Robot character model WIP

kHellstr

// current status:



// Forearm in Unity Web player >>

Hi

I decided to learn some modelling for games and found this great forum. Lot of information about essential things that I have never heard (like normal maps)

Here is my concept, I did it about 2 years a go (for flash game that I will never Finnish).


This is where I'm now with modelling. I'm not trying model concept exactly, use it more for proportions and tone. I'm using



I going to make this character about 2000 polygons. I choose that amount because I probably will demo this with Unity and the example project that comes with it (Angry Bots) character has 2000 polys. And if I will make a enviroment for this then I just follow aspects of that project ( texture sizes, polycounts etc ). I'm new to game modelling and Unity, so doing it this way I hope that I will not run any major performance issues.

Now I'm planning to do low poly model with normal maps from that one part in arm. Some might say this is wrong order, I should finish entire model first. But because I'm learning this I probably have to redesign/remodel/rebake many parts again and again. I take this small almost hidden part to get some understanding of low poly models. I think that will help me on how to design more important and visible parts.


After roughly calculating how many polycons I should use and how much UV space will be used, I think I paid too much attention for small details. Bevel on those three "bolts" will probably bee under pixel size in normal map.

If you have details that are small, few pixels in baked normal map, is it better to leave them out? I think details too small will cause only some "random noise", not any readable form. ( I will see it soon)

I'm using Modo for modelling so I'd like to know if anyone have any experience baking normal maps with it. I basically know how to do it, but like to know if results are good or is it easier to get better results in some other software (like xNormals)?

Ack Master

im digging the concept muchly. Modo and Max bake equally as good in my mind. Max you break your edges Modo you dont. Xnormal is great for zbrush and maya cause both those programs in my mind are no good for baking.

As for the bolts you are talking about its all relative to the piece and size of your texture. So if your making a bridge and you need rivets in it the eye-beams and your texture is SUPER small then i'd suggest making fewer bigger bolts then using small bolts. if its just gonna come out as noise then i dont see a point to adding them.

You could just put black spots too if you see your model from far enough that it looks good

kHellstr

Good to know that I don't have to blame software when I will get bad normal mapping results...

Now I have my low poly ready for test baking:



It's 89 polygons so I exceeded my budget only by 14 polygon ( or by 18.7 % :shifty: ). I hope its OK to use both tri's and quads in model?

I was surprised how fast the number of polygons rises, so I removed those holes in sides and left only one hole.

One thing I read, is that every mesh item will add one draw call ( what ever that is, it's not good for performance ). This robot will have between 20 - 30 mesh items if I'm doing it how I planned. It will use same texture and material (or maybe 2 material) in all parts. Is this something I should considre? Maybe I have to find out what is draw call...

Is this right:
If I have 2 mesh items sharing same material, it will make 3 draw calls?
like this:
draw call 1: mesh 1
draw call 2: mesh 2
draw call 3: material

If I have 2 mesh items with different material it will make 4 draw calls (
( mesh 1, mesh 2, material 1 and material 2)

draw call 1: mesh 1
draw call 2: mesh 2
draw call 3: material 1
draw call 4: material 2

or is it like this:
draw call 1: mesh 1 & material 1
draw call 2: mesh

And what is calculating cost of those calls, how much it matters.

kHellstr

Tried out normal map baking, didn't expect it to be simple but I almost handed over when I saw my first result. After many hours tweaking and testing
I got some grip on what is happening.



Mainly I just tweaked high and low poly meshes to match better each other, got feeling that most of the problems come when distance between meshes is too long.

That part is far from good but I leave it as it for now. I think I have to remodel it anyway, probably too many polygons and uv islands.

I will create forearm next and this time will go low poly first. From that first mesh I learned what kind of shapes and forms would be wise to use in low poly model.

kHellstr

Progress in forearm:


I will remove or fix that bevel in top surface. Doesn't look good.
There are also terrible n-gons in high poly, but don't care cause they don't show up in normal map.



I changed my poly budget from 2000 to 5000-7000.

kHellstr

Now my normal maps are working, or at least working better than earlier. Find out that I have to set my smoothing angle to 180 in material in Modos shader three.

here's the forearm in Unity web player: Rebot forearm