Non NWN2 commercial break for IDVINC

Heya all ! Waiting for the prefabs ? Yeah, me too :)

Again, I´m a little late with my stuff. All files are ready for upload, all pictures for the tutorials captured and the webspace cleaned up. The only thing left is writing the tutorials (I could need a beta tester for this... anyone interested ?)

But this time I have a good excuse for the delay. I had the opportunity to do some project work for IDVINC (the makers of speed tree). So I´ve setup a little river scene in 3D Max, only using one sunlight source and one tree variation. This should provide a "ingame" look. It took the whole weekend, but I think it was worth it. Here are some of the results I would like to show of today:

You can find some more pictures on the speedtree gallery website.

So, enough for this little side project. I´m going back to the prefab website right now because I´m so eager to finish the stuff asap !!

Hard days night

Just a quick wednesday update. Grimm is coming a long very good with the 14 indoor areas for the island. Great job so far !
I have set up a little area in a hurry yesterday. I want to use the steps I have been trough as a tutorial how to paint with my textures, basic area layout and color painting. On the left you can see the centerpiece, just some old farmhouse . There is also a river and a grassy part in this area.
I´m now going to write down the steps. After that I will feed the webpage with some content and setup the daycycle files ready for download. But I won´t finish this until the weekend. So, just a little delay. But after everything is setup once I will release some more stuff on weekly bases.

Going back to work now...

I see strange lights...!

I have finally found a little help with finishing my first prefab area ! Grimm182 signed in to help me with the indoor areas and he is doing a great job ! Thanks a lot for helping me with this !

While I was adding some smallish areas to the island today, I surfed the forums. "973_Mops_379" posted an update of his custom speedtree works (see here). He has released the first version of his shrooms on the vault. He has done some fantastic trees ! I was instanly inspired and decided to mess around with his models and try to make kind of swamp area (inspired by the "Zanga Marshs" in World of Warcraft). In addition to that I did some (strange) lightworks. And I accidently found a way to do self luminous textures. Here are the results:

I´m going back to finish the last few things on the surface of the island. With the help of Grimm I we should be able to finish the prefab in two weeks. As for the textures and the weather states, I will try to release them by Wednesday.

So,well, .... see you next Wednesday :)

Teasing the teaser

Heya everyone...! I´m back in the civilized world after a fantastic weekend on a rocking festival near my hometown here in germany.

Today I have started with the finishing touches of the first prefab area I want to release. It is a small island on the coast of Eden. It is yet very detailed, but a lot of painting is left to do. There is also a need for placing some objects in the village and finishing two (outdoor) caves. Anyways... I think I´m still a little drunk, so I made a teaser image of the area for the webpage tonight instead of fighting with the toolset. This might give you small (!) impressions of what to expect. You could also download this old video to see some moving pictures :)

And when it comes to details, I could need a little help to save some time: If someone is interested to do some interior design for the village and some other houses or caves... drop me a line :) Or would it be better not to place anything and let the modders do this ? I am not sure about this right now.

Anyways... tomorrow I will finish tweaking the textures and the 2da file for them. Hopefully I have the time this week to get the webpage running. I´m planning to release the first files within the weekend or the next week (depending if there is a possibility to visit another festival).
You see, things are going along quit well and I´m really looking forward to release something after all these months fighting with my ideas / time / the toolset. And mainly I am looking forward what other people will do with my stuff.

Until then... keep on rocking in a free world !

In the making...

I have been quit productive the last week and things are coming along quit well.

I have finished working on my webpage for the prefabs stuff I plan to release. Why build a website for this ?I thought about that too. But I came to to conclusion, that it would be a good idea to show how to use the textures and light settings the best way. Wich textures match the best in a set ? How to paint them "correctly" to get the best results and so on. So, I needed a space for that. And this blog is probably not the best way to do this. I will continue to use it for progress documentation instead.

Anyways... I am currently tweaking the textures for the release. I am not sure if I should release them all at once or in themed packages. That is because I want to include a matching area where I use these textures. And these areas needs a finishing touch before I release them. I think I can give away some more infos the next week along with the first release of a texture pack. Here is a little preview of what you can expect.

I have some few days off now and I am going to a little music festival this weekend. It will be a lot of fun and hopefully I get my head clear so I can go to work more relaxed than I did the last weeks. So, stay tuned and have a nice weekend :)