I re-discovered this excellent set of tutorials in my inspiration folder, from a mod of the sim Mount & Blade.
http://max3d.pl/forum/showthread.php?p=813527#post813527
There are a few intriguing diagrams further down. I can figure out the general jist, but the details would be nice to know. It's obvious there's some good thinking behind these.
Anyone willing to help translate from Polish to English?
Replies
I can't promise much at the moment; I'm still a little busy with my personal work, but as soon as I'm done I will give it a shot.
;P kidding ..
Edit: Nope never mind I read half of the post before realizing the text is built into the images.
FUCK YEAH!
Where do you want me to dig?
DOOOO EEEET!
BTW I wrote "Tools" somewhere but is should be "corner"
Anyone else want to chip in for the rest of the tutorial? There's an interesting section on modularity, a vertex color tut, and there's a funky diagram about the time saved, or something.
Thanks for the translation seir
http://wiki.polycount.com/ModularMountAndBlade
Also seir, I added a link to your excellent site here.
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategoryEnvironmentDesign
Looking forward to the next installment :poly128:
Let me know if there are some spelling/grammar mistakes.
Added to the wiki.
http://wiki.polycount.com/ModularMountAndBlade
I did not know that part about engines using smaller mip maps when viewing a surface at an angle, is that true for all engines?
I have this laying on my refs folder for a while, always good to read the captions on it now! :P
http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/6899/1recyclingsklad.jpg
http://img9.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vc1small.jpg
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/7606/pipeline1small.jpg
It would be much appreciated!!
Most stuff does haha :P Excellent job seir and tea :thumbup:
Is there anyone willing to translate the last three images? Looks like there's some great info in there, but only accessible to Polish speakers.
Sorry for making you wait guys.
Let me know if you see any errors and inconsistencies.
NASTRASH, a couple spelling/grammar mistakes...
1st paragraph: "... and then reuse
already moeled and mapped elements. This will save alot of work.
It is alot faster ... or fixing streched uvmaps."
"3. Im ... " (needs an apostrophe, multiple repeats)
"4. ... and fixing streched UVs"
teaandcigarettes just one small change, for readability ...
"If you work with an engine that doesn't use those features." ("those" makes more sense here, since "these" might refer to the vertex color mentioned later on in the same sentence.)
Thanks again guys, this is fantastic! Nothing really new here to the experienced artist, but they're certainly instructive to the uninitiated, and nicely illustrated to boot. Will make nice additions to the wiki, and the knowledge pool in general!
Secondly, I'm not sure I follow the first one.
Is the guy unwrapping all parts with the same texture to a square diffuse with a tiling texture or something else? As I said, I don't get it!
Also, if the model is broken up into different pieces of geometry with separate UV's, how do you bring them into the engine whilst perfectly maintaining their positions?
I'm sure I'm totally missing something here.
Last one to translate... anyone up for this?
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/7606/pipeline1small.jpg
The textures are laid out first, in a packed arrangement. So for example you can see the first texture that's called "Detale"... that has several doors and windows packed into it.
Then he models the house, UV'ing the doors and windows to specific parts of that texture. You just have to make sure you have edges where you want the UVs to end.
There's very little tiling going on, most of the UVs are completely within the 0-1 UV space. The roof texture tiles only left-right, so in that case you can use tiling UVs on the roof mesh, to tile it across the width of the roof (but not across the height, unless he's using thirding!).
As far as bringing them into the engine... after modeling all the parts, you attach them together, so you end up with a single entity per house. All the pieces that make up one house are attached together.
Hope that makes sense. If not, ask...
What I don't understand is how he applies different textures to the same mesh? You say he attaches them together, then how do you apply 4 different textures to the same mesh? Surely not 4 UV Channels?
Unless you mean attach all door/window geometry, all roof geometry, all walls etc but the house as a whole is separate meshes?
But really, that's not the best thing for good performance. Every material ID causes its own additional draw calls. Objects have to be sent to the graphics card to be drawn, each "send" is another draw call. Each draw call takes time, so too many of them will cause a slower framerate.
Using material IDs means you separate the mesh into multiple "objects", multiplying the draw calls. The best thing would be to pack all those textures into a single large sheet, so you get one material for the whole house, so one draw call (usually, depends on the complexity of the material, the game engine tech, etc.).
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/7606/pipeline1small.jpg