I'm with Zipfinator on this one, previous lighting looked and felt better, lacks that certain kind of punch your previous lighting did had.
Might've been already said but imo the scene could benefit from some color touches, such as banners/flags and what not. But reckon you already thought of that and saving it for polish.
Other than that, looks great, can't wait for more updates!
Background update, I also remade the lighting again, a good compromise between cold and warm ones imo.
Thanks every one for the feedback, it's been really useful.
So I played with the background, I didnt want the mountaintop behind the fortress to be just terrain, so I created a mesh for it, that also helps connecting the ridge to the castle meshes. Texel ratio is not meant to be seen from close but it does a great job even when looking at it from the castle.
It still needs texture tweaks like everything in this map :poly127:, and if you have critiques on it that doesn't require a restart the mesh I'm up for it.
BG(I need to rework the nrm before I can show the lit side):
Lighting shot:
I also changed some SSAO parameters as well (mainly its processing radius, only visible in the first shot) to get a lighting closer to what Unreal does when it bake AO in lightmaps.
The mountain looks pretty boss to me. Is it all uniquely unwrapped or just tiling with some sort of vertex blending? The only part that catches my eye is where it blends into the terrain but that looks like an area that won't be visible or you haven't worked on yet. The lighting looks much better to me now too. It is a good balance between the two previous iterations.
How would you unwrap something like that mountain so that the wind erosion lines are horizontal (Is it a blended second UV set?)? For terrain I usually start with sculpted plane, then follow up with a quick planar map and a face angle relax, I think that is similar to how the cryengine does terrain, but that doesn't sound to good for mountains. I imagine thats why you went with a static mesh huh?
Did you make the textures yourself as well? Any tips for making that kind of rock texture?
Zipfinator: Thanks man, yes it's uniquely unwrapped. Its texture is currently 2048 but it could end being 1024 with some dof. The place where it meet the terrain wont be seen by the player that much but I can cover it up later on if I want a shot there.
Computron: Well, long story short it's a plane displaced and UV relaxed, I then took that into 3Dcoat. Because it's obviously pain in the ass to paint such lines in PS. Cry engine terrain works all right on mountains since you can use 3D materials. I just keep that for very far peaks atm.
re.wind: Cheers, glad you like it. Yeah I too have this farcry2 feeling. Is it bad?
Few more shots, I worked on background forests, which are a few alphacards really, cliff polishes where it meets terrain and minor bridges hole caps.
Still focusing more on the big picture than player scale at this stage and It's starting to blend together pretty well at some places now.
You've out-classed far cry 2 by miles mate, don't worry about it
the tall bridge on the left side of image valley_73 really looks out of place now. I don't think a Roman aqueduct style would fix it much as the bridge is much higher than its length.
Wait, you painted the mountains in 3dCoat? So your not using tiling textures for the mountain? Is this something they do in production as well? it seems wastefull. Also, are those trees made by you?
Computron: It can be made in production I guess if you need very specific mountain top for example. It could have used tiling textures and blends if it was somewhat in UDK and I could blend more than two textures.
And yes, the trees are mine, but need refining, as they are quite low poly/blocky atm.
re.wind: Thanks for the feedback, I too feel that bridge is out of place, I'll look into replacing it by something more interesting for the composition of the image.
Update, I think it is big tho still not completed. I went into the process of remaking most of the textures after looking at some of the refs I had in my folder and completely bypassed till now. When I started the project I really wanted something colorful, I guess the result I had till now was the effect of not sticking enough to the refs.
Here's one of the pics I based this update on:
Amongst other things, remodelled waterfalls on the front, added watersplash on the surface, moss decals,etc. I hope a lot more is to come. The pebble texture is temp, I will sculpt one.
Also planned is model a uniuque mesh for the two big waterfalls cliff (and redo waterfalls there as well) because atm it's still modular meshes and blends have little sense on them/can't have proper AO
Maybe loose the palm trees? i think the reference is great, but i think whats missing in your scene is those nice thick lush areas that could serve as a spot for the eyes to settle. apart from that looking forward to the new waterfalls!
@Perfect Blue The terrain is based off of a height map that is made/imported in cryengine. It is unwrapped as a plane from the top down. When he makes mountains, the material system uses a method similar to blended box mapping to automatically project and seamlessly blend non stretchy textures. no uv unwrapping necessary. Only the set piece mountain from his earlier post is custom unwrapped. He explains it a few posts up. The blue mesh in 3ds max is most likely an exported version of his heightmap displacing a plane. It serves as a guide for him to make things like that cliff faces.
I've been working on the main waterfalls cliffs and waterfalls themselves, tried to find the perfect way to make the waterfalls without using particles.. Because I'm a lazy ass =D So, I experimented with alpha tested shader and came back to translucent shader, and after much attemps on poly strip modelling I settled for this:
A mix of alpha tested and translucent falls together. The tested one simulates the rough water stream and particles, while the softer one creates a mist fall around it.
Alpha tested only:
Both:
For the mesh, I used a 4 crossed planes strip, twisted, so that when you look up or down you always keep volume and see less crossing imho:
nice approach with that twisted thingy.. must try it myself.. i remember something like this from some udk tutorial about creating highly realistic steam sources..
Hi, very inspiring work!
don't know how i missed this thread before.. have read it from begining and have some noob questions that i didn't realized.
1. Your brick wall, is it modeled as separate bricks or a plane with tileable 3d texture?(as i remember, there was a post about high polycount on walls, would be great to look at wires :icon15:)
But as i can understand from your post, there are just tileable texture, But this with separate bricks makes me doubt.. but i think his model is simply not for game engine.
2. on texture creation
I usually make a pattern study in PS, from mixed photo sourced rocks tex. When I find an interesting one I change it into an displacement map that I can sculpt later on in ZB. Since the sculpt then already tile, I just have to keep at it with the warpmode on each brush I use, then bake it and job done, tiling sculpt.
Very often I have a totally different sculpt from what the reference photo used to be, and it's good since that means you really created something new in the end.
So you import displace map to ZB, then apply DispMap to high divided plane, sculpt that you want and then bake normal map? and same with say bricks/rock/whatelse tileable textures?
i'm in search for methods of texturing, and atm think about how to texture wood stockade/log walls/plank walls/roof tile and stone walls/rocks for sure
Cupsster, felipefrango: good to hear it's been useful
Thanks Kyuzo, first about the brick wall it was a single brick sculpt, duplicated in max to create the tiling HP wall, not to mix with the texturing, where I used tiled patterns to achieve the look.
As for the pattern study, I only do this with very fractal-like textures, like rock surface or uneven bricks walls.
About wood, I almost never sculpt any since the res needed for having realistic fibers in a sculpt is outrageous. Unless you go for a stylized look. What's good for wood sculpting when you're attempting a realistic look on a very specific shape is to sculpt the low frequency and blend in crazybump'ed high frequencies together.
first about the brick wall it was a single brick sculpt, duplicated in max to create the tiling HP wall, not to mix with the texturing, where I used tiled patterns to achieve the look.
so brick wall is made of tileable meshes where each brick is a unique/duplicated mesh, and have individual texture for it? And LP mesh made by optimizing HP? details from HP mesh baked and mixed in normal map for LP? and where are tileable textures used?
as i understand there are not only rock/rock wall tileables, but also brick ones.
for the waterfall, do the twisted/crossed polys make up the entire waterfall so you have to custom make each waterfall? or is it a small chunk that you repeat and how big are the pieces? How do you animate it if it's not particles? Do you just animate a loop in your 3D package and import as if it's a looping walk cycle basically?
coots7, it's a unique mesh per waterfall at the moment. Tho I can scale some of them to fit others, but to get the best result, I should model a custom one for each. It's just a normal UV'd mesh, all the scrolling happens in the shader, which is a waterfal shader (it's in the presets)
Thanks guys for the support :P That's a hell of a boost when I come to post updates
Small update for today, I was able to make most of the waterfalls with the same object, and I started working on the village houses textures. I feel like some of them look too stylized, would like feedback on the stonewall especially, maybe it just needs a photosource pass.
I'm quite happy of the results with the thatched roof, slate roof texture still needs work at places but I can already make a good use of it.
Replies
Might've been already said but imo the scene could benefit from some color touches, such as banners/flags and what not. But reckon you already thought of that and saving it for polish.
Other than that, looks great, can't wait for more updates!
Thanks every one for the feedback, it's been really useful.
So I played with the background, I didnt want the mountaintop behind the fortress to be just terrain, so I created a mesh for it, that also helps connecting the ridge to the castle meshes. Texel ratio is not meant to be seen from close but it does a great job even when looking at it from the castle.
It still needs texture tweaks like everything in this map :poly127:, and if you have critiques on it that doesn't require a restart the mesh I'm up for it.
BG(I need to rework the nrm before I can show the lit side):
Lighting shot:
I also changed some SSAO parameters as well (mainly its processing radius, only visible in the first shot) to get a lighting closer to what Unreal does when it bake AO in lightmaps.
Did you make the textures yourself as well? Any tips for making that kind of rock texture?
Some extraordinarily good stuff (and improvements) paroxum.
For some reason i'm being reminded of farcry 2... I think its the semi-desert setting.
Computron: Well, long story short it's a plane displaced and UV relaxed, I then took that into 3Dcoat. Because it's obviously pain in the ass to paint such lines in PS. Cry engine terrain works all right on mountains since you can use 3D materials. I just keep that for very far peaks atm.
re.wind: Cheers, glad you like it. Yeah I too have this farcry2 feeling. Is it bad?
Few more shots, I worked on background forests, which are a few alphacards really, cliff polishes where it meets terrain and minor bridges hole caps.
Still focusing more on the big picture than player scale at this stage and It's starting to blend together pretty well at some places now.
the tall bridge on the left side of image valley_73 really looks out of place now. I don't think a Roman aqueduct style would fix it much as the bridge is much higher than its length.
And yes, the trees are mine, but need refining, as they are quite low poly/blocky atm.
re.wind: Thanks for the feedback, I too feel that bridge is out of place, I'll look into replacing it by something more interesting for the composition of the image.
Here's one of the pics I based this update on:
Amongst other things, remodelled waterfalls on the front, added watersplash on the surface, moss decals,etc. I hope a lot more is to come. The pebble texture is temp, I will sculpt one.
Also planned is model a uniuque mesh for the two big waterfalls cliff (and redo waterfalls there as well) because atm it's still modular meshes and blends have little sense on them/can't have proper AO
great job dood!
I also like the new environment direction you're going. Compared to this, your previous images almost feel...washed out and brown. :-\
*aka make a proper date palm tree
For the general terrain shown in the screen shot below, was this done in max as well or with some sort of terrain topology tools in CE3?
Is the general terrain unrwapped in a similar manner as the cliff in the time lapse video?
Blue= "general terrain"
Thanks for creating a time lapse for the cliff and any additional insight!
Only crit I have is those bridge arches, they feel a bit crowded, maybe make 'em wider to open up the views more.
I've been working on the main waterfalls cliffs and waterfalls themselves, tried to find the perfect way to make the waterfalls without using particles.. Because I'm a lazy ass =D So, I experimented with alpha tested shader and came back to translucent shader, and after much attemps on poly strip modelling I settled for this:
A mix of alpha tested and translucent falls together. The tested one simulates the rough water stream and particles, while the softer one creates a mist fall around it.
Alpha tested only:
Both:
For the mesh, I used a 4 crossed planes strip, twisted, so that when you look up or down you always keep volume and see less crossing imho:
don't know how i missed this thread before.. have read it from begining and have some noob questions that i didn't realized.
1. Your brick wall, is it modeled as separate bricks or a plane with tileable 3d texture?(as i remember, there was a post about high polycount on walls, would be great to look at wires :icon15:)
But as i can understand from your post, there are just tileable texture, But this with separate bricks makes me doubt.. but i think his model is simply not for game engine.
2. on texture creation So you import displace map to ZB, then apply DispMap to high divided plane, sculpt that you want and then bake normal map? and same with say bricks/rock/whatelse tileable textures?
i'm in search for methods of texturing, and atm think about how to texture wood stockade/log walls/plank walls/roof tile and stone walls/rocks for sure
can't wait for yours wooden houses :P
Thanks Kyuzo, first about the brick wall it was a single brick sculpt, duplicated in max to create the tiling HP wall, not to mix with the texturing, where I used tiled patterns to achieve the look.
As for the pattern study, I only do this with very fractal-like textures, like rock surface or uneven bricks walls.
About wood, I almost never sculpt any since the res needed for having realistic fibers in a sculpt is outrageous. Unless you go for a stylized look. What's good for wood sculpting when you're attempting a realistic look on a very specific shape is to sculpt the low frequency and blend in crazybump'ed high frequencies together.
Looks like a good ref for the overgrowth I want to put over my cliffs, saved.
as i understand there are not only rock/rock wall tileables, but also brick ones.
as "uneven brick walls" you meant something like this:
http://cgtextures.com/textures.php?t=browse&q=90
or surface?
sorry for being dumb, but explanation really needed :S
And yes, that's what I meant by uneven.
Small update for today, I was able to make most of the waterfalls with the same object, and I started working on the village houses textures. I feel like some of them look too stylized, would like feedback on the stonewall especially, maybe it just needs a photosource pass.
I'm quite happy of the results with the thatched roof, slate roof texture still needs work at places but I can already make a good use of it.