Art Stuff

[achilleszero]

Yeah, those are great ideas. And all simple to add, since they are all pretty much empty shells unlike the units. Definitely putting some trees in there, and provided the dye looks ok they will find a place by DaVinci's shop. (maybe a contraption or two of davinci's might add some life)

Just tried the wheat. Looks ok, but when zoomed in like this is you can see how fat the stalks are. So I gota find a way to make them thinner.

 

[phungus420]

Could you raise the camera, so it's like you're looking across the valley from a hill, and eliminate all the ground that's too close?

 

[sourdiesel]

Hitler adored Carl Orff. As for Hendrix, I'm definatly going to use one of his blues pieces that will melt in the background and fits the modern era, I'm not going to drop in Purple Haze or something that comes out too hard, and will sound off from the rest of the track. Personally I also think Gangster's Paradise will melt in the background pretty well, and will definatly test it, but if it's a problem will drop it. There isn't much epic sounding background modern music around that fits the information era. Most of the current modern music stuff Civ uses is crap actually, and does grate you, at least I don't find it easy listening. Which is a complete contrast to the other era music, ancient till industrial is all good, but I think the current modern/future music is crap, and could definatly be improved. I can see what you guys mean about Gangster's Paradise though, will see if it works, if not I will drop it of course. But Hendrix has some great blues stuff, that really will fit in nicely guys, and actually be perfect modern genre background.

Can't wait to hear some nice tunes. People can always turn the music off if they don't like it, better to have something a little unique. my pick is Red House from woodstock.

AchillesZero, this is prob a dumb question, do you have ansiotropic on max?

 

[achilleszero]

Could you raise the camera, so it's like you're looking across the valley from a hill, and eliminate all the ground that's too close?

Raise it straight up? Yeah I can do that. There just might be some unexpected perspective changes. If you were to actually look at the nif (same deal with the BtS main menu) you would see how jacked up the perspective is. The sky is actually like half a mile behind all the fore ground stuff so I will have to add more terrain in the back. Ill play around with that notion. It will actually give me more to make some things in the back visible. Actually I kinda like that idea now. My original vision isnt looking as good now with the menu box covering so much.

AchillesZero, this is prob a dumb question, do you have ansiotropic on max?

Not sure what ansiotropic is, so im gona say no. I havent had 3dMax for more than a few weeks and I still have a lot to learn on it, but still I prefer it over blender. Except my export script does funny things. So is ansiotropic a plugin, and what can I do with it?

 

[Merri]

I think he means anisotropic filtering.

 

[achilleszero]

I think he means anisotropic filtering.

Ok I see. But that seems like an advanced method for me. I take it I would use on the terrain to deal with the perspective and the grainy texture. Maybe once I finish putting the whole scene together, I can look into learning how to do that filtering.

 

[Merri]

It is a setting in display adapter that can be changed on/off either in ATI Catalyst or nVidia's drivers. I have turned it off for better performance, as it slows things down.

 

[sourdiesel]

Ok I see. But that seems like an advanced method for me. I take it I would use on the terrain to deal with the perspective and the grainy texture. Maybe once I finish putting the whole scene together, I can look into learning how to do that filtering.

You can usually turn on the option in your graphics card settings. But I realized that if the title screen is rendered live then it wouldn't do anything. I had assumed that you took a screenshot of art from the game for the title screen, in which case the aniso would make it prettier for everyone if you had it on. But if it is rendered live then it'll only make it prettier on your system. My bad.

 

[phungus420]

Did some testing and the original 0.9.5 LoR light test build was missing an entry for siege towers, didn't know those were considered a unit, but guess they are rendered as such. Anyway it hasn't crashed yet. We will build the next full version of LoR from this version of LoR light. If you want to help rebuilding LoR full, start filling in and adding ethnic art for the new artstyles, we need to add them in one by one, and test each model (make sure clicking on the button to build in a city works, and that the model can be placed on the map, and is animated properly when moving and attacking). I'm going to start on units and work down, will start with UNIT_ARTSTYLE_AFRICAN, so if you want to begin moving ethnic art back into LoR start with UNIT_ARTSTYLE_ZULU, or start with city art and teh CityLSystem xml file. That's all I got right now.

Here is the LoR light 0.9.5 build

http://www.filefront.com/13999161/Legends-of-Revolution-light-test-v0.9.5-Setup.exe/

 

[achilleszero]

Alright, Ill start with artstyle_zulu tomorow morning. Wow 7 minutes for downloading, the no extra FPK makes a big difference.

With the opening screen, how many polys do you think I should stop at. Im getting near 20,000 polys, thats twice the warlord's screen. But I guess in the game 200,000 poly wouldnt be unthinkable to have on the board. Also trying to keep total file size under 10MB. And Do you think a 2048x2048 texture for the ground would be too much.

 

[phungus420]

With the opening screen, how many polys do you think I should stop at. Im getting near 20,000 polys, thats twice the warlord's screen. But I guess in the game 200,000 poly wouldnt be unthinkable to have on the board. Also trying to keep total file size under 10MB. And Do you think a 2048x2048 texture for the ground would be too much.

I really don't know. If the Warlord's screen is 10,000 polys, twice or slightly more is probably a good limit. Say 25K polys. It's only for the opening screen, for now I think would be best to go for a pure aesthetics rather then performance aproach, and then we can see if someone with a crappy computer can test it to make sure it doesn't crash on them, or lag out unbearably. Because it's only the openeing screen it wol't be tied into other things, it wol't effect gameplay, or interact with other models being rendered to cause problems. Either the opening screen will be an issue at high polys or it wol't. I think though it should be safe at 20,000 polys, models with 20,000 polys are pretty common in FPS games as is. As far as texture size goes, I'd go with 2048 if you think it looks better, but look to cut down if it causes problem for low system users.

 

[achilleszero]

I really don't know. If the Warlord's screen is 10,000 polys, twice or slightly more is probably a good limit. Say 25K polys. It's only for the opening screen, for now I think would be best to go for a pure aesthetics rather then performance aproach, and then we can see if someone with a crappy computer can test it to make sure it doesn't crash on them, or lag out unbearably. Because it's only the openeing screen it wol't be tied into other things, it wol't effect gameplay, or interact with other models being rendered to cause problems. Either the opening screen will be an issue at high polys or it wol't. I think though it should be safe at 20,000 polys, models with 20,000 polys are pretty common in FPS games as is. As far as texture size goes, I'd go with 2048 if you think it looks better, but look to cut down if it causes problem for low system users.

I'm pretty sure you just described my computer there. So far it seems to be displaying smoothly. There is some slight stuttering with the Red Baron as it flies across the screen, but I kinda get the same thing with the BtS screen too. Still I guess once Im done with it, having other people test would be good. Im sure someone out there will manage to get a MAF in the main menu.

The raising the camera thing didnt work out to great. Pulling it back to a distance throws everything off. To where more terrain and units would be needed. And rotating it downwards almost doesnt work as the camera is a point on the screen so I have no idea what its actually doing. So Ive just pulled it back and up about 10%.

Completely unrelated subject: While going through the normal assets (not FPK) of Civ and the 2 expansions. Ive found art that seems to have been created by firaxis and not used (looked through all the scenario xml to make sure). The most notable is a throne room nif like back in civ3. Its only an egyptian one but its superdetailed. Seems like there were things that Firaxis wanted to do but were too lazy.

 

[achilleszero]

@Merri: I seek your infinite wisdom once again. In the drawing program you use is there any kind of filter or tool that provides a "cloth like" texture? I know Ive seen something like that before somewhere but now I cant find it.

 

[Merri]

The only one that comes to mind is the leather texture filter. Besides that nothing really comes to my mind (mostly as I'm unsure what a "cloth like" would be like).

 

[achilleszero]

The only one that comes to mind is the leather texture filter. Besides that nothing really comes to my mind (mostly as I'm unsure what a "cloth like" would be like).

I found it. In GIMP there is a filter called clothify. At first it was giving me very realistic leathery texture, so I assume it is similar to the filter you mention. But after playing with the parameters it gave me a threaded looking surface, like linen or some other coarse cloth. Unfortunately it is hard to see in the screen. The leather texture shows up great however, too bad I dont need that.

 

[achilleszero]

Phungus:

1: What is the benefit if any from seperating the art into several FPKs like vanilla Civ or some other mods have done? It annoys me to have to search through several FPK's but does it effect performance?

2: While individually readding each artstlye of units am I to keep the block of art defines in individaul XML files or just put them one after another in one file.

3: After we finish with the individual civs what do you want to do with all the single default unit folders like AA Gun and Pathfinder. Do you want to throw them into a Default_Units folder or leave them alone.

4: Each new expansion has changed the pointer and the loading icon. Do you want to do something like that for LoR?

 

[phungus420]

Phungus:

1: What is the benefit if any from seperating the art into several FPKs like vanilla Civ or some other mods have done? It annoys me to have to search through several FPK's but does it effect performance?

I doubt it has any effect. I don't know though. I do plan on having 2 FPKs though. The core one in LoR light, and a second one for the expanded ethnic art for the full release.

2: While individually readding each artstlye of units am I to keep the block of art defines in individaul XML files or just put them one after another in one file.

Just add the new artstyle into the main ArtDefinesUnit file. That file is now commented in LoR light, with comments seperating the unit types, so just try to keep this the same.

3: After we finish with the individual civs what do you want to do with all the single default unit folders like AA Gun and Pathfinder. Do you want to throw them into a Default_Units folder or leave them alone.

Just leave things how they are currently set up in LoR light I'd say. See no reason to consolidate the units.

4: Each new expansion has changed the pointer and the loading icon. Do you want to do something like that for LoR?

I'd like to, but I'm not sure how that's done exactly, or even if it's possible to do as a mod.

 

[Mekajiki]

I don't know how they did it, but I know the History of the Three Kingdoms mod does it, so you should probably ask them.

 

[phungus420]

Looks Awesome.

Here are my thoughts on improvements:

Make an arm holding a sword that gets raised in the foreground (With the tip of the sword just tapping the text Legends when fully raised).

Disperse the crowed of peasents slightly, and have them expand back toward the city disapearing into the distance.

Possible move the camera angle, rotating it's field of view slightly to right and down, like the camera is on the top of the hill.

Have the Red Baron run a strafing animation on one of it's passes, possibly making it look like he's shooting into the mob of peasants.


As for me, and getting my stuff done. I have the intro music ready, but haven't even started on the full LoR ethnic art yet. I've been somewhat busy, actually haven't had any time to really work on stuff this week. What little time I've had I've been using to play the game. I think LoR needs a couple of decent play tests, and not just AI autogame checks for the next update. So Working on incorporating the art and getting everything ready for the next official release may be a bit of a ways off for now.

 

[achilleszero]

Looks Awesome.

Here are my thoughts on improvements:

Make an arm holding a sword that gets raised in the foreground (With the tip of the sword just tapping the text Legends when fully raised).

Still working on this guy. Having trouble making the main spartan thrust his sword up in a realistic manner. Using the warlords right arm animation and it is really wobbly, but I am nearly there. But with changes to camera angle, his sword will not be able to reach LoR title.

the crowed of peasents slightly, and have them expand back toward the city disapearing into the distance.

Easily done. BTW how do they look. They might look a bit like they are made of plastic if you can zoom in on them. Thats because I took them from a picture of an "Angry Mob Playset" action figures.

Possible move the camera angle, rotating it's field of view slightly to right and down, like the camera is on the top of the hill.

Can try some different angles. Problem with that is camera must also be pulled back if angling it down otherwise you look like you are looking down on them from a ladder right in front of them instead of far off. And then you will also be able to see where the scenery ends. So only small angle changes are possible unless I add lots of stuff.

EDIT: Actually just made a good camera angle from up high just now. Still that stupid blue menu box is pissing me off. Now when you say rotate the camera to the right, do you want it just tilted right or moved to the right. Either way it will be more focused towards Davinci's place and to its right where theres a whole lot of nothing. If I rotate it right I think I should also move it to the left.

Have the Red Baron run a strafing animation on one of it's passes, possibly making it look like he's shooting into the mob of peasants.

Thats a little tricky. Will take some work if I can even do it and make it look right. I have the up and down motion set on a time scale not divisible by the time that the rotation is on so it looks random as if he is actually flying around. Instead of straight like he is attached to a rail. So not sure now to go about having a random strafe in there. Also will have to figure out the machine gun fire effect.

As for me, and getting my stuff done. I have the intro music ready, but haven't even started on the full LoR ethnic art yet. I've been somewhat busy, actually haven't had any time to really work on stuff this week. What little time I've had I've been using to play the game. I think LoR needs a couple of decent play tests, and not just AI autogame checks for the next update. So Working on incorporating the art and getting everything ready for the next official release may be a bit of a ways off for now.

I just got to start on the unit art. Only been able to do the vikings and vietnamese. With the leaderhead folder I just cut it down from 120MB to 109. You say you took out the new Darius, in LoRLite. So do you want to keep him out? He takes up more a hait more memory than the new Alex, and is nowhere as detailed. Ive compressed the hell out of it and its still at 10 megs. Also dont really seems to be much of an improvement over the stock Darius. The other "New" vanilla leaders seem like genuine improvements and dont take very much space.

EDIT: When you are doing the art, are you using my most recent FPK? Only thing with that is the Pathfinders. I had all references to frontiersman changed to Pathfinder in all the folders and XML files. So just remember you will need the XML text file entries I sent. Not really hard stuff but will save you aggravation.