UDK Environment... a boat

sfjohansson

Hi Guys!
This is probably my first post after lurking around the forum for years..so I guess I should apology for it being about requesting feedback/criticism..:\...So yeah...I'm doing this envrionment...in udk...Just felt that I needed som fresh "next gen" stuff..to bundle with my recent work which has been on the wii(Silent Hill)...So yeah..please go ahead...cheers!

nrek

That is a great looking boat dude! Glad you decided to stop lurking and post it. My only 2 suggestions would be to add some kind of trim around the cabin windows since at the moment they are very raw and unfinished. And then work on getting some nasty barnacles and algae around the bottom of the hull.

pestibug

Mm yeah this boat could fit easily in silent hill colorwise

I think its a great piece, but personally I think it's too rusty/brown. Curious how it would look with a bit of color.

Aside from that, very good stuff

crazyfingers

Like the cartoony feel of the zoomed out shot. Like pestibug said, there's a bit too much texture noise and rust everywhere in the zoomed in shot, no where to rest your eye. A bit of dark grunge in the corners would do a lot to ease the textures into each other, or a touch more ambient occlusion.

Grats on your first post, it's some great work.

BeserK

Maybe a little debris sitting around on the floor to break up that empty looking floor Really nice work!

Disco Stu

If its supposed to be still in use but rusty i would add some oil
leaks and maybe some water splashes on the side of the ship an on
its deck.
Looking good overall just a little to dry to still be on water and not in a desert.

Mark Dygert

I like it nice work.

The only beef I have is with the bow and how bulbous and vulnerable it's hull is. That's the main contact point between a tug and other ships. So it should be well protected. Even tugs that look like they don't have any kind of padding have it, they just disguise it well.

Guriamo

finally you got aroud posting here...

turned out great, glad you used at least a bit of my advise on this one...;)
the floor still could do with some puddles...

sfjohansson

Hey..thanks...I'm glad I did get around posting here...getting all this great feedback...
...and yes I do have to say that the boat looks very "Dry" haha....I will address that straight away...

So I will add some puddles and stuff on the floor..and make the whole boat look more wet..especially the hull along the water needs some love in that aspect...maybe even some of those barnacles etc... as suggested

Add some small props here and there...

The Hull : I've created this big solid front bumper...I could add more tires..but cylinders tend to be somewhat poly expensive..so I'd rather not :S

Too much rust yeah I have to agree on that...

Bridge/Cabin: Crude..definitely..I was just working on that when I posted..it even got windows now... instead of just holes...

And finally...a good environment should tell a story....so what should this tell...hmm..lets me see...ahh...

...time to get busy... I'll post some updated screens later...thanks again cheers!

Rurouni Strife

I would try to work in a window material/object into the window spots on the bridge. I don't see one if it's there, it just looks like cut holes.

Rurouni Strife

I see, never mind my comment then!

Mark Dygert

sfjohansson wrote: »

The Hull : I've created this big solid front bumper...I could add more tires..but cylinders tend to be somewhat poly expensive..so I'd rather not :S

Well a big solid bumper would do damage to both boats and the tug would be out of business pretty quick.

I like the silhouette, its an awesome shape. I just think you can get the same shape with a different material. Tugs always have a protected bow and its not always tires. But because it does take a lot of abuse it is replaceable. I'm not really sure you can call it a tug unless it has a protected bow heh.

Some ref images.
http://www.canalmuseum.com/canalphotos/tugboat-07.jpg
http://www.heirloomradio.com/images/Tugboat.jpg
http://img.alibaba.com/photo/104739530/MULTI_PURPOSE_TUG_BOAT__20_40_METERS.jpg
http://www.edupics.com/tugboat-in-new-york-harbour-t14790.jpg
http://www.instablogsimages.com/images/2008/05/22/ge_tugboat_7loDh_5784.jpg
http://www.hters.org/graphics/YT148_Under_way_03.JPG
http://www.tugboatenthusiastsociety.org/Nav/Images/YTB142.jpg

adam

I've always wanted to do a tug boat like this. I'm glad to see it pulled off so well. If you're doing an environment, you should do its dock/harbour and have it tied off.

brandoom

Really nice boat! Great texturing work. Feels very used. Looking forward to updates

WesleyTack

really nice, something to be proud of!

Xoliul

I tried posting at work but it didn't come through Here goes again.
Very cool work, original subject too. I've wanted to do some thing like this myself, now I have a benchmark once i ever do so.
Apart from what's been said, I think you could improve the presentation. It suffers from the same issues as most Unreal scenes: washed out colors and lack of contrast. I can tell right away your HeightFog StartDistance is set to 0, you should increase that a lot so the colors of subjects close to the camera don't get dull so quickly. Also try increasing the strength of your sunlight (and is it a Dominant Light ?).

I'm curious to your approach on texturing this. Is it one big prop? Or have you built it from parts inside UDK? Care to share some textures/wireframes ?

Vig wrote: »

http://www.tugboatenthusiastsociety.org/

Haha what

sfjohansson

I'm curious to your approach on texturing this. Is it one big prop? Or have you built it from parts inside UDK? Care to share some textures/wireframes ?

Yeah sure..here is a screen from the editor.



I wanted to build it more like a game level than a prop in order to make it more efficient....and also so it could actually exist in a game...its made so you can run around on it...the stairs are working and so on.....

...so basically all large parts are polygon shells with a "basic" tiling texture....just like a building wall or something. Detail on walls...such as rivet lists..port holes...etc..are normal mapped decals...then I model the smaller pieces and import and place them in the editor...just like with a normal level..


My current light setup....is a dominant directional light with strength 2...and a skylight as fill light...

the starting point for the fog was set to 10 initially...but I upped it to hundred now...I haven't looked that much on the light setup yet... or post processing settings...thought I'd finish the boat first...

I'm still working on the improvements so new shots should come up later today.. during tomorrow.

DEElekgolo

What is with all the ...

JasonLavoie

Finally, another member who uses as much... OR MORE "..." then I do

This is a really nice piece, can't wait for those new shots.

gamedev

It looking pretty cool so far. Ideas / thoughts:

- Skylight is killing your materials quite a bit. Spec looks non-existent, normals don't pop, etc. Kill the skylight, use your dominant directional and lightmass for GI. Fog doesnt help here either. Fog tends to flatten out elements. Use the start distance, color (more saturated), brightness etc to pop the boat out from the background. The boat should look almost crisp, while background elements should show some atmospheric perspective.

- Decals for all your rivets, etc is overkill. I'm not sure whats texture and whats decal w/ out some more editor shots, but you should be able to make a tileable w/ some of those details in the map that are uv' on.

- Main red metal shell texture is a bit splotchy. Less contrast, more spec / reflection in the clean areas and a few decals here and there to add unique decal should look great. I would also consider another color so that your life rings and railings pop / contrast more. A cooler color w/ white rusted rails and orange / red life rings would rock. Rust deposits would then also show up / read better.

- Chains on the tires look odd. Some nice bulky ropes wrapping the tires and tie up rods on the sides would look nice. Maybe some seaweed hanging from some of the tires?

- More algae, barnacles on the hull and sides. It's just black right now. Add some weathering.

- more spec and subtle reflection in your metals

- A few more small props - thin , tall air / gas canisters, crates, crab boxes, etc.

Can you go inside?

Lots of crits cause I think this could be a really cool piece. Nice work thus far.

Pedro Amorim

Love it! This boat would love great in the splash damage enviro test

PredatorGSR

Love the boat, its looking great. There are a couple issues that stick out to me, the first being that the textures are looking a bit splotchy and noisy, which other people mentioned. The other is that there isn't really any spec hit at all on the metal. I think it needs to be cranked up in the texture, or the shader, or both.

sfjohansson

Yo..Here is some updates...

Some new detail is in place...like the front bumper...still need to do some more heavy duty fastening for it though...

- Skylight is killing your materials quite a bit. Spec looks non-existent, normals don't pop, etc. Kill the skylight, use your dominant directional and lightmass for GI. Fog doesnt help here either. Fog tends to flatten out elements. Use the start distance, color (more saturated), brightness etc to pop the boat out from the background. The boat should look almost crisp, while background elements should show some atmospheric perspective.

I also spent some time on the lighting and textures..I changed the light setup as suggested.

I also Looked a little bit on the shaders at the same time...no breakthrough changes here yet...I decided to leave it as it is until I finish the work on the geometry...

undoz

It's looking very cool. Maybe some rust/marks around the water level?

Here's a 6600HP tug monster near my home. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2593/3794555334_df3bacd9f3_o.jpg

sfjohansson

wow...that's a big bad tug...awesome...I like alot... =D

Maybe some rust/marks around the water level?

yep... rust along the waterline is coming...

Rojo

The cabin area looks desaturated now, I think it looked better as a deeper red.

Looking good man.

DrunkShaman

nice work..:)

Matroskin

great looking model.

Curious to see texture/IDs arrangement

paulsvoboda

This is looking really good - I like how you set it up in Unreal as well.
I'm going to have to agree with Tim Deneau on this, I liked the previous renders where the red was less desaturated - it was a lot more interesting to look at in my opinion. Also I think the floor is too noisy and the texture needs to be toned down quite a bit. Otherwise, great looking model and scene. Keep the updates coming.

sfjohansson

Yo!
I Though I'd drop off some Friday afternoon updates....

Added some more detail to the hull...used some simple shapes for fastening of the "front bumper"..at least for now...I guess one has to draw the line somewhere..not everything can be properly modelled and normal mapped...especially in places where people can't walk right up to...

Played around with some textures/materials....I'm having a beef with some of the textures too....and I have to agree that they are a bit ehh.. hmm.. lets say "rich"...especially the orange wall... although..there is something appealing about them too...let see which way I will go in the end..

Looked at a little bit on different floor textures..puddles oil slicks..etc...

Sorry about all the "..."...I'm trying to cut down but it's not easy

gsokol

Looks good!

The tires seem a little out of place. Overall they could use a tiny bit of dirt..they wouldn't be nearly as dirty as the rest of the boat, but a little grime wouldn't hurt. Also, add some detail to the sidewall of them, like text or something.

sfjohansson

Thanks,

The tires seem a little out of place. Overall they could use a tiny bit of dirt..they wouldn't be nearly as dirty as the rest of the boat, but a little grime wouldn't hurt. Also, add some detail to the sidewall of them, like text or something.

I guess it got a new batch of tires refitted =D.... I will make sure they will look like they've reached a respectable age...whatever that means in the world of tires :O

duoxan

really awesome piece, your process for creating it in unreal is pretty cool, thanks for sharing. the two things that seemed off to me have been mentioned, which were the cabin paint, and the brand spanking new tires. im sure you will do them justice like everything else you have in this piece.