City area art

kiski

Hi all,

because I won´t do BG2 graphics anymore due to limited free time, and other hobbies as well, I´m giving my city area art I created a while ago for public. It is made from Elder Scrolls models, imported into 3dsMax and my own 3d models like tents, shelters, barrels, boxes, trees, etc etc. So far I have 4 areas, 3 of them are already converted to BG2 format including night tilesets and closed door tiles, both for day and night. Here are thumbnails:






I have also started to modify worldmap background picture, but never finished it - originaly, I planned my new city as Crimmor.



So, if anybody wants to make a new mod, just write here.



Btw. some of you may know me as Valiant, Tower Of Deception mod creator.

Aedan

Tagging some modders that might be interested - @jastey @LavaDelVortel @argent77

Love your work - very nice indeed! I played ToD and enjoyed it a lot. Thanks for sharing!

LavaDelVortel

Hey! I do remember talking to Valiant about this and he mentioned that these areas may be used by someone when I contacted him about the ToD update I once made. While I'd love to see those areas in the game, this is soooooooooo big that it's simply beyond me. I believe it may be beyond "lone wolf" modders and this would need a team, perhaps. These areas must be coded, they still need doors, lots of original stuff must be updated, all the big and small quests designed, written and coded. Then comes other things: new shops, items, non-quest-related encounters and dialogues. It took me many months to deliver Southern Edge and it's not full-sized area. This here is 4 times bigger... so... I really hope some new team will be formed and this one will be used, but I can't work on it on my own. I also have some other mods I never released and if I am to release new stuff, it would be them, I guess...

kiski

As I wrote in my previous post, 3 of 4 of those areas are already in BG2 format - means they are converted and consist of all needed files - ARE, WED, TIS, night TIS, coded doors for both night and day tilesets, all needed BMP maps - light, search, height. Also a simple script that just remove FOW. Only last area remains to be converted. But these 3 can be already populated.

So 3 areas are already completely prepared for game and when put into override folder, you can access them via console. Only last area remains to be converted, but it is pre-prepared already - both tilesets and closed door tiles.

Btw., I also have some interior areas, but these are made from existing interior BG2 art. Just background images, must be converted to proper format.

CamDawg

LavaDelVortel wrote: »

Hey! I do remember talking to Valiant about this and he mentioned that these areas may be used by someone when I contacted him about the ToD update I once made. While I'd love to see those areas in the game, this is soooooooooo big that it's simply beyond me. I believe it may be beyond "lone wolf" modders and this would need a team, perhaps. These areas must be coded, they still need doors, lots of original stuff must be updated, all the big and small quests designed, written and coded. Then comes other things: new shops, items, non-quest-related encounters and dialogues. It took me many months to deliver Southern Edge and it's not full-sized area. This here is 4 times bigger... so... I really hope some new team will be formed and this one will be used, but I can't work on it on my own. I also have some other mods I never released and if I am to release new stuff, it would be them, I guess...

Yeah, this. I'd love some area art for The Calling, but it would be a lot of content to fill.

kiski

Exactly, and this is when other modders come into the scene. I´ve done my part by making new art, and it´s up to somebody else to make a living organism from that "raw" areas.

Funny thing is I always read how is new art needed, and when it´s on the table, suddenly there´s no use for it

In fact, for interiors existing areas can be reused together with some new, commoners with neutral sentences can be reused, too. Not even mention details like cats, rats, birds, etc... Most difficult part is already done by converting them into BG format. I´m even willing to convert the last area for you guys, just to have them all completed.

I put a big effort into it, so please, do not waste it

LavaDelVortel

I really know what you mean. I made mods that add new areas. They're not as good as yours as I use bits of existing maps, work on them, modify, add new elements, but then filling one new area is the hard part. That is also why I joined The Enemy Within team. The project is great. Most of the mod is there, some final parts are needed and then the whole polishing.

Here, much work is needed. I can always come with new stories to tell, but again... writing everything is the hard part. I could probably come with a tale, design stuff, help to make it all alive, but without more writers and coders... well, it's quite hard. Also there is a problem with putting it all on the worldmap as with EE many new areas were added and some of them are located exactly where the Crimmor "zoom table" was placed.

But gods, I'd love to see the mod released. The areas are great and in the same time they do not look like a copy of anything else.

kiski

i just discovered funny thing - because areas were made for classic IE engine without enhanced stuff, they are working as intended, but with horizontal lines across the whole area. Also animated tilesets like rivers contain these... is there any way to get rid of it? I read something about .pvrz graphic format, but hey, it was a quite time I made something for IE games and things changed since...

Screen:

kiski

Ok, I get rid of those lines by converting an old .TIS container to new .TIS format altogether with all corresponding PVRZ files. But previously, I had my water tiles nicely around the bridge, now I do not have it, it´s gone

Like this:

AWizardDidIt

Gorgeous work. I wish I had the modding skills to help make something of this. If I ever do go down the rabbit hole that I'm going to make new areas, I'll definitely check in to see if there were any takers though...

kiski

There were takers, long time ago, but they are gone now, many of them are not modding at all... Nevermind, if no one´s interested, areas stays with me. No big deal.

Raduziel

@kiski

Hello

Can I have some more details about these areas? I have a project to make a mod that will give a proper stronghold for Monks, Barbarians and Blackguards - they shouldn't be taking the Fighter's at all.

Feel free to PM me.

Thanks.

kiski

I don´t know what else should write about areas, really. They are as you can see them in my first post. Last one sill remains to convert into proper area format completely, others are already converted.

But I found that the bridge area in not working as intended in Enhanced edition due to new TIS and PVRZ format - during the conversion in NI water overlay get screwed. Probably I know why, but have no time to correct it, because it would involve to create new "closed" tiles that represent cutted borders around the obstacles like rocks and bridge itself.

I wonder how beamdog converted original areas...

WarChiefZeke

Certainly interested, and I agree it would take a team. I would definitely not mind adding in some small quests/merchants/items/whatever needs doing.

Raduziel

@kiski So the four areas makes "one" huge area (like Baldur's Gate or Athkatla), am I correct?

kiski

@Raduziel Exactly, those 4 areas makes a city - originally I planned it as Crimmor. So according to Crimmor layout, those areas should represent Alandor Gates, Firesteep Square, The Coins and Theatre Of Joy.

Btw, I finally solved how overlays in Enhanced Edition works. Thus Alandor Gates is corrected now and working in EE like a charm together with water overlay. Both day and night version.

@WarChiefZeke It´s up to you

Gorionar

Hi, good locations.
Btw., I also have some interior areas, but these are made from existing interior BG2 art. Just background images, must be converted to proper format.
Better try to make your room locations. This will bring you a lot of thought about how best to do the quests that you want to see. As well as the originality of locations that are not similar to others.

kiski

@Gorionar I´m not quite sure what exactly you want to say. What do you mean? As I wrote before, I have some custom indoor areas, made by other modder years ago - mostly for some significant Crimmor locations. These were made from existing BG1 and BG2 art, but they are of high quality. Other indoors can be reused from original games, just to decide which one to use - and that´s completely up to someone else, not me - someone who knows what quests will be done.

Raduziel

@kiski As good as those areas look, it is too much for me to chew. I really appreciate you coming up and sharing your efforts with the community, though.

For what I want I would need smaller areas and the style also doesn't fit (definitely not a problem with the area's quality, let me make myself clear about it).

Good luck!

Gorionar

I just want to say that it is better to make your new rooms in the 3D editor.
I understand that it is planned that there will be another sewerage system or some dungeon under the city?

kiski

@Raduziel Ok, no problem, good luck to you, too.

@Gorionar Maybe you´re right. But making indoors from existing areas makes art more "consistent". And I can assure you, those reworked areas are of good quality, new 3D art was not needed, really. Btw, never tought about new sewerage system, but it´s not a bad idea. It would need new 3D art, that´s for sure, and I didn´t want to go to that rabbit hole, but if an interest will be serious, who knows

Luren

Hi Kiski/Valiant

I'm sorry to hear that you stop modding, your project "Other cities than Athkatla" was really interesting (but it's true that it seemed to be off for a while)... There's too many things to work on when we want to do modding, too much to learn and to do...

Thank you in any case for giving your works to the community!

kiski

@Luren As you can see, those pictures just represent the areas presented years ago in "Other cities than Athkatla" project. Yeah, one can´t do all - I made areas, and made them ready-to-go. But you see it for yourself - no one´s interested. I know that a complete mod would be much better, but it this not enough? A team about 3 people can bring life to that with no problems.

Ulb

@kiski The area art you've created is stunning. Its beautiful and the quality looks more like a polished comerical product than 'just' some mod project.

That might also be why there are no takers yet. Using your work would put a lot of pressure on the mod maker to provide content of matching quality and size.

Still, I hope someone is up for the challenge, would be a shame to see your work go unused.

kiski

@Ulb I disagree - areas are general. Means, at first, only a normal living city without any complicated plot can be released. Just to test all areas work as intended, worldmap and travel distances as well. Then some quests can be added - some small for a start. A big quest at the end. This way creators could have enough time to prepare dialogs, items, NPC, etc. But basic working areas with general actors is mandatory.

And btw., I didn´t make these areas just not to be used because somebody feels his work would not match. Anything counts...

And thanks btw

zenblack

This would be a wonderful for a semi-official expansion that BG2 needs. For example, Shaman/Sorcerer or Shaman/Barbarian stronghold questline.

Raduziel

zenblack wrote: »

This would be a wonderful for a semi-official expansion that BG2 needs. For example, Shaman/Sorcerer or Shaman/Barbarian stronghold questline.

That was my idea, but those areas are either: a) too complex or b) an environment not related to what I would need.

I have an idea to make a proper stronghold for barbarian, shaman, blackguard and monk, but unfortunately I wouldn't be able to handle areas that big or that urban for something so "simple" or wild.

Ulb

@kiski
Well, the modding community moves slow these days, there might be someone in need of high quality area art in the future.. so don't despair. :P

Gwendolyne

Nice job, Valiant.

I created about 50 indoor areas from BG2 maps, and I need more. As you know, the most consuming time with those kind of maps is to redraw accurate doors. I would be interested in seeing yours. It might save me a lot of time.

kiski

@Gwendolyne You mean indoors? As I said, those were not made by me, and have them only a few. But of course, I can upload some resized screens... Tomorrow I will have much more time.

kiski

Here are some of indoors. Note - I haven´t made them, they are not my work. They´ve been made by other modder from existing areas. Also, I don´t know how much he changed in it comparing to original areas, as I do not know all original art.








Btw - does anybody knows if it´s possible to copy all wall polygons from one WED to another? Nothing else, just these wall polys. Thanks.