Graphics, models, etc.

[Skorpio]

So I changed the materials, because they were way too bright and had two passes for some reason, and now you can clearly see that the lights in the game are way too dark. The mouse cursor light also seems to be too high above the creatures, so that they hardly receive any light. I added some creatures that are three times bigger than the others and they receive much (ok a little
bit ) more light from the cursor. Here's a screenshot:

[Skorpio]

If you know of open source models that we could reuse for OD, please post them here. For example these mushrooms on opengameart.org could be useful for us. There are also some cool weapons.

[charlie]

Skeleton warrior:
http://opengameart.org/content/skeleton-warrior

Zombie:
http://opengameart.org/content/zombie-0

[svenskmand]

Skeleton warrior:
http://opengameart.org/content/skeleton-warrior

I really like this one, would be good for the undead

Zombie:
http://opengameart.org/content/zombie-0

But I do not like this one, I think it look too much like a zombie from a modern horror movie or something. Its the way it walks :S, but maybe that can be fixed. Is there a way to see the other animations and get them in higher resolutions?

And for now both models would be ideal place-holders

[ghoulsblade]

glest and scourge might have some useful stuff, both are medieval fantasy settings in 3d after all
scoure is in freeartsearch : http://search.freegamedev.net/artitems/order_repos/110
couldn't find svn path for adding glest data, but didn't look too long

[Bodsda]

Has anyone looked into sound yet? Great looking models are one thing but how boring would DK2 have been without the wicked sounds. My personal favourite was the skeleton. I think DK2 is now abandonware so is there a possibility of stripping the sound files from it?

Bodsda

[svenskmand]

Has anyone looked into sound yet? Great looking models are one thing but how boring would DK2 have been without the wicked sounds. My personal favourite was the skeleton. I think DK2 is now abandonware so is there a possibility of stripping the sound files from it?

Bodsda

I definitely do not think that would be legal, but we can listen to them and get inspired

[andrewbuck]

Yeah, the concept of abandonware has no real legal standing, if something is copyrighted (which DK definitely is) the creators have it for 90 years (since it was a work for hire) regardless of whether they are selling it, handing out free copies, or just sitting on it. Also, even being inspired by the music could give them an argument that your music was a derivative work so we had best just stay away entirely. Our game is already similar enough that we don't need to start mimicking their music, too.

As for the models, they are looking excellent. Even in the darkness they already look a lot better than they did, you were right Skorpio about them looking "washed out" before. If you could get a media pack uploaded to sourceforge I would appreciate it (even if you only upload the stuff you have in that screenshot, although I would like a copy of all the tile meshes you have there too). I would like to get the same meshes you have loaded onto my computer here so when I am working on the lighting, which I will be doing tonight, I can adjust the brightness levels appropriately.

-Buck

[qubodup]

Has anyone looked into sound yet?

Would you be ok with listening to sounds and reviewing them? There are a few on OGA.

In case anybody here is not sure about whether or not 'Abandonware' status makes a game legally downloadable or rippable, I recommmend one paragraph on Wikipedia. (TLDR: No, it's not legal.)

[Skorpio]

I'm uploading the media pack now. I was still playing with the materials yesterday, and I'm not sure if I should turn off the ambient light. The orc and dwarves in the new media pack receive ambient light, the knight and ground/dirt texture don't. It really sucks that I can't adjust the lights directly.

Edit: Does it display only the newest file on the summary page? How can I change it back to OpenDungeons-zip?

[Skorpio]

Has anyone looked into sound yet? ...

Bodsda

Can we use sounds from http://www.freesound.org ?

[qubodup]

Can we use sounds from http://www.freesound.org ?

If OD shall be 'Debian-free', then no: more info.
The FreeSFX pack for OpenTTD was put into Debian's non-free repo because of that license. Source.

[svenskmand]

Can we use sounds from http://www.freesound.org ?

If OD shall be 'Debian-free', then no: more info.
The FreeSFX pack for OpenTTD was put into Debian's non-free repo because of that license. Source.

I will vote FOR Debian free, or GPL free, and I think we should stick to this entirely

[andrewbuck]

I'm for keeping it as free as possible, too. Debian free is a pretty high bar but I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be able to make it.

-Buck

[Skorpio]

I've made animations for the knight and my tentacle monster, and will probably upload the raw media pack soon, so that everyone can check out the models and animations. I also tried to make some sounds, but still need to improve them, I don't have much experience with sound synthesis.

What bothers me now are the team colors. In the old forum thread, Charlie mentioned we could use the alpha channel. I'd like to know how that works exactly before I create more creatures and especially the textures. Will the team colors replace the texture color completely or just recolorize them?

[andrewbuck]

Yeah, there are several ways we could do the colors. Each way has its pros and cons so its really up to you what method you think is best. I should be able to code up any of the three ways we have discussed so far (a marker color, using the alpha channel, or using a separate material).

From a coding standpoint the separate material is probably the easiest, it also has the advantage that we can use the full range of colors, and make use of alpha blending in the future if we decide to use it.

As for the media pack, the level file format has changed a fair amount. I need to get the new executable packed up and posted so you can start using that one, you can also check your models against the new lighting scheme too to make sure they still look alright. I will try to focus on getting that together and posted this evening.

-Buck

[svenskmand]

I think we should choose the most flexible solution. And I think that would be to have a separate material and then blend it together with the original texture using a alphamap (greyscale texture for opacity). Just my 2 cents.

[Skorpio]

I modified the goblin model a little bit. The arms are intentionally so long, I think he should move similar to a chimpanzee. Unfortunately the face gets blurred pretty much in object mode, maybe due to mipmapping or anti-aliasing, so I made this render without anti-aliasing.

[svenskmand]

I modified the goblin model a little bit. The arms are intentionally so long, I think he should move similar to a chimpanzee. Unfortunately the face gets blurred pretty much in object mode, maybe due to mipmapping or anti-aliasing, so I made this render without anti-aliasing.

Goblin.jpg

Coool , looks nice. I like the color, but maybe a bit darker skin.

[Skorpio]

Actually the texture is very dark, but the lighting is a little exaggerated in this render. I even think I need to lighten the texture a bit or increase the contrast. I'm gonna check out how he looks in blue or pink skin.

Edit: What do you think?

[svenskmand]

I very much like the blue one, if he could get just a tint more green, then I think he has the perfect color But the cloth should be more dark and dirty, it looks too clean.

[qubodup]

The goblin looks great! I like the fingernails and eyes a lot.

[Skorpio]

Hey Q, wasn't it you who made the goblin? He was quite useful as a concept model. If anyone else would like to design creatures, you can send your concept or basic models to me and I'll try to improve them (if I can ).

[svenskmand]

Hey Q, wasn't it you who made the goblin? He was quite useful as a concept model. If anyone else would like to design creatures, you can send your concept or basic models to me and I'll try to improve them (if I can ).

Nice , I will try to make some concepts for the constructs, I have to in mind, the worker and the scout

[qubodup]

Hey Q, wasn't it you who made the goblin? He was quite useful as a concept model. If anyone else would like to design creatures, you can send your concept or basic models to me and I'll try to improve them (if I can ).

Nope, wasn't me

There is a little bit of concept art available at OGA and old art of Arkhart as potential sources. Of course custom OD concept art would be much nicer.

Nice , I will try to make some concepts for the constructs, I have to in mind, the worker and the scout

cool!