rounded edge on large building
polycounter lvl 4
Hello today I was walking around on valorant map and seeing some buildings, I was wondering how to get that rounded edge effect on large buildings that normally require tiling textures.
I thought of several solutions:
1. use several sets of uv's, one for the tiling texture and the second one for my normal map baking. Which works out pretty well !
2. use normal edge decals ( I didn't try it but I guess it could work pretty well )
My question is, are both methods valid or is there a more standardized way to achieve this result?
I've looked everywhere, but I haven't found much about it.
thank you very much!
thank you very much!
Replies
I ended beveling edges because it was easier and faster.
But I also would like to know if there is any tip/trick to make this without to much hassle.
The bevel doesn't need to change the topology
You pay the same triangle cost as a real 2 segment bevel, get worse looking results up close and as a bonus will get shadowing artefacts because the mesh isn't the shape it's pretending to be.
IMO it's an utterly pointless exercise and i challenge anyone to come up with a situation where it's preferable to making the model the right shape in the first place
seems so, but isn't. Every corner/building in the game has this effect. Even more so, there's some environmental structural stuff/assets that do this method correctly as described with an actual bevel, not just 90 degree with support loops.
@Anthonr4g
yeah, course you'll get a similar result, but the larger question is why not actually move the middle loop in like an actual bevel? May as well use that geometry to physically have a rounded edge, not a simulated rounded edge with a sharp 90 edge.
Or netcode / network occlusion stuff requires there are perfect predictable edges where you can't peek around some slightly beveled edge..
Or it's not a bevel
Or it could be magic.. <- I really like this one!
at least thats how its done on overwatch, wouldn't be surprised if valorant did the same
@poopipe That seems like a pretty vast generalization and like, your opinion, man. To say that the model isn't "the right shape" is silly because these artists chose to accomplish the look of soft edges through this technique for a reason.
I say these are not done by decals but by a very small monkey in your graphics card which changes the brightness of these edge pixels to give the illusion of a rounded edge ..
Arguably this isn't magic as this is only a regular monkey (even if very small) - but still very cool!
We should create a poll until someone rips the models out of the game / hardware buffer so we can see.
And this poll should include "magic" and "small monkeys" !!!!
The mentions of sightlines and occlusion are the closest to good reasons I have heard but I'd be inclined to argue they're a little tenuous.
The reason I encounter most often in the office is that somebody has a script intended for hacky mid poly baking which does this in one click and they spam it all over the place cos they're lazy.
Wouldn't account for the shading artifacts, though.
Like some others have said, the normals are just weighted a bit with support loops closer to the edge.
The seam up close just looks like a lightmap seam, oopsy.
The reason its weighted without an actual bevel is exactly as @Lucas Annunziata described. Beveled edges do affect sightlines and how angles are approached in gameplay. We want a softer look but we don't want to change the geometry, so we throw some support loops on it and call it a day.