Leaderboard

Habemus carnyx:

Hello @Aeros Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate any feedback that helps me to be more critical and more observant to the little details, which at the same time @stanislas69 has given me some great feedback and advice that has helped me get to these designs. The textures are close to finished and soon to be ready to create a world for this mod, which I cant wait to share with the community. I'll first release a flora pack separate from the mod that will have a map ready for players to be loose on!

Update on carnyx (Subject to color changes):

Made my evening...

This is awesome I always intended to go back and do something like this, those first dead trees were quite crap and were just the same tree mesh but without the leaves geometry. I only comitted them because they were an extra art asset for almost no work. When I was working on this at the time we didn't have an art biome that those dead trees to fit in so it was back burnered to improve them. The result of your branch texture is really good, the only way to get it better is to give the trunks more geometry and curves IMO

When I first designed some of the trees for the game, I was getting into the files of other games and looking at how they did them to learn from that and find motivation to try to do something better. Much of what low poly 3d work for games is how to make as good of an effect for as little resources as possible so that computationally the game can run in real time. Here is an old screenshot with the trees in question, they have probably been improved upon and modified since back then but are still in the game. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_Engine#/media/File:Magna-Graecia-Redux-1600x1200.jpg The exact texture is still in the game and shown in the tutorial above. As a modder I loved opening up a game's files and seeing how it all comes together. I had found motivation for the technique I used in 0ad actually from Battlefield 1942 which at the time looked quite good. Exploring their game files I saw that their tree textures were all a single branch, repeated and scaled along planes of geometry similarly shown in the tutorial posted above. Prior to this trees in 3d games were like a spray paint "blob" of canopy leaves placed on a pyramid or octagon geometry like in Age of Mythology and Age of Empires 3. Our first trees in the game were of a similar style. I went through a few iterations of the most generic "branch" i could make. I think the texture was 128x128 or something very small like that (today its common for game textures to be 4096x4096 pixels). I think we had a cap of 256x256 or 512x512for most textures in the game, so whatever I did would have to fit in that resolution, we were always trying to use as little pixels as possible, originally the game would have to run on a 64Mb graphics card as our minimum requirement. We'd actually lag out our computers if everything was 512x512. Early versions you could tell a some aspect of a the branch repeats so anytime something stuck out I'd go back and remove it and make it more and more "generic"...the goal was to not have a spot on the texture stand out so much so that you could tell is the same texture repeating. This is also the same philosophy for ground textures, when it happens its painful to look at, so a certain uniformity is desired. It was a study in making something symmetrical, but different enough so that it looks organic. Too organic or too symmetrical and you can see the "tiling" effect when the texture repeats. Also important to me was to be able to see the individual leaves rather than a blurry smudge of canopy. I had also burnt in some shadowing and specular effect drawn by hand within photoshop in the texture (the shine at the tips of the leaves to mimick the sun hitting them, and a darker shadow in the body to ofcourse mimick shade cast from other leaves), It gives the branch clusters a sort of depth and volume. This was to mimick dynamic effects that our engine didn't have at the time. The effect was really good for the amount of resources used. (a single 128x128 texture file, or was it 64x64?) Today you would have alpha maps and a specular channel doing this along with the shading from a game's engine to make the effect more dynamic, and use as much geometry as you want but back then in 2004 we didn't have that luxury. When designing I also found less is more, or atleast if the poly count of the branch planes is really dense then you have to compensate by removing leaves from the texture used or it gets blurry and muddy looking because too much is going on, even though higher resolutions and more geometry was used. Less is more. If you are designing trees today, you would want to break down the tree into its "element" branches, have a few versions of that, and build it up from there against a reference, then spin it around in your 3d software and do it again, adjusting as needed so it looks good from all angles. I see Enrique has a pretty good understanding of it and a good tutorial showcasing that style.

This is like a ruler to help us measure the size of objects, use as reference to see the game's "tiles" that is built of, and to make sure the 3d models are correctly lining up with their intended size and footprint within the game. I.e. a unit takes up 1x1 tiles, a house 3x3 a town center 8x8 or whatever it happens to be per the design documents. In 3d software (at the time 3dstudio max) we'd have a similar ruler setup in our modeling environment so that we are exporting the models at the correct size for the game and making sure the scale is consistent between art assets.

And end having screaming goats like this: i Think i just did your profile pic, i own you now

I wish we could have noise maker units with a rechargeable effect, like in AOM.

I made a map, I would like to know if you can put it in the game, if you want to try to see it's, I leave the file. The map is a mini European campaign in Scenery. Sorry for my english. Europe V.pmp Europe V.xml

Version from 28.03.2020: (Lobby Warning fix and unselect on gamelist updates fix) fgod.exp.280320201820.pyromod Version from 12.02.2020: (Player/Observer List InGame overlay fix) fgod.exp.1581540040.pyromod Version from 6.12.2019: fgod23experimental.pyromod (Player statistics overlay fix work for me) New Experimental Version. New features. fgod23_experimentalv2.pyromod (Player statistics overlay doesn't work for me) Older Experimental version fgod_experimental.pyromod Newest Version 1.6.22: https://github.com/fraizy22/fgodmod/raw/master/fgod_v1.6.22.pyromod Main Features: Fixes 0 A. D. v0.0.23 lobby lag, Fixes gamesetup crash (especially on Mac), new features for lobby and additional behaviour (also for lobby dialog), in-game name change (multiplayer-name in general options page), in-game/gamesetup ping nick sound notification from lobby (sound and marker on menu button), replace offline in-game (when lobby authentification on host if disabled), unit experience status bar in-game, pause overlay clickable/actable units/entities, game reconnect on connection lost/kicked, replays/civilization structure tree and civ info/options/last summary from lobby more buttons (hideable), auto-away after time in lobby, highlight colors for buddies, buddy games in lobby, highlight color for user player and user player games, number of players games (and onlines/open games) in lobby, hide profile panel for longer player list in lobby, player / games deselectable (escape key) in lobby, improved nick recognition for pinging in lobby, improved player/game sorting in lists in lobby (and especially remembering sorting), in lobby dialog select game the player is in, more darkend background on overlay windows/dialogs, remember last opened options page, auto-complete tab in chat cycles through all possible names and terms, observer all player statistics in top panel, team statistics in top panel, fight activity ratio in summary, tribute resources show stocks in tooltip for easier resources sharing in team, name colors in chat text in-game, mouse wheel support for changing tabs on summary/options/ gamesetup/credits. and finally mod compatibility to normal 0 A. D. users. So happy testing and multiplayer game hosting to everyone! Easy Install: You now only need fgod.pyromod file (from page https://github.com/fraizy22/fgodmod) https://github.com/fraizy22/fgodmod/raw/master/fgod.pyromod Download & Start it with 0 A. D., To Start it with 0 A. D. do: - Windows/Linux: Right Click On File -> Open With -> Other Application -> Search 0 A. D. -> Open - Mac: Select file in File Manager -> Top Bar Hit File -> Get Info -> Click Open With Column -> Click the Dropdown -> Other -> Search 0 A. D. -> Open When 0 A. D. opens -> select Green fgod in List -> hit Enable -> hit Save Configuration -> hit Start Mods. The Mod will start and default settings will be setted. Have Fun! Older Install Descriptions: Drag & Drop this file over 0ad start icon and It will start the mod. Or run "0ad fgod.pyromod" from terminal within your download folder. Enable fgod mod in mod selection (settings) hit save and start mods. Mac OS install Video/Tutorial: If that not works download manual the archive https://github.com/fraizy22/fgodmod/archive/master.zip (from https://github.com/fraizy22/fgodmod) or git clone https://github.com/fraizy22/fgodmod fgod Unzip the files mod.json and the other into new folder under 0ad/mods/fgod to path: linux into ~/.local/share/0ad/mods/fgod windows typically: ~\Documents\My Games\0ad\mods\fgod mac: ~/Library/Application\ Support/0ad/mods/fgod or read OS gamepaths: https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/GameDataPaths after start game go main menu under settings -> mod selection -> enable fgod, hit save & start mods Screenshots: Lobby (Profile Panel on click player demand, player/game selection clearable escape, Number of player/games, auto away after time inactive, ...): More Buttons hideable below Chat (Start Replays from Lobby, keep in lobby, show summaries, start replays from in replays and games): Darken Fades (Window dialogs darker background), Gamename remember: Team Presets in Gamesetup: Replace button observer in top-panel (when player offline and lobby authentification disabled), colored names in text chat context: Pause overlay units/entities/buildings everything still clickable/orderable for queueing. Top panel summed resources/pop from all players (tooltip shows also team sum and ofc all players): More Options in lobby Options: Easy Update/Download And Feedback In Forums: Fight Activity Ratio in Summary (Military Points / Economy Points): Also Next and Previous Buttons in Summary When Opened From Replay Menu For Replay cycling:

Discussion: Proposed Design (Reviewed by @Genava55

I came across the wireframe mode in Atlas and I was wondering about the purpose of the grid lines. I noticed this in AOE2. Are they related to pathfinding or mainly for map organization and structure proportions?

Committed in Revision: 21039

I think its the texture for this tree. Maybe its branches have to much contrast. I'll try to get the berry bush to stand out more without looking to unrealistic. Question about the berry bush, what if adding an partial effect to it to make it stand out like the metal stones? Say a soft green/yellow glimmer.

Now that's gorgeous ! Great work mate ! Some more comments 1. This looks a bit weird is that buggy alpha ? 2. Can you try to increase the saturation of the red berries bush ? They have to stand a bit more out in order to be clearly identifiable Hopefully not too unrealistic because I really like those as is. 3. Maybe more geometry or a different angle ? 3

If it is possible to make an evolution for the Bariogaisatos: Basic => no helmet, different haircuts, cape or no cape, medium or tall shields. Advanced => Montefortino and ciumesti helmets, crested or not crested, cape or no cape, golden torcs, tall shields, shield bosses (umbo)  Elite => Port, Mihovo and Foret helmets, crested or not crested, Cape, Golden torcs and armlets, tall shields, shield bosses (umbo)

One more note is that some high and low poly models are also made for Hyrule conquest mod made by Undying Nephalim https://www.moddb.com/mods/hyrule-conquest

Sorry friend! Thank you for correcting me in honest, credit to Bigtiger and stanislas69 and my questions directed to them

Bigtiger, The coniferous forest biome you are working on looks really good, great attention to detail, and well done over all. My feedback is that there is a slight flat look to the texture, abit like warcraft style. One way I can think of to lessen a flat look is to imagine the sun and how it works on the asset. How does the light hit it, where does the shadow fall. How much of either of those are needed to give depth to a texture. Can I ask you to make a map in Atlas with your art assets to show them off? Can you make the gameplay fun and interesting to the player? If so, will you share the results with us for feedback? I really want to see you make a world with the art you're making and let us players loose on it : ) I know when making art you want to see it tie in to what is already there, making a map with it is a good exercise to see how it fits in.

Effect: Roman and Greek units shitt their tunica and chiton instantly

I'm interested if this find is of any resource to any programmers who might still be developing. Pathfinding and why we hit this lag one large maps with large amounts of units has perplexed staff since inception, and similarly perplexes programmers who have joined in their attempts to solve it. Despite computers being some 10-20 times faster than they were when the engine was first being developed, the pathfinding remains bottlenecked by some thread or function even today. Its clearly not an issue of a computer's performance. When the engine was first designed we were making it work on a pentium 2 and a 64mb geforce MX graphics card as minimum system requirement ! My guess is the interplay between the way commands are scheduled within the game and the net code that communicates it to the clients. But then again I'm not a programmer. I remember at one point we had interviewed some of Ensemble Studio's (Age of Empires devs) programmers for how they built their pathfinding system. But here we are, with the majority of the contributors on the project being in areas other than high level code and programming, the issue remains ripe for someone capable of tackling this. We have had extremely tallented coders on the project in the past, but their numbers were in the handfuls and they all end up with serious day jobs one way or another where there is no time to do similar work for free at the end of the day. This is not a bad thing and in my opinion is normal and rational, all who work on the game did so for the experience of it and to learn how to do this. The team at its inception was a modding group for age of kings, not a developer. I think all it takes is reviewing the game's source code from the ground up, which due to so many contributors over the years, is not the easiest process. Though I'm convinced its not an impossible issue for someone who wants the credit and the glory of solving this bug. The source code is publicly available. https://sourceforge.net/projects/zero-ad/ I doubt a multie-threaded application will solve the pathfinding since I don't believe the issue is with computational power, but rather communication within different parts of the game's engine with one area "waiting" for a response from another thread which is performing poorly and is not optimized well for its simple task. A modern CPU today can for sure handle pathfinding for 500 units at 60 frames per second in real time...it did back in 1997.... The topic however is very interesting and worth studying, the future of gaming and Direct X 12 will be multi threaded and parallel processed. Someone with tallent will come along and work magic here. Its an excellent credit to get your foot in the game industry. There were a handful of people from the beginning that used their experience with 0ad to get an entry into the game industry or a related job, myself included.

I believe boots had been depicted on merchants and/or travelers, and also Iphicrates (early 4th century, before Hellenistic times) was known to have adapted such boots for his soldiers.

You are right, But first I have to commit the new resource and update the credist of the people who helped me

Maybe heroes then.

Nakedness from an Indo-European view is something common and is making reference to a kind of animality and natural force. Berserkir are often depicted as naked as well. Nakedness is often associated with homeric warriors and Greek art. 7th and 6th century hoplites are often represented as naked, notably by the Spartans and the Etruscans here, here and here (+bonus). Clearly, the thing has continued by being an artistic license but it seems that it has roots from an older ethos. Greek art, historiography and mythology are full of these archaisms about nakedness and furious warriors. Less known, exterior from the Indo-European world, some Assyrians warriors have been described as naked enraged warrior in the Tukulti-Ninurta Epic: “They are furious, raging, taking forms strange as Anzu (Assyrian eagle-dragon). They charge forward furiously to the fray without armor, They had stripped off their breastplates, discarded their clothing, They tied up their hair and polished… weapons, The fierce heroic men danced with sharpened weapons. They blasted at one another like struggling lions…” Nakedness in religious function is also known in India with the gymnosophists (as they were called by the Greeks). But in the case of the Wales mythology, it is making reference to youthfulness and to championship. Irish mythology shows that furious warriors can take any rights through their strength, even women and properties. Tacitus account of the Germanic Chatti suggest the same, where these warriors are sacred, start any battle and have the right to go where they want. In my opinion, fighting naked is a mean to access to higher position and higher recognition. Maybe it opens the right to enter the retinue of some nobles or some warrior brotherhoods. Probably it was something more common in youth peoples to start their warrior career. How much it is related to rituals and religion? If we look into the Germanic culture, there are rituals and rites before acting like a heroic warrior. Some kind of oaths to take in front of its comrades, an offering to do, an animal to skin or a dance to perform... there are indications for all of these.

I'm pretty sure @Trinketos would be happy with some more helping hands

The artist took his inspiration from the re-enactment of a french association: Excepted the infamous round shield, the illustration is legit. These kind of attachments in the front of the horses are plausible. An example from a relief in North Italy:

Potentially it could be added in worked in here https://github.com/0ADMods/pre-colonial-mod

I forgot this , sorry. some time my time my busy time, disturbs my mind, but I'm trying to help you, from my heart, not from my banal knowledge. but isn't a waste.

I like your mod idea very much. Since you consider an Amazon map and a big number of factions, I would suggest to consider representing some of the Amazonian peoples (that would be not only nice but also new to RTS games), such as the Marajoara and Tupis. Despite there being around 5 million people living there when the Portuguese arrived these nations are largely unknown by most people - and there is a very prevalent myth that the Amazon forest was a pristine uninhabited place. This couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact, the very forest according to recent findings seems to be largely "man-made". Some of these evidence like the large geoglyphs were only found recently due to recent deforestation of Amazon for large scale agriculture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_rainforest#Human_activity Of course this is just a suggestion, but it would be nice for historical reasons and techniques such as "forest gardening" could be interesting gameplay inovations. PS: I offer my help with reference material, testing of the mod and whatever else my skills and time permit. PS2: I just saw that you mentioned the Tupis among the civs in some comment in another post, so my suggestion is not even that novel.

Progress. [ Quilted linen armor ] Cretan Mercenary Archer above uses the Epilektoi variant (With boots) A variant with sandals should be the proper one (according to the design document) A lighter toned quilted linen armor will also be made.