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Topic: Re-modelling Barbarian Buildings

kingcreole

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Posted at: 2010-12-20, 10:47

corrected the wood,added ground, used playercolor above mine and corrected size of coal (was way to small). big problems: 1: how can i animate renderability in blender 2.4x for building animation ? (2.5 would speed my progress up...) 2: smoke simulation only exists in 2.5, would be great if we could get the script done 3: working animation: light from mine getting brighter and less bright okay? i dunno what else i should animate...

Edited: 2010-12-20, 11:16

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chuckw
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Posted at: 2010-12-20, 16:33

The mine looks great!

kingcreole wrote: corrected the wood,added ground, used playercolor above mine and corrected size of coal (was way to small).

I would like to see the coal, blacker like the image of the ware the carriers transport. See ~widelands-media/graphics/tribes/barbarians/parts.blend for some objects. It is a nice source of building objects, but again do not use that orange wood material. face-smile.png (You will find there is a mixture of older style models in with our recent remodels. As I have said, I mean to have the older models re-rendered with different wood materials. In fact, some need to be restaged for consistent camera angle and lighting.)

big problems:
1: how can i animate renderability in blender 2.4x for building animation ? (2.5 would speed my progress up...)

If you copy the ~widelands-media/graphics/tools directory into the path of the folder of your blend file, you can use the inner_Building.py script that is found in that folder and in your blend file if you started from a template or existing model. That script not only generates the number of animation frames you specify, it also generates corresponding frames with the playercolor mask. It is a real time saver, especially regarding the masking.

2: smoke simulation only exists in 2.5, would be great if we could get the script done

Take a look at the barbarian helmsmithy. Maybe we can append its smoke animation.

3: working animation: light from mine getting brighter and less bright okay? i dunno what else i should animate...

Flickering light in the mineshaft is all I could hope for. Great!
Give thought now to the 4 frame build sequence animation. How will you depict the construction of the mine by the builder? I suggest:

  • Frame 1 - shaft hole and ground plane with first course of log foundation.
  • Frame 2 - the building's walls are mostly complete
  • Frame 3 - the shaft enclosure and building are complete except for the roofs
  • Frame 4 - Add the roof and awning.

Keep up the great work!


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kingcreole

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Posted at: 2010-12-20, 17:16

i used the coal from that parts.blend-file and the material has allready changed, i dunno why but it seems to me, that all those wood materials are those light ones, maybe i should change the materials from the materials-palette.blend file to a little darker or maybe this will work: i could turn the power of the preset lightning down a little... ty for the tip and what do you think should i do? search or even change materials or render with less light?


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chuckw
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Posted at: 2010-12-20, 17:43

kingcreole wrote: i used the coal from that parts.blend-file and the material has allready changed, i dunno why but it seems to me, that all those wood materials are those light ones,

Are you using the recommended rendering stage? If you have not used the staging (including lighting arrangement) from a template or existing model, I would suggest appending your mine model into the empty_building_template.blend and render from there.

maybe i should change the materials from the materials-palette.blend file to a little darker

Feel free to adjust the materials in your model as you see fit. In fact, if you would like to "adjust" the materials in the parts.blend model, you have my blessing.
Also, the materials-palette.blend file is a "Work in progress" not a bible, so if you want to change, add, delete any materials or textures, go ahead. I would request that any textures with image sources have the image packed with the texture. External libraries can be nice, but as you may find with certain items in the materials-palette.blend, omissions can crop up if the material/texture is appended to other models where the library is not available. In other words, I like to see the blend files as self-sufficient as possible regarding the materials used in them. Scripts are another matter as modifications to them have more wide-ranging impact.

or maybe this will work: i could turn the power of the preset lightning down a little...

Use your judgement as long as the models lighting is as consistent with the rest of the game as possible.

ty for the tip and what do you think should i do? search or even change materials or render with less light?

If you are already using the standard rendering stage, then I recommend your best recourse is to adjust the material and leave the lighting alone.

Edited for clarity

Edited: 2010-12-20, 17:47

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kingcreole

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Posted at: 2010-12-23, 11:33

i guess the small mines are finished, do they look okay?

everything started here then the materials got delivered (mine entrace still has alpha inside) finaly the mine got deeper (no more alpha at mine-entrace) and last but not least: finished

working animation is:
small light little bit bigger light allmost no light BIG light


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kingcreole

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Posted at: 2010-12-23, 11:37

also got those images with gold or iron mines


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kingcreole

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Posted at: 2010-12-23, 13:28

i was thinking: can the game engine handle all 9 pngs of every building? i mean widelands might take a whole lot of disk-space so would such a huge amount of pictures harm the game?


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chuckw
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Posted at: 2010-12-23, 16:26

@kingcreole:
The small coal mine looks fabulous! Now we have to concentrate on getting your work into the Media Trunk and, of course, into the game. face-smile.png Your recent involvement spurred me to create the new GettingStarted and GraphicsDevelopment wiki pages. Hopefully they can achieve their goal in getting you and others properly "connected". face-smile-big.png

kingcreole wrote:
i was thinking: can the game engine handle all 9 pngs of every building? i mean widelands might take a whole lot of disk-space so would such a huge amount of pictures harm the game?

I voiced the same concern a while ago (long before all of the worker animations with their many frames had been added, in fact). At that time, SirVer assured me that we graphicians should not worry about the number of animations and files we throw at the game engine. If the game starts to look bloated or overworked in anyway, I assure you he'll let us know. face-wink.png So, in other words, "Keep on Animating".
However, don't take that as a license to be lazy in cropping dead space out of the frames as much as possible to reduce their file size. The steps we take now to keep file SIZES down allow us to create just that much MORE animation.
The senior coders are always looking for ways to keep the game package as efficient as possible in its execution and size. We will hear a LOT of dialogue if/when things get unwieldy. face-grin.png


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kingcreole

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Posted at: 2010-12-24, 11:51

allrite i guess i created some branch and pushed all 3 mines as png files ^^ (i´m not too shure if i did something, and what i did but i found my branch on launchpad so i think its close to where it needs to be) oh, gotta push the .blend files too right?...


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kingcreole

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Posted at: 2010-12-24, 22:22

merry cristmas everyone i guess i´ll start getting the deep mines ready thought about using the miner model for the working animation, i might get it in, will shure look great are my mines approved? maybe they could be erased from the list of models needed...


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