Hey all, I've been working on a scene to get to grips with UE4 for my portfolio. I'm remaking the toilet from the start of Silent Hill 2.
(I couldn't quite figure out screenshots,so sorry about the gizmo)
Got any shots from the original? Looks pretty good, but I have a few critiques.
For one, I think the lighting is too bright and flat. There aren't any dark darks.
The floor is bothering me quite a bit; I think the water doesn't really read as water. I think you should only darken the red floor colour very slightly where it's wet, and increase the reflectivity. Right now, it doesn't really feel like water at all.
You're off to a great start I think, but it's definitely too bright. Silent Hill is all about dark, disgusting, and gloomy. The beginning scene was darker and dirtier, here's the part from the game in case anybody wanted to see some reference.
I can't wait to see this finished though, I loved Silent Hill 2 despite the fact that it gave me nightmares and caused me to be afraid of the dark for months.
Very cool. I like the textures and the grunge on the walls and stuff. I agree with Joopson on the water. I can't judge on the lights though as I am new to lighting, I use Leadwerks game engine and I am currently making a dark, horror game myself and need to fix up my own lights :P
I think you should work on the lightning setup, the atmosphere isn't scary at all. But I guess it should be? (Since it's based on Siltent Hill) ATM it's to well lit to be scary. At least that's my opinion...
Just a quick question. Did you model these parts as a modular design? If so I would love to see a screen shot of how you've broken up the elements of the scene to make it modular.
I really like this and looking at the video reference I think its almost spot on.
My opinion is that the lighting is correct.The toilet scene to me doesn't need to feel ominous or scary its the point of origin for the game to start it should feel normal, not out of the ordinary.
There needs to be more decals of graffiti, debris and cracked tiles to give the room more character of a dirty public restroom.
My last suggestion is to watch the video or play the game and utilize the camera angles of the game to help sell the feeling of this particular scene.
From studying it a couple of times I notice that each shot is either above or below the player with interesting angles akin to a specter watching from the top of the wall down towards the player or a rat looking from the floor up towards the player maybe you could incorporate that into you renders?
Looks nice, like others have said though it is a little flat. One thing I'll add is while its nice and looks close to the original, the original is a PS2 game so don't be afraid to take the scene further and change it to what you think looks better. People will still recognise and appreciate what its based on but you can also take it further into next gen Silent hill!
Ok, for an example of what I would want for the lighting, (it is all just opinion, after all) check out this paintover I just whipped up.
Might be a little on the dark side, but I liked the mood it created. Basically, darken corners of the room, brighten the light coming in, and simulate the bounced lighting (or use UE4's bounced lighting ( https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?530-How-to-enable-Light-Propagation-Volumes-GI-WIP-AND-BETA ).
Hey guys, thanks for all the responses, I'm happy to see that so many people are taking an interest in this
As per the advice of Joopson and others, I made the scene darker and more dramatic and also fixed the water, making it less opaque like oil. The effect is actually similar to the paintover Joops kindly supplied -m my main concern is lighting the mirror area naturally, as that is an important area in the environment.
For the water, I learned that UE4's decals were too faint for the liquid under the urinals by themselves, but had the reflectivity I need, so I made a plane with the same water texture but translucent and overlayed them. Seems legit, I know :0
I also added the toilets for the stalls after a day of texturing; again, I feel the stalls are a bit too dark now, but I'll see where it goes.
And here's a render of said toilet, if you were interested:
Again, thanks for the response and keep your critique coming Next step is to add more wear, debris etc to the walls.
Edit; Yeah Joopson, it is a modular design. The tiles and toilets etc are all meshes, and I use a lot of edge decals etc to disguise the BSP walls and floor somewhat.
After a couple days' inactivity, here's my progress. I sculpted the new broken wall and added posters, broken tiles, etcetera. Just a bit more of a push and I can finish this. What do you think?
I think you need a little work on your material definitions, the urinals are coming off very flat and matt looking whereas the tiles are very reflective and glossy, even though that are both ceramic.
I think figuring out UE4's materials will be a great help with this scene, as it is coming off very flat, as if it's a diffuse only pass.
You should check out the Reflection Subway map that I did for UE4. It has a floor material all set up to vert paint water on there that should help you out.
It looks like your tiles are getting odd reflections, and also you can see your point light reflecting in the mirror ;p You can fix that by taking down the roughness on the point light. I would rely on more of the natural light coming from the outside to light the area and tone down the intensity of the lightbulb inside. Up the indirect bounces on the outdoor light if you need to. It will give you a softer, more natual lighting look and will also look nicer with the fog
Also, the tile material in the Subway is set up to vertex paint grime, as well as being able to paint between regular and broken versions of the tiles. If you try replacing the tile Material Layers with a couple of different nice tiling concrete material layers, I think it will help with resolution on the walls. It might give you a better idea on how to use Material Layers with vertex painting to get some pretty cool results.
Keep it up though... Silent Hill 2 is one of my favorite games, and would love you to see this thing through!
Looks good ! Silent Hill 2 is really my favorite of the episodes, nice to see this scene from the beginning.
At first I though that your scene was too white but after checking some actual screenshots of the game you're pretty close to the value of the original scene.
However your darker areas should be more dark, you'll get something more dirty and creepy looking. Why not make these neon tubes dirty also, with stuff inside ? Could be nice.
Thanks for the critique guys, i'll take it all into consideration. I'm going to try vertex painting and changing the floor a bit following your advice Kernersvillain; also that environment is really cool Gonna try fixing up the toilets too, so thanks for the critique
Sorry for the delay, fellow Polycounters. I've been distracted, but returned adamant to finish up the scene. I looked at Kernersvillain's lovely demo and picked up some tips. I also took JustGarry's advice and boosted my spec on the assets.
And here I emulate an establishing shot from the game(dof is too crazy, I know);
On looking at these shots, I can see that I need to make the light more contrasting and V{ the walls, but that aside, any critique? I'll be happy
Thanks for feedback.....I was contemplating adding a bit more to it, in terms of graffiti etc. Any thoughts/ideas? I was going to add more trash and graffiti.
Replies
For one, I think the lighting is too bright and flat. There aren't any dark darks.
The floor is bothering me quite a bit; I think the water doesn't really read as water. I think you should only darken the red floor colour very slightly where it's wet, and increase the reflectivity. Right now, it doesn't really feel like water at all.
I also think the tiles are a bit on the big side.
I'll enjoy seeing more work you do on it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg2RnKPUrDs&feature=player_detailpage#t=107
I can't wait to see this finished though, I loved Silent Hill 2 despite the fact that it gave me nightmares and caused me to be afraid of the dark for months.
Keep going with this one though looks great!
Can't wait to see more Keep it up.
My opinion is that the lighting is correct.The toilet scene to me doesn't need to feel ominous or scary its the point of origin for the game to start it should feel normal, not out of the ordinary.
There needs to be more decals of graffiti, debris and cracked tiles to give the room more character of a dirty public restroom.
My last suggestion is to watch the video or play the game and utilize the camera angles of the game to help sell the feeling of this particular scene.
From studying it a couple of times I notice that each shot is either above or below the player with interesting angles akin to a specter watching from the top of the wall down towards the player or a rat looking from the floor up towards the player maybe you could incorporate that into you renders?
Might be a little on the dark side, but I liked the mood it created. Basically, darken corners of the room, brighten the light coming in, and simulate the bounced lighting (or use UE4's bounced lighting ( https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?530-How-to-enable-Light-Propagation-Volumes-GI-WIP-AND-BETA ).
Also, darken deeper in the room more.
As per the advice of Joopson and others, I made the scene darker and more dramatic and also fixed the water, making it less opaque like oil. The effect is actually similar to the paintover Joops kindly supplied -m my main concern is lighting the mirror area naturally, as that is an important area in the environment.
For the water, I learned that UE4's decals were too faint for the liquid under the urinals by themselves, but had the reflectivity I need, so I made a plane with the same water texture but translucent and overlayed them. Seems legit, I know :0
I also added the toilets for the stalls after a day of texturing; again, I feel the stalls are a bit too dark now, but I'll see where it goes.
And here's a render of said toilet, if you were interested:
Again, thanks for the response and keep your critique coming Next step is to add more wear, debris etc to the walls.
Edit; Yeah Joopson, it is a modular design. The tiles and toilets etc are all meshes, and I use a lot of edge decals etc to disguise the BSP walls and floor somewhat.
I think figuring out UE4's materials will be a great help with this scene, as it is coming off very flat, as if it's a diffuse only pass.
It looks like your tiles are getting odd reflections, and also you can see your point light reflecting in the mirror ;p You can fix that by taking down the roughness on the point light. I would rely on more of the natural light coming from the outside to light the area and tone down the intensity of the lightbulb inside. Up the indirect bounces on the outdoor light if you need to. It will give you a softer, more natual lighting look and will also look nicer with the fog
Also, the tile material in the Subway is set up to vertex paint grime, as well as being able to paint between regular and broken versions of the tiles. If you try replacing the tile Material Layers with a couple of different nice tiling concrete material layers, I think it will help with resolution on the walls. It might give you a better idea on how to use Material Layers with vertex painting to get some pretty cool results.
Keep it up though... Silent Hill 2 is one of my favorite games, and would love you to see this thing through!
At first I though that your scene was too white but after checking some actual screenshots of the game you're pretty close to the value of the original scene.
However your darker areas should be more dark, you'll get something more dirty and creepy looking. Why not make these neon tubes dirty also, with stuff inside ? Could be nice.
And here I emulate an establishing shot from the game(dof is too crazy, I know);
On looking at these shots, I can see that I need to make the light more contrasting and V{ the walls, but that aside, any critique? I'll be happy