Submitting models

[Idoru]

dude, shush is the only advice I can give I dont even know who the hell you are but I still think it is wise advice.


Caarrie, no one will give evidence without the author of the converters explicit permission.

[Karyuu]

I know someone has made an importer/exporter for animations - but I don't know how widely it is shared. The individual who created it made some really nice improvements to a couple of current anims, but they don't work properly in viewmesh so it's not perfect. Luca has yet to look over the tweaked anims, I believe, and see if the importer produces acceptable results. I wouldn't get my hopes up about it too much just yet.

[Narure]

Another thing. Are we still working by the, "if its shown in public it cant be put ingame" and if so whats the reason for that?

[Karyuu]

When it comes to models, yes we are. One of the reasons for this is to keep an element of surprise, and I think sometimes to keep people from arguing over the direction of development. "You should be working on this instead!" isn't something we want to waste time reading when we are in the middle of construction of a new zone, for example. Also, if as developers we post screenshots of works in progress, chances are we will get people whining with "When is it going to be finished???" if we don't complete it fast enough. As I player, I loved the "Wow!" feeling I got when an update was released and I got to see all the cool art that's been in the works for a while, and I would want others to experience that as well. I think we do enough public hinting at new features with the CVS change log, so artwork is kept more on the down low to give players eye candy to look forward to. Kind of become PS policy now :) Art = presents. You don't give presents until they are finished, and that would be release time, when they are in their proper setting and ready to be used.

[Narure]

We'll I ment more from a point of view of submitting art, would something you spotted on the forums and think, 'that'd be nice in planeshift, but oh no, no point even asking them becuase its against the rules" and equaly if someone was trying to make somthing for planeshift but wanted to put it in their art thread  so they could get direct feedback.

[neko kyouran]

When it comes to models, yes we are. One of the reasons for this is to keep an element of surprise, and I think sometimes to keep people from arguing over the direction of development. "You should be working on this instead!" isn't something we want to waste time reading when we are in the middle of construction of a new zone, for example. Also, if as developers we post screenshots of works in progress, chances are we will get people whining with "When is it going to be finished???" if we don't complete it fast enough.

and this doesn't happen when they are released?   

[Karyuu]

No, actually I haven't seen too many people cry "That area isn't done yet, do it faster" It's when you give people image teasers that they are more likely to go "Is it there yet? Is it there yet? Is it? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

We'll I ment more from a point of view of submitting art, would something you spotted on the forums and think, 'that'd be nice in planeshift, but oh no, no point even asking them becuase its against the rules" and equaly if someone was trying to make somthing for planeshift but wanted to put it in their art thread  so they could get direct feedback.

I think it really depends. When it comes to character or NPC models, making them public is pretty much out. If you want feedback, contact some art devs and they will help you - and be more capable of telling you exactly what improvements you may need than those who don't model for the game, and may not know what geometry changes may be essential. If it's concept art, feel free to show anyone you want. If it's really good, I'll even try to kidnap it for the website Small item models are probably okay to post, I think texture changes as well, and environments (which you shouldn't be attempting unless you know what you're doing) fall into the character models category.

The "depends" comes into play here: if you make an absolutely stunning male Lemur model, for example, it would be stupid of us not to accept it just because you've decided to post it on the forums. But it has to be stunning, giving us no room to go "Here is a list of all the changes you have to make." If you're that confidant about your modeling, you shouldn't need to post it for feedback anyway, and instead contact the art team straight away. And I think this can apply to all art - to include it in a release when it's already been shown around, we would have to feel like we'd be missing out on something we cannot afford to. This is a very rare event and I can only remember it happening once.

[Cherppow]

Hi,

I pretty much agree with Karyuu. I also hope who ever made this importer would work with the devs. We could certainly use someone with such skills.

No, actually I haven't seen too many people cry "That area isn't done yet, do it faster" It's when you give people image teasers that they are more likely to go "Is it there yet? Is it there yet? Is it? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

Indeed, I never get such PMs. Actually I never get any PMs, but that's not important.

...environments (which you shouldn't be attempting unless you know what you're doing)...

Well, they aren't that hard. Personally I'd say character models are much harder. They're difficult for different reasons of course. Hardest thing about areas is that they've so much things in them that you can't spend hours after hours fine tuning one single corner. You'll just have to try and make it good enough, fast enough and move on.

Ps. Nice renders on your other thread Illysia.

[Ice_Stovo]

But propably seeing some teasers maybe few weeks before the release should be good. I don't think that averything is done just few days before release. For example winch screenshots were available some time before client release and it was great, because many people were wondering what is it.

[joke]Shouldn't you work on finishing the dwarven citadel instead of stupid winches? [/joke]

[Karyuu]

Nope, the winch screenshots were available only when the new client was released :] They were taken by those who can run their own private server for testing and who can load any maps on their own, locally.

I understand people like seeing teasers, but knowing how Luca feels about them, and how he is the one controlling all the art assets, I don't really see it happening. It's not an argument I can carry on, either way.

By the way! I've had some really cool models sent to me by someone on this board, and they are almost guaranteed to make it into the release :)

[peeg]

By the way! I've had some really cool models sent to me by someone on this board, and they are almost guaranteed to make it into the release

Sounds great  Can't wait to see all the nice stuff in the comming release - as usual.

* peeg takes a look at his calendar and .18's release date "Yay, shouldn't be too long anymore!"

[Trymm]

OK. Enough rumours. You can find 3 updated animations here: http://www.faramann.net/

These are
1) death animation for krans
2) death animation for dwarves
3) sneeze-animation for fynnwn

Krans and dwarves should now remain on the floor when they die, and fynnwn should not cut their breast open with their own swords every time they sneeze. Nothing spectacular, but just a taste. Since these animations essentially are in-game already, it should not make any difference if they are published here.

The animations have been tested within my the guild: Elemental Light. Hence, I think they should work. However, please report any problems you might experience so that I can hopefully correct it.

I have also made a couple of others animations, which pose a bigger change to the characters. Hence I choose not to publish them widely yet in a hope that it might be useful to the dev-team. 

[Cherppow]

Hi,

To Ice_Stovo:

Teasers - Aye, a typical area takes month(s) to create, depending a bit on the complexity and availability of free time. Teasers might be fun to see, aye, and fun to share too. Might even be useful in the terms of feedback and motivation. But rules are rules.

Tasks - I can't just decide what to work on, I get the tasks from 3d leader. Sometimes there's few items to choose from, sometimes there isn't. Hmm, which dwarven citadel are you talking about though? [joke]"Lazy dwarves, finish your own village."[/joke]

[Velh Krome]

Trymm, great idea! would love to see it like.. you descibed it!

well, i extracted my characters.zip, modified your files' names by deleting the "TV" in it and copied both files each into fynnwn, kran and stonem accordingly, and zipped again - the message on trying to start up the game reads something "Server transmits a wrong filename".
i also tried then to leave the names as they were, yet no diffference.. =/

i am running debain/sid (linux), though i wouldnt think that would do for a difference.

any clue whats wrong here?

ps: due to my impatience.. anyone has anims for elves;)?

[Trymm]

well, i extracted my characters.zip, modified your files' names by deleting the "TV" in it and copied both files each into fynnwn, kran and stonem accordingly, and zipped again - the message on trying to start up the game reads something "Server transmits a wrong filename".
i also tried then to leave the names as they were, yet no diffference.. =/

Make sure that you zip the file correctly again. Try this:

1) create a new directory: mkdir tmpdir
2) unzip characters.zip into that directory: cd tmpdir;unzip ../characters.zip
3) copy the modified files into the correct subdirectories. Ensure that they have the correct file names -- might be case sensitive also on the virtual file system that PS uses, I am not sure.
4) create a new zip-file (while you stand in tmpdir): zip ../characters.zip * */*

This should work, and there should not be a difference for linux, though I am using OSX. If you still have problems, send me a PM, and I will see if I can help you out further.