20 réponses à ce sujet

[MokahTGS]

In developing areas for Jabberwocky, I have come across the need to find unconventional design tricks to accomplish my goals.  Two such areas in the module use exterior areas to represent interiors.  

The first is the Cheshire Cat tavern which is owned by the players father and a common meeting area throughout the module.

300x200https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9882100/NWN2/Jabberwocky/NWN2_SS_091413_161053.jpg[/img]

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300x200https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9882100/NWN2/Jabberwocky/NWN2_SS_091413_161359.jpg[/img]

300x200https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9882100/NWN2/Jabberwocky/NWN2_SS_091413_161522.jpg[/img]

The second area is a seacave that the player will find through the overland map.  I wanted the player to be able to see the seashore outside when inside the cavern.

300x200https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9882100/NWN2/Jabberwocky/NWN2_SS_080413_212554.jpg[/img]

300x200https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9882100/NWN2/Jabberwocky/NWN2_SS_081013_162431.jpg[/img]

300x200https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9882100/NWN2/Jabberwocky/NWN2_SS_081013_162616.jpg[/img]

Anyway, enjoy the screenies and keep on building.

[Tchos]

These look great, with the nice, high ceilings, the non-square design, and the lighting. It looks like a different game, actually.

I used an exterior-as-interior on my last area, too, though I also did a few interiors using Crystal Violet's invisible tile construction helper as the base. One major advantage of using the exterior method instead of invisible tiles is that you have a lot more freedom with the ground.

[MokahTGS]

You'll note your find handy work in there. That tavern is designed with the BCK placeables specifically so I can do plot related things with the other project that I sent to you Tchos.

[Tchos]

I think you'll be able to make use of some other wall placeables I've been making, too, which use BCK models, but with remapped UVs to make them behave better, such as not having lines in the middle of the repeating patterns, and using Witcher textures.

[PJ156]

These look great and, as Tchos says, like another game.

How have you handled the transition? Does the PC walk from out side to in directly or is there still an area transition to make. I have played with this concept too but not on this scale. I have made small areas to represent interiors so the player can walk from one into the other. This takes the whole concept up a stage and looks very impressive.

I wanted to do what you have done with the cave and tried repeatedlty withinterior tiles but to no avail. That caves mouth looks very good indeed.

PJ

[-Semper-]

i assume that the downside is that those areas, while looking nice, can only be played in the awful character mode.

[Tchos]

Not a sound assumption. I build with these same BCK placeables, and I play in exploration mode.

[-Semper-]

but wouldn't get the roof in the way of the camera view if zoomed far out*? the caves are high enough to play around with the camera, but normally buildings aren't that big inside. actually it was the same with dragon age's toolset, but there you had the option to flag the placeable as invisible if you switch into the bird's view.

* or because of the c2/c3 meshes the camera can't zoom out that far.

Modifié par -Semper-, 15 septembre 2013 - 08:35 .

[Calister68]

Nice looking areas. Does it run smoothly, with all these details ?

[Tchos]

Semper:
The BCK roof pieces are set to fade, and as environmental objects, you can zoom the camera past the roof.

The upper half of walls can also be set to fade.

The fade isn't necessarily optimal, since you know what it looks like -- like the trees fading, you can still see them dimly, and maybe that's distracting. For that reason, I prefer to work with edited BCK pieces -- separate pieces for interiors and exteriors, with the interior ceiling pieces having no top, so you can see through them exactly the same way as the standard NWN2 interior ceilings.

[-Semper-]

Tchos wrote...

The fade isn't necessarily optimal, since you know what it looks like

there're also people who play without fade, like me

[Tchos]

In that case, some solutions could be:

1. Modder: Remove the top faces for the interior ceilings
2. Player: Zoom the camera in to just below the ceiling (still not necessary to use character mode for that).
3. Player: Consider turning on fade just for these areas?

[MokahTGS]

You can play in all visual modes and with fade turned off if you would like. I have built with these design ideas in mind. As Tchos said, the roof is set to fade, but the building is quite large inside, there are times when you don't need anything to fade to see where you are going. There are caveats however. NWN2 is not perfect when it comes to cameras and you might have to make adjustments here or there to see what is going on.

The outer walls are setup to completely block the camera with some smoke and mirrors so that you stay "inside". The area will use an area transition from outside to in so it will stay consistent with other areas.

[Arkalezth]

You can also move the camera behind your character in Exploration mode (looking a bit like Character, but without having to change the mode). It's not ideal, but it's another option.

[seraphimsage]

Very compelling designs, MokahTGS. 
Level design is always a plus for me, and I'm glad to see when others are thinking outside of the box as well. 
I look forward to how this mod(s) turns out, and again wonderful work.

Modifié par seraphimsage, 16 septembre 2013 - 05:14 .

[Eguintir Eligard]

Semper what you are talking about is the problem with NWN2 if you try to make a dragon age style area, that is, walls and ceilings made ouf of pure placables, the engine doesn't realize they are to be treated as boundaries so the camera doesn't know to follow you from within them.

It's just a different system.

[MokahTGS]

Eguintir Eligard wrote...

Semper what you are talking about is the problem with NWN2 if you try to make a dragon age style area, that is, walls and ceilings made ouf of pure placables, the engine doesn't realize they are to be treated as boundaries so the camera doesn't know to follow you from within them.

It's just a different system.

There are a few placeables that will properly block the camera.  I use that to my advantage in the tavern area above.

[Tchos]

MokahTGS wrote...
There are a few placeables that will properly block the camera.  I use that to my advantage in the tavern area above.

For example, the TileBlock 01 or Tileblock 02, which I find useful to surround a placeable-built room to prevent any unwanted back sides of placeables from showing, or objects that extend further than they need to.  Their effect was demonstrated in one of the early videos I posted of the lighthouse interior, showing the camera moving inside the placeable walls if you angle the camera downward to an over the shoulder view.

[Dann-J]

You can always make a copy of an existing line in placeables.2DA and change the various column values to your liking. I often change the 'Fade' or 'BlockLOS' columns.

I'm not sure what the 'PlaceableModelType' column does. Most values are zero, but there are a few with a value of '2'.

[andysks]

May I ask, what kind of ceiling the cave area uses?
I wanted to make an area like this for chapter one of my campaign... but then I abandoned the idea for I didn't know a way. I wanted the party to enter from a waterfall into a cave, without a transition. Still I don't know if it is possible... but looking at these, maybe it is?

Modifié par andysks, 15 octobre 2013 - 04:47 .