52 réponses à ce sujet

[s e n]

imageshack.us/a/img191/3526/teaserv.jpg

a teaser

[Failed.Bard]

Very nice.

[OldTimeRadio]

Great work, sen!

[Tarot Redhand]

Very nice indeed. It's just a thought but to me it looks like it shouldn't be too difficult to make that into snow/ice covered mountain tops as well (but what do I know ()).

TR

[Jenna WSI]

Amazing work as always.

[s e n]

Thanks lads, a few more screenies:
imageshack.us/a/img27/5725/teaser2tz.jpg

as you can see the seasonal change is already in development, I do plan to get base summer version + 4 seasonal overrides to a total of 5 seasons (the standard 4 + the snowy version), and see if I can manage to get the textures nicely switch, especially the flora, so you get flowers, fruits and marcescent/deciduous foliage of each vegetable kin to match the hak override. the most tricky one is autumn and winter no snow, since I have to find a good way to mesh the ground foliage. We'll see

[The Amethyst Dragon]

That looks like a cool tileset. Lots of elevation possibilities.

[3RavensMore]

Lovely already...

[NWN_baba yaga]

Great work sen. I realy love the winter version already;) And it looks like something finally where you can build real serpentine ways, that would be awesome!

[Just a ghost]

Very nice!

[Tarot Redhand]

From those screenies it's going to be one of the best looking tilesets ever.

TR

[Bard Simpson]

That's a real beauty, Sen. I, also, find the snowscapes particularly attractive. Boy, you just had to serve that up smothered in awesome sauce, didn't you? Teaser, indeed -- when can I get my greedy hands on it?!

[QlippothVI]

I love your artistry! Man, I can see a caravan of PCs treking up a mountainside... I'll have to check it out!

I am rather hesitant when I think of NPCs pathing through those tiles. The last tilesets released for NWN (the new castles, castle interiors, and the beaches, cliffs and caves and such) is pretty bad, even for PCs.

- Qlippoth

[Bannor Bloodfist]

Sen, great work as always. You make me very jealous with your skill.

[Bannor Bloodfist]

QlippothVI wrote...
<snip>
I am rather hesitant when I think of NPCs pathing through those tiles. The last tilesets released for NWN (the new castles, castle interiors, and the beaches, cliffs and caves and such) is pretty bad, even for PCs.

Well, there are pathnodes and then there are pathnodes, and artistry vs practicality issues with everything in NWN.   
Lots of folks don't follow the available pathnodes as a format structure when they build a new tile, so they end up with a bad match-up when they finally (if ever) get around to assigning that pathnode.

There are a HUGE number of possible pathnodes to choose from when creating a tile, but seldom does what is available match what you think SHOULD be available.  Folks keep attempting to do things, especially with Z levels, that NWN was not designed to handle.  Looks great on paper, but simply won't work well.

When a path node gets assigned, it must also be correctly rotated to match the physical tile.  If either is wrong, then NPC's get stuck, and sometimes PC's when attempting to move long distances.  Afterall, NWN was designed originally, to use fog at the 10 meter mark, and you were not supposed to be able to see/click more than one and a half tile away.

However, we builders and players alike, love to be able to see the entire area, and to be able to click and run to that distant location.  Placeables screw that up, and bad pathnodes really screw that up.  The engine CAN handle it, but only on a limited basis.  If you as the PC runs away from your party, the NPC's have to stop and calculate the best path to your current position every ?? times per second.  The greater the distance, the more likely the engine won't find a quick path and will default to the standard A path which is not accurate at all except on flat level ground with no placeables.  Add a placeable tree on top of that flat grass, and the engine has to recalc, continuosly... add more than one and it just chokes.  Now add a location 3 tiles away, with each tile having multiple placeables and you can see the problems stacking up. 

A big powerful computer will NOT help with this, it is the code that chokes.  It is just a limit of an engine writen to run on a 386 pc running windows 98, with 640k ram.  Bigger computer won't help as the engine doesn't see it.  Yes, you can set NWN to handle more ram to a certain limit, but that ram is used for vid, and for items/placeable stacks, not so much for incresing code power.  It is still HARD-coded to run on a 16 bit computer, running win 98 in 16 bit mode regardless of any extensions that enable extra ram, the engine is STILL limited by those possible computers running that ancient OS with the 640k limit.  The increases in power that were enabled with each new patch, never exceed the min spec power of 16 bit, win 98.  They add to the power of aurora if the computer has more ram etc, but auroa itself will still run on win 98.  In other words, Aurora doesn't have a clue about multiple cores (yes you can set the SINGLE core that it will use, but that is it.) or about 16 gigs of ram or about 64 bit OS. 

For all of those limitations though, NWN is still the most powerful game/toolset combo that we have had the oportunity to use.  No other game gives us the ability to build areas quickly, to create NEW tilesets quickly, to add thousands of placeables, to allow NEW creatures (complete with new animations if we the creators build them) etc... All of this in a D&D flavored game that follows base 3.x rules and has what is considered minimums for creatures, items, worldspaces etc., in the base game.  Then allows us to increase all of that with custom content created by a community of diehard fans that continue to push the limits on what is available.

[Drethnor]

This is awesome,

[s e n]

Here be trails

imageshack.us/a/img69/8592/teaser3h.jpg

You can spot both the base flat crosser variations and the trail going up over the 0011 tiles, as well as the 0022 ones (there 2 tiles are needed to get a smooth S running upwards, since the raise value is 3, wich means 6 for the 2nd raise) thats thanks to Six for explaining me a nice method to build up those alphaed trails

I think the power of the multiple raise sys is showing here: once you complete the base terrain, setting up crossers its an easy thing (just the fun of modelling) without having to sort out all the variations you need to get it work if you use a multiple terrain system to implement double or triple raise. here, with less than 100 tiles, I have a quadruple raise working (in truth, I am not 100% sure I made all variations, since some time I experience the red selector telling me i cant raise or i cant lower over the selected tile, meh!! it may be engine limit cuz im pretty sure i did all variations, but the red selector doesnt show so often, and its enough to go on adiacent tiles, to bypass it and get what you want!)

For who asked eta: no eta, Its just at an early stage and I want to add a lot of stuff to it before release 1st version).

For Bannor: thanks for the compliments, much appreciated especially when comes from an expert modeller like you. I have a feeling about primary and secondary set rules may come handy in this particular set, to give input on how to behave when the 4th raise tile is placed. gotta try something

[OldTimeRadio]

Crazy-good tileset work Sen! 

[TheOneBlackRider]

The scenery with those winding paths look terrific!

[meaglyn]

Wow, so much for not using extra tilesets... Good stuff!

[kamal_]

Impressive.

[Bannor Bloodfist]

s e n wrote...

Here be trails

imageshack.us/a/img69/8592/teaser3h.jpg
<snip>

/me beats Sen with a jealous stick.

As to skills and skill levels, you have exceeded what I can do, just like Six has exceeded what I can accomplish.  My skill set is aimed more at fixing other folks mistakes/omissions.  I will make two (usually more) terrains work together by creating the missing tiles, same with crossers etc... Occasionally build a new/interesting group, but I have never completely built a tileset from scratch.  My work has always been in combining and fixing the work of others, then enhancing a bit where my skill is good enough to accomplish it.

However, having said all of that, and cross posting regarding pathnodes as being discussed in other threads, your "trails" tiles are likely ones that prove the statement that not every pathnode is available that we can want, or that you may not be able to find a pathnode that actually works correctly... thus causing NPC's and occasionally the PC toon to get stuck.  You are messing with z levels, and crossing with angles that the existing pathnodes just don't support properly.  Although some of the newest ones created for chandigar's original aztec set, might actually come pretty close...except that Bioware still stuck with that square base for a tile, meaning everything is pretty much designed for right angle intersections.

Still VERY good work and likely will allow some builders to create some very interesting areas.

[s e n]

In truth some tiel gives me some pathfinding trouble ayup! especially those new cliffed serpentines
i used a c pathnode without succeed... I start to think that better approximation is choosing a pathnode that eventually gives less, so the npc keeps looking for a way, maybe he will choose the longest one but he doesnt get stucked like a statuine heh have to try it. so to say, for a complex tile never choose A, thats the one that will cause this issue for true, while if you have a simple plain tile with a rock on a side, you can decide going for a T(?) instead of an X(A) (the letter, not the pathnode) and be fine. good thing about exteriors is you dont have to care about the visual nodes, at least!

[Rolo Kipp]

<fumbling for a towel...>

An awesome tasty new tileset *and* more great reference from BB?!

Twofer!

<...to wipe up drool>

[s e n]

imageshack.us/a/img194/856/teaser4l.jpg