Brainstorming on different kinds of location

[mrmistophelees]

All day yesterday, I explored the options of creating new types of locations for the game. I reinstalled my version of 3dsMax 5, and most of the day had photoshop, TOOL, Max, TX converter, and the game all open at the same time seeing what's possible and what's not.

My problem is that I'm having some trouble being creative about different kinds of locations.
With Pieter's <a href="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8421" target="_blank">Swamp Bug</a> issue, I saw one possibility that would be interesting.

So this thread is about suggestions from the community on different kinds of locations that you think would work in the context of the game. Remember, we are in the Caribbean, and that means tropical! The swamp is a good one...

My creativity is heavily influenced by other games that I play (Oblivion <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dunno.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="dunno.gif" /> ), but after consideration, I don't think environments like that can work in this game. I think one of the reasons that the whole game is given in bite-size chunks (the locations with their transitions) is that the engine loads all the polygons of an area into memory. There probably isn't a dynamic unloading, so we can't make one huge open-ended area for an island unless it was really small.

So, the concepts that I'm looking for also need to be in bite-size chunks.
If I do the modelling however, I need someone else to do the retexturing, because I'm not good at that. The retexturing I think will be quite difficult though because it looks like the whole landscape texture comes from the appropriate shadow.tga file hidden inside ...\lighting\ [day, night, md, storm] \outside\ [location].

We would also need someone who is experienced (or wants to become experienced) at making Character Patch files (the files that prevent people from walking through the landscape).

Disclaimer: We still have to see if this is possible, but I don't see why not so far. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/keith.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="keith.gif" />

 

[Pieter Boelen]

For all I know, nobody ever managed to make or edit a walk patch. But there IS a feature for it in Inez Dias' tool.

 

[mrmistophelees]

<!--quoteo(post=163391:date=Sep 24 2006, 05:31 AM:name=Pieter Boelen)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pieter Boelen @ Sep 24 2006, 05:31 AM) [snapback]163391[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> For all I know, nobody ever managed to make or edit a walk patch. But there IS a feature for it in Inez Dias' tool. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Yep, and I've taken a glance at it, but not enough to make heads or tails of it yet. It doesn't seem very difficult though. Probably just takes some practice.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I would want to recommend that you, if you do want to make new locations, try to do something VERY simple first. Just take a completely flat plain with a box on it, add a simply texture and try to get that ingame properly. Then try to add some more detail, such as grass trees and water. With PotC it is usually not the modeling that is the hardest, nor the texturing. It is getting the files working ingame.

You can also try and take existing locations and modify those. Alan Smithee has once been working on modified locations, but he never released those. For example, he added a governor's mansion to the Greenford lighthouse location. Those kind of things are possible and much easier than making locations from scratch.

 

[mrmistophelees]

Aye aye capt'n! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/keith.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="keith.gif" />

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Hehe. I am no captain though. Not yet anyway. So you can do what you want. I just give suggestions. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/doff.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="doff.gif" />