Messages

I somewhat agree. But It's quite difficult to come up with something better.
I must find a medium between my own and more realistic-sierra style.

Difference:



Better? I repainted central areas with saturation brush.

Another comparasion shot:

Thanks aussie! The first picture was exactly what I tried to go for, but just by my memory, I didn't remember where did I saw rocks like this before. I will remake the cliff now.

And thanks to others too. Andail: I looked at my thread at work, and I was so amazed to see how low saturation can feel/is on other monitors. I had no clue before.

The character is far from final yet, and I also noticed the hand.

Meanwhile, I got third background done... though there's little fixing needed yet.

2x:


I'm still not sure why am I drawing those...

Edit: Okay, I added some saturation to trees and redid the rock.
Better? Worse?



Sierra-style rocks proved to be ALOT easier to make, almost random freehanding is what I used.

Peder: Using my technique, first background can be made in about a hour. It isn't difficult or something to be jealous of - at all! For example, check out this quick grass tutorial I made some time ago. It's old and outdated, by I'm still using same tech for trees, grass... Simply, the skill has gone better. You may also check out everything Sektor 13 (also AGS user) does - he's using - atleast by the looks of his work - exactly same concepts in drawing - the brighten/darken tool only.

Proletarian:
The rocks are most difficult to do, 80% of first background drawing went directly to that damn rock.
I'm simply unable to draw cliffs. So, it's freehanded, then posterized, desaturated, freehanded over...

I wish I had some good reference to totally redraw all cliff areas.

Your ideas have been used, thanks.

Two trees don't actually show entrance, but it turned out to look so, yes.
I tried extra volumes of background layers, but got somewhat too overdone.
So I replaced it with some fog instead.





I also redrew Noob's (hell, I love the name ) head.
I went for Lucasartsy default standing pose at first, but didn't realize that face should be faced directly right.
It's fixed now. I'm unsure how or should I add visible nose to Noob.

2x:

And just for show, another BG I also made today (hyper productive day?)


But I'm even not even speculating on any game yet.

I think that I'm gonna lock myself up and cry.

All that makes me really wonder is why in 15? years no one hasn't came up with better OS.
Linux is... well, crap. So is Windows.

But knowing this so long... why haven't anyone made something new and good?

[Noob]

Ladies and gentlemen,
Take a look at this:


2x:


And tell me your opinions, improval suggestions and criticism.
I could use some advice to fill empty area... note: it's stone age on picture.

Also, here's the planned protagonist... with most popular name from prehistoric ages...
2x:

...Noob... from the Eagle River clan.

C&C him too!

Thank you.

I think that graphics can and will be rated by the experience level of the maker.

If you browse through Critics Lounge and hear what experienced artists suggest, you can end up with a whole bible on how to draw, with all the commandments on perspective, outlines, saturation, etc. And of course long list of all the typical amateur mistakes, that tend to repeat again and again. The very basics of drawing in low-res.

By doing/not those mistakes and following "commandments" you CAN make up a graphics quality scale which ends are "bad" and "good". Though, styles differ and the most strong argument and factor is always if the graphics pleases viewer's eye or not. For example, I always make errors in perspective and I'm totally unable to pick low-saturation colors from palette (unlike Anarcho or Big Brother) but mostly, people like what I draw.

So, rating graphics is possible... but complicated.

This was about graphics. But adventure games are all about the atmosphere, and this is where music, story and all other things kick in.
For a totally amateur graphics in game, I always liked to bring up Framed!. I think that no matter how much critic you are, you have to confess that this game does look quite awful.
But still, because of gameplay and story, and especially the atmosphere, this game will always stay in my TOP5 of AGS games. Simply, because the graphics won't annoy when the game is good: I was too excited while playing to notice all the errors in graphics. Infact, I felt so sorry that creator couldn't draw better, this game - if refined a bit - looked like a sure hit!

Maybe you should play all those games you mentioned to get my point. Not as a critic, but as a player.

Trim both body and upper feet shorter by 2 or 3 pixels.
And add 1 or 2 pixels to head height. Forehead needs definetly 1 extra y pixel to make character look smarter and more likeable.

Thanks! 
I hope that also 

The conspiracy - as you say, does not exist, because I'm at my home, there's no van filled with surveillance equipment infront of my house and no one has ever taken me to questioning.

Why should "they"? Well, If I kept diary of my web surfing, it would go something like this:

January 3rd
wikipedia search for Cyclotrimethylene Trinitramine
wiki search for C4
wiki search for explosives
google search for explosives
google search for anarchist's cookbook
wiki search for SCUD missile
wiki search for ebola virus
google search for phreaking
howstuffworks.com for how radio works
wiki for detonators...

(I played Jagged Alliance 2 this day and started wondering how to make C4 more stable which led to full research on remote detonators, bomb belts and so on...)

...and etc, from islam to nukes to urban warfare to hitler to green card lottery to FSB to cruise missiles to future warrior project to KKK to--

I guess it would look quite weird for an agent of mentioned "conspirative" agency...
But I have strong interest in modern weapons, power and history. And play (quite political) warfare games, especially modern RTS's. Sounds like perfect seed for young "danger to democractic world".

A nice character to edit over a long time!


2x:



* Quite hasty edit, but point should be visible: You have colors, use them!
* Black outlines is quite bad idea, I don't suggest this.
* Front view doesn't have to be so symmetric - it feels very artificial
* Line tool is your enemy, as long as you're inexperienced. Use more curves!
* Original picture showed body build and stance of a solider robot. Relax your character!
* Notice your own extremely obivious mistakes - back view for example. Do you see a huge, boring, inhuman rectangle?

Note to Sean: posting a JPG renders your help near to zero

But it's quite likeable character, and didn't turn out too bad at all. You messed up with chest-hands area, but everything else looks quite okay  , especially face (most of amateurs have biggest trouble with face).

I messed up collar a bit myself, but I don't have time to fix it now 

Well, it was really easy to guess: Most nazi symbols are black-white-red color.
Would be interesting article, though. Is it allowed to write about nazis in school paper?

[EDIT:]

With XAMPP, PHP 5.20, PHPMyAdmin and MySQL installed, confed through everything configurable and not-so-configurable, making my machine a server, having hard hassle with DI-604 router and its superidiotic "configuration utility" to open up some ports in firewall for local server, trying everything on everything.......


....i'm totally lost.

I simply can't understand why can't I create a simple table, with 4 variables in it?

Why do I have to make a server out of my machine? With 3 different programs at once? To create a table?
Even though I thought I had everything installed well, with localhost well setup and everything, PHPMyAdmin (via XAMPP) never started to work, giving some stupid Mysql driver error, I never got simple phpinfo() function to show correct stuff...
So I guess PHP installation failed at some point. Maybe because I have no clue in what order to install all this crap.

I found seemingly wonderful program from MySQL page, a full graphical table creator! With buttons and everything. But problem is, the best it does is a sql file. Which - I guess - I still have to compile through command-line-hell-generator.

Even worse - I know that my webhost supports MySQL and I can create databases manually on their self-help web section, I will never figure out how to get homemade table (if I ever manage to create it, ahem) into server and working there too, once I get far enough to actually upload my creations.

I wish there was a web page explaining everything and what those are needed for - simply and understandably. Like what this does and what for, and what another-- in English, not tech language.

I uninstalled everything and give it another try. Maybe I pick correct order this time. But still--

Lost, lost, lost.

EDIT: God bless WAMP! OmniSecure created error after error, and XAMPP didn't let me even modify docroot/remove stupid homepage from it nor really uninstall despite nice uninstalling progress bar thingies. But WAMP works like magic and I even got to make my first long-waited table! Still no idea how it works or where does it physically exist, though.

What's most important - this the first server thingy that lets me see correct phpinfo()
That's a big thing.

"WAMP5 has detected Firefox browser on your computer. Would you like to use it with WAMP5?"
So beautiful  :'(

EDIT_2: And my webhost has PHPMyAdmin built-in! How wonderfully could things turn out? Also, I finally realised, that I don't need any command-line compiling at all, doing every mysql-related stuff directly from PHP.
Sorry for long and n00bish posts.

I have another question, but I don't want to make another thread.

Question is - is there any alternatives to MySQL? Like with graphical UI, past 80's, click-this-button-to-create-the-damn-table-like, yet totally compatible with PHP/browser ones? Or something that makes MySQL understandable/configurable to standard human being? Like graphical add-on maybe?

MySQL makes my head hurt. And makes me think of angry ubernerds who doesn't want anyone to know how to make a single database so making unbelievably unlearnable system.

What happened? I tried to create a nice little table. By some tutorial. Yet, I get "database not found" error. And I have no clue what's going on.

Thanks guys! 

It works on your server (i see the text), but not on my hard disk  :'(
Though I have PHP 5.20 correctly installed.


I just don't get it.
But wait, it also works on my own server...

So, I can't test any of my php-doings without actually uploading them?

I got my hands on a book on PHP for beginners and full with enthusiasm, I started to learn this thing. Again.
But I have a tiny problem:

<HTML>
<?php
  echo "Hello world!";
?>
</HTML>

Results in... nothing. Why?

Firefox browser shows a blank screen. IE 7... same thing! Tried to save as .php and as .html
None works.
I feel extremely stupid.

What am I doing wrong?

I repeat: firewalls can be bypassed. It's just a bit difficult to do, but possible.
EDIT: Wait... I found this from DC++ Help:

My University blocks DC++
====================
Blocking and Throttling
Many Universities have policies that limit the usage of peer to peer applications by students and employees. Typically, these policies block or limit the amount of bandwidth that p2p applications can use, and are enforced by employing solutions from Packeteer , NetLogic Microsystems , or a similar company. This software/hardware solution has the ability to look into a TCP packet, determine what class of application created it, then throttle or block it accordingly.

If you're behind such a block, please learn to live with it. Circumventing the block by proxying is detectable, is probably against your AUP, is technically difficult, and impossible to do without help from someone outside the firewall.

Network Address Translation
Other schools might have their network behind a NAT in which case an active connection is impossible. If you're inside a NAT, the IP reported by your computer will be in one of the non-routable IP ranges. In this case, try passive mode.

If you cannot connect to DC hubs or cannot transfer files in passive mode, the above advice about proxying applies.

Port Blocking
A few schools use simple port blocking, where common ports used by DC++ and other p2p applications are blocked. DC++ uses a wide range of ports for outgoing traffic and incoming traffic by default. If the school blocks port 411 outgoing connections, then that effectively cuts you off from all DC hubs since that is the default hub port. Hub lists contain the full address of many hubs and those that run on non-standard ports (i.e. hub.example.com:1411) may work.

If you appear to be completely blocked from the DC network, the above advice applies.

Your case? Then it's probably a dead end.