Enhancing Duke's Spritely Appearance part 3

[NightFright]

Basically, we should just ask the guy who did the episode finale screens for higher resolutions.

[gt1750]

1024x768 is not hi-res anymore, eh?

I still have the psd files of both screens. Resizing these or their parts might not be an improvement, both should be re-done from scratch. I might do that after I quit the job on March 31st.

[BuddhaMaster]

Thanks alot for this Mod !

I have now finally dl the v4 Pack and enjoy playing greatly !!!

An old DN3d veteran.

This is the first mod where the sprite->Model replace actually works !
At least this is the first Mod i can really use the Models and dont dislike em !

Even the babes are able to catch my attention just as the sprites.
And this means verrrrry much !
Shotgun still needs some tweaking, because if i cant accept something, its a bad Shotgun Sprite->Model conversion.

But everything else is great and this Mod has huge potential !
Good Good Good

I have this texture since a while...
Maybe it can be used as base for an Alien style texture..
But don't just use it, ask me, before you use it
http://buddhamaster666.googlepages.c...full;init:.jpg

What's still missing and important ?
I'd love to give a contribution

[gambini]

Ok i think it´s where is it

I can´t upload pal 5 because it exceeds the 195kb limit. I´ll host it somewhere.

[gambini]

Didn´t find a way to make the tile smaller.

I think the following jpg version doesnt looses too much quality:

[gambini]

Sorry for the triple post but there is no way to edit the attachments

Last attemp, i removed the jpg because i didnt like it but here you can download the lossless version:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BIEA9DZ3

[NightFright]

You can also use imageshack.us.

The grate texture is pretty close to the model, I doubt we need a direct capture of it.

And another hint if you create PNG textures:
Use PNG Optimizer before uploading. It removes unused parts of the images that just increase filesize but won't have an impact on image quality at all. Your textures could be brought down to 75-84% of their original sizes that way (i.e. 145-166 KB).

[gambini]

A new skybox i did based on the roch island´s one by Numan.

It fits very well the 0094 one, that was the only one missing i guess.

[gambini]

Max files per post 5

[Mr.Fibbles]

Wasn't there discussion on upping the sky boxes to 1024?
Either way, those look nice.

[NightFright]

But this is not for HRP, I take it...

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by gambini

It fits very well the 0094 one, that was the only one missing i guess.

Originally Posted by NightFright

But this is not for HRP, I take it...

It sounds to me like he is proposing it as a replacement for tile 94.

[NightFright]

Well, water is definitely too bright. Does anyone know where #94 is used as a skybox ingame?

[gambini]

I did a couple of tryes with the water brightness and ended up with the one posted here. It doesnt look bad, althought i could make it darker if you´re not going to use it for that reason.

[NightFright]

Well, unfortunately, there is no place in the official Duke3D campaign where this is actually used as a skybox, just once in E4L9 as a texture.

[gambini]

btw there are lot of user maps that have this skybox.

And IIRC a map in the episode 4 has it as sky.

[DeeperThought]

Originally Posted by NightFright

Well, unfortunately, there is no place in the official Duke3D campaign where this is actually used as a skybox, just once in E4L9 as a texture.

That might be a reason to make the completion of the skybox a low priority, but it is no reason not to include the skybox now that it has been completed. Moreover, user maps are an important part of the game, and have been since 1996. The vast majority of levels that people play are user maps.

[NightFright]

Yeah, I guess so. Still, it could need better resolution and darker water to match original version better.

[Piterplus]

Water should be definitely another (darker and another tone balance)
As for size - for user maps 512x512 maybe will be enough, at the same time it takes less space in hi-res pack (better for us)

[gambini]

The original parallax texture combines an orange sky with a deep blue water. That´s the first combination with i came up, but it looked so artificial because you know that with an orange dusk the sea turns a little orange too. IMO it doesnt fit the original tile that good but it looks better than what are you asking. Still, if you really want to have a colorfull skybox, i can make it one of these days.

[NightFright]

Well, I guess there should be something like artistic "freedom". If it looks better that way, there's no reason to make it totally like the original tile whatever it takes.

[Rellik66]

IMO, what matters is that the water matches the HRP equivalent water texture fairly closely. because often maps use that texture where the horizon meets the water on the edge of the map, so it would look kinda odd if the color/contrast were different where the water meets the skybox.

you could just load the skybox tiles up in Photoshop and adjust the contrast/color of each side to match the original better.

[NightFright]

Here is my recoloring suggestion for #94 skybox. I know, the water is very dark, but so is the one on the original tile. "Top" part can be used from gambini's original remake, nothing has to be changed there (only sky, no water).

[Radar1033]

looks much better.

[gambini]

Water looks as an one colour block here. Do you want to me remaking it, using that colours combination?

[alandog]

yes, why not? I appreciate your efforts gambini, maybe you could enlarge the resolution..

[NightFright]

Yes, the waves lost their profile when recoloring. I think next version will look better, whoever will do it.

[chicken]

I played around with it a little and added a gradient on the water.
I think it adds a little more depth.

Just as an inspiration for you, gambini

[LeoD]

Very nice. I just wanted to congratulate you for the microscopic ship at the horizon when I noticed it was dirt on my screen...but maybe an additional inspiration for gambini...

[Rellik66]

Re the resolution: Terragen has a max render of 1280x960 which means that the maximum possible square image is 960x960. You would need a full registered version to go any bigger.

I'm not sure if a skybox could be somewhere between 512 and 1024 (like 768) without a performance hit of some sort. someone else may know.

Anyway, I took a shot at doing my own take of 094 and it is pretty hard to do in Terragen, the sky is supposed to reflect on the water, but with the sky being yellow and the water being deep blue, things get pretty ugly trying to separate the two without losing the reflections or the water looking an ugly yellow. Perhaps the best way would be to do two separate renders and merge them in photoshop.

[Tea Monster]

From what I've heard from the devs, EDuke32 does not suffer from OpenGL slowdowns from using non- 1024/2048 etc textures.

[Parkar]

Originally Posted by Tea Monster

From what I've heard from the devs, EDuke32 does not suffer from OpenGL slowdowns from using non- 1024/2048 etc textures.

Some hardware might suffer a memory waste but all modern cards suports non power of two textures. Might even be only cards that has problems running the HRP that does not suport them.

[gambini]

Originally Posted by chicken

I played around with it a little and added a gradient on the water.
I think it adds a little more depth.

Just as an inspiration for you, gambini

I´ll be relieved if that skybox works (you know, in the four angles) so you can include that one.

ps. Mainly because i took the work with it by done and deleted all the files i used to create it

[NightFright]

You should never do that. Rule #1!

[MusicallyInspired]

Indeed. I never delete my old music source files (except some in a hard drive crash).

[Tea Monster]

Originally Posted by gambini

... ps. Mainly because i took the work with it by done and deleted all the files i used to create it

AHK! AHHK! AHHK!

Dude, you've got to keep this stuff, even if only on a CD for your portfolio or something.

[Hendricks266]

Originally Posted by NightFright

Well, unfortunately, there is no place in the official Duke3D campaign where this is actually used as a skybox, just once in E4L9 as a texture.

Duke Caribbean.

[marked]

Hey Chicken, do you still need milk cartons?

[The Commander]

Originally Posted by marked

hey chicken, do you still need milk cartons?

ha ha

[PimpUigi]

Scared to have a picture of Duke Nukem (preferably the picture from Duke Nukem Forever) with the caption "Have you seen me???"