Easily Installed High Res. Textures.

John P. on 21/6/2004 at 07:42

Since I don't know anyone who changes eye colour from one year to the next(or one decade to the next), I thought I'd keep his original eye colour.

Why Ion Storm and possibly even Looking Glass thought otherwise, I don't know.

aldous on 21/6/2004 at 12:06

John, i read your reasons why you made eyes like that and it makes some sense. the continuity in character's appearance is a good reason (especially for fans of previous games) to provide such a version of face, but it doesn't mean it's to be one and only deciding factor when creating game artwork. and it doesn't mean nothing can be changed just because there once was a movie which displayed copper eye etc., does it?
'aristic' values are more important in my view. you often see how movie or comic heroes change, either because actors/artists change, or just because they can look 'better' -more convincing, more appropriate for what they are, and to their time. imagine james bond (just as an example, i don't compare him with thief of course)never change because once he has been given the face of sean connery -even if connery could stay young till today, he would look ridiculous in that role because we are not in seventies any more.

i also liked very much thief2, but think that the new look ionstorm gave garrett is far more appropriate than the one they could have achieved just by strictly following the lead from that cutscene once made for 'the metal age'. the more so there's no story corelation between second and third thief game. it's all about 'aristic' values, many things would never happen\improve if people were just looking at what has been already made. as an artist you probably know that it's not just following some schemes. imagine you draw several potraits of one person(e.g. yourself) troughout years -does it mean every single one has to look same because of the first one? consider self portraits by van gogh, portraits by picasso.

John P. on 21/6/2004 at 12:21

My first Garrett skin actually had brown eyes, because the Thief: DS Garrett has brown eyes.

But then people started saying; "Hey - Garrett's supposed to have blue eyes!" Then some other people said "No! He's supposed to have brown eyes!".

Personally I really don't care either way, but I'm still leaning toward continuity. I'm all for artistic license, but in this case when you've established a game character, I think he should stay pretty much the same, except perhaps show his added age and change his clothes. I don't think James Bond is a good analogy; the reason they replace Bond actors is because they get too old to play the part. I see your point though.

-But to make "everyone" happy, I might just make a brown eyed version later.

aldous on 21/6/2004 at 12:22

i tried dxtool and figured it's not so easy to combine Your face with ionstorm's eyes just by restoring original eyes *.dds files -i had some placement problem with brown eye, and especially glowing issues w/green one. i guess some hex editing is inevitable. so, i ask you kindly john, if it's not much problem for you, could you provide one more face for garrett please?

Brianetta on 21/6/2004 at 21:24

Quote Posted by John P.

Since I don't know anyone who changes eye colour from one year to the next(or one decade to the next)...

You do now (it's me). My eyes used to be brown, they have been green, they're currently half-and-half (green with brown bits 'round the pupil).

aldous on 21/6/2004 at 23:28

i've got a question: what values in kernel_GFXALL.ibt does your installer change to make the model search for and use your 'external' 512x512 'garrett_face_d' and 'n' files? (seems like you had also to change first letters of the original dxt resources in .ibt?) hope it's not a trade secret :rolleyes:

John P. on 22/6/2004 at 04:37

Quote Posted by aldous

If you uninstall my textures first(so that the .ibt files are reverted to original), you can easily search for each texture name in the .ibt files using a hex editor, and manually change each name. It doesn't matter what you change it to, as long as the texture name is different from default. You can change just the first letter in the name, and that'll be sufficient
(but if you're replacing the versions I have made, you don't have to hex edit at all, since they are already edited. Then you can just overwrite my files, and they will turn up in-game).

That's all my installer does. From there it's about creating the textures, and making them work.
If you think the original brown eye texture suddenly looked misplaced, it's because the original texture is misplaced, and makes Garrett slightly cockeyed.
Perhaps it's more noticeable against a sharper face texture.

aldous on 22/6/2004 at 12:08

Thanks a lot. So it's enough just to change names of relevant dxt's in ibt. i did that and the game automatically uses appropriate dds' in DynamicallyLoaded dir. i already have what i wanted, slightly customized version of your garrett. (however, i'm not sure if this is really 'better' at all...don't think i'll be using that combination:/)

one more thing: your version of scar (i tested the big one) is not 'working' well in some light conditions; when you expose your face to a strong light source from one side, the scar get's unnaturally bold and simplified, it just stands out too much(is that caused by too convex map in that place?).

here's an example of how does it look like: (http://dwurnik.pl/temp/T3Main0622.jpg)

Fallen+Keeper on 22/6/2004 at 18:20

I'm reading this thread since it has began, hoping that I won't see any assholes whining "John, your textures are great, but I'd appreciated more a Garrett with yellow eyes, because as you may - or not - know that..." etc. So if you're one of them, please refrain from typing at all. Otherwise take it as it is and thank John P. for his talent and his dedication.

No need to repeat the "asshole-fest" occured during John P. DXIW High res text. release, or Cyberblutch (spelling?)'s SS2 Rebirth release.

Thank you John! I have just received my copy of Thief DS and I can't wait to install it just to see your textures. :thumb:

aldous on 22/6/2004 at 19:52

Quote:

(...)assholes whining "John, your textures are great, but I'd appreciated more a Garrett with yellow eyes, because as you may - or not - know that..."

man, that's about me. according to that i'm an assole. perhaps you're right.
though forums exist for some reason.
i was just curious about some things concerning john's texture work and since i don't speak english very well, i might sound too 'kind' and use too many words, sorry about that.