I get this all the time. It varies from model to model but it always happens to me when my AO samples were set too high. My latest character didn't like the samples set at 128 so toning it down to 96 worked. Lame IMO because I'd like to set everything to 256 if I could.
Hey I did the same thing, 'cept I've been playing HL2 for the first time. Freakin' awesome. I really really really want to work on a game like that. Oh and I got an nVidia 5700LE with 256 megs. I don't know much about vid cards but it does a decent job on my sad old pc.
yea, i hate that waviness issue with normal maps, i have to mess with the cage i guess. its been a bit slow lately. i got this floor tile texture done. 256 tiling and i got this table done. its one of those cheap folding tables with the fake wood veneer on top. 512 map on the table.
Monday morning I decided to do a sprint model from concept and this was the result. I'm quite happy with the outcome and will take this further soon. I'll be using a Trim Sheet on this too The concept I referenced was on page 157 from The Art of Overwatch, Vertical Planter Concept
Ok finally got an answer on crydev. r_SSReflections = 0 or r_SSReflCutoff = 0.5 those are the cvars. The top one completely disables it, and the bottom one defines the min gloss level that the RLR is enabled at. (cvar values from 0-1 translate to 0-255 in the gloss slider)
Just doing some breakdown of TD including trim parts, notice how you can break trim sheet 1024 into 4 or as many as you like with power of 2. In my example I have 512-256-128-128 from top to bottom.
I think the intuos pro small is what you're looking for. http://www.wacom.com/en/us/creative/intuos-pro-s at $250 usd, it should be right around your price range. It's a solid professional choice that you should be able to use for years to come.
Why don't you implement one by yourself ? I mean you can add a fresnel equation on a classic blinn phong shader. http://www.thetenthplanet.de/archives/255 here's a good link. I did implement on myself ( not quite this one) for maya and that quite simple.
WHY must it stay 1280? Also, you may find problems if you size your texture sheet to fit a specific element of the texture, as many engines do NOT like it if a template does not have sides that are powers of two - 256, 512, 1024, 2048, etc.
The mesh is supossed to be exported into UDK, so it has to be for low poly, but i really don't know how many polys has a car for a racing game, im very far away from the 200k polys of forza. I want to finish it with 25k polys, and then reduce it.