Help with dome-shaped structure

rockbox

Howdy,
I'm working on this Wickiup type structure and I'm having alot of trouble as you can see.

https://imageshack.com/a/img819/9308/guw.png

What is the best way to unwrap this thing to show as little amount of seam artifacts as possible on the top while still being efficient in texture space used. I will be using the same material on the top of this structure for other different shapped buildings as well so I don't think unwrapping it in a circular manner is efficient. But, I could be wrong. Here are my UVs:

https://imageshack.com/a/img96/5892/qda5.png

Any advice?

shadacer

I think the way you have it is pretty good IMO, just make sure to put on a checker texture and get it as close to the mark as possible. If you're using 3DS Max, there's always the relax tool.

rockbox

Ok how does this look? I feel like it looks incomplete, plain, any ideas how I can make this model more visually appealing?

LMP

Try to find away to break up and blend the transition between object and ground, at the moment it's very stark an that causes it to pop out as not part of the same world. maybe a decal for the inside?

rockbox

my plans for the inside is when placed in the game world, the terrain will be dug out inside the hut where it will be a dirt texture. I wasn't sure if this is best done in the model or in the terrain.

Doran

i would use some planes and alpha some hay sticking out the sides of this and around the object above the ground, i think that could smooth your transition into the ground a little bit and add more depth

NomadSoul2501

I second what Doran said.
It would work wonders for your texturing issue as well as for the silhouette of your structure.

rockbox

Is this what you're talking about the alpha to improve transition to the ground? A couple areas where the grass ends are a little high but I was thinking of covering that up with rocks.

rockbox

anybody??


and this is a snapshot of a quick cryengine test.. the texture is lower res and the alpha map isn't displaying correctly as you can see at the bottom of the structure.. why is this happening in cryengine and not in the 3ds max render I posted before? the engyne settings are set display at highest quality but it doesn't appear to change at all from medium quality.

after looking at the crytiff plugin exporter settings where I exported the texture i noticed that it starts as 2048x2048 and then the preview one is 1024x1024 and the results at the bottom say 1024x1024 too. but it also says that it is "original" and is not being changed from its original size but I think that's what the low quality issue is in the engine..

NomadSoul2501

Ok, not quite what we meant.
Here's a quick example, there's a basic dome with a texture and then on top of that are planes with an alpha'd texture to break up the pattern.



Obviously, for this I just extruded the loops along the sphere and the result is predictably generic. You'll want to use custom planes and overlap them to get the result you want.

The alpha issue you're having in cryengine might have to do with the way you set your shader to interpret transparency. Instead of using the full range, your shader is using a threshold value to test where something is transparent and where it isn't.
This method only returns o or 1.

rockbox

Nomad, thank you for the response. What exactly do you mean with the alpha issue?

rockbox

in the engine i have alpha blend and alpha test. alpha test it what the image before was. this is alpha blend..

you can look and see the weird color and transparency. the bottom looks more correct but the mid and top sections are see through and with discoloration. and in the material preview in the top right of the image shows what the material map should look like. I don't know what it doesn't translate the same to the model here.

snow

Just use two materials, one being a tilable straw texture, the other being an alpha tested texture of some straw that you can scatter all over a base shape (using your tilable straw). Remove that shadow and rely on the engines lighting.

rockbox

snow, I thought about using a seperate alpha texture but isn't that wasteful of texture draw calls as I'm using two different textures instead of one? and what shadow are you talking about that I have, the actual thatched straw in the texture itself? thats the only shadow I have and it's thatched straw..

snow

You would remove the alpha tested material on another LOD, so performance is fine.

The shadows I'm talking about are the ones you have baked into the texture.

rockbox

ok sorry it took so long to reply, I've been playing around and visited the crytek forums to save you guys trouble with engine specific questions. here's what it looks like with the alpha tested material. I added some grass and cut out a hole inside(the dirt area) and that alpha needs some serious work but I'm not good at making that detailed realistic look yet. I got rid of some of the shadows but left the rest because without them it doesn't have that thatched look to it like grass is overlayed on eachother.