DF-21 Forums

[Barry Brien]

This is a building based on one of the buildings seen in the first Coruscant level in Bounty Hunter.

This is the same building in a different location. I can't decide which I prefer.

Just a street shot. It's looking a bit bare at the moment.

Some of the neon signs you'll see around the city. These are pretty average compared to some of the other stuff though.

Just a shot of the skyline.

A corridor with a window on the right facing some buildings.

Nothing amazingly new in these shots. A lot of it looks dead, as many of the shots and tricks we use involve animations. Oh well.

[Matt H]

Darn it, Barry. I was going to start this exact same thread with my own images!






Actually, I wanted these pics to go along with my project update, but the upload images part of the servlet script didn't seem to work for me.

[The MAZZTer]

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http://www.mzzt.net/ | I am a respectable admin with a respectable sig.

[Tom Manning]

Just a comment on the Matts last screen, it looked a little bare, and maybe could use a little retexturing with something new. But then again, it could be me. They all look incredible!

*****

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Tom Manning
For all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you, Stand, Men of the West!
Aragorn: Return of the King

[Burning Gundam]

:: Begins working even harder on AT2 (or is it 1?) ::

:: Works too hard ::

:: Keels over and dies ::

I suck. Stop posting these pics. They're lowering my self esteem.

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I don't think outside the box... I customize it.

[Burning Gundam]

Just read the project update.

Do you have an estimate when it will be finished now?

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I don't think outside the box... I customize it.

[Kir Kanos]

Yes, quite slick looking indeed. I'm afraid, however, I saw more interesting texturing in AONS. Then again, it is Imperial-controlled Coruscant, right?
Fantastic work!

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"Curse you, Kanos!!! Why don't you just DIE?!"

[Barry Brien]

Yeah, a lot of these shots are of unfinished work, and a lot of the texturing is temporary. I know it's a bit messy in places.

[Tom Manning]

You know, for such a high class project, you should have some screenshots taken on a Mac, it would show the work much better.

You could always just send the level my way, I would be more than happy to take some for you.


_________________
Tom Manning
For all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you, Stand, Men of the West!
Aragorn: Return of the King

[Fenwar]

[Barry Brien]

[Tom Manning]

YES!

:: Waves the URL in everyones face, taunting them ::

_________________
Tom Manning
For all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you, Stand, Men of the West!
Aragorn: Return of the King

[Taylor]

:: Slaps Manning in the face and steals the URL ::
:: Runs with it, but trips over an oddly place gopher and falls off a 172-foot cliff to his demise ::

Oh well, I tried.

[Kir Kanos]

So, anyway.

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"Curse you, Kanos!!! Why don't you just DIE?!"

[Matt K]

Those screenshots are stellar.

[Nottheking]

[Barry Brien]

Here is an image I made up using different screenshots taken from different points of view (page up and page down keys).

[Jackson]

The screenshot: Fantastic.
The technique used to take it: Sneaky.
The picture itself: Seamless.

Great work!

[Nottheking]

It's a good thing that raycasting games use such a simple scrolling trick to look up and down, or else that screenie wouldn't have been half that good...

That screen looks fantastic, to say the least.

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Wake up, George Lucas... The Matrix has you..

[Barry Brien]

Thanks
It is a cool texhnique, though it makes the area look a lot wider and more spacious than it actually is.
You will notice some misalignment in the sky texture, but's not too obvious, so I'm happy. I think I'll make more. I want to make a horizontal, 360 degree panoramic shot.

[Barry Brien]

Ok, here are some panoramic shots. The first one is of the corridor I mentioned above. The second one is a shot of an office Matt built. Sorry about the bad quality of the image, I got lazy, and the angles between each screenshot were not really equal.

[The MAZZTer]

O_O

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http://www.mzzt.net/ | I am a respectable admin with a respectable sig.

[Burning Gundam]

:: Prepares to commit suicide Samari style ::

I HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO LIVE FOR!!!

Just kidding, ...but damn! my stuff is now crap!

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I don't think outside the box... I customize it.

[Patrick Haslow]

That's a cute little technique Barry. Now just imagine it at Mac resolution!

[Nottheking]

Those panorama screenies aren't really half-bad, Barry... They definitely show off some sweet-looking areas.

Just because I'm curious, what is the rough sector count for each level right now? I've seen dozen of screenies from both DT III and DT IV, and it seems they've all shown vastly different areas. Those episodes seem to be huge. I'm only slightly worried that my project won't yield the biggest 3-D levels in history... J/K!

Also, does anybody have any idea what the limit the engine has for sectors? I know for a fact that there is no sanely small limit for level dimensions, as evidenced by DT I, as well as my own tests...

Also again, do the suggested limits of 32 of each resource file type really apply? If so, they mustbe putting a real bottleneck on your work.

_________________
Wake up, George Lucas... The Matrix has you..

[Barry Brien]

Dt4 is actually a lot smaller than it looks. 1091 sectors and 8666 walls in level 1. 468 textures are used in the level, about 380 of which are custom textures. This might give you the impression that the level is massive, but the actual physical area taken up is pretty small, maybe roughly 640x800x830 dfus.

I decided that it might be interesting to keep an editors journal while I work on this project, so I started it last night. I'd like to get it up on the Dark Tide website at some stage, but until then here's my first entry:

The Dark Tide IV - Xizor's Web
Editor's Journal

Monday, October 13th 2003 - Barry Brien

Well it's 3.47 am. I'm tired, and I should really go to bed, but I had the great idea of starting this journal, so here it

goes. I have been working on this mission pack for a year now, 90% of my work going into the first level.
The Dark Tide IV is/will be a 4 part mission pack.
level 1 is a fairly easygoing level. You simply have to get from point a to point b, albeit in a non-linear fashion (inching

along ledges, making big leaps, crawling through vents etc.). You start the level in somewhat familiar surroundings (think of

the original Coruscant level in DF,) up high in the sky on top of one huge building. You have to get down to street level

which is miles below you. This level is really just an excuse to show off. You'll notice a gradual change in architecure,

texturing etc. as you make your way towards the lower levels of the city.
Level 2 is a minilevel. I cannot say much more about it, as it's not built yet. The idea behind it is great.
Level 3 is a lot like level 1, but it's a lot more action-packed. In level one you can walk around at your leisure, admiring

the sights etc. In level 3 you won't take your finger off the shift key, because you'll be running all the time. This level

probably won't be as visually striking as level 1, nor will it be as large, but it will a lot more adventurous.
Level 4 is the legendary Xizor's Palace, and Patrick is taking care of that. It's far from finished, but he's told me some of

the ideas he has planned, and it sounds like it'll be great/ I can tell you that there will be a boss at the end, and from

what I can gather, it's going to be a pretty epic battle.

I spent today messing with the pal and cmp files for level 1. The colours used in df are so muted and dull, so I decided to

add some new colours. We now have hot pinks, deep purples, vivid yellows and aquamarines. The main reason behind all this is

that this level is absolutely saturated with signs, adverts, holograms, and neon. In order for all this to stand out it has

to be very bright.

We currently have 385 custom textures in level 1 alone. I wonder if this is a record. Custom textures are so important to

this level. We are more familiar with how Coruscant looks because of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, as well as

games such as Bounty Hunter, so it's important that this level look as accurate to the movies as possible. The only way we

could do that was by creating lots and lots of new textures. Yes the gob file is really large (I don't want to say how large)

but that doesn't bother me. I can't imagine the final zip being over 10mb, and that's including cutscenes.
80% of the textures used are custom textures. I like to avoid using any of the Dark Forces textures whenever possible.
Some of the textures, in terms of dimensions, are really big. There's one sky texture which is a panoramic view and it also

stretches from the very top to the very bottom of your field of vision. Bear in mind that this level will probably use about

3 or 4 different sky textures for different parts of the city.

Level 1 is very vertical. It's all about moving downwards, and once you get to the bottom, moving up again. Level 3 is the

opposite. It's really horizontal and really linear. Most areas in level 3 are fairly simple. You enter one end and you must

exit the other. There are no mazes or puzzles to contend with, just the entire Imperial army :0

Well anyway I have to go. Here are a few little bits of information to keep you going until next time.

* I said that in level 3 you have to face the enite Imperial army, well that's not too far from the truth. Remember where the

level is set. The heart of the Empire. The capitol of the galaxy. Prepare to be chased by ATSTs (yup, in this one they

actually walk, rather than hop ) bombed by Tie Bombers (remember level 7 in Jedi Knight?) menaced by speederbikes as well

as a plethora of imperial troops that just won't ever stop coming.

* This mission pack will keep up the tradition of featuring little cameos. Who will we see? I won't say.

*The events which take place in this mission do so at the same time as the events in Shadows of the Empire, so don't be

surprised if you find a few little references to that story, as well as plot intersections.

*level 1 features some interesting lateral thinking puzzles, as well as interaction with other characters. There's definitely

an rpg element to it.

*level 3 features dancing wookiees.

*There are plenty of civilians, they walk, they talk, they go about their own business. Originally the player was able to

kill all civilians, but I got rid of this feature for a few reasons. In my last level, Boba Fett part I, you were able to

kill the civilians, but Kyle is not like Boba Fett, he wouldn't massacre innocent bystanders, in fact he can't. Any shots fired at these people magically pass right by them without hurting them at all. Maybe it's the will of the force.

I don't know, maybe somebody will find this interesting. I hope so anyway.

[The MAZZTer]

[Nottheking]

[Barry Brien]

Glad you like it NTK. My gobfile size estimate is based on the fact that all the current work, zipped up comes to about 5mb, unzipped the gob file is 25mb. I've compressed a lot of the larger textures using DF2.exe. Does anybody else use the compression commands? They are really helpful.

I'm sorry to announce that we have no plans to feature Moff Rebus in DT4, though when you do see who does make an appearance, you won't be disappointed.

The ATST and the ATAT in DT2 are on vues as far as I know, but the guys didn't feel like talking apart the 3dos and writing vues for each seperate part. Well I did, and it was a pain in the arse, but it was worth it. Seeing a fully articulated ATST running straight at you is pretty cool.

Anyway, here are 3 bms that I made today. They are based on 3 signs seen in AoTC, in the scene where Jango Fett gives Zam Wessel those nasty centipedes. I had made earlier versions, but these ones incorporate the new colours I put in the pal file.

[Nottheking]