Wow People! I Am Both Stunned And Impressed!

[Cyrem]

Quote

From what I can tell Cyrem's map editing tool is *far far* more stable and usable than what I had to work with!!

Well that's quite the opposite to what I believed. I thought that if someone were to get a hold of the original editor, it would be leaps and bounds over mine. Thanks for the motivation

Despite the amount of hard-coded parts in the game. the use of the config file and other easily editable files made it surprising easy to mod. Despite the 'limitations' we have still been able to accomplish things we thought weren't possible before. Here are some mods that may jog your memory:

http://oresome.rockraidersunited.com/download/359

There is a whole heap more as i'm sure you will find soon enough...

In the PS1 game you had the 'Rock Whale', was this ever planned for the PC game because unlike the scorpions and snakes the was no commented out code or files for the Rock Whale.

Did you guys at DDI ever think about any more RR games after the PS1 game was complete?

Do you still work for DDI?

Side note, I've changed your account to VIP. You will see an extra forum in the "Offtopic" Category. Inside you will find a topic by Cirevam with some impressive RR overhaul screenies (after the pictures of the ladies ) which he intends to release when the mod is complete. Oh and this topic has some more: (from about page 3).

[Amauros]

So what do you do nowadays? Still working as a game developer or are you in a different field of programming now?

[Leumeister]

Hi welcome to the Forums i Expect you to be right at home here

PS: once it comes out tell lair about what you think about Return to Planet U

[CTXXTC]

Karl I have some questions for you,

Who voiced Chief, Doc, Sparks and Jet?

Will you try and invite some of the LRR DDI team? It would be great!

CTXXTC

[Amauros]

Who voiced Chief, Doc, Sparks and Jet?

I would think the credits would have mentioned that.

[Tracker]

Good idea! I'll go check.

Jet: Likely Generated

Chief: Likely Generated

Sparks: Likely Generated

Axle: Likely Generated

Docs: Likely Generated

Bandit: Likely Generated

Sorry no mention in the manual's version of the credits as to who voiced them.

[Cirevam]

Similarly, credits.txt doesn't seem to give any specific details on the voice actors. There are three people in the Audio category, but from the looks of it they probably just did the sound effects.

[Storm]

Stop asking the developer so many questions! He has a life too you know.

[McJobless]

I'll keep my question short.

Mission-wise, how did the timers work, did you use them, and where they still working at release? Because I need them for an overhaul of mine but the damn things seem to be not doing what I want them to do...

[rrcoder]

Let's hope you weren't expecting an exciting story behind this... they were originally planned as 'Idle' animations (i.e. when the RR is standing around with nothing to do). I seem to remember that they were removed because there is no official 'LEGO saxophone', so we were asked to drop it (although don't take that as gospel). They did later become a little redundant anyway, since the sax/idle anim was implemented before we had the 'auto-priorities', and once that went in they weren't idle nearly as often.

http://www.rockraidersunited.org/index.php?/files/file/72-ride-slimy-slugs/

There is a whole heap more as i'm sure you will find soon enough...

Not to sure about these. I'll have a look through, see if something jogs my memory.

In the PS1 game you had the 'Rock Whale', was this ever planned for the PC game because unlike the scorpions and snakes the was no commented out code or files for the Rock Whale.

The 'Rock Whale' was in the original design document, but never made it into the PC version. Since the PS1 version was intended as more of an 'arcade' game (rather than a strategy), it was decided to add the Rock Whale into that one. I had very little involvement on the PS1 version (it was a different team working on that one).

Did you guys at DDI ever think about any more RR games after the PS1 game was complete?

We would have *loved* to have worked on another RR game, but the opportunity never arose (the decision would be with LEGO).

Do you still work for DDI?

Yep, for almost 13 years now! (Where the hell did that time go??!?)

Who voiced Chief, Doc, Sparks and Jet?

They were actually voiced by a few of us at DDI. They are all 'Sims' voices (in the videos, not the game help-speech), so they would be completely universal (since LRR was translated into numerous languages... it even got released in Japan). That said, if you listen carefully in a couple of the videos (such as the slug/crystal video) you can make out a little bit of 'English-ish' in there.

Little bit of trivia for you... Jet was voiced by our Receptionist!! :D

[Amauros]

You still work at DDI? Then where exactly is the vault with the LRR treasure we modders seek? Are the source/alpha/beta software in LEGO possession?

[rrcoder]

Stop asking the developer so many questions! He has a life too you know.

Not to worry, I'll answer questions when I get a little free time. As long as noone expects any immediate responses ;)

[Amauros]

Indeed! We don't want to scare you off lol.

[rrcoder]

Mission-wise, how did the timers work, did you use them, and where they still working at release? Because I need them for an overhaul of mine but the damn things seem to be not doing what I want them to do...

I'll have another look through the scripts and see how I used them originally, and get back to you with this. I'm fairly sure I used them primarily for the tutorial missions, to progress the tutorial automatically after a short period of time, so the best place to look for examples of these will be in the tutorial scripts.

You still work at DDI? Then where exactly is the vault with the LRR treasure we modders seek? Are the source/alpha/beta software in LEGO possession?

We've moved offices 4 times since LRR was originally developed, so the backup discs and tapes (yep... magnetic tape) will likely be in a box inside a storage unit somewhere. I'm also in the US now, so I wouldn't even be able to have a rummage without an expensive transatlantic journey

I've also had about 7 or 8 PC upgrades since LRR, so unfortunately there are no remnants of LRR left on my own PC.

[McJobless]

Mission-wise, how did the timers work, did you use them, and where they still working at release? Because I need them for an overhaul of mine but the damn things seem to be not doing what I want them to do...

I'll have another look through the scripts and see how I used them originally, and get back to you with this. I'm fairly sure I used them primarily for the tutorial missions, to progress the tutorial automatically after a short period of time, so the best place to look for examples of these will be in the tutorial scripts.

Thank you...it's just I can't seem to figure out for myself how they were coded...

[Amauros]

Ahh ok, well at least the good news is that DDI has it and not LEGO. :P

[TheDoctor]

I'm intrested about the voices. Particularly Cheif's. He has a lot of dialogue so I don't think his voice was computer generated. BUT, IF IT WAS, I would reallyreallyreally love to know how/with what.

I just thought of another thing. The videos. Those gigantic AVI files which we all know and love. Were those rendered with lightwave, or something else? We've also found the little blooper where Cheif is missing his helmet in one scene. :P

[Amauros]

I just thought of another thing. The videos. Those gigantic AVI files which we all know and love. Were those rendered with lightwave, or something else? We've also found the little blooper where Cheif is missing his helmet in one scene.

Yeah I still think the graphics in those avi's are pretty good. Now if only we could get ORR to be that detailed, that would be awesome! Maybe someday...

[rrcoder]

On 12/21/2010 at 12:16 PM, TheDoctor said:

I'm intrested about the voices. Particularly Cheif's. He has a lot of dialogue so I don't think his voice was computer generated. BUT, IF IT WAS, I would reallyreallyreally love to know how/with what.

Chief was voiced by one of our producers ('Jon' in the credits, under 'Sound and Music'). I always thought he did a great job with the voice. Everything was recorded in a single day, and you'll notice that in some of the voice samples he sounds quieter and a little hoarse. These are the once that were recorded at the end of the day (he kept the 'gruff' voice up for a very long time).

 

On 12/21/2010 at 12:16 PM, TheDoctor said:

I just thought of another thing. The videos. Those gigantic AVI files which we all know and love. Were those rendered with lightwave, or something else? We've also found the little blooper where Cheif is missing his helmet in one scene.

Yep, all rendered with Lightwave. It took *weeks* to render them off. Every employee's computer had a 'network renderer' installed on it, so all of our computers became a massive 'render farm'.

 

More trivia: After LRR was released, we did a lot more work with LEGO, including producing the 'LEGO Adventurers' comic (worlds first fully computer generated comic), we also created the videos for LEGO Racers, created an animation for a Rock Raiders simulator ride at Legoland Windsor, and also an in-store animation for LEGO's "Jack Stone" range.

 

I also worked as an artist for DDI for a time, and animated the intro animation for the first LEGO Harry Potter game:

 

 

 

[Cirevam]

Yep, all rendered with Lightwave. It took *weeks* to render them off. Every employee's computer had a 'network renderer' installed on it, so all of our computers became a massive 'render farm'.

Hey, I wonder if you know how to acquire any of the models used in those scenes... or at least the lighting settings. I've been making a few scenes for my overhaul mod and I plan to make several more, but they just don't have the Rock Raider feel to them. I also plan to network most of the computers in my house together so I can render these without putting my computer out of commission for a week.

Like you said, your backup tapes are across the pond, so if you don't have easy access then don't worry about it.

[rrcoder]

Yep, all rendered with Lightwave. It took *weeks* to render them off. Every employee's computer had a 'network renderer' installed on it, so all of our computers became a massive 'render farm'.

Hey, I wonder if you know how to acquire any of the models used in those scenes... or at least the lighting settings. I've been making a few scenes for my overhaul mod and I plan to make several more, but they just don't have the Rock Raider feel to them. I also plan to network most of the computers in my house together so I can render these without putting my computer out of commission for a week.

Like you said, your backup tapes are across the pond, so if you don't have easy access then don't worry about it.

To be completely honest, you should be able to use the high-poly in-game models (the .lwo files with the filename beginning HP). With a little Lightwave know-how/practice you could have a go at increasing the polycount (using 'subdivide'), then using 'smooth' for rounded areas. That should give you reasonable results.

[TheDoctor]

Oh cool. I was going to try to record some tests of myself and see if I could twist them into something cheif like, but it didn't work out too well. Though, I did put some of those Cheif recordings through a glitch filter. It turned out pretty well but too eratic with the variety of different effects. I need to work more with that.

Oh the rendering. I can hear your old computers trying to render those things. A frame every 10 minutes or so. Cirevam is making cinematics for his mod but he hasn't leaked them to us yet. I really have to hand it to the animator on those videos.

You may have seen the Santa hat or little giftbox.wings picture, I'll be using those for a minimod later.

BLAHBLAH UNIMPORTANT.

We've figured out how most of moddable RR works, amazingly. The last few things are the NERPS stuffs, and animations. NERPS is just confusing and undocumented, but testing can figure that out. The animations are a bit harder. I know Cirevam absolutely detests the keyframe system. Both of us really, buttheres one other thing. Making custom animations. You guys made them in the first place, and they obviously work. The problem is that we can't make them from scratch.

Don't make animations from scratch. Edit existing ones. There's something that makes them work.

We kinda want to know what makes them work. Maybe the fact that we're using LW7.x/8.x to work with them and not 5.x? Or something else. It's one of the last frontiers and one of the most important parts of the game.

Edit: Ninja'd by Cirevam.

[rrcoder]

A frame every 10 minutes or so.

A whole frame in 10 minutes??? We should be so lucky!! Try 30 or 40 minutes.

NERPS is just confusing and undocumented

It was pretty confusing and undocumented when I used it too. At least I had the advantage of being able to look at and modify the code at the time though.

The animations are a bit harder. I know Cirevam absolutely detests the keyframe system. Both of us really, buttheres one other thing. Making custom animations. You guys made them in the first place, and they obviously work. The problem is that we can't make them from scratch.

Don't make animations from scratch. Edit existing ones. There's something that makes them work.

We kinda want to know what makes them work. Maybe the fact that we're using LW7.x/8.x to work with them and not 5.x? Or something else. It's one of the last frontiers and one of the most important parts of the game.

Edit: Ninja'd by Cirevam.

I should be able to figure this out. I know Lightwave upgraded their file-format between v5.5 and v5.6, our post-LRR code supports both versions, so I still have the code to read the older format. I'll have to look into this in more detail, but perhaps in time I could cobble together a 'downgrader' app to convert from the newer format to the older one.

[TheDoctor]

You can/would do that for us? You are the coolest new member ever. Anyways, Cirevam will be happy to hear this, more so when it works.

[Cirevam]

I know Cirevam absolutely detests the keyframe system. Both of us really, buttheres one other thing. Making custom animations. You guys made them in the first place, and they obviously work. The problem is that we can't make them from scratch.

Actually, I hate Milkshape's keyframe system. I love Lightwave's (now that I've more experience with it) since I can make a few changes at key frames and let Lightwave do the stuff in between.

I'll have to look into this in more detail, but perhaps in time I could cobble together a 'downgrader' app to convert from the newer format to the older one.

I would offer plentiful libations to you and your family if you did this. It would make everything so much easier.