[Danukem]

Tea Monster, on Oct 8 2009, 08:05 AM, said:

Here's the armor shard.

Very nice, thanks!

Here's little movie showing it in game: http://deeperthought....com/shards.wmv

This is a good example of how using 8-bit graphics can make things much harder. First you had to produce all those separate files. Then I had to convert them to Duke palette and put them in the game. Then I discovered there were a lot of artifacts created by the palette change (pink pixels and such), which had to be removed from all the frames. Then I discovered that in order to make them small enough in game, I had to make the actors so small that they refused to generate shadows. So then I had to go back and export the frames to bmps and reduce the resolution by half and re-import them. Finally, I didn't like their spinning being synchronized, so I had to change the code so their actions start at different times (which wouldn't be a problem with a model, since it could simply start at a random angle.)

[KillerBudgie]

That looks very nice. But I thought that Armor Shards were only supposed to add a single unit to already existing armor.

[Tea Monster]

DeeperThought, on Oct 8 2009, 10:26 AM, said:

Very nice, thanks!

Here's little movie showing it in game: http://deeperthought....com/shards.wmv

This is a good example of how using 8-bit graphics can make things much harder. First you had to produce all those separate files. Then I had to convert them to Duke palette and put them in the game. Then I discovered there were a lot of artifacts created by the palette change (pink pixels and such), which had to be removed from all the frames. Then I discovered that in order to make them small enough in game, I had to make the actors so small that they refused to generate shadows. So then I had to go back and export the frames to bmps and reduce the resolution by half and re-import them. Finally, I didn't like their spinning being synchronized, so I had to change the code so their actions start at different times (which wouldn't be a problem with a model, since it could simply start at a random angle.)

You are not using pngs with transparency? Eek!

I did try to export them as compressed 8-bit pngs but the compression added anti-aliasing which screwed up the edges (as you found)

Thanks for the movie, as I can't even run Duke on this system

[Danukem]

Tea Monster, on Oct 8 2009, 11:10 AM, said:

You are not using pngs with transparency? Eek!

It was decided early on that the art in this TC would be 8-bit and it would be compatible with the software renderer. That means that it all has to be transferred to Duke palette in .art files (remember those?) Some day there could be an HRP for this, in which case pngs could be used.

[William Gee]

Looks nice! and the sound is cool too!

[Sebastian]

Nice work on the armor shard! Try adjusting (increasing) the focal length next time you capture the frames so you always get a straight line at the top and bottom of the sprite when it's spinning. The art itself looks fab!

[Tea Monster]

@ Rusty Nails - Thanks! The 'wobble' was actually intentional. I didn't want it to look too mechanical so I off-set the camera in Blender by a bit. In some games its silly, with the items bobbing and weaving enough to make you sea-sick. I just wanted it a bit off-kilter to get a bit of natural motion to it.

Thanks on the comments.

@ DT - Yeah, I suppose I should have got that much from reading the thread! I do remember pallets and all that stuff and if I'd thought I could have put that bit together for you. I know there is a Duke pallet lurking around for PS somewhere. I can grab the art tools too. I haven't had to use them in about since Quake II was "hawt"

If I do anything else, I'll get it exported "Properly"

[William Gee]

A portal effect we have just started playing around with.

[Sebastian]

Intriguing!
How does it work?

[William Gee]

Its using whatever that code is that uses empty tiles to create a view of another place on the empty texture.
With a few additional effectors made by DT.

[KillerBudgie]

Very nasty! Can't wait to see it in game...

[CruX]

William Gee, on Oct 14 2009, 06:32 PM, said:

Its using whatever that code is that uses empty tiles to create a view of another place on the empty texture.
With a few additional effectors made by DT.

Very nice. Isn't that used with the showview command?

[Mark]

Being the low skilled non-programmer that I am, I planned on doing it a different way. I am going to use the plain old teleporter method but on the wall right behind the teleporter pad will be a custom texture of a screenshot of the area you are teleporting to. It's not a real portal but...

[Sobek]

Marked, on Oct 16 2009, 09:58 AM, said:

Being the low skilled non-programmer that I am, I planned on doing it a different way. I am going to use the plain old teleporter method but on the wall right behind the teleporter pad will be a custom texture of a screenshot of the area you are teleporting to. It's not a real portal but...

I was going to try something like that at one stage. I figured if you wanted to make a huge map but split it up into multiple little maps (a la Half Life), you could have an area that simply uses a high quality screenshot of what you'll be walking in to, and as you approach, use the hub map feature to load that next area.

Not exactly what you're suggesting, but the use of a picture to show what's ahead certainly matches. I'd be interested to see how it turns out...

[Danukem]

Marked, on Oct 15 2009, 04:28 PM, said:

Being the low skilled non-programmer that I am, I planned on doing it a different way. I am going to use the plain old teleporter method but on the wall right behind the teleporter pad will be a custom texture of a screenshot of the area you are teleporting to. It's not a real portal but...

You wouldn't be able to see anything going on in the other area since it's just a screenshot, but there are some advantages to the simple approach (mainly the fact that it won't adversely affect performance).


This trick was discussed in another thread (one about animated skyboxes IIRC). If a blank tile is used as a texture for a wall, ceiling or floor, that part of the scene is not rendered, creating a hole in the rendered scene. EDuke32 makes it possible to render a second scene in the background. Whatever is being rendered in the background will show through the holes in the normal rendered scene. Depending on the complexity of the background scene, this can cause a huge drop in framerate.

[Stabs]

couldnt u just hack up the secutirty screen tile for the fake portal version, put it behind a trans water tile with a pal of 6, prolly look pretty portalish

just need to stop it displaying to the normal security screen part

[Danukem]

DanM, on Oct 15 2009, 06:25 PM, said:

couldnt u just hack up the secutirty screen tile for the fake portal version, put it behind a trans water tile with a pal of 6, prolly look pretty portalish

just need to stop it displaying to the normal security screen part

I thought about trying that. But the monitor doesn't show a scene until after you have used it, and using it causes the scene to take up the entire screen. So I'd have to hack it to make it behave like you had already used it and were stepping back from it. And for that trouble I'd get an effect that doesn't look nearly as good. On the other hand, it wouldn't hurt framerate at all. So far, the portals are being used in places where framerate is not an issue, so I'm hoping it won't be a problem for anyone.

[Stabs]

is there anyway to change the default res on a sec screen?

or is it just scaled based on the tile

[Danukem]

DanM, on Oct 15 2009, 09:57 PM, said:

is there anyway to change the default res on a sec screen?

or is it just scaled based on the tile

It's not based on a tile. You can change the resolution of the background rendering only by making it smaller, which means it will take up only part of the screen and present a positioning nightmare. And I don't think that would help with framerate much, if at all.

[William Gee]

Here is a small vid of how the portals look in game.
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=vyLQ6Vmf9go

[Mia Max]

The portal is so great! Reminds me on Prey and I loved it.
There's no doupt that this will be one of the best mods ever.

[KillerBudgie]

Well done. That is absolutely brilliant! This mod has probably earned the title of "Most eagerly anticipated mod of 2009"

[blizzart]

Wasn´t that portal thing already in the DPCBP map???

It´s an awesome effect anyway.

[Mikko]

Looks cool indeed but maybe some transparent sprites could give the portal view a nice hue. The view could be grayscale or something.

Btw, looking at this old WGR2 video, what happened to those maps? Did you just convert them, copied some concepts over to the modern version or forgot all about them?

[Danukem]

blizzart, on Oct 16 2009, 04:28 AM, said:

Wasn´t that portal thing already in the DPCBP map???

It´s an awesome effect anyway.

Believe it or not, that one was done with a Build trick and didn't require any coding. I'd have to look at the map again to understand it, but IIRC it relied on the same principle (placing a blank texture on a wall and then doing something to cause the image from another area to get rendered through the opening). It didn't work in Polymer, but then again the current portals don't either and probably for the same (unknown) reason. Now that you mention it, maybe the coding I did was counter-productive, insofar as the Build trick uses resources more efficiently.

The trick itself is kind of cool, but what makes it awesome is how WG sells it with his design and execution.

@Mikko: Yeah I was thinking the same thing about having an effect on the portals, but not a hue. If it works out you'll see what I mean. There are several old maps that haven't been worked on in a while because they didn't make the cut for whatever reason. Maybe they will be finished and make a re-appearance as secret levels or something in a later release; it's up to WG.

[KillerBudgie]

Yeah. Some of WG's maps are the best I've ever seen. He leaves no stone or shadow unturned.

[Jimmy]

I think the portals would look better with some sort of spectral translucent texture on them.

[KillerBudgie]

That would be good. If it could be coded. But I wonder if it's even possible to do so on an ageing engine

[OpenMaw]

You wouldnt need to code anything. Just put a mask infront of it with an animating texture and transparency. Viola.

[Dr. Kylstein]

William Gee, on Oct 16 2009, 05:08 AM, said:

Here is a small vid of how the portals look in game.
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=vyLQ6Vmf9go

Is the view supposed to float around like that?