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[CE3] Fort Highness & Valley

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polycounter lvl 9
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ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
Hi Polycount :poly142:!

[Heavy Loading]

It's about time I tackle to something new in my free time! It's been nearly 5 months since my last big environment which was based off LOTR's Helms Deep. All the characters dudes are going to have their DW5 anyway.

Note: I moved the project to CE3 and that may explain confusion in following posts.

Note2: This map project is now done, here's the final screen shots following:



finalshot_cam2.jpg

finalshot_cam4.jpg

finalshot_cam5.jpg

finalshot_cam6.jpg

finalshot_cam8.jpg

finalshot_cam10.jpg

finalshot_cam12.jpg

finalshot_cam13.jpg

finalshot_cam14.jpg

finalshot_cam15.jpg


And a timelapse I made modelling one of the assets..

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FBCTI4MLMo"]Cliff model timelapse Part 1 - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4zjkvxUQnY"]Cliff model timelapse Part 2 - YouTube[/ame]

Replies

  • d1ver
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    d1ver polycounter lvl 14
    Do it!) I'm excited to see more stuff from you Vincent.
    No ideas from me so far. Just curious to see you inspirations, to know more what what you're shooting for.

    cheers
  • Mr_Paris
    You should consider posting your inspirational images & reference as well as any color studies you might have in mind :)
  • cholden
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    cholden polycounter lvl 18
    If I reply to this thread it becomes bolded so I can quickly find it again.
  • jimmypopali
    Deff. following. Good start.
  • PogoP
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    PogoP polycounter lvl 10
    Cool idea but.. It does seem really similar to your other environment. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to work on something else?
  • XRevan23
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    XRevan23 polycounter lvl 15
    can't wait to see this project's progression
  • Snader
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    Snader polycounter lvl 15
    I think the brown elements are a bit disorganized. There's also no significantly sized open area. I think if you arrange the brown a bit more neatly along the walls it should fix things.
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    Snader: Indeed, the little houses in the court are messy at the moment. I plan to lay them out properly after I get a first walk into it with UDK. I should export the blockout soon.

    XRevan23, jimmypopali: Thanks, always good to hear interest!

    PogoP: It is indeed similar, but at work we work on modern/urban era environments withs Crysis2 and I really dont want to do more urban when back home if you see what I mean. I did some sci-fi like for the Beatemup contest and didnt want to go for it again neither :) I'll try to make it different from Helms Deep as much as I can in multiple aspects!

    cholden: Cool to see you around. How does this bolded title stuff works? I don't seem to have this in my own polycount.

    Mr_Paris, d1ver:
    just edited the first post with some inspiration, tho it'll take the full potential when I reveal the terrain blockout.

    I should get the broadband on Thursday so this should speed up my process grealty. :thumbup:
  • EMC3D
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    EMC3D polycounter lvl 7
    Looking forward to this Mr Paroxum, from the inspiration reference I can see how this may turn out knowing you and your work so far, very exciting.

    On a side note how is Nottingham ;)?
  • divi
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    divi polycounter lvl 12
    subscribed... again...
    curse you!
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    Nottingham is nice currently, it's been sunny for three days in a row, quite impressive for UK weather.

    I finally have broadband at home, time to start doing kick ass stuff.

    06273125cc9bfd820dceeda37bdcb.jpg

    85f80225098338990427023675d51.jpg

    What you can see here is first tests of the block-out terrain cliffs and castle, I still have to model the path to the fortress, which will be easy with soft selection and stuff. Everything's temporary still, but this gives you a better sense of scale hopefuly :)
  • scotthomer
    Yep, i can see this being really, really cool.
    You going to drop it into Cryengine?

    Anyway, ive subscribed.
  • gsokol
    Looks like a good start. I'm digging the rocks so far. I hope this ends up as badass as Helm's Deep was. Good luck!
  • PogoP
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    PogoP polycounter lvl 10
    Nice work Paroxum! How are you going about making your terrain?
  • mkandersson
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    mkandersson polycounter lvl 7
    Awsome! Will follow this for sure!
    Btw can we have a closer shot of it? thanks!
  • Swizzle
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    Swizzle polycounter lvl 15
    Looking good so far. Are you using the latest UDK? They put tessellation and the new terrain system into the newest version, so it should have what you need.
  • Joopson
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    Joopson quad damage
    Oh, god, yes please!
    Loved Helm's deep. Can't wait for more.

    [Edit]: Just checked out your portfolio. Man, I love it all.
  • jimmypopali
    Swizzle wrote: »
    Looking good so far. Are you using the latest UDK? They put tessellation and the new terrain system into the newest version, so it should have what you need.

    I was thinking this when I saw the terrain, although he did use a static mesh for the terrain in his LOTR piece, this could always be zbrushed/mudbox'd.
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    Thanks guys for the cheering me up,

    I've got a good and a bad news:

    The Bad: I'm probably going to enter the BRAWL contest enviro comp.

    The Good: I'm probably going to enter the BRAWL contest enviro comp!!!

    So in the meantime I'll put this on hold, it's not like it's not going to be finished. I'll come back to it. Which is a good thing since tessellation is pretty fucked up on the UDK at the moment anyway.
  • fearian
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    fearian greentooth
    I had a feeling this would happen! It is GOOD NEWS! Go get your brawl on! :D
  • mixeh
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    mixeh polycounter lvl 8
    oh man! the mountain looks so good! can you please explain how you achieved that really good rocky looking effect in zbrush, i'm amazed!
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    mixeh, using a combination of claytubes/planar and custom alphas.
  • mixeh
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    mixeh polycounter lvl 8
    thanks paroxum! you wouldn't be able to post a screenshot of your settings would you :$, i'm trying my hardest and I can't replicate it, it's more square and chiseled, and not so lumpy... arghhhh
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    mixeh, use it in combination with the smooth brushes.


    Long time no update in this thread, I decided to dedicate one day to the DX11 tests for this piece, as it's going to be an important feature of it.

    Made my way through the still buggy UDK tessellation and was able to get this:

    valley_003.jpg
    valley_004.jpg
    valley_005.jpg
    valley_006.jpg

    Pics straight from the editor, as you can see, there's the famous UV seams that come with displacement, and that's not sexy.
  • Serp
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    Serp polycounter lvl 17
    Imagine climbing up that rock to attack in total war
  • mkandersson
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    mkandersson polycounter lvl 7
    Glad you're back and with a sexy mountain as well. Keep going!
  • Jeff Parrott
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    Jeff Parrott polycounter lvl 19
    Looking great so far man. Anxious to see some textures and lighting.
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    It's been a long time now since I updated this thread! I came back to it, finally. Been thinking my portfolio was lacking some CE3 environment and I wanted to play with the editor at home for a while. :)

    SO, here it is, project reboot, I'm going for a more orient styled castle rather that the classic european stones.

    I have no blockouts to show actually, just a few modular walls that are still work in progress, hence the huge triangle waste at some places.

    Fully optimized segment is around 1550 tris, and the others around 2.5k-4k (bent ones). 5 textures at the moment, everything tilable.

    valley_007.jpg
    valley_008.jpg
    valley_009.jpg

    Comments and critiques really appreciated guys :)

    By the way, if a kind moderator can change the topic name and remove the [UDK], he/she will get cookies.
  • ayoub44
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    ayoub44 polycounter lvl 10
    look great dud , can't wait to see more of that :D
  • Oniram
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    Oniram polycounter lvl 15
    very cool. i like how you have a few bricks actually sticking out on the walls, but in the first image it seems a bit too repetitive.

    also you can see a seam in the second picture toward the top right, on the window.
  • Visceral
    Im really excited for this :D followed your helms deep progression closely, this will probably be moore epic than that. cant cant cant cant wait !
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    Thanks guys, I'd like to add more triangles at some places but I'd like to optimize my meshes more during this project, than I did in the past. Apart from support geometry for the shading and vertex color I'll try and keep meshes low.


    How is the CE3?

    Well, it's extremely powerful in its lighting, no need to make UV2 stuff on all your models, the IBL is great, better SSAO and soon the SSDO coming, I dont know, the engine is so good for iterating globally it's a time saver compared to the UDK. I can in one button check my model ingame which I would regret now if I had to re-import every time in UDK. Same goes for textures. And I certainly forget features.

    And yeah, the sticking bricks are at the moment the same repeated over each asset, I need to fine tune this.

    I find the main stone brick texture quite a bit boring at the moment, too. I'll have one more pass on it. Thing is, I'm always afraid to create too much patterns in it when doing that.


    Edit: Added pics of updated assets, wires.

    valley_012.jpg
    valley_011.jpg
    valley_010.jpg
    valley_013.jpg
  • nordahl154
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    nordahl154 polycounter lvl 9
    (Referring to your first WIP pictures)
    How do you plan on making a smooth transition from your plateau mesh to the normal terrain surrounding it?
    Also, if I understand correctly, tessellation increases the mesh's density the closer you get to it? And it applies displacement on the new higher density areas according to a height/displacement/diffuse map?

    Looks great by the way! Wasn't able to find the UV seam(s) upon first glance. Is it a common issue with tessellation?
  • Nix
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    Nix polycounter lvl 13
    I'm loving this atmosphere you've got going on already. Really looking forward to seeing this progress.

    If there was anything I'd say, it would be about the separating line where the walls meet the rock underneath (if you know what I mean). If it were me I would have the urge to push the vertical variation of it further, like have the side of a tower extend further down the mountainside or something. If that makes sense. But then again, it's not me, so. :D

    Great work!
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    nordahl154 wrote: »
    (Referring to your first WIP pictures)
    How do you plan on making a smooth transition from your plateau mesh to the normal terrain surrounding it?
    Also, if I understand correctly, tessellation increases the mesh's density the closer you get to it? And it applies displacement on the new higher density areas according to a height/displacement/diffuse map?

    Looks great by the way! Wasn't able to find the UV seam(s) upon first glance. Is it a common issue with tessellation?

    I was thinking of intersecting both terrain actor and static mesh shamelessly really.:poly124: I dont have the patience to make it snap in this case and would have hidden it with foliage/decals/whatsoever :poly136:

    For the tesselation in UDK it produces seams, yeah. But last time I checked on UDN which is like a month ago now, it said it was because the DX11 tesselation isnt final yet, or something. It shouldnt produce seams normaly.


    @Nix: thanks for the feedback, I assume you commented on the previous pages terrain? If so, I might be doing something different now in CE3 since the same workflow is not possible for the terrain. (You're not playing with nodes for materials and it doesn't export UV2 for separate tiling).
  • Nix
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    Nix polycounter lvl 13
    Oh! I think I missed the part where you said you were actually going with a completely different design, I thought you were still going to go with the same basic layout. My bad!

    Is it still going to be a mountain fortress? I love those. :D
  • cholden
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    cholden polycounter lvl 18
    Aw nice, cryengine 3! I was wondering why this was rendered so well. Lots of great console commands to help you along as well.
  • polygonfreak
    Nix wrote: »
    Oh! I think I missed the part where you said you were actually going with a completely different design, I thought you were still going to go with the same basic layout. My bad!

    Is it still going to be a mountain fortress? I love those. :D

    Thats to say udk sucks?

    do you happen to have any textures to show off... I love seeing how other people create there textures for modulars.

    Thanks
  • ayoub44
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    ayoub44 polycounter lvl 10
    love the brick . did you make it on zbrush ( tiling one ) or just using PS to make normal map ?
    and just a little question wath is your grid setting on max ?
    good luck :)
  • Coridium
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    Coridium polycounter lvl 10
    Look forward to seeing this progress!

    Particularly Interested to see what kind of mood you go for on this one. Good luck!
  • toxic_h2o
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    toxic_h2o polycounter lvl 8
    I just want to say I love your work. Looking forward to seeing this finished!!!
  • ParoXum
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    ParoXum polycounter lvl 9
    More done today, not a lot, but still, few more meshes like the slope one, 90in and 90out blocks. I still need to add stairs to the slope block.

    As polygonfreak asked, here's a picie of the textures used at the moment (originally 2048 - nothing special here, and most can still be refined I think):

    valley_015.jpg

    valley_014.jpg

    @Nix: It's still about a mountain fortress, yes. What would an exterior enviro be without mountains :poly142:

    ayoub44: brick texture was made from a single stone sculpt, assembled in max and baked. High frequencies such as cracks are crazybumped and then mixed.

    Trim texture was fully zbrushed. Oh and grid setup is centimeters with meter display. Would have been another for UDK, like generic units and a grid step each 32 or 64.

    I am not sure yet of the mood I want. The only thing I am sure of is the set. I want this big mountain peak with the castle on it, huge lush waterfalls, if only I could print the picture I have in my mind.:)

    @toxic_h2o: cheers!
  • scotthomer
    Looking swish Vincent, those texture flats are sexy.
  • jimmypopali
    Looking so great, can't wait to see the progress!
  • Oniram
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    Oniram polycounter lvl 15
    awesome textures. have they all gone through zbrush? i really love the dirt. :D
  • Alberto Rdrgz
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    Alberto Rdrgz polycounter lvl 9
    Looks awesome dood! love the modularity.
  • mkandersson
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    mkandersson polycounter lvl 7
    Oh and grid setup is centimeters with meter display. Would have been another for UDK, like generic units and a grid step each 32 or 64
    I read that in CE2 a 100 generic units in max was equal to 1 meter in sandbox. Is it the same in CE3 or have they changed it?

    Looking great so far man! Will have my eyes on this one
  • KazeoHin
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    KazeoHin polycounter lvl 8
    Ah, CE3, I was like "OMG LOOK AT THAT WATER, HOW THE...?"
  • Gooner442
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    Gooner442 polycounter lvl 6
    Looking forward to seeing this develop, I loved that Helms deep stuff. Definitely need to break up the texture and add some dirt but you know that, you work for Crytek!..

    Just wanted to ask what is the learning curve for CE3?, I'm not a technical artist so I'm hoping you tell me it's pretty user friendly.... for material creation as well? + the fact that it doesn't have the tutorial library that UDK has.

    ....and is there not such a reliance on using the grid, as in UDK?
  • Minos
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    Minos polycounter lvl 16
    Looks like a very efficient use of assets, good stuff. Subscribing!
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