Guild of Writers

Well heres your new Guild update. I like it so far.

I've evolved that one shotty hut into a small camp which i'm still building on. I want to make the homes more then just boards and sticks. Maybe a sheet to cover the gaps or some metal plates to help build structure. Who knows! Well, I do. I just want an opinion.

So there you are. I hope you like it and I'd love to hear some comments. Also, I don't plan to update my site daily now. It's summer and I'm hot and sweaty. Still check by every 2 days or so. I may have something up.

So yah. This age is going rather swell. Awsome.

This looks really pretty so far! Much nicer than Pontypridd...

Good luck!

Thanks Sigmund. I still think yours looks pretty cool. It's probably the texturing. That ability aludes me.

Hello again. Recently I've been adding some ropes to the camp to hang lanterns on. Problem is I may have used the wrong curve.

I don't know exactly what curve I used. I would just like to know what curve I should use or if it shouldn't even matter.

Here's a screenshot.

Thanks for the daily updates on your age, griffinps - it looks like an interesting place to visit!

I don't think the PyPRP plugin supports any type of curve, to be honest. So, you could replace it either with a really thin polygonal tube or a textured plane that has an image of a curve on an alpha'ed out background. I recommend the latter, to keep the polygon count lower.

Thanks Rob. I was very unsure for a while.

But could I ask you how to alpha out a background?

I'll describe how to do it using GIMP, my preferred image editor.

- Create a new image whose dimensions are powers of 2 (e.g. 512x256)
- On a white background, draw a black curve
- Choose the 'Select By Color Tool' (i.e. the icon of the hand pointing to a color)
- Click on the black curve
- In the Layers window, right-click on the ' Background' layer and choose 'Add Layer Mask'
- In the dialog that appears, choose 'Selection' and click 'Add'. The white should disappear.
- Save the file as a PNG to preserve the alpha value of the background.

For me there is technigue that works with all images using MSPaint and the DirectX Texture Tool.


1: open MSPaint
2: click Image tab and uncheck "Draw Opaque"
3: Type "Ctrl+E" - make sure that "Units" is specifyed as "Pixels"
4: choose the size of your drawing whose dimensions are powers of 2 (e.g. 512x256)
5: Enter Width="512" and Height="256" and click "OK"
6: On a white background create your image
7: Click "File" and then "Save as" now type "Draw-1"
8: Now make sure your Draw and Eraser Colors are both white
9: Type the keys CTRL+A - CTRL+C - CTRL+I - CTRL+V and save it as Draw 2
10: Close MSPaint

10: Open DirectX Texture Tool
11: Type "Ctrl+N"
12: Enter Width="512" and Height="256"
13: Under Surface/Volumn Format enter "Four CC 8-bit: DXT5" and click "OK"
14: Click "File" and then "Open onto Alpha Channel of this Texture"
15: Now open the drawing "Draw-1"
16: Click "File" and then "Open onto Alpha Channel of this Surface"
17: Now open the drawing "Draw-2"
18: Click "File" and then "Save as" Texture-name

Thanks Rob and Wamduskasapa. With that info I'll try to fix up a new update soon

That sounds GREAT,
I Can't wait to walk thru your World