Potraits

[Gfted1]

The arrow in the head is awesome.

[Fearabbit]

Osvir, it's a simple concept, but the code involved is starting to become quite long and complex (for what is essentially a vanity feature).

 

The less restrictions you have, the more conditions must be considered. 4 health states, 1 death state, 7 effect states means 29 portraits per original portrait. And there has to be code for all that - a priority queue that also has to take special circumstances into account.

 

And don't forget, 6 party members means you need at least 6 of these sets available... if all companion portraits and all PC portraits are available, that's something like 900 individual portraits that have to be done by the community. If you don't want this to be a feature only for the select few who can photoshop.

 

It's certainly possible but I just think that moderation would be better.

[Osvir]

Osvir, it's a simple concept, but the code involved is starting to become quite long and complex (for what is essentially a vanity feature).

 

The less restrictions you have, the more conditions must be considered. 4 health states, 1 death state, 7 effect states means 29 portraits per original portrait. And there has to be code for all that - a priority queue that also has to take special circumstances into account.

 

And don't forget, 6 party members means you need at least 6 of these sets available... if all companion portraits and all PC portraits are available, that's something like 900 individual portraits that have to be done by the community. If you don't want this to be a feature only for the select few who can photoshop.

 

It's certainly possible but I just think that moderation would be better.

But the special circumstances, i.e. "Poisoned" is already going to be an effect that's part of the game. To add it onto that, it will probably be accompanied by a small [icon]. The code will already be there, unless Obsidian has some other way to show "Status Effects" in the GUI or on the character models themselves.

 

In the simplest psuedo-code terms:

IF Poisoned = Show Icon

 

Then I'm sure there's an easy and simple code sequence you can do for a "priority list" that you could ask the program to run through before showing a portrait.

 

"IF Poisoned = Check List then Show Icon/Portrait"

 

Also, because I spoke about the joke mockup, I couldn't resist xD

 

I agree that that's a lot of portraits to modify but I don't see a problem with it <3 <3 <3 there's a lot of textures, items, props, triggers, code etc. etc. as well. Should those modding opportunities be reduced as well? Because that's what I am seeing here, an exciting opportunity.

 

Damn, should've made his beard stick out to all sides on [sTUNNED] xD

 

EDIT:

Look, which section gets most love?

1. Dragon Age Nexus (Hair & Face, 491)

2. Skyrim Nexus (Armor tops the list at 3000~, Hair & Face has 255, Clothing has 870~ish)

3. Oblivion Nexus (Gamplay at 2700, Armor at 2100, Hair & Face has 306, Clothing 1025)

 

The point I'm making is that the "Avatar" is important, vanity is big.

Edited September 19, 2013 by Osvir

[rjshae]

It's important to remember that they're operating with a fixed budget. It should be much less costly to display status icons (or alter the portrait backgrounds) than it is to paint portraits of M conditions for N character illustrations. My preference would be to spend the resources on illustrating the game areas.

[Osvir]

Here are some pictures I googled, then copied and pasted into photoshop for various elements to get different effects on the portraits.

Hurt: http://jmount43.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/blondes-women-flowers-blood-fantasy-art-vampire-hd-wallpapers.jpg (blood from mouth)

 

Weak: -broken link- (1 copied bat and mouth)

 

Asleep: http://salespot.com.au/assets/productimages/large/Sleeping-Beauty.jpg (the sleep eye mask)

 

Stunned: http://images.clipartof.com/small/1090499-Clipart-Knocked-Out-Emoticon-Face-Seeing-Stars-Royalty-Free-Vector-Illustration.jpg (inspiration)

 

Paralyzed: http://207.56.179.67/flowcasting/images/fear.jpg (Hands and Eyes)

 

Poisoned: http://krazykillers.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/arsenic-poisoning-32.jpg (Palm)

 

Cursed: http://irishgothichorrorjournal.homestead.com/cursed_mountain-all-all-screenshot002.jpg (Mouth and Forehead)

And a lot of Lasso Tool, Cut/Copy+Paste in combination with CTRL+U (Hue), some simple "touch-up" and this is the effect. All of them are modified [NORMAL]:



That's 21 custom portraits now. That would've been 3 characters.

EDIT:

It's important to remember that they're operating with a fixed budget. It should be much less costly to display status icons (or alter the portrait backgrounds) than it is to paint portraits of M conditions for N character illustrations. My preference would be to spend the resources on illustrating the game areas.

Which, again, I am not suggesting. Obsidian does not need to spend any artistic resources on it, take a closer look at my suggestion. All the Portraits are the same except for "Dead". The mock-ups that I am making is not what I am suggesting Obsidian do, but it is merely something I and others could do if there is a model or method like this.

Edited September 19, 2013 by Osvir

[Silent Winter]

I agree with Osvir - making it possible in the code but not actually doing all the portraits themselves is a good idea.

I'll be making my own portraits for my PC anyway but I'd also be up for doing variations on the NPCs.

I'm sure there are plenty of hobbyist artists who'd put out packs for these.

[Kjaamor]

I am instantly reminded of a forum I used to frequent which had a 100+ page thread exclusively dedicated to photoshopping Eddie Van Halen's mouth onto people/animals/things.

[Osvir]

Seeing this by Ineth made me wonder about even further triggers and code. Though this wouldn't be necessary for Obsidian to put in, but I'm just playing with the thought of modding/customizing/adding some String/Triggers/Code myself if it is accessible and/or easy enough.

Customized/Added Strings:
"IF in [Town] = Show [Portrait1#Town]"
"IF in [Plate Armor] = Show [Portrait#1PArmor]"
"IF in [Vanity Armor] = Show [Portrait#1VArmor]"
"IF in [Helmet] = Show [Portrait#1Helmet]"
etc. etc.