I saw this story via slashdot.

Members of the area Chinese community have rallied behind a Clements High School senior who was removed from the campus and sent to M.R. Wood Alternative Education Center after parents complained he’d created a computer game map of Clements.

So this kid, creates a mod for some FPS (First Person Shooter computer game like Doom or Quake) based on his school. Oh and he had a hammer.

The map the boy designed mimicked Clements High School. And, sources said, it was uploaded either to the boy’s home computer or to a computer server where he and his friends could access and play on it. Two parents apparently learned from their children about the existence of the game, and complained to FBISD administrators, who investigated.

“They arrested him,” Chen said of FBISD police, “and also went to the house to search.” The Lin family consented to the search, and a hammer was found in the boy’s room, which he used to fix his bed, because it wasn’t in good shape, Chen said. He indicated police seized the hammer as a potential weapon.

And he gets arrested and “removed from the campus”?

The thing is, while I was in DCU (Dublin City University) many years ago, I created two maps/mods for Quake, a very popular multi-player FPS at the time: CA Labs and Sports Hall. Both were based on buildings on the campus. (Since I did these mods, the buildings have changed quite drastically).

Am I a terrorist? Should I have been suspended from DCU for them? If I was living in America should I be expecting police officers to raid my home and if they find DIY tools, arrest me?

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This is a tutorial for creating new “skies” for the levels and maps for the computer game Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption.

It was originally written for ModHaven (when it was still around).

Have a look at my “Akashic Records” level for a sample of a new sky in a level.

Contents

• Assumptions
• Background Info
• Tools
• How to
• Troubleshooting

Assumptions

Background Info

Tools

How to

• Step 1. Deciding what you want to do

  Have an idea of what kind of sky you want. Say you want just to have a sky that doesn’t have that annoying
  black bit the the other default day skies have. Or perhaps you want to create a sunset rather then straight day.

  With this in mind, inspect the default skies and pick one that matchs as closely as possible to what you want. (I’ve posted a list of the default skies along with pictures on ModHaven to help you).

  But for the sake of completeness here is the list of the default skies avaliable:

  NAD file	NOD file
  PragueCastleNight.nad	PragueCastleNight.nod
  pragueDaySky.nad	pragueDaySky.nod
  pragueEastNight.nad	pragueEastNight.nod
  Prague2Night.nad	Prague2Night.nod
  Prague2NightVysehrad.nad	Prague2NightVysehrad.nod
  PragueWestDay.nad	PragueWestDay.nod
  PragueWestNight.nad	PragueWestNight.nod
  judithBridgeDay.nad	judithBridgeDay.nod
  judithBridgeNight.nad	judithBridgeNight.nod
  londonNightSky.nad	LondonNightSky.nod
  londontower.nad	londontower.nod
  newyorkdocks.nad	newyorkdocks.nod
  newyorkuptown.nad	newyorkuptown.nod
  ViennaDay1.nad	ViennaDay1.nod
  ViennaNight1.nad	ViennaNight1.nod
  ViennaSky.nad	ViennaSky.nod
  Sky.nad	Sky.nod

  For example, the default sky (sky.nod/sky.nad), covers fully and would be useful for maps “floating” in the sky but for a sunset it would be useless because it’s kinda blocky rather then from bottom to up.

• Step 2. Selecting your starting point

  Extract the sky’s nod file (using the list above) (from your Resource.NOB) into your Vampire directory including the subdirectories (which should give you the dir structure 3d\Models\*.nod).

  Open the nod file in your hex editor. You should see something like this (click on the image to see in full size):

  

  You’ll notice you can read several names at the top of the file (clouds1, moon, StarField2 and dfltMatte). These are the “skins” or textures for your sky.

  Extract the files with extensions tga and nam and with the same name from Resource.NOB into your Vampire directory including the subdirectories (which should give you the dir structure 3d\Materials). Open them in your paint
  program to get an idea of what they are. Now you should figure out how and what you want to change in the sky textures.

  Choose the textures you want to edit and copy them. Rename them, but for the sake of simplicity, keep the filenames the same length (example, rename clouds1.tga to myouds1.tga).

  If any of the textures you want to use have nam files you’re going to have to edit them, which isn’t difficult: After you’ve renamed, open up the nam file in
  any text editor you like. You should see at least one entry:

  texture name.tga

  where name.tga is the name of the original texture. Just change the entry to point to your renamed texture.

• Step 3. Lets go

  Copy the sky’s nod file and rename it. Such as mySky.nod or fulldarkSky.nod.

  Open it in your hex editor and for the textures you wish to modify, rename them (by replacing character by character).

• Step 4. Create your new sky!

  Modify the new textures (most skinning tutorials should apply here).

• Step 5. View your new sky!

  Assuming you have a map prepared, open it and open the scene editor. Go to sky and in the nod text field, put in the name of your nod file. For the nad file, take the nad file from the original unedited sky.

  Export your map and Walla!

• Step 6. Including your new sky with your exported map in a nob

  Package your map as normal for a release in a NOB file. Make sure to include the nod file you created and any of the new textures you created maintaining the correct directory structure in your NOB file.

Troubleshooting

Replace the dfltMatte texture (or that odd texture thats all black) with a transparent texture (refer to the MapDepo’s Dynamic FAQ avaliable on ModHaven on how
to create transparent/masked textures).
Walla, it’s gone.

For other problems, I suggest reading up on skinning and/or ask the skinners.

Originally posted 29^th June 2001

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This is a level for the, now truly dead, computer game Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption, based on White Wolf’s Vampire the Masquerade PnP (pen and paper) Roleplaying game.

It is meant to be the “Akashic Records”; a mystical umbral realm, a storehouse of all knowledge. A place travelled to through dreams and spirit quests. I was interested in supporting the Mage MOD that at one stage was gathering a lot of momentum.

A lot of people hit this page looking for images or drawings of the actual astral Akashic Records. However while I do dream, I’ve never visited this realm, if it exists, in a waking state. This level is actually inspired by the 1998 Robin Williams’ movie “What Dreams May Come”.

Download it!

Readme.txt

Akashic Records Map by The Dead One 24th June 2001 for Vampire the Masquerade – Redemptation Computer Game

Files

Map_TDO_AkashicRecords_Readme.txt – This file that your currently reading.
Map_TDO_AkashicRecords_Readme.nob – The file containing the Akashic Records map for Vampire the Masquerade – Redemptation Computer game.

Map Description

Akashic Records; a mystical umbral realm, a storehouse of all knowledge. A place travelled to through dreams and spirit quests. But the knowledge is locked in symbols and hidden meanings and the travellers only take what they need.

Instructions for use

Copy the file Map_TDO_AkashicRecords.nob to your Vampire directory. Start Vampire and go to Multiplayer > Lan. Go to Create New Game and select any of the below listed chronicles to view a variant of my map:

MP_TDO_AR_w_flying_null
MP_TDO_AR_base_null
MP_TDO_AR_wo_flying_null
MP_TDO_AR_eclipse_null

Map Notes

Inspired by the libary seen in the film “What dreams may come”. It’s meant to be an umbral/mystical libary.

There is a “darker” area at the back of the map which can be used to suggest leaving the libary and going into a darker place such as in the original movie “What Dreams May Come”

[AR2.nil] MP_TDO_AR_w_flying_null has invisible platforms to simulate flying/floating in this mystical place

[AR1.nil] MP_TDO_AR_base_null has semi-visible platforms to simulate flying/floating in this mystical place

[AR3.nil] MP_TDO_AR_wo_flying_null has none of the invisible platforms

[AR4.nil] MP_TDO_AR_eclipse_null has an eclipse for the sky and is a much darker version

The chronicles are not linked to any other maps but they each have four exits.

This is my first complete map for Vampire. I had intended to release a small chronicle with it to demostrate the possible use of the map but I’ve spent too many hours on it already. Hope you like it.

There are two new textures, one of which is a completely transparent one (for the invisible platforms). There are two new skys, one was meant to be a sunset but it’s weird enought to work, the other is meant to be an eclipse (I used a photo of the recent eclipse for it). If you want to know how I did this, go here.

I was tempted to use layers for the diffrent variants but I think it’s cleaner this way for those who wish to use the map in chronicles.

The map files are stored within the nob file. For compilation details you can see the log files which I left in the NOB file.

If you wish to use my maps in your chronicle go ahead. If you wish to use it a chronicle or hub you intended to release, either unmodified or not, please give me due credit by linking to my email, webpage or original download page on ModHaven.

Exit Ids [for LockExit]

“Main Entrance”: 0
“Left Door”: 1
“Middle Door”: 2
“Right Door”: 3

Possible Map Uses

As a starting point in a chronicle for a mystical quest or the end point of a quest finally reaching a place of all knowledge
A Tremere or Mage Chantry’s libary
A Digital Net database

Thanks to

* The makers of the film “What Dreams May Come” for inspiring me
* White Wolf for the roleplaying game “Mage”
* Nihilistic for the computer game “Vampire the Masquerade – Redepmtaion”
* Kinami for his tutorials on using Embrace
* MapDepo for the remains of the DynamicFAQ
* ModHaven for keeping the Vampire community alive
* WodMod for their hardworking and keeping me interested
* My Fiancee for letting spend hours working away on the computer
@ home Thanks *Super Bunny*!

Thanks for your attention! Enjoy!

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TankStorm was my third year project for Computer Apps in DCU.

It was devolped with Mark Greene.

It is an Applet game where you control a tank and it’s turret and must battle to the end of the single level.

Our examiners thought it was very good at the time (but that was a while back).

Go here to run it. You’ll need a large screen resolution (about 768 X 1024) though.

You can also grab the Game Manual (PDF 428k), Design Manual (PDF 361k) and TankStorm Source Code (zip 505k).

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