[Area] Swamp Cabin - importing area from Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive

Mindmoil

With Siege of Dragonspear and EET looming just around the corner, I've decided not to continue my current walkthrough, as I for sure would restart the game as soon as they are released.

Instead, I've decided to give modding a try. So I went on ahead and decided to import one of my favorite game areas from all times - the cabin from Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive. Perfect fit for an alchemist/hermit type of character.

Thanks to the area making guide by Yovaneth (link to guide) and some tools offered by herbert3000 of commandos modders (link to discussion), I've managed to successfully export the map and get it into BG.

The result:




Some remarks on this undergoing:

1. The perspective fits Infinity Engine just fine, however, the scale is a bit smaller, so I had to enlarge the map, as a result, the quality diminished, but it is still acceptable if you are zoomed out or playing in windowed mode.
2. I haven't done proper Light/Height/Search maps as the process in DLTCE is long and tedious and I haven't gotten around understanding how night wed works, so the map is prone to crashing. If anyone knows an easier way to do them, help would be appreciated.
3. There are some other suitable areas from the game that are not overly modern/do not have western elements in them, that could be imported with minimal graphical edits. For instance this canyon:



4. I've also managed to extract some maps from Robin Hood: Legend of Sherwood, although they display with building interior revealed and I haven't found out how to fix that yet:



So there is this. I plan on properly finishing the area with environmental sounds/doors/animations/description/actors and would gladly accept any practical advice. I am aware that this is copyrighted content from another game and as such I do not plan to release it as a mod, unless I somehow get the permission from the developers of original game.

Edit: wording, fixed image links.

Red_Carnelian

These look good but I would suggest making areas soley from BG resources or your own.

ineth

Red_Carnelian said:

I would suggest making areas soley from BG resources or your own.

Why?

GodKaiserHell

 

Mindmoil

Red_Carnelian said:

These look good but I would suggest making areas soley from BG resources or your own.

Yeah, as said, I am making this for personal use as a means to learn how to mod areas.

ineth

I doubt anyone will mind if some graphics from a 15 year old game are used in a little non-commercial mod for another game, put together by a fan of both games.

I mean really, who could reasonably have something against that?

Aquadrizzt

@ineth, regardless of the context, such a mod would still involve the distribution of copyrighted content without permission of the original creators, which is explicitly not allowed on these forums at the very least.

To quote @Dee:

Dee said:

Do not post copyrighted material on the modding board. It is both illegal and disrespectful to the original artists. Content from BG, BG2, ToB and the other Infinity Engine games is fair game (within reason, of course), but if any other content is posted without the express permission of the artist, it will be taken down without notice.

Dee

Just popping in to say that @Aquadrizzt has the right of it. Those resources aren't public domain, which means that if you want to use them in any mod you plan to distribute online, you'll need to get permission from their current rights holders. For the games you're referencing here, that would be Black Forest Games.

For your convenience, here's a link to their website: http://www.black-forest-games.com

@Mindmoil That being said, feel free to work on it for your own edification, and you can certainly ask for advice from the community here on anything you're having trouble with; just don't post any of the resources from those games on the forums.

If you do end up getting permission from Black Forest, just include a note from them in your mod when you publish it.

Carry on!