Your texel density is waaay all over the place. Also you have some pretty gnarly hard edges on those steps and your normal maps seem to be reading a bit wonky. I think there is also something going weird with your lighting, you are getting some very dark shadows..
Great start to the scene, but you definitely have a lot to go in terms of getting things to read realistically, which seems to be what your goal is here according to your reference.
I would definitely try to address the visible hardness of the geometry in your scene on a lot of your assets (I can actually see the triangulation on some of them), and try to have more coherent texel density amongst your assets. The grass in this scene is obviously not getting the treatment it deserves!
Also, the lighting is actually detracting from about 50% of the details in your scene rather than adding to it, which is obviously not a good thing. Either your normal maps are goofed up or perhaps your not using lightmaps correctly.
Perhaps you may also want to consider more variation in textures and color, because as of right now, it looks like you're using one image as a texture for all your rock and pillar pieces....which is fine, but I'd try to vary the dirt, grime, saturation, and other things if that were the case. I agree in making the most of your textures, but not giving any variance to the details makes a scene boring.
Whatever the case, keep going, you're not done with this scene, but once you are, this will be a great looking piece!!
TEXTURE
Too much lighting in the textures, inconsistent texel size (and why are the grass blades still so pixely?), textures look like lazy procedural/automated things.
MODEL
Tar to many polygons in the horizontal rings, ugly smoothing groups, damage looks suspiciously much like a 'noise' modifier along the central axis.
To be honest man, YOU need to decide what is best for whatever situation. Not tiling everything and tiling everything shouldn't be the way you're thinking about things. In the end, you'll probably use both inevitably, which is fine.
I know that you're trying to be efficient as far as texture space and resolution etc, but dude, there is no reason to be as conservative as you are at the moment.
Don't be afraid, just MAKE the art, maybe even do it at a ^2 resolution higher than you believe you need it so you can bring it down in the future. Your primary concern should be making art, not all this technical crap (As much as it IS interfering in the game art development).
Also, I believe there are a few guys here on Polycount that can answer those questions about how Naughty Do goes about things...
I know I favorited them, but who knows which one it is in my favorites folder lol...
Improvement, yes. You have a lot of work to go though. From a model perspective, you could get fantastic results if you look up ref for those pillars and then do a high poly. Zbrush or Max/Maya is fine, the important thing is to add details.
You light maps don't seem to be working quite right OR your lighting is broken. Either way while the new images are much better from a color perspective, I'm not seeing any real shadows. Are you using UE3 (Say the Unreal Tournament edition) or UDK?
Can you post your reference?
Tighten up the assets you have and then add more to the scene. Naughty Dog actually hand paints a good portion of their textures and then adds grime overlays to get a very good blend of style and realism, if that's something you are going for.
Good luck, keep working hard. Visit the wiki, read up on anything you can.
Replies
I would definitely try to address the visible hardness of the geometry in your scene on a lot of your assets (I can actually see the triangulation on some of them), and try to have more coherent texel density amongst your assets. The grass in this scene is obviously not getting the treatment it deserves!
Also, the lighting is actually detracting from about 50% of the details in your scene rather than adding to it, which is obviously not a good thing. Either your normal maps are goofed up or perhaps your not using lightmaps correctly.
Perhaps you may also want to consider more variation in textures and color, because as of right now, it looks like you're using one image as a texture for all your rock and pillar pieces....which is fine, but I'd try to vary the dirt, grime, saturation, and other things if that were the case. I agree in making the most of your textures, but not giving any variance to the details makes a scene boring.
Whatever the case, keep going, you're not done with this scene, but once you are, this will be a great looking piece!!
Too much lighting in the textures, inconsistent texel size (and why are the grass blades still so pixely?), textures look like lazy procedural/automated things.
MODEL
Tar to many polygons in the horizontal rings, ugly smoothing groups, damage looks suspiciously much like a 'noise' modifier along the central axis.
You've got little detail in there... but you don't have the big details.
I know that you're trying to be efficient as far as texture space and resolution etc, but dude, there is no reason to be as conservative as you are at the moment.
Don't be afraid, just MAKE the art, maybe even do it at a ^2 resolution higher than you believe you need it so you can bring it down in the future. Your primary concern should be making art, not all this technical crap (As much as it IS interfering in the game art development).
Also, I believe there are a few guys here on Polycount that can answer those questions about how Naughty Do goes about things...
I know I favorited them, but who knows which one it is in my favorites folder lol...
You light maps don't seem to be working quite right OR your lighting is broken. Either way while the new images are much better from a color perspective, I'm not seeing any real shadows. Are you using UE3 (Say the Unreal Tournament edition) or UDK?
Can you post your reference?
Tighten up the assets you have and then add more to the scene. Naughty Dog actually hand paints a good portion of their textures and then adds grime overlays to get a very good blend of style and realism, if that's something you are going for.
Good luck, keep working hard. Visit the wiki, read up on anything you can.
As said previously, you must do a HP for those pillars, they're not cutting it. Really like the stairs though, and your ground is MUCH better....
Keep going. Still lots to work on, but definitely closer.