Thanks, I'm pretty much trying out a photoshop plugin thats supposed to be used for removing artefacts and noise on pictures. I'm using it to get a good base to work on for making stylised textures.
The plugin in question is called : Kodak Gem
The KODAK DIGITAL GEM Plug-In, for ADOBE PHOTOSHOP and compatible programs, automatically reduces and manages noise and grain in digital images without causing excessive softening or blurring. This professional version has a powerful grain/noise reducing algorithm, a "Noise Preview" screen, 16-bit support, and more.
Its basically the ideal noise reduction tool that keeps only the interesting detail.
I have been experimenting with sky textures lately, and tried to use 16bit textures for skydomes to have high quality skies without any compression artefacts showing up no matter the resolution or the exposure of the texture.
I also did some attempts to make stylised skies based on photo just by running a few photoshop scripts.
Some results :
I also did an "in engine" test with a low resolution 16bit texture projected on a dome to see how it looks.
I'm planning to use xtream Vue to generate the final spherical sky and then stylise it with photoshop.
As for volumetric clouds, I'm thinking of using speed tree modeler to generate sprites and slap a proper material which reacts to lighting accordingly.
Really dramatic and cool skies man! I kinda liked how the whole scene had a fluffy and sunny feel to it before though. Kinda innocent in a way :P
I started reading the stuff from z spline. Really cool stuff on there! But do you know if he's released his GViz to the public or if it's still in the making? I guess you where thinking of making a sky in PS and use the IBL from that anyway? Cheers!
idk why, but im not a fan of that rainbow colored sky. I loved the whitish sunlight you had on it before.
Maybe play around with some regular colored skydomes?
Can't wait to see the land texture breakdown when you finish, I'm very interested. Also I really like the colourful sky, depending on what other meshes you put in, it could really work.
I've been experimenting with the per-pixel painting in UDK (dec version) and I must say that its probably one of the biggest features added to the engine.
Here is a video showing off one the usage you can make with a proper shader setup :
this is really something great i love it and its pretty for once. the stylization you've added is great gives it a "Mario galaxy" semi hyper real effect. keep it up! :thumbup:
wow this is amazing! i really love the style your going for. Have to say the skydome texture is looking really good. Gives off that heaven/ anime feel. Totally following this.
For the base mesh, could we see a wireframe? U have so much details on your rocks. also it'll be cool if you can show us your workflow.
thanks, I've been testing out some custom shaders and post processing shaders lately.
The post processing shader is basically a gradient mapping technique applied to the camera.
It works like the photoshop gradient map effect which also allows you to use split tone mapping.
Gradient mapping post process + some custom assets with snow shader tests.
With :
Without :
I've also figured out how to make grass models pick up terrain texture color automatically to blend perfectly with terrain. I'll post some beautyshots later on when I make some real vegetation models.
nice snow shader. did you make it up yourself? I recall a tutorial on how to create a snow shader using Up Vector or something in UDK. Everything's looking great, i'm interested to see the results of the grass model color blending with terrain.
about the snow shader, i was wondering if it would be possible for it to detect interesction with other meshes to create zones where snow appears due to accumulation...
an example could be the rocks on the right side in the foreground, as snow should accumulate in the crease they create by intersecting
Thanks, @coots7 : there is a tutorial about it ? I'll check it out, thanks for the heads up
@Fnitrox : I've been thinking about making a fix for the intersections but it seems like the only way to make those intersections is to use vertex colours and manually paint the areas where the snow is not projecting properly.
I improved the snow shader (added soft hard/soft transitions) and gave some love to the rock texture.
Here's the video. it was easy to find, but i'll just post it for anyone else interested. Turns out its actually not a tutorial but a demo, so you don't get to see the breakdowns, but perhaps it'll give you some ideas
- I've implemented custom lighting model for meshes and terrain in order to get consistent shading when using static meshes on terrain : you can hardly make the difference between terrain and rock models.
- Added Rim lighting to meshes and terrain : this seems to add a lot to the scene and gives a good sense of volume.
- Used gradient map based post processing effect to get a filmic effect.
- Usage of 3d worldspace project textures on terrain (cliffs) to avoid texture stretching : this technique could be a good alternative for painting terrain textures procedurally (automatically blend snow/rock based on slop angles).
- Planning to test out height based blending for textures to get fine detailed blending between textures on terrain.
Some quick tests on a scene which was put together in 30min
2 tiled textures used on terrain (rock/grass) + 6 different rock models duplicated all over the terrain.
coots7 thanks for the links, it seems like my material is very similar to Ryan's.
c22dunbar : its the NormalfromHeightmap material function under "procedurals" you'll have to use a textureobject node to make it work.
How did you merge all those rock models with the terrain and blend them so seamlessly?! It looks absolutely stellar!
[EDIT] OH I SEE IT NOW! The terrain uses the rock texture from the model, you use the texture blending around the area where you want to place the rock model, and then you stick it on. No blending needed, because the colors and textures match up, even the seam is hard to spot. Clever!
I'm also wondering how did you manage to make the grass pickup the colour of the terrain?
I've been working lately on a similar material that blends between static meshes and the terrain (you can see it here), but my method is currently a bit limited. Did you figure out a way to project texture information from one mesh onto another? Or did you overlay the same texture sample onto multiple meshes? (that's the workaround I had to use)
I've been thinking briefly of using reflection actors and render to texture to project the terrain texture onto my static meshes. I've been hoping that this way I would be able to paint my terrain in any way I want and have it projected onto my statics objects. But I guess that won't work due to the fact that we cannot exclude certain meshes from being reflected. I think I could just hide everything except my terrain and render it to a texture, but then the resolution would be uneven between terrain and the projected texture.
I'm also wondering how did you manage to make the grass pickup the colour of the terrain?
I've been working lately on a similar material that blends between static meshes and the terrain (you can see it here), but my method is currently a bit limited. Did you figure out a way to project texture information from one mesh onto another? Or did you overlay the same texture sample onto multiple meshes? (that's the workaround I had to use)
I've been thinking briefly of using reflection actors and render to texture to project the terrain texture onto my static meshes. I've been hoping that this way I would be able to paint my terrain in any way I want and have it projected onto my statics objects. But I guess that won't work due to the fact that we cannot exclude certain meshes from being reflected. I think I could just hide everything except my terrain and render it to a texture, but then the resolution would be uneven between terrain and the projected texture.
I wonder what are your thoughts on that.
Thanks, making the grass pick up the terrain colour works only if your terrain has a basic colour map which is overlayed on top of tiled detail textures (erosion flow+AO+cavity+colour).
I use that colour map on the grass blades and make them blend with the terrain automatically.
Here is how its setup in the material editor :
The terrain colour map :
Your terrain needs to be at the origin of the Grid (location 0,0,0) to project the texture properly.
You also need the terrain size (used in the material) , you can get it by using the ruler (middle mouse clic + drag) or by doing a simple calculation depending on the size of your height map : for a heightmap of 1009x1009 : 1009 - 1 x 128 = 129024. 129024 is the number that should be used in the material for such a terrain for example.
As for seamless environments, you might want to try 3d projected textures which are projected in 3d worldspace and bypasses the UVs.
You can find the following functions in the material editor :
I'll be posting a small video showing how I work when dealing with terrain in UDK (placing rocks on cliffs and making them blend properly)
Thanks, making the grass pick up the terrain colour works only if your terrain has a basic colour map which is overlayed on top of tiled detail textures (erosion flow+AO+cavity+colour).
I use that colour map on the grass blades and make them blend with the terrain automatically.
Here is how its setup in the material editor [snip]
Nice! I've been hoping that perhaps you have managed to find a way to reference the landscape layers in another material but this appears to be a great workaround. At first I thought this approach would limit you to not being able to modify the terrain once foliage had been painted, but now that I think of it shouldn't have any negative effects on the flexibility. Since that terrain colour map is always projected from the top and you detail maps are greyscale modyfing the landscape will not produce any issues. Sweet.
As for seamless environments, you might want to try 3d projected textures which are projected in 3d worldspace and bypasses the UVs.
You can find the following functions in the material editor
Thanks for the tip mate. I haven't realized that Epic had added such functions. Until now, I've been projecting textures manually and been using World Position nodes, component masks and so on. Using these functions seems like a much more elegant and easier to manage solution.
I'll be posting a small video showing how I work when dealing with terrain in UDK (placing rocks on cliffs and making them blend properly)
I will be looking forward to this Since I'm looking into similar issues right now I would love to see them being solved from another perspective.
there you go, the video I promised
Its really nothing special but it shows how much texture/shading consistency and placement really helps when trying to make a seamless environment.
- I've implemented custom lighting model for meshes and terrain in order to get consistent shading when using static meshes on terrain : you can hardly make the difference between terrain and rock models.
- Added Rim lighting to meshes and terrain : this seems to add a lot to the scene and gives a good sense of volume.
- Used gradient map based post processing effect to get a filmic effect.
- Usage of 3d worldspace project textures on terrain (cliffs) to avoid texture stretching : this technique could be a good alternative for painting terrain textures procedurally (automatically blend snow/rock based on slop angles).
- Planning to test out height based blending for textures to get fine detailed blending between textures on terrain.
Some quick tests on a scene which was put together in 30min
2 tiled textures used on terrain (rock/grass) + 6 different rock models duplicated all over the terrain.
coots7 thanks for the links, it seems like my material is very similar to Ryan's.
c22dunbar : its the NormalfromHeightmap material function under "procedurals" you'll have to use a textureobject node to make it work.
you keep outdoing yourself choco! can you please provide any insight in to how you approached the rock texture and your workflow for it. it looks very clean and the most amazing piece of all of this to me.
I have been experimenting with subtle point lights today to improve the overall lighting of the scene.
Here is a with and without comparison : (please don't mind the grass tiling obviously showing up, I'm planning to overlay a terrain colour map later on once I'm done placing the key assets on the terrain).
This technique seems to help with the consistency of the shading and can be used to highlight key elements of a scene at 0 performance cost.
you keep outdoing yourself choco! can you please provide any insight in to how you approached the rock texture and your workflow for it. it looks very clean and the most amazing piece of all of this to me.
i cant seem to create detailed crossing over mountains like you have
Thank you ; regarding the rock texture, I modeled the multiple rocks individually and then put them together in zbrush by using the 2.5d canvas.
Later on I render out a heightmap which was used as a displacement map on a highpoly plane. The highpoly plane helped me generate ambient occlusion map,normal map, cavity map and edge highlight map which are put together in photoshop on top a photosourced rock tiled texture.
To add detail to my normal map, I blended the normal map generated from the highpoly plane with one based on the photosourced texture.
As for the terrain on those screenshots, its fully generated in worldmachine, I didn't do any basic shaping in mudbox regarding that landscape.
Oh wow I just stumbled upon this thread. I looove the terrain you have going here and your rocks look great! Very interested to see how you take it further
Also all your explanations are much appreciated! I'm going to spend some time and go through each one thanks!
Replies
The plugin in question is called : Kodak Gem
Its basically the ideal noise reduction tool that keeps only the interesting detail.
You can find a demo version here : http://www.asf.com/
I also did some attempts to make stylised skies based on photo just by running a few photoshop scripts.
Some results :
I also did an "in engine" test with a low resolution 16bit texture projected on a dome to see how it looks.
I'm planning to use xtream Vue to generate the final spherical sky and then stylise it with photoshop.
I will probably use image based lighting to get more accurate ambient lighting. (based on following article : http://www.zspline.net/blog/2010/06/23/gviz-features-image-based-lighting/ )
As for volumetric clouds, I'm thinking of using speed tree modeler to generate sprites and slap a proper material which reacts to lighting accordingly.
I started reading the stuff from z spline. Really cool stuff on there! But do you know if he's released his GViz to the public or if it's still in the making? I guess you where thinking of making a sky in PS and use the IBL from that anyway? Cheers!
Very nice scene! I like the grass texture, where do you get such a texture? I have a hard time finding a good grass texture myself.
Don't forget! Lot's of us are truly dying to see your process =]
Maybe play around with some regular colored skydomes?
Following! ^__^
Here is a video showing off one the usage you can make with a proper shader setup :
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And here is a tilable texture which took me around 30min to paint in UDK.
Everything done in UDK (no photohsop, no mubox or zbrush sculpting)
Thanks, there is a material function that allows you to generate a normal map out of a heightmap/grayscale texture in the material editor
Realy great stuff!
For the base mesh, could we see a wireframe? U have so much details on your rocks. also it'll be cool if you can show us your workflow.
keep it up!
The post processing shader is basically a gradient mapping technique applied to the camera.
It works like the photoshop gradient map effect which also allows you to use split tone mapping.
Gradient mapping post process + some custom assets with snow shader tests.
With :
Without :
I've also figured out how to make grass models pick up terrain texture color automatically to blend perfectly with terrain. I'll post some beautyshots later on when I make some real vegetation models.
tests :
about the snow shader, i was wondering if it would be possible for it to detect interesction with other meshes to create zones where snow appears due to accumulation...
an example could be the rocks on the right side in the foreground, as snow should accumulate in the crease they create by intersecting
@Fnitrox : I've been thinking about making a fix for the intersections but it seems like the only way to make those intersections is to use vertex colours and manually paint the areas where the snow is not projecting properly.
I improved the snow shader (added soft hard/soft transitions) and gave some love to the rock texture.
Part1:
[ame="
Part2:
[ame="
i've been working on a shader based on this tutorial:
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitGemsDynamicNormalMap.html
but it seems like this way is very heavy on instructions.
NVM i've found it.
- I've implemented custom lighting model for meshes and terrain in order to get consistent shading when using static meshes on terrain : you can hardly make the difference between terrain and rock models.
- Added Rim lighting to meshes and terrain : this seems to add a lot to the scene and gives a good sense of volume.
- Used gradient map based post processing effect to get a filmic effect.
- Usage of 3d worldspace project textures on terrain (cliffs) to avoid texture stretching : this technique could be a good alternative for painting terrain textures procedurally (automatically blend snow/rock based on slop angles).
- Planning to test out height based blending for textures to get fine detailed blending between textures on terrain.
Some quick tests on a scene which was put together in 30min
2 tiled textures used on terrain (rock/grass) + 6 different rock models duplicated all over the terrain.
coots7 thanks for the links, it seems like my material is very similar to Ryan's.
c22dunbar : its the NormalfromHeightmap material function under "procedurals"
Maybe a little to much rim on the grass, but still. . .cool stuff.
[EDIT] OH I SEE IT NOW! The terrain uses the rock texture from the model, you use the texture blending around the area where you want to place the rock model, and then you stick it on. No blending needed, because the colors and textures match up, even the seam is hard to spot. Clever!
Good stuff!
I'm also wondering how did you manage to make the grass pickup the colour of the terrain?
I've been working lately on a similar material that blends between static meshes and the terrain (you can see it here), but my method is currently a bit limited. Did you figure out a way to project texture information from one mesh onto another? Or did you overlay the same texture sample onto multiple meshes? (that's the workaround I had to use)
I've been thinking briefly of using reflection actors and render to texture to project the terrain texture onto my static meshes. I've been hoping that this way I would be able to paint my terrain in any way I want and have it projected onto my statics objects. But I guess that won't work due to the fact that we cannot exclude certain meshes from being reflected. I think I could just hide everything except my terrain and render it to a texture, but then the resolution would be uneven between terrain and the projected texture.
I wonder what are your thoughts on that.
Thanks, making the grass pick up the terrain colour works only if your terrain has a basic colour map which is overlayed on top of tiled detail textures (erosion flow+AO+cavity+colour).
I use that colour map on the grass blades and make them blend with the terrain automatically.
Here is how its setup in the material editor :
The terrain colour map :
Your terrain needs to be at the origin of the Grid (location 0,0,0) to project the texture properly.
You also need the terrain size (used in the material) , you can get it by using the ruler (middle mouse clic + drag) or by doing a simple calculation depending on the size of your height map : for a heightmap of 1009x1009 : 1009 - 1 x 128 = 129024. 129024 is the number that should be used in the material for such a terrain for example.
As for seamless environments, you might want to try 3d projected textures which are projected in 3d worldspace and bypasses the UVs.
You can find the following functions in the material editor :
I'll be posting a small video showing how I work when dealing with terrain in UDK (placing rocks on cliffs and making them blend properly)
Thanks for the detailed explanation!
Nice! I've been hoping that perhaps you have managed to find a way to reference the landscape layers in another material but this appears to be a great workaround. At first I thought this approach would limit you to not being able to modify the terrain once foliage had been painted, but now that I think of it shouldn't have any negative effects on the flexibility. Since that terrain colour map is always projected from the top and you detail maps are greyscale modyfing the landscape will not produce any issues. Sweet.
Thanks for the tip mate. I haven't realized that Epic had added such functions. Until now, I've been projecting textures manually and been using World Position nodes, component masks and so on. Using these functions seems like a much more elegant and easier to manage solution.
I will be looking forward to this
Its really nothing special but it shows how much texture/shading consistency and placement really helps when trying to make a seamless environment.
[ame="
you keep outdoing yourself choco! can you please provide any insight in to how you approached the rock texture and your workflow for it. it looks very clean and the most amazing piece of all of this to me.
also i was wondering in regards to your ce3 terrain tute, do you mind posting a pic of the mudbox base mesh you used for your scene here: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1420261&postcount=8361
i cant seem to create detailed crossing over mountains like you have
Can't wait to see what's next.
Here is a with and without comparison : (please don't mind the grass tiling obviously showing up, I'm planning to overlay a terrain colour map later on once I'm done placing the key assets on the terrain).
This technique seems to help with the consistency of the shading and can be used to highlight key elements of a scene at 0 performance cost.
Thank you
Later on I render out a heightmap which was used as a displacement map on a highpoly plane. The highpoly plane helped me generate ambient occlusion map,normal map, cavity map and edge highlight map which are put together in photoshop on top a photosourced rock tiled texture.
To add detail to my normal map, I blended the normal map generated from the highpoly plane with one based on the photosourced texture.
As for the terrain on those screenshots, its fully generated in worldmachine, I didn't do any basic shaping in mudbox regarding that landscape.
Also all your explanations are much appreciated! I'm going to spend some time and go through each one
I improved the grass shader a bit :
[ame="
Awesome work, really love what you're doing!