News Archive
This page is an archive of older news posts. For recent news, see the main news page.
Textures updated, at long last
Happy september, everyone. The texture families have received a major update:
- Hi-res truecolor texture packs are available for each family;
- There are three brand-new families chock full of new textures;
- Several new textures have been added to existing families;
- Many older textures have been tweaked or entirely redone;
- Families have been reorganised: textures have been renamed and/or moved to different families, and some textures have been deleted altogether because I hated them;
- Textures have been converted from PCX to GIF, to make it easier to browse them in standard image viewers;
- Each family package now includes a thumbnail gallery page showing all of the textures in that family.
Browse the texture section to see what I mean.
Important note about compatibility:
These changes have made the new families backwards-incompatible with older versions. So to avoid breaking in-progress missions, all the family directory names have been changed: e.g. from adb_stone to adb_stone_2. This means you can have the two versions side by side, while you update your mission to use the new textures (or keep them together, if you want to use some of the new textures, but don't want to bother replacing all the old ones).
Updating your mission to use the new textures:
The quickest way to swap from an old family to a new one is to load both families and then use the texture_change command, which replaces all instances of one texture with another. The syntax is:
texture_change old_index, new_indexThe index is the numeric position of the texture in the texture-palette: e.g. Jorge is index 0, the first real texture is 1, the second is 2, and so on. So texture_change 2,6 would replace all instances of the 2nd texture in the palette with the 6th texture.
The index for a texture is displayed in the bottom field of the brush properties when you click on a surface with that texture, as shown to the left.
(Note: If this field shows -1, that means that the selected surface uses the default texture for that brush, and you'll need to cycle through the faces to find the texture index which the brush uses.)
Latest arrivals
Alert readers will notice a new Miscellany section on the sidebar. This is a dumping-ground for all the Thief-related crap I have that's not Models or Textures.
It currently contains two items:
- my .mis file association (for all you Windows Explorer lovers), and
- a collection of blank map graphics for Thief II.
(The blank map graphics are careful recreations of 13 of the original Thief II maps, and are the next best thing to having the LGS source files. Please, for the love of God, use these rather than those clone-brush jobs that are doing the rounds.)
I also have quite a few updates to the texture families on the way, with new textures and better palettes. Stay tuned.
False alarm, I'm afraid
Sorry for the lack of updates recently, where “recently” means “at all in the last 3 months”. Alas, the only updates to the site this time have been to change all occurrences of the word ‘fiancée’ to the word ‘wife’.
Unfortunately, not a jot of Thief work has gotten done in the meantime. My left brain is on convalescent leave while my right brain cavorts merrily with web programming—my other, saggier-breasted lover. It would be nice if they got along well enough to operate at the same time, but such is not the case. For that matter, neither of them can operate without the permission of my primitive hindbrain, which is the organ in charge of playing Diablo II all day.
Still, thankyou all for writing to let me know my stuff is out there, being used. Hopefully soon my lust for coding will be spent and I can get on with something visual again. I hear the Thief III editor has finally been released, and while we still lack a computer capable of running the game let alone the editor, I look forward to seeing what people can come up with at such time as we get one.
Preferably after installing a bullshit filter on my browser, so I don't have to wade through the sea of self-congratulatory prose that will accompany the missions as people pat their own backs for exceeding the original game, but that is a rant for a different update.
Cobwebs and Containers
The cobwebs have been updated with slightly twisty meshes, which give them more volume and stop them looking so 2-D. See the readme inside the pack for some tips on animating them.
There's also a new containers package available: this includes a brand-new sea chest model—pictured at left—as well as an updated version of the footlocker with a tweaked skin (which has been made less HELLO I AM A SKIN.)
*Fiddle*
A quick update: the website now has a print stylesheet (so all you people poised by the printer can go right ahead and slake your lusts), and a chummy little favorites icon. Wheee!
Well, the site is here. I guess that's news.
So welcome to my new little Thief site. I won't say “at last”, because I hate people who say “at last”, and the site was conceived on a whim the previous friday so there's not much “at last” about the whole business.
Anyway, I've been putting together a collection of new models and textures and other art assets for a while now, and figured I might as well share them before the world forgets about Dromed entirely.
Big creamy helpings of thanks to Daniel Chapman, who was a real friend and lent me the hosting space for the files. The files and the rest of the site will move to a permanent new host as soon as I get paid, but I wanted something up before Christmas.
Everything on this site is a work in progress, as I'm constantly fiddling with things I've already finished and should leave well alone. So, check back sometimes once you've pillaged me. There'll also be more sections to come: missions, some interface stuff that doesn't fit anywhere else, and maybe some tutorials. I haven't run out of room on the lamppost yet, after all.
Enjoy, and tell me what you think.