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Topic Summary

Posted by: Quindorrian
« on: 12. March 2016, 22:15:51 »

Excellent work on this.  Really love the droid.  So much better yet looks completely faithful to the original!
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 27. November 2014, 21:22:44 »

Don't feel too bad.  Pretty much anyone who tried (including Irrational at this point I'm afraid) would fuck it up.  Hold out for a fan mission.  That's where my chips are.
Posted by: Da9L
« on: 25. November 2014, 21:50:09 »

Awesome work on this model.. it looks super cool!

But seing those screenshot of the guy trying to re-create the shodan scene from ss2 in CE3 makes me kindda sad.. It just makes me want a SS3 even more..
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 22. November 2014, 22:03:39 »

I suppose that was a bit irresponsible of me.  I personally don't care but Simon and Grosnus might have wanted it.  I apologize.  I think they were 60-70 something on both but I don't know the exact number.
Posted by: voodoo47
« on: 22. November 2014, 22:00:00 »

too bad you didn't mark down the number of downloads, now the count has been reset.
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 22. November 2014, 21:47:14 »

I fixed the blinking eye smoothness problem... sort of.  As mentioned, many of the material file tricks don't work on AI meshes but apparently you can still set the animation rate for animated textures so I just changed that from 250 ms to 100 ms to get it to animate at 10 FPS instead of 4 FPS.  This was fast enough to make it look like a smooth transition and hide some of that choppiness.  Downloads have been updated.
Posted by: OmegaDEATH
« on: 27. October 2014, 12:48:29 »

Yeah the model is looking great, i was just making a joke wasn't saying it was bad.
Posted by: Kolya
« on: 26. October 2014, 17:04:40 »

I think the arms and shoulders are fine. I wouldn't invest too much work on that.
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 26. October 2014, 16:44:38 »

I can take another stab at it but bear in mind there are technical barriers to overcome.  Currently the arms are as low as I can make them without the limit planes affecting polygons they shouldn't.  This would cause a world of problems with the animation... but I'll see what I can do.  Actually the fact that I'm running into these problems tells me that the animations are set up deliberately to put those arms where they are.  Any other AI animation would place the arms in a more relaxed position with the same rigging.  For me to force the arms closer to the body, the "T-pose" would no longer be a T-pose but a lazy, droopy T-pose, which, while being technically challenging in its own right, also isn't what you're supposed to do when rigging an AI.  All AIs should adopt the T-pose and the animations should be what move the joints to where the devs wanted them to be.
Posted by: System Shocked
« on: 25. October 2014, 22:26:52 »

Sorry, but shoulders/arms of new protocol droid are far too wide. The arms need to be closer to the droid's body.
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 23. October 2014, 15:54:07 »

He makes her look hotter than I first imagined :sly:
Posted by: Kolya
« on: 23. October 2014, 15:49:24 »

Wow, cool!  :thumb:
Definitely looking forward to meet Polito. Since forever.
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 23. October 2014, 15:37:45 »

Simon Pennington emailed me last night to say he likes the in-game model (he mentioned the texture work Grosnus) and that he's going to keep working on Polito a while longer.
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 23. October 2014, 00:02:39 »

So basically I can save myself half a dozen textures?  Fuck it.
Posted by: Olfred
« on: 22. October 2014, 22:46:30 »

I have looked into it. Sadly, what would be needed to create a smooth blinking effect is only available for objects.

What you could do is delete dr_7 to dr_11 and create a dr_.mtl with
Code: [Select]
ani_mode PINGPONGThis makes the animation go from _ to _6, and then back to _ and so on.
Posted by: ZylonBane
« on: 22. October 2014, 21:24:10 »

Interesting. Well, you can easily pulse a texture by modulating either its RGB or its alpha. Dunno if those functions work on an AI mesh though.
Posted by: Olfred
« on: 22. October 2014, 20:22:37 »

They do, but not all the functions.
Totally forgot that I wanted to look into this... hm...
Posted by: ZylonBane
« on: 22. October 2014, 18:43:33 »

I thought material files didn't work for AI meshes.
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 22. October 2014, 18:14:53 »

Just wondering... has anyone:

1) Figured out how to slide between texture brightnesses using material files
2) Found anything broken or bad looking in-game
3) Got any ideas how to change textures when the AI state changes?
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 16. October 2014, 19:22:28 »

Yeah...  that's true.  Maybe the pulsating light could be green.  At least then there's one somewhat friendly colour on the thing.
Posted by: voodoo47
« on: 16. October 2014, 19:17:39 »

smells doable, but not sure whether dml doable.

the problem with the laser is that it changes the droid aesthetics from "oh hello there" into "aw crap it's onto me", something that is probably not desirable. but, as always, to each his own.
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 16. October 2014, 19:05:55 »

ZB:  Anyone who's been to Home Depot knows that lasers are frequently used in both commercial and industrial applications for such things as range finding, leveling, IR temperature sensors, etc.  I don't disagree with you about the terminator reference but I hardly think it means the droid is evil.  Plus, many people pointed out they didn't want it at all so I made a laserless version.

Olfred:  First and foremost I want to get rid of all the animated textures and just use 1 or 2 to smoothly swing between 2 brightness levels.  I've seen it done before so I know its possible but no matter what code I try, it won't work.  Beyond that, any kind of cool effects that could be applied like reflective maps to glass or dust to the laser would be nice but not mandatory.

Also, since it's been brought up a few times, is there a way to associate AI alertness or change of state with a different physical model or perhaps whether a texture renders or not?  That would enable the laser to come on only if it sees you, which might make it look less hostile under normal conditions.
Posted by: Olfred
« on: 16. October 2014, 18:59:50 »

I really thing material files can do some awesome stuff but for the life of me I can't figure out how to make them work.

What do you want to achieve?
Also keep in mind that in some cases there are different commands for mesh and static models.
Posted by: voodoo47
« on: 16. October 2014, 18:53:34 »

a laser pointer on a multi purpose droid is not too far fetched, but I do agree that the laserless version fits the SS2 universe better.

I guess the problem with the laser disappearing when the droid is offscreen could be lessened by making it a separate object, then attaching it to the droid.
Posted by: ZylonBane
« on: 16. October 2014, 18:49:46 »

The laser eyes, again are not an exact match, although personally, I think they look good and fit the fiction but that's just my opinion.
How does a targeting laser on a droid intended to help people with their shoe shopping make sense in the game fiction? The combat bots don't even have those.

Thanks to movies like Terminator and Predator, most people associate "targeting laser = evil killing machine". Putting one on the protocol droid misses the point entirely. It doesn't want to kill you, it wants to help you.

EDIT: Anyone else remember the Xenoborg from the 1999 AvP? Laser beams all over that thing.
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 16. October 2014, 18:38:04 »

You beat me to it Voodoo.  Was just going to upload but got caught up trying to incorporate a feature at the same time.  I really thing material files can do some awesome stuff but for the life of me I can't figure out how to make them work. 
Posted by: voodoo47
« on: 16. October 2014, 18:27:55 »

casket files merged, given appropriate folder structure and attached to the first post. will fix the dl count later (too tired to check the interface K made). 8 people have dloaded the incomplete casket, myself included.
Posted by: System
« on: 16. October 2014, 18:21:41 »


this can be an alternative to Droid download?
Posted by: Olfred
« on: 16. October 2014, 17:00:56 »

Call me the lord of static objects!

Praise should also go to nemyax, without his splendid Blender script I would have run into big trouble as well. Which goes as deep as hacking away inside the *.e file (, that's what I had to do before he did the script).
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 16. October 2014, 16:55:16 »

I knew you'd be able to fix it.  These issues I have, while perplexing, are probably just due to lack of experience.  Thanks Olfred.
Posted by: Olfred
« on: 16. October 2014, 16:42:14 »

Based on the incomplete cascet, here is a working one.
[sarclose.bin expired]
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 16. October 2014, 16:14:57 »

Bahh... how did I manage to forget the mesh folder!  Thanks K.  Also, wasn't sure about what to do with the casket... makes sense to put it in engineering.  I suppose I thought keeping everything in one place might be convenient too.  I've got no problem moving it though.

It's funny, I thought I'd heard about some way to force an object to render all the time but maybe I'm confusing that with efficiency settings like T-Pose vs animated.  Hope it's not too noticeable. 

I was thinking about ways to pull off some nice laser effects.  There are a couple of things I could try.  I don't know how good they will look but it's worth a shot.  I know for a fact there's a way to make the pulsating laser eye work with a material file but the answer is eluding me so far.  I'll keep digging. 
Posted by: Kolya
« on: 16. October 2014, 11:31:56 »

Yeah, the mod should definitely be repacked into a mesh folder.
[EDIT: I just repacked both mods and reapplied download counts.]

It would be nice if the laser switching off when the droid is off screen could be fixed, but apart from the training area where you have time to examine a droid up close it's hardly noticeable.
More importantly an animated texture with random transparent parts should be applied to the laser (if possible) so it looks like smoke was passing through it, making it visible in parts and invisible in others. Currently the laser looks too much like a solid (albeit transparent) object attached to the droid's head.
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Posted by: miracle.flame
« on: 16. October 2014, 10:38:22 »

Folks from outside would probably not figure out easily it is supposed to go under additional mesh folder (BlueMM won't recognize it). Let's not forget about that in next release.

I am surprised how much I like the laser in-game even though it's not in accordance with the friendly face protocol droid is supposed to have. How about making the laser appear only after the droid is clearly after you - similar to the ninja dash mode switch from SecMod? I suppose it will require additional dml along with the model but worth it.
Posted by: Kolya
« on: 16. October 2014, 09:57:11 »

:droid: Who chose these colours? I don't like 'em one bit!

Just kidding, awesome work Mr. Pennington, Mr. Rocket, Mr. Grosnus. Going to test it in a moment and get back to ya. *lifts hat*
Posted by: voodoo47
« on: 16. October 2014, 09:43:32 »

I believe there is no way of preventing the engine from not rendering offscreen objects. also, [annoying moderator mode]the casket should not be posted here if it's not finished, that's what Engineering is for. in the Modifications subforum, people should not be able to download mods that will make their game look weird or broken.[/annoying moderator mode]
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 16. October 2014, 02:14:31 »

Get it while it's hot!  See first post.
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 15. October 2014, 13:32:01 »

You're right.  I wonder why it screwed up like that?  I bet there's something simple that'll fix it, that I didn't know how to do.

Join Us:  The silver feet were my doing.  At the time it seemed preferable to the very dark texture that looked almost as though it was untextured.  The silver also looked a closer match to stock although there are some black streaks or something that I wasn't able to incorporate.  Perhaps a later revision will fix it.  The laser eyes, again are not an exact match, although personally, I think they look good and fit the fiction but that's just my opinion.  The torso is pretty close except that the "winding" of the cables looks a little different.  Again it comes down to personal taste, as it doesn't depart from the art style dramatically.  We'll keep an open mind going forward but so far I don't see an overwhelming cry to change any of this.

I think it's helpful to re-acknowledge at this point that we are working with a piece of art and have already altered it significantly.  Granted most of it was necessary to make it work in the game but we should be thankful for the author's brilliant work and allow some of that to be retained as a footprint of his style and vision.
Posted by: Olfred
« on: 15. October 2014, 11:07:21 »

You might as well just give me the model (as 3ds) and I just do the cascet for you.
Posted by: Join2
« on: 15. October 2014, 06:45:37 »

Good work, Rocketman & Grosnus and good luck/skill with the casket.
I hope this expands into further teamwork from you two.

I dislike the silver feet & the LEDs + the wiring on the abdomen though, yet still it's an improvement over vanilla that for the most part stays true. I'd wish the waist/hips was a little more faithful stylistically also.

Picturing the robot do the macerena already.
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 15. October 2014, 06:11:05 »

WTF?
Well, to be honest as soon as I loaded the 3ds file, it immediately started giving me problems.  Same with the cutlery from earlier.  I just couldn't work with it in poly mode at all.  I wonder if it's my version of max or something.

Ok... any idea what's up with the glass?
Posted by: Grosnus
« on: 15. October 2014, 06:07:35 »

Unfortunately I have no idea what's going on here. All I can tell is that something is definitely wrong not only with the mapping, but it looks like some parts of the box are missing too.

I downloaded Olfred's casket (the bin file) and it looks fine in Shocked:


If you compare both you'll notice, those cylindrical things on both sides are missing for example.

Don't know how to solve the glass issues either :/
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 15. October 2014, 04:59:59 »

Well I've fought with this all day and nearly polished it off but I seem to have an irreconcilable render problem... AGAIN.  Seems the casket glass is messing up the droid's polygons.  I'm certain it's the glass and some sort of transparency thing so I've handed it over to Grosnus once more to see if he can rectify the problem.  Other than that it looks ok and I'm pretty sure I'm 1 triangle short of a no-compile situation so it doesn't get any higher res than this!

One thing that I noticed is that the SCP casket seems to look different than the stock one.  Not sure if it's my imagination but I saw different textures between them after loading both in ShockED.  Then again, I've also been having UV mapping problems so who knows what's going on there.

Projected release time is tomorrow evening.  That'll certainly include the 2 AI versions and possibly the casket.  If not, the casket will follow shortly, fixed or broken, depending how it goes.  If Grosnus is unsuccessful, we might need a hand with it.
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Posted by: Olfred
« on: 14. October 2014, 21:03:05 »

There are still some minor disortions on the very bottom (which I couldn't get rid of and only visible ingame), but apart from that everything should look decent.
[sarclose.zip expired]
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 14. October 2014, 20:37:55 »

Oh.... yes a 3ds (or better still v7 or lower max file) would be super.  Particularly because I've suffering all kinds of fail so far with graphical corruption with the stock casket.  All the textures are mapped wrong, the droid looks like that fragmented bastard from Tron 2.0... it's a mess.  I was going to try mesh mode, to see if that helped at all but if I'm going that route, might as well have a properly modeled and texture mapped casket.
Posted by: Olfred
« on: 14. October 2014, 19:47:46 »

RocketMan, which cascet did you use?
There is a tweaked/fixed cascet available in the fixed objects pack
I could even provide you with a 3ds file if needed.
Posted by: RocketMan
« on: 14. October 2014, 17:16:30 »

There will be a laser version, a non-laser version and a casket version (if I can get the damn thing to compile).
Posted by: System
« on: 14. October 2014, 16:06:31 »

2-3 embodiment alternative to the Droid?
Posted by: Chandlermaki
« on: 14. October 2014, 10:45:10 »

Looks perfect now, as far as I'm concerned!
Posted by: Kolya
« on: 14. October 2014, 07:39:15 »

I'm beginning to see his show master qualities. Should visit one of the poetry readings sometime. :smurf:
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