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[UDK] Sci Fi Tram Station

*EDIT - Updated to tailor for my masters course in 3d Games Modelling, im looking for peoples experience with mobile modelling and anything they can share on the matter of optimization, please read the bottom post for more, the following thread is over a month or two old - /EDIT*

Hey Everyone!

I've been working on a sci fi scene over the last week, its based on concept art by Razorb

Here is where im at so far, its under 20,000 triangles, using hand held specs (most models under 100 triangles) and once all the modular assets are welded together to reduce draw calls and help lightmass, the 1024 diffuse/specular, normal/glow and 256 hologram texture will be the only other things being called into the scene at run time =]

Hope you like! All C&C welcomed, im looking to add things like vent steam, a moving tram and some evidence of use, like trash cans, newspaper etc

screenshots_tramstation2.jpg

screenshots_tramstation1.jpg

Take care all.

Replies

  • warby
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    warby polycounter lvl 18
    suggestions:

    -the lighting is too dark and not very 3dreadable ... the columns are entirely black whilst the hanging cables are totally drawing attention because light seams to leak in from above. take a closer look at the concept art.

    -the lamp strip kind of meeds abetter transition to the none lit geometry right now it looks likere there is a polygone missing at first glance.

    -alot of people i know build absolutly everything out of instances others swear on building everything unique. i think its all about the balance and doing what ever is the most optimal thing to do on an object by obejct basis. that green blue lighting artifact on those ceiling panels makes me think you are instancing around a simple quad with that grate textureon it ... those ceilings and the floors would be stuff that i would build as one big unique chunk to have no seems /artifacts and to be able to build/uvmap unique trims and decorations that considers the rest of the geometry around it.

    -i always try to stick close to conceptart but sometimes you have to deviate from it the concept art clearly shows dark streaks on the hanging cables which looks okay there but in your 3d model it looks like an artifact id get rid of it.

    -most places where you have a 45 angel in your geometry you have distored uvs that lead to seams between panels in your texture to get kinda broken/skewed in a way no man made object has ever looked in real live ... uv it more carefuly map it onto a completly generic piece of grey metal if you have to.

    -its good to see that people start to activly think about drawcall reduction and how to squeeze the most out of as little texture memory as possible


    show us pics of yout texture sheets and the individual models for more detailed workflow feedback
  • Weazel
    Thanks for the feedback, heres my set and the maps im using. I started by looking closely at the scene and deciding on which parts i can make modular (which were a lot)

    Highres_Screenshot_00005-1.jpg


    I then started my first ever texture atlas, also started using techniques suggested by yourself Soenke and tutorials from artists like Thaigo Klafke and Philip Klevestav, downloaded some free grunge, cracks and shattered glass brushes for GIMP to start editing the base colours i laid out.

    I used a plugin for GIMP that creates normal maps from textures / heightmaps (similar to photoshops Nvidia filter) Heres the results of all that:

    TRAM_SCENE_DIFFUSE_v2.jpg

    TRAM_SCENE_SPEC_v2.jpg

    TRAM_SCENE_NORMAL_v2GFlip.jpg

    Im going to make a load of changes to the scene during the rest of today, had my first break on uncharted this morning after working on that texture atlas and the highpoly/low poly models all week!

    A few friends on facebook have recommended some changes too, many are similar to what your saying, i tried the lighting in plane white like the scene and it looked really bland, so i tried some colour correction in the lightmass / world render settings to up the greens and reds/oranges in the scene, gave it a slightly deus ex over tone (could have done this easier with a Post Process volume to be honest! Oh well)

    It doesnt matter too much what i did to the settings as ill be playing around with the lighting alot once ive welded everything into one object today (there are a fair amount of gaps on certain meshes) Most however were modelled to the grid, using 256 and 512 sizings (and 3rds in some cases)

    Thanks again!
  • JamesWild
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    JamesWild polycounter lvl 8
    Out of interest which program did you use to make the models? The typical workflow with artificial scenes like yours is to hard surface model and bake to generate AO/normal maps and work from there. I think you can save this scene with lighting however.

    Leave post process at default for now and experiment with using slightly coloured lights - add some very slightly yellowed lights by the seats, and some darker blue lights around the tracks and observe how the contrast makes the scene more visually interesting.

    Good luck!
  • warby
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    warby polycounter lvl 18
    -uv space is properly/efficiantly used --> good !

    -models seem propery modular(even more so than what i would do) --> good !

    -the structure in your texture is very obviously made from custom brushes it just has that spongy look id use more simple generic textures for overlays --> could be improved

    -normalmap almost everything was generated from 2d ... that never looks good. model it ! all of it ! it will pay off ---> needs to be improved
  • Weazel
    Cheers for the comments guys, I did do a lot of 2D to Normals, and when i look at it now some parts have been reversed :S

    When i tried to get the same effect on some of the high poly to low poly ao/normal bakes (pillar worked fine) they tended to give bad artifacts, im not sure if it was because I was attempting to bake at low res (maybe I should bake at high res and size down in GIMP)

    To answer your question James I used 3Ds max for modelling (had massive problems realligning the pivot with snaps, i'd align it n one view port, and then in another it would be miles away >.<

    I did some highpoly work for the floor tile, the 2 pillars and the 2 panels with diagonal surfaces, nothing like zbrush could offer though! I found that making major details kept causing the assets to look clearly repeated, so tried to tone it down and just use GIMP (Saved a lot of time imo but if its looking too generic still I'll try my best to mix it up with some more CG textures (used them on the concrete sections)

    Thanks again guys, I got struck by an epic migraine today so i don't know if I'll post anything until tomorrow :-)
  • Weazel
    So, i didnt end up welding the scene into one mesh yet, (as simple as exporting and selecting all vertices and welding with a small threshold - no meshes have vertices close enough to weld to their own mesh vertices)

    I defaulted the high/mid/shadow tones back in the world settings and have enhanced the blue and orange lights, also used emmisive lighting from the back panels this time, they still need down-brightening in the diffuse as they still stand out too much, but heres a shot so far:

    Highres_Screenshot_00006-1.jpg

    Thats rendered with production lightmass, it may the fact that it is a mobile spec scene, so all the models are low poly, or the fact that my normal map needs, and will soon have work done to it, but i still feel that its much to be desired!

    There is a massive lack of solid, readable shadows, i know the global illumination is partly to blame, any help on that, and professional lighting solutions would be a massive help =]

    Thanks everyone!
  • Weazel
    Just as a note im moving on from this onto some other projects that i need to get finished, main reason is that when creating the lightmap in max with all the pieces added together to reduce draw calls it kept deciding to unweld entire faces from singular models, making it incredibly hard to get anywhere with it, i have the files so i may return during the Uni year in september, add some atmosphere etc, at the moment my quick exploration into modular construction and texture practice has been worth it and as i'd finished it on the 16th (my deadline) and now im just making petty tweaks, im gonna call it done for now ;)

    Thanks for the comments guys!
  • Weazel
    Hey everyone, i've been preparing for my final academic year of game design / development, and over the years have become more and more interested in next generation mobile content, specifically, 3D content.

    Games such as ShadowGun, and Infinity Blade are exactly what interests me the most. Obviously with this level of detail and quality, there is ALOT of optimisations being made. Thats where my masters piece is being aimed.

    An Investigation into the optimisation of 3D Environments for Hand Held Gaming Platforms

    Thats a mouthful, and is to be worked on but it sums up my aims nicely

    This summer i've looked at Unity and UDN for tips and tricks on optimisation, including Unity's draw call batching, the techniques of texture atlas'ing, which i've done many times previous to my research anyway, and EPIC's simplygon to name a few.

    What im looking for help with, is any other ways to optimise that arent always apparent, especially in terms of low poly modelling, and creating that perfect silhouette with a low cost, any tutorials or renound artists are obviously welcome!!!

    Thanks Guys, hope you all had a great Summer!
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