(NEW*6/19/2007)Official Dinosaur-Design Thread

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(NEW*6/19/2007)Official Dinosaur-Design Thread

Post by Draconisaurus »

Note: This thread has been backed up from the "new" JPDS forum

Alright, this thread is not so much for the discussion of creating dinosaurs (though that certainly goes in here, too), but for discussion of level-design that relates directly to dinosaurs. Where they go.. what their environments look like.. dinos in buildings.. all that sort of thing.

The first topic of discussion I'll bring forward was brought up by SI, that is what dinosaur(s) to put in Mickey's Cave on Misty Mountain. Apparently SI has an idea.... one dinosaur I've been thinking about putting in here is a Baryonyx. I don't actually recall if we have one yet... though it wouldn't be that hard to mod off a spinosaur. I'd also had in mind to place one or two raptors in this cave, maybe. Anyways.. discuss.
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Post by Draconisaurus »

Mickey wrote:Isn't the Baryonyx to big for a cave?
I think we should have something new, give everyone a big surprise...
Lets see raptors I agree.. But I think the cave should be exclusive to just one dinosaur type don't want it over crowded with dinos, I think in someways it would loss the magic.
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Post by Draconisaurus »

True, true.. I was going to wait and test it out to see how it felt. But you're right, might not make as much sense to put dinos in along with a medium predator.. and I've got an idea where this dino would go, too, in conjunction with some scripting to hide him from the player until the right moment...
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Post by Draconisaurus »

Second Illiteration wrote:There is a baryonyx...and a suchomimus...

Image

Image

You may recognize the bary as the suchomimus from cityscape slightly modified. I also slightly modded the sucho to give it a small sail. Other than that they look very similar.


Maybe we could put the allosaurus in the cave or something like that. I'm thinking for the cave to make the dinosaur either a whitish color or a rock color. The idea with the white is that, if you've ever seen animals that dwell in caves their whole lives, they are pale (and often blind) so I'm thinking of basing it off of something like that...(Is there anyway to make a dinosaur not see you if you don't move or something like that?

I could also do something with the baryonyx skin (or sucho for that matter which may be better because I have some sounds made up for the sucho already.)

Other possible ideas I could think of for the cave would be a modified alberta or the nanotyrannus (obviously both with new skins)


My idea though was for the raptors I made with the rock looking skin...I at least wanted to see if they blended with the cave walls at all. I think I've showed drac a picture but here is another.


Image



Then again, we could always invent some kind of dinosaur, possibly by modding the raptor somehow...
Mickey wrote:That raptor looks great 8) I think that one could go in the cave...
About the baryonyx and the suchomimus I don't think it would match up with the cave, I mean the cave isn't that big and why would a dinosaurs that big be in a cave?
I really like that raptor and I like the idea of not seeing you without moving, maybe we could also make it more aggressive and difficult to kill give it some new sounds :)
Second Illiteration wrote:Yeah I could give it some new sounds. What I would like to do is make it kind of ugly, like gross to look at. And I think we should make them a little bit smaller, maybe 2/3 to 1/2 the size of the other raptors...


We should also put some compies in there that lack pigmentation and have very dark eyes....
Mickey wrote:Nah I think more than one type of dino in there its unrealistic in such a small cave, I think the raptors would be awesome :)
Second Illiteration wrote:But compies are small, and are more like scavengers...they would be the dinos that live in the cave ALL the time. The raptors would live there but often go outside to secure food...
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Post by Draconisaurus »

Hmm yeah the compies are small enough that they could be constantly "on the run", in the first JP book they went around eating all the dino poo. They're sorta like part of the ecosystem, in that way..

The rock raptor looks awesome. Don't make it too gross, we're planning on a zombie raptor for the Marsh. ;) Actually if you want to take a crack at the zombie raptor now, go right ahead..

However I do really like that baryonyx, and I think it would go very well in the cave (considering its environment in TLWPS1 game). I planned on putting it in the very back of the cave, by the waterfall and spring... would still like to, but if EVERYONE wants to keep it with just the raptors, I'll give in :P It is Mickey's cave, anyway..

PS: could we have an alpha version of the rock raptor? That would be pretty neat...
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Post by Draconisaurus »

Second Illiteration wrote:I would say in the cave the compies would be more like eye candy and the raptors would be the real threat. By alpha, what do you specifically mean?




And how would something like this be for the zombie raptor...

Image

Obviously it's unfinished, but I based it off the Dino Crisis 3 rex...


Oh and speaking of the marsh (or am I thinking swamp) in the beta, the swamp or whatever where all the dilos are...have you figured out a way to make them at least appear that they are swimming, rather than walking on the bottom under water?
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Post by Draconisaurus »

Second Illiteration wrote:I would say in the cave the compies would be more like eye candy and the raptors would be the real threat. By alpha, what do you specifically mean?
The same way each/most raptor tribes in JPDS1 need an alpha version. So far most of them do.. actually the ones that are in the level now all do, besides RaptorJ/JF which I reasoned have a differently evolved social structure from the others. Basically, "head feathers" could work well in many cases, a slightly different base color, something different about the head.. those are common ways to do it. See the alpha brachio and alpha pteranodon for other examples (plus the alpha female raptor in JP///, though it's a bit different).
Second Illiteration wrote:And how would something like this be for the zombie raptor...

Image

Obviously it's unfinished, but I based it off the Dino Crisis 3 rex...
Ahh that's pretty neat! I was just looking at dino crisis images yesterday and saw that rex.. (only played the first game) which looks pretty horrific. I like it, except the color scheme is not quite what I'm looking for. The plot is that they were mutated by DX canisters leaking fluid into the marsh from the sewer. Originally I was going to base the zombie raptor skin on the RaptorJF skin, which is black, green, and yellow. I was thinking less yellows and some reds, with a few brownish rotting colors added to the mix, keeping about the same amount of green. The thing about the marsh environment is that it is VERY green, along with the dull brown grasses and such, so the raptors that live there should blend in (even beyond a logical standpoint, it's better for gameplay if they are harder to detect like that). So however you want to achieve that... I'm thinking the feet shouldn't be so bright, and the magentas I see leaking in should be toned down, and the mouth section needs to come up a bit (which has actually been a small issue with many past raptor skins, I've noticed, plus the location of the eyes). If you want, you could just continue the raptor as it looks on the rest of him, then hand him to me and I can see what I can do about recolorizing.
Second Illiteration wrote:Oh and speaking of the marsh (or am I thinking swamp) in the beta, the swamp or whatever where all the dilos are...have you figured out a way to make them at least appear that they are swimming, rather than walking on the bottom under water?
Yeah that's the swamp, I'm holding off any work on that for a while because it's an extremely slow location, meaning I have to combine lots of local foliage, plus I've realized that with any desent amount of objects around, 3 tc_isle raptors operating nearby at once slows the engine waaaayyy down, quite depressingly... this is most evident to me at the secret PV road area, where there are 3 raptors fighting each other, and I recently populated it with pines. Nooo way does it work like that.. Anyways as for swimming dilos, I rather liked the idea of the dilos nipping at your feet from below, which I think someone else mentioned one time. I may attempt some tests later with at least one version of the dilo, supposdly "bool Float = true" can make that sort of thing happen, but I've never done it so I'm not sure how attractive it looks.
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Post by Draconisaurus »

Second Illiteration wrote:Did putting an invisible but tangible object to act like a floor work?
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Post by Draconisaurus »

Eh you gotta remember that Anne can go in the water, too. Erm Tasha I mean. So.. if she dies, we want her to fall all the way to the bottom of the swamp. Or if she drops her gun, we want it to fall all the way down so she's really lost it. So a tangible sub-surface object wouldn't really work I'm afraid..
(it's also important for events like the floor of the SwampShack caving in, etc.)
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Post by Second Illiteration »

Introducing first:



MEGARAPTOR:

Image



This is one of a few different skins I'm doing for it. Thanks go to Machf for rigging and basically all the hard work of getting this thing working.




Next:


CARNOTAURUS:

Image

This one isn't rigged yet, and it's an update to Ryan's model to give it the more bullish appearance. Also be ready for an update showing camouflauging Carnotauruses (The effect is pretty much done, just some tweeking.)
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Post by Draconisaurus »

Image

Any way I could get this skin sometime soon? :D And any other new raptor skins you have that are ready to go..
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Post by Second Illiteration »

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Post by Draconisaurus »

Hmmmm! Not too bad at all! 8) It looks like someone managed to smooth it, right? Also where did the material for the skin come from, it reminds me of the baby rex...
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Post by Second Illiteration »

I found some pictures of some JP models that I think some guy repainted, and I used one of a trex for the skin. It needs some slight adjustments, but is that a way to go for the final product or should I go back to the drawing board?


As far as smoothing, I don't know. My knowledge goes as far as pasting a bunch of crap together to alter a skin. I probably won't get much more knowledgable than that. (I can't hardly even spell :wink: )

But it looks pretty wicked in game.
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