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Old 12-11-2006, 02:36 PM   #341
ESHIREY
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That's good news.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
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Old 12-11-2006, 04:13 PM   #342
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Hey Jim, I was just wondering if you could say what the most unusual fish will be in MA3? Also, can you say how detailed you plan to get with behavior? Not just the normal kind, but the kind you see sometimes that makes you think that maybe the fish went a little too deep.

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Congrats on the cave. I bet that's a load off your mind.
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Old 12-12-2006, 01:52 AM   #343
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At first MA3 will have the same fish as MA2. Additions will be done through Creature Packs, which will come later. I expect the most difficult creature to be the octopus, which is why I'm saving it for last. The fish behavior will be as detailed as I can reasonably make it in a limited amount of time. Typical actions would include schooling, chasing, darting, nibbling at corals, etc.
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Old 12-12-2006, 02:02 AM   #344
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looks great
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Old 12-12-2006, 07:25 AM   #345
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Great news on the cave front! Thanks Jim.

Just going back to the textures again, what does a texture actually look like before it gets wrapped around a fish? I thought we might have covered that in the past, but my searches aren't turning up anything informative.
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Old 12-12-2006, 08:28 AM   #346
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I don't know that a raw texture has ever been posted here before. I would want Jim's permission first.

As I mentioned before, most of the fish textures are "straight-on". A few are diagonal which allows for the side fins to be more detailed and as a side benefit gives the fish body texture a higher resolution as well. The clearfin lionfish texture is gigantic compared to the other fish.
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Old 12-12-2006, 11:37 AM   #347
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Here's a typical fish texture - In this case the Koran Angel. The bitmap and alpha channel would be combined into one DDS file in the program.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Koran.jpg (13.3 KB, 1097 views)
File Type: jpg KoranAlpha.jpg (10.5 KB, 1096 views)
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Old 12-14-2006, 06:25 PM   #348
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Originally posted by Jim Sachs:
Here's a typical fish texture - In this case the Koran Angel. The bitmap and alpha channel would be combined into one DDS file in the program.  
Stupid question, Jim-- is that something you have to draw by hand or in the computer, or are there such things as fish templates that you add color to? Sorry if that's a dumb question, it just fascinates me that it's actually possible to make such a realistic screensaver. I wish I had that kind of skill to make one-- or like the ones 3planesoft makes. It just amazes me.

Boy, there's a great idea for a program, eh? Make your own fish screensaver. That's gonna make someone a fistful of cash someday.
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Old 12-15-2006, 02:18 AM   #349
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Hand drawing the textures makes fish that look hand-drawn. Photography is vital. There's no real fish template, but I can load one of my earlier models into Lightwave, change the shape, pin a new texture on it, and save it as a new fish.
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Old 12-16-2006, 02:11 AM   #350
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Jim

Since we are at it, what are alpha channels...
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Old 12-16-2006, 03:45 AM   #351
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The Alpha channel is for Transparency - how much of the background to show through the image - a common use would be for a fin, where you want to be able to see through it a bit.
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Old 12-16-2006, 11:50 AM   #352
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Yes, transparency is the most common use of an Alpha channel -- anything that's white shows 100% texture image, black is 100% background image, shades of gray will mix a proportional amount of the two.

It's very easy to use transparency, and I've always used it for the "clear" parts of the fish, the fins of my saltwater fish and various body parts of my freshwater fish. But the extra realism I'm going for in 3.0 has brought up a problem: When you look "through" the fin of an actual fish, you can't really see a clear image of what's on the other side. It's blurry, like frosted glass. Using shaders, it's possible to achieve this effect. Instead of combining each pixel with the one directly under it, the program would average each pixel with several underneath it. Some XP programs do this when windows overlap each other, but virtually no one notices it.

That's my problem -- is it worth the development time and clock-cycle overhead to do this, or would it be lost on 99% of the people viewing it?
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Old 12-16-2006, 12:02 PM   #353
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You could always post us an example for us to comment on!

..... My guess is that it would be worth it, ... but then who besides me likes the n key?

Do you want to impress the masses? ... Or go for quality? ... That is the question.
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Old 12-16-2006, 12:21 PM   #354
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Originally posted by Jim Sachs:
That's my problem -- is it worth the development time and clock-cycle overhead to do this, or would it be lost on 99% of the people viewing it?  
If you do it on just the fins? No.

If you can add translucency and light refraction to the entire body of fish like the Yellow Tang, Flame Angel, Royal Gramma, etc., then it's absolutely worth it.

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Old 12-16-2006, 02:32 PM   #355
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I'm with the Koran of Huston...
Thanks to Morgan, Tiny Snapshots is up and running again with "Tiny Järvafält" as the latest addition – Go have a look and tell me what you think.

"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent.
I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says,
'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'
I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
" /Robert Oppenheimer on witnessing the first thermonuclear detonation in history.
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Old 12-16-2006, 08:40 PM   #356
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I'm with the Koran of Huston...
Me too!

And thanks for the info above - For some reason I was imagining an image which was much more warped than the example you posted turned out to be. I guess I was imagining both sides of a fish as a single texture (minus eyes and pectoral fins, obviously). Um, duh!
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Old 12-16-2006, 08:45 PM   #357
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That's the advantage in mapping a thin object with bilateral symmetry -- almost no warping of the texture.
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Old 01-04-2007, 12:39 AM   #358
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Angry Anyone alive in 2007 ?

Anyone alive in 2007 ?

just checking
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Old 01-04-2007, 09:43 AM   #359
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Whaddaya mean, Dirk?
Thanks to Morgan, Tiny Snapshots is up and running again with "Tiny Järvafält" as the latest addition – Go have a look and tell me what you think.

"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent.
I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says,
'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'
I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
" /Robert Oppenheimer on witnessing the first thermonuclear detonation in history.
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Old 01-04-2007, 10:56 AM   #360
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I just got back from Chicago. Got some good source material from the Shedd Aquarium. I borrowed my daughter's new Panasonic Lumix camera, and it really made a difference in grabbing quick shots between the crowds. I just left it on Automatic, and let the camera do all the thinking.
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