Messages

really?  because the ati one is the one integrated into the laptop and the geforce is a full size one in my tower...i figured the ati is a little bit newer, but that perhaps they still werent as good as full size ones

some AGS games which run in different resolution do not have their screen adjusted correctly so it shows up off the edge of the monitor...but I don't want to have to change my screen settings everytime I start and stop playing.  does anyone know how to fix this problem?

Athlon64 3400+
1GB DDR400
200GB SATA HDD
80GB IDE HDD
DVD+/-RW
Sapphire Radeon 9800XT (256mb)
SB Audigy 2ZS
blue lights!
all in a nice Cooler Master Wave Master aluminium case.
a nice 19" monitor and all running win2kpro

I just have one question for you...

when you boot up, do you have time to see the win2k logo, or is it just like a barely perceptible flash of light?

Oh one more question...

ATI MOBILITYâ,,¢ RADEONâ,,¢ 9200 with 64MB DDR SDRAM (dedicated)

Would this be better or worse than a NVIDIA GeForce 4 Ti 4200 64 MB RAM?

Well, it's about time.  What kind of 21 year old computer science / computer engineering student doesn't own a laptop?

After being forced to adjust to other people's mouses at work, after constantly crawling into the dusty dark behind other people's PC's to insert my USB storage device into their unweilding crannies, after faithfully lugging my 80 pound monitor up 6 flights of stairs 10 times in the past year, after considering taking up an off-shore internship...I finally decided to take the plunge..it should be here in a few days...and I can't wait!

Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz,, 512MB DDRAM, 60GB HD, DVD+R/RW and CD-RW Combo Drive, 15.4" TFT Widescreen, 56K, 10/100 Ethernet, 54g wireless LAN, WIN XP  $1250

I think it was a pretty good deal.

But I'm a bit confused about the memory:
•  533MHz Front Side Bus 
•  512KB L2 cache 
•  512MB (2 x 256MB) 333MHz DDR SDRAM; 
•  maximum memory 1280MB(1 x expandable to 256MB, 1 x 1024MB) 

It seems that they are saying it has 2 slots for RAM, one of them can only fit a 256MB, the other can fit 1 GB...but it only has a 256 MB in each of them now.  Is that correct?

Also, I didn't know that RAM had a frequency associated with it (333 MHz)...what is the relevance of this number?

Also, if the L2 cache is in addition to the 2x 256 MB chips...why isn't that included in the total summary (512 MB)?

Oh, and what's the relevancy of the front side bus frequency?

I'm thinking about taking the plunge and upgrading one of the RAM cards to 1 GB (for $300) since I plan to load all of my modelling software onto it.

[key]

The reason it looks undefined is not because you need to outline more or use more contrast.  I can see you have already been using both of these up to the wazoo...and it is very unneccessary, and usually considered something to avoid....because things in real life are not that well defined...there are no outlines, and color variations are often quite subtle, so it makes things look unrealistic and flat.  Is this what you're going for?  If you are purposely going for this effect, that's fine...but if you just went into this with the attempt to draw it...and this is how it turned out...you probably want to try a more realistic technique.

So, why, when you are already over-doing all of the typical methods for defining the image, does your image still not look defined?  It's because of the way you're using the smudge tool on your edges.  I am pretty familiar with the smudge tool....it is basically the only tool that I use to do all of the art for my backgrounds which I have been posting around here.  The key to the smudge tool is to draw a sharp line, and smude one side, and leave the other sharp.  It is very important to have the correct side of the line be hard and the correct side be soft.  Both sides are soft in your image, and that makes everything look blurry.

What intermalte said

If the floor weren't so reflective, the character would not need a shadow so much. 

I think the 3d works with the drawing, but I don't really like your character design too much.

If he has arms, why doesn't he have hands?  Does he just walk around wacking things with those balls?

His arms have no elbows, his legs have no knees.  His legs are quite short and his feet are quite small.  How does he walk and maintain balance?

Is he a robot or an alien?  If he's an alien, I think he needs to be a lot more organic and not use primitive shapes.

But he doesn't really look like a robot either...

Hmm...can you describe the hat?  What is it made out of, what shape is it supposed to be in, how was it made, why does he wear it?  Without knowing these answers, it is hard to tell how to improve it because I'm not sure what I'm looking at.

Hmm...I must admit the architecture didn't strike me as very medieval.  It looks to much more like a modern country church morphed with an arabian palace.

I can't really crit until I see how you are planning on doing the title and whatever other text is going to go on there...I think that your background image composition is going to be entirely dependent on that and vice versa.  The actual drawing of it looks fine...

Well,  my problems seem to be solved 

Because now I have ClothFX/Stitch working...it's pretty cool.

When reactor actually works, it seems to produce slightly better results...aka, for draping a cloth over an object....but reactor seems to be completely impractical for practical use of clothing...and seems impossible with character studio or for any moving animations for that matter.

So, I spent last night trying to learn how to use clothfx...it's really neat, you build the clothing parts as splines from a clothing pattern, then define the seam and it stitches the pieces together around a person and then you can turn on gravity simulation and it will drape naturally...and from what I was reading, it should be able to work well with character studio.  So I'm pretty excited about that.

The characters will undoubtedly stand out...since one is in 3d and the other is drawn.  I don't see any way around this because I do not have the inclination, the patience, nor the skill at drawing sprites to do thousands of frame by frame drawings.

QFG is itself a combination of RPG elements into an adventure game...I liked how it turned out.  It will be less like an RPG than QFG is, because I'm not going to have all of those stats...any stats that you do have will be selected for at creation and remain static.  To describe it...think of QFG had a plot similar to Broken Sword...

I thought the combat in QFG could be improved because there wasn't much skill to it...the best strategy seemed to be to hit the "jab" button until the fight was over.  Instead of fighting in an arena like that, you'll be fighting in a side view like mortal combat and I'll try to have the fighting use a little bit more skill.

I know I just said I wasn't going to start on the characters yet...but...okay...I might as well.

you could change thepose so that one arm is pointing out like superman

perhaps SSH prefers to fly with his arms scrabbling feebly at the air?

Reactor is a bit confusing.  Sometimes things just fly off in random directions, or seem to implode or explode for no reason.

1) somebody is going to tell you to read the FAQ...so it might as well be me.

2) where's this demo you speak of?

I am doing every piece of the artwork based on the most efficient method that will look the best.

I had originally planned to do the entire game in 3d, and have actually rendered 20 or so backgrounds in 3d already (which some of you may have seen)...but they were too time consuming (taking a minimum of 24 hours labor each), and I wasn't able to get the same kind of grandeouse effect that I can get from one of these hand drawn backgrounds that I can do in 1-10 hours.

The items and characters will be modelled and animated in 3d.  This is the only viable option because I can get a high level of detail in the items (many of which require visual inspection for clues so a high level of detail), and because the number of sprites in character animations will likely be in the thousands...in addition to walking animations, there will be animations for many interactions between characters and the game world, as well as all of the combat animation.   

I have made a few characters previously for practice, but I will be starting all over because since I picked this project back up I have much higher standards.  So, there are no characters completed at this time and I don't plan to start making them until the majority of the background art has been completed.

Here is a rendering of one of the items I made this afternoon:

Thanks for the comments, guys.  I have many more backgrounds to go so I've just got to let go at some point, and I'm happy with this one now.  Certainly wouldn't have got it this nice without your advice, though.

I'm not sure what Poser has to do with animating cloth.  I have Poser4 and Poser5 and I am very unimpressed with both of them...I do not think that either of them come remotely close to doing what their design specifications should have entailed. 

I do not need to use Poser, I am capable of doing everything in max...but I am planning on using Poser just to grab the basic male and female anatomy from which to work from.  I will not be using the crappy Poser faces...I'll be modelling the faces from concept art, and boning and texturing them myself, hairing them using Shag: Hair and rigging them with Character Studio.

But that is all beside the point...I am looking for a way to do good clothing for my character animations.  I am looking into reactor cloth which is standard in max (just found out about it today) and perhaps this will be able to do what I want.

Basically I want to be able to just make the clothes, drape them over my character, and watch them flow around naturally while the character walks or does whatever.  I'm not quite sure how to do this with reactor yet because it seems to ignore the position of rigid body objects after the first frame.

The burgeoning bulge has got to go!  Straighten the left leg, and put his heels to the ground and he will look a lot more relaxed in his posture.