260 réponses à ce sujet

[PJ156]

Ms Strumpet was kind enough to allow me to peek into her box and take out your files.

The 2da wont open in tkedit. it bleats on about one of the lines having out of range data. Is this an issue for everyone? In which case hows can i merge the 2da into my campaign one?

PJ

[Calister68]

Is this ok ?

wireframe1

wireframe2

[Calister68]

PJ156 wrote...

Ms Strumpet was kind enough to allow me to peek into her box and take out your files.

The 2da wont open in tkedit. it bleats on about one of the lines having out of range data. Is this an issue for everyone? In which case hows can i merge the 2da into my campaign one?

PJ

Ouch, I never heard about this... do you have the last version ? I uploaded a second version (1.2) to use the 2da reserved range.

[-Semper-]

Calister68 wrote...

Is this ok?

yes. personally i would delete the chamfered edges of the top outer ring. seems that there's also an unneeded loop at the ashes surface. perhaps you could also delete hidden and downfacing polys if you haven't done already. plus you could also do a lod1 mesh without the ornaments to safe some poly budget if the model is far away.

[PJ156]

Calister68 wrote...

Ouch, I never heard about this... do you have the last version ? I uploaded a second version (1.2) to use the 2da reserved range.

I don't know sorry. I have the version MGS was kind enough to link me. There's no version number on the 7.z file

PJ

[MokahTGS]

The 2DA will open in notepad and you can paste the lines into the reserved range master 2da available on the vault. It's what I do. Everyone should be using the master 2DA for placeables.

TKEdit also has issues with 2DAs if they are written a certain way.  Notepad doesn't have any issues with anything...pretty sure you can open a dirty hobo with it and it wouldn't have any issues.

Modifié par MokahTGS, 13 septembre 2013 - 10:37 .

[Calister68]

Semper : interesting, thank you for the advice.
Usually, I try to avoid using chamfer for the edges, except for the very visible ones, which is the case here. I think a chamfer edge can be very useful combined with a texture whose edges had been cleared :  it creates a nice "worn" effect which is difficult to obtain without the chamfer. But the price to pay is more polys...
Also, thank you for reminding me I forgot to delete some polys under the brazier "legs"^_^

PJ156 : if you give me an email adress, I can send you the file, it's only 2,6mb.

[MokahTGS]

Deleting polys keeps people like me from using placeables in unconventional ways.

[Morbane]

MokahTGS wrote...

Deleting polys keeps people like me from using placeables in unconventional ways.

Agreed - MDBTool asserts that polys must exist whenever possible.

[-Semper-]

i agree that deleting polys should always be the last resort. lod models are way more important to keep the engine smooth.

[Calister68]

I was talking about the polys under the legs of the brazier, touching the ground. It's useless, unless you want to use this placeable floating in the air, or hanged to something. But I agree it's not always a good idea to delete polys -there are a lot of exemples in the original nwn2 placeables:lol:

I finished my special lantern. I called it "witch lantern", because it's probably the kind of light you'll find in a witch lair. I like this kind of strange-looking placeable, it helps to set a nice ambience (yes, there's an evil witch hiding in the hole... or maybe it's just a badger home^_^).

[MokahTGS]

I think you'd be surprised at how builders will use placeables sometimes.

Nice lantern.

[Tchos]

Calister, sometimes we may want to make a copy of the placeable knocked over, or upside down, or indeed hanging in the air. I've been convinced not to delete bottom polygons, such as under the legs of the brazier.

[kamal_]

MokahTGS wrote...

I think you'd be surprised at how builders will use placeables sometimes.

Nice lantern.

Looking at that lantern, the first alternate idea that came to mind was bees. Scale it up to room sized and it's a giant glowing beehive! (or other insect, maybe stirges).

[MokahTGS]

kamal_ wrote...

MokahTGS wrote...

I think you'd be surprised at how builders will use placeables sometimes.

Nice lantern.

Looking at that lantern, the first alternate idea that came to mind was bees. Scale it up to room sized and it's a giant glowing beehive! (or other insect, maybe stirges).

I was thinking some sort of fusion core for a gnomish deathray...but bees will do.

[Calister68]

Ok, ok, I'll replace these polys (there are only 4, I suppose this will not cause the engine to break^_^)...
@kamal & Mokah : I'm not sure scaling this up to a room size is a good idea... the result would probably be very strange !

I'm currently working on one of the last placeables for my pack. It's something that should be on the laboratory of every evil wizard : the candle skull ! (it took me 2 hours to find this name) :

candle skull 1
candle skull 2
candle skull 3

Modeling the skull (and the wax dripping on it) was terribly hard. I first wanted to do like Tchos in his mod : take the head of the nwn2 skeleton model, which is the smart way to obtain a skull^_^. But I was curious to see how to build a human skull, which is a very hard shape to model.

First thing to do : find a nice skull texture on internet. But there was nothing really interesting... so I picked up a photo. Usually I prefer to avoid using photos, because it can look strange in game. I only took a picture of the skull "face", and painted the rest of the texture, sides and back -yes, you can see I'm not really an artist.

Applying the texture on the model was hard too, and I had to reshape the skull more than once. I used some pictures of human skulls for examples to be sure to have a correct shape. For the wax dripping and the candle, I just extruded the skull top. And there it is !

I think I'll rework the top of the candle a little, and try to use a normal map.

I was afraid this placeable would look odd ingame, because the skull texture is partly a photo.
But I think the result is not so bad...

Modifié par Calister68, 15 septembre 2013 - 11:14 .

[kamal_]

Calister68 wrote...
But I think the result is not so bad...

Alas, porr Yorick. I knew him well, and now he's a candleholder.

[Dann-J]

The gracile brow ridges suggest that's the skull of either a woman or a child (depending on how you scale it). That makes it even more evil!

Is there a tint map? Red or black candles would really ramp up the evilness.

Modifié par DannJ, 16 septembre 2013 - 12:59 .

[Calister68]

No tint map for the moment, but you 're right, it would be interesting to have different colors (although I've never seen black candles:blink:)... I just have to figure out how to make a tint map (I suppose it's not so complicate)...

[Morbane]

Calister68 wrote...
I was afraid this placeable would look odd ingame, because the skull texture is partly a photo.
But I think the result is not so bad...

DannJ wrote...
The gracile brow ridges suggest that's the skull of either a woman or a child (depending on how you scale it). That makes it even more evil!

Skeleton, "mamma?"

Skull, "My leetle boy! You look so theen!"

Modifié par Morbane, 16 septembre 2013 - 08:28 .

[Calister68]

This picture seems to be very inspiring


I reworked the candle and used a different texture... the result is good for me, I think I'll let it like this.

[Dann-J]

Cool.

A tint map could be used to continue the colour of the candle wax in thin rivulets down the side of the skull. The normal map could make those wax rivulets pop without having to change the underlying model.

[Tchos]

If you need help making a normal map for the rivulets like Dann suggests, I can help with that.

[Calister68]

Thank you Tchos, I'll certainly need your help^_^

For the moment, I finally managed to apply a normal map on the skull and a tint map on the candle. The normal map add some nice details on the skull surface, but you have to look at the placeable from a very close distance to see it. Is it possible to add a shiny effect to the bone surface ?

Concerning the tint map, I must admit I'm not really sure to understand how it works. For the candle to be fully tintable, I had to use a "clear" diffuse texture (mainly white or gray), which is not really nice. If I keep the original texture, then the colors turn strange -for example, you can't apply a light yellow (the candle remains mainly red)... and if I apply a blue color, then the candle turns dark... did I miss something ? Is it because I use two different texture files, one for the skull, the other for the candle ?

Modifié par Calister68, 17 septembre 2013 - 09:03 .

[MokahTGS]

Calister68 wrote...

Thank you Tchos, I'll certainly need your help^_^

For the moment, I finally managed to apply a normal map on the skull and a tint map on the candle. The normal map add some nice details on the skull surface, but you have to look at the placeable from a very close distance to see it. Is it possible to add a shiny effect to the bone surface ?

Concerning the tint map, I must admit I'm not really sure to understand how it works. For the candle to be fully tintable, I had to use a "clear" diffuse texture (mainly white or gray), which is not really nice. If I keep the original texture, then the colors turn strange -for example, you can't apply a light yellow (the candle remains mainly red)... and if I apply a blue color, then the candle turns dark... did I miss something ? Is it because I use two different texture files, one for the skull, the other for the candle ?

Tint mapping is dependant on the initial color of the texture you are tinting.  It is suggested that you start with a white color for best tinting results.  Or just color the texture pink and call it good.