A Tour Around Teron

Morbus

Morbus

Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
It started off a few weeks ago, but I thought it would be better to wait for it to grow and develop: Iron Tower, Oscar, to be more precise, is running a topic dedicated to one of Age of Decadence's location: Teron.<blockquote>While Vince and Nick are busy with other stuff, I decided to take Titus for a stroll and decorate Teron a little more. I want to show you some screenshots of the place, and you can tell me what you think about them and how they can be improved. Before you ask, I removed the NPCs so they wouldn't distract, and to allow you to get a better feeling of the area itself.</blockquote>Lots of stuff and lots of arguing as usual, and quite a few screenshots too. Here are some of them:

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Link: A Tour Around Teron @ Iron Tower Studio Forums
 
A few weeds here and there wouldn't hurt anything, and vines growing over the debris. Other than that.. I've always thought the people seem out of place with the environment. Like those old 3D games like Ecstatica and Twinson's Adventure (name? sp? I think that's right..).
 
I have to say that the thing that most annoys me about AoD is the Roman look (i.e. the soldiers). I hated that about Morrowind.
 
Plissken said:
I have to say that the thing that most annoys me about AoD is the Roman look (i.e. the soldiers). I hated that about Morrowind.
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Do you know what annoys me when I go to Italy? All the Italians!
 
The environment looks good, but it would be nice to see some bump and/or displacement map on the objects. Everything looks too flat to me. (I've done my 3d modeling, so it irritates the hell out of me.)
I'm not sure if the engine allows for it, but if it does, then that would really improve the quality.
 
FeelTheRads said:
I have to say that the thing that most annoys me about AoD is the Roman look
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Good point! Especially since the game is about Romans.
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No it's not. It is in a setting inspired by the fall of the roman empire, with low magic and all.

syllogz said:
The environment looks good, but it would be nice to see some bump and/or displacement map on the objects. Everything looks too flat to me. (I've done my 3d modeling, so it irritates the hell out of me.)
I'm not sure if the engine allows for it, but if it does, then that would really improve the quality.
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I can't say for sure, but I think it doesn't. Also, about the vines, there are some SERIOUS issues with transparent textures, so they keep them to a minimum. Hence the lack of vines and stuff.
 
Morbus:

You're right.
I've looked up the Torque Engine, and by the screenshots it seems that the basic doesn't support it.
On the other hand, the Advanced version does seem to have fine bump maps (unless those are actual geometries) and transparencies. Just look at Dreamlords! Or the short video at the TGEA subsite.
The price difference is only 100 dollars, but I'm in no position to give suggestions.
 
They are using TGE1.3

Also, I'd pay for the update myself if it were that simple. Changing the engine version breaks stuff all around, it would require months for them to update. I'm ok with a bit of suckiness in graphics if that means I get to play a good old school RPG this year.
 
syllogz said:
The environment looks good, but it would be nice to see some bump and/or displacement map on the objects. Everything looks too flat to me. (I've done my 3d modeling, so it irritates the hell out of me.)
I'm not sure if the engine allows for it, but if it does, then that would really improve the quality.
Click to expand...
Sincerely I don't give a flying fuck about the 3D models. What matters is the art, and so far it's looking good.

Want some bloom on those shoes? Go play Oblivion, and you may even find it on something else (doorknobs, doors, leaves, trees, horses, weapons, armor, faces, streets, marble, stone, and out of nowhere from the ceiling).
 
HoKa said:
Sincerely I don't give a flying fuck about the 3D models. What matters is the art, and so far it's looking good.

Want some bloom on those shoes? Go play Oblivion, and you may even find it on something else (doorknobs, doors, leaves, trees, horses, weapons, armor, faces, streets, marble, stone, and out of nowhere from the ceiling).
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Actually syllogz is right. What matters is indeed the art, and so far it's looking a little flat.

I've been reading about a ballista in the linked forum, but can't for the life of me find it in the screenshots. Can someone point it out for me?
 
It's the old engine holding them back. Outside of buildings it lacks some important features (like shadowmaps). The bright side: indoor looks really nice, imho. Here:


index_lm_house.jpg



indexscreen1.jpg


No bumpmaps there either, but i'm still happy with the look.


terebikun said:
I've been reading about a ballista in the linked forum, but can't for the life of me find it in the screenshots. Can someone point it out for me?
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Ballista towers:

screenshot14400001xf6.jpg


There was a pic that was a bit closer, but it got deleted/updated.
 
Are you nuts, HoKa???

I was complaining about the lack of bump maps, and not of some eye-candy bloom. I didn't expect real time GI mental ray rendering.
I thought bump maps are the simplest things, but it seems that TGE don't have them. So no more complains from me.

BTW, I agree with Morbus that if they deliver true old school cRPG, I won't care how it does look.


EDIT:
star:
Yeah, the interiors look really nice.
My guess is that that has something to do with the lighting, which is absolutely superb.
 
The problem with the flatness is not the bumb maps, it's the lack of dynamic shadows. Is that what you're talking about?
 
star said:
screenshot14400001xf6.jpg


There was a pic that was a bit closer, but it got deleted/updated.
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Bumpmapping is not needed.

IMO outdoor shots would greatly benefit from a relatively cheap trick of putting "fake permanent shadows", in other words, large gradient darkish alpha masks over them.

This is a crude mock-up, but this is what could be done this way.

aod_mockup.jpg
 
Im sorry, but this is supposed to be an improvement? What is that grey fog supposed to be? It looks terrible...
 
The indoor scenes are indeed very nice. They remind me of BG1 (and note that in BG the scenes were pre-rendered).

The outdoor scenes probably (as noted before) need shadows, cause bumps are less significiant (camera is a little bit higher, so bumps are less visible)....
 
bonanza said:
Im sorry, but this is supposed to be an improvement? What is that grey fog supposed to be? It looks terrible...
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Think Quake 1 shadows, basically. There's only so much crap I can do in Paint Shop Pro...
 
shihonage said:
Think Quake 1 shadows, basically. There's only so much crap I can do in Paint Shop Pro...
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Lightmaps? All static lighting and shadows baked into the special textures and blended with normal ones?
 
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