ORKVALE - Stronghold - Preorders
by Apparatus · in General Discussion · 12/01/2005 (6:22 pm) · 98 replies
Howdy,
I was just putting all the stuff together from my old Mapping Kit project (tutorials + source files + app to walk around and see w your own eyes). But since i work alone I'd like some kind of feedback for this; As I mentioned here some time ago this will be some kind of live tutorial with all the files and lessons in it; with the power of tge 1.4 my work suddenly took a fast curve and i am almost finished; please take a look at the shots and give some feedback on how you might want it; :)
Note that this Demo level keeps the architecture of the old Stronghold intact, only the level design and modeling and prop placement and such are others; Mapping Kit comes with a few mapping solutions (like collisions for outdoor structures made inside World Editor);
Thank you !
and some models currently in the Demo Map:
I was just putting all the stuff together from my old Mapping Kit project (tutorials + source files + app to walk around and see w your own eyes). But since i work alone I'd like some kind of feedback for this; As I mentioned here some time ago this will be some kind of live tutorial with all the files and lessons in it; with the power of tge 1.4 my work suddenly took a fast curve and i am almost finished; please take a look at the shots and give some feedback on how you might want it; :)
Note that this Demo level keeps the architecture of the old Stronghold intact, only the level design and modeling and prop placement and such are others; Mapping Kit comes with a few mapping solutions (like collisions for outdoor structures made inside World Editor);
Thank you !
and some models currently in the Demo Map:
About the author
Tarakibu Studio
#42
I believe by Xmas will be out.
12/06/2005 (1:14 am)
Ask Santa :) I'll conspire with him for a copy for you :)I believe by Xmas will be out.
#43
12/06/2005 (1:59 am)
This is AWESOME! I can't wait! Great work. This is some of the nicest looking stuff I've seen in TGE and you're gonna show us how you do it! Brilliant! 
#45
12/06/2005 (5:35 am)
Chalk me up for a "pre-order".
#46
12/06/2005 (12:14 pm)
Just a couple of DTS objects and a few more textures...Trees and some foliage. This mission 'ties' together much better now..
#47
12/06/2005 (12:28 pm)
Now that looks so much atmosferic, its nice what a few well placed objects can do in a mission ;)
#48
If this was a Official TGE Demo, i think people would believe TGE can compete. Some people still have doubts. (I.E. My whole dev team.)
12/06/2005 (12:45 pm)
O.o WHENS THE TESTING! SIGN ME UP! THAT LOOKS GREAT! THAT MUST BECOME AN OFFICIAL TGE DEMO! If this was a Official TGE Demo, i think people would believe TGE can compete. Some people still have doubts. (I.E. My whole dev team.)
#49
to be honest, i am poking around since 1.4 was release and since then i cannot stop using it.
lill note: 1.4 can handle more than that. i was playin one day with the normals on a mesh and accidentally i appled a black texture to it..well, it snapped me: TGE can make any Cartoon Game you like !
here is a lill shot of the buggy, Toon style:
12/06/2005 (12:50 pm)
Well i am one person; i tried (and failed) several times to grabb ppl in but no, they say it cannot compete x engine or y engine. My last argument was the price, after all the easy steps you go (not a million apps needed in art pipeline) and, above all (because it's obviously noticeable visually), the best Level Editor there is available.to be honest, i am poking around since 1.4 was release and since then i cannot stop using it.
lill note: 1.4 can handle more than that. i was playin one day with the normals on a mesh and accidentally i appled a black texture to it..well, it snapped me: TGE can make any Cartoon Game you like !
here is a lill shot of the buggy, Toon style:
#50
12/06/2005 (1:20 pm)
Ok now I am amazed. Can't wait for this stuff to become available...Count me in for the preorder ;) 
#51
I think I like your previous sky setting better. it had a brooding storm look to it.
The foliage is helping flesh it out well. I noticed a strong halo around some of the foliage in your latest shots. What is the back ground color of you texture in contrast to the color of the actual leafs and stems in the texture? If the colors match, then it is the alpha cutoff. If you are using the foliage replicator, you can tune this in the "Alpha Cutoff" setting under the "Culling" tab
Default is 0.01 I believe, try a 0.2 or there abouts. It should help clean up the halo around the foliage edges.
Here is a quick example to illustrate the difference. I pushed the values a little to help show the difference better.
12/06/2005 (1:29 pm)
That is looking great!I think I like your previous sky setting better. it had a brooding storm look to it.
The foliage is helping flesh it out well. I noticed a strong halo around some of the foliage in your latest shots. What is the back ground color of you texture in contrast to the color of the actual leafs and stems in the texture? If the colors match, then it is the alpha cutoff. If you are using the foliage replicator, you can tune this in the "Alpha Cutoff" setting under the "Culling" tab
Default is 0.01 I believe, try a 0.2 or there abouts. It should help clean up the halo around the foliage edges.
Here is a quick example to illustrate the difference. I pushed the values a little to help show the difference better.
#52
Nice grass you have there :)
I wonder if anyone tried to implement some kind of bloom to TGE; Not HDR, simple bloom (just like a blur in Photoshop). That grass would blend fantastic.
edit:
ok, this is the last media update; i have lots of stuf to tweak and polish, so this would be the actual ork houses (cottages, burrows..)
and in showtool (damn, i need to update to TLK these days)
12/06/2005 (1:37 pm)
Yes, it's the alpha cutoff; the shot is from an area hardly polished; Nice grass you have there :)
I wonder if anyone tried to implement some kind of bloom to TGE; Not HDR, simple bloom (just like a blur in Photoshop). That grass would blend fantastic.
edit:
ok, this is the last media update; i have lots of stuf to tweak and polish, so this would be the actual ork houses (cottages, burrows..)
and in showtool (damn, i need to update to TLK these days)
#55
12/06/2005 (5:36 pm)
@Floating : Can you elaborate on how you did the toon shader please? Maybe in another thread.
#56
It.s not a shader. You need two textures, a small one plain black and the color texture;
Create your model (i work in maya in this case) and do your clean, freeze trasnform, delete history, whatever, after you finished modeling. Duplicate this model and scale it up a bit. Apply to this mesh the black texture and invert the normals.
You'll have to do this for every component of your model. If you do it on the entire buggy, when you resize it you will get unexpected results.
So the idea is to render the edges of the model with a black contour. With normals reversed, you get this exact effect, cartoon style.
try simple shapes first.
edit: not sure if a starter.toon might be a choice for the future releases of tge... but torque is absolutelly reliable for this kind of visual aspect in games.
12/06/2005 (5:43 pm)
Ok.It.s not a shader. You need two textures, a small one plain black and the color texture;
Create your model (i work in maya in this case) and do your clean, freeze trasnform, delete history, whatever, after you finished modeling. Duplicate this model and scale it up a bit. Apply to this mesh the black texture and invert the normals.
You'll have to do this for every component of your model. If you do it on the entire buggy, when you resize it you will get unexpected results.
So the idea is to render the edges of the model with a black contour. With normals reversed, you get this exact effect, cartoon style.
try simple shapes first.
edit: not sure if a starter.toon might be a choice for the future releases of tge... but torque is absolutelly reliable for this kind of visual aspect in games.
#57
12/06/2005 (6:33 pm)
@Floating : Can you elaborate on how you did the toon shader please? Maybe in another thread.
#58
Here's a little tutorial on how to get toon shading in Blender. Although I have no idea if all these properties/settings will export to DTS, as I've never atempted it.
I believe someone in the GG community is working on a cell shading project for school or something. A quick GG search on "cell shading" or "toon shading" will pull up some results.
12/06/2005 (7:13 pm)
That is a very clever way of creating a toon shading effect. The flaw is having twice the polys.Here's a little tutorial on how to get toon shading in Blender. Although I have no idea if all these properties/settings will export to DTS, as I've never atempted it.
I believe someone in the GG community is working on a cell shading project for school or something. A quick GG search on "cell shading" or "toon shading" will pull up some results.
#59
here's a post from awhile back that describes this very technique and has pictures.
12/06/2005 (7:15 pm)
www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=24663here's a post from awhile back that describes this very technique and has pictures.
#60
12/06/2005 (8:35 pm)
Yeah, thats the technique we used for aerial antics. you can get good cell shaded looking shadows and highlights with spherical environment maps too.
Torque Owner Christian S
Oak-Entertainment
Its looking so sweet that i simply am dying in the wait.....