It has happened.

It's earily days yet, of course, I'm still barely begining to work out the normal, scale and material quirks that occur on export so don't expect to see it moving, shooting and talking just yet but it has happened... there is a Dalek in the Fallout universe. I will need to fix the textures, normals and replace the wire on that gun arm with something thicker and then move on to basic rigging.

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/64/dalekreallyalphais2.jpg

Additionally @ the above poster: There will be a story, though the story will be mostly, "A dalek has arrived, we're all screwed unless it can be killed".

This is a proper Doctor Who http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adk1ujjmguo.

Whooooooooooooooa - bloody good stuff!

It continues!
http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/222/dalekalphacontxr6.jpg
Modified materials, shape etc. etc. and annoyingly I'm having no luck rigging it right now but hey, it's coming along.

Just inspecting the image my to-do currently includes:
- Closing a few seams in the shape
- Replacing that eyescope texture
- Refining the 'polycarbide/dalekanium' normal map to something less streaky
- Working on the lights in more detail, (bulbs etc.)
- Fixing the occasional missing polys lost in export
- Remapping the bumps
- Tweaking the neck mesh texture
- Reworking the ugly gun and rubber textures
- Fixing the misaligned scope
etc.

But hey, it's still looking pretty sweet IMHO.

It looks freaking fantastic. Keep up the good work! Looking forward to this like crazy.

What is with all these requests to add elements from overrated games and shows into Fallout lately?

Trolling or not I feel I should ask - lately? Y'know Fallout 1 had the TARDIS in it as default, right? Or FO2's Star Trek Shuttle? And that there's some HP Lovecraft Mythos in Fallout 3? Besides, The Doctor and the Daleks have been around since 1963 and fit the FO universe really well, (especially considering the original daleks *needed* high radiation levels to survive.) It's not as if I'm adding some Final Fantasy characters. It's a sci-fi element that equates to the brain-in-a-dome robots, a creature created by nuclear and chemical war devastating a planet, it's a radioactive mutant engineered to perfection and loaded with soft-science technology. Its look is tonally appropriate, its sounds are tonally appropriate, its story is tonally appropriate no matter which of the two backgrounds you believe. Tell me how that doesn't belong in the Fallout universe.

It fits the gameplay element too, its unique vunerabilities and strengths make it play-appropriate. No matter what level you are taking down a Dalek will be a real challenge. No scaling, no nerfing required. From a mechanics perspective it is also very well suited to Fallout 3; charging it with a gun or even trying to snipe it is a one-way ticket to death. It'll require cunning, it'll require a surrounding quest that makes use of the existing Fallout 3 universe.

The Dalek is modern mythology defined, as a name it has entered the Oxford English Dictionary amongst others and as a creature it has been a cultural phenomenon. It is a creature that has had games, songs, stage plays, toys, musicals, telelvision shows, comics, novels, radio shows and movies built around it. It is a part of our language and culture, you might as well ask why Oblivion included Vampires or why J Edgar Hoover appears to be head of Enclave security and HAL/Deep Thought is its president.

In conclusion: It fits.

Back to the project!

The good news? It's getting rigged. A very nice forum member has joined the effort and applied their talents to giving us a fully moving, functional Dalek. The materials are being fixed too, it's looking great and I'd upload a shot if I were actually home right now...

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/622/dimuu8.jpg
And here we are, an update! I'm still trying to get the perfect material balance which is tricky with NIFSKOPE's plethora of unexplained facets but it's looking way better with each passing step. (The neck mesh may need a slightly more noticable map, the metal may need buffing slightly for being too gray and the lights need tweaking but hey, it's progress.) Additionally, I do intend to thicken the collar slats, extend the skirt backwards and extend the scope for more authenticity once it's been rigged.

You DO realize that DALEKS first came about in 1963?

probably about 40 years since you've been born?

What's that got to do with anything? Doctor Who ran from the 60s to the mid-80s, was still on when I was a kid. And a few years ago new series of Doctor Who started, once again featuring Daleks as one of the enemies. So... the fact they were created in the 1960s is... nope, can't see what you are getting at.

Did you even play Fallout 2?

Lets not get off track here people. The guy isnt interested in the mod, so he shouldnt really need to give input. He's simply trying to get a rise. I for one cannot wait for Sterling's Dalek. It's going to be ruddy awesome. Whats the prog so far then? Is it just a mesh, or is it rigged yet?

I'm the guy sorting out the skeleton/rigging/animations. I'm currently in the process of optimising the mesh and chopping it into pieces to make the whole rigging workflow really easy. I'm hoping that I'll be able to cut out the rigging step entirely and instead just prn attach bits of the model to the skeleton instead. That would mean that changes can be made to the model without it having to be re-rigged.

Fine game. The pop culture references didn't improve it, though.

It's a shame though that while people are working to get Daleks into the game, noone seems willing to finish the Advanced Power Armor model from Fallout 2.

To each his own I suppose.



Would it be at ALL possible to eventually PLAY as a Dalek? I know it would totally wreck the game but something to do just for fun.

I'm not that interested in modifying existing components slightly when there are entire new creatures, features and quests that can be made. Sure, I loved FO2 and think the power armour looked cool but the Dalek is something special, probably the most iconic sci-fi creature there is outside Wells' martians.

Anyways, as previously stated all y'all who are waiting for this mod be sure to send much love NickOp's way for his work to make it possible. I've not learned rigging yet and can't find any particular tutorials. In the meantime I'm working on materials, (updated a good 4 or 5 times a day), the dalek gun, (starting to look quite fantastic if I do say so myself) and sounds.

If you need sounds sorting, I'd be more than willing to help. Just out of curiosity, what prompted you to go for the Cushing/60's model as opposed to the more recent "Bling" effect?

A combination of things really, but mostly because whilst I thought the movies totally missed the mark the general shape of the daleks, (claw aside) was quite appealing. I do need one sound effect sorted but it's something I'm more looking for ideas or suggestions on than premade files. Y'see I've done research in to how the dalek voice was achieved and managed to more or less perfect that effect in Audacity and now my attention has turned to the misc effects.

Additionally to avoid legal entanglements and to keep this project from getting shut down I'm not using any sounds, images or other resources from the series or any other copyrighted source. The mesh, textures, sounds etc. are all scratch made or in the case of a couple of sounds built from public domain resources.

Hows this going Liz?

The dalek is being rigged and animated at the moment and the extermination effect is being perfected so there's not much to show right now but it's coming along well.

:) any sort of update? I wouldn't mind opting as a play-tester if the chance comes around

It's rigged and ready to be animated, but I've not had the time to do the animation recently. There are a few things I need to research before I can really start animating as I'm used to the export workflow for Oblivion, which is slightly different from FO3. Hopefully I'll be able to get that done over the easter holidays.

I suppose you could use the Eyebot animations, adapted.

Indeedy, or Mr Gutsy's?

Not really - I couldn't see either work particularly well in their current state as the dalek has various parts that move in ways that using the existing animations wouldn't achieve. It would be much quicker and produce better results to make the animations from scratch than to edit the existing ones. Making the animations isn't the problem, it's just finding the time to do so and setting up an efficient export workflow.