137 réponses à ce sujet

[The Amethyst Dragon]

Here's a little teaser for y'all.  Since crossbows are part of the last group, I find they need a lot of work.  I've got animations slightly altered now for the light crossbow, plus the initial base model done.

- Altered animation - starts and returns to loaded position instead of unloaded.
- Added visible bolt when loaded.
- Added smaller details, such as a foot loop for reloading (not that NWN does that sort of animation) and two small catches that hold back the bowstring until it's fired.
- Changed some metallic parts to leather-wrapped.

YouTube link:

Clip is using unlimited fire ammo, but that was just so that I didn't have to reload during testing.

[dusty.lane]

I hate you, in a loving way of course. ;P That crossbow is amazing! Does it work with more attacks per round than what you have there? Say a level 20 character with a crossbow. I mean, it should, but can't just assume these things!

[Master Jax]

0__0 Impressive...

[The Amethyst Dragon]

dusty.lane wrote...

Does it work with more attacks per round than what you have there? Say a level 20 character with a crossbow. I mean, it should, but can't just assume these things!

If the normal crossbow will do multiple attacks (if the character has Rapid Reload, which is the way to get multiple attacks with a crossbow), then I don't see why this one wouldn't.  I've never actually had a character take that feat before, since I've always preferred the look of bows over crossbows.  I may just try it for testing.

Glad you folks like it so far. Going to do the same with the heavy crossbow next, then onto all the variations in shape and color.

I'm thinking I may actually finish this entire project in just under a year.

[gutwrench66kg]

oooooh! Very nice!!!

Multiple attacks via Rapid Reload shouldn't be a problem as the engine simply speeds up the animation just like it does for other attacks.

Modifié par usagreco66kg, 02 octobre 2012 - 02:50 .

[The Amethyst Dragon]

While looking at the heavy crossbows, I figured I'd stick to the basic size NWN already uses, which meant somehow accounting for the extra damage they do in basically the same amount of space as a light crossbow.  After looking at many, many crossbow images online, it dawned on me that it would be relatively simple to double up on the strength of the draw with...another bow.



Yes, work is still progressing.   I've now got the basic positioning and animations for all four types of bows, so I'm looking forward to just running through the different variations on them in the next week or two.

[Pstemarie]

I like it.

[The Amethyst Dragon]

Me = screenshot-trigger-happy

Even the lowly sling is getting reforged:

[Tarot Redhand]

@AD When you have finished re-forging have you any plans to bundle all of the content into a single hak?

TR

[The Amethyst Dragon]

Tarot Redhand wrote...

@AD When you have finished re-forging have you any plans to bundle all of the content into a single hak?

I'm not sure.  Right now I'm satisfied with the groupings, since that's how they've been done since I started (work a group, publish it, work another group, publish, ...).

Plus, if left as they are, I can keep all of the comments and votes on the individual entries for those that want to read them.  People have a tendancy to completely ignore an original content post (and all of the information that went with it) when it's included in another larger one.

If one wants them all in a single hak, it's an easy enough merge to do.  There's not even any 2da edits or renumbering needed, just transferring of the models and icons. Except for whips (which will add four "braided leather" textures) and the slings (which will add four "plain leather" textures), they all make use of the same 12 shared textures.

Combining them all into a single override is even easier: Decompress all files into the NWN/override folder.

[Tarot Redhand]

I tend to agree with you on the comments and votes - it's the main reason I haven't combined the two parts of the archive containing map mats. Hadn't realised that there was no 2da at all. Anyway, I was more curious as to should I wait for 1 big download or do many small ones now (or as available).

TR

[The Amethyst Dragon]

Tarot Redhand wrote...

I tend to agree with you on the comments and votes - it's the main reason I haven't combined the two parts of the archive containing map mats. Hadn't realised that there was no 2da at all. Anyway, I was more curious as to should I wait for 1 big download or do many small ones now (or as available).

TR

I say go for the smaller downloads.  I can't give a definite release date for anything that's not done yet (or even for what is done and not yet released).  The reason I went for the groupings in the first place was so that nobody would have to wait for all of the weapons to be done before they start using them (and just in case life interrupted my NWN work, makeing sure people could use was done).

Modifié par The Amethyst Dragon, 08 octobre 2012 - 07:22 .

[MrKWMonk]

Been playing NWN on and off for ages. Only just discovered these. Great work.

Thank you for sharing.

Modifié par MrKWMonk, 08 octobre 2012 - 05:08 .

[The Amethyst Dragon]

More looks back at heavy blades, which I plan on getting onto the Vault by the weekend.

First up is a close-up shot of a greatsword guard's curves and shiny gemstones.



Next is a pair of longswords.  The winged guard should make a nice look for things like paladins' swords.  And serrations are just...painful.



Ah, the katana.  Long an odd-looking NWN weapon, now properly sized.  I like this one mostly for the guard (called a tsuba or something like that, I think)...this one has both space inside and curves.



There will be a bunch more preview shots with the Vault entry once I get it posted.

[Zwerkules]

Very nice again! You know, the more you change the weapons the more the PC looks out of place. Especially the arms and the fists of doom look very bad.
Did anybody ever make better body parts except for heads and hands? I mean body parts that aren't just the same ones as all the others but with better textures. Are there for example higher poly models for bare arms and legs?

Modifié par Zwerkules, 16 octobre 2012 - 09:45 .

[s e n]

skinmeshed body parts
nice blades there!

[henesua]

Zwerkules, there are a few, but not a great number that I have found. Project Q has a number of these. Like the super buff looking torsos for males, better looking tattoos (dragons etc...). I was hoping to see stuff like that come out of the Character Customization challenge. -- oh... there are also a bunch of naked skin add ons, but i haven't got into the social stuff

TAD - NICE!

Modifié par henesua, 16 octobre 2012 - 10:03 .

[Rolo Kipp]

<shopping in the...>

Zwerkules wrote...
...Did anybody ever make better body parts except for heads and hands? I mean body parts that aren't just the same ones as all the others but with better textures. Are there for example higher poly models for bare arms and legs?

To the best of my knowledge there is only Ragnarok's Hi-Poly Human Torsos, an attempt at fixing the gnome "popeye" arms (Tuldor's New Gnomes) and a slew of jiggly "Dolly Parton" torsos...

Be happy to be proved wrong, though :-)

<...body shop>

Modifié par Rolo Kipp, 16 octobre 2012 - 10:37 .

[OldTimeRadio]

@The Amethyst Dragon - Great work, Amethyst Dragon! I'm surprised to have two quibbles which may or may not be valid concerns, or even quibbles:

First, on the middle screenshot I think you might be in danger of overshooting the sweet spot (detail-wise) for generic weapon replacements. Purely an aesthetic thing, though, and only the gold cross-guard seems like it might be a little much.  I think you struck the perfect balance on the dart, whip, sickle, kama & longbow:  Still generic but much more realistic looking & without as much individual character.  Again, purely an aesthetic difference.  I'm not even sure what I'd suggest as an alternative.  It does look fabulous.

Second, (and kind of related?) I was noticing the geometry on those two same longswords (the golden winged crossguard on one and the loops on the other) and especially the crossbows looked really detailed, geometry-wise.  I generally don't like talk that something has "too many triangles" (because it's usually a misnomer, anyway) but on non-static geometry, lots of tris can eat resources with shadowing (which also, of course, affects static) and aura effects, either VFX applied to the player or from mouseover.

I don't know how much custom texturing you're doing on these.  It could be that I'm just being fooled by the textures, thinking they're geometry.  It's not so much the impact of one of these but I wonder what that situation looks like when multiplied by 10x or 20x or however many wind up on a screen at a time.

Anyway...There is no "otherwise", these are definitely fantastic models.  Just throwing my two bits in from the peanut gallery.

@Zwerkules - Aside from what Rolo mentioned, there's this (by Kino) and this (by Xaltar), off the top of my head.  Thallion may have also done some legwork, too, but i haven't checked those to see. 

[Rolo Kipp]

<peeking...>

@ OTR: Re the shadowing... if he's canny (and he generally is), TAD will have shadows turned off on the complex geometry and have a non-rendering simple shadow-caster...

Re the other bits I missed... Saw Kino's and lumped it in with the jiggly bits :-P Missed Xaltar & Thallion's stuff completely. Heh. Thanks

<...out of the shadows>

[_six]

You really need to work on the smoothing on those blades. It might just be the screenshot but the blades looked smoothed around which is not a good look at all.

Nice models though.

[NWN_baba yaga]

I agree with _six on this. The smoothing group on the edges should be divided so it´s actually sharp there. Anyway great looking blades:)

[OldTimeRadio]

I grabbed the heavy blades pack from the Vault and took a look at them.  That's a lot of geometry.  The 4/6/3 longsword combo comes in around 4,300 faces.  Looks like the low end combo is around 850.

I don't know if all the reforged items are this intensive but for some of the heavy blade pieces I looked at,  you could cut down the polycount a lot and not notice it too much.  Either use textures for details instead of geometry or just much simpler geometry.  This bit, for instance, this little band on the blade is almost 900 faces.  If you cut fat like that out it may look slightly less awesome in a close-up screenshot but that's about it.  Other things like spheres or similar could be cut down dramatically without much noticable difference.  Smoothing groups and the lighting system are responsible for the smooth shading, not the number of faces when it comes to stuff like that. 

And yet the same faces that the smoothing groups average away, the shadow system makes you pay through the nose for.

BTW, if you have 3DS Max 2010 or later, the ProOptimizer modifer can help you quickly drop the polycount on some of the less-easily optimized meshes, usually cutting their face count in half and sometimes down to 1/3 without it being that noticable.

[The Amethyst Dragon]

Long time, no post.

I got burned out on doing model work back in October, so moved on to doing mostly scripting and area building for my PW.

I eventually got over being burned out, and have started in on model work again.

Thanks for the feedback, folks.

Yes, the weapons are rather "heavy".  I haven't seen any visual lag with them myself, but then again I don't spawn more than a couple dozen NPCs with visible weapons at any one time.

I don't have 3DS, just gmax.  I think I'll be leaving the polycount as is on them (simply because it'd be too much work to remake every model).  In the near future though, I'm going to run through all the models and shut off shadows.  It's a relatively simple fix, which I'll do for the models I have up so far, when I get some time.

The 7th group will be posted to the Vault sometime soon, after I make a demo module and screenshots for the entry.

In the meantime, I'm back to work on the final grouping, ranged weapons.  The only models I have left to make, after today, are bolts (ammuniton).

I reworked my heavy crossbows, replacing all of the "double bows" with single metal ones, to account for the extra power a heavy crossbow has and to make them look better.  Here's a couple of gmax screenshots of heavy crossbow, part(s) 3, color 1...before and after Reforging...Let's just say the Reforging is badly needed.

Modifié par The Amethyst Dragon, 23 janvier 2013 - 11:15 .

[Squatting Monk]

Beautiful work!