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In the past couple of days I’ve updated quite a bit on lovesow. After first losing the custom default theme (with an update of wordpress, dont fiddle around with default theme and then update wordpress), and having Lovesow use the new default lame theme for a couple of days/weeks (can’t remember). I’ve finally found an old backup of the custom theme back (on another pc), renamed it/put it in a new folder, and started tweaking it.

The posts should be less cluttered now (no categories, messy dates, but all info on the post under the title, with amount of comments right next to it instead of under the post, etc.). Probably not things you’ll notice, but anyway! To hell with default kubrick theme, go on custom lovesow kubrick theme!

Also, I’ve pimped the sidebar with some widgets, such as the wonderfully nostalgic ‘Random Fun’ (5 random posts), the wall-of-fame list of usernames with amount of posts. Anyway that´s it, just a heads up and a little still-alive-and-kicking-post. Keep the content coming!

choo choo!

download wallpaper

Stardom is once again confirmed

Check out your favourite Warsow superstars: ETR, dezje, zkyp, tom, marrk and ollipop in the extensive gallery of the 2nd installment of the zissou-meet series! Featuring an exclusive pre-viewing of 2ndpass.avi, aka tom´s movie.

Discuss.

Right, I think for a change, why not use this Blog for what it’s intended, instead of your average Warsow-community spam site . I’m going to jot down my thoughts on a subject which has recently received alot of attention. Mainly after our announcement concerning the recruiting of 3D artists, and maybe even earlier then that; the first announcements of the improved renderer features (bumpmapping, specularmapping, normalmapping, etc.) of the Qfusion engine, alot of people seemed to have reacted in fear, worried that Warsow’s concept might be forsaken, worried that Warsow will turn in a resource-hogging-plastified-a-la-doom3 version of the Warsow you know. I’ll start off by explaining why we even want the improved visuals;

First of all, looks do count, and I’m not saying current Warsow looks shit (however I know alot of people do), but it’s a fact that advanced renderer features will make Warsow more attractive to a larger part of the ‘casual gamer’ pool. This may be dismissed as ‘selling out’ or whatever, and I know this will be a controversial point. But at this stage in Warsow’s development, with the gameplay becoming more and more stable, and more and more towards what we are looking for, we can really start to look at the exterior. Also the amount of talent we have in the artist department of our team demands some more flexibility and experimenting.

Just like the people using picmip now, these settings and features won’t be forced upon anyone. Where people can choose to flatten the textures, dismissing the visual style of Warsow, people can also turn off the advanced visual effects. Other, seemingly smaller things such as improved (player)models shouldn’t need any explanation.

Secondly, visual identity and personality. Warsow’s concept of being cartoony isn’t dismissed by bump and specularmapping textures in maps, by having realtime reflections and whatnot. The goal is still to combine having a ‘cartoony’ game with lots of contrast and good visibility. With the new textures and visuals, the contrast between the players, models and the ‘background’ – the map – will be even bigger. Think of cartoons, where you have handdrawn backgrounds combined with the animated characters and moving objects, ‘popping out’ of the screen. This is the characteristic of a cartoony style which is maintained, even emphasized with the new visuals.

Right now, ‘colorful’ maps like wdm2 have little contrast. While many people see a wdm2-style maps as the Warsow style, I have to disagree. Bright colors, bad visibility, bad contrast, and the cel shading (in maps) is exactly what we don’t want. Think of handdrawn backgrounds, without sharp edges, no cel shading, with poppy, vibrant, high-contrast models, think of maps like wdm3 and wdm7. This will be emphasized with 0.4′s graphical effects too, currently we are toying around with cartoonifying some of the effects, such as the smoketrails of the rockets. They all help in making the distinction between moving, active object and the passive background.

So, we basically do take alot of care in choosing how exactly to apply and use the advanced renderer features (even taking alot of care to choose to use it; the possibility was there, the decision in how to use it took us some time). We actually have a fairly clear idea to what Warsow should look like, and why it should. It is far from a set-in-stone design, it’s more of a number of guidelines which change and evolve over time, with the same points leading; the concepts and ideas of visibility, cartooniness and low specifications.

We are still maintaining our own quality standards, and our own visual style and identity. A big part of the decision to go with these advanced features was figuring out how to be able to apply these techniques in line with Warsow’s visuals. This includes keeping the focus on visibility, with contrast being the keyword. This is not about colors of textures. I read people complaining about maps being ‘brown’, yeah, we have brown textures, just like we have grey ones and other boring colors . The reference to Q2 is easily made, as Q2 was all-brown, but believe that’s about all there is to compare. And remember, if you don’t like it, you can simply turn it off. And if you do, I really don’t think there’s alot left to complain about, as the difference in mapstyle atleast won’t be mindblowing at all, the maps will just be a tiny bit less pretty. Anyway the easiest would be to say to just wait and see, but I know that’s not satisfying to most of you, so I guess I could better say; have faith in Warsow

Feel free to comment.

(05:39:36) (sepht) ETRafk: I think you’re my fav .nl-er
(05:39:40) (+ETRafk) omg
(05:39:43) (+ETRafk) what great honour
(05:39:45) (+ETRafk) let me celebrate
(05:39:51) (sepht) ETRafk: you beat zkyp!
(05:39:52) (+ETRafk) with excessive alcohol
(05:39:55) (+ETRafk) omg no
(05:39:56) (Nevermind`) haha
(05:39:59) (+ETRafk) i will quote you on this one
(05:40:02) (+ETRafk) zkyp will cry
(05:40:03) (+ETRafk) CRY
(05:40:05) (+ETRafk) CRY HARD
(05:40:06) (sepht) I knows
(05:40:07) (+ETRafk) ALL NIGHT LOOONG
(05:40:11) (Nevermind`) etr is good?
(05:40:12) (sepht) get him his chicken suit
(05:40:15) (sepht) it’ll make him feel better
(05:40:16) (Nevermind`) news to me.
(05:40:17) (Nevermind`) ;/

source: #warsow.na 

getting there…

Yeah that’s right! After spotting last.fm‘s funky widgets, I decided to put up the last.fm’s Warsow Group‘s radio on Lovesow, for your streaming pleasure! It’s hard to miss, on the righthand side of this post. Ofcourse, like yourself, I am disgusted by the lack of french hiphop, minimal techno, jazzy hiphop and cool electronical music. Anyway, it made sense to me to put up the community’s radio station on a community blog 8). But please, go ahead and make an account on last.fm, join the Warsow group, and do your best to push out some of that horrible emocore, metal and punkrock! Aiaiaiaiaiaa §§§§

Yes it was, plenty of games, a nice duelcup (gratz scoobz0r), a great afterparty in Amsterdam, where AgamemnonZ taught a random drunk dude bunnyhopping (isn’t the wsw.nl scene the most friendly community ever?).

Anyway, for more coverage, see the following links:

Warsow.net frontpage

Warsow.net forums writeup

Warsownews

ESReality

Complete Gallery on Lovesow (all the photos taken)

And ofcourse the video I made out of the footage marrk has shot of the drunk guy:

(uneditted video)

This is a very old TDM map layout dezje drew for me ages ago. My first semi-serious-attempt at mapping, which failed horribly due to:

a) Constant changing of architecture (the plans changed with every new test of running around we did ), leaving me with the most messy technical state of a map ever.

b) Trying to improve visual details at a too early state in the mapping proces.

Which led to the map not being finished. Evar. It’s very old. Very, very old. Some day I might remake it completely otherwise dezje will be upset. BTW the map is orange. And unlit (I mean I added in temporary crap lights ;D). You can run around in it tho! It was a usefull experience.

;’D

[Download ETRdezjedm18.pk3]

Click on read more for some screenies!

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