Junkton (UE3 Environment)

jett12

Hey guys just wanted to post the progress of an environment I started last week..

Concept by my friend: Brian Powyzinski

Comments and crits are very welcome.

Concept:




















wip of the high rez of a machine that is going to be in this scene, unfinished...



The ground normals are just a quick Mudbox test I did, not final though I do like how they look

Mimp

Excellent work, both on concept and models.

What I love about the concept (aside from the technical skill) is the mixture of apocalyptic waste land with fantasy shapes. Winner!

Hitez

I agree with the apocalyptic waste with fantasy shapes comment! but your mud mound house thing should be a little sharper, like in the concept. very nice job so far can't wait to see the materials get finished

jett12

Thanks for the crits guys, I definently see what you mean about the mud, i think ill skinny it up some, and try getting those sharp edges at the top, thanks for the crit.

Also, both of you expressed interest in the actual concept and style, so here's a brief description that my friend who concepted this came up with:

Junkton is a city of engineers and mechanics of different persuasions. They live in a kind of socialist society in which all people are provided food, water, shelter, and luxuries (all things that must be imported to their stark environ) by the government as long as they meet their "scrap quota" and bring in enough odds and ends from the junkyard wasteland surrounding their massive "Rig" which is what they refer to the city as since it is literally sitting atop a sea of scrap metal and junk.

The eight support beams that support the main disc of the city burrow down through about 2,500 feet of crap into the decayed earth below. Within in support beam is a network of elevators that empty out at different stratas to different mining operations.
The mining networks spreading out under the junk from the beams can only be dug so far (thirty feet) before being deemed dangerous and/or collapsing and totally rearranging all the networks above and below, so the mines are usually a place where minor scraps are harvested in relative safety. The scraps existing in the junk wasteland, however, are usually more valuable and easier to excavate. Though the price a scrapper pays for venturing into the wastes can be dear; rogue androids, junkyard beasts, and the Great Heap are just a few of the creatures that must be dealt with during expeditions into the vast deserts of junk.

jett12

This project has been put on hold until i finish my current project(prolly a week), I have decided to stop jumping around and finish each thing i start.

if you want to view my other project you can see it here:

http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=1014168#post1014168

Thanks for the support

jett12

Ok I finished my other proejct, so it's back to this one.

I made a few props this weekend, here is a power generator, and a co2 tank.

I also have re-layed out the environment, its a tad bit smaller, but truer to the concept, the building is taller and skinnier, has a door and a stairway on the backside, I will load those pics up when I get a chance..

danshewan

Solid start so far, but I've got to say I prefer your prop work right now. Something seems a little off in terms of the scale of the Mudbox sculpt right now. I really like the generator, but I'd probably spend a few extra polygons on the CO2 tank to round out those curves. Also, the scratches on the texture look very similar - I'd maybe try adjusting them a little to give them more individuality.

Other than those minor things, great start!

Kharn

Hey their nice work, as Danshewan said the props are strong. Id also point out that the texture map looks pretty big on the Co2 tank, a prop probably wouldnt need that size map.
Also maybe you could add some stickers or something , break it up and have som grime and grunge in the hollow bits. Somthing with that many scraches would probably not be nice and clean.
Just some thoughts

jett12

Yea stickers are a good idea to break it up, also the texture size for most of what I do i start with 2048's, then when it comes to finishing time I usually cut down to 1024, or 512 depending on prop size.

Also I see waht you mean about the scratches... they kinda look like the same scratch over and over, I'll do some more variation on that when I do my final pass, right now im just trying to finish up props, after the props are set ima gonig to re-sculpt the ground (as to fit the better).

jett12

So I'm setting up my scene in Unreal, and I having some strange issues.

I am getting seams, which are not present in Maya, or Marmoset... I assume its from shadows for some reason, but I cant figure out how to fix them.

Has anyone seen this issue before, or know how to fix it?

ParoXum

simply build your lighting. What you see here are the stencil shadows = bad

jett12

my lighting is built, it looks like this in game, and in the mesh preview window as well.

Kharn

Try flipping the green chanel and check the smoothing groups in max when you export. Hopfully that should work.

pior

Also try baking stuff in Max, as it is the app of choice at Epic hence most likely the most compatible with their engine.

myles

There either normal or smoothing errors, I presume your models are smoothed correctly in Maya so make sure you are using ActorX to export from Maya and check obey hard edges (convert to smoothing groups) when exporting. Be sure your normals are tangent space not object and also be sure you're compressing the normal map correctly when importing.

Hope that helps.

jett12

Flipping green worked for all my objects EXCEPT the red tank... actually i just applied a base normal map, of the flat default normal blue, and it still does the exact same thing, when it is not applied, there is no seam, what could be the cause of this? The smoothing groups are correct, and UV's are not overlapping...

myles

http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=1019213

jett12

Ok change my texture uv coordinates to set 2 worked, yay!

Matroskin

jett12 wrote: »

So I'm setting up my scene in Unreal, and I having some strange issues.

I am getting seams, which are not present in Maya, or Marmoset... I assume its from shadows for some reason, but I cant figure out how to fix them.

Has anyone seen this issue before, or know how to fix it?

Two explanations:

1) if these objects have vertex-based lighting, then it means u need to adjust your smmothing groups in your 3d app. Smoothing grouops applied to the mesh should be in a sequential order (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4 etc., but NOT 1, 5, 12, 2 etc.).

2) if you use actual UV unwrap to have lightmap baked into these objects, u might need to check your lightmap UVs. Usually unreal baked lightmaps may give bugs like that for faces that have long thin UV clausters. Pipes and stuff like that usually get such lightmap baking bugs

I woudl suggest that u use vertex based lighting on these meshes, they dont really need any lightmap.

myles

He's fixed it :P

jett12

Ok I have been pretty busy lately... but i have got some work done.

some more props...



new setup...



i got most this in unreal, and a few new things in the setup, i'm just tired of looking at this scene so im getting lazy :O


crits welcome.