829 réponses à ce sujet

[rjshae]

In her BG2 illustration, she also had some crazy huge ears. Deep space tracking types of ears.

[kamal_]

It looks like Jaheira gots the crazy eyes.

/ which probably explains how quickly she goes from Khalid to you.

[drechner]

I started working on areas building again, but I thought I'd share a couple of the most recent heads:

 

 

I'm not super happy the way the normal map baked, so I had to do some manual smoothing. Basically, she came out looking a bit "puffy" and overly bulky and I'm not entirely sure why.

 

 

I still need to do a bit of work on the coloring for the base skin texture for Minsc, but I think he's on the right track.

[drechner]

Here are some new screenshots of the Bridge District! The Graveyard District still needs to be done as do some of the interiors, but the Athkatla areas are getting close to being done. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sabranic]

This is really professional work, I am thrilled to see it.

[kamal_]

Interesting construction on those giant staircases with the fences and posts. I know complex stairs can become a real walkmesh pain so I hope getting a successful walkmesh bake wasn't terrible. What are those giant walls made from, reskinned bck?

[ArtemisJ]

Rjshae pointed me here..

 

How do I get involved with this?

 

• I am a software developer by trade and know my way around the NWN2 compiler pretty well
• I also can do animations.. fairly well.. at least in my own humble opinion...
• I also consider myself a decent Area creator (especially interiors)
• I love doing custom vfx's..

 

Unfortunately..

I have no skills in 3D Modelling yet..

So I can't produce that kind of Custom content.. Been trying to figure it out.. bugging all the lovely people on this forum.

 

 

P.S.
Drechner, RJShae, PJ156 and the rest of you.. Your work is amazing. Even if you don't need any extra help.. keep it up! This looks GREAT!

[drechner]

Rjshae pointed me here..

 

How do I get involved with this?

 

• I am a software developer by trade and know my way around the NWN2 compiler pretty well
• I also can do animations.. fairly well.. at least in my own humble opinion...
• I also consider myself a decent Area creator (especially interiors)
• I love doing custom vfx's..

 

Unfortunately..

I have no skills in 3D Modelling yet..

So I can't produce that kind of Custom content.. Been trying to figure it out.. bugging all the lovely people on this forum.

 

 

P.S.
Drechner, RJShae, PJ156 and the rest of you.. Your work is amazing. Even if you don't need any extra help.. keep it up! This looks GREAT!

Send me a PM and we'll talk! We're always on the lookout for talented, dedicated people to join our team

[ArtemisJ]

PJ156..

I noticed in the temple district there were a few place holders..

if You already did the vfx's then I apologize...

 

Just thought I'd tinker around today a bit..

 

Still not fully happy with it.. Any feedback?

 

(The 'Sparks' do spin clockwise.. but it's still off..)

 

EDIT:

 

Is it even sparks? or water? It looks like the Cure Effect from NWN1.. Lol..

 

[ArtemisJ]

Okay way better..

 

May need some color / size adjustments. Any feedback is welcome!

 

[PJ156]

These look cool

 

I've not got to the temple district interiors yet. There a lot of work in those. Drew has completed the exterior for that so it's high on the list.

 

I will PM you my email once Drew has given you the low down.

 

PJ

[ArtemisJ]

These look cool

 

I've not got to the temple district interiors yet. There a lot of work in those. Drew has completed the exterior for that so it's high on the list.

 

I will PM you my email once Drew has given you the low down.

 

PJ

 

You guys are -amazing- area creators.. it really leaves a tough act to follow..   

[drechner]

Interesting construction on those giant staircases with the fences and posts. I know complex stairs can become a real walkmesh pain so I hope getting a successful walkmesh bake wasn't terrible. What are those giant walls made from, reskinned bck?

 

I try to build everything so the walkmesh stays happy-ish, which makes it difficult if not impossible to recreate the "chaotic" flow of the original areas. I was actually able to get it to bake on the second try--luck or experience, I can't tell

 

The walls are two separate reskinned BCK walls. I've actually reskinned nearly all the BCK assets and created some additional sets of my own for the project. I'm sure before we're done, there will probably be even more...

[drechner]

Okay way better..

 

May need some color / size adjustments. Any feedback is welcome!

 

 

Looks really cool! Unfortunately, it would appear that VFX aren't displayed through transparent objects in NWN2, likely because of the way "transparent" objects are rendered. I actually used VFX in the area already, but they didn't show up sadly (but still hurt performance!).

[kamal_]

What if the sphere structure didn't have glass (the presumed source of the transparency)? While it's apparently a glass windowed sphere, the rotating lightning or whatever tends to be visually dominant for me over the glass.

[ArtemisJ]

Looks really cool! Unfortunately, it would appear that VFX aren't displayed through transparent objects in NWN2, likely because of the way "transparent" objects are rendered. I actually used VFX in the area already, but they didn't show up sadly (but still hurt performance!).

 

I thought about that.. what if the 'glass' was also a vfx?

Do you still have the vfx's you made? Just out of curiosity..

 

EDIT:

Okay I tried a transparent MDB object on the vfx.. didn't work either.. Had to try just in case..

Only other thing I can think of is making a VFX "Glass Shell"..

 

EDIT EDIT:

Can you send me the MDB at the scale it's being used in the temple district?

[rjshae]

Perhaps the covering dome could have its surface normals reversed so all the player sees is the shiny back side of the dome (as in the original game)? That may also allow the interior effect to be seen.

 

Physically this would make some sense since the bright light source is inside, rather than outside the dome. Thus there is less of a need for a reflective image on the front side.

[kamal_]

Perhaps the covering dome could have its surface normals reversed so all the player sees is the shiny back side of the dome (as in the original game)? That may also allow the interior effect to be seen.

 

Physically this would make some sense since the bright light source is inside, rather than outside the dome. Thus there is less of a need for a reflective image on the front side.

From my experience with the placeables, that will work.

[ArtemisJ]

Perhaps the covering dome could have its surface normals reversed so all the player sees is the shiny back side of the dome (as in the original game)? That may also allow the interior effect to be seen.

 

Physically this would make some sense since the bright light source is inside, rather than outside the dome. Thus there is less of a need for a reflective image on the front side.

 

From my experience with the placeables, that will work.

 

 

This is really interesting.. can you do that for all glass surfaces? Do you have an example of this?

[kamal_]

This is really interesting.. can you do that for all glass surfaces? Do you have an example of this?

What reversing the thing does :

 

Take your normal nwn2 object, a building for instance. It has texture on the outside, but none on the inside if you manage to get the camera to look inside it. Reverse this and you can see the inside, but not the outside.

 

I did this to a metatile from Purgatorio to turn it into a building. Gmax has a default menu option to do it, iirc it's "reverse normals" in gmax.

[rjshae]

This is really interesting.. can you do that for all glass surfaces? Do you have an example of this?

 

You can see it with the waterfall placeables.

[ArtemisJ]

You can see it with the waterfall placeables.

 

Not sure I fully understand.. I tried putting a vfx on either side of the waterfall and still it was not visible..

 

I guess you mean to flip the textures inside out? but would you still see the waterfall effect?

[rjshae]

Not sure I fully understand.. I tried putting a vfx on either side of the waterfall and still it was not visible..

 

I guess you mean to flip the textures inside out? but would you still see the waterfall effect?

 

Maybe were talking about different ways of doing it? IIRC, the waterfall works by applying just a diffuse texture with alpha transparency to the placeable (no normal texture), and then setting the Glow texture flag. (For MDBConfig, that flag can be seen [unset] in the sample screen shot below.)

 

 

You can only see the effect from the side where the surface normals are pointing outward. I.e. you can take your hemisphere, apply the glassy texture, flip the surface normals to face inward, and set the Glow texture flag on the model. Did that make sense?

 

There's a way to show the surface normals in Blender.

[ArtemisJ]

Maybe were talking about different ways of doing it? IIRC, the waterfall works by applying just a diffuse texture with alpha transparency to the placeable (no normal texture), and then setting the Glow texture flag. (For MDBConfig, that flag can be seen [unset] in the sample screen shot below.)

 

 

You can only see the effect from the side where the surface normals are pointing outward. I.e. you can take your hemisphere, apply the glassy texture, flip the surface normals to face inward, and set the Glow texture flag on the model. Did that make sense?

 

There's a way to show the surface normals in Blender.

 

 

That's really cool.. but I still don't fully understand how you make VFX's appear under transparent objects..

 

Also.. Is that cutscene mesh what I think it is? Could we create new Facial expressions?!

[rjshae]

That's really cool.. but I still don't fully understand how you make VFX's appear under transparent objects..

 

Well, you would need to use a "Model" VFX, which uses a (mdb) model file to provide the surface mesh. Each triangular face in this mesh has a directional facing--the "surface normal"--which is perpendicular to the surface of the triangle. In the game, the applied texture can only be seen on the mesh from the directions the normals are pointing. Hence, for the texture to appear on the underside, you would first need to modify the hemisphere model so that all the normals point inward toward the center. Then, when you apply the texture to that modified model, it can only be viewed from the underside.

 

I hope this made some sense. Perhaps I need to show some screen shots?

 

The alternative is just to make the hemisphere model a placeable, which has the advantage of being scalable.

 

Also.. Is that cutscene mesh what I think it is? Could we create new Facial expressions?!

 

Now I'm confused.