Dune Wars Art Thread

[Lord Tirian]

I mean a few very small ones around the base of each house.

The main problem is that the height maps of Civ can be very... odd. That would lead to floating rocks - or they would need to extend into the ground a fair bit - which would make you see the transition again (that's also the reason why all stock CivIV buildings are going into the ground so deep) - or to rocks that are below ground - and hence don't mask the transition, or worse: I would need to place big rocks, where the transition is pretty visible again. At least my tries ended up with that problem.

So I decided to use the ground texture again, just adapted to my needs. Now it blends fairly well with the buildings - they don't look very out of place, I think and I'm fairly happy with it.

I deliberately chose the rather muted colours, that way it should blend in on any dune wars terrain pretty well - more colourful and vibrant tries ended up looking odd on darker terrain.

Stuff attached!

Cheers, LT.

 

[Deliverator]

Very nice work mate. I have a few local graphical changes that I'm thinking of bundling into a patch. I'll be sure to include these.

I'm determined to get my first human unit done for Dune Wars. I've made good progress on the Fremen Fedaykin today (this is where I started). I suppose this is quite an obscure unit to start with, but I'm hoping various components of it can be reused in some way. In particular the stillsuit. I spent quite a while trying to get the eyes to glow blue, before I realised there's no way anyone will ever be close enough to see the eyes (unless we implement the camera Python linked below). Anything with cloaks is hard to get perfect - I've not done any custom animation for it so it may look a bit weird at times. Just needs the texture improving on the jubba cloak, legs and knife and the whole thing brightening up a bit then it'll be done. If you fancy giving it a texturing over LT, I've attached the files. Otherwise I'll tidy it up myself.

I'd be really happy if someone could implement the Camera Controls from this Python for panning 360 and tilting the camera. It will enable me to get some much more interesting screenshots for promo purposes.

 

[davidlallen]

I'd be really happy if someone could implement the Camera Controls from this Python for panning 360 and tilting the camera. It will enable me to get some much more interesting screenshots for promo purposes.

I am confused. Where did that CvEventManager.py come from? It has some camera controls mixed with some really old DuneWars python I wrote. Perhaps this is a file you locally modified. If so, as far as I can tell, the part you added is the section of code from line 239-273 only. You can just paste this into the current 1.3 version of CvEventManager.py. All of the Dune Wars code has been removed from that file and is now in a separate file, DuneWars.py, using a nice capability of BUG.

If I have missed something, let me know, but it seems just pasting the camera code into the current file should do what you need. I do not modify CvEventManager.py anymore so there is no opportunity for clashes.

 

[Deliverator]

Yeah, that file is from when I tried to get it working a while back. I put that section of code into CvEventManager.py, but it seems like something intercepts the hotkeys, because it has no effect in game. My guess is BUG is getting in the way somehow.

 

[davidlallen]

OK, now I understand. Give me a little while and I will stick that into DuneWars.py itself.

 

[Lord Tirian]

Just needs the texture improving on the jubba cloak, legs and knife and the whole thing brightening up a bit then it'll be done. If you fancy giving it a texturing over LT, I've attached the files. Otherwise I'll tidy it up myself.

He's cool! The texture is pretty good already, just some rough spots - I'll fiddle around with it tomorrow, but there are just some finishing touches one can do, I guess (the parts where the cloak and the hood are connected mainly).

+ Included new Birth of Arrakis cityset from Lord Tirian, but it's not working yet. I think further XML changes are required...

Crap. I included the wrong file! The file I've included is the XML for plots, not cities... I attached the right XML file, the other one (the one I gave you before) is unchanged from the original dune wars file. Sorry!

Cheers, LT.

 

[Deliverator]

He's cool! The texture is pretty good already, just some rough spots - I'll fiddle around with it tomorrow, but there are just some finishing touches one can do, I guess (the parts where the cloak and the hood are connected mainly).

Cheers, he could certainly use some polishing. It would be nice if there wasn't such an obviously split between the upper body and lower. Sadly (or perhaps not), there aren't too many below the waist stillsuit moments in the film. Have you ever used texture paint in blender? It's pretty hand for airbrushing over dodgy joins and the like...

In the movie, they distinguish the Fedaykin with red paint/blood/whatever it is - see attachment. Might be a good way to get a bit of colour on there. We should keep a 'clean' stillsuit version though too - as I'm sure they'll be other units need them.

Crap. I included the wrong file!

No problem. I think I'll just reupload 1.3.1 with this file.

 

[Deliverator]

The cityset is working fine now - I've updated patch 1.3.1 to include the fix. They're really fun - I think this is about as good as you can do for a Sietch within the confines of a Civ 4 cityset. Good work again LT.

 

[The_J]

I'm determined to get my first human unit done for Dune Wars. I've made good progress on the Fremen Fedaykin today (this is where I started).

Great work .

I guess, the FfH2 assasin was the base?

 

[Deliverator]

I guess, the FfH2 assasin was the base?

Well, he's a real mongrel. The head and cloak is from sezereth's Govannon unit, the arms/sleeves are from the Inquisitor, the torso came from one of my existing Colonization units, the knife is from the Archer unit and the face scarf I cut out of the existing Dune Wars Scout. Once you can cut-and-shut units like this in blender the possibilities really open up...

 

[Lord Tirian]

Ok, I tried my hand at the Fedaykin. I'm really happy how the stillsuit turned out (there's also a version without the red goo applied), the knife looks more like bone or something now (it should be a Crys knife, after all) - the arms are okay (just a bit brighter) and the cloak - I think it's better than before, but the matching of the seams (even with Blender texture painting) kills me.

I've done slight changes to the nif (some UV mapping on the stillsuit), so make sure to use the right nif-file (if not, don't worry, it's just stuff below the waist).

Cheers, LT.

 

[Deliverator]

Nice work man, nice work. I think I'll make some final tweaks, make the cloak colour match the sand a bit more, etc and then its good to go. The idle animation is slightly weird in that the knife sticks in mid-air while he fiddles with his hood. I may see if there's another one around that doesn't distort him too badly. I went with the Vet Swordsman anim from Colonization because the knife animation on the vanilla Archer is really sloppy - the knives are floating in space more than they're actually in his hands. I may try and do a knife stabbing animation at some point - custom human animations are probably the hardest though...

 

[keldath]

wow! those fremen look so cool!

 

[Lord Tirian]

I think I'll make some final tweaks, make the cloak colour match the sand a bit more...

Totally! I only looked at it in nifskope/blender... and now seeing the in-game shot, the yellow of the coat looks like an oilskin, which is not really the right clothing for a desert!

Cheers, LT.

 

[The_J]

and now seeing the in-game shot, the yellow of the coat looks like an oilskin, which is not really the right clothing for a desert!

I want a "I know what you have done last summer"-fisherman-unit .

 

[koma13]

Anyone knows where I could get an ancient (egypt/north african) looking archway?
Image should be in standard resolution (eg. 1024x768).

 

[Deliverator]

Is Google Images not doing the business?

 

[koma13]

I wasn't sure which keywords to use. But 'Marrakech doorway' gave me some doable results. Now I have to look for a dunish looking city silhouette.

 

[koma13]

Here is an early preview of the city screen:

Spoiler :

 

[Deliverator]

The return of the screen maestro! It looks really great. A few points:

1) In the 1984 film they went to amazing lengths to make sure they never showed the sky as blue. According to Herbert there is not enough moisture for the sky to be blue. Making the sky a deep red/orange colour like in the main menu pic might be a good way to get around this. Plus it says 'alien planet' more than 'day on the beach'. Alternately, you could have it fade to black with stars up there.

2) I also think there should not be grass on the dunes. Can that be painted out? I can do it if you like.

3) Are you planning to change the food (water) bar to blue and the build bar to some other colour? That would be great.

4) I some point I need to improve the water drop icons and gamefonts, and fix the bitten bread that I missed.

I'm happy to help in anyway you need...