Dungeon Master Forum

If anyone is interested, I have started a new project called entombed based on dungeon master. I have only been writing it for the last 2 months, at the same time I have been trying to learn direct x9. It currently uses pixel shaders/vertex shaders for real time lighting through the programmable graphics pipeline.

However, I am in desperate need of help creating 3D meshes, any help is very welcome ... ta.

You can see the current state of play at - www.entombed.co.uk

Thanks.

oh my god ! this is damn' beautiful ! i'm really impressed
i'm not a 3D graphist but i'd really like to see this project finished !

woah

Looks very nice, Love the lighting and are you using bump mapping?

The lighting is per pixel with layered fog. The walls have varying levels of specular highlights (levels of shininess) and are bump mapped using DOT3 textures. All the lights are calculated in real time, most of them are swinging gently which really makes a difference visually.

Do you know anyone who is capable of doing some 2D portraits for me. At the moment I am using the baldurs gate ones, which isnt strictly legal.

Thanks a lot for your responses ( ), spread the word ( ).

Thanks once again.

Need a tester?

Looks fantastic, what are you writing it in?

I will need testers ... but not just yet mate .

Its written using vb.NET with managed DirectX9. i have created a fully event driven engine so you can chain as many events together as you like, for example - press button, 3 doors open and 2 pits close, and 12 creatures are spawned ... etc

I have only been developing it for a couple of months so hopefully I will need testers in about 3-6 months. Keep checking back to the site for further info.

Thanks .

Whoa -- now that's what I call atmospheric! You're making good progress for only 2 months!

Poeple round here will know I'm constructively cricitcal ( ), so here's a few initial suggestions (though I'm sure you'd tweak all this anyway):

1) Stone walls wouldn't be shiny like that unless they are wet.
2) The bump mapping looks a bit unreal, far too uniform- it's not quite right and shows the texture to be nothing more than a flat image with a bump map. This will probably need some tweaking.

Is this going to be using step movemnt like DM, ie, you can only move from tile to tile, or is it free movement like Half Life or Unreal?

What 3D meshes will you be supporting?

I've added your website to the Quicklinks bar at the top of these forums, and associated your guest posts with your new ID.

Massive grins

I do c#.net / vb.net coding as well. Just curious, do you use a 3rd party wrapper class for the DirectX or did you write your own? or are you doing it all directly?

I havent played much with the Managed DirectX stuff yet but I would love to give it a proper bash at some point.

the walls are supposed to be damp , I was actually inspired by visiting some vaults in Edinburgh where the walls looked grimey and damp. I agree the bump mapping needs a little more work. I am currently working on skinning creatures, so I will get round to it eventually.

I am going for the traditional tile movement like DM, possibly with look up and down (dont know whether it will suit the game).

I am currently looking for Max 3 or 3DS files of armour and creatures with animation.

Cool, it sounds like this could be a really good DM game! Welcome to the forums by the way! Always good to have another fan on board!

I have created my own directX engine called (working title so dont laugh)
Forge. It currently handles/wraps -

fixed function pipeline - Fog, etc
Programmable pipeline - pixel/vertex shaders
directinput events posted to host
event driven engine for controlling environment and user interaction

Working on

Refraction Pixel shader for water/teleport effect
Sound encapsulation (directsound wrapper)
Creature skinning and animation
Multiplayer (directplay wrapper)

Managed DirectX9 is the bollocks ... I am not a game developer so if I can do it, you can too.

2D portraits ? i can do that : what size ? # of colors ?

Indeedy, can you reccomend any good tutorials for C# DirectX

I started on directx 6 (i think) and worked my way up (over the last 3 years ish ...)

If I were in your shoes I would download the directx9 sdk and just look at the managed samples. you will soon be on your way. If you need any pointers just ask !!

Cheers.

linflas

I need portraits that are 64 wide by 100 in height. They should be 16 bit colour (TGA format is good for me). Please note I am looking for (this might be pie in the sky) baldurs gate quality portraits.

Let me know how you get on.

i don't think i can be as good as what they did for baldur's gate but let's try it
i will begin with use some original DM champions i've penciled..

Ok, cool. Let me know how you get on.

Baldurs gate quality .. wow.. that's some serious high level bar you've set. if you look through my avatars and this:
http://cowsmanaut.gfxartist.com
and see any thing you would like to use as an avatar photo let me know and I can crop and size as well as adjust things like light sources small details like colours or earings, headbands, feathers, etc.

I don't really have the free time to do more than that. However between Linflas and I you'd likely have several new portraits to choose from.

moo

(oh and don't worry about any compression issues with the Jpegs. I have all the orriginals and will save them out as TGA from those)

I think I said Baldurs because I didnt want something like the emoticons , sorry if it was a bit over the top ...

Your artwork is awesome , I never expected to get that level of quality ....

if I want to use some of the portraits,etc, want would you like me to do in return for their use ?

Thanks, this is going a lot better than expected

I would like to use Pesky Dragons and Forgotten as loading screens/backgrounds and a few of the portraits, what now mate ?

thanks once again for this ...

well, if you are making money off it then I'd want a share.. however if it's free for all then no worries I don't need anything except a copy to play when it's done

moo

I like your avatar (is that what its called the picture under your name ? sorry new to this ), do you have any other like that ?

sorry to be a pain ...

could I have copies in (preferable 1024x768 (or higher) + 32bit TGA)

loading screens/backgrounds -
forgotton
pesky dragons
Shadow warriors

as 64 width 100 high portraits (just the faces ) -
Shadow warriors
Morning Sun
snow_dragon
fairy

thanks a lot for this ...

yep send me an email to my email account. The one you recieved the welcome from when you joined. I don't like posting emails in the forum since that's how worms find them. Then next thing you know you get ads for viagra and women with goats and such..

when I get your email I'll send you the files.

moo

I have sent you a private message, did you get it ?

Ta

women with goats

If it was women with cows that would be a different matter I guess

oh yeah baby!!! ermm.. no

Ok DSE, I've gathered up some other stuff from paintings I didn't complete but had characters in them. I'm looking still for a few other ones and I'll send them all at once..

moo

If you have trouble sending the info let me know, I dont know how much space I am allocated !

Thanks once again ..

your account there stores only 1000k per email. and I think the over all size of all your mail combined is 4 megs or something.

I'll likley need to post it as a link on the site.. but I'll just send the link in email and remove it once you have it..

moo

ok, let me know when, I will be checking the forums for about the next 2 hours on and off. Looking for some inspiration ...

Cheers.

linflas - are you still interested mate

I have another email address which I have sent to you on a private message (this one has a limit of 4 mb)

hope this helps