Dark Crypt (Isometric Dungeon)

[Veleran]

The bricks are only1-2 texels thick so can be added to world model.
Having them as model will remove from these bricks two of the three things that slow down the engine mostly-
the lightmaps,make them add no portals and cast no shadow(the third is the stencil shadows and dynamic lightmaps).

You can have these bricks and many many more broken floor plaques 1 texel tall on the floor without raising the polycount much.
I just have to make the bricks larger to match those of the wall texture.

And be careful to add the broken floor pieces to groups that do not make you like you re walking on the air.

[Veleran]

I have so far worked placed the general position of the corridors and walls of a level,the passages as single blocks and start testing bsp brushes on the start area with the stairs down,the rest is almost bare and empty.
After i have the basic marquees and pillars for the walls i may use some of the now empty black space below ground level as extra rooms to which you can go by descending stairs(to give some more depth variation.

Do not know how many check to see little more,but i made some bsp stone blocks barricade you can climb over, i think they might worth the +200 portals they added,solid,i was careful not to intersect between them or with other brushes when i rotated and placed each block,
they are not a model because i want the shadows,just i ll place the light closer to get shorter blocks shadow.
I did nt flag them as detail because the ranged,missile monsters must climb over and have visible contact to target.

I had to keep an eye in max4 to the shape of each block every time i chamfered a vertex so it will look as convex as possible,luckily they were convex and the script exporter could export them.





I have to sculpt soon a normal map for a statue head for the fire bolt trap and place it as pawn on the wall.

The small orc is old ,temporary and has no normal map,and i use it scaled down as kobold for the moment which is supposed to fire a kobold flask fire grenade -fire bolt like but i dont have that projectile actor yet,so you see the gl grenade..

If you look carefully you may notice a blob jelly and a bat i added testing them as static entity proxies,to check their scale,check their proportions from the game's camera angle view and and check an animation.
I added the plaques of the floor as trigger models since they are models anyway.

I need to add more decorative actors and more kinds of breakables before this corner starts to fill with some detail,i will think of something.

[Veleran]

larger res.Pillars look little block y,maybe i will filet the corners of their central part a little and put there the more yellow smaller brick texture.

[Nighthawk_0973]

idk if I've asked this before but are you going to have a custom player? Everything else contrasts well with the visuals. Keep making these images bigger it really shows off the visual style of the game, and the lighting effects. I love the lighting effects.

[Veleran]

Here is one screenshot with more dynamic light.



The light in the niche is not the firepoint,i just put it there because it was too dark,and i would place some skulls inside,i have the skull but i have not yet prepared the actor.

I also like he projectile dynamic light and it lights the dark areas.
Also,the normal mapped barrel was messed by the projectile light because it excluded my player light for an instance.
Of course this is a snapshot of an instance and the barrel does nt always look like a hole.i cant have it alll and i dont mind.I have set the firepoint projectile to not cast light to avoid constant dot3 maps flashing.I kept the dynamic light from the monster firebolt just to have some light changes.


I will make a player,im modifying virgil because he has common proportions but im not hurrying to make him.
Maybe i should not post all these images before i have the player ,but i am mostly concerned making all these itmes that are necessary to fill the level ,i have also ready a spider ,a breakable sarcophagus with explosion actors but i still need to do basic decor like (the list is big)
candle on skull light, skull piles,
large breakable vases,
more kind of barrels,alter,
switches,
the Glyph plaque texture with an extra version with glowing glyph,and more.
There are glyph s above locked doors and you need to find the switch with the same glyph above them that open the doors.

[Veleran]

If any one wants to know the settings of the lights,there is one light effect attached to the projectile and one for its explosion.I think the light switches various colors or it is my idea..

(in the effect.ini)

;*********************************************************
;Orange light
;*********************************************************

[OrangeLight]
type = light
colormax = 255 255 255
colormin = 207 149 87
radiusmax = 150
radiusmin = 100
intensity = 1
totallife = 4.0


;*********************************************************
;Orange short Explosion light
;*********************************************************

[OrangeLight1]
type = light
colormax = 255 255 255
colormin = 207 149 87
radiusmax = 150
radiusmin = 100
intensity = 1.0
totallife = 1.0




you can compare the two frames.

[Nighthawk_0973]

That is my favorite script on this whole forum. Course I'm not using RF anymore.

[Veleran]

Still virgil as player..Have not done the geometry of the passage yet.
Floor looks too clean without decals,but i dont have any yet.

I kept the portal count down,and if i add these two blocks rubble brushes to models,i can remove another 2000 portals.
There is another blocks group and all three of them, i think they produce half the level portals so far.

I will lose the shadows if they become models but i could place more of them that way.
I will see how many rubble brushes like these i can have after i finish all the walls to count the portals first.
I will maybe remove these two barrels near the start later,and place some vases there.

[paradoxnj]

Nice work Veleran!!

[Veleran]

but who would play it,specially without multiplayer online...maybe i did all this for nothing,
should i quit now and save the effort..

And, all actors need remake to at least their half polycount so i could put lots of monsters.
i can do that,but max2011 crashed for good and all i got till i get new computer (infinitely unknown date for that)
is max7 which uvw unwrap leaves much work to do by hand-all meshes would take x3 or x4 to map.-another obstacle on the way.

[bernie]

...maybe i did all this for nothing,
should i quit now and save the effort..

Don't do that it would be a shame to waste all that good work. From what you have shown on here it is a very promising game.
There are alternatives.
The easiest is to Port your meshes etc. to ogre mesh/skeleton (Equity will do that, or export from max) then either
1: Build your game in Neoaxis which has multi player on-line and is free for non-commercial use. It will only cost you €85 ($100) for a commercial licence (No royalties to pay) if you want to sell your game and its easily got back as you only need to sell a few to be in profit (you only need to sell 5 games at €20 each to be in profit).
2: Wait for Rf2 and build it in that.
3: Wait for GD and build it in that (but multiplayer on line is a long way in the future).

Port your meshes to fbx and build your game in unity with is free for non-commercial. Commercial licence available.

Build your game in UDK free for non-commercial. Commercial licence available.

[Veleran]

Thanks for advice and wise words etc bernie.I will work with max 7 for the moment and re make the actors at less poly count.
With another engine i would make something simpler like a forest level (free of course) with monster players and monsters,all re-spawning and fighting free for all.
with,just one two shops to sell loot from monster chests and get ammunition,healing potions etc).

I f i had detailed characters for 3rd person level like that,i would ask advice here for what tools to use and if anyone would help.
I would like rf with hardware acceleration,texture tiling and blend together via mask,some metal shading etc.

no udk too complicated and also need new machine.also what is this gd,never heard of it.

[Veleran]

Empty again because i am still making all actors from the beginning at lower poly count,and in the screen there is only one quick texture to all of the world geometry.

I edited virgil ,keeping the height and proportions generally, default clothes,no extra armor textures yet.
It took a while to figure out that i had to attach all to one mesh before exporting for the normal maps to work,because i first tried the belt as separate object .







The big player rendering might look low res,like all actors in the dungeon but must be enough for the isometric view.

In the dungeon,the player is kind of dark because the light that follows him is directly above,so i multiplied him as static entity to see him more lit (the player you control is the first from the left)

Some new actors are the player,the shelves with the skulls,and the switch (its small and fixed on the pillar)
next to finish are some decorations -a banner,a shield with weapons,new 6 sided (and more fake) barrel,and a newer trap with more depth.

Indestructible decor is what left to see after you kill all monsters in the dungeon.

[darksmaster923]

very impressive.

[Veleran]

Lower room will not remain as bare walls,i just had to place some static entities and see to which spot they look better,so i know where i have to leave space for pillars and the rest bsp to add later.
Monsters are nt ready yet

I am still experimenting with the textures on the floors.Possibly i ll try darkening the textures to the plaques joints instead lighten them like now.
Since i have no bump map option i may use a smooth pre rendered bump map.