Glacier Enviornment WIP
polycounter lvl 15
Wanted to do a cool next gen enviornment for the portfolio.
Sitting at 1,173 Tris, 1x1024 normal and diffuse.
Here is the my reference . Just started this weekend, but want this piece to help get me a job, so harsh crits are encouraged. Btw, I know the uv layout sucks. Advice? UV layout
Sitting at 1,173 Tris, 1x1024 normal and diffuse.
Here is the my reference . Just started this weekend, but want this piece to help get me a job, so harsh crits are encouraged. Btw, I know the uv layout sucks. Advice? UV layout
Replies
I honestly wouldn't even think of working on something this size from this distance. Get down into the scene (like your reference does) and detail out the environment from there.
Feel free to put some triangles in there. Carve out the terrain (like the reference) and that will help your texture repeat better. In fact, go with a 2048 for the dirt and a 2048 for the ice stuff.
If you wanted to actually do the scene like your reference I wouldn't expect anything less than 20k triangles at LEAST. Even if you were using the terrain editor in UE3 you would be hard pressed to get less than that for something this size.
Remember "Next Gen" is 2-3 years from now. What we have now is "This Gen". Look at open terrains in games "This Gen" and see how they are doing things.
I'd also break the ice off as a separate piece.
Hourences has a pretty decent tutorial on how to bring together a UT3 map, but he builds a cave/rock-like structure and he really doesn't hold back on the polys/tri's. He even states in the tutorial that the final mesh ended up with a lot more polys than whats in those screenshots. And one thing that I've learned from the people around here when building rock is don't be afraid to cut more detail in.
Also of note there is how he created his rock texture and used vertex colours to blend that with a sand texture. It's a technique I'm still learning, but it might be worth checking out!
No environment of this size would use a laid out flat UV map.
[/ QUOTE ]
They are in ET: Quake Wars
The whole landscape is uv-mapped as a single piece... so it's definitely doable.
However as Jesse said it's likely that you'll want a different shader for the ice than the rocks so it makes sense to split it up anyway.
It's also better to try and figure out how to use tiling textures effectively since that is what you'll be using the majority of the time in games.
Not that it isn't done, mind you, but I would really be impressed to see how the color map holds up resolution-wise. It would be wiser to break it up with the geometry and have a nice high res repeating texture IMO. (If I'm completely missing some technique, feel free to show me:))
Glacier ref
Glacier ref
Glacier ref
Glacier ref
More reference to help you out. Cool subject matter but the ref you chose was sorta boring and tiny.
Choose "Refinery" from the drop-down list, then look at the hills in the top right, zoom in to highest level...
Each terrain there was unwrapped in the 0-1 space and uniquely textured (although not really handpainted... that would be silly).
Agreed that good, interesting reference images will really help this. You've picked a fairly tough subject but if you pull it off it should be a great portfolio piece!
Also, here's a tutorial for how to do that sort of stuff: http://wiki.splashdamage.com/index.php/An_Advanced_Terrain_and_Megatexture
Might be useful for you, Cody.
@MoP - Sweet tutorial! Thanks. Starting over now. That map looks sweet!
@IronHawk - Thanks for the ref, man.
@Jesse and ott - started to break it up and detail below
@Saidin311 - The white parts were lighter rock, was starting detail.
Anyway, I'm going to start over with that sweet tut from MoP, but this was what I was working on today. Wire link below.
Added some lighting. Bottom image is a top left close up.
I made a tiled texture with a mix map.
WIRES
Check into using world machine like the tut says for adding some realistic erosion.
I demand more!