Hey all, I decided to get some feedback on my screenshots for the game I am currently working on. the graphics are pretty much test graphics, I am still looking for an artist who can do a better job than I. (if anyone is interested feel free to contact me at EliteF16 at Juno dot com, or on AIM sn:EtherealDarknes, or on MSN rmanpres@hotmail.com) so comments on the lighting system is basicly what im looking for, all other constructive criticisim is welcome tho. also comments on the gui seen in some screenshots is welcome too. these screenshots were taken over the cource of about 2 months, while i was finishing up the engine. here are some specs, screenshots were taking using this setup: Adaptor: DirectDraw7 CPU: AMD Athalon 950 GPU: Radeon 8500 128 MB RAM: ~380 MB RES: 800x600x32 FPS: 60 unlimited, 33 when limited screenshot 1 screenshot 2 screenshot 3 screenshot 4 screenshot 5 screenshot 6 screenshot 7 screenshot 8 screenshot 9 screenshot 10 screenshot 11 Raymond Jacobs, Profesional Web Applications Developer, Weekend Game Developer, www.EtherealDarkness.com [edited by - EDI on May 29, 2003 3:58:22 PM]

Awesome. High-quality stuff. These are you "test graphics"?

The only comment I have is about screen shot 2: with the pillars using the same texture as the floor, it''s a little more difficult to understand the map with a quick glance. I would have to concentrate a bit more to figure out where I could walk, etc.

Great job, looking forward to a demo.

1) Same as above; screen 2, I hope you''ve started using a floor more clearly differentiated from the walls.

2) Screens 10, 11; Gouraud shading is your friend... take advantage of it, if you can!

Overall, very nice... I''m assuming you have functional run-time switching between OpenGL and D3D already. I''ve just one request; make sure you have some easily-accessible way to change the driver outside of the program; my computer loves to crash periodically when using OpenGL due to a driver bug in the T&L engine.

Extremely nice. My only suggestions are to work on the overall color scheme in the menus; somehow the colors feel discordant. I think the gold and brown against the bright, primary-colors background makes it do that. Or maybe I''m just looney

Thank you all for your feedback,

the screenshots your seeing have been taken over time, so yes alot of color scheme has been changed.

BriTeg:
thanks! yeah the graphics are test graphics, I want much better quality than this, in the end product.
yes the floor tiles have been changed to a less noisey set.
demo should be avilible within the next few months.

WyrFrame:
gourad shading is an imposibility for this game,
as i noted in my specs, it''s running using the DirectDraw adaptor. the way my engine is built (it''s called Flare) is in a type of tierd way,
there is the core, which contains all of the basic game functionality, scripting, events, etc this layer is called CoreFlare
then in this case the next tier is 2DFlare which is a finer-point of functions that manage 2dIsometric maps, and sprites and the whole lot. so at this level 2DFlare makes use of things called 2DGFXAdaptors these are dlls that have a unified function set. at the moment i support GDI,DirectDraw and Direct3D.
but since the adaptors control only low level graphical functions i cant make use of the lighting in D3D since GDI and DirectDraw cant handle it, plus having lighting in the adaptors seems a bit out of scope. After i am done with this game i will expand tier 2 to have 3DFlare aswell which will make use of D3D and OGL adaptors (3DGFXAdaptors). as for runtime switch of adaptors, yes there is an ini file that is made for you the first time u run any Flare program (flare.ini) wich keeps records of all installed programs that use flare, there will be a Graphical editor for this, ingame and out of game.

ApochPiQ:
yes the color scheme is a bit off i guess, as i said im not an artist, im the programer=) (and founder of Ethereal Darkness Interactive, game development group lol) so that is why im seeking an artist, tho i guess i havent done too bad with what art skills i have lol.






thank you all again for your comments, i will post more screenshots when i think they are ready=)





Raymond Jacobs,
Profesional Web Applications Developer,
Weekend Game Developer,
www.EtherealDarkness.com

Test graphics? I suddenly feel terribly inadequate. Looks awesome!

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