Trespasser HD - Beach / Jungle Road (BE + JR released)

[Nick3069]

True, but I had the option to go with an i7-4790k 4.0GHz for a few extra bucks, which I opted out of in the end.

"A few extra bucks"? AMD FX-6300 goes for around 160$ and i7-4790K goes for around 500$ over here, that's a lot more than a few extra bucks.

I don't know if it would have really made much of a noticable difference though, since most games run pretty much perfectly on the current set-up.

Well, the i7 is more powerful and definitely could make a difference depending on the game and its setting, but the difference will be minimal for most games, especially if you've overclocked your AMD FX.

[TheIdiot]

"A few extra bucks"? AMD FX-6300 goes for around 160$ and i7-4790K goes for around 500$ over here, that's a lot more than a few extra bucks.

Ah, I had a friend build it for me, and he was offering a deal since the parts had been purchased for cheap anyway. He charged me $80 bucks for the AMD, and the i7 would have been just about $250, if I remember correctly. Proportionally it wasn't that much since the PC itself altogether cost me $1200 CDN. Thank god I didn't get it "professionally" made, because it could have been $2K or upward because Canadians always get screwed on American products these days and the only retailers I could find were in New York.

Well, the i7 is more powerful and definitely could make a difference depending on the game and its setting, but the difference will be minimal for most games, especially if you've overclocked your AMD FX.

Exactly my reasoning. My AMD is actually overclocked, can't remember the exact number, but I believe it came clocked at 3.8GHz. I don't really play many CPU-heavy games anyway, aside from maybe the Elder Scrolls series, Rome/Medieval II: Total War, and ARMA II - all of which still keep above 40 FPS almost always. For the most part, everything runs completely smoothly.
Part of the reason I'm making this level is to see what kind of difference Trespasser CE will make on different types of computers so when I release a high-object count level like RTJP, we can see how well it is likely to operate on everyone's PC judging by the results of different tests using Beach SupHD. If we find someone with a super-high-end computer who runs at 60+FPS nonstop, and then we find someone with a lower-end Windows XP computer who runs no higher than 20FPS and crashes frequently, we know there's a problem with this sort of idea.

[Slugger]

Man, that is looking gorgeous!

Too bad we can't get finer control over the lighting or add external illumination.

[TheIdiot]

Man, that is looking gorgeous!

Too bad we can't get finer control over the lighting or add external illumination.

Thank you!
And yeah, ugh, I know what you mean. I've been trying to think up ways I could do unique graphical things like maybe a bit of 3D grass or canopy-penetrating light shafts, but something always just holds it back from looking good. The light shafts, for example, can't have a perfect fade to and from transparency because the game doesn't seem to support unlimited opacity levels. The other option would be to do it in a style like the light shaft seen in TestScene - a tall mesh with the AlphaChannel variable active, which seems to work decently enough, but doesn't look amazing.

I do think a decent 3D grass effect could be accomplished, butit's just not worth the amount of time it would take with the method I've come up with. What you would do is create a low-poly grass mesh (no more than 8-16 polys, I imagine), import it into the game, cover the entire area that you intend to have this 3D grass on with instances of this grass mesh, and then export these placed instances of it into Max, combining them into "tableaux" objects like they used for the plants in the original game until you have a bunch of grass meshes. Then you'd import those back into Tres and move them to the correct location. I'd even go so far as to say you could make them animated by adding a couple frames of the grass blowing (trees could do that too, for that matter), though what kind of performance hit all of this would have, I don't know - though likely quite heavy, even with proper optimization. Still, it could theoretically be done, although I certainly won't be doing this here. But there's an idea for someone else out there if it ever comes up again. :nerd

[machf]

I'd even go so far as to say you could make them animated by adding a couple frames of the grass blowing (trees could do that too, for that matter), though what kind of performance hit all of this would have, I don't know - though likely quite heavy, even with proper optimization. Still, it could theoretically be done, although I certainly won't be doing this here. But there's an idea for someone else out there if it ever comes up again. :nerd

I've done that with seaweed... the video used to be up, but then they closed Webshots.

[TheIdiot]

I'd even go so far as to say you could make them animated by adding a couple frames of the grass blowing (trees could do that too, for that matter), though what kind of performance hit all of this would have, I don't know - though likely quite heavy, even with proper optimization. Still, it could theoretically be done, although I certainly won't be doing this here. But there's an idea for someone else out there if it ever comes up again. :nerd

I've done that with seaweed... the video used to be up, but then they closed Webshots.

Now there's a good place to use that sort of thing. How well did it work? Did it drop your performance much? I wonder how bad it would slow a vanilla level down if done to every plant and tree type. Or even using mesh replacement to do blowing branches - that would probably destroy your frames. And I'm pretty sure the mesh replacement trigger from ATX only works on CAnimals anyway, if I remember correctly.

[Fenris]

That is some sexy forest Mr Idiot... Is it Mr? You could totally be a lady for all I know... I remember one time I spent like a year talking to someone I assumed was a lady on a forum and they turned out to be a dude Anyhow that aside I've been a little bit TL:DR about projects like this but it looks great, I think I've been missing out...

[TheIdiot]

That is some sexy forest Mr Idiot... Is it Mr? You could totally be a lady for all I know... I remember one time I spent like a year talking to someone I assumed was a lady on a forum and they turned out to be a dude Anyhow that aside I've been a little bit TL:DR about projects like this but it looks great, I think I've been missing out...

Haha, yeah, I'm a dude (I think). Can't say I've even been in that situation myself, though - although I have accidentally confused a guy for a girl briefly in real life before.
And ah yeah, I don't blame you, I never shut up. But thanks nonetheless!

[Radeux]

Looks awesome, I'll try running it on my Voodoo 5 soon. Any idea if the CE will break GLIDE? I haven't downloaded it yet cuz I'm not switching to DX9.

Voodoo 5 4ns ram/ Rev320 chips GLIDE MONSTER

[Draconisaurus]

TI, this looks great! The lack of perceptible difference between terrain and models in CE looks rather a lot like newer games. That cliffline is sweet.

At first while I was watching this, I wasn't digging the use of TC foliage in an original Tres level but it's grown on me, while reading the thread, to the point that I love it.

About the sunrays. I'm afraid that, yes, OpacityChannel only goes up/down in increments. However, you could use 24-bit textures on always-face models to achieve a dither affect.. Not 100% sure it would look right but you could test (and post screens even if it doesn't look right ).

Ah, now eventually you do plan to have dinosaurs on your, on your dinosaur tour, right?

[TheIdiot]

Jumped into this project for a bit more work:



While looking at the original terrain, it seemed there was some sort of streambed or ditch on the far side of the foundations from where you start, so I decided to do a bit more with that and make it a full-out dried stream. Coincidentally, my tree placement created this awesome view down to the beach.
You can also see that I have changed to fog to the same blue color as the sky to make it look more realistic when blending in the distance - still tweaking it, though I think it's good for now. Just want to make everything a bit brighter, as the old walkthrough says that the jungle immediately after the beach is still rather bright. It's not until PH that things get really foggy and dark.

Looks awesome, I'll try running it on my Voodoo 5 soon. Any idea if the CE will break GLIDE? I haven't downloaded it yet cuz I'm not switching to DX9.

Can't say, but I'm pretty sure you can disable the DX9 rendering in CE. I somehow doubt that this beast will run on such an old card, but I'd love to see you give it a go.

TI, this looks great! The lack of perceptible difference between terrain and models in CE looks rather a lot like newer games. That cliffline is sweet.

Yeah, I've tried to cover the entire blank terrain in some sort of groundcover to prevent the terrain looking out-of-place, though in the more open areas it will be blank (don't worry, it still works). Might also go create a custom mesh for the cliff, too, though that's not priority.

At first while I was watching this, I wasn't digging the use of TC foliage in an original Tres level but it's grown on me, while reading the thread, to the point that I love it.

I actually tried this first using the original foliage, but ditched it in the end. It looked sort of messy and some of the models are quite obviously low-poly, plus I wanted to make it look more like the Isla Sorna seen in the movies with darker colors. Think of this as more of a "re-imagining".

About the sunrays. I'm afraid that, yes, OpacityChannel only goes up/down in increments. However, you could use 24-bit textures on always-face models to achieve a dither affect.. Not 100% sure it would look right but you could test (and post screens even if it doesn't look right ).

Crap. Well, I guess dithering could work, though I'm not certain what you have in mind...maybe a mock-up screenshot to clarify? I'm also trying to avoid the use of always-face models since they look sort of goofy rotating with you (even the billboard trees in this level are rotated by hand to face the right way).

Ah, now eventually you do plan to have dinosaurs on your, on your dinosaur tour, right?

...I really hate this man.
But yes, I'll be including all of the dinosaurs originally in this level, with better-quality models and all, plus perhaps a couple of extras to spice things up a bit. So far, I've tweaked and imported one of the Barrel-Full-O-Raptors skins for the TC~Isle Raptor, though it seems that I'll have to make my own JPOG brachiosaur skin. I found one from an old JPOG Trespasser project, but I'm not sure I like it too much. Additionally, from what I have read, the developers may have intended to include gallimimus and compsognathus as well, so I might throw in a couple of compies somewhere for good measure.

[Deadeyeguy_45]

Jumped into this project for a bit more work:



While looking at the original terrain, it seemed there was some sort of streambed or ditch on the far side of the foundations from where you start, so I decided to do a bit more with that and make it a full-out dried stream. Coincidentally, my tree placement created this awesome view down to the beach.
You can also see that I have changed to fog to the same blue color as the sky to make it look more realistic when blending in the distance - still tweaking it, though I think it's good for now. Just want to make everything a bit brighter, as the old walkthrough says that the jungle immediately after the beach is still rather bright. It's not until PH that things get really foggy and dark.

Looks awesome, I'll try running it on my Voodoo 5 soon. Any idea if the CE will break GLIDE? I haven't downloaded it yet cuz I'm not switching to DX9.

Can't say, but I'm pretty sure you can disable the DX9 rendering in CE. I somehow doubt that this beast will run on such an old card, but I'd love to see you give it a go.

TI, this looks great! The lack of perceptible difference between terrain and models in CE looks rather a lot like newer games. That cliffline is sweet.

Yeah, I've tried to cover the entire blank terrain in some sort of groundcover to prevent the terrain looking out-of-place, though in the more open areas it will be blank (don't worry, it still works). Might also go create a custom mesh for the cliff, too, though that's not priority.

At first while I was watching this, I wasn't digging the use of TC foliage in an original Tres level but it's grown on me, while reading the thread, to the point that I love it.

I actually tried this first using the original foliage, but ditched it in the end. It looked sort of messy and some of the models are quite obviously low-poly, plus I wanted to make it look more like the Isla Sorna seen in the movies with darker colors. Think of this as more of a "re-imagining".

About the sunrays. I'm afraid that, yes, OpacityChannel only goes up/down in increments. However, you could use 24-bit textures on always-face models to achieve a dither affect.. Not 100% sure it would look right but you could test (and post screens even if it doesn't look right ).

Crap. Well, I guess dithering could work, though I'm not certain what you have in mind...maybe a mock-up screenshot to clarify? I'm also trying to avoid the use of always-face models since they look sort of goofy rotating with you (even the billboard trees in this level are rotated by hand to face the right way).

Ah, now eventually you do plan to have dinosaurs on your, on your dinosaur tour, right?

...I really hate this man.
But yes, I'll be including all of the dinosaurs originally in this level, with better-quality models and all, plus perhaps a couple of extras to spice things up a bit. So far, I've tweaked and imported one of the Barrel-Full-O-Raptors skins for the TC~Isle Raptor, though it seems that I'll have to make my own JPOG brachiosaur skin. I found one from an old JPOG Trespasser project, but I'm not sure I like it too much. Additionally, from what I have read, the developers may have intended to include gallimimus and compsognathus as well, so I might throw in a couple of compies somewhere for good measure.

Looking really awesome! I can't wait for more updates on this project

[Slugger]

You know, that ALMOST looks like Crysis, at a glance. With the use of the high-res models and textures it could easily pass as a current-gen game I think. And that's the highest honor I think can be bestowed upon your work!

[Slugger]

Jumped into this project for a bit more work:

In particular, this is a rather beautiful image. Excellent work!

[TheIdiot]

You know, that ALMOST looks like Crysis, at a glance. With the use of the high-res models and textures it could easily pass as a current-gen game I think. And that's the highest honor I think can be bestowed upon your work!

Thank you very much, that means a lot! I was actually partially inspired by the way Crysis looks when making this. I wish it weren't so time-consuming for me to make new models, otherwise I'd be doing that with everything. I do at least plan on doing higher-quality models for the rest of the foundation ruins, the wooden fence gates, monorail station gate, some weapons, the Mercedes-Benz Unimog, broken bridge, and the rest of the crates.

In particular, this is a rather beautiful image. Excellent work!

Again, thanks. I'll keep uploading these screenshots as I progress further into the level - I'm currently finished everything until just after the billboard and truck, though there are still a lot of details missing from the ruins and a small area of vegetation that hasn't been finished.