UT3 Map - CTF-Angkhan

Ryan Smith

Hey guys, under 3 weeks until deadline... still struggling away but i think I'll be able to do it.

beta will be up a week from Wednesday if anyone wants to check it out.


Anyways i thought I'd just grab some C and C from you guys if u have time about the graphical aesthetics so far...

Directions i plan on going with this are more intense natural lighting from the sun... i want to put more holes in the ceilings where light can shine down and bounce around. also i plan on really breaking up the walls and floors and ceilings with foliage meshes and vines.

It's tough to break up the monotony of textures with such little time...all the assets in the level are custom, created in zbrush, max, and photoshop. I've merged riki bobbington's workflow with my own so the assets take alot of time to make, but they look so much better than what i used to be popping out

Let me know whatcha think :-)

Wilex

For your repeating textures i think there's an easy solution. From what i remember when i was poking around in some UT3 and gears of war levels the projected grunge maps onto their tiling textures to break them up. Or you could do the splat or sticker technique of just having a plane with an alpha to break them up as well.

With the additions you're going to make it should be pretty sweet.

Lee3dee

Since this is CTF would it be possible to see the layout of the map is this for the Make Something Unreal contest?

Ryan Smith

haven't thought about the make something unreal contest... the original level layout has changed quite a bit so i need to make a new one... i have to redo the plans for the middle because what i planned out cannot be accomplished due to time constraints... furthermore during our block test the levels size was way to big, so i am scaling down the distance in between the bases. i'll make an updated blueprint soon... or i'll just grab a screen of brush view in unreal ed.

mLichy

The lighting almost seems like it's not turned on for certain screenshots. I think you need alot more variation in lighting meaning not just big areas of light and dark, but more smaller areas of light. Some spots seem blown out as well. But the texturing looks pretty good, and the map looks interesting, just needs better lighting imo.

Ryan Smith

Thanks for the comments mLichy...

Changed the lighting a bit... added some new meshes and some vegetation


Heres a screen of the lighting, and then with textures

AimBiZ

Interesting. I would love to see more variation on the floor. Right now it seems you use the same texture everywhere. You could have a second one going through the midle of the corridors and between the pillars in the big room, those paths were people would walk the most.
Some minor height variation on the floor would do alot. Since it's an ancient structure the floor could be slightly bent downwards, just to create variation.

Also I would suggest having another type of supportmodule in the corridor(s) to add to the variety. Some edge trims along the bottom of the walls would be good as well.

Otherwise, it's coming along nicely. Haven't got anything to add on the texturing part.

Ryan Smith

Some updates on assets and lighting

dale22x

looks good..but doesn't' seem to have any points of interests..maybe some a big statues or something....this looks good but it's basically just a bunch of hall ways and pillars

Wilex

The textures look low res to me for some reason. Also you might want to rotate some of those pillars so the texture and wear arn't repeated.

I agree it needs a point of interest. Maybe something with water and emitters. If you look at the Unreal 3 levels they reuse assets scaling and placing them in ways they weren't initially meant for just to create more structure and interest in the enviornment. Even in places where only a small section of the asset is visible.

Ryan Smith

dale and wilex... good points. I am fully aware of this. Since all of the assets are my own creation i am prioritizing structural meshes to be created first, such as wall panels, support beams, and floor panels first. After i have those in place i will start on decorative meshes... from things like hanging cloth, to foliage (i threw the vines in there cause i wanted some green to look at for the time being :-)) to statues. I have plans to throw in some really cool torch meshes... along with emitters there will be volumetric lighting as well.


I'm taking the creation of this map very seriously as i plan to use it in my portfolio.

Wilex, the textures may look low res cause i took the shots at high res and scaled down, also the textures on the meshes are 1024s... the BSP textures are 2048s though.

Wilex

Cool, well definatly give us some hi res shots for your final so we don't get reduced image quality and loss of detail. Keep up the progress, its coming along nicely.

Ozymandias

this is looking really promising. I think you are creating the atmosphere really well, and your new lighting is greatly improved. Keep up the good work.

Ryan Smith

Here's some Hi-Res Beauty Shots.... (image heavy)

oobersli

idk, but I think the painted areas look a tad bit too saturated. maybe fade them a bit and add some grime to compliment it as well.

Ryan Smith

hey oobsersli. Thanks for the feedback. I showed the guys in the IRC channel these and they all said the same thing. So after 4 iterations i finally got something everyone seemed to agree with.

I faded the paint and added a little bit of spec to it. I also added saturation variation for the approximation of true paint creation. O_o.

heh.

Thanks to Noel Cower, Flaagan, and Geezus for feedback on this topic.

Ryan Smith

Update... map is due tomorrow night so i crammed the environment in.

Trying to get it optimized.

buddikaman

Looks alot better with the trees. Are you entering this into the MakeSomethingUnreal contest? for best map?

Scott Petty
Environment Artist
www.Buddikaman.com

Joao Sapiro

hey man, my only problem with this is that right now it seems a last gen map with bloom, the textures are very "muddy/mushy" and there isnt really any focus point, no interesting shapes tc, i understand that is ruins etc, but ruins if done well are quite interesting, i dont see any signs of humidity/vegetation that grows on ancient stuff, noly a pale green tone to the stuff, this looks good, but your missing like 50% of it this is also a wip i know, but be sure to add those details

http://www.imagesofanthropology.com/images/Inca_ruins_at_Chachabamba_Andes_Mts_Peru_copy.jpg
http://www.imagesofanthropology.com/Inca_civilization_of_Peru_South_America.html

LEViATHAN

Could use some debris/rubble on the floor to spice things up a bit.

Ryan Smith

No i dont think so. I mean i would need to have people play it and recommend it before entering it.

if you want to check out the beta you can download it at

www.virtuosicstudios.com/junk/CTF-Angkhan.zip


Thanks for the comments... i'm gunna make some foliage meshes and add them to some of the ground spots and along some of the pillars and whatnot.

I'm thinking about keeping this map unreleased and just kind of making a mini-enviornment to practice what real ruins should look like... then once i have that technique down i can reuse all the assets i made to do a nice deathmatch map or something.

AndyLittleton

Arctura000 wrote: »

Really starting to look awesome!

The paint still bugs me though, if the ruins are all crumbled and half-destroyed, you'd think that any signs of paint would have faded thousands of years ago.

Kinda looks like someone snuck into the ruins at night and splashed color all over certain areas on a whim.

Either than that, this looks really sweet and you lighting is coming along nicely

Agreed.

I would desature those colors that were painted in and erase some spots to show wear and fade. I would also increase the normal map intensity for the floor b/c they appear flat and not bumpy enough.

Overal great job on that environment. A hell of a lot better then the environments i've tried to attempt.

Neox

are those color areas supposed to be teamcolors? honestly i think ,they are destroying the mood, i'd try to find a better fitting way then just simple blue and red coloroverlay, maybe something engraved, can't say, but the way it is, isn't working for me

Kawe

I would try to make some floor brick models to break up that textured floor.

Ryan Smith

Yes, because the bases are symmetrical, there is honestly no way to distinguish between the two other than showing a bit of team color on the props.

I wouldn't like to have them in there, but gameplay > graphics when it comes to things like this. The best thing i can do is eliminate the colors in the middle of the map to get the true neutral colors to show.

I totally agree with the floor. It looks extremely flat and i'll be working on fixing this issue in the next build of the map.

The next build of this map, however will be a death match map so all that paint and shit will be gone...

what i have cooking up for my next environment will be the same theme, but it will be concentrating more on graphics, because honestly i don't think I'll be making it to be playable, but only to walk around in.

I'm gunna record a flyby of the map to show you guys who dont have UT3.