Rathmor news

[Verdite]

02/11/13

- 78 new map parts made, along with icons - includes tree sets, new houses, castle parts, and temple parts
- 2 new detailed essential levels
- New objects- lamp stands, trees and doors
- Completely rehauled the lighting for all levels - Rathmor will be set in darkness in some parts, and lamps provide the light. This is vital to the story and really sets the mood. Im carefully placing lamps so that their light will always be within the players sight on a level.



















20/08/13

I missed out a month! I know! 

Hope you'l find two months worth of work here. I've done absurd amounts of work on Rathmors outdoor sections and polished various models. Juggling my project and real life has proven to be a challenge.

Ive also discovered whats best in terms of lighting for my project with the help of some games, JDO, DMPdesign and Holy Diver.
Basically accumulated advice on lighting.

Good news for progress! 4 maps completed, yet remain unpopulated. I'm hard on myself when it comes to levels, so alot have been scrapped. It would have been 5 had I not lost one.

Im also posting Rathmor news in this link. I make sure I dont use the same screenshots.

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Created a 121 piece mountain map set, at about 16 meters high. It is climbable, and its actually one model split up. It took a day to build and import, and it has a simple customisation feature; it has an individually named texture, so when it becomes available for SOM users you can chage its texture as you wish, with a simple overwrite.

The lowest point...


Stood at the highest point...

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Well over 40 new textures. Mainly for map pieces - 20 are for a grass set that merges into a mud set. Plenty of effort.

New grass map pieces, 3 in total.

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Create your own forest set, 32 pieces. New, super efficient trees that blend nicely, cliffs that have overhanging roots to break up lines in the environment, and dips to add water, or even sink map pieces into.

No ambience and lighting...


Ambience and lighting...







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Create your own mountain set, 23 pieces. Mountain edges blend seamlessly and you can create a mountain as high as you want, the mountain even has a flat platform set that you can setup to climb. This set has bushes and trees as map pieces, so your mountains need not be bland again!




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New pieces for the mines including a safety tunnel.

Thanks to JDO's input on creating uneven surfaces and lines for immersive purposes *catches breath* I have been creating all of my map pieces as natural and as diverse as possible thanks to his examples and guidance. Hats off to JDO for input - a little effort goes a long way. Sometimes it can just be a small comment that makes all the difference. If you'd like to GAD (give a damn) feel free to post.

New weapons, I was short on axes!



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New enemy, the Eggthief. He uses a headbutt as his primary attack.



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Alkarg retexture.


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20/06/13

Its been another NPC month, created a kid, and three guards. Pictures are all .jpg for ease of download so expect some loss in clarity (left click to zoom)...













Along with a few plants.
"Och no! That wee beasties eating me 'erbs!"





16/5/13 GMT



So theres alot to cover since I last updated the news thread, well I had alot of ideas coming for new NPCs that I couldnt create simply by using models from my old NPCs, so I decided to make completely new models, because its good practice?    and secondly I needed a much more mallable model structure that I could diversify easily with.

After standardising my NPC base model I took it from there. The base model probably took about 18 hours, I dont even dare imagine how much time ive spent on the NPCs since then. Anyway each is animated and characterised differently from the other. So ive made six! So far, more ideas forming for other NPCs. Including my old models, thats 12 complete NPCs, and unlike some games where (here i go off on one) animations are re used for each character, in the KF tradition all my NPCs are unique.

  where are my pictures?! 

Gallahaith


Gris


Athraith (left) Bregneid (right)






Also, like in the first demo I ever made, I had an enclosure for animals to roam around in, it was a bit like a farm of sorts. Anyway instead of remaking the SOM birds, I decided to create something SOM doesnt have - boars.





Also for those of you who dont know, Holydiver has included a jump function for SomEx, along with a ton of other great things like climbing over objects smoothly, ducking... To name a few. Anyone who needs help setting up SomEx please get in touch.

11/4/13 GMT

Ive started a new topic for Rathmor news updates, simply because the other was getting choked up with images.

So ill start off by showing the long awaited (eh?  ) skeleton that ive recently finished. Complete with sound effects and it is in fact a brand new model, texture and animation set created from scratch. Took around 26+ hours to finish.

So far it has two different attack sets for two different skeletons. One consists of mostly swings and cutting motions, while the other is completely thrust based. Each type has its own 'quick attack' for when you get too close, either a hilt smash or a knee.









Moving on... To items...

If you recall I posted about the leather armour set I was making in the last news thread. Ive essentially finished it, so here it is!
 


Thats just one set that I finished recently. Ive been making chainmail too, which will be available to those who have earnt it.

Copper chainmail? Hmm, well its affordable but will break easier.

Onto helmets, ive started sizing everything to fit properly in the game, so that means re importing everything into SOM and improving things as I go along.


Finally ive created about 7 new BGMs, the most impacting of which would be the one for Cragothar village, which has changed dramatically.
Not forgetting the 'secret' I always leave out in most updates, things that remain hidden that will prove to be nasty surprises...

[HwitVlf]

It's a baby T-Rex!!!???
I like the way the cave wall angles interact with each other- adds a much more interesting variety than SoM's default cave stuff.  The opening mouth on the new skeleton adds a lot of great detail too. Very nice stuff!

Before I read the note on the reddish copper mail, I thought "rusted iron". Would adding some greenish highlights for tarnished copper add to it's copper like-ness?

[Verdite]

Actually theres a completely tarnished green set of copper mail in the game.

Haha its actually a relative of the hopping beasts.

[Holy_Diver]

I like the helmets. They are both classic. For the belt, it should either be very slack with a back, or you should extrude it directly from the shirt so that the thickness is uniform (frankly though I would probably just remove it)

I know that's a ton of work into the skeleton, and I've been there, believe me. But I still don't think its ready for prime time.

The texture itself would look a lot better if it was actually very much like that helmet on the bottom. The shadows inside the skull should be much lighter. Just a few shades browner than the outside, which should probably be darker too.

The bones are paper thin in places. And it looks too much like something out of a doctors office. It needs some damage, and bones missing here and there. Especially in the ribs, where most of the cartilage could go.

In fact the entire ribcage should be mostly fused together by sinew so that its all one piece. Likewise there should be a similar sheath running down the length of the spinal column hiding the many protrusions of vertebrae, but not completely. The back should be bumpy.

Similarly the knees should be fused by ligaments with a kneecap, one of them could be missing. The radius and ulna could also be fused with sinew. Same for the tibia and fibula. The polygon count would be much less. And it would look better. Similarly the hand bones and the entire foot should be one piece. The toes could be another articulated piece.

But just be clear. If you do have bones that always move in unison. Make damn sure that they are treated as a single object for purposes of animation. If everyone of those bones gets displayed independently its going to seriously slow down games.

If you had a skinned animation, you could have the fused pieces actually move in a non-rigid way. SOM can't do skinned animations (pretty much what all games use for almost everything nowadays) but I will be getting around to adding it when the time is right.

[Verdite]

Agree with the fusion to create a cartilidge effect, but the cartilidges and joints would have to be seperate for them to work as they should, without constantly protuding, unless I created an entirely new bone (animation bone) structure which would ruin my hours and hours of animating. Anything misaligned in the animation bone after its been created can ruin it.

The bones being skinner than usual was due to the polygon reducer I used, thanks for the shading advice esepecially around the head, though the skeleton looks alot more intimidating with almost completely black eyesockets.
Without sounding offensive, im well aware of certain mishaps with the model after I reduced its vertices, but I dont think its noticable by the untrained eye, of which many players seeing it will be. The model is 2100-2200 vertices, the helmed model and the bald model fall into the same number.

The belt is for anyone who cares about imagining the character with a scabbard or baldric, and the bandolier is for shields. Im not being historically accurate, but thats why they are there. I know some things i percieve to be practical some might not.

[Holy_Diver]

^Everywhere I recommended sticking sinew except for the knee I assumed will not be animated. Still if you just did stubs it would look fine. I was just recommending simplification I think. The textures can be replaced easily enough. I just can't think of doing a skeleton this detailed in a game. If it were more like a mummy it would look better. Just feels like medical software if you make skeletons too literal. Plus spinal columns are tough. Wrapping it in sinew would do the trick.

Just trying to help you make your skeleton as good as your helmets there, so others can get a lot of mileage out of them one day.

Don't use polygon reducers if you are not willing to tweak the results by hand. Your work will always appear substandard.

[HwitVlf]

I think the skeleton looks great as is, but adding flesh/sinew clumps here or there isn't a bad idea for a second version. It kind of falls under what was mentioned in an other thread about "breaking up excessive straight/symmetrical lines".  I assumed you would make alternate versions as the need arose - like you did with your first skeleton. 

For my vote, the belt and any "flatness" in the skeleton look perfectly fine. I'm sure there is always room for improvement and always new techniques to learn that reduce polys without losing much quality, but what I see in the screen shots is WAY better than "good enough".

Is the new HP MP display for Rathmor or just for testing? I think it looks nice; a less invasive display helps the player get immersed! 

[Verdite]

Holy Diver,

"The texture itself would look a lot better if it was actually very much like that helmet on the bottom."

Do you think it needs more noise and 'bumpiness' to it? Im very careful with how I use my noise these days. 

"Just trying to help you make your skeleton as good as your helmets there, so others can get a lot of mileage out of them one day. "

Thanks. I didnt create the helms by accident though.  Id like to spend more time on it and I possibly will. If I decide to add other interesting parts to it then ill keep what you said in mind, maybe ill share my work with others to use but its not something ive given much thought to. Redoing something ive made for others to use is something im willing to work on, eventually.

" I just can't think of doing a skeleton this detailed in a game."

People always talk about how lazily game assets are created, so I decided to get something right and create something more true to life. I dont find highly stylized skeletons appealing, and for me skeletons in my game are pretty important.
If you have seen, maybe you cant, certain models especially the helmed skeleton is missing alot of ribs and other parts deliberately. I created a part in the texture for ribs, broken / decayed arms that will have see through and frayed sections.

"Plus spinal columns are tough. Wrapping it in sinew would do the trick. "

Thats good. Ill bare that in mind. The spinal column has alot of detail in the texture to indicate where sinew would have been.

John,

"I think the skeleton looks great as is, but adding flesh/sinew clumps here or there isn't a bad idea for a second version."

Ill be doing a number of different variants, so ill probably add the more mummified state to some of my models. That'l look scary.

"I assumed you would make alternate versions as the need arose - like you did with your first skeleton."

Thats my plan! Ill be placing some skeletons in corridors with spears, so that you can either try to rush their long ranged thrust or go around them.
The two axe psycho will be around too.

"I'm sure there is always room for improvement and always new techniques to learn that reduce polys without losing much quality, but what I see in the screen shots is WAY better than "good enough". "

If I fuss over things at this stage it will seem like im not making progress, and thats the last thing I want... So alot of tweaking for 'community' models and so on will likely come alot later. 

Thank you both, I appreciate the feedback, and when you play my game you'l see the influences you gave me to help support my project.

[Verdite]

Update :) Read from the top from now on 

[Holy_Diver]

I really like these. You know how heartless I can be. The woman seems to be cocked in a way as if gravity was at a different angle. Did you copy/paste her into the image?  I suppose looking down could do that, but something seems off... plus her head appears too flat in the back. Kind of like a Neanderthal only in reverse. Could just be an optical illusion though in lieu of her non-euclidean posture