If you're trying to work out an effective camera system, look at the 3D remake of the original Prince of Persia.

you mean that camera should be slightly moving?

That would ruin it completely.

fartueus, are you going to have a quick fade out and fade in for every time there is a frame change? Becuase that would be the way to go, in my opinion. Also, about the camera slightly moving... I think that's a great idea. You've gone to all the trouble to model this in 3d, and you need to take advantage of the additional dimention. I'm not entirely sure by what is meant by having the 'camera slightly moving', but if you look at youtube videos of tennis being played at wimbledon, and how the camera moves slightly upwards, downwards, left and right in order to follow the ball.. that's how I think you should do it ;)

EDIT: Just looked at the prince of persia remake, and that's exactly what I had in mind. Go for the classic camera angle though, maybe slightly looking down so that you can see the floor surface.

EDIT: actually, on the prince of persia remake, the camera actually 'moves' left to right, up and down.. I think maybe you should have the camera rotate towards the left, towards the right, upwards and downwards. Or maybe try a combination of moving AND rotating the camera, ever so slightly so as to not destroy the original Abe's Oddysee viewing perspective.

I'm not convinced about moving camera... one game screen is 16 character steps width and with current camera (slightly better that one i showed you last time) and it looks almost like original.

If i want to make camera moving and still have camera showing 16 step in single screen, then i have to zoom in. In consequence of that i lose type of view looking like from original game.

I know that i probably can achieve satysfying effect without destroying overall effect, but it will take some time. And on this stage of project it is simply wasting time for cosmetic effects ;). Before i will make it following character on screen i want to add that effect of loading screens (i mean that moving line when you move to other game screen), but it also isn't my top priority. Actually i'm improving background elements (and still have to resize Zone1. Zone 2 and 3 have been rescaled last week)

Fartueus, is there any kind of art you need doing, because I could give it a go, and only if you wanted, you could use it. I'd be happy to help out :)

Do you mean digital made photoshop/gimp drawing or just traditional pencil/pen drawing?

I have some work for both of those :)

I mean pencil/pen drawing, or photoshopping, but I've got very little expierience in photoshopping :P

Ok. I have something for you.

Could you make some sketches of Stockyards objects? When i'm modelling it's very hard to read from screens where is just mess.

Here you have Stockyards Screenshots: http://www.oddworldforums.net/showthread.php?t=18521

Those sketches should be looking simple, clean and looking as similiar as it is possible to original elements.

Obviously some of the pictures leave quite a bit to your own interpretation of what everything is supposed to be. For example, it's hard to make out the shaddowed areas.. Shall I just do some guesswork?

Also, what kind of objects do you have in mind? I've spotted the big glukkon head with the laser eyes. I guess you mean stuff like that? What about the platforms? The fences with barbed wire?...OMG, i've just noticed there are dead mudokons suspended in traps lol, NEVER NOTICED THAT BEFORE!! :O
Update: I think I was wrong about the laser beams' sources being the glukkon heads in the background. I've just noticed the big mechanical looking arm in the foreground that seems to be projecting them.


EDIT: I've just noticed that the backgrounds are all different... in one you see a nebula, in another u see a massive planet, in another there's just lots of stars... How do you intend to do this in your 3D remake whilst making it look real? Because if it were realistic, you'd see the same background image in every frame.. unless you were looking at the frame through a telescope..

Well... I meant Stockyards (Part of RF). Not Free Fire Zone (Dark with Blue sky). I will mark some objects in PS.

and about backgrounds... This is problem... I don't have to worry about Free fire zone yet (First RF and Stockyards, then Paramonia and after it Free fire zone), but in Stockyards i can also find some problems with sky (In first two screens is orange and yellow, then turn in green and blue). I probably have to cheat a bit with skies.

I'm sure it'll turn out awesome Fartuess, are you doing the blue sky bit with the abandoned pen, before you climb the ledge?

I'm not sure that i understood you well (again my primitive english knowledge).

Do you mean sky 6th (and last) Stockyards game screen? Well... i'm not creating sky yet... My stockyards level is now extremely simple and empty. Just RF models + Fence + one column/pipe model. Both fence and pipe are untextured.

But yes... i want nice sky color blending through all stockyard location.

http://www.oddworldforums.net/attach...1&d=1278686632

Some objects (like objects in background of 1st screen) have most parts hidden, so i have nothing aganist your own interpretation and creativity.

Other are dark and there i have nothing aganist... you know what, but you should try to recognize as much parts of object that is possible (Playing with contrast and brightness in photoshop should make it easier).

Now something about pipes in second screen. You don't have to worry about surface of pipes.Most important is basic shape, way how they are putted together and other object which are placed in that mess of pipes :)

In second screen source of lasers is that mechanical arm, but on fifth (Not shown in this image above) laser beam is projected by glukkon head.

Edit:

New Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzqUs0fGEgs

Yeh I meant the bit at the end as you said.

The big robotic arm with the laser-projecting ball...
 

Yeah, it's tough trying to see what exactly it's supposed to look like hehe :S.. Been looking at that object for a long while, still haven't really got my head around it.

One question.. do you think it's symmetrical? You have the ball, and the two 'fingers' holding the ball.. Is each finger identical? Each finger looks different to me..

EDIT: Forgot to say.. I've installed 3ds max, so I'll see if I can make any progress with my modelling skills :)

@AvengingGibbons

well i think that it is symetrical, when it comes to shape, but you can draw it like you want. Maybe you will create something interesting :). And don't forget to draw openwork frame with hydraulic actuator with details. Ball and fingers holding it is actually pretty clearly visible.

And good luck with 3ds :)

"And don't forget to draw openwork frame with hydraulic actuator with details."

What are those objects? Do you mean the arm?

By the way, is it the arm that's actually holding the ball? Because if you look at the other distant balls, they aren't being held by arms. And by the way the arm goes off-screen, it makes it look like the arm may not actually be holding the ball.. unless the ball hangs downwards from the end of the arm.

yes. I mean arm (i was supporting myself with google translate, so all mistakes are it's fault :P )

I think that arm is holding ball, but if it isn't, then i must admit that i don't care about it because i think that this idea is cool.

Rest of ball like objects are looking similiar but we can treat them like different objects, because they are significantly smaller and some of them are projecting light beams (third and fifth screen). It is noticeable that they aren't only type of lamp in stockyards

My ('probably crappy but let's see what people think') attempt at making that laser orb in 3ds max :)

http://i28.tinypic.com/2qdwenr.jpg

Try adding more subdivisions at start and later adding edge loops. You aren't doing anything wrong, but it looks like you don't know tools which you can use for addaing more detials

Edit:

That's mine http://www.oddworldforums.net/attach...1&d=1278763849

this is example of wasting polygons. I wasn't thinking and now i have 3152 tris. A bit too much for low poly model.

just wondering.. how long did it take you to do that?

and also.. do you mean for the ridges? Add more subdivisions early on so the ridges are smoother?

on that tight ridges i used different technique. I was talking about ball's surface curvature. It should be a bit smoother :)

when you are adding sphere (or other primitive) you should have access to properties of it, so you can change "subdivisions axis" and "subdivisions height". I can't tell you where you can find it in max, because i'm working on maya. You can start looking around. It should be easy to find.

I was creating it 1 hour but during that hour i was modelling many parts few times to check how effect look like, fixing some place (i was unconciously selecting vertices, edges, faces and motyfing them) and surfing on the internet :).

by the way... this is final result after some adjusting some proportions:

http://www.oddworldforums.net/attach...1&d=1278774094

by final i mean that i'm satysfied with proportions, but i'm still not sure if adding ridges on lowpoly model is good idea... I could do it on Highpoly model bake it on normal map and achieve similiar effect with a less triangles.

Your latest video is fantastic! Maybe you should ask Nowtun to help you with the character models. His Abe model is excellent.

EDIT: the...bage...orb looks better than the grey one. It just looks....more "real" for some reason...maybe it's just the colour?

it's grey because i just haven't change color yet.

hey thanks Holy Sock :D

fartuess If you want, im more than happy to give it a go.

I was just watching tutorial about implemetation characters on Unreal engine and here i find oportunity to test what i just learned without having to model character, create skeleton and animation...

i would be thankful if you can send me mudokon model with animations.

Yeah, I know that it's edgy. I chose to use as very little polygons as possible whilst still keeping it looking relatively unnoticeably lower quality. I could just as easily make a high-poly model :)..

Few things upgraded. Background column/pipe have it's own texture (On last video it just get texture of metal wall). Long column conneting zone2 and zone3 now have better textures (you can see it in attachments). Barrels on conveyor in zone1 are now moving. And also music was added.

That's not much because i spent most of time on trying some new techniques which i want to use in future. Next update will be more interesting :)

cool, 1st on left is immense