The Titanic Mod brings people at one of the most detailed and accurate free 3D recreations of the Titanic ever made. It puts the player in a whole new storyline for the game Mafia.
Mail Hold finished
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Description
A bunch of new objects made and everything is ready to be positioned. I'm pleased to say that the mail hold is now finished!
Excellent work as usually! How nice it looks when everything is populated with tings :)
I wonder, does the engine have capability to use decals? You might use some decals below the chair, as an indication to where people put their dirty feet while working. Since the ship is on its maiden voyage, I suppose there won't really be much wear and tear.
You've come a long way with this and it is really a beautiful project. I'm glad to be watching it!
Btw - what's that white round machine behind the table? Looks like some kind of generator.
I've never seen a function to implement decals sadly. It could indeed add a new level of realism by adding wear and tear.
I did use some kind of decal trick in the past just like the letters on the table, by simply adding a plane just above the surface. But this wouldn't work for subtle effects due to Alpha map issues. Besides Z-fighting may become an issue then as well.
The white machine is an electric hoist, used to lift and carry the heavy bags from the cargo hatch to the sorting table. The hook on it's rail can be seen hanging above the machine.
Decals are just a plane with a alpha mapped image some units above the surface, so if you used that trick before there is nothing preventing you from using it again. To solve Z-fighting just move the plane up some more units, it will solve the problem, about the alpha map issues, what are they? Doesn't LS3D support it well?
LS3D can only make absolute pitch black transparent, so unless I'm using a very high resolution image there will be a jagged edge around it. For subtle scratches or dirt on a wall/floor this doesn't look very nice.
Also Mafia's depth buffer does not render properly in 64 bit systems. The surface needs to be pretty high above the object to prevent it from fighting- thus looking like it's floating. For small spaces rendered close by it is no problem to put it slightly above another surface. But for large surfaces to be viewed from a distance it will flicker. I experienced this with several rivet decals I made for the exterior. (bridge wings, sliding windows etc.)
That is sad to know about the 64bits OS problems, but i still don't know what you mean by absolute pitch black transparent, does LS3D use alpha maps by the means of a black and white image where black is transparent and white is opaque? Perhaps you are referring to the lack of alpha blending where instead of only a black and white texture you can also have a grayscale one? The jagged edge you are referring to is a black outline around alpha images? If so use this trick to get rid of the problem just extend colors in the texture outward into transparent areas by one pixel (or more).
Amazing work as always!