Fan Ages on the Gehn Shard

[Rhee]

I think you'd have to keep the context of the place in mind. I've never been to Tsoidahl Prad and don't know its story, so I can't really give an opinion on what that context is. But was it a major public place? A location from which many people would be needing transit, either large groups of the "common folk" or a reasonably large collective of the elite?

For example, if that room is a private study or library for a gentleman of middling status, then I doubt he would merit his own nexus terminal, when there would be one nearby in the neighborhood square (And would he want one? any old joe just linking in while he's in the middle of his evening nightcap?). Conversely, if it is the entrance (or exit) hall for an exclusive club that is popular with a few dozen of the most elite folks in town, they could no doubt have afforded to demand the installation of such a newly minted luxury. Or if it is a very important public location where hundreds or even thousands of the lower classes would have to come on a daily basis to carry out tasks (pay their taxes, collect food, get medical treatment, meet socially with friends, collect equipment for their daily work, etc, etc), then I would say again that it might merit a nexus terminal.

So, while I'm only a beginning builder of any type, my advice would be to really think of what this room is actually about. We'd all love a door that opens from the kitchen to the grocery store, but that isn't realistic. But if there was only one single-wide entrance door to accomodate traffic from both directions at Wal-Mart, well, most of us would have either killed a couple dozen folks out of impatience or else been killed ourselves. (And that's just on a Tuesday morning, don't wanna THINK about Christmas season!) If a nexus terminal fits the story of the room, put one there. If its just fill up space, you'd be better off using a potted plant or a stuffed elephant or something. Know what i mean?

[Annabelle]

I would kindly suggest you to have a look at Tsoidahl Prad. It's worth the detour.

This age, part of the D'ni Cavern itself, was an industrial complex. They were, the D'nis, extracting (or making from extracts) the firemarbles that we see everywhere in the different neighborhoods. I would tend to think there were some kind of process going on there because we see a big oven. The green firemarbles are still produced if you trigger a button on the side of the oven. You have 3 distinct parts in Tsoidahl Prad: the building with 3 rooms, a beautiful square courtyard, & the location where they dig the marbles (or the matter to make them). The room we arrived in is the personal room of the chief of the facility. The other explorable rooms are the main leisure room for the workers & their dormitory, all of this completed by 2 halls.

So for Justintime to add a nice cupboard is really fine That room should always be the most beautifully decorated. The leisure room is more lighted but should be less pretty since it was a common room. The dormitory should always stay all cracked and undecorated making it more realistic. You have to stick with the period too (I mean History here...) There were no union and the workers were most likely to be like workers in the 17th or 18th centuries.

[Justintime9]

Thanks for the advice guys. @Rhee, you make a some good points. A Nexus terminal would not belong there because it's a private location. So maybe I'll just put a statue or something there. I'll think of something.

[Ehren]

Thanks for the advice guys. @Rhee, you make a some good points. A Nexus terminal would not belong there because it's a private location. So maybe I'll just put a statue or something there. I'll think of something.

A nexus book gives a person access to the nexus, but it doesn't mean that the area you found the book in is public (although yeah a fancy nexus stand/terminal and ki slot would). But, even in a private location, one might find a Nexus book that was for private use.

[Justintime9]

That's true. I was sort of envisioning a whole nexus terminal, because those walls look so bare, but a private nexus book might be convenient. In terms of continuity, I could just say I brought the book there, even if it wasn't there originally.

[Chacal]

Do I understand correctly that, in the picture below, the blue and red lighting effect on the floor, the bannister and the tent, were created entirely with vertex painting? Also the yellow light on the rock in the background?

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[attachment=0]city_blue_small.jpg[/attachment]

[GPNMilano]

Do I understand correctly that, in the picture below, the blue and red lighting effect on the floor, the bannister and the tent, were created entirely with vertex painting? Also the yellow light on the rock in the background?

Show Spoiler

[attachment=0]city_blue_small.jpg[/attachment]

Yes to all. Aside from interior floors, Cyan doesn't use lightmaps often. Cyan ages are all vertex painted in most areas of the game. However I don't believe they vertex paint by hand. They probably do in some instances when necessary, but for the most part they rely on max lighting to bake the coloring onto the mesh's vertex's at export. The plugin ignores the Plasma lighting and relies soley on the max lights for painting the meshes with vertex colors. Which makes it someone difficult to see what it's going to look like in game. I generally turn off the Plasma lights in max until I'm ready to export.

[Chacal]

Thanks Chloe.

for the most part they rely on max lighting to bake the coloring onto the mesh's vertex's at export.

Do you know how this is done in Blender?
I mean I know about using lights for lightmapping and not exporting them, having read Tach's notes in the Relativity blend file,
but how to bake the lights in vertex colors?

I don't recall a tutorial about that.

[tachzusamm]

Okay, let me step in.

Newer Blender versions, like 2.67 or 2.68, have an option called "Bake to Vertex Color" in the Render tab under the Bake menu:

VertexBake1.png (12.48 KiB) Viewed 6957 times

Unfortunately, Blender 2.49 has sometimes problems to load an object back (it does not matter if you use "Append or Link" to add it, or just open the complete file by loading it) which is stored by an up-to-date Blender version like 2.68.
It loads, but is somehow screwed up.
But there's a solution: You can load the 2.68-file in a Blender version 2.62, then save it there again. This somehow converts the file format a bit back, and that format can be loaded into Blender 2.49 again.
Make sure it's really Blender 2.62, other versions don't work. Neither 2.61 nor 2.63.

http://download.blender.org/release/

Happy baking and converting


EDIT: Oh, and make sure you already have a Vertex Color layer added (Mesh tab):

VertexBake2.png (24.82 KiB) Viewed 6957 times

otherwise it won't bake.

EDIT2: And if your bake comes out too dark, you could post-tweak it directly in Blender 2.49 in Vertex Paint mode, using the "Mul" and "Gamma" values under Paint menu:

VertexBake3.png (7.56 KiB) Viewed 6957 times

choose your values, then press "Set".

This Mul and Gamma tweaking can't be reverted, so better keep your file saved before tweaking. It needs a bit experimenting to find pleasing values.

[Chacal]

Thanks Tach.
I'll install 2.68 and 2.62 and do some tests.
I heard the new interface is easier to work with, so I plan to do all work in 2.68, and then export using 2.62 and 2.49.

Can't wait for Korman!

So, referring to the picture I posted above, if I wanted to reproduce this scene exactly in the City, I would just have to place my objects in the great stairs prp, texture them using the same textures as Cyan did, place a few blue and red lights (in addition to the existing lights in the prp), and bake to vertex color?