[Obsolete] SS2 Vurt's Mods

[664742e310e6dKolya]

Actually I kinda like these. Maybe it's because the colouring fits the late-evening-lighting better.

[664742e311010voodoo47]

..had a quick look, and while I have to admit the new models look good, the impact on performance is murderous. the machine is not exactly a top performer (athlon64 2.2GHz,radeon x1950pro), but still..

[664742e31130bvurt]

yeah my FPS drops to around 50 sometimes in Hydroponics, which is surprisingly low (i7 @ 4.9GHz, GTX 580). So like i wrote in the OP, don't install if you're not running SS2 at 60+ FPS already..

I've noticed that there's a problem with the .3ds to .E to .bin conversion, it creates so called "doubles", making the models twice as big (polygon wise) as they really are, and twice as demanding + also makes the models more square-looking (has to do with the "normals" and lightning). It's a quite common problem with meshes and converters.. with Morrowind this can easily be dealt with by just importing the mesh and deleting the doubles and re-saving. With SS2 i can't really do anything to the faulty .bin files though

[664742e3114b0ZylonBane]

I haven't had a chance to download and try this yet, but it appears that you've put your most complex plant model in the part of the game with the highest number of simultaneously visible plant models. No wonder it's murdering performance even on decent rigs. Time for a simpler model, more like the originals?

I'm not a fan of this model anyway-- It's technically great, but it makes that part of Hydroponics look overgrown and abandoned, which goes directly against the aesthetic of the rest of the game. Remember, in the time line of SS2, things only went to hell a week or two before the game starts.

[664742e311605vurt]

I've grown plants in both hydro and soil for many years, a week of abandonment in hydro can easily be a 10 cm progress in height. I'm not sure i agree that big plants would have to mean "abandoned". It just means they grow well, which they do in hydro.

I see this level as an opportunity to make something that is a change of pace in the otherwise grey hi-tech level aesthetics, an area which can be lush and green, a mix of nature and hi-tech, hardly something you see every day in games, so i kind of like that idea. But yes, i could maybe do 2 versions, one hi-poly and a lower poly-version, or at least make some of the plants have a much lower amount of polys and also more similar to the original meshes.

[664742e3116d7~RocketMan~]

Where's tesselation when you need it.

[664742e3117bfZylonBane]

You mean dynamic tesselation? Heck, even LOD management would help here. It's actually kind of surprising that Dark doesn't support object LOD, given its software renderer roots.

[664742e3118a7vurt]

does anyone have a savegame near that place that has some patches of grass (grass sticking up, not just a flat texture).. i can't remember right now where that is, been years since i played SS2.

[664742e311974ZylonBane]

I'm drawing a blank. It's not underwater, is it?

[664742e311a51~RocketMan~]

I think you're right actually.  There are some pools surrounding walkways or something that had tall grass in them  aren't there?

[664742e311b39vurt]

I only have a vague recollection of that place, it's has some dug out spaces in soil(!?) i think i remember, there was also some grass there. it's not near water from what i remember.

[664742e311c36voodoo47]

this, perhaps?

[664742e31204bEnchantermon]

some progress with the trees, made another model (japanese maple tree) instead, makes the building more "representable" imo: http://piclair.com/data/7sd3j.jpg

While I still stand by my previous statement, I actually do like that; much better than before.

[664742e3121aavurt]

voodoo: yeah that must be it, thx.

here's a new low-poly version of "plantbed.bin" http://piclair.com/data/bfzpa.jpg

(file attached to first post)

[664742e312300ZylonBane]

You probably already have this information, but here's the spreadsheet I put together back when I was working on the plants for SHTUP. This should be a list of all the original plant models.

Greyed lines are models unused in the game (and unfortunately missing a texture that we have no idea what it was supposed to look like).

[attachment deleted]

[664742e3123d1vurt]

Great thanks, very useful!

[664742e31257evurt]

Added a few reeds and water lily's, i thought those water pads looked a little boring.. http://piclair.com/data/m3ocd.jpg.

Don't use lily.bin if you think it's "too much", the original mesh is just a flat texture and SHTUP has updated that texture already, me doing the exact same thing would be redundant

Here's how the garden area looks: http://piclair.com/data/33kn5.jpg

I've done yet another plantbed.bin, basicly like the first, but some more colors and more performance friendly (~half the poly size now).

Uploading the new files in a moment to the first post.

[664742e312654Kolya]

Those water lilies are beautiful!

[664742e312725BenNM]

Very nice work. 

[664742e3127fflostone1993]

cool cant believe how well it fits with system shock, I have to download this now 

[664742e312944Salk]

Could some of vurt's work be merged into SHTUP (with due credit, of course)? Who knows, perhaps that could be the little push needed to see the next version of SHTUP out?

[664742e312a2bZylonBane]

This is why I cringe every time I see that you've posted.

[664742e312b4bvurt]

It really doesnt fit to be released with SHTUP since that mod is going for a almost 100% likeness of the originals, i do almost the opposite making the models very different. Purits might not be too happy with that..

zylon: "plantc" seems to be unused too.. at least nothing comes up if i use summon_obj corn

[664742e312dc7Salk]

It really doesnt fit to be released with SHTUP since that mod is going for a almost 100% likeness of the originals, i do almost the opposite making the models very different. Purits might not be too happy with that..

Yes, I understand your point. But perhaps some of the models you created would not stray so much from the original design?

Thanks for not cringing at my question anyway.