Reality Factory

Here's a nice video-tutorial on tree-modelling (ignore the vertex paint/weight part of it)
http://intifada.itu.dk/video/TreeModelling%20pt1.mov

Message, Spock? I didn't here the beginning of the tutorial. was that truespace? I'm gonna go back and watch again. I didn't think my tree was that bad.

I like the semi transparent leaves, and the the ploycount is MUCH better, but I would like to see more of them. A little thicker, to block out the stubby trunk and limbs.

Your tree is nice, steven, but using a polygon per leaf increases the polycount quickly. Using transparent textures as shown in the video can help in this case. There's always space for improvements.

Yer darn tootin' there, buddy. I'd only ever used that technique for small sapling type trees. With models like that, I'll be creatin' Gekido-like demo level slide shows in no time!! Just kidding.

Hey thanks for that video! It really helped.

The tree looks ok now... at least I'm satisfied with it.

Here's a picture of it in RF.

Nice.
Sorry for hijacking your thread but I just found another excellent tutorial on making low poly trees
http://bk-coffeehouse.cottages.polycoun ... tree1.html

Juutis, I like that next step tree much better. I think the tuts QOD is giving are excellent. I'm like you, in the I want a tree to be more spread out. That is where the tree Hike1 shows is lacking. It's too closed up. I have

Your tree looked much better, Juutis, but try a little more scattering around the edges. I think that will make it look a little more natural.

Yeah thanks for those tutorials, they are really useful. I'll try different techniques to make those trees look more realistic.

Also, I got my combat system to work. I built a targeting system that lets you lock on to one enemy, facing him all the time. You can also swap the target between all visible enemys. So the basics are pretty much done. Now all I need is content! I'll be modeling some weapons and armors and when I have some areas to explore I'll put up a demo game. Shouldn't take too long, a month or two.

Not many seems interested, but if someone really is, I thought I'd let them know.

YES!!!!! I am VERY INTERESTED!! I will be on that download the minute you post it!!!

I like the sound of your combat system. That is an awesome piece of work!! Maybe you should write a tutorial for the community.

Yes, I knew YOU would be interested, but that doesn't count since you're interested in every single little thing going on here.

Maybe some day I will write a tutorial... we shall see.

We should all be interested in everything everyone is doing!! We've got to keep the fire burning, and it will keep all of you young talented folks motivated to do great creative things!! You've all got so much talent and intelligence, it just needs encouragement and a great community to help it grow and stay strong!!

I thought I was a good artist when I was in high school, but I worked mostly alone. I was a real lone wolf. Then I went to college and became part of a community of artists. I grew more in that short time than I ever did in high school. It is so important to have support and interest in what you do from people who have like interests. So important!!

Agreed, it's really motivating to have this kind of support.

I wish I could be like you... you have this amazing skill of finding something positive out of every thing and keep 'us young folks' going. I'm glad we have you.

Thank you, Juutis. I am most happy to be here!!!

I had a girlfriend back in the mid-eighties who was really critizing this artist. Putting him down because he wasn't as good as this other artist. Simply put, the things he drew did not look as realisitic as the other guy's stuff, but it was obvious his work came from his heart. I let her have it. I told her she had no right putting him down like that. So what if it doesn't look like a photograph. It doesn't make him less of an artist. Point in fact. . .he wasn't trying to make things look like a photgraph, but his 'art' was excellent. He was a very good 'artist'. It's those kind of remarks from people who just don't get it that can ruin the potential career of a great talent.

You are familiar with Vincent Van Gogh. The artist who cut off his ear? He is now considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time. A little too little too late. Anyway, until not too long ago, one of his paintings was the highest priced piece of art in the world. Selling for around what, 12 million, I believe. Now, this man had no self esteem. Why? In his lifetime, he never sold one piece of work. Not one painting, and he was shunned by the artisitic 'community'. A bunch of snobs! He fell in love with a woman who was a prostitute. He was so distraught that she did not love him too, he sent her a piece of his ear to show proof of his undying affection. When that failed, he shot himself in the side, and laid for a few days bleeding before he died.

This is an extreme example, to be sure, but I don't believe that he would have met such a sad ending if he had had some kind of support during his life.

Ahh, I'm bored... so I decided to write something about my progress. I hope someone reads this...

I've finished the basic animations (5 different attacks, movement, jump, dodge etc...) for two handed swords, sword&shield style and dual wielding. I've also modeled some weapons and added a character selection menu for selecting between male and female.I started building the home village of the main character and finally I got those trees working with decent FPS using LOD levels.

I've finished the inventory and leveling system. There are three different stats: Strength, agility and constitution. Strength for attack damage and stamina, agility for attack and dodge speed, constitution for hp and hp regeneration. Every time you gain a level you get 5 points with which you can increase any of these attributes. I also added weapon skills. The more skilled you are in using a certain weapon the faster you can attack and the more damage you deal with it. The weapon skills can be increased by fighting with a certain kind of weapon. The different weapon types are dagger, sword, axe, spear, two handed sword and two handed axe. Each having their own weapon skill.

But, everything good has to come to an end. Or at least to a pause. I will have to format my hard drive and reinstall Windows, my computer is just so full of junk and it's working painfully slow. I just have to do it. It's gonna be first time for me to install a Windows XP... We shall see how that goes.
I'll do it this week or next week.... I'm not sure yet. So I'm gonna have a pause of a couple of days (hopefully only a couple of days... with my skills it can take weeks too ) before going on with the project.



As I said before... I hope someone reads this... and I hope Stevie isn't the only one.