GOLF - Save the Princess!
polycounter lvl 10
Most likely going for a mini-golf course under the theme Save the Princess. I think I have a nice solid idea to start with, just sketched it on paper and I can't wait to get started on this! 
Good luck to everybody!
Good luck to everybody!
Replies
I also think I'll modify the start of the course so jumping the moat is the player's second move.
I succeeded to get it in the hole in 5 strokes so far when I tested it!
The environment itself is close to completion as far as modelling goes. I think I'll start on texturing right after this and I'll keep the knights/princess/hero for last, just in case I run out of time.
Lightmaps leave me with strange straight lines on the trees, not sure how to fix this, if anyone knows...
Also I couldn't figure out how to export a colMesh. I followed the tutorials and I'm doing everything like I think it has to be done: using colMesh instead of default, but when in the engine it's the same as if I had used default. I ended up turning off the visibility option in static mesh's proprieties but the collision mesh is taken into account when I'm baking the lightmaps. Not sure how to fix that either.
JamesR: I'll try to play with the smoothing groups to see if it's what causes it.
EzMeow: Yes, everything is set to auto mapping for the lightmap's UVs. I'll try to manually unwrap them in another channel.
I get the same flag shadow repeated on all the trees which obviously is wrong.
On the other hand, the collision mesh of the course doesn't cast shadows anymore! ^^
Anyway, I'm interested in seeing the textures. I'm not sure if I don't just like the simple colours in mine. This seems pretty similar. So the transformation will be interesting.
EzMeow: The UVs for one single tree are not stacked in the lightmap's UV channel, however I am exporting all the trees together. Could this be the cause? I can't imagine exporting each tree separately being the solution?
Tobbo: I've set all my materials to use -1 for the LightmapPageID, still no luck.
Started working on the textures today, I'll have an update on that front soon, in the meanwhile here's how I've tried to fix my trees so far... If someone spots my problem, I'd be super happy. As I said higher, I'm exporting all the trees in the scene at once, they are still independent meshes in Max though.
If you could imagine all of your trees as parts of one model, then UV the lightmap channel accordingly, and you shouldn't get repeating lightmap values.
Try importing them into a new scene, no time of day options and just a dynamic light and see what happens. Leave it, calculate lightgrid, changeover for static, whatever.
Its easy to create a new scene with no initial lighting setup.
presumably you want a type of dynamic light where it only produces a shadow on that particular texture, so it has to be remapped.
So you'd be cheating the texture space. Its not really the models. Like M4dcow says.
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Love the initial challenge of trying the one shot over the bridge or go for two
Looking great
Sharvo: To be honest I pretty much let the lightmap settings as they were on import. All my materials seem to have been imported with LightmapSizePageX and Y set to 512, I'm not even sure if this is fine for the contest, I'll need to clarify that at some point. Also the video quality may help hide the jaggedy shadows I too have in many places, but I guess we need to remember that this is mobile stuff and it's not gonna show as big as on our computer screens once it hits a mobile.
It probably uses too much lightmaps right now but anyways, here's a screenshot and a video of how it is at this point.
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Next on my plate, polishing the textures some more and create the characters I planned for at the beginning.
Always looking for crits..!
All flags were exported together, they all use the same materials and textures both in max and in the engine. I tried to move the one that's over the two that are problematic but the problem persists. Rebaking lightmaps doesn't help either as it's the actual flags being darker for some unknow reasons. I did ResetXForm all the flags in Max as well hoping it would fix it but it met no success either. There's also no vertex color involved with these.
Regardless ping me on skype I can help you look at the issue!
-Ryan
Here's a screenie with the most recent textures.
I love the stone texture on the floor. I think it alludes to the "mini golf" side of everything while still feeling medieval. My one crit is that the horizontal flags on top of the towers look impossibly rigid. Are you planning to animate them or anything?
All in all though, excellent build and really starting to look polished!
Everything should be fine to make it on time!
First I'd like to thank everyone that helped me finish this project, there were many things I wasn't particularly at ease with when I started this competition and thanks to you all it has mostly been a smooth ride. This is why I try to take part in these challenges on here as often as possible, Polycount is a great community and everybody is trying to help one another. I also want to thank Ryan for his time and help throughout the competition.
Now that it's over I'll be able to breathe a little bit. There are still things I'd have liked to be able to do to polish the level some more, but who wouldn't say that on an art forum, eh?
Finally, I want to wish good luck to everybody in the competition. There are really wonderful projects in the submission thread and I'm sure a couple more will make their way there before the deadline. Very inspiring!
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Save the Princess!
Grindy
32 880 triangles
Thread:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130291
Beauty shots:
Wireframes:
Textures:
Gameplay:
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