First version

[Aloys]

Hi all.
At long last here is the first version of Ahra Pahts!


The Age isn’t 100% complete yet, maybe 75%, all of the structures are in place (shells, streets, hub, courtyard, rivers, canals, city walls), and at this point I’m mostly polishing details and fighting export bugs; please read the release notes below before downloading it.

(I apologize for the OOCness of this post but I don't really have a choice )

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Ahra Pahts 0.5 - Release notes:

• There's an very annoying export bug that messes up the textures. Some of you might have experienced it already in your Ages. Basically most of the textures of the age are mixed: the shells walls have the ground textures, the city walls have the grass texture, the grounds have no texture at all; and neither has the river. I've had this bug before on another age and I still haven't found a reliable way to fix it; any help in this area would be very welcome. I've been strugling with this for the last couple hours hoping to fix it and release an Age that would look good, but it seems I'm out of luck. So I release the Age as is so you can at least check it out.
• Because of the above bug, rivers and canals have no texture either. But it isn't hard to find them: they're the long blue things.
• You can't swim in river / canals.
• The textures in place are temporary, but the UV mapping is final/near final.
• The shells aren't assigned to pages anymore (for now). After the calamity of the other day (see 'Small milestone' thread) I had to start almost from scratch and redo most of the Age; because renaming the shells and assigning them to pages takes a lot of time and the Age can be exported without it, that's what I did. I will rename them later.
• The pylons in the streets are lampposts I haven't completed.
• I said above all structures are in place, this isn't totally true, I'm missing one type of street where the canal goes through; as a a result there are missing streets here and there.
• The hub isn't fully integrated yet; it has a temporary lighting, and no textures
• The large courtyards are placeholders, don’t look at them
• There are collisions issues, be sure to have the fly mode installed or you might fall a lot.
• There are no footsteps sounds yet.

For next version: (by order of priority)

• Debate & fix Age size
• Fix texture bug
• Fill in missing streets/canals
• Integrate the hub better
• Add textures to the hub
• Assign shells to pages
• Fix collisions (I need to add separate collision meshes, rather than the 'slapped-'on collisions flags on the regular meshes' system there is right now)

For following versions:

• Create plan of the Age and add it (like in Ae'gura or the Hoods)
• Make better textures
• Add barriers around river to prevent swimming. (at least for now)
• Add footsteps sounds
• Finish lampposts.
• Add lampposts in some places.
• Add missing canals in blue district
• Make better high walls for the districts
• Assign largest courtyards to specific pages
• Create better / themed large courtyards
• Fix more minor details that will no doubt pop-up down the road.

Finally, although I'm glad the Age is almost complete, there's something that I think is really wrong here: the size of the Age. This Age is BIG, really huge. In fact I think it is too big.
We had agreed on the shell size a while back, and while at the time it looked good, now that it's all complete and I can check it out in game with textures and really feel the scale, I can see it is too big. The shells are too large, and (incidentally) the courtyards are too large. Running from one end of the Age to the other takes almost 5 minutes. The idea for the shells was to make them slightly smaller than the Tokotah courtyard in the City, but clearly it is too big IHMO.
What I think is that we should scale that down by a quarter or even a third.
I want to (and I need to) clear that issue before going any further.

Please check the Age and tell me what you think. (especially about the size) Thank you
(For your viewing pleasure, I've also uploaded the blender file; it includes the right textures and is much nicer to look at.)

Prps: PahtsPrps.zip. (4.9mb)
Blend file: City05Export.zip. (4.1mb)


Final notes:
- You will need to register the Age in UruAgeManager with the following settings: filename: pahts / spawnpoint: linkinpointdefault
- I suggest you look at the Blender file first so you are not disapointed by the ingame look (that texture bug..... <_< ) Also the blender file is smaller and faster to download.

Edit: I've updated the Blender file so it now has the textures.

[Starfyre]

I never installed Flymode with UAM. Someone needs to give step by step instructions since the patcher won't work with UAM.

[Tsar Hoikas]

Aloys, you will need to put the textures in the zipfile in order for us to be able to view them in blender. Also, the texture problem is probably the fault of the plugin since it doesn't generate everything properly. When the refactored plugin is stable, you will more than likely see a vast improvement in that area.

[Starfyre]

K ignore my previous post. Got flymode to work. The linkin spot needs to be changed though. I linked in outside the Hub. I always pictured the initial linkin spot inside the Hub.

And too tell the truth. The Shells could be downsized just a bit. But the overall size of the city is fine. It looks like the size Ae'gura might have been if Live had continued.

Edit: Nevermind on the linkin spot. I see why its not in the Hub. That barrier right now surrounds the whole hub.

[Aloys]

[quote="AdamJohnso"] Aloys, you will need to put the textures in the zipfile in order for us to be able to view them in blender. Also, the texture problem is probably the fault of the plugin since it doesn't generate everything properly. When the refactored plugin is stable, you will more than likely see a vast improvement in that area.

[Gybryn]

It's been a long time since I've messed with Uru Age Manager. How do I get the age to work?

[Starfyre]

Open UAM. Click on the Advanced tab. In Filename put Pahts. In Spawnpoint put linkinpointdefault. And click on Register Link and there ya go.

Ahra Pahts is not available for download through UAM so that is the only way to add the link. Once its closed to being released I will update UAM and then it will be downloadable through UAM.

[J'anim Paedet]

I just visited Rehkh (is this name still in use?), and right of the bat I must say: I like it! It looks very nice, even in its current state. I do find the streets to be a bit confusing, but in my opinion the size really isn't bad at all (although you should note that this is coming from the creator of the Vaiskor :rolleyes: ).

I especially like that you can see the top of the Hub from almost everywhere -- it serves as a good grounding point.

Also, just as a side note, I am exporting what I hope to be the final (textured) version of the Hub as I write this, so expect something a bit more polished shortly.

[Starfyre]

Once the textured version of the Hub is in and once the collision around the hub is fixed and move the linkin spot to the hub and put some barriers up. Then I will be ready to put Version 1 of Ahra Pahts into UAM.


There should be two versions though. Version 1 is downloadable. Version 0 is the one we use (and is downloadable from Aloys server) for building the shells.

[Besharen]

Well I got Uru working again, and I just got to try out the age. I am very impressed! It is very well done. Good job. I think the street size was good. Keep working away...

It looks like we're nearing a point where we will be able to release something to the general public. Just need to finish up those couple issues with textures and collisions. I think what would be cool is if we show the city empty and then ask people to come and help fill it.