I've been stalking this thread for ages so thought I'd pitch in. This scene is the tits! Also, I used your mini-tutorial for making hard surface text for my Dare game. So cheers for that
@D-boy - No worries dude!
I'm not the most knowledgeable on the subject, but Cryengine has some great solutions to indoor light. Bare in mind that I only have a working knowledge of this stuff, so I may be VERY wrong.. :P
TECHNICAL STUFF THAT MAY BE WRONG -
Firstly alot of the ambient lighting is done using "vis areas" a solid area that allow the artist to set the ambient colour of the scene and avoid light leaks from the sun. Portals are used to bridge the gaps between vis areas and the also the gap between inside and outside.
Cubemaps work to enhance the specular and also push the overall lighting in the scene, they generate a box map of the scene then project it as a light around a radius to great effect, they can be used to fake reflection and cryengine allows you to specify resolution of your cubemap and increase the quality/precision of your specular reflections.
Global illuminate comes out of the box too, Cryengine has a built in global illuminate render pass that works great. I have no idea what it does, or how it does it, but all I can say is that it look great!
Cryengine also allows you to see the bounce colour of each object. For example if you set the bounce colour of a red object to red, when light hits it, it will cast a red bounce light off the object, which will be received by objects around it, great for adding that extra realism to the scene.
All I can say is, Cryengine blows my mind (Im biased) but look at Crysis 2!
Glad your liking the scene dude! Drop me a PM if you need any help Cryengine-wise!
@Rapture - Thanks dude! Im a pretty big fan too (who'd have guessed!), Irrational really did an amazing Job, im very daunted trying to recreate it in my own way. Hopefully it looks like Bioshock with a hint of realism thrown in
@MystiqueX - Thanks man, Im glad you're liking the scene, those late nights haven't been for nothing after-all... I really love the street lamp in your portfolio man, amazing work!
Your explanation is clear and helpful. I salute to you.
Now, I feel confident to use CryEngine for my next project after seeing your new updated shot. The cube-map reflection in CryEngine is so attractive and easy to use which make material creation so much more organic and natural. So I have to give it a try.
There is one thing I am not sure of. I think only the sun in CryEngine has to ability to create real-time global illumination. I haven't found a way to enable it on normal lights. I don't know if I am right on the issue.
Great idea with the mailbox, it fits very nice in the scene, but you have to do something about the flicking particle animation, don't kill it, just fix the flicking.
Oh, and I appreciate you checking out my stuff. Thanks, man!
@d-boy - You're welcome man, as I said, give me a shout if you need any help.
@MystiqueX - Thanks dude! I didnt want to follow the original completely as I had some ideas for the Pneumo tube and wanted to put them into the scene. Its a modular set, so the rest of the environment will have these pipes running around walls. Its a looping .GIF at the moment, it doesnt have that horrible flickering seam in the engine dont worry!
@Moonshank - Thanks man! was great meeting you the other week. You're welcome man, give me a shout if you need anything
Slow weekend, but I managed to make the Pneumo tube-esk mailbox device next to the door. Its a take on the original from the game and I really wanted to try and put a little of myself into the concept as I have tried to with the rest of the scene.
It was a great opportunity to get some movement into the scene with letters flying around in the tube.
I also added some shader fx to the exterior of the glass ceiling to give the impression of moving water (in a similar way to the water in Bioshock). Hopefully subtle movement in the scene will make it all come alive (I cant wait to get the Big Daddy moving!)
@Fomori - Thanks man! Ill get a video of the movement in the scene up asap the flicker is from some of the lights. Ive also managed to flowgraph some moving refraction in the glass ceiling to fake water movement and also added some flowgraphed faked caustics, hopefully the culmination of the effects will sell the idea well.
@Minos - Heya man! Thanks dude, Im a big fan of your work
Its funny you say that because alot of people have noticed that the ceiling area needs work, Im quite happy with the actual glass, but the trussing needs to be reworked, I started blocking this stuff out last night:
To hopefully make the roof feel alittle more structurally solid. I also want to make the glass look alot thicker.
or.. If you meant the curved window above the door, Ive had some ideas about extending that area backwards and adding an entire environment behind that window, hopefully to make it much more interesting!
Love coming to see these updates dude. Especially like the mail idea with the letters would be nice to see a proper close up at some point
For the trussing looks good so far, i guess we will never get real close to it, but might be nice to have some symbol or design like the rest of it. Nothing major
But as i said, have learnt a lot from this so thank you
@sharvo - Thanks for stopping by dude! Ill get some close up shots further down the line, im hoping to put together a short animation (still to be blocked out so dont hold me to that :P) Im just trying to make the supports feel alittle more realistic and alittle less like Mechano
@Minos - Ahh gotcha! Well this weekend im planning to focus on that area, ive got plans to extend the environment backwards beyond that area into a large Atlantic Express depot/train station (ambitious I know.. ) so Ill resolve all of that as I go. The plan is to have that room as a small office that serves as a corridor through the balcony section and either side will have tunnels extending off to other areas of Rapture.
@Wasabi - Cheers man, really like the wheelchair in your portfolio, cool stuff!
MORE UPDATEZ - 56k WARNING
I spent some time after work this week replacing the roof structure as alot of people had said that it lacked detail, and also didnt look sturdy enough to support the building. I also worked on the glass textures to give them the effect of having condensation on the inside faces.
Im not too sure about the crossbeams and they break up the lines of the composition to the point where they ruin the cavity that the ceiling creates. Im gunna let the dust settle on them for the time being and remove them If they dont look right further down the line.
I also spent some time over the weekend faking some effects that would give the illusion of movement within the scene. These effects included,
-Vertex deformation on the cloth
- Dripping water from ceiling
- Flickering lights
-Mail floating around in the pneumo tube
-Faked caustics on the top of the scene
-Moving water outside
-Faked moving refraction on the glass (ala Bioshock).
[vv]45223550[/vv]
Alot of the effects are VERY subtle, but hopefully you'll be able to see from this video the kind of thing im trying to achieve. Ill post up some break downs of how I managed to get the caustics and the refraction working when Im done
You're work is just so amazing, everytime I come back its evolved in to something more awesome! Teach me your ways! No wonder you work at Crytek...
Have you any pointers or good places to start for leaning the CryEngine 3? Its something I've been meaning to learn for a while and some help choosing the right learning method would be great!
This is looking pretty dang awesome. Bioshock is one of my all-time favs and you've definitely done it justice.
Have you thought about adding a trim piece where the floor tile meets the foreground staircase wall? That area in general looks like it could use something to tie it in.
@Maverickhornet - Thanks man! Glad you're following the project. Drop me a PM and ill get back to you after work with a bunch of stuff that will help you find out what you need!
@JMYound - Thanks man! I love Bioshock too, Its a tough act to follow because they pretty much nailed the art style, so im just trying to match upto it (which isnt going to be easy!)
Definately, I think the everywhere that the tiles meet the wall needs a trim like this:
I havent gotten around to it yet, but yeah good spot (I might do it tonight actually, now you've mentioned it!) Im pretty sure that something that simple will tie the whole scene together.
I'm kinda finding the post tube thing a little odd. Why would there be so many letters floating down towards that little post box? Also, those letters would get soaked! Great effect though man.
Love it so far. I'm trying to think what else you can do to make it more epic. It'd be nice to see this expanded into other rooms perhaps, if you feel motivated to carry on.
Great work mate, your environment work has come on leaps and bounds. I remember us talking about how you used to feel more comfortable with individual props, but now you can really see that's no longer a problem.
Have you any pointers or good places to start for leaning the CryEngine 3? Its something I've been meaning to learn for a while and some help choosing the right learning method would be great!
Sorry for not replying to everyone, things have been really hectic lately and Ive been putting off posting for last couple of days.
@MaverickHornet - Crydev is definitely the best place to go, I lurk quite there quite alot, lots of really great indepth stuff.
(Just to share my PM to MavHorn if anyone was wondering where to start)
Crydev (http://www.crydev.net/) is your best bet, closely followed by watching the Eat3D videos that Helder Pinto and Simon Fuchs created, these will both be really helpful
@Havoc - Thanks man! Its getting there slowlym I've got so much left to do.
@Liam (Pogop)- The Pneumo tubes are based on a concept frequently used at the time to transport mail from one part of a building to another. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_pneumatic_post) they push the mail through the tube to their destination. The idea between the post in the tubes is that the system is malfunctioning as Rapture collapses into disrepair and thus the system is full of mail.
Ill definitely be expanding the environment further (ALOT further) as time goes on, just trying to find the time at the moment! Ahaha, well the work I do at Crytek focusses on large scale environment stuff, so I got pushed right out of my comfort zone and ended up enjoying it much more . Great to hear from you man, dont be a stranger!
Anyway! UPDATEZ -
Subtle changes really.
- Changed stairs and added a hand rail.
- added black border around the edge of the tiles,
- started to damage the environment and move towards the level of destruction I hope to achieve.
- Altered water effects.
This is looking awesome Scott, can I ask how you achieved the broken tiles/dust effect on the floor (2nd and 3rd pics highlight this)? It's a neat effect
@Brygelsmack - Thanks dude! I cant remember off the top of my head, its not very poly heavy if I remember rightly, pretty much everything is as optimised as possible. Ill let you know when I get back tonight
@phaynes888 - The broken tiles are actually just a flat plane decal, I did a high poly of broken tiles and then used physics to drop them onto a plane in max. I then made the hole that the broken tiles would have occupied, and some dirt and gunk ontop of them. I then just baked that onto a flat polygon and cut around the edges of the broken tiles to give the effect seen above. Its all pommed which is why it looked so convincing, although without POM it is still passable.. (just ) Ill get a breakdown for that up and show the high poly in the next few days!
Its getting there, nice quality of art work all-round just feels like it needs those little extra bits which are surprisingly the quickest things to make and do.
Generally speaking it feels like it was recently abandoned yet some of your damage and cracks suggest something more prolonged... Here is some feedback that might help.
One major thing that could help is breaking up those lines you have on the walls. Introduce some chaos into the structure you get from the art deco styling. I.e. the curves and cross over of dangling wires and the long curves of wild grass/leaf.
@disting - Hardly! such a tough act to follow, that game is so well thought out.
@Gheromo - Yeah pretty much, I baked out the railing and the middle part was so poly-intensive that I baked it flat and alpha'd out the middle sections, cheap as chips!
@Martin - Hells yeah I will man! I hadnt even thought of that, would be so great to possibly even get some falling leaf particles subtly dropping around the planters. Great idea.. (why didnt I think of that)
@Rich - YES! that's awesome, you're so right. As I started messing the floor up over the weekend I started to realise that I need to push the destruction significantly throughout to sell the idea of abandonment. Aidan mentioned the other day that some bracing holding the walls up would be really cool (especially if there was water trickling in through the cracks). Im loving the idea of making the planters really overgrown, and generally everything much more wet and dirty. Sigh, great stuff man. (Busy weekend ahead)
Saying you have done the game justice is a complete understatement... Lol. Completely. This is some very solid work, awesome job. I cant even critique this at all, I really like just about every single aspect of this scene, so much so that the latest full view of the scene has become my wallpaper on my desktop. Keep them updates coming! This is awesome work as a "side" project lol
Lookin' nice man. I feel like the balcony bit with the glass could do with a bit of art deco'ing up. It's a bit flat and boring looking atm, could have some really cool kind of design up there as it's pretty much the focal point!
@Darkillusionist - I hope so man, ive been having nightmares of Ken Lavine somehow finding out about this and turning up at my door with a Monkey Wrench for soiling Bioshock's good name
@Add3r - Ahh thanks man! Glad you like it.. Yeah unfortunately Crysis 3 comes first so ive been devoting most of my time to work and spendng a few hours here and there on this at home. Really great fun, so inspiring to play the game for a couple of hours here. I think my girlfriend and I are on our 10th play through this year pretty much. :P
@PogoP - You're right dude! The balcony isnt really resolved yet, I havent decided what I want to do with that area, Ive got big plans for the whole project, so dont you worry, there will be an environment back there for sure
@MystiqueX - Thanks man! ill post up the picture so people dont think you're insane . Ive had a few people ask me about that so ill get a full breakdown up at some point soon. Its mainly just a good texture really, good specular map and a normal map generated for the beads of condensation.
@RiotForQuiet - Thanks man! Im really enjoying it atm.
So ive started working on some of the ajoining areas of the city to give myself a break from working on the same area for too long. Ive began to create a modular set of walkways that will link areas and trail off into the distance. The textures are just base textures at the moment, and the city is just a screenshot from the game. Eventually ill be modelling out a full sprawling Rapture environment, set in a deep trench.
Nomnomnom! Your scenes are great, would love to see some high polys, flats and wires and all that stuff though. Even if it's still WIP. Really interested in seeing how the welds are made, looks like a really nice detail.
As for the scene, maybe some cracks on the windows would look cool?
@Brygelsmack - Thanks man! I was thinking of doing a full breakdown of everything of interest (so nothing!) after I finish it all off, would maybe be cool to spend a few weeks disecting how i did stuff and seeing where im wasting time or missing a trick.
I got plans to have localized damage in some areas of the tunnels, perhaps an unmaintained area of rapture with leaking from the joints.. More to come!
@Pookhan - Thanks man, its just a decent diffuse (took a long time to source a decent water texture) and then lots of fiddling with the specular and normal map to get it to look right. Ill post a breakdown of it at some point soon!
Apologies for the lack of updates! Its not that I havent been working on it, but ive actually redone a large portion of this section as I really wasnt happy with it. It didnt feel right, so I redid it with a more industrial art deco style in mind. Ive added strengthening supports to the glass, a hand rail, opened some stuff up and generally made alittle more sense of the structure. Ive also made an outside to the tunnel too, as I plan to create an underwater, exterior environment around the entire scene. (yeah, I know.)
Anyway,
Moving forward I plan to do a detail pass of the tunnel sections, adding puddles of water, cracked glass, general leaking and decay.
Replies
@Neodement - Thanks man! Just gotta finalise the fabric and texture the weapon and he'll be all set I recon.
Your explanation is clear and helpful. I salute to you.
Now, I feel confident to use CryEngine for my next project after seeing your new updated shot. The cube-map reflection in CryEngine is so attractive and easy to use which make material creation so much more organic and natural. So I have to give it a try.
There is one thing I am not sure of. I think only the sun in CryEngine has to ability to create real-time global illumination. I haven't found a way to enable it on normal lights. I don't know if I am right on the issue.
That's correct.
On interiors, you have to fake it with deferred lights, they're cheap anyway.
Thanks for the confirmation.
Oh, and I appreciate you checking out my stuff. Thanks, man!
@MystiqueX - Thanks dude! I didnt want to follow the original completely as I had some ideas for the Pneumo tube and wanted to put them into the scene. Its a modular set, so the rest of the environment will have these pipes running around walls. Its a looping .GIF at the moment, it doesnt have that horrible flickering seam in the engine dont worry!
@Moonshank - Thanks man! was great meeting you the other week. You're welcome man, give me a shout if you need anything
@Rockstar6 - Thanks dude
Updatez -
Slow weekend, but I managed to make the Pneumo tube-esk mailbox device next to the door. Its a take on the original from the game and I really wanted to try and put a little of myself into the concept as I have tried to with the rest of the scene.
It was a great opportunity to get some movement into the scene with letters flying around in the tube.
I also added some shader fx to the exterior of the glass ceiling to give the impression of moving water (in a similar way to the water in Bioshock). Hopefully subtle movement in the scene will make it all come alive (I cant wait to get the Big Daddy moving!)
Updatez -
Moving -
Would be cool to see a more elaborate design on the big curved window, it looks pretty boring now compared to the rest of the environment.
@MaverickHornet - Thanks man! Its slowly coming together
@Minos - Heya man! Thanks dude, Im a big fan of your work
Its funny you say that because alot of people have noticed that the ceiling area needs work, Im quite happy with the actual glass, but the trussing needs to be reworked, I started blocking this stuff out last night:
To hopefully make the roof feel alittle more structurally solid. I also want to make the glass look alot thicker.
or.. If you meant the curved window above the door, Ive had some ideas about extending that area backwards and adding an entire environment behind that window, hopefully to make it much more interesting!
For the trussing looks good so far, i guess we will never get real close to it, but might be nice to have some symbol or design like the rest of it. Nothing major
But as i said, have learnt a lot from this so thank you
@Minos - Ahh gotcha! Well this weekend im planning to focus on that area, ive got plans to extend the environment backwards beyond that area into a large Atlantic Express depot/train station (ambitious I know..
@fightpunch - Thanks man!
@Wasabi -
MORE UPDATEZ - 56k WARNING
I spent some time after work this week replacing the roof structure as alot of people had said that it lacked detail, and also didnt look sturdy enough to support the building. I also worked on the glass textures to give them the effect of having condensation on the inside faces.
Im not too sure about the crossbeams and they break up the lines of the composition to the point where they ruin the cavity that the ceiling creates. Im gunna let the dust settle on them for the time being and remove them If they dont look right further down the line.
I also spent some time over the weekend faking some effects that would give the illusion of movement within the scene. These effects included,
-Vertex deformation on the cloth
- Dripping water from ceiling
- Flickering lights
-Mail floating around in the pneumo tube
-Faked caustics on the top of the scene
-Moving water outside
-Faked moving refraction on the glass (ala Bioshock).
[vv]45223550[/vv]
Alot of the effects are VERY subtle, but hopefully you'll be able to see from this video the kind of thing im trying to achieve. Ill post up some break downs of how I managed to get the caustics and the refraction working when Im done
As always, crit me up!
Have you any pointers or good places to start for leaning the CryEngine 3? Its something I've been meaning to learn for a while and some help choosing the right learning method would be great!
Have you thought about adding a trim piece where the floor tile meets the foreground staircase wall? That area in general looks like it could use something to tie it in.
@JMYound - Thanks man! I love Bioshock too, Its a tough act to follow because they pretty much nailed the art style, so im just trying to match upto it (which isnt going to be easy!)
Definately, I think the everywhere that the tiles meet the wall needs a trim like this:
I havent gotten around to it yet, but yeah good spot (I might do it tonight actually, now you've mentioned it!) Im pretty sure that something that simple will tie the whole scene together.
Love it so far. I'm trying to think what else you can do to make it more epic. It'd be nice to see this expanded into other rooms perhaps, if you feel motivated to carry on.
Great work mate, your environment work has come on leaps and bounds. I remember us talking about how you used to feel more comfortable with individual props, but now you can really see that's no longer a problem.
Sometimes it so obvious... It's embarrasing... *Hangs head in shame... and makes way to CryDev*
@MaverickHornet - Crydev is definitely the best place to go, I lurk quite there quite alot, lots of really great indepth stuff.
(Just to share my PM to MavHorn if anyone was wondering where to start)
Crydev (http://www.crydev.net/) is your best bet, closely followed by watching the Eat3D videos that Helder Pinto and Simon Fuchs created, these will both be really helpful
Must watch free tutorials:
http://eat3d.com/free
The Helder Pinto ones in particular will help you greatly with the pipeline of 3dsmax to cryengine. Such a useful guide.
http://eat3d.com/cry3_intro_vol1
http://eat3d.com/training_videos/dvds (there are about 5 or 6 cryengine tutorial videos in here.)
@Havoc - Thanks man! Its getting there slowlym I've got so much left to do.
@Liam (Pogop)- The Pneumo tubes are based on a concept frequently used at the time to transport mail from one part of a building to another. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_pneumatic_post) they push the mail through the tube to their destination. The idea between the post in the tubes is that the system is malfunctioning as Rapture collapses into disrepair and thus the system is full of mail.
Ill definitely be expanding the environment further (ALOT further) as time goes on, just trying to find the time at the moment! Ahaha, well the work I do at Crytek focusses on large scale environment stuff, so I got pushed right out of my comfort zone and ended up enjoying it much more
Anyway! UPDATEZ -
Subtle changes really.
- Changed stairs and added a hand rail.
- added black border around the edge of the tiles,
- started to damage the environment and move towards the level of destruction I hope to achieve.
- Altered water effects.
@phaynes888 - The broken tiles are actually just a flat plane decal, I did a high poly of broken tiles and then used physics to drop them onto a plane in max. I then made the hole that the broken tiles would have occupied, and some dirt and gunk ontop of them. I then just baked that onto a flat polygon and cut around the edges of the broken tiles to give the effect seen above. Its all pommed which is why it looked so convincing, although without POM it is still passable.. (just
Generally speaking it feels like it was recently abandoned yet some of your damage and cracks suggest something more prolonged... Here is some feedback that might help.
One major thing that could help is breaking up those lines you have on the walls. Introduce some chaos into the structure you get from the art deco styling. I.e. the curves and cross over of dangling wires and the long curves of wild grass/leaf.
@Gheromo - Yeah pretty much, I baked out the railing and the middle part was so poly-intensive that I baked it flat and alpha'd out the middle sections, cheap as chips!
@Martin - Hells yeah I will man! I hadnt even thought of that, would be so great to possibly even get some falling leaf particles subtly dropping around the planters. Great idea.. (why didnt I think of that)
@Rich - YES! that's awesome, you're so right. As I started messing the floor up over the weekend I started to realise that I need to push the destruction significantly throughout to sell the idea of abandonment. Aidan mentioned the other day that some bracing holding the walls up would be really cool (especially if there was water trickling in through the cracks). Im loving the idea of making the planters really overgrown, and generally everything much more wet and dirty. Sigh, great stuff man. (Busy weekend ahead)
Thanks for the critique everyone!
I love the glass texture for the new walkway. Could you share how you achieved it please?
@Add3r - Ahh thanks man! Glad you like it.. Yeah unfortunately Crysis 3 comes first so ive been devoting most of my time to work and spendng a few hours here and there on this at home. Really great fun, so inspiring to play the game for a couple of hours here. I think my girlfriend and I are on our 10th play through this year pretty much. :P
@PogoP - You're right dude! The balcony isnt really resolved yet, I havent decided what I want to do with that area, Ive got big plans for the whole project, so dont you worry, there will be an environment back there for sure
@MystiqueX - Thanks man! ill post up the picture so people dont think you're insane
@RiotForQuiet - Thanks man! Im really enjoying it atm.
So ive started working on some of the ajoining areas of the city to give myself a break from working on the same area for too long. Ive began to create a modular set of walkways that will link areas and trail off into the distance. The textures are just base textures at the moment, and the city is just a screenshot from the game. Eventually ill be modelling out a full sprawling Rapture environment, set in a deep trench.
As for the scene, maybe some cracks on the windows would look cool?
I got plans to have localized damage in some areas of the tunnels, perhaps an unmaintained area of rapture with leaking from the joints..
@Pookhan - Thanks man, its just a decent diffuse (took a long time to source a decent water texture) and then lots of fiddling with the specular and normal map to get it to look right. Ill post a breakdown of it at some point soon!
Looking forward to that breakdown when the scene is done
Apologies for the lack of updates! Its not that I havent been working on it, but ive actually redone a large portion of this section as I really wasnt happy with it. It didnt feel right, so I redid it with a more industrial art deco style in mind. Ive added strengthening supports to the glass, a hand rail, opened some stuff up and generally made alittle more sense of the structure. Ive also made an outside to the tunnel too, as I plan to create an underwater, exterior environment around the entire scene. (yeah, I know.)
Anyway,
Moving forward I plan to do a detail pass of the tunnel sections, adding puddles of water, cracked glass, general leaking and decay.