Dune Racer [Unity + Shader Forge]

Cactus on Fire

Hey there! This is a desert race minigame im working on just for practise. I worked around to make a sand shader and made one with Shader Forge. The dunes are modelled in Max. I'm about to finish the racecar even though it's not really an offroad car. Also I noticed that some games use actual geometry instead for the racecars instead of normalmaps, would that be wise ?

And it would be perfect if I can get some crits on the dunes and the sand.
I'll post more as they are finished and imported into Unity.

NurmanZh

looks nice!!

silvershrimp

Sand is too orange and saturated, sky is also too saturated, hard poly edge on top of dune? Yes for cars in the past we've used normals only for small details, not for overall form. Depends on the shading technique and the shapes and styles of the cars.

Cactus on Fire

@NurmanZh

thanks !

@silvershrimp

it's oversaturated by purpose actually, so I can get that burning orange tone.


Aaand the car. This is the highpoly model without the normalmap detail. It had some issues while importing into Unity, but I won't be using this anyway. Not sure if I should switch to a buggy, it might be more fun.

luge

i'd definitely do a buggy instead... also, I dunno about the saturation, I think it looks good picturesque but, I don't really think it works for a game. then again, I think the Dirt games were highly saturated with color.

Cactus on Fire

Thanks luge. I think I should keep the colors saturated, otherwise it looks bleached out and dull. Also I'll be modelling the KTM AX buggy for the vehicle.

Here's a few more shots from the previous car.

ZacD

I love the color of the sand and sky, but I don't think it works as well on the car. Maybe go for orange or something completely different.

JoshWilkinson

I'm not sure I like the choice of KTM for the vehicle. It's a track car and has no business off road. Sure, you could put new tires on it but the suspension is definitely very stiff and the vehicle is quite low; it would hardly be able to clear anything. And then there's the problem with an entirely exposed cockpit.

But I digress. Your sand looks pretty solid. Curious to see how you play out the overall composition.

Urzaz

I love the colors of the sand and sky as well, but agree with the the guys above about the color and model of the car. For the color especially, it should stand out from the environment it's in, it's the player, after all!

Dunes look pretty good in the first couple shots, but I'm not sure they look as good up-close from the player's perspective. Have any shots from where you think the camera will be?

The problem I do see that was mentioned is the hard poly edges on the tops of the dunes, you might want to concentrate more geometry along the ridges, check out this post to see where I'm getting this from. Of course he's generating geometry programmatically from a heightmap, but the concept is the same.

NegevPro

I think the sand and sky look amazing together. The car does look a bit out of place, I would try to play around with the colorscheme a bit.

Urzaz

I'm curious, since you mentioned Shader Forge, is there anything special you did with the sand shader? It looks pretty good.

Der Hollander

I really gotta agree with BringMeASunkist, When I think of a dune car I think Subaru Brat, a 1990's Toyota truck, or the old Volkswagen Dune Beetle.

The main issue with your buggy that you've made is that it has no business being in the desert not because of aesthetics, but because it sits so low to the ground. A car like that would get high-centered off of a supermarket speed bump, and really isn't practical for anything but a smooth track.

Aside from my misgivings about the car, I really dig the materials and the saturated colour palette that makes it looks a bit more like a Polaroid photo or summat, and I especially like the fact that even though it's just some dunes and sky it looks visually interesting. Can't wait to see more from this.

Cactus on Fire

@ZacD
The car might be black and white or greenyellow or dark red maybe

@BringMeASunkist
The KTM has a supersexy dune buggy version named AX with the same sharp futuristic look. I think I should go with that one.

Cactus on Fire

@Urzaz

Hey thanks ! I'm actually going back and forth between using the Unity terrain and importing the entire mesh from max after optimizing it. Even though Unity terrain is great for creating giant landscapes, painting plants and optimizing it to the players position, it's blocky and you can't get the fine detail like the handmodelled sand dunes as far as I know.

And max export is great for keeping the detail as you like, but you can't LOD the landscape like terrain does, and it's going to be a very highpoly mesh. I'm not sure how the mesh collider would handle that.

@ NegevPro

Thanks man I'll be using a buggy for the vehicle. Not sure what kinda color scheme would go best tho.

Cactus on Fire

@ Urzaz

There's a fresnel for the diffuse that gives highlights to the sand where you see it at a low angle. Apparently coarse noisy surfaces like sand and sponges appear so.

@ Der Hollander

Thanks for the suggestions :> Indeed the KTM Xbow didn't fit an environment such as a sandy desert, I hope you like the KTM AX. I'll definitely post more as soon as I get the mapmaking technique straight.

JoshWilkinson

I'm completely unfamiliar with the AX, but that buggy is sick. And having a caged cockpit that's still open design is nice blend between the two designs. Looking forward to more

luge

that buggy does look sexy as all hell. and I'd love to see it done up.