NovaCor: The Fringe is an exciting Sci-Fi adventure with a blend of FPS combat and Puzzle Solving. Collect items, solve puzzles and blast your way to the center of the mystery surrounding NovaCor.
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Description
New Models :)
These new round style terminals will be modified into a console type deal to replace some of the squarish models Ive made in the past - but not all of them.
**** thats some high fps... I get 60
Thats with everything but the AA maxed out. AA is set to 4x or 8x , I dont remember which. Im really trying to keep the models low-poly but skin them in such a way as to add enough detail so they dont look TOO cheap. I also keep the world geometry pretty simple and make anything complicated a model or func_detail. Most textures are pretty simple and have a 512x512 resolution with a few exceptions. All of that coupled with proper optimizing should allow even older gaming rigs to run this smoothly. These screens were taken on a Core2Duo 3.2 ghz/9800 1gb/ machine with only 2 gigs of RAM. I also have two other rigs to test on, both of which have lesser specs except for RAM.
Do you mean AA or AF? The filtering could be set to 4x or 8x, but antialiasing is turned off.
Your latest screenshots look good, but you really should improve some of the textures...
The AA is on...I have to convert the BMP file to JPG to upload here. Moddb doesnt accept bitmap files so the quality is lower. I use JPG as opposed to PNG because its roughly 1/3 the file size. It indeed looks much cleaner on my monitor. When I convert the file I do 85% quality. As for the textures, I do know that Source can do 2048X2048 but I have no desire to try and make an ultra realistic/detailed environment. In fact, this whole Mod has a high chance of being converted to cel-shaded textures. The Mod is meant to have simplistic graphics as my first endeavor in Modding. Its focus is on gameplay and story without taking itself too seriously. Thats because this is a one man project and I cannot spend lots of time on any one particular aspect. This needs to be fun and engrossing before graphically amazing. Lots of full scale commercial products fall short of their goal by spending too much time on appearances and end up lacking in experience. Thats not what I want.
I think you have no idea what AA is/does.
Your AA may be turned on, but the game does not use it! So you have either screwed up some client commands (there are two for it afaik) or you have forced the settings in your Nvidia control panel.
I can tell that because you have aliasing on your screenshot. If you lower the quality (or the resolution) the aliasing would be weaker or dissappear because of the slight blur. However, on your screens you can clearly see it.
Cel-shading would be cool, but I hope you know that this is not a question of textures...
I have a firm grasp of exactly what AA is and I am quite surprised you take such an insulting tone. As for the cel-shading, it certainly is a matter of textures. A simple conversion of all textures in the game can easily replicate the cel-shaded appearance. You usually seem more...mature as opposed to this new 'I know it all and you know nothing' attitude. I must say I liked it betterr the other way. AA is not forced off, and Im telling you it looks cleaner on my display. If you choose to believe that I would lie to you about such a trivial matter, so be it.
It wasn't my intention to insult you. I'm very sorry if I sounded unfriendly, so let me clarify my statements.
Cel-Shading:
It's not about textures. It's about the shader. That's why this technique is called cel-shading. So please tell me how you gonna make the outlines and split the shadows in a handful different tones only by using textures. If you can, then I'd love to know how to do so, because afaik this is much behind the possibilities of Valve's material system. You'd need a coder or find some code on the Internet.
AA:
If you know what antialiasing is then, for sure, you know that it's possible that somebody uploads a screenshot that looks like it has AA while it hasn't, but not the other way round. In other words: You can take away aliasing from a screenshot, but you can't add some (unless this is your goal and you're skilled in photoshop and spend much time). On your screenshot you can pefectly see the edges that should have been smoothed.
Can you explain that to me?
Ive already experimented with my textures back at the beginning of this mod. I cartoonified then oilified a few textures after adding some extra black and some extra lines for definition and it came out very similar to cel-shading. That is why I said 'replicate' instead of create. Theres a more in-depth and complicated tutorial (several) on how to make things look cel-shaded in GIMP out there; its not exactly hard to give the appearance of cel-shading without touching the code. As for the AA, I dont think anything short of bringing you to my house, runnung the Mod, taking screens then showing you how they come out will convince you that thats just how it comes out. I dont have 'jaggies' when I play. Thats that and its not up for debate.
Well, Im not debatiing it anymore. You can say what you want. It wont change anything. Surely you can find more mature and productive ways to spend your time...even if I was just an uneducated liar who knew nothing at all about AA, not even how to turn it off or on, what could you possibly gain by repeatedly returning to the thread? What purpose would it serve? To appear smart? Because someone who just can let things go and chooses the pettiest of arguments just doesnt appear smart, and the longer it goes on the more unintelligent/immature you seem. Dont do that to yourself. I thought better of you.
Let me get one thing straight:
I'm not like the majority of the moddb-community in terms of watching mods. If I have a doubt or really think somethings bad, I let the person responsible for it know. I do that while the most people on moddb (or communities in general) just kiss the developers a**.
The fact that I looked at your screenshot at full size and saw a fine detail like aliasing on it, should show you that I care way more than people that just tell you that you're perfect every time. I like your mod and I like your work, but you should know that nobody's perfect and therefore you should expect criticism. Well, as long as it is constructive. Mine definitely was, as I didn't just say "that sucks!!1!!1" or something like that.
You're calling me immature, but get offended by someone saying you that he THINKS that you don't know what AA is. Man, AA does not count to general knowledge. Therefore I don't expect everyone to know what it is and it's no insult. You should know that I have a couple of years of experience in working with images. I can tell you whether you have aliasing on your screenshot within a few seconds - and you have. No doubt. I don't think (and btw never said) that you're stupid and if you say that you know what AA is, I believe you so...
...let's settle that like mature men. No flaming. Take another screenshot. Then upload it here (with the same procedure you used on this one) and upload it somewhere else (but raw/straight out of the game). It could theoretically be that at some point your image got compressed with the most shi**y algorithm I've ever seen.
I don't troll/lie for sure and you have no reason to do so. It seems like a misunderstanding and I don't want you to ignore my (possible) critics in future because of it, as this would be immature by you.
Say, can you bring me to your house Kevin so I can see, maybe play abit of the mod, yea see I need convincing too! :P
At first that panel looked almost like it might be part of a door, well it has the shape of a key somewhat and those 2 wall panels its affixed to look like they could be doors, that maybe there was a task to perform using the panel in order to get the doors to open.. I guess the circular part throws me since most of your displays are square/rectangular
Yes I am working on making some 'rounder' items and stuff...I kinda thought things were getting too blocky. Though this mod is intended to be retro, I dont want to go too far with it. Too much of it makes an ugly Mod and I want this to be almost ugly...but not quite :P
SniperFan: I dont expect nor do I want anyone kissing *** and giving blind praise. I generally take advice given unless it compromises a specific part of the Mod. Your post had nothing to do with the Mod. It was an assumption that I do not know what anti aliasing is much less how to turn it on based on heavily compressed screenshots uploaded from my phone. Then you tell me cel-shading is impossible without coding a new shader, while I have already replicated the cel-shading look with converted textures. You have no idea what is going on in my studio and just what I can and cannot do, but yet you sit and adamantly insist that you are correct, then demand proof that I didnt just pull what I told you out of my ***. Dont you think thats a wee bit...crazy? I still wouldnt ignore you in the future, becuase your advice and observations up to this point have been sound and reasonable. But this - this is far from normal.
Well, you're right when you say that this has nothing to do with your mod itself, so I'll end this unnecessary discussion.
Still, I haven't said that "replicating" cel-shading is impossible with nothing more than textures. I've said that "real" cel-shading is impossible AS FAR AS I KNOW.
As for the "demand of proof". I don't care anymore (as they are more important things about your mod.....well, basically everything is more important than this). But you have to understand that from an objective standpoint my demand of proof is very reasonable. When you say that you have AA on, I have nothing more than your word. When I say you have AA off, I have your screenshot to back up my statement.
The terminal is pretty nice but everything else is a bit lame. I mean, the floor, the tubes and the metal boxes are a kinda ugly. The tubes look likes stuff you put on the ground like they are furnitures. No offense though.
Id somewhat agree with that. I dont think the boxes themselves are ugly, but I do think they dont really fit into this room well. The cardboard ones maybe, but not the metal crates. Also, the pipes dont really work there either...they were filler for empty walls. I will do something better with this room before its done. (and find a better floor texture)