Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Released! - Discuss progress and updates on the biggest Trespasser level endeavor ever, JPDS - a dark Tres mod by Draco and co.

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Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by Draconisaurus »

Name: Draco Astreus
Position: Team Leader, 3D modeller, event scripter, sound design, level design, texture design
Occupation: Aspiring Game Designer, Boyfriend, Restaurant Front Worker
Age: 20
Listening to: Tres Elements website ambience in browser tab



K well before I go to play TC Isle Beta2 tonight and then hit the sack... I will share a bit of our latest developments with you all. ;) As I've indicated in the forums already, JPDS1 has been trudging along with palette optimization. Nem introduced me to the application "Wally", a rather old and quite trusty app which is small, insanely simple to install, efficient, and displays palettes right there in front of you at all times. The load and save palette function is so easy to use, a caveman could do it. It allowed me to begin building an actual palette library (.PAL files) to use with Trespasser! Some of the palettes are ones that I made some time ago for certain JPDS textures but most are from retail Tres. Strangely enough, a great deal of Trespasser palettes have only about 1/4th of total possible colors.. I would go get an exact number but it's late. Anyway, these incomplete palettes are bothersome and I avoid them when I can (adopting other Tres palettes most often), but sometimes it's just the case that none other will get the colors right. Sooo, that's been fun.. NOT. It's a lot of work but on the bright side, I am starting to be able to identify palettes on sight based on trademark spots on the palette that pop out and make the palette known, and other stuff.

Anyway what I have also been doing is reconstructing the JPDS1 files altogether... I discovered to my dismay certain objects, when I tried to delete them, would actually crash TresEd (no level corruption though, as no save could be done), including the outdated raptors you've all seen before. That alone was enough to force this, but it's actually going a long way to making JPDS1 more manageable. I am building a development system where different areas of the level actually get THEIR OWN level files. Here's how it works: There is a base level file (which I'm still building) that will have only the base terrain objects, start triggers (plus Sky etc.), the entire basement, and the player (now actually renamed to Tasha). Then the first real sublevel I've made is JPDS~Plains, where I retained the base of the level (base terrain player etc.) and imported into the basement only the objects which populate the Plains, then I imported all instances of those objects from the original level (both those in the Plains and those elsewhere, for instance -## consistency). So now, I can give this level to Nem (did so tonight) and let him work on it while still toying with the base level file. Eventually, all of JPDS1's main locations will have their own sublevel files (EA, HRS, Airport, World Foliage, etc.), each of which can be worked on separately. There are MANY benefits of this development method for such a large level, including the simple fact that it won't take half a minute to save the level anymore (and loading times will be much faster). Another way to ensure compatibility between the sublevels is, when copying new instances, to add a number in front of the new instances to ensure no overlap. For example, if I copy a new PWoodCrate00-00 in the HRS, and there are already new copies in other levels or w/e, I just name the first new copy "PWoodCrate00-1001", and maybe a new one in the EA would be named "PWoodCrate00-2001", etc.
And so.. the final component of this system is that a master texture dump folder will be created with the final paletted textures; GRF files of the sublevels are placed in this folder and imported directly into the main level, using the final texture versions (some sublevels will have previous, unoptimized texture palettes and that is fine due to this method).

Okay enough techno jargon.. how about some screenshots? Here now I've decided to give you all your first look at the new JPDS1 Plains. Most of what you see was put together by me but the original grass population was done by Nem (had to be entirely rescaled and positioned but he still takes credit for the general layout). The grass textures are probably not final but we still like them in their current state (going to wait to release pics to mod db until the area is more finalized). Enjoy!
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Re: Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by machf »

Draconisaurus wrote: K well before I go to play TC Isle Beta2 tonight and then hit the sack... I will share a bit of our latest developments with you all. ;) As I've indicated in the forums already, JPDS1 has been trudging along with palette optimization. Nem introduced me to the application "Wally", a rather old and quite trusty app which is small, insanely simple to install, efficient, and displays palettes right there in front of you at all times. The load and save palette function is so easy to use, a caveman could do it. It allowed me to begin building an actual palette library (.PAL files) to use with Trespasser!
Did you ever bother reading this?
http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... =15#p52685
Or the original for PSP?
http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... f=9&t=4534
Some of the palettes are ones that I made some time ago for certain JPDS textures but most are from retail Tres. Strangely enough, a great deal of Trespasser palettes have only about 1/4th of total possible colors.. I would go get an exact number but it's late.
64 colors instead of 256. Yes, those are the ones corresponding to bumpmapped (actually, normal mapped) textures. As has been long established, normal mapped textures use a 16-bit format for storing image data, of which 10 bits are used for the actual normal map, and that leaves only 6 bits for the color map - hence, the palette will be limited to only 64 colors (2^6).
Anyway, these incomplete palettes are bothersome and I avoid them when I can (adopting other Tres palettes most often), but sometimes it's just the case that none other will get the colors right. Sooo, that's been fun.. NOT. It's a lot of work but on the bright side, I am starting to be able to identify palettes on sight based on trademark spots on the palette that pop out and make the palette known, and other stuff.

Anyway what I have also been doing is reconstructing the JPDS1 files altogether... I discovered to my dismay certain objects, when I tried to delete them, would actually crash TresEd (no level corruption though, as no save could be done), including the outdated raptors you've all seen before. That alone was enough to force this, but it's actually going a long way to making JPDS1 more manageable. I am building a development system where different areas of the level actually get THEIR OWN level files. Here's how it works: There is a base level file (which I'm still building) that will have only the base terrain objects, start triggers (plus Sky etc.), the entire basement, and the player (now actually renamed to Tasha). Then the first real sublevel I've made is JPDS~Plains, where I retained the base of the level (base terrain player etc.) and imported into the basement only the objects which populate the Plains, then I imported all instances of those objects from the original level (both those in the Plains and those elsewhere, for instance -## consistency). So now, I can give this level to Nem (did so tonight) and let him work on it while still toying with the base level file. Eventually, all of JPDS1's main locations will have their own sublevel files (EA, HRS, Airport, World Foliage, etc.), each of which can be worked on separately. There are MANY benefits of this development method for such a large level, including the simple fact that it won't take half a minute to save the level anymore (and loading times will be much faster). Another way to ensure compatibility between the sublevels is, when copying new instances, to add a number in front of the new instances to ensure no overlap. For example, if I copy a new PWoodCrate00-00 in the HRS, and there are already new copies in other levels or w/e, I just name the first new copy "PWoodCrate00-1001", and maybe a new one in the EA would be named "PWoodCrate00-2001", etc.
And so.. the final component of this system is that a master texture dump folder will be created with the final paletted textures; GRF files of the sublevels are placed in this folder and imported directly into the main level, using the final texture versions (some sublevels will have previous, unoptimized texture palettes and that is fine due to this method).

Okay enough techno jargon.. how about some screenshots? Here now I've decided to give you all your first look at the new JPDS1 Plains. Most of what you see was put together by me but the original grass population was done by Nem (had to be entirely rescaled and positioned
I hope you were smart enough to automate the rescaling... select all objects of that type, export as .tpm, do a global replace inside the .tpm file for the "scale = " lines (assuming all will have the same scale, of course), save back the .tpm, import with GeomAdd withthe "replace instances" option checked only...
but he still takes credit for the general layout). The grass textures are probably not final but we still like them in their current state (going to wait to release pics to mod db until the area is more finalized). Enjoy!
Looks like wheat fields...
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Re: Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by Shadow Wolf »

machf wrote:
but he still takes credit for the general layout). The grass textures are probably not final but we still like them in their current state (going to wait to release pics to mod db until the area is more finalized). Enjoy!
Looks like wheat fields...
sorry Drac but those do look a little wheaty... the ground colour kinda contradicts it as grass that colour is usually found growing on a less vibrant green terrain you might wanna fade it in with some terrain objects... the important point being fade in rather than a sudden transition... (man DP is gonna need a lot of terrian objs considering it's a desert :| )
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Re: Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by Draconisaurus »

Oye what an unusual morning I'm having. :sick:
machf wrote:Did you ever bother reading this?
http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... =15#p52685
Or the original for PSP?
http://trescom.3dactionplanet.gamespy.c ... f=9&t=4534
Only in brief before; thanks for bringing up the Wally one, I just read it, but I haven't been making any new palettes, just sorting old ones... so I won't be following that for now (and I can do it in far fewer steps, plus I already used your method for collecting textures on a single image.. example).
Some of the palettes are ones that I made some time ago for certain JPDS textures but most are from retail Tres. Strangely enough, a great deal of Trespasser palettes have only about 1/4th of total possible colors.. I would go get an exact number but it's late.
64 colors instead of 256. Yes, those are the ones corresponding to bumpmapped (actually, normal mapped) textures. As has been long established, normal mapped textures use a 16-bit format for storing image data, of which 10 bits are used for the actual normal map, and that leaves only 6 bits for the color map - hence, the palette will be limited to only 64 colors (2^6).
Ouch, that sucks! Thanks for the explanation..
I hope you were smart enough to automate the rescaling... select all objects of that type, export as .tpm, do a global replace inside the .tpm file for the "scale = " lines (assuming all will have the same scale, of course), save back the .tpm, import with GeomAdd withthe "replace instances" option checked only...
Two things.
  1. It's simpler than that. In TresEd, you go to the basement, rescale the parent instance to whatever new scale you desire (in this case it would have been from 1.0 to 2.0), shift-click to select all its instances, ctrl+click to deselect the parent, Delete, then undo. All the instances will then have the same scale value as the parent, it's a very quick process that I occasionally employ.
  2. I did not use that method this time because it did not suit our purposes. It would be inadequate to simply scale all the grass objects up because they would become more densely packed AND would not cover any significantly greater terrain surface area. Nem and I discussed it and we figured the best method was to select his groups of grass one at a time, scale them up, drop them to the terrain and work from there (lots of other adjustments to do after that). Then, repeat the process.. It takes longer but is needed for proper object placement.
Looks like wheat fields...
Shadow Wolf wrote:sorry Drac but those do look a little wheaty... the ground colour kinda contradicts it as grass that colour is usually found growing on a less vibrant green terrain you might wanna fade it in with some terrain objects... the important point being fade in rather than a sudden transition...
Drac's gf Megan wrote:It does look like a wheat field.. it's too tall
Arghh!!! lol well this is why I didn't post it at mod db I guess, I knew some outside opinions would help.
So, what are the suggestions for improvement? Brighter ground? Darker grass? Both, and which more importantly? And should the grass really be shorter? :? The whole point of the Plains, in my eyes, was a grass-filled area where vision of your immediate surroundings is obscured by long grass...
ImageImage

(man DP is gonna need a lot of terrian objs considering it's a desert :| )
How's that? I would think the opposite...


And I suppose no one thinks too highly of the new plains trees.. :?
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Re: Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by Shadow Wolf »

Draconisaurus wrote:
Looks like wheat fields...
Shadow Wolf wrote:sorry Drac but those do look a little wheaty... the ground colour kinda contradicts it as grass that colour is usually found growing on a less vibrant green terrain you might wanna fade it in with some terrain objects... the important point being fade in rather than a sudden transition...
Drac's gf Megan wrote:It does look like a wheat field.. it's too tall
Arghh!!! lol well this is why I didn't post it at mod db I guess, I knew some outside opinions would help.
So, what are the suggestions for improvement? Brighter ground? Darker grass? Both, and which more importantly? And should the grass really be shorter? :? The whole point of the Plains, in my eyes, was a grass-filled area where vision of your immediate surroundings is obscured by long grass...
I'd say a fade on that grass from green at the base to a slightly darker brown at the tip and some colour variation, also the leaves are too big, getting there though :)

(man DP is gonna need a lot of terrian objs considering it's a desert :| )
How's that? I would think the opposite...


And I suppose no one thinks too highly of the new plains trees.. :?
well as deserts go... and I quite like the plains trees... I could suggest a few things like a more conical canopy and a few more tufts of leafy stuff... maybe the trunk being more tapered so it's wider at the base but over all I like them... they don't NEED improvement unless you're a perfectionist
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Re: Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by Nick3069 »

Draconisaurus wrote:Arghh!!! lol well this is why I didn't post it at mod db I guess, I knew some outside opinions would help.
So, what are the suggestions for improvement? Brighter ground? Darker grass? Both, and which more importantly? And should the grass really be shorter? :? The whole point of the Plains, in my eyes, was a grass-filled area where vision of your immediate surroundings is obscured by long grass...
I suggest more texture to the grass and make it a little darker and greener too. (sort of like Shadow Wolf said)
How long is your grass? If it taller than the one in TC-Ops or Lost Jungle, then yes, it's too tall. The grass in those are tall enough to blind you already.
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Re: Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by Draconisaurus »

Shadow Wolf wrote:I'd say a fade on that grass from green at the base to a slightly darker brown at the tip and some colour variation, also the leaves are too big, getting there though :)
Hmmm, by leaves to you mean blades of grass? Since you've described your modding process to me, I'm going to guess here that you do not realize that it's the standard grass texture from TC Act 1 used in various levels. Probably not going to be modding the actual shape.. it looks pixelated enough as it is now, any thinner and it's going to be much worse, and less obscuring.
well as deserts go... and I quite like the plains trees... I could suggest a few things like a more conical canopy and a few more tufts of leafy stuff... maybe the trunk being more tapered so it's wider at the base but over all I like them... they don't NEED improvement unless you're a perfectionist
Well TBH, the Plains trees were done a while ago and.. at this point I'm trying to get things done and move the project forward. Mapping a cylindrical object is a pain unless you map it BEFORE you bend it around, so what might be some good bark texture improvements for example are not worth the trouble at this point.. much less various other mesh alterations. Only thing that I'm likely to mod (if anything) would be the textures themselves (not anything that would require new mapping). These were some of my first new foliage models for 2008 so I suppose I've learned better after all this.. it's also not easy to get the best accuracy in this poly level. Anyway, here are some primary refs I used for the fever trees:
ImageImageImage

Hmm a note.. "more tufts of leafy stuff" might be possible but a) again I'm trying to move on.. b) that would increase poly and one of the points of these trees is to be low poly, allowing for the density you see.
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Re: Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by machf »

Draconisaurus wrote: Only in brief before; thanks for bringing up the Wally one, I just read it, but I haven't been making any new palettes, just sorting old ones... so I won't be following that for now (and I can do it in far fewer steps, plus I already used your method for collecting textures on a single image.. example).
The basic still applies... you load an RGB image and then load the palette you want to convert it.
I hope you were smart enough to automate the rescaling... select all objects of that type, export as .tpm, do a global replace inside the .tpm file for the "scale = " lines (assuming all will have the same scale, of course), save back the .tpm, import with GeomAdd withthe "replace instances" option checked only...
Two things.
  1. It's simpler than that. In TresEd, you go to the basement, rescale the parent instance to whatever new scale you desire (in this case it would have been from 1.0 to 2.0), shift-click to select all its instances, ctrl+click to deselect the parent, Delete, then undo. All the instances will then have the same scale value as the parent, it's a very quick process that I occasionally employ.
Right, I noticed that the other day by accident... remember that thing I told you I scaled down to 80%?
[*]I did not use that method this time because it did not suit our purposes. It would be inadequate to simply scale all the grass objects up because they would become more densely packed AND would not cover any significantly greater terrain surface area. Nem and I discussed it and we figured the best method was to select his groups of grass one at a time, scale them up, drop them to the terrain and work from there (lots of other adjustments to do after that). Then, repeat the process.. It takes longer but is needed for proper object placement.[/list]
Yes, that's certainly an alternative in such a case.
Looks like wheat fields...
Shadow Wolf wrote:sorry Drac but those do look a little wheaty... the ground colour kinda contradicts it as grass that colour is usually found growing on a less vibrant green terrain you might wanna fade it in with some terrain objects... the important point being fade in rather than a sudden transition...
Drac's gf Megan wrote:It does look like a wheat field.. it's too tall
Arghh!!! lol well this is why I didn't post it at mod db I guess, I knew some outside opinions would help.
So, what are the suggestions for improvement? Brighter ground? Darker grass? Both, and which more importantly? And should the grass really be shorter? :?
As has already been said, the grass should have more green.
The whole point of the Plains, in my eyes, was a grass-filled area where vision of your immediate surroundings is obscured by long grass...
ImageImage
If it makes you feel better, just remember that wheat is nothing more than a domesticated species of grass...
(man DP is gonna need a lot of terrian objs considering it's a desert :| )
How's that? I would think the opposite...


And I suppose no one thinks too highly of the new plains trees.. :?
Didn't look at them too much, really...
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Re: Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by Shadow Wolf »

Draconisaurus wrote:
Shadow Wolf wrote:I'd say a fade on that grass from green at the base to a slightly darker brown at the tip and some colour variation, also the leaves are too big, getting there though :)
Hmmm, by leaves to you mean blades of grass? Since you've described your modding process to me, I'm going to guess here that you do not realize that it's the standard grass texture from TC Act 1 used in various levels. Probably not going to be modding the actual shape.. it looks pixelated enough as it is now, any thinner and it's going to be much worse, and less obscuring.
actually as I said I don't open a lev I havn't played yet in TresEd unless I know it contains something I'd like to use and even then I go straight to where it is (using only nono visible objects view if I can)... so I did know that was the origin of the grass... I personally am going to attempt my own grass for DP

Hmm a note.. "more tufts of leafy stuff" might be possible but a) again I'm trying to move on.. b) that would increase poly and one of the points of these trees is to be low poly, allowing for the density you see.
as I said there's no need to change them unless you're a perfectionist
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Re: Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by TheGuy »

Hey, that's some cool grass. I rather like it to be honest, and I don't really think it looks too much like a corn field because corn doesn't bend down like that. :P

Edit: By corn field, I mean wheat field... brain typo :P *excuses*
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Re: Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by machf »

Not a corn field, a wheat field...
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Re: Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by hppav »

OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHKlahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain, And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet When the wind comes right behind the rain.

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Re: Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by TheGuy »

machf wrote:Not a corn field, a wheat field...

Ah, yeah, wheat field. :|
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Re: Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by Asjad »

looks good, but for another theme :wink: ...Lion King comes to mind...I think the grass color needs a little work..^
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Re: Draco - Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Post by Draconisaurus »

machf wrote:Right, I noticed that the other day by accident... remember that thing I told you I scaled down to 80%?
Oye, not at the moment.. but the PV mayan thingy comes to mind.
EDIT: ...Oh. The.. yeah. Okay. ;)
As has already been said, the grass should have more green.
Right, but not all the grass you'd see has any green in it.. so uh, just a greater population of the green objects I guess.
If it makes you feel better, just remember that wheat is nothing more than a domesticated species of grass...
Lol well yes, so I wonder what the true difference between wheat and wild grass is visually.. lots of wild grass fields are lacking in green colors. Here in Iowa, before farmers came around, there were lots of "wild praries" and I don't think there was too much green in them, though I ought to do some research.. (when it's not in the early morning)
Didn't look at them too much, really...
Heh alright, well I intentionally have not yet given a good look at the new Acacia.. most of the ones are, as I indicated, fever trees, which are indigenous to Africa but I feel they benefit the environment enough to warrant the inaccuracy.
as I said there's no need to change them unless you're a perfectionist
That is of course a problem since I am one. :yum: I'm just resisting the impulse.

LOL @ Sam, not familiar with that at all..

Thanks Asjad. :yum: Maybe someone can make a Lion King mod after this.
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