have two different maps for use for CSes and such, and maybe even be able to jump between maps in gameplay.  This could be a game-changer for me.

I'm just copying and pasting one map onto another.  Chances are this will break everything horribly, but if not, I am super excited about the possibilities!

:EDIT: Gah, no luck!  Strangely, the mission loaded fine, but the changes I made to the terrain.nif just didn't show up.  Well, I'm not giving up.  I'll have to keep playing with it and see if I can figure it out.

:EDIT 2: Haha!  So, it works!  I'm a moron and had edited the terrain file in my main Data directory instead of the mod.  No wonder it didn't seem changed.  :P  So, I combined two maps, and it loaded successfully.  I couldn't use both because each had an impassable 'collar' around it in the nif.  I thought I removed those, but apparently not.  I'm pretty sure I can figure that out, though.

We have proof of concept!


God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

deanjo2000

I just want to say on behalf of this whole forum we are very lucky to have you here :D
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/da3a3y1ac4uqp/FreedoForce

"sorry she couldn`t wait" superman to wonderman jla/avengers.

Randomdays

#221
Ditto! Very few people can create a mod anymore, let alone huge adventures as big as, if not bigger, than the original campaign.

Benton  - on Topo, I could take the basic octopus mesh and rig a non-animated version to the Triton keyframes. You could use the "other form" to swap it in when needed for attack or other actions.

RD

oktokels

 :wub:
Beautiful work, looking forward to it  :thumbup:

BentonGrey

#223
Wow, thanks guys!  That is tremendously gratifying and encouraging to hear.  I really appreciate it, and I appreciate the support you've all given me!

RD, I remember now.  Since I've got other finny friends materials that will look okay, I don't think we'll worry about it.  That's a clever solution, but I see it being a bit too unwieldy to work well for something that's going to be AI controlled.
God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

BentonGrey

#224
So, longshot here, but does anyone know if it is possible to set flying FX so they only trigger when a character is moving, not just hovering?  I'm toying with giving all the aquatic characters bubble trails as they "swim", but it doesn't look right if they're generating a wake while standing still.
God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

oktokels

Quote from: BentonGrey on July 05, 2021, 04:02:23 AM
So, longshot here, but does anyone know if it is possible to set flying FX so they only trigger when a character is moving, not just hovering?  I'm toying with giving all the aquatic characters bubble trails as they "swim", but it doesn't look right if they're generating a wake while standing still.
just a rambling, but maybe changing only the "run" keyframe for the "swim" animation in nifskope, and leaving the "idle" keyframe as it is?  :blink:
I made a beast boy that transform into a dinosaur when moving and goes back to his original form when standing still.

BentonGrey

Thanks for the suggestion, OK!  Unfortunately, this is an FX issue, not an animation issue.

On a related note, I'm getting a weird bug when I add flight FX to my built-in characters.  The buoyant FX that triggers at the beginning of a match (little green bubbles), which are connected to density, I think, don't go away.  They just keep playing on the character constantly.  Anyone know what the deal with that is?
God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

BentonGrey

#227
Howdy guys, guess what!  I've got the DreamWave function working in my missions.  I've got to play around with it and find a good setting, but I can now make the missions look 'underwater' with an actual camera filter.  Look for a video soon!

:EDIT: Okay, here are two videos for comparison.  What do y'all think works best:

Settings turned very low:
https://youtu.be/XdKTqHoiCTE

Settings turned somewhat low:
https://youtu.be/pMVU68sAj1Q

Which do y'all like best?  Do y'all think this is a good idea or that it will be too distracting?
God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

Tomato

I think the very low looks ok. It's subtle enough that it won't be a problem, while still being present and adding to the atmosphere (I'd say the second video is almost too much), though I would advise including a way to turn it off if the player needs to... this feels like something that could trigger motion sickness in those predisposed to it.

BentonGrey

Thanks 'Mato!  Indeed, if I end up including this, I'll have an alternative set of missions that can be swapped out for these.  I had the same thought.

So folks, here's how you do this.  It's actually super simple.  This is the EZScript mission.py file that I've tweaked with the warp code:

Quoteminimod_storyfile = 'mission'

import m25minimod
from m25minimod import *

def OnPreRendererCreate():
   ff.RENDER_WARP = 1

#---------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Important Callbacks
#
#---------------------------------------------------------------------   

def OnPostInit():
   m25minimod.OnPostInit(campaign=1)
   ff.RENDER_WARP = 1
   Mission_StartDreamWave(5,-1,0)
   Mission_FadeDreamSinParams(1, .02, .25, 1)

The "StarDream" bit turns it on, and the numbers tell the game (how long to fade in, how long it lasts, and how long to fade out).  So, in this case it runs forever and doesn't fade out.
The "FadeDream" bit tells the game what intensity it's all at: (Wave Frequency, Wave Amplitude, Wave Speed, and Fade Time.)

You can find a complete description of this function in the scripting document on page 46.  I'll make a short tutorial video about this soon.
God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

oktokels

Quote from: BentonGrey on July 09, 2021, 01:19:39 AM
Howdy guys, guess what!  I've got the DreamWave function working in my missions.  I've got to play around with it and find a good setting, but I can now make the missions look 'underwater' with an actual camera filter.  Look for a video soon!

:EDIT: Okay, here are two videos for comparison.  What do y'all think works best:

Settings turned very low:
https://youtu.be/XdKTqHoiCTE

Settings turned somewhat low:
https://youtu.be/pMVU68sAj1Q

Which do y'all like best?  Do y'all think this is a good idea or that it will be too distracting?

Looks great !! I agree with tomato, the settings very low is fine to me, while the other may be too much, specially when moving the map.

Randomdays

Benton,

You were talking about maps awhile ago. I have a 3 pack of underwater maps by Dana - Underwater, Underwater Cave and Underwater City. I don't know if you have them, but they also feature an underwater ambient sound that will play when the map is active. This might be what you were looking for.

I also have an Underwater map by Gengaro and a Tide map by Ewzzy. 

RD

Jimaras8

Can't wait to ply this Benton. My DC knowledge mainly comes from animation and movies so i can detach yself from the characters and explore them for the first time. Do you have a timetable for the update?

dknight95

Hey Benton, that effect is very cool, I personally like the 2nd version, Settings turned somewhat low:  https://youtu.be/pMVU68sAj1Q.  Your DC project seems to be coming along quite nicely.  Can't wait to see and play the DCUG once it is completed.  Never played the earlier version that you released years ago, so looking forward to your masterpiece.  You are helping to keep  :ffvstr:  alive with your valiant and valued efforts, for that alone you deserve much thanks. 
Be well, God bless, Be at peace, and may the forces of evil become lost and confused on the way to your home! - George Carlin

BentonGrey

Thanks guys!  That is really encouraging to hear! 

Jim, my hope is that I can have it done-ish by the end of the summer.  We'll see, but I'm working really hard to get there!  My working plan at the moment is to finish the first arc of my epic Aqua-campaign, then start on my systematic updating of characters, powers, and balance.  Then, if I have time, keep working on campaigns.  But I may release an updated version once I have all of that stuff done, and then just keep working and release updates as I finish more stories.  We'll see.
God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

naitvalis

The wave water effect is very cool i like the 2nd one too, the whole thing look very "immersive" now  :D, however the knockback of the "flyng"melee attacs looks to much considering you are underwater, also i want suggest to open your map terrain with nifskope and add an enormous blue object that will incapsulate the map then you gave this object a bluish material tone and give this object an alpha for transparency property this will eventually simulate a bluish fog... probably...you'r doing a very nice job Bg !

BentonGrey

Howdy Nait, and thanks!  Yeah, I'm afraid the KB is an issue that has been troubling me, but I don't think there's much I can do with it.  It's not going to look quite 'right' without being able to tweak the physics engine itself, sadly.

I'm curious what you mean about editing the map.  Can you tell me a bit more about what you have in mind?  I tried adding a skysphere directly to the map, but it created a false 'floor' that all the characters spawned on, on top of the sphere, making the map unplayable.
God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

BentonGrey

Okay guys, opinion time again.  I've got the warp effect turned on at the lowest setting, providing some watery camera effects, and now I'm starting to explore the lighting settings.  Here's one of my levels with the blue filter turned all the way up.  What do y'all think?


God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

BentonGrey

And here's the same map with the red turned down a bit and the green jacked up close to the blue.  I think this one looks pretty darn good.  What do y'all think?

God Bless
"If God came down upon me and gave me a wish again, I'd wish to be like Aquaman, 'cause Aquaman can take the pain..." -Ballad of Aquaman
Check out mymods and blog!
https://bentongrey.wordpress.com/

Randomdays

#239
I'd go with the green.