New Finish Sign

[Lonestar]

Fixed my problem with the dts exporter. Actually I didn't, but they released a new version that makes it easyer to texture meshes (you ONLY have to unwrap UVs), and I know how to that, so I'm good now. So, what should the new sign look like? It can be anything we want. (but it probably can't flash like our current one, only one texture dunno how to do .idl files, I think they're outdated and aren't used anymore )

EDIT: I got three ideas. It took like 15 minutes, so they aren't particuarly good, but I like at least one of them.



Numbah 1 I know we won't use. Numbah 2 is ok, and personally I like Number 3. Tails and Evil Bad doing shadow puppets from the glowing core, lol. Once again, if you don't like these, I can make up more.

[IsraeliRD]

There are some things to put in mind:
MMG uses the top of the finish sign as a 'flower holder'
BFinale uses the width of the finish sign as an egg hiding place
Bent Reality uses the finish sign at the start due to the collision shape, so that you can walk on 'invisible floor'
Other levels use it as a hazard and some use it with eggs.

So when you make the new sign, check the above points and make sure it doesn't need a mass-change.

Now, IFL :

www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=2057

which leads to:

tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/DTS/LightWave/Creating_IFL%E2%80%99s_%28Image_File_Lists%29_using_Lightwave
(you need to login)
and
tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/DTS/3dsmax/Advanced_Materials#IFL (which also needs a login)

Now, I got this:
www.gnometech.com/torque/
Go to files and browse around

Now this one might help I dunno:
www.scriptspot.com/bobo/mxs2/collectplus/

Now, this one might be helpful:
www.peachpit.com/articles/index.asp?st=42191
Which leads to:
www.peachpit.com/articles/article.asp?p=169506&seqNum=13

Have fun

[Lonestar]

I have a collision box dts I made a while ago that can replace the finish sign in Bent Reality. Getting the scale exactly the same would be near impossible with Blender. But can make it similar enough in dimensions that other levels shouldn't need to be changed.

I don't think I'll get .ifl to work with Blender though. I can make up for it by animating the finish sign, and imo that's even more awesome. I could like, make some little marbles orbit around it or something.

[IsraeliRD]

Haha that would rock. Anyway, I'm open for suggestions all time they're actually good.

[Ian]

Howabout you make it so that there's like a big line of particles coming out of the top like in MBU.

[Lonestar]

So... you guys want me to just make something and see if you like it, or should I make some sketches?

[IsraeliRD]

Start with some sketches. I don't want to have the MBU style as it's stupid and we dont want to have MBU stuff either.

[Lonestar]

I could make it glow with some kind of particle emitter if that'd be cool. Would that be cool? Oh man, with that in mind I'm having some ideas of things that would just look friggin' awesome, but not really do anything. lol. A'ight, I'll do some sketches. I'll post some tomorrow probably.

[Lonestar]

Holy marbles! I just did a test replacing the start and end pads with quicksand, and they still work! You'll spawn above the center of the quicksand, and finish above the geometry for the end pad! That means I could make us new start/end pads as well. I'll post pics of those ideas too.

[phil]

That's a good way to test
Extending your idea slightly about the particle emitter, it could maybe have some soft 'plasma'ish particles could fly out of the finish sign or pad, smoothly and slowly
Too much would wreck the look of it :-\

[Lonestar]

Yeah, the finish sign #3 used a glowing center that could be particle and geometry-based. It looks cooler in my head then on paper, though.

[Ian]

So, that shadow puppet sign is THE BEST FINISH SIGN EVAAAARRRR!!@!!@111

I like #2 the best.

[Lonestar]

I could combine the hollow outer shell of #3 with the spinning thing in #2 and that'd be pretty good too. Anyone want other ideas?

[Andrew]

Personally I think both the second one and the third one look awesome; I can't decide which one I like better! Like LS said, it would be cool if we combined both designs into one.

[Lonestar]

I'm having a way awesome idea that combines them both and something new, I'll draw a sketch and make a Flash to show what it'd look like animated. It's more awesome then both of those, so it'll be great.

[Andrew]

Any progress?

[Lonestar]

Working out some issues, otherwise I've just completely forgoten about it. I'll get Blender on my laptop and give it another go.

[Lonestar]

I fixed the texturing, but the dts only shows up in ShowTool and Torque 1.5, not MBP...