[Role Playing Game] Memento Mori

[Talavaj]

None unfortunately, the project is on hold.
It is a big time commitment that I simply can't afford right now.
As such I'm cutting back on my wc3 involvement limiting it down to my stone & sword project for now, I figure it may be better to work on something others can use while I can't fully concentrate on this project.
I will resume the development in summer possibly, I won't rule out possible updates but you shouldn't expect much substantial stuff until then.

I may announce a second project in the Lost in the light series by then, I'm sure people will call me out on this (why start a new project when this one is not finished yadda yadda) but given it is very simple, whimsical and expects some community involvement I hope people will get over it
That is about it for now, thank you for your continued support !

 

[savinguptobebroke]

Cool just make your new project a little bit smaller as not to tale several years to finish
Something small so you can finish it.

 

[Talavaj]

The second project is very simple yes, it will most likely be in open beta when the thread goes up and shape according to community feedback.
That being said it is completely different so we will see if anybody will actually like it lol.

 

[BallisticTerrain]

As long as you finish Memento Mori, I'll be happy. I'm still looking forward to it.

 

[Deleted member 219079]

I guess memento mori will be abandoned like 99.99% of huge promising projects out there..
(Pessimist is never disappointed )

 

[Gekigengar]

I guess memento mori will be abandoned like 99.99% of huge promising projects out there..
(Pessimist is never disappointed )

:/

do not jinx it xD

 

[Talavaj]

I guess memento mori will be abandoned like 99.99% of huge promising projects out there..

Heh, no need to worry about that. The mod is still perfectly healthy, I just don't have enough time to work on it right now.
I'll resume once all my currently planned updates for s&s are done.

The only thing to possibly worry about ! is whether you will like the new direction.
A lot of information from OP is now obsolete, the interface is completely different, uses mouse + qwerty instead because mouse + arrow keys + keyboard controlled like an ass.
There is much lower emphasis on story and much higher on gameplay, sandboxiness and replayability.
The original 1:1 LA idea was scrapped and I replaced it with randomly generated level design.
New inspirations, new ideas, and more new stuff that I forgot

 

[Heinvers]

Awesome. More inspiration to you then

 

[tobyfat50]

new direction.

Suspicious... :S

What will you do with that LA level then? (

 

[chilla_killa]

Seriously, this whole project is a lie! Did anyone really believe this will really be a map? The author may be a talented modeller, but did you guys ever see anything else than some extraordinary graphics/modelling stuff?

Never did he show any footage or ingame stuff. Why? Because there never was this map.
He always worked on technicall stuff, but instead of starting with making a basic alpha build he kept on thinking of new and new fancier graphic stuff, only showing us screens from the modelling program...

Talavaj realised very fastly that he can't make this map, but he kept bribing you with his shiny arts and well written texts and stories and excuses.

I even don't believe in the notebook theft story. Seriously, this is a shame.

So far to my opinion
Greets chilla_killa

 

[tobyfat50]

Seriously, this whole project is a lie! Did anyone really believe this will really be a map? The author may be a talented modeller, but did you guys ever see anything else than some extraordinary graphics/modelling stuff?

Never did he show any footage or ingame stuff. Why? Because there never was this map.
He always worked on technicall stuff, but instead of starting with making a basic alpha build he kept on thinking of new and new fancier graphic stuff, only showing us screens from the modelling program...

Talavaj realised very fastly that he can't make this map, but he kept bribing you with his shiny arts and well written texts and stories and excuses.

I even don't believe in the notebook theft story. Seriously, this is a shame.

So far to my opinion
Greets chilla_killa

I'd say your bashing on him is necessary! Yes he showed us a lot of graphical and technical features but if you think it's that easy to make a "map" and finish it in a shorter time at his level then you are badly mistaken!!! Keep in mind that he is only one guy also you are even more wrong about the gameplay, because he did show it work in game and in video footage even. I suggest you read this thread form page one!

 

[RandomPogi]

Seriously, this whole project is a lie! Did anyone really believe this will really be a map? The author may be a talented modeller, but did you guys ever see anything else than some extraordinary graphics/modelling stuff?

Never did he show any footage or ingame stuff. Why? Because there never was this map.
He always worked on technicall stuff, but instead of starting with making a basic alpha build he kept on thinking of new and new fancier graphic stuff, only showing us screens from the modelling program...

Talavaj realised very fastly that he can't make this map, but he kept bribing you with his shiny arts and well written texts and stories and excuses.

I even don't believe in the notebook theft story. Seriously, this is a shame.

So far to my opinion
Greets chilla_killa

Read the entire thread, bro.

He did show some testing ingame. He showed Cloth Physics on YouTube, and some shader testing ingame.

 

[fr14nd1]

Seriously, this whole project is a lie! Did anyone really believe this will really be a map? The author may be a talented modeller, but did you guys ever see anything else than some extraordinary graphics/modelling stuff?

Never did he show any footage or ingame stuff. Why? Because there never was this map.
He always worked on technicall stuff, but instead of starting with making a basic alpha build he kept on thinking of new and new fancier graphic stuff, only showing us screens from the modelling program...

Talavaj realised very fastly that he can't make this map, but he kept bribing you with his shiny arts and well written texts and stories and excuses.

I even don't believe in the notebook theft story. Seriously, this is a shame.

So far to my opinion
Greets chilla_killa

Haven't you read the ENTIRE thread? Even though this is your opinion, at least take your time reading before posting one like this.
Edit: I think you're only correct on the map one... as this project was a campaign.

 

[bhusta]

Seriously, this whole project is a lie! Did anyone really believe this will really be a map? The author may be a talented modeller, but did you guys ever see anything else than some extraordinary graphics/modelling stuff?

Never did he show any footage or ingame stuff. Why? Because there never was this map.
He always worked on technicall stuff, but instead of starting with making a basic alpha build he kept on thinking of new and new fancier graphic stuff, only showing us screens from the modelling program...

Talavaj realised very fastly that he can't make this map, but he kept bribing you with his shiny arts and well written texts and stories and excuses.

I even don't believe in the notebook theft story. Seriously, this is a shame.

So far to my opinion
Greets chilla_killa

Dude read the entire thread, bro. You just don't understand. Reading it three times unlocks the secret download code.

 

[chilla_killa]

many fanboys here. Of course I read the whole thread. I just saw some modelling or engine tests. No gameplay, no terrain screenshots. No map. Just tests. Tests for nearly two years.

 

[tobyfat50]

It's a big project and a monster undertaking for one person, what do you expect?! Be surprised when he will release his map (or not) . He also dedicated his time to make some wonderful models for us and he gave us releases, you can take that as proof of his dedication.

 

[Wazzz]

he's not exactly doing it on his own when he has a list of helpers

anywho, where are these models? couldn't find them, curious to see

 

[andreariona]

He shares some of his models here.

Honestly each time I've seen this kind of project with out-of-the-world visual, I wonder why you didn't made this stand alone game on unity or other engine, instead of making this in wc3 WE. You also made everything from scratch which would be hell-of-a-works to be ended up on a single map.

 

[Pharaoh_]

He shares some of his models here.

Honestly each time I've seen this kind of project with out-of-the-world visual, I wonder why you didn't made this stand alone game on unity or other engine, instead of making this in wc3 WE. You also made everything from scratch which would be hell-of-a-works to be ended up on a single map.

This is what makes it surreal though, that it looks so good in WarCraft III. Unity already has advanced graphics and it would look regular there. Game companies use Unity to publish their games and they hire lighting artists, environment artists and other similar specializations just to ensure that it looks realistic. Sometimes it goes beyond the common "artist's eye", it in fact requires deep understanding of what you're doing.
Plus, in Unity, he would also have to learn an actual programming language. If you suggested StarCraft II, I'd definitely agree.

 

[tobyfat50]

I'll have to agree to both andreariona and Pharaoh_. It is really something undone before and a real challenge to make good looking stuff, basicly you prove how good of a artist you are by using the simplest tools to make something outstanding. Unity is very user friendly, just drag and drop, while I also moved my attention to starcraft 2 for being similar to wc3 it turns out to be a lot more complex than I thought and somewhere between powerful close to the latest stuff but not really, a bit above those. The thing is it has some strong points and it sucks really bad at others.
Also its complexity makes it User unfriendly which is why most people give up on it, in short you will just say it sucks!

The Shit!

Pharaoh, I suggest you only use standard sc2 material, it's all you actually need. There's a option in the art tolls called Double Lambert that causes the material to use a harsher lighting gradient. Terrain in StarCraft II uses this setting, so for a doodad to blend seamlessly to the terrain. That is only half of the actual material shader and will look uglier, reason why the sc2 terrain looks so bad. On the other hand it is a optimal material for improving performance, I only use it on a few objects like some small rocks or leaves.

So I will post my best attempt to make something visually appealing in sc2, I hope you don't mind Talavaj and give us a sign will you!!! We miss you already.

The thing I like about the editor is its ability to use different renders, too bad the game itself can't do that?

Low medium and ultra setting. Made some light rays with bilboards and they semi work in game, might need to trigger them, they also add to the lighting.

The depth of field is not so great as you can see and it's horrible with blend materials but perhaps it's just my weak machine to blame?

By playing with the depth of field you can see the way it works :S!

Overall I am hoping to make this playable on higher setting by implementing some optimization to the sc2 engine. No problems starting from dual core and a bit more ram, yeah my PC sucks!

So I hope this will not upset Talavai but I hope it serves as some motivation!

 

[Deleted member 219079]

Nice pics ^^ what game is that? oh it's sc2

is there that gorgeous looking masterpieces available in the sc2 arcade atm?

 

[tobyfat50]

Not yet, ther is alot to be done on optimization. This will be sort of like a fps demo that doesn't lag and doesn't suck, not an actual game.

 

[Heinvers]

Looks cool. Great work toby. Also is there something new around, Talavaj?

 

[tobyfat50]

I will answer on his thread! NOP!

 

[Talavaj]

Whoah lol, I get busy for a moment and there is a flood of stuff in here.
To address a few..

Seriously, this whole project is a lie!

I think you don't quite understand the workflow. I can't make an "alpha build" or a simple terrain.
There is no terraining to be done, as it only consists of placing pathing blockers around the premade pieces of the level.
If I don't have the level yet I can't exactly do that or code much either, what exactly would the alpha build be about, slashing dogs in between a buncha white boxes ?
There is a map but it is just a code. Sure you can "play" it, you can run around, pick items, use them or click through a menu that has peasants for buttons, but until there is a level to give it a meaning there is not much to present unfortunately.
However, as soon as the level is done there will be a lot to present.

I can understand your skepticism, but that is how it is

he's not exactly doing it on his own when he has a list of helpers

Those are just credits, none of these people actively worked on the project.
A bunch of them only wrote a code for procedural textures I use and they don't even know me or that they are listed here.

Honestly each time I've seen this kind of project with out-of-the-world visual, I wonder why you didn't made this stand alone game on unity or other engine

Because there are many amazing things for unity already. Essentially, what Pharaoh said, and because I can't really code lol.
SC2 dunno, I don't have SC2 and I dislike it in general.
It would probably look much better and work much better as well but it would also not be as impressive.

And that SC2 stuff is delicious Toby !
Almost makes me think SC2 is kinda less shit than I thought

 

[Deleted member 219079]

Wc3 is dying/dead from general, sc2 is alive but I bet it'll die faster than wc3 did (I stopped playing bc it starts to feel like you're f*cking nerd after silver league, and overall it's too fast.)

I think you should consider sc2 after you've stopped this series, but ofc it's up to you to decide. Plus there will come more editor stuff in LotV

 

[tobyfat50]

Almost...

Honestly as a SF (StarWars) type of fan I enjoyed the game. A friend of mine who hated it because he didn't like the way the models were glowing + other reasons to hate changed his mind after actually playing it but it depends on tastes I guess. As a engine It's got both goods and bads it's better than wc3 but you will hate it for some things that could of been better.

I will make a review!
I focused only on the things that interested me the most.

Good things:

• A contemporary graphic pipeline, almost good.
• 2048px texture size and even terrain tiles, DDS format.
• Normal and height maps + Cool HDR.
  Although I don't use the terrain anymore I should enumerate this to:
• Ability to scale the tiles size within a command console.
• Ability of objects to blend with the terrain.
• Painting the terrain tiles on any object that has terrain material on.
• Ability of mesh to modulate to the terrain (roads).
• You can make any object a walkable platform.
• Good and bad water system, not much to it but you can control the color, high, flow, speed and other things you want to customize. (You paint the water to)
• Ability to scale, move and rotate objects where you want.
• Real time Global illumination, Light editor has photoshop like abilities to change exposure and other stuff.
  
  Light Editor

  

  
  

  

  
  

  
• I just love love the ambient occlusion.
  
  AO

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  
• Painting your light in the editor, within the region you want, Holy shit!!!
• Plenty of material types to choose from, I guess...
  Can even use a movie as a actual material
  Composite material with 8 layers becomes expensive
  Volumetric materials
• Awesome lights, no limit to light sources, cast real time shadows.
• Projectors, you can project anything on any piece of geometry that accepts splats. This means you can project parallax holes on the roof of a building or just add more details like roads and mega textures to your terrain. Expensive stuff unfortunately, must be used sparingly!
• Cool particle systems which interact with physics.
• Actual physics, wind, gravity etc.
• It works in 3 dimensions, 3d points.
• Can make a first person shooter that works with a mouse with 3 lines of code.
• A awesome cutscene editor.
• The ability to remove any type of geometry from existence including the godam terrain (You can make your entire world screen black)
• Awesome 3d UI stuff that i didn't even touch.
• Anti Aliasing and mipmaps that work.
• Surprisingly good optimization despite the absence of LOD - FPS is possible but the use of expensive materials will kill your pc, Works perfectly on low and medium.
• Can implement events and other torture devices directly in the models without the need for triggers.
• Works like a sports car on low settings and even medium, can render the whole map with super geometry, even my PC wow! - compared to wc3... (I keep my textures on ultra, at least the textures!!!)
• And many other good stuff that I keep forgetting about

Bad things:

• Putting together expensive materials is expensive.
• Parallax is only useful for blocky shapes and it's simple. (No use on a terrain, the image gets distorted :S)
  
  Parallax Fail

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  This turned out pretty good
  
  

  
• Bad optimization for Fps, the lack of LOD (low object detail) culling, crucial for any game especially fps.
• Terrain object is the worst thing in the game, worst optimization + bad shaders.
• Neat tricks and materials that could of been useful but don't work that well, limits...
• Awesome, it can use a environment light map to project the color of the sky in the environment like in 3ds max WOW :0. Does not work as It tough, just adds a environment map globally to everything and it looks like everything came out of alien slime . Just Use another ambient light!
• Standard lights with over exaggerate glow and specular that shines like sparkling vampires at night time.
• Limits, limits and more limits.
• Parallax shadows, yes Parallax for soft shadows, becomes expensive like hell on high setting and above :{. Although they look pretty good.
  
  Parallax soft shadows

  

  
  

  
• The shadow projection is related to the terrain, WTH! Just make a flat terrain, hide it and use a mesh!
• 256 size limit! I heard you can use a hack to increase the map size but I haven't tried it out. You can also make the objects microscopic small but the shadow quality will be affected. Note* scale is different from wc3.
• Depth of field is useful only in cutscenes.
• Water has fewer cells then the terrain and looks pretty bad at close up + it's expensive. Just make a custom water
• User unfriendly to the core! You will spend more time learning how it works more than you will be creating stuff. Works like warcraft by importing your stuff...
• Data editor is a mess.
• It's not easy to make a unit anymore.
• In addition to physics you can still use pathing which is confusing, Blizzard should clean up!
• Unfriendly, frustrating, complicated, messy, loaded, cryptic, you might need a year to understand its basics. It's very discouraging and at times overwhelming for many people, price to pay for all the stuff it does. (You will not make a simple sky box work until you research about it, HAHA )
• It's the perfect torture device for people who like playing with puzzles walk on walls or like to find the needle in the haystack.
• Loading the map with particles, units + the terrain will kill any PC.
• Blizzard sins!!!
• Requires the whole 16G game dependencies otherwise the editor won't work.
• Unlock the editor. :<
• Requires Internet. :<
• Updates till you die. :<
• And other bad stuff I keep forgetting or don't want to know about
• Game - Expensive and sold out like bread.

Conclusion

Starcraft 2 might be the ideal RTS engine and a really long way around a FPS wich is possible within the engine but you will be disadvantaged by the map size limit, lack of LOD and a test of your patience which requires the nerves of a buddhist monk. It's A good engine and editor, also powerful for people who have a few brain cells + to try out its basic functions, to make and edit maps and why not even games.

This is all from my perspective as a terrain and modeler. As a 3d artist I can appreciate it for making good looking artistic stuff. I have no idea why the coders might hate it though but I bet they have their reasons.

Then again people make some really impressive stuff with it so I guess it pays off?

Videos

 

[bhusta]

My general thoughts about this topic:

@tobyfat50, I know that you did not advertise StarCraft modding but nevertheless I think the pic fits

 

[tobyfat50]

Yeah I was off topic with the screenshots, to be honest I just wanted to show off to Talavaj because there is no one alive that is worth showing off to )))))

About my review, I just thought it might be a good idea to let people know some pointers and truths about it before and if they decide to get in to this since sc2 was mentioned, my fingers started itching!

:)

Good!

 

[Gekigengar]

Yeah I was off topic with the screenshots, to be honest I just wanted to show off to Talavaj because there is no one alive that is worth showing off to )))))

About my review, I just thought it might be a good idea to let people know some pointers and truths about it before and if they decide to get in to this since sc2 was mentioned, my fingers started itching!

:)

Good!

Give it up Toby, sc2 modding is not going to happen.

Not unless someone buys me sc2! (Its too friggin expensive! )

 

[tobyfat50]

I would prefer to buy you graphic tablet as a engagement ring!

 

[Heinvers]

Are you highjacking this thread toby?
xD

 

[tobyfat50]

Maybe I am just highjacking all the girls on it
XD

 

[Talavaj]

There are girls here ?

I was reading, reading and it sounded very good until I got to the "bad things" lol.
It is pretty disappointing there is still the issue with LOD and occlusion culling, it is understandable given it is an RTS engine but it does limit the creativity.

The capabilities are tempting but not tempting enough to make me purchase a game I don't really like .

 

[tobyfat50]

Yes there are a few!
Unity is delicious!

 

[Karassu]

Hey I thought this is going to be finished? No downloads?

 

[BlinkBoy]

There are girls here ?

I was reading, reading and it sounded very good until I got to the "bad things" lol.
It is pretty disappointing there is still the issue with LOD and occlusion culling, it is understandable given it is an RTS engine but it does limit the creativity.

The capabilities are tempting but not tempting enough to make me purchase a game I don't really like .

Purchasing Sc2? The starter edition gives what you need for free. Free Arcade, Free Galxy Editor and free online custom gameplay. Just no campaign and no competitive multiplayer.

 

[Talavaj]

Purchasing Sc2? The starter edition gives what you need for free. Free Arcade, Free Galxy Editor and free online custom gameplay. Just no campaign and no competitive multiplayer.

Interesting, I thought only the arcade is free. I may give it a try sometime then.

Hey I thought this is going to be finished? No downloads?

There will be downloads when it will be finished, it will be finished when it will be finished.

 

[GunSlinger]

Oh my Gad.
This looks so awesome. And I thought Requiem was the only one pushing the graphical boundaries wc3 had.

 

[Vinz]

Are you planning to go over to SC2?

 

[Talavaj]

No, not with this mod at least. Though I may give sc2 a try if I will ever have some free time in the future lol.

 

[GunSlinger]

Wait. I didn't know Warcraft 3 is supported by ENB. :O

 

[Karassu]

Does Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2 have differences on triggering? Moving into SC2 means being a newbie again on triggering.

 

[GunSlinger]

@karassu Check this thread.

TLR - Starcraft is more complex but is also way better than the Warcraft editor.

 

[Talavaj]

Hello Hivers !
To give you a report on what is the current state of the mod, now that I am back after vacationing and commissioning and what not.
Memento Mori has been a tremendous time commitment for me over the past year or so, something I can no longer afford to do in my free time given my current situation. (*oh noes, another deaded project ?!*)
I can no longer commit my free time to a non-profit project of this size.

As such... I will be promoting Memento Mori into my first commercial endeavor.
Over the years that I have been creating assets for warcraft 3 I have gained considerable amount of experience and knowledge in game art design and creation that should finally allow me to start selling my work without shame.
The first of these commercial efforts will be Memento Mori, I have been thinking for the longest time how to monetize this mod without jeopardizing its followers here on the hive and I have finally arrived into a conclusion.

I have just recently rebooted development on the mod.
Upgrading, removing and starting anew I will be unifying and raising the quality standard (which was haphazard for the longest time) to levels of Unity 3D and UDK in so that assets from the mod can end eventually end up on one of the many online marketplaces like Unity Asset Store.
What this means for the mod is higher quality assets (although they won't be as good as those that will be sold later) more updates, more documentation and more community interaction.
I will be releasing a development diary on YT in due time, documenting the progress, workflow and implementation of ideas not only on the assets but on the gameplay itself.

So, thank you for your continued support and stay tuned !

With that out of the way, Imagine you were stranded in a downtown area of a post apocalyptic city. What would be your hideout ?
Consider comfort and security of such a place.
Existing examples are the cargo area of a cargo van/truck or a collapsed sewer.

 

[Vinz]

Wish you well with this endeavor.

 

[bethmachine]

Awww shucks really wanted to see what this map could do in war3 if it could have pushed boundaries, but good luck with it though.
Is there anyway you could release the models you originally made for the War3 MM as I think a lot of us would love those models, just like the S&S model pack?

 

[Talavaj]

Awww shucks really wanted to see what this map could do in war3 if it could have pushed boundaries, but good luck with it though.
Is there anyway you could release the models you originally made for the War3 MM as I think a lot of us would love those models, just like the S&S model pack?

The mod will still be for wc3
Only the models will go out to unity and elsewhere after the mod is done. It simply means the development is pushed back (because of the updating) but it should accelerate faster than before because It will be somewhat of a full-time commitment for me. (at least for the moment)

About that though, I may actually put some of the models out. There is a bunch of models that I just didn't end up using.

 

[bethmachine]

Ahhh that's great to here (must have not read correctly).
Maybe you should make a thread to post the model you didn't end up using, someone might find it useful.

 

[Talavaj]

Yelloow people,
I have updated Manoo's original design of the protagonist Damien, cutting him up into more pieces to allow higher density textures and extra detail to get the model on par with the updated visuals.
Complete, including a new beard that will grow as you play !