Rathmor news

[HwitVlf]

"non-euclidean posture" . . . Don't be chauvinist; it's natural for a woman's euclidean to droop as she gets older 

Simply amazing Ben- Seriously, it seems like your work gets better with every Rathmor update. You have come soooo far as an artist (in my opinion).  Love the bearded guy and the outfits look great and realistic. The faces and eyes are the best yet. The poses look nice and natural. Really good.

A small thought- it might just be an optical illusion, but on some models, it looks like the upper arm segment (elbow to shoulder) is longer than natural  - are the elbows at waist level or is that just the camera angle?

[Verdite]

Holy,

After considering all the possibilities, and looking at the model from different angles, I think the reason for the apparent 'cocking' is simply because I took the screenshot looking downwards. Anyway thanks for noticing. The rear of the head is fine too, it might be the hairstyle making it seem that way from the angle of the screenshot.

John,

Really appreciate the feedback, actually one of the main contributors to getting the new NPCs right was - yeah this will sound weird - the skeleton enemy model. I took alot of time to understand the proportions of the skeleton and what goes where. Actually I think I can explain the longer segmented upper arms, its because most of the models with long sleeves have elbows buried beneath the sleeve ends, set more upwards. It was a simple stub that allowed me to get a much smoother tinman animation for the arms. 
Some inspiration for the new NPCs came from your 'rook' model you made a while ago.  I was really impressed with the mapping and texture.

[Holy_Diver]

^Yeah I was more commenting on the screenshots themselves. I think you cropped that shot making it off center, but I could be wrong. The art of taking screenshots (photography) is not something to be neglected.

[Verdite]

Ill probably leave the screenshots uncropped.

[Holy_Diver]

Ill probably leave the screenshots uncropped.

Cropping is usually a good thing. You just have to be careful when the center of the crop is not where the "camera" was angling for. Especially up close. Things in the distance lose depth. So it matters less.

[Verdite]

Updated the screenshots, with some new ones. Please note that theres alot of inconsistency in the lighting and the resource - heavy screenshots are just for effect.

[Holy_Diver]

I think if you are going to try that hard for the faces it would be worth pumping more polygons into the eyes. Blinking animations seem to get a lot of bang for very little buck. Your lips and nostrils always look like they need more definition to me. Maybe if they were separate pieces altogether so the textures can be an island unto themselves. If not the lips the eyeballs would benefit a lot from that.

If SOM can't do that much detail, it might be interesting to discuss an LOD framework where faces and hands and things especially where it counts could be afforded more detail up close. I would prefer anyway the approach where there is a second layer of detail. So that details can be optional and worked in on their own time over time.

EDITED: Probably blinking can be an extension so it is not so much on a loop and doesn't have to be coordinated into every animation. We'd just need to agree on an animation ID.

[Verdite]

I think its possible to have blinking eyes by having a two sided round eye, one side having an open eye image and the other being closed. It would just be a matter of flipping the eyes.

[HwitVlf]

I really like how each NPC has its own character. I hadn't thought about that "individualism" being part of what was good in the King's Field games until you mentioned it earlier. Now that I think about it, it's really true and adds a lot to the game. Same thing for weapons, each had its own character.

Personally, I think non-moving eyes look fine. Adding detail is nice, but I don't think it makes or breaks a game. Modern games spend way too much of their budget and time/PC-resources on model detail and realistic lighting, yet when it comes to creating an immersive environment, I think those aspects are strictly secondary to things like realistic model placement and animations, and story. The more detail you add, the more it makes less detailed areas stand out (non-articulated hands, mouth etc).

[Holy_Diver]

^While I will wholeheartedly concur with this, whether there is detail or not, the rules of attraction do not go out the door. Ugly or odd is the same whether what you have is abstract, minimalistic, photo realistic.

To be honest your game looks better than most of the games in the PS3's library. Which is the only reason I recommended some of the problem areas in the first place.

Hands are not important. But its a place that can benefit from detail. But faces, I recommended the eyeless look to begin with. But if your faces are not abstract you can't afford for them to not be the centerpiece of the game. People are facial recognition machines probably more than they are anything else.