I think the hard work on the curving stairs really paid off. Congratulations, Tobi! Excellent work. This is looking great.
I just wondered where the door might be on that balcony though. It looks like the guard just magically teleported there.... ?(
You asked for suggestions...? Well, you may be sorry that I saw this because I always have lots of those. Here we go:
* An overhang for the balcony or a version of the balcony that is enclosed but which has arrow slits and / or runnels for boiling oil to repel besieging forces.
* A square door-shaped area above the main gates where there can be an animated door, thus creating a 'murder hole'. This may need to be classed as a part of the outside space to work effectively in-game.
* Semi-circles with holes in the middle (like loops) instead of battlements might give that unusual MW feeling (but might equally well end up looking crap
)
* A model for separating the courtyard into sections or into a whole courtyard of arches (although probably just one model needed here), such as the granary in Meknes (Morrocco) where Martin Scorsese filmed 'The Last Temptation of Christ':
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2416/1807...76.jpg?v=0 . I visited this. It was rather impressive. It used to house and feed the Sultan's own horses. The architectural design may clash though.
* I'm sure this has come up before and would prove extremely difficult to do....but a portcullis and drawbridge?
* Perhaps a bridgeway connecting two of those rectangular towers.
There was a door on the balcony, but i removed it before taking the picture, using the "disable 0" command. It turned out the the door steps clipped though the bottom of the balcony. But the door actually fits, but the steps are so large that you're standing on them instead of the floor. I might detach those steps, so you end up with two models for that door. The door step and the arched doorjam. In that way, the doorstep will also work for a square doorjam(thanks for mentioning square doors, forgot those things existed)
An overhang or "upper battlement" will be added then
Boiling oil? hmm. Perhaps my next project(after the interrior pieces) should be to expand the fort set by adding siege equipment?
I'm not sure what you mean with the semi-circlular things... If you could find a picture, tat would be a great help.
A drawbridge was planned to begin with but I removed it from the list after some trouple with it. I can try again though. I just don't know how to animate, so functionally it will be quite a useless drawbridge
but I'm sure I can make it look cool.
I actually made a portcullis when I first began with this fort set (I started over later because it turned out the stuff I had made was crap)
It will be the same problem as the drawbridge, it won't be animated, so iy won't go up.
I will make one then. But I will have to send those files to someone else in order to get them animated.
As for the bridgeway, you imagined something like this:
http://picasaweb.google.com/TTaastroem/P...2675169138
It can be made using existing meshes
As for those Granary/stable Morroco walls. So it's made of of a lot of arch ways?
Quote:Originally posted by Tobi the Dane
An overhang or "upper battlement" will be added then .......Boiling oil? hmm. Perhaps my next project(after the interrior pieces) should be to expand the fort set by adding siege equipment?
Quote:I'm not sure what you mean with the semi-circular things... If you could find a picture, tat would be a great help.
See attached pic.
A drawbridge and portcullis would be superb! The animation for the portcullis shouldn't be too hard for one of our animators. After all, it just needs to raise upwards into the roof, perhaps accompanied in-game with a rattling sound. The drawbridge, however, would be a major, major achievement.
Yes, that bridgeway looks great :goodjob:
Quote:As for those Granary/stable Morroco walls. So it's made of of a lot of arch ways?
Yes, but sadly I don't have a very revealing shot of the tops of the arches or an overview of the site itself. Nevertheless, I found an Indian arch that I thought looked quite cool (see attached). I think the arches at Meknes were positioned at a diagonal angle or at least in such a way that you feel like they are forever receding into the distance. If making such a thing, you'd probably be best off creating one simple model that included one support leg connected to a full arch. That way the modder could create as many arches as they wanted without clashing into each other. Alternatively, and more in keeping with the architectural style, the arches could be more like cloisters that you see in Cathedrals and some gardens / British Universities (see attached)
A portcullis would be very cool - Fezzik? Tear his arms off. - comes to my mind. As for animation, like the outhouse on FishIsland, I can handle that, with the caveat being that there would have to be room at the top for the withdrawn portcullis.
A drawbridge would be more complex; I have no idea how to hide the chains. Unlike the portcullis, having them stay straight is not an option.
Steve
I could deal with the animation for the portcullis and drawbridge if you need. The chain would likely need to move into a concealed area though - making it wrap around a pivot would be possibly draining on resources - the amount of bones needed would be high. More bones being animated means bigger performance hit.
I could always try it and test to see if there's a performance hit - let me know when you've finished the neccesary pieces.
Also, wouldn't a portcullis completely mess up the AI? I suppose if it was a door that was activated on touch their would be no problems, but lets face it - it would be so much cooler to raise it from a lever/wheel.
Actually, I just thought. There's a portcullis and drawbridge set already in the Fort Ruins activators. I guess they could be used. They may need to be modified and retextured a little though.
Quote:Originally posted by Tobi the Dane
As for those courtyard columns and stuff, is this what you had in mind, Ibsen?
Ooh, wow! Yes, they're gorgeous. Absolutely perfect. I can imagine the likes of sandor (or myself, for that matter) having a great time draping his flora all over it. Are these
already part of the set?
And I quite agree about the drawbridge. Perhaps that model will nonetheless prove useful in contributing a prototype design, whether for the animation or the general model. It doesn't really look too much like an exterior drawbridge anyway.
Quote:Originally posted by nick_op
I could deal with the animation for the portcullis and drawbridge if you need. The chain would likely need to move into a concealed area though - making it wrap around a pivot would be possibly draining on resources - the amount of bones needed would be high. More bones being animated means bigger performance hit.
I could always try it and test to see if there's a performance hit - let me know when you've finished the neccesary pieces.
Also, wouldn't a portcullis completely mess up the AI? I suppose if it was a door that was activated on touch their would be no problems, but lets face it - it would be so much cooler to raise it from a lever/wheel.
By messing up the AI do you mean people coming and going? Because you could always set the pathgrid and disable it's links when the drawbridge is up or the porticullis is down. The only issue would be making sure that everyone either stays inside or only leaves and enters at the hours that the porticullis is up and the drawbridge is down. You could even set up a special circumstance for them as part of a quest or something that lowers the drawbridge and opens the porticullis outside of the normal times or else it could be open normally and in special circumstances it could be closed (raiding party). All of that would be easy enough to do with a single script once they are animated and attach it to a lever/wheel object like the gates in the sewers in Oblivion.