Glacial Castle

SnakeDoctor

Hey guys started a new project about a week ago. Been working on the base shaders for the rocks and ice as of right now.



It was made by Daniel Conway who does some great work. Here is his portfolio
http://danielconway.artworkfolio.com/gallery/317016#13



So to start this project I first wanted to get the rocks and ice shards shaders set up, as they would make up the base of my level. I also wanted to dive into the unreal material network first because it has been something I wanted to learn for a long time now.


For my rock shader I watched Virtuosic's demonstration of the rock and snow shader he created. I was very impressed with the results so I created my own. The rock uses the worldspace up vector in combination with a height map to procedurally blend snow. I am currently working on a WindSpace and Direction Actor to control exactly what angle the snow is coming from and how blends into my rocks. I also added some other basic parameters such a tiling, Normal Map intensity etc.

Virtuosic original demonstration videos can be found here.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1193841

Here is a quick screenshot of the rocks:



The ice shader isn't really anything to special but I recently found out how to properly incorporate a Sub Surface Scattering Map into the transmission slots.




What I plan to do is potato head these models together around my terrain and fortress to get a result the mimics this.




I hope this is considered good practice. I am worried that this wont be memory efficient but after some research I noticed that in UDK's levels the very same technique is applied. Please let me know if I am wrong for assuming this.

NoltaN

I'm interested in hearing some feedback as well I recently made a Z-up vector shader to shade moss on some rocks in UDK. I also got the idea from Virtuosic's video :P. I'm actually planning on 'potato heading' my rocks the same way you are as that's how they did it on the foliage map demo. I'm not entirely sure on the technical side of this but i'd assume if the model is set up for mesh instancing this is alright? Anyway look forward to seeing how this comes along. I'll be posting my WIP of my jungle type fantasy environment soon using a similar technique.

Clark Coots

that up vector shader is great. i'll have to try that if i can figure it out. i'm a UDK noob still.

SnakeDoctor

OK been working on this for a bit. I thought I would post my initial block in first and then show a small test to see how some of my assets work together.




Here is a small test I did to see how my vertex blending would act on my modular wall pieces. As of right now I am not to happy with how the ice looks. I want to fix it as best I can and I will, but I am determined to not let my perfectionist tendencies get in the way of completing this project. In the final scene I will have added fog and a snowing particle effect to the scene which I think will add to the overall atmosphere.




The next things I will be working on are the stairs and the entrance to the actual fortress. I will also look into fixing the ice and learning the newer landscape editor.

Alex3d

There should be a smoother blend between rocks, ice and the wall. Just a heads up, but perhaps the ice would be more translucent and cover some rocks as well (Icicles, etc..) I like that you've added colour to the ice, but at the moment it looks like it was made from cool aid XD

EDIT: Here's a crystal done by the Orb


Might be useful for you to make ice the simmilar way...

danjohncox

nice start on those materials. However I think the modular approach to the rocks won't pan out as well. There's just a bit too much "blockyness" right now. Check some of the stuff posted for rage recently. Try modeling out the majority of the rock faces by hand and using the modular rocks to fill in spaces and add extra detail. Paro did a great job with that kind of setup in this thread http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81800

SnakeDoctor

@ Alex3d - Those crystals from orb look really nice. I will defiantly take a look at how those were made when I get home.

@danhohncox - I agree with the blockiness of the scene. I changed the ice mesh to something more jagged and the results are way better in my opinion. Now if I could just get something similar to that orb crystal material then I should be golden.

MainManiac

That concept almost brought a tear to my eye, its so beautiful

great progress also

mkandersson

Looks good so far and interesting concept. Looking forward to see more.

that up vector shader is great. i'll have to try that if i can figure it out. i'm a UDK noob still.

found this the other day on youtube. Might help.
youtube.com/watch?v=lH6SIFQ0ROE

Wonkey

I posted in your tech help thread but posting here too, I was playing around with an ice shader, hope it gives you some ideas

Nix

There needs to be more 3D ice, it's one of the most beautiful things in nature IMO. Looking very promising so far, looking forward to seeing this finished.

SnakeDoctor

Thanks guys for the comments.

mkanderson- Nice video. I wish I would of found that before I did my rocks. Would of made things easier on me. ^^ Thanks for posting it.

Wonkey- Thanks for the screenshots. I will defiantly look into implementing distortions in my ice as well as reflections.

I think I am calling the ice done for now. I want to move on with the rest of my project , but at the end Ill go back and see what I can do to improve it.


Here is a pic of the new ice shader. I think its an improvement over the last one. Hope you like it.

Joopson

Loving the new iteration of the shader! Looks loads better. I can't wait for more.

ParoXum

Looks way better indeed. Not much to comment yet, except use more references for your ice and frost shader.

Lucas Annunziata

oooo....ice is very cool. I'll be keeping an eye on your progress.

DaveSilver

I love the concept you are working from and I really like what you've done with it so far. Great job man.

I really like the new ice shader but it may still be a little to bright blue. Anyway, keep going.

Jhburton

Where has this project gone!? I want moaaaaar

SnakeDoctor

Hey sorry for the long update. Just to assure you the project is not gone. I have been busy over the holiday season and will return to the project after January 1st.

Jhburton

Any updates on this?