Cel Shading for anything, even HL!!!

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Hey, I noticed you guys were kind of behind other mods as far as visuals, especially with cel shading. I've been learning cel shading methods and plugins for a long time, as I'm an avid 3DSMax animator.

I don't suppose its possible with the half life engine to do a true cel shade. But there's a fake way to do it! Might be worth your while! As long as its 3D and supports (more than likely) single-sided materials, you can use this no-fail method of cel-shading your characters, and even environment!

Firstly, just make your materials 100% self illuminating.

Second, take your mesh, clone it (use reference, not copy or instance), add black material to clone, invert normals, and set push modifier to a negative value, like (-0.15).

That should give you a decent cel shade effect, tho you won't have shadows on characters because of illumination.
 
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Unfortunately that method also doubles the polycount of the models, which wouldn't be good for what the team is trying to achieve, which is making it so that esf can run on every computer. Even crappy ones.
 
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Hmm...well it didn't look good there. And of course it was using smooth-shade materials and the older characters, which are more suited with skinning than geometry anyway...maybe more compatible with v. 1.3 models?
 
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There is no diffrence in version since the team is not editing the half-life engine, they are just editing the game. The game will still have the same rendering engine.

The only diffrence is where the polys are to create the shape (and the skin). It will still look the same as it did before except for a new shape.
 
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well i have the say... i think cell shading or w/e is called looks bad.. it looks so fake and cartoony (i would preffer that budokai uses abit more releastic models also.. instead of those stupid black lines)
 
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Hey it may look bad to you in esf but in budokia it has alot of detail along witht eh cell shading. Besides I like these models I guess some people see it as undefined when others see it as smooth.
 

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Technically Dragonball Z is a cartoon made up of lines.
 
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If you ask me cel shading would be a nice thing to see in ESF.
That modelpack is a good start but the only thing missing in it is some animations(melee and swooping) :yes:
 
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shadowcast said:
If you ask me cel shading would be a nice thing to see in ESF.
That modelpack is a good start but the only thing missing in it is some animations(melee and swooping) :yes:

Well, thats because that modelpack was made for ESF 1.1, Not ESF 1.2.
ESF 1.1 has less animations then 1.2.;)
 
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But is there any other cellshading modelpacks 'cause those models really give you a small feeling of budokai...
 
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dragoballz boudakai 1 has the best graphics to me, as far as i know esf does not have cel-shading like boudakai 2-3, but it still would be cool if cell shading was possible
 
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How did Budokai 1 have the best graphics? They looked like action figures! The only way to see DBZ is cell shaded. I can stand ESF's lower par graphics for the sake that the modders are doing the best they can with the tools they've got, since Half Life is such an old game anymore. Of course I wish ESF could do it, but only if it was quality enough. If it can do it but it looks poorer that way, then obviously they should stick to smooth shade. The one thing I regret about games like Half Life is their inability to use true relfections, specular and glossiness changes to give objects a true look, but again, its an older game and the only way that can be simulated is by texture baking.
 
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I like the idea of cell shading, just make it an option if thats possible, but i don't know if that makes 2 models needed for each person, one celled and one normal cause that would suck. This couldn't be done in the FX scripting thingy, could it?
 
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FYI cellshading is more then just black outlines around a model

however, there was a pack like this for 1.1 I belive and it shouldnt be that hard to create a pack for 1.2 or 1.3 as well. but this is community stuff and not for official releases.
 

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