Screenshot thread

TheIdiot's new mod set on Isla Nublar

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Re: Screenshot thread

Post by s13n1 »

Oh, and awesome work here too!

When I get time I'll have a closer look, as it's looking really nice!
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Re: Screenshot thread

Post by TheIdiot »

s13n1 wrote:Oh, and awesome work here too!

When I get time I'll have a closer look, as it's looking really nice!
Thanks! I'm quite proud of the areas I've done so far, especially since when they first start out I always think they look horrible. :P I did notice that the warning lights on my 7ft fence models are slightly off in position, though, which I'll be fixing eventually.
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Re: Screenshot thread

Post by TheIdiot »

New dinosaur finished: stegosaurus stenops!

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This baby is using the JPOG model, which unfortunately used a very low-res (256x256) sized texture for the entire model, making it look very blurry and under-detailed. I had to go and remake pretty much the entire thing from scratch using bits and pieces of other photos for reference, and ultimately, it turned out better than I expected. They eye socket needs a bit of tweaking, and I think the bumpieness could be reduced, but overall, I'm quite happy with it. If I can get the model open in 3DS max, I'm going to do a bit more tweaking to it to make it more film-accurate since this is one of the few Operation Genesis models I don't like much...it could use a lot of changes to the head, and could be generally wider with a larger belly. I may also tone the colors down slightly, but I'm really liking how it blends in with the jungle from a distance.

Also - it's not screenshot related, but do I ever have a story to tell here! Fasten your seatbelts if you are in a moving vehicle (it's just the safe thing to do, duh!) and prepare your TL;DR comments, here we go:

So, I was fiddling around in the main Isla Nublar level, testing out a little glitch that I was having involving a stuck door at the Raptor Pit, when I forgot that I'd placed a pair of Raptors nearby for something to do. The Raptors came from the jungle behind me, one flanking to the left and the other following from behind (something I've been working on as behavior but haven't really finished yet). They began darting in toward me, then backing off, occasionally taking a quick chomp at me. I managed to run away into the jungle surrounding the pit and began weaving between trees, but the pair of predators never let up the chase...they never even got far enough away to "sleep", which is set to a distance of 65.0!
Sprinting into the clearing where the old Jurassic Park gate stands, I noticed a tree to my right with a climbable vine hanging down. Wasting no time, I ran over and jumped onto it - the Raptors were gaining - and slipped off. With seconds remaining before I became dinner, I assaulted the vine again, this time getting a hold on it, and hastily ascending to the safety of a low branch where they couldn't get me. I decided to attempt a jump to the next branch over, from which I would be able to make it onto the top of a large rock and be safe until a nearby stegosaur intervened. I gathered up my courage and leaped, landing precariously on the branch, struggling to maintain my footing. Finally, I lost my grip and dropped to the ground, taking some damage from the fall. The Raptors turned and immediately began running back in my direction, so I made a dash for the only cover I had left - Explorer 01, forever halted in front of the towering gate. I sprinted over with the Raptors nipping at my behind and threw the passenger-side front door open, clambering in and pulling the door shut just as one of the Raptors smashed up against it, slamming the door shut. I was safe for the time being, and the Raptors outside quieted down.
I peeked up from my crouched position and saw one of the two Raptors outside the door, its piercing green eyes glaring at me (or, should I say, ActGlare-ing? :P ). I was about to wonder where the second predator was when a vicious scream erupted behind me and I whirled around to find the driver-side door open, and only caught a glimpse of the clever girl as she dove into the vehicle, chomping down on my side and knocking me back out the door and into the open. I tried to recover and dash away, but the other Raptor wasted no time in stepping toward me and delivering the final blow. From that moment onward, I was known as Diane "Dino-Chow" Forman. 8)

It's times like this that I get excited to be working on such a colossal project. Sure, it's quite the undertaking, but when it pays off with a 15-minute pursuit ending with a struggle to find cover like this, I know it's totally worth it. :wink:
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Re: Screenshot thread

Post by machf »

OK... now I want to play that level so badly.
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Re: Screenshot thread

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OK... now I want to play that level so badly.
It's coming! Slowly but surely, it's coming. Making one huge level as opposed to a bunch of small ones means that I can't release it until it's finished, unfortunately. Give it a couple years and I figure it'll be about...eh...ten percent finished? :P

Did quite a bit of work on the mod today - got most of the work done on the marshy area where the Dilophosaurus Maintenance Shed will be located (aside from the shed itself and some small details), as well as dug out a concrete moat to divide the central plains where the brachiosaurs and parasaurs roam and the proceratosaur paddock. I also imported most of the East Dock Isla Nublar assets and placed them around finished areas to add a bit of life to everything.

Here's a shot of the moat, as well as the bridge that will be part of a small puzzle that allows you to access the plains in order to proceed further early into the game. You might recognize this from another Jurassic Park game...if you knew how to cross in the other game, the solution in RTJP will be quite similar:

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Re: Screenshot thread

Post by TheIdiot »

Different time of day...in a single level? What is this madness?!

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Well, it's not quite finished, more of a concept / base for what the final system will be. I don't think I'll be rigging up a full-on TOD system, where days actually progress by since the events of this mod take place over the course of two days only, but what this does mean is that the game will actually take place during different times of day depending on what part of the story you're in! I *might* do a weather system, but that purpose is kind of defeated with Tres CE's lack of the ATX rain feature, so best not to get hopes up over that, unfortunately. But one of the major goals I've had in mind has been fulfilled, and it actually looks glorious! :mrgreen: Man, was it ever a pain to get night time to actually be dark without being able to change the GlobalClut values...

And, since I've been working my butt off on this for the last few days, here's another teaser shot for everyone:

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...ignore the glitched floor, I was too lazy to fix it and then take another picture.
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Re: Screenshot thread

Post by Hilwo »

Sweet 8)
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Re: Screenshot thread

Post by tatu »

Doesn't one of the TC levels got rain objects? You could use those. Not sure how well CE handles if you use a lot of them tho.

One problem with ATX rain system was it even rained or snowed inside :P
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Re: Screenshot thread

Post by Hilwo »

Not sure if the final TC levels had rain, but I'm pretty sure there was a TC test level that had rain.

Edit - here it is:
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Re: Screenshot thread

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tatu wrote:Doesn't one of the TC levels got rain objects? You could use those. Not sure how well CE handles if you use a lot of them tho.
Yeah, unfortunately that's definitely not a viable option - that would mean covering the entire level (or at least the part where it's supposed to rain) in rain objects, which would probably destroy the performance and eat up the object count. And if I only covered part of the level with rain, that would mean that it would always be raining in a specific part of the island whenever you go there.
Now, a workaround for this would be to create a big tube attached to the player that has an animated rain texture, but I honestly don't know if that would look any good. Other games do this and it always looks extremely fake to me, like the rain is moving with you or something. :lol: I'll give it a test for sure though.
Alternately, I could attach a particle spawner to the player and have it way up in the sky, but I doubt that would work seeing as how CE only does particles if the center of the emitter is in your field of view...ruined a good particle waterfall, that limitation did. :(
One problem with ATX rain system was it even rained or snowed inside :P
Easily solvable with triggers, I bet, though you'd be able to see the rain inside of the building until you passed through the trigger to disable it. I've seen a mod for Skyrim that did this - the rain particles are deactivated when you step into cover, and reappear once you're out (the effect is quite jarring, though). Rain would be a cool excuse to have water dripping down from the roof of the VC or something, though...
Not sure if the final TC levels had rain, but I'm pretty sure there was a TC test level that had rain.
I've already taken a look at that, and I'm pretty sure a similar effect is used in East Dock as well when you enter / exit the tunnel. As I said above, there's no way placing that many objects would be viable unfortunately. In a smaller level, maybe, but this friggen thing is quadruple the size of a retail level. So if there's going to be rain, it's probably going to be an enclosing cylinder, sadly.
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Re: Screenshot thread

Post by machf »

TheIdiot wrote:
One problem with ATX rain system was it even rained or snowed inside :P
Easily solvable with triggers, I bet, though you'd be able to see the rain inside of the building until you passed through the trigger to disable it. I've seen a mod for Skyrim that did this - the rain particles are deactivated when you step into cover, and reappear once you're out (the effect is quite jarring, though). Rain would be a cool excuse to have water dripping down from the roof of the VC or something, though...
Yup. And once you're inside, you can just have animated textures in front of the windows and doors which show "rain" falling outside, while the actual effect is deactivated.
(Maybe I'm saying too much... that's one of the things I've included in the Pens level)
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Re: Screenshot thread

Post by TheIdiot »

Yup. And once you're inside, you can just have animated textures in front of the windows and doors which show "rain" falling outside, while the actual effect is deactivated.
(Maybe I'm saying too much... that's one of the things I've included in the Pens level)
*hastily scribbles idea down to steal later* :wink:
Seriously though, great idea! I'll let you take the credit for that idea if I use it. It wouldn't be present much anyhow, considering I only intend to have it raining for a short section in the middle of the game that is generally devoid of buildings - I think the only building in the area is the Field Lab, which seems to lack windows entirely.

Huh, that reminds me, is there any estimated ETA on Pens? I've been hearing about this level for years now and have yet to see anything of it...if that's your intent, then way to build up the excitement!
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Re: Screenshot thread

Post by Hilwo »

I love reading about those creative workaround ideas :)
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Re: Screenshot thread

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Hilwo wrote:I love reading about those creative workaround ideas :)
And I love coming up with them. Except when they don't work. :sick: I'm contemplating making a threat of all these ideas so far so that they don't disappear into nothingness and so that other people can use and implement them as well.

EDIT: Went and got a nice rain effect working - it actually looks better than the ATX version, in my opinion, though it could do with some tweaking. I just made three big cylinders inside of one another, each getting smaller as they get closer to the middle. The cylinder in the middle was welded shut at the top to form a cone, then they were combined into a mesh and textured with rain. Imported them into TresEd, set the correct values, and bam, done! It's kind of amazing what you can do with some simple models and good use of CEntityAttached on the player.
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Re: Screenshot thread

Post by machf »

TheIdiot wrote: Huh, that reminds me, is there any estimated ETA on Pens? I've been hearing about this level for years now and have yet to see anything of it...if that's your intent, then way to build up the excitement!
I hit a snag when the level started to crash on my PC (because of too many polygons or tooo many physics objects interacting at once, not sure which anymore). I considered removing some things from it... but that was before CE. And then my PC died. Twice. So I stopped working on it. Have yet to go back to it. Still afraid that the PC may act up again, I don't turn it on more than twice a week... and on this laptop (which I use to browse the Web, read my e-mail, etc.), well, the level crashes even more than it does on the PC. Haven't tried CE with the Pens yet, though.

And in order to release something using the various assets I created for the Pens level, I started a new level called "The Fort". Unfortunately, as I polished the story behind the level, it got complicated too and it wasn't released, either, because I need to create some new assets for it. Oh, and the crashes due to physics interactions, too. Probably CE would improve things a lot with that one too.

And then there's the texture work I need SI to do for the Pens... then placing some "filler" objects around the level... minor things like that. Oh, and finish placing all the proper triggers in their places.

Hopefully this month I'll be able to get a new PC... finally.
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Sound name listings for the Demo (build 117), Retail (build 116), Beta 103, Beta 99, Beta 97, Beta 96, Build 55, PC Gamer Alpha (build 32) and E3 1998 Alpha (build 22) TPA files
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