LarryG on 12/10/2012 at 21:35
If I understand this correctly,
* Build the area
* from the center of the area take six screenshots (F, B, L, R, U, D) of the area
* resize the screenshots to 512x512 (don't worry about distortion)
* make a cubemap from them
* then what? Where do I use it? On an object? On a single texture on an object? How do I use it?
I really need a true step by step tutorial explaining each step. I just don't get it.
vurt on 13/10/2012 at 01:08
Quote Posted by LarryG
If I understand this correctly,
* Build the area
* from the center of the area take six screenshots (F, B, L, R, U, D) of the area
* resize the screenshots to 512x512 (don't worry about distortion)
* make a cubemap from them
* then what? Where do I use it? On an object? On a single texture on an object? How do I use it?
I really need a true step by step tutorial explaining each step. I just don't get it.
You can use it on any object you think should look good with reflections. All you need to do is find out which texture that object uses and where that texture is located (Create a texturename.mtl file in that location (use notepad) insert
terrain_scale 128 64 (this should be the same size as the texture)
env_map 0.15 1 tex\envmaps\v_reflection1 (v_reflection1 is the filename for my cubemap and its location in this case Thief2\tex\envmaps\) you might need to play around with the values (i explained them earlier).
save this file (click
"save as..", "all files *.*") texturename.mtl (same as the texture name except the extension .mtl).
it can sometimes be a bit difficult to find out exactly which texture an object uses. I sometimes use DromEd for this, open the mission where i know the object is, then i click Properties for the object to see what the model is called, i then search my extracted .crf files for this model, convert it to an .e file, open it in 3dsToBin to see which textures it has listed. This requires additional knowlege about converting objects and dromed / 3dstobin. I'm not sure i'm up to the task to write a tutorial for dromed or 3dsToBin if you're not familiar at all with Thief modding, and there's tutorials for that already if you google.
Edit: maybe i could do a youtube video, i'd prefer that over writing and it would probably be easier to follow.
ZylonBane on 13/10/2012 at 01:14
Quote Posted by vurt
it can sometimes be a bit difficult to find out exactly which texture an object uses.
Send To -> Notepad. It's usually pretty easy to pick out the texture filenames from all the other non-ASCII junk.
(where "Notepad" is something other than the actual Windows Notepad that doesn't choke and die on NULL characters)
vurt on 13/10/2012 at 04:10
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
Send To -> Notepad. It's usually pretty easy to pick out the texture filenames from all the other non-ASCII junk.
(where "Notepad" is something other than the actual Windows Notepad that doesn't choke and die on NULL characters)
Cool, i must try that, thanks for the advice, could save me a lot of time :)
LarryG on 13/10/2012 at 05:46
Just hexedit the bin.
So what you are saying is that the textures need to be separate. The wood frame which is not reflective should be a different texture from the glass in front of the picture. OK. I think I understand.
But what does this have to do with water? You can't burn in a reflection into water for every location you have it can you? I mean it's one cubemap for wherever you use the water.
vurt on 13/10/2012 at 06:06
I'll have to make the reflection on the water vague enough so you can't make anything out (it's night afterall ;) ), because yes it will reflect the same thing, no matter where the water is.
It actually worked better with a plain image than a cubemap in this case.. I'll have to experiment more to see if it will be possible to use, but again, this will depend on how "open minded" the player is, i could probably live with it myself, but for someone who decides he must stop to inspect it in great detail and see if it's actually reflecting the way it should, well, he will probably be better without it than with it :) Good thing it's easy to edit the .mtl and just remove it.
Albert on 13/10/2012 at 06:15
Yeah, it's a shame that it would be too complicated to implement true world reflection into the game. It's probably beyond even the secret shadowy figures who gave us Newdark... :sly: :(
But anyways, I think I've figured out how to correctly use your new water, vurt. For FMSel installed missions, I just go into the files and remove their waterhw files. Not too many FMs have custom water, but those that do stay at the default framerate. Thus the water mismatch occurs. Someone else down the line already mentioned this, but I just wanted to confirm it.
And yeah, the water (Blin?) needs to be a bit less opaque, so one can see to out from above the water.
All redundancies out of the way, I must say I like this pack. Although the overrides for some FMs is ruined by the new water, where originally the water in an FM was made to be seen through alot more easily. Broken Triad comes to mind.
vurt on 13/10/2012 at 06:19
I can easily make different packs with different transparencies, it just takes me a minute to batch process the alpha channel of all blin or grim water.
Actually the frame rate is locked on the water, i've tried different values (anim_rate) but it stays exactly the same, this is set in the gamesys for the missions. Hopefully someone can figure out how to unlock it, it's a bit too choppy atm.
LarryG on 13/10/2012 at 06:40
With up to 100 frames, you can easily slow down the effective / perceived rate by diminishing the differences between frames.
vurt on 13/10/2012 at 10:21
Quote Posted by LarryG
With up to 100 frames, you can easily slow down the effective / perceived rate by diminishing the differences between frames.
that's not the problem, i think it's random enough (+ there's even parameters now for having it appear random), it's not as smooth as i'd like.. with SS2 it looks wonderful with ani_rate 60.
