Archive: 11 posts

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Why do people make such a big deal about hiding your dark matter, Choosing the invisible option on switces, pistons motor bolts, dissolve material so on and so forth? Sometimes, I think they go well in a level, especially if they are used in a clever way. I understand levels that obviously have the "real effect" to them, but for the more fun levels that reach outside of the standards of what "should and shouldn't be done in LBP" I don't see why you can't show those objects. For noobs that don't get the concept of the game, it's actually kind of nice to leave some of your tools out in the open so that they can get the gist of what's happening and how it was created (this stops the "how do you make the box move up and down" questions in the dust. I know that in the LBP Story levels, I found that switches, dissolve and other tools were left for people to get the idea of how things work and what was used in a particular area. My question, is do we hide these materials to keep people from knowing how we construct a level? Do we hide them because it's what people consider "neater" to do so? Do we hide them because no matter how innovative your level is, it's just not proper to allow your dark matter to show? I don't know if this question has been asked before, but I keep bumping into levels where people say "it's great! but hide your bolts, dark matter and dissolve" I've even gotten a little frightened while making a level that my tools are showing, so I go back through making sure that things are hidden, so that I don't get the "hide your___________" comment Thanks for any answers posted to this question. Remember I need some original answers for the questions that I've just asked.

2010-05-26 22:16:00 Author: XOAcireXO Posts: 57

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For the sake of visuals mostly. You don't wanna be in a cave and see a gigant rod moving stuff (piston) or watch a creature with bolts on every limb, sure they MAY fit SOME themes, but if you're going for nice visuals you're omre likely to hide them. Some that usually fit even w/out function sometimes tho are the rope and the chain (i always forget the name) switches if painted (or not) But like i said, its all aboiut if it fits on the level. What fun would it be to make a "Floating plaatform" if you can see a rod and dark matter supporting it... So it depends on the situation, but most of the times its best to hide it for the sake of making the theme stick and not giving any "unusual" elements to it.

2010-05-26 22:22:00 Author: Silverleon Posts: 6707

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If you're gonna leave it out, be sure to present it well.. Mm left a lot of their logic for the viewing but it was always pretty subtle and nice-looking, once you did see it.

2010-05-26 22:31:00 Author: monstahr Posts: 1361

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I like the option to hide these items, but at the same time MM should have had them set to Visible:No if it was going to be such a big deal... That's just my opinion..

2010-05-26 22:40:00 Author: XOAcireXO Posts: 57

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It's part of the art style. If your art style warrants these things then go for it. Generally, they just don't fit and as monstahr said, largely in community levels, the presentation is just messy. Leaving 1 or 2 out but the rest hidden just looks like you've been careless. That's largely why people get those comments. MM had a great art style and the visible connectors etc works because of that. Of couse there also wasn't a visible setting for connectors back then either. In the pirates pack they did hide quite a bit of their mechanics, but what they did leave out was presented well. Although I'd say generally, it is very rare that leaving a square of DM visible fits the art style. Ditto dissolve.

2010-05-27 00:12:00 Author: rtm223 Posts: 6497

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I'd say it's a preference thing, but sometimes things can look so ugly with them, with smaller objects I find that the switch makes it so you can't even tell what it's supposed to be, like I have fish in this one level, but when the switch is there, it just looks plain terrible. Also, dark matter in my opinion is the worst, it's that awful green, with rounded edges and so on. Lastly I have a hard time making my emitters, etc. look nice, I can never seem to center them, even with grid, but it's all preference, if you want to leave switches, etc. feel free to do so.

2010-05-27 01:15:00 Author: ElementalPenguin Posts: 83

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they really mess up the visuals..

2010-05-27 04:45:00 Author: AbstractSam Posts: 332

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Personally, if a door is made out of dissolve, it looks like the creator put no effort into the level. It's the same with Dark Matter. I mean, it's not that it's "improper" to show DM; it just looks like laziness on the part of the creator. If you think about it, playing a level with stairs made out of Dark Matter looks like the noobiest level ever. It takes a bit more effort for a level to look nice. That said, I do use bolts and other things for decoration. I've never run into a part when visible DM is pleasing to the eye, but I do use visible bolts a lot. Especially because the level I'm working on right now has an old mineshaft theme. The visible bolts serve my theme because they look old. If I had a motor bolt, however, I would hide it. Not because of some social "code", but because they didn't HAVE magical engineless spinny bolts back then. I've even been known to use an invisible piston for a lift and put a weak winch just so it looks more realistic. It just LOOKS better when you hide your DM.

2010-05-27 05:27:00 Author: KablooieKablam Posts: 364

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Dark Matter is the ugliest material ever. It looks like green puke... bleah If it looked like the Dark Matter from Mario Galaxy (you can see it on some levels, if i remember well there is a lot of Dark Matter on the Bowser Star Reactor level) it would be much better. Plus it would fit some levels nicely, like a Dark World/Shadow World.

2010-05-27 14:34:00 Author: Flame Dragon Posts: 312

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Dark Matter is the ugliest material ever. Obviously you haven't played "What's the Matter" from xkappax. Dark matter in the hands of a professional.... is a thing of beauty.

2010-05-27 14:55:00 Author: CCubbage Posts: 4430

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Obviously you haven't played "What's the Matter" from xkappax. Dark matter in the hands of a professional.... is a thing of beauty. If only my PS3 worked i would play it istantly.

2010-05-27 17:23:00 Author: Flame Dragon Posts: 312

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