Archive: 11 posts

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I've noticed with two types of metal, when stickered black, that they display an interior image that you can see when the material is large enough. Think Shroud of Turin. The Taxi Metal and the Flame Motif Metal. Both are from the metropolis theme. In the Taxi metal you can always see the bit of light reflecting off it, but when stickered black you can see that there is a rotoscoping panoramic vista of an entire set of apartment buildings ingrained into the material. It is pre-rendered in the same style as the background choices. The Flame Motif metal's image, depending on how big, is split into rectangular sections with very sketchy line-work and appear to be the image of a tree and some mountains - it almost looks like a luminescant charcoal sketch. I've used this in a couple spots in levels, and wondered what it was for. Thinking it over, I suppose that pre-calculated reflective property is easier to handle on the engine than additional on-the-fly lighting calculations. In order for the metals to retain their reflective properties, it must refract the light from another object at all times - since an object can't always be present (ie: an empty level space with no fog or background) the image must be prefabricated and made into a permanent attribute of the metal itself. The taxi metal's native Metro theme makes sense, but the hidden image in the flame metal doesn't... and flame metal, when unstickered, isn't all that reflective to begin with. I am amazed at how different the materials in this game are, and wish in the sequel that we could custom create our own. Anyway... not really a ground-breaking find, but is definitely worth knowing if you were trying for a unique look for a concept level. I could see it working well in a level intended to look like a sketchbook, or something, like in Seraphor's "Escheresque" Has anyone noticed anything else similar to this in other materials?

2009-02-03 04:45:00 Author: Unknown User

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Hmm, that's interesting... but why is your sig a video? :l that threw me off.

2009-02-03 04:56:00 Author: Trap_T Posts: 431

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haha You should put the video in your sig too

2009-02-03 05:08:00 Author: Unknown User

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WOW thats sweet, i would have never thought about that. Cheers!

2009-02-03 05:14:00 Author: RAINFIRE Posts: 1101

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costume pieces such as the spacesuit mask exhibit this property as well

2009-02-04 05:43:00 Author: snowflakecat Posts: 102

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I've definitely noticed this too. I guess the point is that stickering preexisting materials opens up a whole new world of textures. Whether it be hidden images, or merely cool effects, good creators know how to use these effects to their benefit. Ever tried black on tinfoil? *very* cool! In many ways, stickering can also be used to simulate what people were doing with glitched materials. Can't make your mech out of metal? Take a photo of metal material and slap it on some styro or dissolve. It's close. My ceiling crawler sentries in my MGS level are made of cardboard, because the wheels stop working when the material is changed to gekko metal. But, sticker them with gekko metal sticker and you'd never notice unless you were looking for it.

2009-02-04 14:37:00 Author: Thegide Posts: 1465

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Good find, i experimented a little and noticed that one of the ceramic materials (don't remember what it is called, it's the blue mosaic one with all those ugly patterns on it) also had an effect. When i stickered it black i could see what i think was the door to a temple or something like that, It was also special in another way, instead of like the flame shoving pictures like squares it had an upside down reflection of itself. I too noticed that a lot of materials looked completely different and much cooler when you sticker them black, i would recommend you to try it out on the blue brown ceramic material, the one thats only partially glazed. It gets a really cool look that would be perfect for a mine/volcano level

2009-02-05 06:59:00 Author: Marklin80 Posts: 458

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Nice find, I actually think this is a great find.

2009-02-05 07:35:00 Author: Bear Posts: 2079

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I never noticed that. Could come in handy thanks!

2009-02-05 08:54:00 Author: Leather-Monkey Posts: 2266

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Good find, i experimented a little and noticed that one of the ceramic materials (don't remember what it is called, it's the blue mosaic one with all those ugly patterns on it) also had an effect. When i stickered it black i could see what i think was the door to a temple or something like that, It was also special in another way, instead of like the flame shoving pictures like squares it had an upside down reflection of itself. I too noticed that a lot of materials looked completely different and much cooler when you sticker them black, i would recommend you to try it out on the blue brown ceramic material, the one thats only partially glazed. It gets a really cool look that would be perfect for a mine/volcano level That was one of the one's I played around with in SEMINAL GEMINI... it looked really awesome and shines like chrome. I didn't notice the temple background in it though, that's cool. That texture is particularly ugly IMO, and doesn't fit very many themes (if any), but when stickered it takes on a much more useful nature. All the tiles look great in black actually... they're good for when you want a solid color background or play area, but still want some detail and nuance. It's a much better alternative to using rubber for your black sections. Only problem with stickering the whole level, is that you can only sticker one piece so many times and in order to fully sticker everything your construction must be broken up into pieces. Even if you do have one solid background tile, and manage to sticker all of it, it will more than likely fail to load the whole sticker display at the start of the level and all of a sudden the player will be walking along to see the wall change from jet black to some weird brown-blue-orange mosaic... not good.

2009-02-05 12:21:00 Author: Unknown User

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I'd like to mention something that's obvious but easy to forget-- if you're stickering these objects in your level (and using the "reflection" as a background) be sure the user has no way to shoot them with paint.

2009-02-05 21:12:00 Author: snowflakecat Posts: 102

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