Reality Factory

Jay, are you going to build a map AND work on the scripts for the lighting? Thief Dark project demo is what I can get my hands on and then just watch footage on youtube of the rest of the game.

For scary levels, sound and light is the only thing I can think of. Remember the vessel has been in disrepair for an unknown amount of time so there is plenty of room for frightening levels. The space vacuum hazard is there to serve as a gimmick in the levels. An entire section of a room is torn out, leaving just the sub-structure behind. Space is sucking the air out with a loud noise and its dark except for the planet below. You have to run through the room quick or you get greased.

As for models, for now Ill act as modeler, it takes time to pull one off. Im going to scout around for another modeler though as Im not good with it. I just learned how and my models are sloppy and their polycount crashes my computer sometimes. Oh and thankyou, I will do the concepts better. Within the week, I want to pull those down and replace them.

About the portable life generator, lets work on that later. Im going to be stupid busy over the next few days, Friday might be the next chance I get to upload content. I think a model is in order. Plus I gotta get ahold of Zany as hes mentioned that he could port the model from Blender to RF and thats exactly what we need.

Will be back later.

Yes i can try to do that. Sadly, my internet connection is very limited so i don't know when i will be able to post again (i can read your posts from the university computers, but i can't post there). But yes i can start to build a map and work on the basic scripting of the enemies.

Quote:
5. Im looking mainly for someone to port from Blender to *.act format



I can do that. Probably. If bernie ha figured out what's wrong with the nfo importer on Equity, I'll go check now.

I would like to point out that there is nothing wrong with Equity's nfo importer. It is Either the Blender nfo exporter that is at fault OR and what is more likely the case, Zany doesn't know how to use the Blender nfo exporter.

-EDIT- New models, still low poly though, very low poly, are replacing the former models.

Equity does NOT have an nfo exporter only an IMPORTER. You need to export from Blender in NFO format for equity to be able to import it. Graywolf has made an exporter and as far as I know it works. The problem is I and many other folk like me find blender impossible to understand. We provide the tool for rf its up to the blender fraternity to provide the exporters and explain how to use them.

@Bernie- Im an avid reader and I enjoy leaning new technical things that I believe I have enough intelligence to actually understand. It took a while to learn Blender and from the models above, I still havent gotten the total hang of it but its an extended learning process. Anyhoo, I havent had time to work with the exporter until today. Matter of fact after I finish typing this message Im going to apply the exporter.

@Jay-
I apologize for the sad looking model but I think it should act as a fill in until we find a better modeler. It makes sense to try to get something off the ground we can play around with to keep interested in the project. Im UV mapping the model now, Blenders putting up a fight for some reason though. Dont worry its on its way.

Sorry for not answering earlier, but like i said, my internet connection is very limited. The model looks okay i guess, though i get the impression that it's head looks a bit like a dolphin...

But i also made some stuff, mainly atmosphere-testing stuff and many textures:


This is a corridor intended to test how well the radiosity lighting works. The carpet on the ground is to later test how well the sound system works.


This is the same corridor but with another light-bar-texture (which changes the lighting quite a bit even if i didn't change anything else!)


In this room, i placed a small green light in the corner, to give a bit atmosphere. Maybe we can use this kind of lighting for the 'flora-areas' when we actually make the game levels.


This room has some green fluid in a big glass-tube which emits light (it's a slightly greenish light). I think this gives off some toxic-atmosphere.


That's a dark corridor...


Now that is a VERY dark corridor...(The walls are actually visible, but just barely, could make it a bit lighter i guess) Here we can make some alien lurk and make zombie-like sounds to make it a bit scary.


That's what was at the end of the corridor. You could not see this before because of the 'black-fog-effect i mentioned in an earlier post.

What do you think of these pictures? About 2/3 of the textures i made myself and i am still working on the textures (They are the main work at the moment).

Also, i wrote some GameLibrary-like script that other scripts will access and that holds stuff like global timers, how it is calculated if an enemy can see you, how it is calculated if they can hear you. I also documented that script with comments for you if you want to look at it.

Though the Thief game didnt work out on my system, I do see where your going with this. I like the atmospheric touches you added to the maps. The green almost doesnt show up in the corner of the room. If you hadnt mentioned the color green, I dont think I would have even noticed it! Using green lighting around the flora areas is an awesome idea and its making me want to draw up some scenery where I get to mess around with the colors. How did you make the tube transparent? Can you do the same for windows and things of the sort? I can see this being used as pipes, if we can simiulate liquids going through them. Part of the Filtration map has areas that can use clear pipes. Your work is amazing!

Even in low light I could only tell it was a corridor because you said so. But after looking for a while I saw the door at the end and eventually a part of the walls. The other one I cant see at all, good work The last one with the light coming through the door is very atmospheric. A shadow on the front of a character coming into the room or maybe several would really do this room justice. The creepy sounds in the darkened halls would be great. The morgue would suit for this PERFECTLY.

In short, I like the pictures! The focus of course is on the mood, the lighting, and not so much the maps themselves. You nailed it. I can look at the scripts, but I wont have time to learn much, the Blender particle system is top priority after getting this model finished. So shoot over the data and Ill give it a look see. It might be easier to learn than I thought if your a good teacher!

Ive been working on some stuff as well, read on:
-EDIT- The models, again, have been changed. Unless someone else remodels the bunch for us, this will be the last modification on the content. That is unless is sucks so bad we have no choice!

@ bernie: About the NFO exporter.
An animated model exports without problem using the NFO exporter. However, when importing the model into Equity I get the following error messages:
No node named poo (poo?)
Node error
No Mesh List
Cant Get Body
*Finally Equity crashes

None of the other formats work. I can model in Blender. Is there an alternative program that will allow rigging and animation that Equity accepts? Or is there a program that allows rigging and modeling that exports directly to Genesis3D bdy or act format?

@Jay
This problem may be the end of the project unless I find someone who can get models into RealityFactory. Simply put, 3DS Max is too expensive and its unethical to steal a copy. Im open to ideas.

You can try Milkshape3D (http://chumbalum.swissquake.ch/index.html). It exports directly to RFs BDY (body) and MOT (motion) files, which you can then use in Equity to build the actors. It costs 25€ / 35$ and is very good for that. It's simple to use, has many plugins, and can export and import MANY file formats. You can get an evaluation copy first which lasts 30 days and then you have to pay the price to be able to save and export again.

There is no way at present of getting a blender animated model into rf. Zany had the exact same problem you are having and it was the nfo that is missing bones texture and mesh. It would seem the nfo exporter for blender does not work. You will see what i mean if you open the nfo file in notepad those errors are true errors there are no bones texture or mesh being exported from blender. There is nothing wrong with the nfo importer in Equity.
Next release of equity will contain an xml importer. I am assured that the xml exporter for blender does work as it is used for the ogre engine. So there will be a way soon.
The other alternative is to use a modelling program that can export to rf eg. milkshape cost is about $30 and is worth every penny.

You can also try TrueSpace 7.6 which is available for free from Caligari. You can use TruGene to convert the COB files to actors. Be sure to triangulate your mesh before export. Did you do that with Blender?

I am not sure if animations and skeleton will be imported, but it's true, TrueSpace 7.6 is what i downloaded a while ago and wanted to try out since that time since at least you can import static objects int RF (for props and such).

@realityfactoryusr can you post the nfo AND key file the exporter made please we need to trap the error that causes the crash. It shouldn't crash it should just report the errors.
.

I wish that Caligari would release the SDK so that someone can write a plugin to export NFO and KEY files directly from Truespace.

[EDIT]
It is available.
[/EDIT]

[EDIT]
Here is a workflow to get from Truespace to Milkshape with animations.

Truespace can also export to Collada. Bernie, if you can get Equity to support Collada DAE files, it will open up a whole new world of modelling tools to use.
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