Witcher placeable conversion project

[Tchos]

Good to hear from you again, Tsongo!

 

Well, it uses the same base engine as NWN2, but they modified it in different ways than NWN2 was modified, enough to call it a different engine, or at least a different iteration of the engine. For instance, it uses MDBs as its models, and NWN2 also uses MDBs, but it's not the same kind of MDB -- it requires a different plugin to import and export them. The Witcher supports shadow volumes, and NWN2 doesn't (since it uses dynamic lighting), and NWN2 supports placeable tinting and the Witcher doesn't (my conversions support tinting). The Witcher still uses NWscript, though with some changes here and there, so some scripts from NWN2 will work.

 

Anyway, I think the models and textures, and the skill of the designers, played the largest part in making it look so different. I've noted that the normal maps for NWN2 textures in particular are not very well-made. I think it would be quite possible to create an area that looks like it's from The Witcher, using the NWN2 engine without modifications, but with good design and custom content.

 

All of what I've said applies only to The Witcher 1, not 2 or 3, since they wrote a completely new engine starting with 2.

 

I believe the over-the-shoulder camera can be put into NWN2 as a replacement for the Character Mode camera, by editing the appearance.2DA.

[Tsongo]

Thank you, I'm still alive and just got fed up with the Bioware forums and deleted myself that's why I looked on here. Then I saw your post about Witcher things and bingo !

 

I wouldn't know where to start making some of the areas in 2 and 3 they are pretty awesome and 1 does a pretty good job too especially with water. I always liked the idea of an over the shoulder camera for NWN2 it would make it a different game. I know some people love the view of everything from above and hate the other but now I'm kind of used to playing games closer up if you know what I mean.

 

I think the Witcher games saved quite a lot of processor power ( and development time no doubt ) by using the same character models for NPCs and it really doesn't make a difference. Makes me wonder why I spent so many hours making so many different ones with different outfits :mellow:

[Tchos]

Indeed, the Bioware forums aren't a good place for anyone anymore. :happy:

 

My poor old computer can't handle The Witcher 3, and can only barely handle 2 at low settings (I have an upgrade coming up which should solve that), but it is certainly excellent from what I've seen (I've just gotten past the prison break). A lot of the difference in feel in that game I'm sure is related to the camera placement. When it's down lower and closer to the character like in the Witcher 2 especially, the difference in perspective has a pretty large impact on the perception of the areas. A close camera is also important if you're going to be playing it with a game controller. Maybe not as close as in The Witcher 2, though. I prefer more of a distance as in this Witcher 2 mod. Far enough back that it doesn't have to offset the character to the side to avoid obstructing your view. Other games, like Dead Space, are so close that even with the character off to the side I sometimes can't see things in front of me.

 

I wish NWN2 had The Witcher 2's lighting engine. The colours and the atmospherics are very appealing.

 

I personally appreciate a little variety in the NPCs, though I can accept some abstraction such as all merchants being represented by one model, all healers by another model, etc., with only key NPCs having unique looks. The effort isn't wasted on me, though, if all NPCs are unique.

[andysks]

I need to say something not related to the two engines (please forgive me), and that is that I'm really glad to see the name Tsongo posting again around here :).

[Tchos]

It's an occasion well worth a digression. :wink: Welcome back again!

Edited September 2, 2016 by Tchos

[Tsongo]

Thank you both. I never left here, then again I didn't post anything either I've been on strike :mellow:

 

I know what you mean by too close and the Witcher 3 suffers from that in interiors where you finish up staring at Geralt's bum ! Flawless widescreen do mods for a lot of games I think the Witcher 2 is included ( but not 3 yet ) and it has a slider where you can adjust the field of vision. I used it for Shadow of Mordor after I kept getting killed by things that were behind me. I think Fallout 4 got it perfect with the zooming in to wherever you want from first to third person.

 

Definitely go for an upgrade capable of playing part 3 it'll be well worth it. I've played it twice but on this run through I'm going to start 3 with my old character and go for the mega high level stuff.

 

Now where's my silver sword !

[Tchos]

I know what you mean by too close and the Witcher 3 suffers from that in interiors where you finish up staring at Geralt's bum !

 

I wonder if the same thing happens in the DLC (?) where you play as Ciri?

 

Flawless widescreen do mods for a lot of games I think the Witcher 2 is included ( but not 3 yet ) and it has a slider where you can adjust the field of vision.

 

Definitely go for an upgrade capable of playing part 3 it'll be well worth it.

 

I guess that's different from the Widescreen Fixer mod, since that one supports The Witcher 2, but doesn't include a FoV adjustment -- just a way to make it work on multiple monitors. The same mod includes a FoV adjustment for Dead Space, though, so I don't know why they wouldn't include one for the Witcher 2. I'll try out Flawless Widescreen next time I play!

 

I'm pretty certain my new computer will be able to play 3, which is high on my list. I'm shopping around for specific parts based on recommendations for the purpose. :smile:

 

And now I'd better copy over some more of the old discussion before it disappears for good.

Edited September 6, 2016 by Tchos

[Tchos]

Wow. I was using an old package when I did the search, and I guess after I replaced my 2da with PJ's I didn't search for kennel or cage. So I already have it . However, the dog house is seriously cool. For me the most important placeables are the ones that exist nowhere else. I am tired of seeing paintings and tapestries. I respect the work of the authors of course, but you know what I mean. The doghouse though... I love the placeable. On the screenshot I don't however see the problem with the inside you mentioned. Did you fix it?

No, you just have to be at a lower angle to see in through the door, to see there's no inside.

 

Thank You for your work Tchos these look great. Please allow me to be the first to say. Wow! look at the jugs on that. Likely as not that will be lost on the americans whose poor grasp of anatomical geography does not even allow them to locate a fanny properly

PJ

 

Jugs... bottoms (from the thread with the rocks)... What will show up in these placeables next?

 

Tools. http://social.bioware.com/images/forum/emoticons/smile.png

I'm especially interested in hoes (although that's one of the few tools we already have in the game). I suppose a fork is out of the question? Oh, wait - we've already got one of those as well...

 

There actually is a pretty good looking rustic hoe in the batch. No rakes, though.

 

Heard this often about me when I lived in Iowa. Also make sure the jugs are scalable and tintable since not many people like small pale juggs...'course if that's your thing...

Well, they're technically tintable, like all of the placeables here, but you won't be able to make bronzed or tanned jugs, due to the dark base colours.

 

In my experience, if you've got a rake around then the hoes are usually all taken. Except perhaps for the rustic variety.

 

Tools you can hang on walls or place on surfaces would really flesh out barns or workshops. There's the ironfist hammer which you can lean up against things, but a larger variety of tool placeables (saws, pliers, shears, etc) would certainly be useful.

 

I suppose we could always rotate the sickle and scythe models for use in barns (the latter would need to have its component parts combined together). You could probably get away with the sickle model as it is, since weapon models are vertical with the business end upwards by default, and a sickle is likely to hang by its curved blade anyway.

That double-entendre is indeed why I mentioned the rake. :smile:

 

But to be more serious, there is also a saw, a pickaxe, cleaver, broom, spoon, coil of rope, some bloody surgical tools, anvil, bellows, shovel, and of course various carts and wagons. There's also a curved cutting tool, but I don't know what to call it. It doesn't look like the sickles or scythes I'm familiar with.

 

And there, Tchos' question about what more will be heard on the CC forums is answered delicately .

[Tchos]

Anyway, more placeables. In PJ's thread I already showed this one, but here it is again, to keep them all together. Unless I've forgotten any, this thread has screenshots of every completed placeable in this package. As mentioned there, I cobbled this roast pig on platter together from several Witcher placeables, including a pig on a spit, a platter that formerly held a mostly-stripped carcass, and some fruits.

Here's the pig on a spit, as well as the placeable called "toolhang01", which does not contain tools unless you count the ropes, but it does have a better-looking hanging item of clothing than the hanging clothes from last time. This one looks like a work apron, I think.

And here's the hoe. It came out smaller than I think a hoe should be, and I don't know why, since I used the same scaling I've been using for all of these. The one on the right is scaled up to 1.42, which looks more like what I would expect, with Aldanon standing nearby for scale reference. But I'm not a farmer or gardener, so I don't know if that smaller size is practical for doing work.

The original model was made for holding in the hand, of course, not as a placeable, so it was straight upright with the head on top, and not much use for area decoration, so I tilted this one to rest against a wall and rotated it for the head to be on the ground. I could make other rotation variants, but I don't want to make too many and have to reserve more 2DA space if I run over my current 2DA range reservation. But if there are certain rotations that would be more useful than this, or that would be useful in addition, I could make some.

Also in the hoe screenshot is a decorative urn. I had to replace the normal map on that one, since the original one was pure black, and caused the placeable to be in permanent shadow.

A halfling-sized hoe perhaps?

The straight up-and-down version with the head at the top would be useful as an equippable model, or as another handy VFX, if the scale was appropriate. There is a raking animation for humanoids in the game, but unfortunately the only equippable rake model is pointing in the wrong direction, with the tines upward instead of down. The same animation could be used for hoeing.

I haven't done anything with equippable objects, so I don't know if there's anything extra I need to do to make those work, but I'll look at the rake model and see if I can fix its orientation. If so, then I can use it as a guide to the size and orientation for the hoe, so you can add both to the Handy VFX.

In the meantime, the theme is things with wheels.

Two wagons
A wheelbarrow and a couple of mine carts

[Tchos]

Are these new additions available? I need to write a side quest involving the hoe and the pig.

o.O

Let me get 12 more done, and then I can get the version number up to .3-something and release that.

 

The wagons will be used excessively by me. Awesome additions Tchos. I am really thankful that you took the project again.

Maybe a mop too some day?

The animation would work with a broom as well.

There is a broom in the resources as well. This one is bigger than the hoe, and I didn't have to scale it up. It's even bigger than the scaled-up hoe.

• Two banners. There are several more styles of banner, all with the Flaming Rose symbol, which would make them of limited use as they are, but anyone who can just change the texture's picture to whatever they want will have more options for banner styles.
• Here are the rest of the hay bed models (2). The first one was done in a previous release, but it's the one that's pushed up against a wall instead of lying flat. This includes a variant that has some branches underneath it. Also in the picture is a branch model, which uses the same texture as the ones under the bed.
• Another barrel, bucket, and bench. Nothing special, and nothing we don't already have, but I got them out of the way since they were easy to do.
• 3 bed variants with different mattresses. One uses the hay bed texture.
• A pile of very large cards.
• An iron barred door with a lock. It's a placeable, but the pivot point is on the hinges, you can script it to rotate open if you can manage to get that to happen smoothly.
• A grappling hook with a very long rope. This one was a surprise to me, because its preview image showed something completely different.
• Birdcages. I made three variants. One with just the cage, one with the cage and the swing on the inside, and one with a bird sitting on the swing. The bird is not animated, so I would use one of the VFX birds and put it on the swing, if it fit.

This should be enough for a release. See here soon. Edited September 10, 2016 by Tchos