SciFi Prop//Appliance ???

punchface

Hey ladies and gents, how 'bout this:



First, the stats:

2206 tris
512 maps: Diffuse, Normal (w/Height), Spec (w/Gloss), Emissive

Toolset:
3ds Max, Photoshoooop, Topogun, Crazybump, Marmoset Teabag

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I don't know what the hell this thing is. Maybe it's a power generator? Maybe it's a localized climate control module? Maybe it's just a space heater? (lame) Maybe it's some kinda exotic field generator of some kind...whatever...it's an appliance. That handle on the top twists and pulls up a little bit to boot/start the unit to doing whatever it is that it does. The unit is about 28 inches or 71-72cm at the handle. So, it's kinda sorta about the same size as a large Igloo cooler or something like that.

The unit is mostly made of plastic and some kinda metal that's roughly equivalent to aluminum...but, y'know, cool and futuristic and stuff.

Oh, hey, wait, I know what the damn thing is! It's makes 'space beer', yeahhh, that's the ticket.

Anyway, I was inspired to try and create something small and quick and easy that would fit into the world depicted in Jason Stokes' concept art show here:

http://conceptrobots.blogspot.com/ (Homey's work isn't at the top anymore but still near the top).

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The finer points of normal and parallax mapping still escape me which is annoying.

Crits welcome, obviously.

pf

punchface

Mr. Dog12345,

Thanks for the response sir!

You're suggestions have planted the idea in my head that this thing is a drying unit for meat or uhh, leafy stuff (only to be used legally in Washington or Colorado!)

Seriously though, I do see this unit as a prop piece that is not meant to be 'center stage' or super important. Kinda like a crate or this guy here:

http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Covenant_Communication_Node

Topcross

I'd try localize the grunge in your texture more. Now it's a bit all over the place, instead try to place it where it makes sence: dirt in cavities, scratches on corners , ... .

Also, I bet it's just a really big high teck Coffee machine of some sorts :poly142:

punchface

Ha! Topcorss, a coffee machine, excellent!

For what it's worth sir, the way I started the dirt layer in my Photoshop working file was to stick my AO map into an Alpha channel and then select it...with that selection, I then started painting dirt...in this way, the darker the AO shadows (cavities, etc), the more dirt would collect...

...but then, because I didn't want the unit to be incredibly grimy, I erased most of the dirt. There is a little bit more dirt in the cavities but it's hard to see.

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Hey, I have a question for any industry pro who might read this...nowadays, if we are developing for high-end console titles or high end PC and we come to a place in our low-poly model development where by adding more polygons, we can save texture space...

...What's more important these days...smaller textures (or alternately, a more effficient uv pack) or lower polycounts?

pf

punchface

bumping not because I wanna be an attention-whore but because I know how much 'p and p' updates in a given day and consequently, how easy a thread can get buried. I think that the rule-of-thumb style question about polycount vs. texture size and UV packing etc. is a legit and "good" question and would like to give it another chance to get answered.

pf

Ghostscape

I would always optimize for better texture use unless given specific reasoning from a programmer on my current project to do otherwise.

verts are cheap as hell. a vert is about as expensive as a pixel on a texture, in terms of memory footprint.

Rendering costs are typically fillrate/draw call/other shader-issues driven. A handful of extra verts here and there is going to be much less damaging to the frame time (time it takes to render a frame, 33ms/frame is about 30fps) than extra draw calls or a more expensive shader (ie anything alpha).

Verts aren't free any a wasted vert is bad, but they're typically the cheapest thing to use.

punchface

Thank you very much, Ms. Scape...

Can I get a second opinion? Can I get an "AMEN!" for Ghostscape?