dfacto: We can't use UE3 to make shaders. We can only use 'what we are given,' which is quite absurd. The wiggle room comes at the risk of getting DQed for not sticking to the arbitrary rules.
Vailias: Thanks. Really, it comes down to, if the rules had initially just not mentioned anything as the last Dom War did, we would be fine. I didn't see anyone complaining last year or getting points for rendering in a certain engine. This was a mistake by the organizers and they caused pointless controversy and argument by restricting a completely valid workflow.
Anyway, not going to bother arguing over there about it and I don't think anyone is going to over here (especially given many of the members pointing out the absurdity of the rule were from PC), so I may as well just stop yapping and do my thing. I'll consider myself lucky if I can make a good enough entry to worry about getting DQed, anyway.
XSI is also node based. It seems ridiculous that we can't use ut3's material editor since that came with the game. I am going with the assumption of no node-based setup like mental mill to create custom shaders. Granted that's not a guaranteed solution. Maybe someone should bring this up with fred to get it clarified?
It has been brought up. If you all want to pursue it, I would suggest getting all of polycount on board to petition him to change the rules. The admins and everyone have been made fully aware of the case to not disallow custom setups, as has been for the last two years. The admins, also, have justified their rules in exactly one post, by Poop. If we present to Fred that all of Polycount wants the rules changed, and it isn't just '3 out of 200,000' complaining, as one particularly apathetic and not-very-astute poster put it, there is probably a better chance of it being changed.
Prof: started reading the thread after I posted. I should be able to survive with the ones that ship with the game. Seeing as how I'm looking at ut3 or crysis for shaders I should be able to utilize the shaders/materials shipped with those games.
hope the node based thing would get cleared up. I have no clue about non-node based shaders within XSI.... It's like taking away blinn and phong shaders all together from me.
Least I picked up Crysis, although I haven't taken a look see with there editor yet...
if someone entering the 3d contest has to have a completed concept, and orthos with their submission. then should not someone entering the 2d division also have to have a full 3d model made of their concept for submision? seems only fair!
The whole concept art-side of the contest is utter bullshit, from my point of view. If people can't team up with a concept artist, what's the point anyway?
[ QUOTE ]
if someone entering the 3d contest has to have a completed concept, and orthos with their submission. then should not someone entering the 2d division also have to have a full 3d model made of their concept for submision? seems only fair!
[/ QUOTE ]
yeah and are we gonna be judged on our concepts cause even if i make a bad ass character and it just looks mind blowing. My concept will fuck me like i am an inmate in a federal pound me in the ass prison.
Rhino, there is no requirement for cnocept art when submitting a 3d entry.
This part is weird though: [ QUOTE ]
A minimum of 6 black & white or single color (example light to dark blue etc) initial rough draft thumbnail sketches.
[/ QUOTE ]
Really, why in the world do they care how we do our thumbs? And isn't telling someone how to do their thumbs a pretty big restriction on the creative process?
The overarching contest, theme, and rules are well set up (except for the no mechs part ) but some of the minutia is just nonsensical.
Keg, yes, dfacto knows that - his point was the same as Gauss's, in that it seems like a fairly arbitrary and pointless restriction to say that the orthos for the 2D entrants have to be either black and white or a single colour.
Rhinokey, I think you're confused, I don't see anything demanding concepts/orthos for the 3D side of it. All that is asked for is a "concept sheet" which can have sketches, paintings, or photo refs used when making your entry.
Details here: http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/events/3/submissions/index.php
i still dont understand the whole domwar thing,
but this could maybe depend on my lag of interest when reading english textes^^
after 5 sentences im bored^^
I don't think that many people truely care about the back story into this event, it's more the competition of making awesome game art together in a synchronised event :P
sounds lame, I wanted to buld a shader to get a kind of mignola-esque look to the lighting, unless I can find a shader set up like that in one of the approved engines I'm out of luck.
So now that there are restrictions on the shaders, what are people planning to use? Any domWar2 entrants willing to share how they previewed their entries from last year (MOP, peppi, rollin..?)
I don't have any experience with xnormal, the UT3 editor, etc. Anyone have opinions on what's the best option? If I have to pay for UT3 editor is it worth it considering xnormal is free?
Also if anyone has links to documentation or tutorials for using these viewers (or other viable options) could you post them up? Is there any benefit to UT3 over xnormal or vice versa?
is anyone working on an unreal3-powered game right now that's going to ship before the war ends? Any chance you could toss in an extra shader for us to use?
[ QUOTE ]
So now that there are restrictions on the shaders, what are people planning to use? Any domWar2 entrants willing to share how they previewed their entries from last year (MOP, peppi, rollin..?)
I don't have any experience with xnormal, the UT3 editor, etc. Anyone have opinions on what's the best option? If I have to pay for UT3 editor is it worth it considering xnormal is free?
Also if anyone has links to documentation or tutorials for using these viewers (or other viable options) could you post them up? Is there any benefit to UT3 over xnormal or vice versa?
Thanks
[/ QUOTE ]
Xnormal's viewer is great for what it is, a limited use, free 3d viewer good for previewing normal maps. But the lack of support for setting up lights, and creating more advanced shaders are definately big issues. I think i would have to say UT3 is definately the way to go,
Okay, it sounds like UT3 is the way to go. I don't mind picking up the game, I've wanted to buy it anyway. Now I just have an extra reason to
The editor comes in the box? I'm assuming its just part of the install.
Does the purchase come with enough documentation that a n00b like myself can pretty much figure out what I need to do? Or is there other documentation you guys can point me to online.
What advantage does a shader such as IBL (that Justin linked to) give over something like UT3? It just looks like a shader that allows you to preview the maps we're allowed to use within max.
Is it prohibited just because it's not "standard"? Seems arbitrary. Maybe I'm missing something.
I would really suggest buying UT3 special edition if you can spare the cash. The tuts are mostly good for level design, but they're still very useful for a UE noob. Also, UT3 comes with a LOT of really nice shaders, so you shouldn't have any trouble creating things from slime to glass to metal to ceramics.
[ QUOTE ]
is anyone working on an unreal3-powered game right now that's going to ship before the war ends? Any chance you could toss in an extra shader for us to use?
[/ QUOTE ]
Or even better, give us a custom scene for UT3 which has awesome lighting.
Would be great if the guys with UE3 knowledge could write up a quick and dirty approach to setting up a nicely lit scene. For example, I've got the game but can't be arsed to learn the editor. :-p
For now, I'll just be pimping the hell out of a max scanline render. It's the most predictable and highest quality option I've got anyways.
Would be cool if we could actually share scene setups to help each other out. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's approach to lighting is "Mess with shit until it looks good. Maybe. If I'm lucky."
Replies
Vailias: Thanks. Really, it comes down to, if the rules had initially just not mentioned anything as the last Dom War did, we would be fine. I didn't see anyone complaining last year or getting points for rendering in a certain engine. This was a mistake by the organizers and they caused pointless controversy and argument by restricting a completely valid workflow.
Anyway, not going to bother arguing over there about it and I don't think anyone is going to over here (especially given many of the members pointing out the absurdity of the rule were from PC), so I may as well just stop yapping and do my thing. I'll consider myself lucky if I can make a good enough entry to worry about getting DQed, anyway.
dfacto: We can't use UE3 to make shaders. We can only use 'what we are given,' which is quite absurd.
[/ QUOTE ]
Well, if you wanted to get really technical, no one can work in Maya without being DQ'ed because:
[ QUOTE ]
Standard, non node-based shaders within Max, Maya, and XSI are allowed
[/ QUOTE ]
However, everything in Maya is node based, but that would just be splitting hairs.
...lol. I mean this humorously...seriously, this is supposed to be a fun competition.
Least I picked up Crysis, although I haven't taken a look see with there editor yet...
if someone entering the 3d contest has to have a completed concept, and orthos with their submission. then should not someone entering the 2d division also have to have a full 3d model made of their concept for submision? seems only fair!
[/ QUOTE ]
yeah and are we gonna be judged on our concepts cause even if i make a bad ass character and it just looks mind blowing. My concept will fuck me like i am an inmate in a federal pound me in the ass prison.
This part is weird though: [ QUOTE ]
A minimum of 6 black & white or single color (example light to dark blue etc) initial rough draft thumbnail sketches.
[/ QUOTE ]
Really, why in the world do they care how we do our thumbs? And isn't telling someone how to do their thumbs a pretty big restriction on the creative process?
The overarching contest, theme, and rules are well set up (except for the no mechs part
Rhinokey, I think you're confused, I don't see anything demanding concepts/orthos for the 3D side of it. All that is asked for is a "concept sheet" which can have sketches, paintings, or photo refs used when making your entry.
Details here: http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/events/3/submissions/index.php
but this could maybe depend on my lag of interest when reading english textes^^
after 5 sentences im bored^^
Basically if it shipped with the shader, you can use it. You can use existing shaders/materials from games.
Might just do it anyway though
Kinda lame that we can't just use IBL. Results can be much nicer than a trilight setup imo, at least in realtime.
I don't have any experience with xnormal, the UT3 editor, etc. Anyone have opinions on what's the best option? If I have to pay for UT3 editor is it worth it considering xnormal is free?
Also if anyone has links to documentation or tutorials for using these viewers (or other viable options) could you post them up? Is there any benefit to UT3 over xnormal or vice versa?
Thanks
So now that there are restrictions on the shaders, what are people planning to use? Any domWar2 entrants willing to share how they previewed their entries from last year (MOP, peppi, rollin..?)
I don't have any experience with xnormal, the UT3 editor, etc. Anyone have opinions on what's the best option? If I have to pay for UT3 editor is it worth it considering xnormal is free?
Also if anyone has links to documentation or tutorials for using these viewers (or other viable options) could you post them up? Is there any benefit to UT3 over xnormal or vice versa?
Thanks
[/ QUOTE ]
Xnormal's viewer is great for what it is, a limited use, free 3d viewer good for previewing normal maps. But the lack of support for setting up lights, and creating more advanced shaders are definately big issues. I think i would have to say UT3 is definately the way to go,
The editor comes in the box? I'm assuming its just part of the install.
Does the purchase come with enough documentation that a n00b like myself can pretty much figure out what I need to do? Or is there other documentation you guys can point me to online.
Thanks for the help
One last question -
What advantage does a shader such as IBL (that Justin linked to) give over something like UT3? It just looks like a shader that allows you to preview the maps we're allowed to use within max.
Is it prohibited just because it's not "standard"? Seems arbitrary. Maybe I'm missing something.
[ QUOTE ]
is anyone working on an unreal3-powered game right now that's going to ship before the war ends? Any chance you could toss in an extra shader for us to use?
[/ QUOTE ]
Or even better, give us a custom scene for UT3 which has awesome lighting.
For now, I'll just be pimping the hell out of a max scanline render. It's the most predictable and highest quality option I've got anyways.
Or am I just misinformed..?
30% default normalbump setting to be blamed maybe?
[/ QUOTE ]
Exactly.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/51464
Also of note for Crysis. Softimage released CryExporter for XSI.
http://community.softimage.com/showthread.php?t=250