House of Dark
Community Forums/Graphic Chat/House of Dark
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 Here's a pic from my current project called 'The House of Dark' Hopefully it'll progress to be a first person style adventure game, much like Myst V kind of game. I used Gile[s] editor for the lighting which is a superb editor I thoroughly recommend it :) |
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| Wow, you made a night scene without making it grayish and awful!!!! I could never do that :) It looks very nice. |
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| Looks great! |
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| Yeh, I like this - there is a kind of bluish hint to the house, like there is a full moon - in fact, there must be as the stones are casting shadows towards the house. Very nice. 2 things I noted though - the leaves on the trees are a bit unrealistic (in the screenshot) - might be okay when moving about. Also, the lower part of the house (the stonework) meets the white part a bit abrubtly. However, really nice - did you do your won models? I tend to nick all of mine. |
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| Woh! I really like this for its artistic quality. Stylistically it really is superb. It is almost cartoon like whilst remaining realistic?! The lighting is the key as ever and you got it spot on. Have you ever heard of Thomas Kinkade? If not google him and you will see the same lighting effect. I prefer yours as it is more menacing. Great textures btw and I think the tree trunk is perfect but agree with Puki about the leaves. They should be more "quirky" like the trunk, stretched around a bit and more distorted. However, a minor point, keep up the good work Jon_E_5! |
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| This is beautiful, really. |
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| Very very nice indeed! Great work! IPete2. |
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| Wonderful, and dead spooky. If I lived in a house inside a stone circle, I'd expect spooky things to happen, though. :) |
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| Glad you all picked up on the spooky quality. Thats exactly the idea. And yes I did all the modelling. There's is a full moon and if the camera was pointing in the opposite direction you would see the moon and sea and a lighthouse too ;-) Wait til the monks turn up, not modelled those yet though. I agree about the leaves, always my weakest point but they still feel right for the general 'style' of the level at the moment, although I may re-think the way they're done if I think about it too long ;-) ha ha Thanks for all the coments. There's also another pic in the galley section. :) |
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| Very nice. :) +BlackD |
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| wow... that looks magnificent... this is where i'm failing in my stuff... not to divert you from your work Jon... but if you get some free time, could ya give a lil insight as to your technique... without revealing any top secret formulas, that is :) again... verrrrry niice... --Mike |
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| Love it! |
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| Very atmospheric - Great work! You've improved a huge amount since we worked together and you were pretty great back then. |
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| Quality. Love the shape of that tree stump. |
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| Wow! It sure looks very attractive. So when do you think you'll have a demo or something? |
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| Looks very nice to me. The lighting is very good. |
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| <hi-jack> Like I was saying 'Red' - you need an artist who can deliver to get the most out of any engine. </hi-jack> IPete2. |
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| Wow, fantastic work. Looks really atmospheric. |
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| you're right IP... :) --Mike |
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| Hi, JustLuke I think I know who you really are ;-) Thanks for the praise. Right back atcha. Red Oktober - well its years of working for games software companies as an artist that helps ;-) I've only had after work time to do this so in some respects its a bit rough in places. But its generally of a decent quality. As for techniques, I dunno. I just do what I feel looks right. I did do several pencil concepts just to get what I wanted down and visible. Then I began, first with the landscape ground and then the house. All other parts filled in afterwards. Then it went into Gile[s] for lighting and I also began on the particle effects in Pyro Editor. I do work very much off the cuff. Just sit down just do it. Apart from the concepts I drew first thats all I did. As I progressed I thought of possible puzzles that could be in the game and that in turn led to the objects themselves making it into the scene. :) One thing I would say, and I've noticed it alot throughout alot of projects in Blitz, people often make objects out of scale. For instance bridges with huge planks almost as thick as a character is tall etc etc. If you make sure scale is right not only to the player characters but also to other objects in the scene, then it all hangs together much better. :) As for say lighting. I personally in exterior scenes like to have a main source like a moon or sun but also a fill light, usually pointing back up at the source light from exactly the opposite direction and obviously much weaker without shadows switched on. Off of this other lights are then added like lamps and fires etc. Sometimes I may add an ambient just to pick up ALL the lighting in the scene but without having to tweak every light in the scene (start off with a very weak dark colour and tweak it up as needed). Hujiklo - I'm pretty close to finishing the enviroment, although it is clocking it at around 12-13 thousand polys. I'll then knock up a collision mesh and then the basic engine. So a demo (in which all you can do is run around) should be ready hopefully very soon. |
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| Some of the best work ive seen on blitz! Cant wait to see it move. |
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| very nice :) the critique I would say is to try and break the polygonal look, I suggest you put some dents to the very sharp edges . watch out to for the proportions unless the people are small hobbits, the lamp looks as big as the door... |
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| thx Jon... --Mike |
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| Wow, it's like resident evil 4... |
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| TigerZ - good point the only thing is if you add bevels to 'break the polygonal look' yes it looks nice, but then you increase polys and thus risk slowing the whole engine. Having said that, its easier to 'add' them than to take them out, so if the fps is good then I'll pick the bits that could do with refining and add them. As for the Lamp, its bit big but when you see it in game it looks right some how. :) I take your point though. I'll keep an eye on it. Ignore the door texture too as that will change its only place holder. |
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| Don't change a thing - just produce a game with the same quality graphics and gameplay throughout. |
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| i agree... --Mike |
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| I third that agree, And add the comment..... WOW!! It's a fantastic model I really like the style and it's really polished |
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Here's another pic, its on the gallery too.. Textures are changing now and are looking nicer and grittier. The basic game system is in too. So a demo will be forth coming soon :) |
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| That bit of GUI at the bottom is a bit intrusive... Try slimming it down a little so that it blends better. The gradient on it does not correspond well with the text. The rest still looks fantastic :) |
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| Yeah the gui may only scroll on into view when text is needed in the game. For object description etc. Or I may do it as very transparent, unless text is displayed then it becomes almost solid. :) The gradient I thought looked ok. The text is a bit 'pingy' I must admit. Maybe tone the gradient down so its more 'solid' looking and tone the text down darker might look nicer. I'll experiment. :) thanks. |
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| I meant that the text is just a bit off center looking, because it starts in the outer edges of the gradient. |
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| I see what you mean :) The text is meant to take up all that space though. So I might 'expand' the gradient to be closer the edges and therefore not make the text look so out of place :) Great feedback though :) |
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| I think scrolling the text window into view would be the best option. Transparency wouldn't work in dark area's or at night - things become too unclear. I think the gradient looks odd because it's rounded and the window is rectangular - the colour doesn't fit into the edges and this is why the text looks too far to the left - and that cursor is horrible. The main graphics are great as I said previously. |
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| and that cursor is horrible. What cursor? Do you mean the reticule? |
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| The 2 white circles in the centre - you know what I mean. ;-) |
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| Ah right - the reticule (or is that reticle?). Everyone was talking about the text when you said you didn't like the cursor... me gots cufused. :) |
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| Thanks for the comments. Changes are afoot. The 'reticule' was place holder. Its since been changed to a more old world feel, to fit better with the text window. Also sorted the gradient out to look better. All great comments thanks alot people. :) |
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| I like the deep space game better :) Still, this game looks very good! |
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| Thanks Matt. This technically isn't a game yet. Its on the verge though :) Deepspace is coming along I agree and it was a game from the very beginning. Hopefully when I have more time I'll dive head long into to both projects again. Deepspace will take priority though I think. :) |
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| yes... excellent world you've created there JE... even just walking around in the demo will be a treat... --Mike |
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| You're right Red Ocktober, I must tidy it up and get a demo sorted.. That was the original plan anyway, just a demo for the technology I was gathering for future projects. But then I thought it could make a nice spooky game. Demo is still a great idea though so I'll try to sort summat out in the near future. :) |
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| Much delayed but I eventually got there Demo now available. Head over to... http://www.jblythe.f9.co.uk and click on the House of Dark Picture. :-) |
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| Oooh, ripping my clothes off right now. |
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| This is looking really excellent. The house would look good in my game - where did you get it from - how much is it? |
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| John, just when I think that I've got a handle on this 3d modelling malarky, you go and show me how much I still have to learn. I still can't believe how much you've improved since we worked together all those years ago. Fantasic artwork; very atmospheric and stylish - I don't know whether I should feel impressed or bitterly jealous. I've been working on a game with a gothic "hammer horror" style, and this demo pretty much captures exactly the look that I'm striving (and failing!) to achieve. Right, forget about impressed, bitterly jealous it is. :p |
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| hehe wow, really nice graphics (reminds me of a Nali village from Unreal I) Control wise though (and this is gonna sound brutal, sorry)... the mouse movement is really sensitive for me, WASD (or at least the option to use it) would be welcome oh and I was able to 'climb' up the invisible barriers (found when originally trying to up some stairs). I could do this by alternately pressing forward then space. EDIT> Oh and sorry, i just realised this is the graphics showcase, so ignore me :D |
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| Very very nice Jon. My son was disappointed because we couldn't go in the house tho. =p I know you're probably not looking for a critique, but I just have a couple of things. The skybox has visible seams and is too low detailed (it seams outta place slightly because everything else looks so nice). If you look at the moon, then look directly to the right, the seam is winking at ya. It reminds me of that clive barker game, Undying. Very nice visuals. |
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| It's nice to finally see this in real time, since we've been taunted with the screen shots for so long...I must say, I agree with Chroma. I'm getting the Undying vibes, as far as visual style...which is really nice (good music too). The only thing that bugged me was no WASD and the mouse was so sensitive...you could spin around 180 with just a slight turn of the mouse. Certainly you need to put a dampener on it (or make it adjustable) before you go for any serious release. Overall I'd say it has potential to be a really cool adventure game. Please continue working on it! |
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| Hey thanks guys. All welcome comments. As for the control well it's not my code, and I completely agree with everyones assessment of it. The demo is primarily an excersise in the use of the new editors I'd bought to see how they worked, to that end it was successful I think. :) Tu Puki - I modelled everything in the scene, so it erm, cost nowt. :-) Chroma you're right the skybox is the one element that lets it down and it was actually one the last things to go through the pipeline. I think one or two of the images where accidentally rez'd down and therefore 'seams' appeared due to texture bleed. tsk, this artwork malarky is a b*tch ;-) Just Luke - hiya mate. Yeah I guess I have improved over the years I suppose, I put that down to working with such talented people down here, its hard not to pick some of it up over time I guess. Don't be jealous mate, from what I remember you were pretty damn good yourself. :-) |
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| First of all, I just wanted to say it looks great. a couple of crits though, not really graphic related. The mouse speed, as stated by others is WAAAAY to sensitive. The other thing that bugged me a bit was the extremely wide angle camera. I guess that is nice when you are in tight quarters, but if you view a longer shot things are pretty distorted perpective-wise. Looking awesome, and great mood to it though. |
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| You're the one who did all those remakes? I loved them! :D I think I'm going to enjoy this demo. :) |
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| Great gfx & atmosphere, but the mouse is very sensitive Athlon64 X2 3800+ 1Gb, Geforce 6600Gt |
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| Very nice!!! Same issue with the mouse. I like the look of your Elite remake too. |
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| I liked it a lot by I was somehow climbing up some invisible boxes or something because I found one part of the map where I could float! :O I think the mouse is fine but that's just because I have a touchpad so it was fine for me. I would've liked WSAD controls too though. All in all nice job. |
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| Thanks everyone, for the feedback. I may revisit it and tweak the controls at some point ;-) but I have other priorities at the moment, I'll see how it goes. :-) Top comments though thanks. Keep 'em coming. |
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| Lovely demo, it really shows off gile[s] well. Runs really nicely too, and I like the info system for looking at objects. It's a shame that there's an invisible wall stopping you from walking up the steps/gap on the east side of the house (assuming you're facing north), this let things down somewhat. Otherwise it looks fab. :) |
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| Does look great, but you should really replace the static fog with something animated/moving ;) |
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| Dock - Yeah the idea was that when you tried to go up the steps a ghostly cowled monk would appear and stop you going any further, until you'd completed certain puzzles in the level. :-) That would have gone in there had it been a proper game. IKG - Very good point about the hanging fog. Hmmm it wouldn't be hard to do actually ;-) (thinks deeply) I may look into that too. Maybe when/if I do a Demo 2.0 hee hee ;-) |
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