Releasing My Ages

[Justintime9]

Hey guys! I talked to some of you a bit ago about releasing the Yinfara and TsoidahlPrad files. For both of them I would suggest doing something. At the very least, if y'all could polish things up in Tsoidahl Prad and release it as a new version that would be great (stuff like getting the imager to work, and fixing annoying Alpha issues with the sprites.) My intention was originally to get the age up to snuff for Gehn, so if anyone is up to the task you're free to work towards that, as long as nothing new is added than what I've put in. (Other than better lighting or textures that would probably be good.)

I guess the same goes for Yinfara. If you want to release it in some form, feel free. Though the work is technically Lontahv's, so it's up to you if you want to contact him about it. I also included the modified PyPRP he made to get some things to work. It's probably grossly out of date by now, but maybe there are some things worth studying there.

https://www.mediafire.com/?b34dlyi9u33i9lb

http://www.mediafire.com/download/yyyzf ... infara.zip
http://www.mediafire.com/download/nt2yo ... Plugin.zip

[Sirius]

Yay ! Good job. I'm sure we'll put these to good use

Tsoidahl Prad has some very nice improvements, except that some of the rocks show completely white for me But lighting is nice !

As for Yinfara, well...

Show Spoiler

Honestly the switching greenish-purple colors make me a bit sick.
Other than that, the forest itself is very nice, and I like the colorful domes here and there.

I don't know how much work I'm willing to put into it, but I'll probably tinker with either of those if nobody does.
I quite like the trick Lontahv used for those trees (that's also what I had in mind). But it's not perfect (especially the cheap LoD switch using VisRegions in the middle of the forest), and I'm not sure this alone really improves performances. I'm fairly sure there are even better ways to increase quality while decreasing lag, though.

Speaking of which, I didn't experience any lag in any of the Ages, not even Yinfara. Does anyone get some ?
Bah, might as well upload a performance version of both Ages anyway. It's visually the same, with less lag. Hope you don't mind, Justin...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/oqiqxqnpq2lyt ... e.zip?dl=1
You still need the original files Justin provided, those are just replacement you should drop in your DAT folder.

[janaba]

I just looked through your ages again, Justin, Yinfara for the first time, it is very beautiful, and TsoidahlPrad, which is still great ...

I also have those white mountains in TsoidahlPrad ... wait, I'm trying sth out ... Haha, I've just tried some things out lol, but it doesn't work ... I've tried to mix up all those files, new and older versions, but then the rocks are now brownish lol ...

Ok, I've got the white rocks also with your new files, Sirius, then I've put back the older files, the latest 'TsoidahlPradTestRelease' (June 2014), and the rocks were beautiful again, but you have all those glitches in the textures back ... Then I've put in your 'TsoidahlPrad_District_mainRoom.prp', Sirius (to replace the one of the older files), but that doesn't work at all lol, everything is mixed up now and with even more texture flaws ...

Ok, your new files, Justin, are in general great, the texture glitches on the floors and everywhere are gone, I can also tell you that the imager is partially working now, you remember, before it was black and you could walk through? ... It looks beautiful now, just like an imager lol, I could upload a text message, but it didn't take another picture and I can't remove or replace the message anymore, but however one step closer, great ...

As for Yinfara, it is beautiful so far, and I didn't experience any lag, not with or without Sirius' update ... Yeah, that is it for me, I cannot do or tell anymore than that, this is however a great basis to start, Justin, for anyone trying to occupy him/herself with Blender and age creation, means, this is a beautiful gift to the community ...

[dendwaler]

Wel, then i have here an updated version.(Blendfile + dat files)
5 years ago i added a second isle and made a waveset.
Furthermore i removed the duplicated links and made all compatible with the ( that day) current Blender 2.49b with the normal PyPRP.
So anyone can use the included blendfile without the need for the modified PyPRP.



My dropbox is nearly full so the link will only be temporarely available.

Yinfara 0.4 https://www.dropbox.com/s/rsfwi0lzde24uwo/Yinfara2.7z?dl=0

[janaba]

That was so worth another visit, DenDwaler ... You've improved so much already, the bridge, the water, the new island, the sky, almost everything ... don't you just love that, Justin? ... what a nice compliment ...Awesome job, really, thanks for sharing ...

[Justintime9]

Glad to hear you're enjoying them. As far as the white mountains in TsoidahlPrad (I assume you mean at the bottom of the stairs?) That's not a glitch, I just forgot to re-texture them. If you'll recall, in the original version of TsoidahlPrad, the whole open area on the other side of the gate is invisible from the balcony (by design), but people expressed that it was noticeably unrealistic, so I got rid of the VisRegion for that, and I was trying to make a new rock formation that would look plausible from the balcony.

Also, I don't know why but I think the lightmap is disabled or missing for some of the floor/wall going down to the quarry. Should be an easy fix.

[Tweek]

I'll try and take a look at Yinfara when I get some time that's not being spent working on Intangibles or Fahets.

Was there a point to the Age? Like the stained glass domes, were they going to be something significant? Or was it just a garden like Age where you can walk around?

[Justintime9]

Here's the wiki page I made describing it. I don't remember how in depth it is, but there was a whole plan for exactly what would be done with the age. The main problem is it was too ambitious, and not enough people had the time to work on it. I was fortunate to have Lontahv take it as far as he did. The idea was conceived right when this forum came up, back when I had absolutely no experience with age creation. So it has a special place in my heart.

I should also mention, the frequency of the sky changing is NOT how its supposed to be. The actual process should be very slow and gradual. So it would stay each individual color longer. So maybe it's red for half an hour, then green, etc. And the leaves on the trees were each supposed to be different colors individually. Rather than each one a spectrum of colors. But that's just my vision of it.

https://www.guildofwriters.org/wiki/Yinfara

[Sirius]

Wow, very nice indeed, Dendwaler. The texturing for the second island is great, the sky looks nice, and the wavesets are really well setup. Nice job !
It does contrast a bit with the first island though, since it highlights a few lighting issues. But that's to be expected from works in progress, so still, very nice job.

As far as the white mountains in TsoidahlPrad (I assume you mean at the bottom of the stairs?) That's not a glitch, I just forgot to re-texture them

Yes, I thought so. Well, this shouldn't be too hard to fix for the next version.

I don't remember how in depth it is, but there was a whole plan for exactly what would be done with the age.

Wow, indeed, looks good.

The main problem is it was too ambitious, and not enough people had the time to work on it.

Yeah, it's unfortunate that community projects here don't get much attention, while they also have the greatest potential.
Indeed, it's also easy to underestimate the complexity of making an Age when walking in Cyan's. But in reality, people either don't have the skills, or time to work on a project, or they are too few, or you realize that tools like PyPRP are more complex than expected, and sometimes limited in their use...

I'll try and take a look at Yinfara when I get some time that's not being spent working on Intangibles or Fahets.

I don't know how you manage to work on so many projects at once, especially when being restricted to Blender 2.4. I'm really impressed

[Justintime9]

Any update on this? It dawned on me today that I'd released the files, and I wonder if y'all have done anything with them? I hope the updated version of Tsoidahl Prad is at least on one of the shards. It really is way better than the original (At least the lighting in a few of the areas.)