Wood Steps

1magus

I'm not sure if I did the normal map correctly on this model. I applied a 1024x1024 Diffuse, Specular, and Normal map onto this texture as a test and set each value in 3Ds max to 100%. I think it looks amazing but perhaps for photo realism I'm not doing things right?


Also I noticed when I save a render as a photo file in Max as a PNG it defaults the back round color to WHITE no matter what I do, if I choose jpeg than it lets me change the color. Does anybody know why this is?

cholden

it's fine for what it is.

Normal is a little strong, makes it look pillowy and round instead of flat, cracked wood.

specular may be too strong. Makes it look wet and synthetic. Wood specular can vary greatly (different levels of polish, finishing), however, this appears the aged, weathers and dry type. This wood could benefit from a weaker spec. Reduced to the point of only catching subtle edges now and then.

Diffuse lacks in color information. It's pretty low saturation, which might be fine based on the project. It's the overall, one brown that hurts it. Wood, especially this aged, can gain a plethora of color variation.

Mesh; simple, but does the job. Think of this as a lower level of an LOD, now build the up-close version. Sag in the center of the steps from years of use, less overall planar shapes, chips of wood, splinters knocked out, nail to hold those steps in place, etc.

May be worth getting a render in UDK, CryEngine 3, maroset, etc

PNG output could be flattening. Try saving out a 32 bit TARGA format, and it should have and alpha channel you can use to separate it as you please.

1magus

The Specular map you are probably right on, atm it looks like some fake wood you might find in Disneyland. It is meant to be some simple steps for a house from the 1800s and they did not have polished wood back than.

As for the model well it is a smaller part of a larger building that is not finished so I really don't think it needs greater polygon detail or do you think with the way games work now a days it would greatly benefit from a little more detail?

I thought the Diffuse worked because it is meant to be some fairly new looking steps that are made in the 1800s and the time in our game is set in the 1800s not too aged of wood or what do you think in this case?

RozekWracy

makes it look pillowy and round instead of flat

cholden

Diffuse aside, if they were fairly new the normal wouldn't have near that level of aging. The hand plane was invented thousands of years ago.

Yes more detail, unless this is for an RTS. I put more detail in steps four years ago in mmo's. I mean, really, GO CRAZY. The concept of LODs was introduced a long time ago. You can always scale down, but you can't scale up without a lot of work. Keep it quaded for easy LODs.

Nevertheless, the camera dictates the level of detail, and be sure to maintain polygon density over the building, especially based on camera position. As in, everything in camera view gets more detail, things further out, less.

Most importantly, if it's for a game, it should be presented for feedback within that game engine if possible for best results.

1magus

I could never find a definite solution for this but how many different versions of each model should I have when it comes to LOD in a game?

cholden

I'm going to talk a bunch about Level-of-Detail because I'm up waiting for a GDC flight. silly me.

Documentation for your game should have the technical specs for LOD laid out. If not, documenting it would be great.

Diminishing returns. You can only create lower LOD steps before they use more memory than not using them at all. A character with 5-6 steps may be pushing the limit. On average, most level assets I work with tend to be three steps (up-close, mid-range, distance). Larger, more detailed pieces may be granted more, and smaller ones less, but this is all dependent on the specific asset.

Set a percentage drop each step should be for your project. Transitioning evenly across all objects helps in disparaging levels of quality. A 50k triangle building, dropping to 30% yields 15k, 4500, 1350, and 405 triangles with each step down.

Setting distances where they transition is also important. Try to maintain silhouette information as long as possible. Models visibly popping to the next step is often inevitable, but do what you can do prevent it.

1magus

I think this is useful information and I THINK I understand it . But These stairs are the bare basics of a model, they have nothing underneath them and the player will probably not notice any extra detail unless they are another 3D Artist. So what do you do for LOD when it comes to a basic model with around 30 Triangles?

Or Do you think I went too far with that and I should not worry so much about triangle counts on a PC game?

AlecMoody

I did a really similar type of wood stair on the carnival trailer in my portfolio:
http://www.alecmoody.com/8/index.html

Notice how it reads as dirty and old has almost no micro texture in the sculpt. Wood grain usually only becomes that raised when it is subjected to huge amounts of moisture (think drift wood) and even then it is usually less intense.

1magus

AlecMoody wrote: »

I did a really similar type of wood stair on the carnival trailer in my portfolio:
http://www.alecmoody.com/8/index.html

Notice how it reads as dirty and old has almost no micro texture in the sculpt. Wood grain usually only becomes that raised when it is subjected to huge amounts of moisture (think drift wood) and even then it is usually less intense.

That looks pretty awesome, does it involve a normal map and if so how did you make it? I still believe there are more than one way to make Normal Maps.