DDL - read this

[Mr_Cyberpunk]

Mind you, he's apparently incapable of making any texture smaller than 1024x1024, so if you ask him to rustle up a texture for a 'plain, red, button', you're gonna end up with one fucking INCREDIBLE button, but your texture caching won't thank you.

Hehe yep he'll do that. He's so fast as well, I could barely keep up back when we started New vision. When he told me this is what he wanted to do I freaked out, I hadn't really textured at that size before.. After working with Dave though I started doing all my artwork in HD formats, he definitely proved the benefit of doing that with New Vision.

[Salk]

Thank you so much, DDL!

I am sure your exhaustive post is enormously appreciated by not only me but everyone here at OTP.

I feel positive that after reading that, nobody will have heart to ever whine again about HDTP's release date and that's why I wish your answer was pinned for everyone to read.

My wish for you is also to find a new job soon but now I don't know if that'd just be cruel: from the way you described it, it seems a real nightmare. Hopefully there are other positions somewhere else that won't load you with cumulative hours of utter tedium. There is already HDTP for that...

Hang in there!

[Phobosares]

Just out of curiousity: What programming language does Deus Ex use? I could imagine there is some good amounts of programming involved since you guys are trying to make things happen out of the ordinary.. Such as gun mod visuals and the liking. All damn impressive if you ask me. The amount of time you spend making this mod is like detailing a car to perfection. As my father says: It can only get better!

Considering the amount of time put into this mod over the years, that should be well noted when you guys release the mod. It might not mean much to those eager to use it, but is everything in my opinion.

[justanotherfan]

I think it was INTERCAL or Malbolge. Maybe Objective INTERCAL.

They don't have the source code. Only the renderer's code was made available. I don't actually understand how a several mods are being done, but they are. I imagine arcane Unreal Script. Programming seems like it would be harder, but once a language is learned, it's easy enough to make things happen. Hacking and bodging takes more effort for less results. Hey, let's all start a pettiton to Eydos to open the sourcing of the Deus Ex language!

[Jonas]

I think it was INTERCAL or Malbolge. Maybe Objective INTERCAL.

Phobosares, in case you're not familiar with justanotherfan's particular brand of humour, this is merely a characteristically dead-pan joke. Deus Ex is based on the Unreal engine that was written in C++.

They don't have the source code. Only the renderer's code was made available. I don't actually understand how a several mods are being done, but they are. I imagine arcane Unreal Script.

UnrealScript is the correct answer. It's a proprietary scripting language based on Java.

[DaveW]

Dave's answered a lot of these already, and incidentally has also massively underplayed his own involvement (involvement, incidentally, which has been awesome). Christ, some of the stuff he just "magics up" overnight is...fucking incredible. Mind you, he's apparently incapable of making any texture smaller than 1024x1024, so if you ask him to rustle up a texture for a 'plain, red, button', you're gonna end up with one fucking INCREDIBLE button, but your texture caching won't thank you.

So yeah, Dave's been doing lots of textures and modelling and UVmapping (not, of course, normally in that order).

I believe Half Life 2 has caused me to be inherently scared of using 512X512 textures just in case things turn out blurry ingame. Plus the vast majority of the 3D I've been doing in the past few years has been film/TV style CGI stuff, which means I work with ridiculous texture sizes (just because I can.) It's a bad influence - I have no illusion I could ever stick to polygon/texture budgets in a real game dev environment

Plus I ramp up and burn out quickly, which is a slight problem. And to think I want to study Radiation Protection - I'm screwed before I even begin.

Hehe yep he'll do that. He's so fast as well, I could barely keep up back when we started New vision. When he told me this is what he wanted to do I freaked out, I hadn't really textured at that size before.. After working with Dave though I started doing all my artwork in HD formats, he definitely proved the benefit of doing that with New Vision.

To be honest, if I had any idea how big New Vision would actually become I'm not sure I would've started it. 2000 textures at a few textures a day didn't seem like a lot at the time, for some reason or another. Although I worked at a stupid rate close to the 2009 release - I basically stayed in my student halls for about a week straight, and luckily my girlfriend was very accommodating of my obsession.

[Lexx]

So, while we are at it... How about a wip screenshot of something (ingame) HDTP? :>


Pretty much the main reason why everyone is nagging around so much is that there is no information flow. Not saying there should be walls of text every few days, but at least some information will make it clear to people that still work is done. Sadly, giving out no information doesn't send out the signal "we are working hard in the background!" but "nothing get's done anymore." That's the case with every mod to every game. Especially now, a few days ago I saw that all HDTP signs are gone from the website, which gave me a bad feeling. But as I can see now in this thread, it's not the end of the world.

[Jonas]

You're missing the point. It's not about sending signals that work is getting done, it's about actually getting work done.

[Lexx]

My point was, that it's absolutely reasonable if people nagg about progress all the time if there is no single bit of information. That's nothing HDTP-unique.

Beside this, it's not progress limiting to say a word every once in a while other than "we still work on it."

I don't want to criticize anything in here, in case it's take up like that. Just pointing out what is obvious anyway.

[Jonas]

Nagging is one thing, being a complete asshole is quite another.

[DDL]

Note: Jonas isn't calling you an asshole (just in case it appeared ambiguous), but he is, I think, comparing much of the 'nagging' from other quarters to being..basically assholeish.

Myself, I figured popping in to quickly say "dude we're still doing shit" was enough, coz really: why would we lie? It's not like we'd gain anything in the long run. Still, if I do some testing later today I'll try and remember to take a screenshot or two.

[Jonas]

Oh definitely, thanks for clarifying for me

[revel911]

So, while we are at it... How about a wip screenshot of something (ingame) HDTP? :>


Pretty much the main reason why everyone is nagging around so much is that there is no information flow. Not saying there should be walls of text every few days, but at least some information will make it clear to people that still work is done. Sadly, giving out no information doesn't send out the signal "we are working hard in the background!" but "nothing get's done anymore." That's the case with every mod to every game. Especially now, a few days ago I saw that all HDTP signs are gone from the website, which gave me a bad feeling. But as I can see now in this thread, it's not the end of the world.

I would much prefer he spend that 10 minutes working than re-editing his site which will probably be cleaned up once the work is complete.

It only takes a few minutes to come here and find the answers!

[Lexx]

Note: Jonas isn't calling you an asshole (just in case it appeared ambiguous),

Yeh, thought so.

I would much prefer he spend that 10 minutes working than re-editing his site which will probably be cleaned up once the work is complete.

Writing a line in the forum doesn't require 10 minutes, even if you feel it like that. (I know this from myself, because I hate it to write about the stuff I am doing, even though it would take less than a minute to drop a line every once in a while.) Didn't said the website should be updated-- for the things I am working on, we don't even have a website, because it would need too much annoying time to setup one. A forum is simply the faster platform.

[DaveW]

a few days ago I saw that all HDTP signs are gone from the website, which gave me a bad feeling. But as I can see now in this thread, it's not the end of the world.

Well that's the website for OTP, which was never the team behind HDTP.