Hey all, some of you may know of me, most probably do not, but I used to mod tribes from the day the SDK tools were released. I made a few garbage mods, struggled trying to put together a few TCs, and worked on alot of code for many other well known mods. I imagine some of my code is actually in pretty wide circulation by this point in time, including a few older versions of the Aeon mod, which was one of the last projects I worked on for Tribes.

I'll cut to the chase, one of the reasons I stopped working on Tribes was the difficulty in getting a TC finished due to incapable modellers for custom shapes, however, I also took it upon myself as a hobby to learn how to model and craft 3d shapes after leaving the tribes scene years ago. I have since gained a rather large amount of experience, and am considered by many at a professional level of 3d art development, and recently noticing a copy of 3dsm2.5 floating around, I couldn't help but take interest in doing some old darkstar engine rendering tests.

Those tests lead me into researching the original tribes model source files, and in about a week I've learned almost every element of the models used by the engine, and have already created many expiremental test models to replace vehicles, players, and weapons. During my tests I found that the renderer was quite capable of rendering upwards of 10k triangles on screen at once without dropping below 60 fps on average computer specs, as long as the materials index was not extended too far, meaning as small and few texture maps as possible (no more than ONE 512x512 map per model to be safe). This kind of information means that Tribes is more than capable of recieving a visual overhaul with some new models, and TC mods are more than possible, even this late in the engine's lifespan.

I really respect the things that many members have done to keep the engine alive, such as NoFix, Andrew, and Plasmatic, just to name a few. The darkstar engine was the primary reason I took an interest in game development, and I've found myself coming back to it time and time again, and I believe I owe it to the engine to give it some polish.

To get to the point, I'm planning on starting a kind of Tribes1 revitalization project, I'll be scripting, modelling, UVW mapping, skinning, and animating everything needed for a TC mod to try and breath some fresh life into Tribes.

Because the engine is now abandonware, it further supports the idea, since I will be able to package the original base tribes, AND the TC mod together as a "stand-alone" download to introduce new players into the community as well.

Here are some glimpses at a few of the model tests I've been doing:












Included in the previous images, in order, are: additive special effects planes, a high poly Colt Kimber Custom 2 pistol, Medium Armor head replacement, complete marmor mesh replacement with some minor reanimation, a low poly Colt 1911 pistol with numerous LOD layers for optimal efficiency, and vehicle dummy object manipulation, including changing cameras, and creating new mount slots for increased passenger capacity.

Long story summed up, I figured it wouldn't be a terrible idea to mention this project is in development, much of the information I'd like to keep discreet at this point until ideas are final, but feel free to ask questions regardless.

Oh, and tribes is not dead... that's a ridiculous statement...

cool

here's a few more screenies, H&K USP .45

If you're interested in using the new hudbot for this project I could build custom huds using vhuds for it. I'm not great with graphics but coding the huds is no problem for me. If you (or someone else) made some hud backgrounds I could do all the other stuff.

very impressive.

lol i dont know what to say

Hey Evil_Ice - looks good nice work.

I'm curious why you refer to darkstar as abandonware. Can you expand on that theme?

Does anyone know of other games that use darkstar other than starsiege and starsiege tribes?

nice work


in other news, tribes is dead

Wouldn't it be funny if you could filter him from saying such nonsense? It would cut his post-count in half three times over.

Bugs, I refer to it as the Darkstar engine do the nature of the project, serverside projects that reuse the same GUI, graphics, and alot of the same fundamental code can only be treated as "Tribes Mods", however, when you replace the GUI, models, graphics, animation, concepts, gameplay, and just about everything possible, you aren't modding Tribes anymore, you are modding the engine. I refer to the engine as abandonware because it is legally free to distribute publically, and Sierra no longer holds legally offers any support to it.

Lemon, I sent you a PM to ask about some past experience, I've seen a few of your customized HUDs and they look good, but this project is going to take alot of work.

As for everyone else, thanks, I'll be posting updates as they are ready, I plan to do some more model tests in my spare time while working on conceptual designs. Oh, and the "Evil_" tag is just for forum purposes where 3 letter names are not allowed, you can just call me "Ice" if you'd prefer.

Would you perchance happen to be the same Ice who made Aeon? Because that mod needs to come back.

Cool.

Originally Posted by Amadeus

Would you perchance happen to be the same Ice who made Aeon? Because that mod needs to come back.

Of course, thought I mentioned that in the intro to my first post, but if not I'll mention it again here: yes. I wrote a number of mods actually, none of which I publically disclosed any information about though, even Aeon was pretty closed-door until an older broken version was leaked temporarily. I had considered bringing Aeon back, but to be honest I don't think the engine can fully handle the premise, and by now it has inspired alot of similiar mods, and I don't think the idea was all that popular with the average end-user anyway.

Originally Posted by Evil_Ice

Of course, thought I mentioned that in the intro to my first post, but if not I'll mention it again here: yes. I wrote a number of mods actually, none of which I publically disclosed any information about though, even Aeon was pretty closed-door until an older broken version was leaked temporarily. I had considered bringing Aeon back, but to be honest I don't think the engine can fully handle the premise, and by now it has inspired alot of similiar mods, and I don't think the idea was all that popular with the average end-user anyway.

aeonmod.tk

the entire population of that forum (about a dozen people) eagerly await the return of Aeon

N!M's been working on it/hosting it on and off but right now he's making another mod, so no aeon for us.

I believe there was an existing project along these lines advertised here. I think they were only looking to update models and skins though.

Might want to search a bit.

pistol. why?

I played Aeon after Armagedon got his hands on it and a few of raven's unreleased mods.

good times.

p.s. nim is a fucking faggot

So what is the point of this? Are you going to create a CS total conversion for tribes? Or are you just going to make Tribes with better models/graphics?

As much as I appreciate your effort and I hate to say it, but this looks like a waste of time. No matter how much effort you put into this I don't think you will ever be able to compete with just avarage graphics of today or even be able to revive tribes with this.

If you realy want to help Tribes I think a better approach would be to help out a tribes mod with your modelling skills (e.g. the one for the crysis engine), because one thing every tribes mod so far had in common was the lack of good player/weapon models and/or textures.

Don't be such ignorant naysaying pessimist.

If I WANTED to work on a next gen project, as I already have multiple times in the past, I would be. The fact is, there are still more die-hard players playing Tribes right now, on average between 100-200 at ANY given time of the day, than are playing most "next-gen" mods, Source mods and Crysis mods are looking at a dismal <100 fanbase, and typically 2-3 servers with players at any given time.

I think by this point in time I know a little bit about what's actually good for the tribes community, and for myself, rather than working with "next-gen" cheater systems that are training artists to become more dependant on the engine's shader systems than on their own artist ability. I'm working on Tribes, the Darkstar engine intentionally, and not only will you not deter me, I find it irritating, so please take your pessimism else-where.

I am NOT creating a CS TC for Tribes, these pistols, and ALL of the models I've posted thus far have been TEST models, as I mentioned in the original post. They are all intended for researching and testing the way the engine handles the textures, models, LODs, animations, and other fun little tid-bits that make the game prettier.

Do not think that you will be able to guess the premise of the project from this thread. The only images I have been posting here are strictly for random test purposes, don't ask for the models, just stay tuned in and be supportive; When I am personally comfortable with the level of design incorporated into the project I will reveal more information about it in particular, just enjoy the pretty pictures for now, and have something to look forward to.

Originally Posted by Evil_Ice

Don't be such ignorant naysaying pessimist.

Wow, way to be an asshole. He was being courteous in the way he expressed his opinion. He was merely making a point that not a lot of people are going to play a game on a 10 year old engine.

Originally Posted by Evil_Ice

If I WANTED to work on a next gen project, as I already have multiple times in the past, I would be. The fact is, there are still more die-hard players playing Tribes right now, on average between 100-200 at ANY given time of the day, than are playing most "next-gen" mods, Source mods and Crysis mods are looking at a dismal <100 fanbase, and typically 2-3 servers with players at any given time.

You're kidding... right? I just checked gamespy and there are 37,000 people playing Hl2 mods [source engine] right now. You are a fucking retard.

Originally Posted by Evil_Ice

]I think by this point in time I know a little bit about what's actually good for the tribes community, and for myself, rather than working with "next-gen" cheater systems that are training artists to become more dependant on the engine's shader systems than on their own artist ability.

Although you may consider these next gen engines to be crap compared to the DarkStar engine, no one cares about how next-gen engines are training artists to depend on it's shader engine. Crysis looks a fuck load better than Tribes ever could look. No one cares what it takes to make a good looking game, as long as it looks good.

Originally Posted by Evil_Ice

I'm working on Tribes, the Darkstar engine intentionally, and not only will you not deter me, I find it irritating, so please take your pessimism else-where.

Keep working on it. I guarantee you if it's not Tribes with better graphics, you will have a hell of a time convincing this community to play it.