206 réponses à ce sujet

[Calister68]

Hi everyone,

 

The dungeon tileset is now released, and it seems to work well (I hope ). It's now time to speak a little about the next project I'm working on, which is a new tileset based on a catacombs theme. Why catacombs ? Well, because... I'm not sure, but I don't think this has already been done ? I mean, you can build some nice catacombs with the standard crypt tileset, but it's not exactly the kind of catacombs I'm looking for.
 
What I have in mind is a very old and dusty underground place, made centuries ago with raw materials. The absence of moss and humidity suggest that this place is located in a dry environment, maybe in a desert region...

Here are the first few tiles I've made. It's not much, but it gives a good glimpse of the visual look of this future tileset :

- Hallway.
- Alcoves for the corpses.
- Door.
- Hallways intersection.
- An other intersection.

- Pillars.

- A big niche, suitable for a sarcophagus or an altar.

- Smaller niches, for corpses or statues.

- I began to make some placeables : here, two different types of mummies...

- ...and a big slab to place a sarcophagus.

As you can see, the geometry of this tileset will be much more simple than the dungeon one. I'll try to rely more on the texture work, because I think one can obtain a decent visual look without necessary having to build a complex structure with plenty of polygons - speaking of that, the poly count is the other reason I'll try to build simplier tiles.

 

I hope you liked my work ! Comments are welcome, as usual

[Hellfire_RWS]

Beautiful work.  I love seeing what you're working on.

[Calister68]

Thank you, Hellfire, I'll post new screens as soon as there's something new to see

[4760]

Very nice!

[Karach_Blade]

As someone who still plays NWN2, I love finding new tilesets! They're awesome!

[PJ156]

It's likely just the lighting but this set feels like it is just below the surface. Like it is built in the foundations of a great building or just below the streets of modern Rome.

 

It looks very cool indeed and I look forward to playing with it.

 

PJ

[Happycrow]

Wow.  As a builder there are SOOOOO many things I can do with that.  Inspiring, man.

[Calister68]

Thank you all for your comments !

 

PJ : yes, indeed I took inspiration on the catacombs of ancient Rome

[Dann-J]

How about some walls of skulls, like in the Paris catacombs?

[Calister68]

How about some walls of skulls, like in the Paris catacombs?

 

Yes, that's one of the things I plan to make, even if it seems technically difficult. I can't build a wall made with 3D skulls and bones if I don't want the poly count to explode, and I'm not sure a simple texture will be visually good enough... maybe I should mix some placeables with a texture ? I remember a nice altar with skulls in the Witcher's placeables, I'll see how it is made.

[Tchos]

In some ossuaries, the bones are stacked and fitted tightly, with gaps filled with plaster or other filling to make a wall.  A regular plane with a normal map would be enough for those.  In other ossuaries, the bones are stacked up in cavities in the walls, and once the cavity is full, the hole is plastered over, sealing the bones into the wall.

[kamal_]

Yes, that's one of the things I plan to make, even if it seems technically difficult. I can't build a wall made with 3D skulls and bones if I don't want the poly count to explode, and I'm not sure a simple texture will be visually good enough... maybe I should mix some placeables with a texture ? I remember a nice altar with skulls in the Witcher's placeables, I'll see how it is made.

A simple wall should be good enough if there is a strongly defined normal map. Crank up the depth number in GIMP when making it. I've been using a depth of 5 for buildings. The good thing about updating textures is you only have to close and re-open an area to see updates to textures.

[Calister68]

The texture mixed with some placeables seems to work nicely... (the game is to find the skulls I placed in the wall )

I'll try to add some bones here and there. I thought to build a tile variant with this skulls wall, but I think it would be more useful to builders as a placeable.

[Dann-J]

The texture mixed with some placeables seems to work nicely... (the game is to find the skulls I placed in the wall )

I'll try to add some bones here and there. I thought to build a tile variant with this skulls wall, but I think it would be more useful to builders as a placeable.

 

Nice. By my count there are six skull placeables embedded in the wall, with the rest being normal map trickery.

 

By making a placeable skull usable and attaching on OnUse script to it, you could yank it from the wall for nefarious purposes (dark rituals, making a goth candle holder, manufacturing flasher master bruiser mates, etc).

[PJ156]

 for nefarious purposes (dark rituals, making a goth candle holder, manufacturing flasher master bruiser mates, etc).

 

making the wall fall down ....

 

PJ

[Calister68]

making a goth candle holder

 

I've already done this one

 

Of course, I will make a skull placeable, which is a must have for a catacombs tileset. I made the one you can see on the screen very quickly yesterday, I think I can rework it to save some polys. And I'll probably make a skull pile too, even if there's already one available in the stock placeables.

[Tchos]

I made a skull placeable some time ago by separating one from the standard skeleton model and rotating it so that it rests nicely on the ground. 

[Calister68]

I made a skull placeable some time ago by separating one from the standard skeleton model and rotating it so that it rests nicely on the ground. 

 

Yes, I remember this one, Tchos.  

I also made a corpse using the same method for my dungeon tileset, but I remember the poly count of this skull to be quite heavy. I'll check this tonight, maybe it can save me some time !

[Eguintir Eligard]

I was looking for something exactly like this in my Islander campaign. A tomb that simpler folk with less resources would build, not wrought iron and perfect stone floors everywhere.

 

Couple years late but it will be used in the future!

[Calister68]

I was looking for something exactly like this in my Islander campaign. A tomb that simpler folk with less resources would build, not wrought iron and perfect stone floors everywhere.

 

Couple years late but it will be used in the future!

 

Yes, that's the inspiration for this tileset. Not necessarily "simpler" folk, but an ancient people, who built these catacombs hundreds of years ago in the depth of their  city...

If you're looking for old tombs, rjshae also made a nice tileset in the same spirit.

[Eguintir Eligard]

I think this tileset will be great no matter what. However if there is one thing I would add is just a square or round metatile with halls leading all four ways, that has a ceiling of double height... something of a dome. Just a place where you can stage a big battle or have an organization of necros set up, that has a little more clearance than the rest. I figure if it's an open hallway going all 4 directions, you can't go wrong. If people want to block any of the directions they can use your placeable skull wall or some rocks etc. Should not need any variations imo. I guess a large "chamber" would be how I would describe it. I just feel like if I was making a large maze like area of these halls there'd need to be some big central end point in the middle.

 

If not, the sets will still be well used.

[Calister68]

Yes, that'd be a good idea. I didn't thought for the moment about the metatiles I'll made, that'll be the next thing to do after the "normal" tiles are finished. But your idea of a large room is nice. I see a place with the same ceiling height as the other tiles, maybe a dome, as you say, but with a deepest ground, so that you can see what's waiting for you before taking the stairs to go down in the fighting pit.

[4760]

Good thinking, this fighting pit. But on the other hand, having a higher ceiling would be good too, for some kind of underground cathedral.

[Eguintir Eligard]

Up or down doesn't matter just a little more vertical room for something big

[Calister68]

Some news about the development of this tileset !

 

I'm still working with the bones & skulls texture, and I've made some placeables that should be useful for builders. As you can see, some of them are simple planes made to decorate niches, while others are pillars and walls useful to block a hallway or build other things :

 

- Screen 1

- Screen 2

- Screen 3

 

I also used this texture to build a new tile variant, but I'm not really satisfied with this one. I'll try to modify it.

 

Since we're talking about placeables, I've made my first sarcophagus (I'm very proud of this one ). Here in the toolset.

And I've also made a pile of bones, which looks interesting in game. Maybe I'll try to make an ossuary in the ground with this one.