Also. Now i have a view port issue with spectacular on materials. This material is very specular (80 or so) And its very matte for some reason Wish all the things going wrong didn't motivate me so much to get them right. Stuff is driving me crazy.
I hate edit mesh... and I've done that a few times my self...
I don't think any of the extra edges will cause any difference in baking.
It took me a while to "figure out" baking, and I'm sure that I could still drastically improve. I agree, as much as I read about it, I really only truly "got it" when I managed to be successful. Then all the information I read really made sense.
Just a quick thought, use the Scanline renderer to bake maps, I started out with Mental Ray, and lets just say, it doesn't work so well.
Keep at it man, it will all be worth it in the end.
I hate edit mesh... and I've done that a few times my self...
I don't think any of the extra edges will cause any difference in baking.
It took me a while to "figure out" baking, and I'm sure that I could still drastically improve. I agree, as much as I read about it, I really only truly "got it" when I managed to be successful. Then all the information I read really made sense.
Just a quick thought, use the Scanline renderer to bake maps, I started out with Mental Ray, and lets just say, it doesn't work so well.
Keep at it man, it will all be worth it in the end.
Yeah. Learned that a while back.
Been using scanline for the normals so far. Going to bake the AO in mental ray though.
I test baked every object Independently. Everything went perfectly. Got all the issues ironed out. Then merged the Objects and went do a combined (Exploded) bake, And then Max Shit all over my dreams ;(
I'm unbelievably frustrated with this bake. No matter what i do. Something is wrong. What a way to kill motivation.
Unfortunately for my school, I wont be able to focus on anything but this until it turns out right!
Would show you guys whats going on, But I'm sure its just me being an idiot. and you guys can only say the same thing, and link the same threads so many times ^^ I just need to keep beating my head against the wall till i "Get it".
Point of post being: Still working on this. And It will be epic. That's a promise.
I must have messed up the import or something. But just re set up the gun in udk to study all the problems and it looks awesome! As far as my normal baking history goes XD this is by far the best.
Now, I know racer might wanna chew me out about the bolt on the grip. But 1. I did move it forward like you said. To give it the best chance of success, In addition, The POV of that spot ended up looking pretty decent IMO.
But you guys be the judges, How the normals look? This is just normals. spec and diff of .6. Specular power of 40. Shown in udk with a single (unbuilt lighting) Point light.
THIS IS A TEST BAKE. This is 1 iteration on all the smoothing and no super sampling. So quality will get better
Will upload some more shots in a few with the hammer in the position it will always be in. Some with the slide back. and various views I'M SO FUCKING HAPPY. If you couldn't tell. Such a relief that i don't have redo all this again. Just one more supper sampled bake and i am so done with these normals. Then i can fight with AO for a month LOL
Presentation quality FTW! . I'm going to slap some new paste on my comp tonight while the night is still young. Then just set up the Final bake. Then get a decent nights sleep for once while my computer slaves away
Little update. been playing with the relationship between spec/diff a lot throughout this texture. I don't really want to hastily texture this just to call it done, So I'm taking my time, trying to understand all the stuff going on ^^ Pretty much what i've been doing the entire gun.
STILL VERY MUCH A WORK IN PROGRESS. Just wanted to kinda bump the thread and show I'm still hard at work on it I'm drastically changing stuff on this all the time. So this is just the current state of the texture.
Try to forgive my slightly odd display i just like to keep a moving spot light panning back and forth over the meshes while i texture on one monitor. So i like to see a bunch of different angles.
Edit: just now noticing among all the other things that need tons of attention, The texture looks a lot better before you "fullsize" the image. So sharpen on the scratches and noise would probably go a long way for me.
Little update. Re did the noise on the grip, Replaced it with one i made from a dirt photo i took a while ago. here is a sample. Let me know what you guys think overall how its shaping up. A lot of things still need attention but think i might be on the right track.
Grip looks nice. Are the fingerprints on the side entirely in the gloss map, or are they in the spec as well? They just seem a tad too noticeable at the moment. Also you might want to make a bigger contrast difference between metal and plastic and rubber, maybe make bigger differences in the specular? Metal could possibly have more gloss? Also maybe try with a 50% grey background instead of black.
This is in UDK, So no gloss map. I just have a mask to separate a few different specular powers for each material. And yeah, A lot of the spec isn't really what it should be. I've just quickly made the spec every now and then once i finish bits in the diffuse. So spec has a long way to go. I think most of the "meh" on the model is due to the spec at the moment. I feel like the texture will be "meh" till i finish the diffuse and really give the spec the attention it needs. But all and all i agree. Thanks for the feeback.
This is in UDK, So no gloss map. I just have a mask to separate a few different specular powers for each material. And yeah, A lot of the spec isn't really what it should be. I've just quickly made the spec every now and then once i finish bits in the diffuse. So spec has a long way to go. I think most of the "meh" on the model is due to the spec at the moment. I feel like the texture will be "meh" till i finish the diffuse and really give the spec the attention it needs. But all and all i agree. Thanks for the feedback.
Are you lerp'ing two constant values, one low(10ish) and one high (100-200ish) using your gloss map as the mask? That's how UDK uses gloss maps.
This is looking great. Don't get discouraged with baking, it isn't an easy process to learn because of all the steps that need to happen in tandem. I recommend doing a half dozen or so quick props that you can knock out within a weeks time to master baking. That will make more important stuff, like this gun easier to bake and won't destroy any motivation you might have.
Hmm. i didn't think about lerping a gloss map. Right now i have a mask texture with each channel (RGB, no alpha) being a different "material". And yes, Just lerping different constants. The exacts being 9 (grip) 20(slide/Matter shiny things) and 40(glossy metals). Just random values i pulled out of nowhere :P
The plan was to put one "material" from the mask into the alpha channels of the textures that were going to be "mandatory" (D,N,S). In theory saving some kind of ram. Which might not be the case. But if i don't need the alpha channel for anything else, Why not?
BUT. Back to the point. sense all exponents for the specular power are greater than one, wouldn't that mean the gloss map couldn't/wouldn't have gradients? or greys? I thought it would all just be blown out whites, or black. really curious about this, Any advice/reading material/Vids/Threads/anything you can share on that is much appreciated. Obviously gloss maps aren't an "every object" deal, as far as games, But for weapons i can't see one more texture breaking the game. Or Maybe there is a way to put the gloss into the alphas?
As for baking; yeah . The more i do it, the more i understand. Though failing doesn't kill my motivation, It just causes my mind to be consumed and obsessed for success :thumbup:
probably not a bad idea just to make my next few objects simpler ones though Unfortunately i promised my programmer I'd sculpt the arms next. So we'll see how that goes
And thanks! I think it looks kinda shitty right now. But i also think is going to really come together once i get everything sorted. I'm doing a very poor job of displaying all the passes I've done to the texture, So once i properly level everything, Fine tune opacities, And do a for real spec pass, i think it will come together.
Edit: little update before bed. Didn't get quite as much done today as i wanted. But learning everyday
Edit2: I now realize why these screen shots look worse than in UDK :P I forgot that image shack compresses the pics. Need to find another site....
Edit3: Remember Fletcher talking about compression issues. found who he found in his thread. Cubeupload. Sweat site. Still doesn't look quite as sharp as it should Oh well.
Here is an updated pic. worked on the texture a bit, but mainly gamma corrected it for proper display. i looked at the gun through a different monitor, and learned my asus monitor is terrible! So i made some adjustments at the good monitor so hopefully the gun looks a bit better now. Also don't mind the wip night sights. I think we are going to integrate a "hostile" detection system into the guns physically, So I'll have some wires and stuff running up to the sights and probably have a "processor" somewhere on the gun. point being, the cylinders for the night sights will get a proper diff/spec/normals and material at some point :P Not just a constant 3 vector in the diff and emissive
Decided to take a break from texturing and model the laser/flashlight attachment. Still have some wires to run off it, and a canvas/Velcro type peace for the grip.
I started with a cylinder with a high side count, And about 8(iirc) hieght segments. Twisted. Selected all the horizontal loops (the ones running the length of the circumference) Saved a quick selection set. Then i grabbed all the verts and did a connect. re grabbed the edges from the quick selection set, removed them. Select one of the interior "squares" and one of the triangle faces on the edge, used select similar to get the rest of them, Did and inset for the space between each square, Then another inset for the surface change. Converted face selection into vert selection, Scaled to desired depth. Selected one edge from a single diamond shape, Selected similar , Then did a ring, use connect to add edge loops. Repeat for edges slanting the other direction.
then TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNS of debug and trial and error on the edges where the triangles where
The whole time working on it, I just had the diamond section . The rest of it just came from extruding the borders.
Link bellow is where i got the original method from, but i didn't like the chamfering portion of it, And how the overall end result looks. So i went about support the geo a bit differently and having more square shapes instead of diamonds.
Replies
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
I don't think any of the extra edges will cause any difference in baking.
It took me a while to "figure out" baking, and I'm sure that I could still drastically improve. I agree, as much as I read about it, I really only truly "got it" when I managed to be successful. Then all the information I read really made sense.
Just a quick thought, use the Scanline renderer to bake maps, I started out with Mental Ray, and lets just say, it doesn't work so well.
Keep at it man, it will all be worth it in the end.
Been using scanline for the normals so far. Going to bake the AO in mental ray though.
I'm unbelievably frustrated with this bake. No matter what i do. Something is wrong. What a way to kill motivation.
Unfortunately for my school, I wont be able to focus on anything but this until it turns out right!
Would show you guys whats going on, But I'm sure its just me being an idiot. and you guys can only say the same thing, and link the same threads so many times ^^ I just need to keep beating my head against the wall till i "Get it".
Point of post being: Still working on this. And It will be epic. That's a promise.
Now, I know racer might wanna chew me out about the bolt on the grip. But 1. I did move it forward like you said. To give it the best chance of success, In addition, The POV of that spot ended up looking pretty decent IMO.
But you guys be the judges, How the normals look? This is just normals. spec and diff of .6. Specular power of 40. Shown in udk with a single (unbuilt lighting) Point light.
THIS IS A TEST BAKE. This is 1 iteration on all the smoothing and no super sampling. So quality will get better
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Will upload some more shots in a few with the hammer in the position it will always be in. Some with the slide back. and various views
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
STILL VERY MUCH A WORK IN PROGRESS. Just wanted to kinda bump the thread and show I'm still hard at work on it
Try to forgive my slightly odd display
Edit: just now noticing among all the other things that need tons of attention, The texture looks a lot better before you "fullsize" the image. So sharpen on the scratches and noise would probably go a long way for me.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Are you lerp'ing two constant values, one low(10ish) and one high (100-200ish) using your gloss map as the mask? That's how UDK uses gloss maps.
This is looking great. Don't get discouraged with baking, it isn't an easy process to learn because of all the steps that need to happen in tandem. I recommend doing a half dozen or so quick props that you can knock out within a weeks time to master baking. That will make more important stuff, like this gun easier to bake and won't destroy any motivation you might have.
The plan was to put one "material" from the mask into the alpha channels of the textures that were going to be "mandatory" (D,N,S). In theory saving some kind of ram. Which might not be the case. But if i don't need the alpha channel for anything else, Why not?
BUT. Back to the point. sense all exponents for the specular power are greater than one, wouldn't that mean the gloss map couldn't/wouldn't have gradients? or greys? I thought it would all just be blown out whites, or black. really curious about this, Any advice/reading material/Vids/Threads/anything you can share on that is much appreciated. Obviously gloss maps aren't an "every object" deal, as far as games, But for weapons i can't see one more texture breaking the game. Or Maybe there is a way to put the gloss into the alphas?
As for baking; yeah . The more i do it, the more i understand. Though failing doesn't kill my motivation, It just causes my mind to be consumed and obsessed for success :thumbup:
probably not a bad idea just to make my next few objects simpler ones though
And thanks! I think it looks kinda shitty right now. But i also think is going to really come together once i get everything sorted. I'm doing a very poor job of displaying all the passes I've done to the texture, So once i properly level everything, Fine tune opacities, And do a for real spec pass, i think it will come together.
Edit: little update before bed. Didn't get quite as much done today as i wanted. But learning everyday
Edit2: I now realize why these screen shots look worse than in UDK :P I forgot that image shack compresses the pics. Need to find another site....
Edit3: Remember Fletcher talking about compression issues. found who he found in his thread. Cubeupload. Sweat site. Still doesn't look quite as sharp as it should
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
then TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNS of debug and trial and error on the edges where the triangles where
The whole time working on it, I just had the diamond section . The rest of it just came from extruding the borders.
Link bellow is where i got the original method from, but i didn't like the chamfering portion of it, And how the overall end result looks. So i went about support the geo a bit differently and having more square shapes instead of diamonds.
http://www.wallsandstalls.com/images/misc/diamond_tutorial.jpg
Now thinking about it, The diamonds could have been more....diamond shaped
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56014
pages and pages upon more pages filled with pages of discussing topology on awkward geo ^^
Thanks! That's come handy