Kupu's thread

[Criss]

Shield doors? Like forcefields? I want them so bad.

Denies entry to those not in the faction? Brilliant!

 

[Reilly Reese]

Connecting to alight could make the shield change color

 

[FunnyBunny14]

I'll be going over it in a new dev update vid. But my other vid had to render first. Will be posted as soon as possible.

I don't think that the textures are done yet though.
But I tel you now, I am so going to use them!

 

[Saber]

Denies entry to those not in the faction? Brilliant!

That might be a possibility, however just for establishing the forcefield I think it could be handled one of two ways. It could either be a block which would basically be a door so it can be toggled, or passed through by faction members if that was indeed a feature. OR because the warp gates will be getting a fancy graphic, schema could use the same code from those to create a forcefield generator block, any closed loop could then have the area inside it filled with a forcefield texture which can be powered on or off. That one though might be more difficult to control if entities can pass through it or are stopped by it. So either one of those is a toss-up I suppose.

 

[Criss]

I don't think that the textures are done yet though.
But I tel you now, I am so going to use them!

No they aren't. The icons are random too it appears. Thats all good. Some exciting changes are coming.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

No they aren't. The icons are random too it appears. Thats all good. Some exciting changes are coming.

Same applies to the upcoming terrain, for those of you who are wondering what they are supposed to do with the poisons, lava types and water types (and so much more!).
Ps: Just quoted Vanhelzing's post so people know what I'm talking about.

 

[flpsantoss]

As i was looking to the textures, i had that feeling and wanted to ask. How you design those textures, what schema talks off then and how you decide on what to work? is by inspiration or the need of that particular texture?

 

[kupu]

As i was looking to the textures, i had that feeling and wanted to ask. How you design those textures, what schema talks off then and how you decide on what to work? is by inspiration or the need of that particular texture?

Sometimes Schema says something like "We need a texture for this **** block, maybe it could look something like this?" and will show me a small picture for a little inspiration. Other times Calbiri and I will be talking about cool block ideas and I will sketch some concepts to help progress the idea based on it's function. Other times i draw a texture in my free time and say "how about this?".

I get quite a lot of creative freedom., so i rarely get told what to draw in exact terms.

For example, an image was sent to me before the FTL update as a very rough idea as to what a warp drive could be like.
Apparently it's from Star Trek? (I don't watch Star Trek)

I will do something like

Spoiler: This

and write or draw on the image or on a piece of paper which bits i like, or how it might work etc. Which bits did Schema like to make him send me this picture?

I will sketch lots of quick designs, then send small concept sheets like

Spoiler: This

to confirm colours, materials and components to Schema and Calbiri. We talk about what we like / don't like and decide how to make the final texture.

Lots of textures never get used but are quickly designed to showcase ideas or used as other things even. It's quite funny how what you see in the game is only a little of what i draw.
Recognise

Spoiler: this?

Looks like the warp gate texture huh? I designed this about 9 months ago for a never made scanner array block for the old realistic pack. The mechanic was never used, so the texture was never seen. It is what inspired the warp gate texture though.

 

[Reilly Reese]

Maybe release your left over never used textures to texture makers? I will understand if you don't want to

 

[Boba_Fett]

Lots of textures never get used but are quickly designed to showcase ideas or used as other things even. It's quite funny how what you see in the game is only a little of what i draw.
Recognise

Spoiler: this?

Looks like the warp gate texture huh? I designed this about 9 months ago for a never made scanner array block for the old realistic pack. The mechanic was never used, so the texture was never seen. It is what inspired the warp gate texture though.

Dang, that scanner looked good! Your art blows me away sometimes. The crazy things you can do make the cubes fade away and instead you see parts of a ship instead!

 

[NeonSturm]

Sometimes Schema says something like "We need a texture for this **** block, maybe it could look something like this?" and will show me a small picture for a little inspiration. Other times Calbiri and I will be talking about cool block ideas and I will sketch some concepts to help progress the idea based on it's function. Other times i draw a texture in my free time and say "how about this?".

I get quite a lot of creative freedom., so i rarely get told what to draw in exact terms.

For example, an image was sent to me before the FTL update as a very rough idea as to what a warp drive could be like.
Apparently it's from Star Trek? (I don't watch Star Trek)

I will do something like

Spoiler: This

and write or draw on the image or on a piece of paper which bits i like, or how it might work etc. Which bits did Schema like to make him send me this picture?

I will sketch lots of quick designs, then send small concept sheets like

Spoiler: This

to confirm colours, materials and components to Schema and Calbiri. We talk about what we like / don't like and decide how to make the final texture.

Lots of textures never get used but are quickly designed to showcase ideas or used as other things even. It's quite funny how what you see in the game is only a little of what i draw.
Recognise Looks like the warp gate texture huh? I designed this about 9 months ago for a never made scanner array block for the old realistic pack. The mechanic was never used, so the texture was never seen. It is what inspired the warp gate texture though.

I like it



I think the actual warp core pictures (spoiler2) are too different from the picture (spoiler1), because:

The pictures has metal vertical, not horizontal
_ and this lets it appear seamless over the whole length (which is in the first spoiler upwards)

When imagining it along Z per default (animated blocks are rotatable, or not?), I think about something like

========================
/´\_/´\_/´\_/´\_/´\_/´\_
| - | || | - | - - | -
| - | || | - | - - | - -
| - | || | - | - - | - -
| - | || | - | - - | - -
\_/´\_/´\_/´\_/´\_/´\_/´
========================

Maybe it should work on a larger scale, but for this the animation steps are not enough.
That would need 5 idle-steps per block and 3 going-upward (weak, strong, weak2) which is impossible ​

 

[kupu]

I think the actual warp core pictures (spoiler2) are too different from the picture (spoiler1), because:...

Lol, yea. They are different, they are intended to be different. Schema doesn't say "lets copy X,Y,Z" and expect me to draw them.

As flpsantoss had asked how we decide how things will look, that is just 1 of the many ways you can generate ideas for mechanisms, shapes and colours. The goal is not mimicry. It's a visual starting point for your imagination.

 

[Saber]

Spoiler: this?

Looks like the warp gate texture huh? I designed this about 9 months ago for a never made scanner array block for the old realistic pack. The mechanic was never used, so the texture was never seen. It is what inspired the warp gate texture though.

I think you mean, "The mechanic hasn't been used YET." We'll see what schema decides to do in the future. Just make sure you hang on to all your concepts (which I'm sure you do, you aren't exactly incompetent =P) as they might get revisited later, or used for something you never anticipated. =)

 

[flpsantoss]

Lol, yea. They are different, they are intended to be different. Schema doesn't say "lets copy X,Y,Z" and expect me to draw them.

As flpsantoss had asked how we decide how things will look, that is just 1 of the many ways you can generate ideas for mechanisms, shapes and colours. The goal is not mimicry. It's a visual starting point for your imagination.

And your answer take all my questions, hope to see more new stuff soon, keep going and good luck.

I almost forget to mention, not a texture thing, but so many new wedges in the dev build

 

[NeonSturm]

The core elements of the first picture are:

1. shiny pulses
2. pulses raising along the main axis ((long enough horizontally inside this spiral to let you see them as vertical rising pulses))
3. blue
   
4. vertical
5. separated along, not crossing the main axis
   
6. a round helix

To me it looks not at all inspired by above picture as "sparks rising along or through segments" is not very unique to one thing.

Giving it a helix-look rather than a double|triple|quadruple-helix look dependent of number of blocks will be a lot of work for modders

 

[SkylordLuke]

i tried making my own textures once,and even tho they were not even closee to looking as good as yours,it took me quite some time to make them,so im wondering :P how long does it take for you to make one single texture? how many layers do you draw on one of them.i can imagine its a long process
i think we can all be happy to have this man as lead texture designer,amazing textures Kupu !

 

[kupu]

The core elements of the first picture are:

1. shiny pulses
2. pulses raising along the main axis ((long enough horizontally inside this spiral to let you see them as vertical rising pulses))
3. blue
   
4. vertical
5. separated along, not crossing the main axis
   
6. a round helix

To me it looks not at all inspired by above picture as "sparks rising along or through segments" is not very unique to one thing.

Giving it a helix-look rather than a double|triple|quadruple-helix look dependent of number of blocks will be a lot of work for modders

There is no fun in taking every element you see literally and simply putting it in starmade. :p As I have mentioned, the design process is varied and evolves through discussion. We don't use images and follow them as dogma. We use them as a starting point for both discussion and imagination.

 

[NeonSturm]

Take it as a compliment on your own design (it's unique) Kupu

@tenk11kamikaza
I tried it with GIMP but run into quite some annoying things.

First : the only way to limit gimp to an area of 1/64 of a picture is to select this part.
Second : distinguish between border and image. Once I got visible borders between blocks ingame!
Third : align overlays to multiple tiles without 1 annoying/cluttering layer per tile.
Forth : giving them a natural look without 1000+ layers and without doing the same 100 times.

Would be a lot more fun if you could edit multiple parts at once and can manually disable/enable editing in files or pre-selected image sections.
Maybe there even exists a plugin to show how different overlay effects affect a selected part of the image...

If there is any plugin or program out there which does that without limits on functionality, please let me know

Maybe some skilled persons should write an image what they use the most and documentation the process of creating 2 representative blocks.
I wish there would be a few tools which help with symmetry inside tiles.

What I already did:

1. used Walzou's PlexGlass for a container of little burning suns in my preferred texture mix. I also used it as a capsule for water.
2. used Rock and a GIMP-overlay-effect to make things look dirty/used.
3. extracted some Plex-Lift encasement and put lava beneath it for a Power-Reactor.
4. generated a few overlays with GIMP effects and made a carpet / wall hanging
5. used all of above to make give current blocks a partially medieval partially mystic look

 

[der_scheme]

Take it as a compliment on your own design (it's unique) Kupu

@tenk11kamikaza
I tried it with GIMP but run into quite some annoying things.

First : the only way to limit gimp to an area of 1/64 of a picture is to select this part.
Second : distinguish between border and image. Once I got visible borders between blocks ingame!
Third : align overlays to multiple tiles without 1 annoying/cluttering layer per tile.
Forth : giving them a natural look without 1000+ layers and without doing the same 100 times.

Would be a lot more fun if you could edit multiple parts at once and can manually disable/enable editing in files or pre-selected image sections.
Maybe there even exists a plugin to show how different overlay effects affect a selected part of the image...

If there is any plugin or program out there which does that without limits on functionality, please let me know

Maybe some skilled persons should write an image what they use the most and documentation the process of creating 2 representative blocks.
I wish there would be a few tools which help with symmetry inside tiles.

What I already did:

1. used Walzou's PlexGlass for a container of little burning suns in my preferred texture mix. I also used it as a capsule for water.
2. used Rock and a GIMP-overlay-effect to make things look dirty/used.
3. extracted some Plex-Lift encasement and put lava beneath it for a Power-Reactor.
4. generated a few overlays with GIMP effects and made a carpet / wall hanging
5. used all of above to make give current blocks a partially medieval partially mystic look

This matches my workflow. However, I wouldn't recommend it at this time. First: It probably won't run without setting your RUBYLIB. Second: I'll be updating it soon and can't guarantee old projects will continue to work (won't matter since no one has been using it anyway).

 

[FunnyBunny14]

What was actually changed with the new shader? I know glass now looks a lot more glass-like (less see-through and more colour) and that everything is less reflective. Has it got anything to do with the shader mod you released a while back?