How are art assets used in the engine?

[Bridenal]

Hello.

As I'm playing Grimrock (haven't finished it yet), I'm finding the prospect of modding the game appealing. However, while waiting for the editor to materialize, I read the usage terms. Since players' only chance of creating and sharing mods is to provide their own art assets, I was wondering how said assets are used by the engine. For instance, I've been thinking of simulating a small port town with the editor. Let's say I want to create a path that simulates being outside - for a layman like me, this suggests creating a floor tile but no wall and ceiling tiles, and probably defining certain spaces (tiles) with attributes such as falling down or invisible walls (to avoid players going through and falling). Will this be possible?

Also, I can't tell how walls in the game are being rendered. Is it an entire solid block with texture (and texture depth) applied to it, or a multi polygon model with the texture? I'm asking this because of the walls with buttons; I was uncertain if it was a full model or two distinct ones. Will it be a case of simply replacing AH's textures with my own or is there some more work involved? Unfortunately I have little time to work on model creation so if that is required, I may have to put the idea aside.

[Komag]

I can't really answer for the devs, but from other comments I believe you will not be able to really do an outside area like that

[Thels]

Check through the blogs. There's several posts about graphics and one specifically about wallsets.

As for the asset use, AH is going to include most of the models as external files, available for modifying and including in your mod. For more information, check the thread at the top of this page.

[Bridenal]

Thank you both! I'll search around for the blog posts.

[Komag]

to be a little more specific, I'm not sure how a sky would be rendered in this game, and the game probably wouldn't like large open areas, especially for performance. And it probably requires darkness at the very least, so maybe there is a bit of hope for large open are but at night.

[Bridenal]

Oh, I was thinking of a way to trick the engine, actually. I don't need to have a simulated outdoors environment - just something that gives that impression. For instance:

|----! !----|
|----! !----|
|----! !----|

If you will, imagine that the !'s and the space between them is a corridor. The !'s surface could transparent from the side the player walks on. The ---- would just be a series of tiles layed there to suggest some other kind of surface (grass, water, etc.), while | would be "wall" to determine what would be seen in the distance. This kind of method, of which I'm not really sure would work in Grimrock, was usually found in older tile-based games when memory (for large outdoors) was pretty limited. I truly understand the appeal of spending large amounts of time in a dungeon, though I was hoping for a way to flesh out a bit more of an idea without depending solely on the hand-drawn intros.

[Bek]

You might be able to fake sky with shaders, but it wouldn't look brilliant and you'd have to learn how to write them. (Think back to games like Quake3 and the Skyboxes they used).

[Phitt]

I truly understand the appeal of spending large amounts of time in a dungeon, though I was hoping for a way to flesh out a bit more of an idea without depending solely on the hand-drawn intros.

Not sure about your method, could work - though you'd have to place each tile manually to get the effect. And the sky would still be a problem as well as the tiles fading out into blackness in the distance (3 or 4 tiles ahead IIRC).

In regards to the intro - the dream sequences in the game (with the rotating gears) are an animated model. I could imagine that you could model anything you like, animate it and create an intro/cinematic sequence that way. Even from 1st person view. So as long as you don't want any interaction the possibilities are probably endless. Not sure how much the game can handle though as it never loads anything (after loading a save game). I have no idea about this, but if it keeps all the models/textures/animations for the whole dungeon in memory it could be a bit problematic if you make lots of complicated, large models with tons of textures on it just for story telling.

[Bridenal]

Not sure about your method, could work - though you'd have to place each tile manually to get the effect. And the sky would still be a problem as well as the tiles fading out into blackness in the distance (3 or 4 tiles ahead IIRC).

That might not be half-bad. I guess it puts down my idea of arriving at (and exploring, even in a limited way) a small town at the start, but "fading into blackness" suggests to me that, for instance, I could map out a bridge-like structure in a dungeon, and give off the impression that there is a void beneath by not placing adjacent tiles. Which would be pretty good. If this worked, it could mean that without a ceiling, mouselooking up would mean staring into darkness - while not perfect, adequate for a subterranean complex.

In regards to the intro - the dream sequences in the game (with the rotating gears) are an animated model. I could imagine that you could model anything you like, animate it and create an intro/cinematic sequence that way. Even from 1st person view. So as long as you don't want any interaction the possibilities are probably endless. Not sure how much the game can handle though as it never loads anything (after loading a save game). I have no idea about this, but if it keeps all the models/textures/animations for the whole dungeon in memory it could be a bit problematic if you make lots of complicated, large models with tons of textures on it just for story telling.

The problem I'm having is suddenly whisking players into a dungeon. Grimrock's intro provides the "hook" well enough, no problems there; I have plenty of ideas, but just felt like giving a more tangible feel to entering a dungeon than playing an intro and then suddenly walls, walls everywhere (I'm spoiled by the likes of Wizardry 8, I guess).