Expressway Truss Sign

doeseph

Updated May 14th 2010:

Dropped Triangle count by 900
Increased detail at the base of the truss support, as well as the truss itself
Added two new signs
Tweaked sign support based on reference
__________

This model is at 2,900 tris and because the sign and support truss are two separate objects I'll probably use two x512 textures, but I'm a bit weary of using two texture sheets on something that would be a simple game prop. Critique time everyone!

reiro

Nothing much to say than clean and good modeling
What kind of sign is this? What will be on it?

Will this be part of an environment or just a single prop?

ZacD

The tri count is a little high for something not too complex and something that wouldn't been seen close up. I think I see some areas that could be optimized by using floating geometry.
I don't think the 2 texture idea is a bad idea, its a good idea if you plan on re using the asset but want to change whats on the sign.

doeseph

reiro; it's an overhanging sign you'd see on an express way, similar to this (http://indospectrum.com/images/photos/niagara-falls/niagara_highway_sign.jpg). They come in all shapes and sizes, and according to a knowledgeable source there is no schematic for these things, they throw them together depending on the size of the road they hang over and the materials that they have.

ZacD; could you perhaps point out what areas you think could be optimized?

thanks for the crit so far, I'll hopefully be able to post the texture and any mesh updates soon.

Master_v12

Personally I don't think the tri count is too high, I think you just need to get clever with your textures. If you are gonna throw it in a scene then be frugal with the textures, but if you want to show it off as a piece, pimp it out man why not. Efficiently of course.

ZacD

You could do all those cross beams with just a texture.

There looks like there's some unneeded loops, but the screen shots of the wires are hard to tell exactly what can be done.

Gallows

ZacD does have a point with the crossbeams being just textured in. But it depends on what you plan on doing with it. If it's a close up scene asset a character is going to walk on closely, I think you could get away with the poles being actual cylindrical geometry. But if it's just going to be off in the distance, then you should be fine. But who knows. Good model though.

3DLee

As everyone else has already mentioned, this is a nice and clean model. I really love your wireframe render style though! Would you mind sharing some details on your setup?

Snefer

I think the polycount is just fine. You could use planes. Or 3-sided cylinders with really high smoothing :] But then you might run into mipmap-issues :]

doeseph

I finally found some time to put a bit more work into this, although I still have quite a bit of texture work to do. That and I'm gonna turn this into a scene (not sure about the scene composition yet, but it will obviously have a high-way sign!). Figured it's time to take some initiative and push myself a bit harder, ya know? :poly124:







Right now it's using two 512x512 diffuse sheets with the sign being the most done, no spec or bump.

Thegodzero

...why is the darkest part of the sign the part closest to the lights?

madmuffin

The ambient occlusion would do that just because the lights are there, they obviously aren't casting any lights of their own. You can see it in the textureless light where it is dark near the lights.

doeseph

Yea that's the AO map at work, once I get a little more time I'll mess around with it. I'm not sure if I want the lights to have a self illumination map or not right now, depends on the scene.

doeseph

Well I know this sign was posted a while ago, but I just now got the time to go around and redo some of my older models. I really wanna finish this piece.

I went back and upped the detail (two more signs, sign support, concrete base, screws) and managed to drop the tri count by about 900 at the same time which I'm very happy about. I also adjusted the dimensions to make it much wider and slightly taller as it could barely extend over two high-way length lanes (8-10 ft).

I'm going to move on to the diffuse now, hopefully you guys can give me some good critique when its up!

Snader

Thegodzero wrote: »

...why is the darkest part of the sign the part closest to the lights?

They're blacklights.


Doeseph:
Your truss looks very unstable. One headwind and the bridge (to which the signs are attached) falls flat backwards. Here's a paintover with some more structural rigidity. Ideally the main pillars would consist of 3 beams, but I figure that deviates from your model too much.

green = stable
red = unstable
orange = after wind

I'm also a bit interested in how you render this. It looks like raytracer with a skylight, but how did you get the wires in there?

doeseph

Hm, I've never seen an expressway sign with the truss going down the support poles, but then again I've never seen my particular design either (the supports are usually bent outward a little bit, mine go straight down. Could be why it looks structurally unstable?).

But regardless I do like how it looks in your PO, although I'm a bit confused as to what the red is meant to represent. Is that showing how it would flip backward on to itself? If so, the truss is bolted down to an I-beam which is welded to the support poles, although it is hard to see in the render I put up. There are actually a lot more welds on an actual truss structure than I've decided to put in my model, I figured 2k tris is too much as it is for a prop like this, but I may go ahead and put them in anyway.



And for the wireframe render:

1. Light Tracer W/500 Rays/Samples Catmull-Rom
2. Sky Light @ 1.0
3. Apply a basic material to your model (in my case, 0,0,255)
4. Create a second material, set the diffuse to black (or whatever color you want your wires to be), and tick the "Wireframe" box in the "Shader Basic Parameters" pane.
5. Duplicate your model once and place it directly on top of the original.
6. Apply the second material to the duplicate model.
7. Add the "Push" modifier to the duplicate model, and set Push value. I have mine set to .08, for example. Set a value that will place the wires a whispers distance above your original model.
8. Render.

It's basically a Clay render with wireframes Hope that's clear enough.

Snader

By elongating the grounded support poles, you'll have something to attach the top 2 bars of the bridge to. You could also opt to have a triangular bridge. Basically, what you have right now is rather flimsy, and there's a bunch of solutions so just get creative . And remember, a triangle is stronger then a rectangle because it can't skewer over like a parallelogram.

Here's some imagery:
http://www.upstatenyroads.com/assets/ny374end.jpg
http://www.okroads.com/113002/i29exit1a.jpg
http://www.aaroads.com/texas/texas281/us-281_nb_exit_255_03.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3539/3840836568_fe355c255c_o.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/kefkafloyd/valleyroads/images/90e_exit6.jpg
http://www.state-ends.com/ohio/i280/i280-n8.jpg

doeseph

I probably should have done my homework a bit better, I didn't run into those references once Did you use "Truss expressway" as a keyword when you went looking for those references? They're really helpful, thank you.

Here's another update, I quickly made the changes you've suggested (they use my pre-existing UV layouts so it works out perfectly!) and I have to say, it does look much more stable. It's amazing what tiny changes can do to a model.