Creating Vengeance Art Q&A

An Art question (if you can answer.)

For the painted surfaces of many of the armors, there is some nice dual color texturing. Is this done with layer masks of the texture with an undercolor, an overlay layer, or is it done freehand?

Are there any tips you could give for creating a similar effect?

Just about everyone you will ask will probably use a different technique in photoshop. Usually you place down a base colour layer, then add hand drawn details on layers on top, add some photographic reference or texture if needed as overlays (eg concrete grain, noise or dirt etc). I usually keep shadows on one layer, highlights on another, texture, colour and details on seperate layers so you can edit them individually

hope this helps

Same question... but regarding the weapon icons (tabs).

-Half

Changing anything referenced in the weapons package eg models, textures, hud icons would have to be in a mutator I think.

[QUOTE=Mayhem50]How about some recommended polycounts for player models, map models etc...
Thanks for your time Strez

- Player Models are between 2000 and 3000 polys
- Level meshes can be whatever you want, we made the Tribes meshes lowish res since the wide open terrains doesn't allow for much mesh culling.

great, i've got my first skin up and running in game thanks to the nicely written guide and the tutorial in the new art pack, thanks

question:
i was able to duplicate the normal map for the blood eagle skin from the game pkg to my skin's pkg, which worked fine in game, but i'd like to be able to edit the normal map, recess the clan logos on the armor etc

how can i export the normal maps (currently says no appropriate exporter found) or can irrational release a package with all the normal maps in the game in a photoshoppable format we can import, currently the art guide packages only have the n-maps for the phoenix,

Changing anything referenced in the weapons package eg models, textures, hud icons would have to be in a mutator I think.

I was afraid of that... but I was hoping otherwise.

I really can't figure out why the DEVs would make the weapon icons (which are a pretty big portion of the HUD) un-modifiable via HUD editing.

:shrug:

-Half

Just about everyone you will ask will probably use a different technique in photoshop. Usually you place down a base colour layer, then add hand drawn details on layers on top, add some photographic reference or texture if needed as overlays (eg concrete grain, noise or dirt etc). I usually keep shadows on one layer, highlights on another, texture, colour and details on seperate layers so you can edit them individually

hope this helps

Indeed, this is similar to what I have been doing. Usually with a base layer with color (rather than overlay) a shading layer which incorperates both dark areas and highlights. And a texture layer. But I not been able to duplicate the quality/style used in the T:V skins. Perhaps it's just a matter of finding the right texture combination. Thanks for your repy.

...I thought you guys only liked recolors?




:|

Is skinning a weapon similar to that of a player skin? if not, how do i go about that?

...I thought you guys only liked recolors?


You baiting me boy? :roller:

You baiting me boy? :roller:
I was referring to the devs fool! :)

Non-skinning question:

Whenever I import a .bmp height map, all the info seems to be compressed down to the very bottom of the zone I'm working in (or past it).

I must be doing something wrong, but I'm having trouble figuring out what it is! I set the zone info to be a terrain zone... still no go. Same thing happens when I replace the existing height maps in levels.

Oh... and while I'm posting, how do you set up an OOB grid?

I was referring to the devs fool! :)

Virus Time!

I just downloaded the 3d studio max 7 trial. How do you make it so the skin displays properly in 3d studio max, with the skin on it and all?

Strez, is it possible to export DXT5N Normal Map files out of the editor?

Strez, is it possible to export DXT5N Normal Map files out of the editor?

Unfortunatly not, that format is created in the editor, cannot be exported or edited once created.

we import the normal maps as TGAs and then compress them to DXT5N

strez, i am currently working on a custom GUI and i am trying to modify the weapon hud icons, ive looked in the pkg files and ive seen one called HUD.Tabs which is all the weapons/packs into one large file with mappings i think. and there is also GUITribes.InvButton* family but i cant find the bgs to them i was wondering if i could get more information on going this. i also specifically cant find which .ini file to modify them in unless its somewhere else?

strez, i am currently working on a custom GUI and i am trying to modify the weapon hud icons, ive looked in the pkg files and ive seen one called HUD.Tabs which is all the weapons/packs into one large file with mappings i think. and there is also GUITribes.InvButton* family but i cant find the bgs to them i was wondering if i could get more information on going this. i also specifically cant find which .ini file to modify them in unless its somewhere else?
Changing anything referenced in the weapons package eg models, textures, hud icons would have to be in a mutator I think.

^^^^

yep this stuff is stored directly in the weapon class, not in an ini file

so this means the server would have to run it? :/
if so could we get an update patch with it not in the class files and in a ini.
i dont see y it should be mutator style, there just icons... :[

I have another question. The reticles seem to be controlled in the weapons.ini file in program/bin, but the file isn't there by default. Is there some way we can tell what .ini files we can make that will be supported by the engine for mods like the reticles being changed, and if so where would we look?

It seems to me we should be able to change the weapon icons in the hud through a similar ini file like that or some setting that isn't default in the tribesHUD.ini but if we knew what it was we could change it. The weapon icons aren't located in the weapons.pkg they're located in the HUDS.pkg which one would assume we could change. Along with the friend/foe IFF's of which I'd love to be able to change as well.