deus ex environment
polycounter lvl 8
hi guys, been working on a portfolio piece inspired on this piece of concept art for deus ex:
here's some progress so far:
and here's a closeup on a specific reflective material, using the new dx11 image-based reflection feature.
I used an ImageReflectionSceneCapture actor to capture the scene image that is then reflected on the material, resulting in a realtime environment reflection.
and here's where the problem comes in: as you can see the reflection just... stops as soon as it reaches a mesh that has been oriented differently in relation to the reflection actor, and i have no idea why. i tried to overcome this by creating another imagereflectionscenecapture actor, and orienting it accordingly to the problem meshes. i exptected to see more reflections, but it turns out this didn't do anything at all.
what i want is pretty simple (to explain): i want realtime reflections all over the scene, on every surface where i want it.
here are some captures of the setup: (the giant plane in the back is the reflection actor)
as you can see, the ground reflects just fine, but those cubes with glowing holes in them stop reflecting on their underside at some point. i have no idea why... can anyone help with this? it would really help me along
here's some progress so far:
and here's a closeup on a specific reflective material, using the new dx11 image-based reflection feature.
I used an ImageReflectionSceneCapture actor to capture the scene image that is then reflected on the material, resulting in a realtime environment reflection.
and here's where the problem comes in: as you can see the reflection just... stops as soon as it reaches a mesh that has been oriented differently in relation to the reflection actor, and i have no idea why. i tried to overcome this by creating another imagereflectionscenecapture actor, and orienting it accordingly to the problem meshes. i exptected to see more reflections, but it turns out this didn't do anything at all.
what i want is pretty simple (to explain): i want realtime reflections all over the scene, on every surface where i want it.
here are some captures of the setup: (the giant plane in the back is the reflection actor)
as you can see, the ground reflects just fine, but those cubes with glowing holes in them stop reflecting on their underside at some point. i have no idea why... can anyone help with this? it would really help me along
Replies
Only crit so far is the normals in the second pic look a bit strong at the moment. Perhaps once lighting is finalized, it will all come together.
so in meantime, i think i found out the reason for my problem: the imageReflectionSceneCapture actor only captures what is right in front of him, and only projects reflections on surfaces right in front of it. that said, I don't think i'm using that thing right, so if anyone would care to enlighten me on how to get every surface i choose to reflect right? i can't seen to find it on udn or udkc...
If you can't see them let me know and I'll draw over.
another update, did massive rework on the proportions of the scene, think i got it this time
does anyone have a suggestion on this?
another update, with perhaps a preliminary to a solution to my problem? i know it needs way more light, but i'm just trying to find a way to achieve that really cool look in the concept... any ideas anyone?
Well a the smartest thing is not to have every cube as a separate object, since the cubes only render in one area it's not really a problem if the bounding box is big, it's being culled when you leave the area or with frustrum culling if you're not even looking at it.
If all cubes are one object, then it's 2 materials with diffuse(alpha)+ spec maybe + emissive. Which results in less draw calls, making them cheap for the GPU.
Right now it's way way way more expensive to have point-lights in every cube when you could get a cheaper and probably better effect with emissive+bloom and if you wanna go really fancy some kind of parallax mapping.
another update, still not quite like the concept, but this time i think i'm getting there finally
another update
@warby: yes, i'll turn on AA next time, sorry
another update, added lens flares to try and simulate the concept art lighting, need to tweak them ofcourse, and started adding more assets, as well as some tileable textures
and before someone accuses me of stealing jordan walker's post-process chain, i am only currently using it because my scene looks better with it, and because i don't know anything about post process chains. however i am learning, and the final piece will contain a self-made post-process chain.
at this point, the only thing in the scene that is NOT mine, is jordan walker's post process chain, with th chromatic abberation turned off. the lens flares and all the rest are all mine, but i did study jordan's lens flares and materials closely to learn how he actually did it. the actual materials though, i made myself
btw, message to jordan: thanks again man for putting that scene out there! i've learned more from that scene about UDK than every tutorial i've ever seen combined
i have noticed that the lens flare to the left of the front is much too prominent, but i'll work on that, probably will make a seperate lens flare for small lights rather than use the big one from the back, or the dirt on the lens will become too prominent...
edit: lighting wasn't rebuilt on previous image, fixed now
new update, major remodeling of the basic setup of the scene, been spending a whole day matching everything up.
thing is: the concept uses a very wide view angle, which can only be simulated by using the FOV command in the UDKGame console command, but that's really touch-and-go and quite uneasy to use... so... this is the closest I can get to the concept in terms of scene scale, setup and just general proportions.
the booths in the front on the ground will be replaced, i need to redefine the material on them...
thanks for the compliment
yeah i'm working on the lighting a bit while putting in assets, but only very gradually, i'm looking to achieve a nice high contrast look. i might eventually bring in more contrast using a post process material, but those things are erratic, so i will have to see about that.
in any case, i've been at this for far too long... (more than a month) in my defence though, it's my first ever complete environment, and my first ever project inside UDK, so it took me a couple of weeks to get the hang of everything i'm using in this scene, from lens flares and materials to postprocesschains and particle systems
But seriously the lights coming from those pods at the top looks great.
There might be too much grime on those stalls. And yeah I'd concentrate on those stalls and re do them as much as you need to because probably they'll take up most of the scene.
little update just to show what the thing looks like at the moment, but i've left it be for two days now to work on something else for a bit and clear my mind to be able to look at this with a fresh eye, gonna resume work on it tomorrow, and take it on at the most basic level.