1. Ambient occlusion between the stones should not be pure black, it's too strong.
2. The overall ambient lighting is also too strong, it flattens everything out.
3. The orange lights from your torches are too weak and do not have enough color.
It would help to get some reference of lighting you like, and try to duplicate that.
The textures are really harsh. The stairs texture needs to be reworked or reuv'd to fix the massive texture change in the stair corner. The stones should not be that black between them.
I can't really explain how to solve your problem, but that's what I can see.
WAY TOO MUCH GREY! You need colours on everything.
You are going to want to add in a skydome, which you can find in the UN_Sky package in UDK. From there you can either run with their defualt sky texture or you can create your own using the same texture dementions.
Then from there your going to want to play around with a dominate directional light. These will simulate fantastic sunlight with tweaking of course. You will also need to make a Lightmass Volume that only sorrounds your level nothing more. The way UDK calculates light is based on emitting photons, the volume will contain them speeding up render time.
The other options to look at are located under View > World Properties, then look for the Lightmass setitngs. Under there take a look at the environment color and make sure its not set to pure black otherwise this will make your shadows black and we don't want pure black shadows.
Ok before I start writing an insane long post that will just get confusing, play arouund with those settings and also take a look at the UDK Documentation that goes over Lightmass settings that will help a lot aswell.
Awesome, thanks guys! Really appreciate it I'll get around to it in the next few days. I only noticed the steps issue after I posted, haha. I'm pretty sure it' just a smoothing group problem. Really helpful stuff. Back soon!
Your stones look too perfect and too round, try making them rougher in the texture, and not so perfect and bubbly. Also I think you could have gotten away with making way less geometry for the walls, basically have a flat plane with texture you just need to pop up a few stones here in there, instead of having each rock have its own geometry which is very inefficient, and makes it look like its just a stack of rocks instead of a tower. Also a little color variation in texture would make it more interesting. Instead of using flat grey rocks try using some grunge textures on top of it with different blending modes and low opacity to make it more interesting.
P.S. I really like the dwarf head Its pretty awesome for a first environment
Thanks Point taken. I had thought about the brick geometry and I wanted to try out this method to see how well it worked. I'm gonna go with it for now because it adds a bit a style, even if it sacrifices recognition (as towers/walls) as well as optimisation, and next time I'll go for a grounding plane base with some extrusions, as you've suggested.
I had tried some grunge but had little success. :S I'll have another crack at it :thumbup:
I'd definitely consider adding in some wooden beams and wooden structures. think medieval, not everything was made of stone. You'll want something to break up that stone at the moment.
I'm aware it's obviously inside a stronghold, but i'd consider even trying to fit in some green in some places ie trees, bushes, atleast in the background. It will just help give it some more life.
Oh and as previously suggested, definitely add in a skydome.
Ok, I've had a play around in regards to what's been said and here's some progress.
I fear I may have gone too far the other way with the lights.
In an attempt to introduce plantation and colour...I thought mushrooms where the way to go.....and I just like them. Not sure on how they're looking at the moment. The idea was to dot them around a bit to break up the grey. I think they may be clashing a bit, but I really wanna try and make 'em work.
Wanted to add some glowing effect for the eyes of the doorway (which sorta flickers slowly in the level) but not happy with the shape.
This is definitely looking good so far, I like the atmosphere with the new lighting.
I'm not sure if you had plans for this and haven't gotten around to it yet, but one thing I'm wondering looking at it is what kind of environment is this in (desert, mountains, forest ect.)
Picking a really interesting location for this could help you invent some more details to populate the scene with, as well as possibly add some larger elements surrounding it. Right now it feels like everything you have is kind of sitting in no-mans land.
Hey man, sorry I didn't get back to you. Yeah, that's a really good point. Hopefully I'll get around to setting it some kind of context and get some ideas for more props. I think I'm swaying toward the snowy/mountains kinda thing.
Replies
2. The overall ambient lighting is also too strong, it flattens everything out.
3. The orange lights from your torches are too weak and do not have enough color.
It would help to get some reference of lighting you like, and try to duplicate that.
I can't really explain how to solve your problem, but that's what I can see.
WAY TOO MUCH GREY! You need colours on everything.
one thing though, not sure if its your lighting (or lightmaps) but your stairs have a harsh division between the middle and left side.
Looking great though!
Then from there your going to want to play around with a dominate directional light. These will simulate fantastic sunlight with tweaking of course. You will also need to make a Lightmass Volume that only sorrounds your level nothing more. The way UDK calculates light is based on emitting photons, the volume will contain them speeding up render time.
The other options to look at are located under View > World Properties, then look for the Lightmass setitngs. Under there take a look at the environment color and make sure its not set to pure black otherwise this will make your shadows black and we don't want pure black shadows.
Ok before I start writing an insane long post that will just get confusing, play arouund with those settings and also take a look at the UDK Documentation that goes over Lightmass settings that will help a lot aswell.
P.S. I really like the dwarf head
I had tried some grunge but had little success. :S I'll have another crack at it :thumbup:
I'm aware it's obviously inside a stronghold, but i'd consider even trying to fit in some green in some places ie trees, bushes, atleast in the background. It will just help give it some more life.
Oh and as previously suggested, definitely add in a skydome.
Keep at it it'll get there!
I love the concept. The arms sticking out are great!
Ok, I've had a play around in regards to what's been said and here's some progress.
I fear I may have gone too far the other way with the lights.
In an attempt to introduce plantation and colour...I thought mushrooms where the way to go.....and I just like them. Not sure on how they're looking at the moment. The idea was to dot them around a bit to break up the grey. I think they may be clashing a bit, but I really wanna try and make 'em work.
Wanted to add some glowing effect for the eyes of the doorway (which sorta flickers slowly in the level) but not happy with the shape.
Why are the areas between the bricks pure black? That is taking away a lot of detail that could be there.
I'm not sure if you had plans for this and haven't gotten around to it yet, but one thing I'm wondering looking at it is what kind of environment is this in (desert, mountains, forest ect.)
Picking a really interesting location for this could help you invent some more details to populate the scene with, as well as possibly add some larger elements surrounding it. Right now it feels like everything you have is kind of sitting in no-mans land.