3D Scanning

[Nicholas 5]

I know you guys have a really fancy set of tools like 3D scanners, motion capture, and RED One camera's.

Does BIS use 3D scanning for weapons in their games? What about motion capture?

[Big Dawg KS 6]

Does BIS use 3D scanning for weapons in their games?

Very unlikely. Scanning is usually only beneficial for organic/natural objects. For example, I'm pretty sure they used it for generating the faces of the ArmA 2 characters (from real people).

If you scanned something like a rifle it would probably take a lot of work to make it usable.

[dm 9]

IIRC there was a dev blog post about them scanning some plastic model kits of Apaches or so?

Either way, like BD says, it takes a TON of effort to make those scans of man-made stuff useable. At which point you may as well have just modelled it by hand anyway...

[maddogx 13]

IIRC there was a dev blog post about them scanning some plastic model kits of Apaches or so?

Either way, like BD says, it takes a TON of effort to make those scans of man-made stuff useable. At which point you may as well have just modelled it by hand anyway...

I can imagine it would be useful to create a 3D reference model of whatever you are trying to build. Perhaps even for normal mapping.

[soul_assassin 1750]

as someone who deals with laser scans at work all i can say is no. for game industry only useful as 3d blueprint. Meshing scans only useful for organics but later retopologized anyway. As reference tho, scans can be pretty useful. For example ive seen alot of environment scans. Scanners are pretty expensive as well costing upwards of 40000 dollars.

[Mr. Charles 22]

They did face scanning for Razor Team. Search in the RV3 Engine pdfs at ArmA2.com's supply depot

[rundll.exe 12]

Scanners are pretty expensive as well costing upwards of 40000 dollars.

Or €20 :D

http://www.david-laserscanner.com/wiki/user_manual/getting_started

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[soul_assassin 1750]

well you can also generate clouds with fringe projection and photogrammetry but that's all not really laser scanning, accuracy is not comparable, and often distortion occurs.

[Nicholas 5]

Yeah, their 3D scanner page says

Our 3D scanner is a device capable of reconstructing the 3D surface of real objects into 3D models with extreme accuracy (up to 0.1mm). It can be used to bypass 3D object modeling by hand or provide great reference for such tasks. It uses a laser beam for measurements (non-contact measurement), can be simply transported and used even for scientific purposes (e.g. archaeological).

[soul_assassin 1750]

the scanner they use:

http://www.konicaminolta.com/instruments/products/3d/non-contact/vivid910/features.html

is a proper laser scanner: shoot laser pulse, receive, measure time of travel. When all points are gathered in 3D space they are triangulated into a mesh. These proper laser scanners are very accurate. They range from tabletop up to long range (up to a 800 meters afaicr).

When you have this mesh its unusable for games. You have to retopologize (construct a low-poly mesh) based on this high poly triangulation. Then you can simply bake the ambient occlusion and normal maps from the highpoly (you have to make sure that the mesh doesnt have gaps by registering several scans together or by hole filling algorithms). Some scanners (this one seems not) also capture RGB data, so theoretically you could also bake diffuse color onto the low-poly UV set.

I was recently at a presentation of this scanner:

http://www.faro.com/focus/uk/applications

Great piece of kit.

[Nicholas 5]

the scanner they use:

http://www.konicaminolta.com/instruments/products/3d/non-contact/vivid910/features.html

is a proper laser scanner: shoot laser pulse, receive, measure time of travel. When all points are gathered in 3D space they are triangulated into a mesh. These proper laser scanners are very accurate. They range from tabletop up to long range (up to a 800 meters afaicr).

When you have this mesh its unusable for games. You have to retopologize (construct a low-poly mesh) based on this high poly triangulation. Then you can simply bake the ambient occlusion and normal maps from the highpoly (you have to make sure that the mesh doesnt have gaps by registering several scans together or by hole filling algorithms). Some scanners (this one seems not) also capture RGB data, so theoretically you could also bake diffuse color onto the low-poly UV set.

I was recently at a presentation of this scanner:

http://www.faro.com/focus/uk/applications

Great piece of kit.

I'm well aware of what equipment they use, Soul_Assassin. You already explained why they wouldn't use it for the game, so there wasn't a need to do it again. I was pointing out to rundll.exe that the scanner is accurate to 0.1mm.

[soul_assassin 1750]

I never implied that you were not aware :) simply pointing it out to other readers.

[Nicholas 5]

Also, I found out that they use motion capture for characters ingame. ;)

[M9ACE 0]

https://www.nextengine.com/

[Nicholas 5]

https://www.nextengine.com/

1/10th the price....LOL I know it's probably cheaper, but that is still very expensive!

[soul_assassin 1750]

https://www.nextengine.com/

Had one of these at my last job. Neat thing and the price made to attract hobbyists as well. There was something wrong with it tho. Can't remember, was a few years ago.

Not expensive when you consider that even reasonably good software for point cloud processing costs $2000+ per seat.

[Nicholas 5]

Not expensive when you consider that even reasonably good software for point cloud processing costs $2000+ per seat.

Which is why I said:

I know it's probably cheaper, but that is still very expensive!

It's just expensive for a simple consumer like me, and I'm sure most other members of this forum. I don't care if you work around them and you know this and that. I was originally asking if it was used in the game. Nothing more, nothing less.

[soul_assassin 1750]

man, you have insecurity issues. I'm not out to get you. Im not trying to snipe ur comments. Just plain stating that comparatively it is very cheap. I didnt mean that its cheap for me or anything.

I don't care if you work around them and you know this and that.

mmkkk. Just sharing what I know buddy. And this being an open forum perhaps it will be interesting to someone else if not to you.

[max power 21]

I was interesting in what Soul Assassin was saying...

[Nicholas 5]

Then perhaps start up your own thread instead of jacking mine? I personally felt you were "sniping" my replies, considering I'm the one who started the topic.

Edited June 29, 2011 by Nicholas

[soul_assassin 1750]

ok, i be gone now but next time perhaps consider http://www.blogger.com. There its more "thread-starter-centric" :). j/k

[rundll.exe 12]

Then perhaps start up your own thread instead of jacking mine? I personally felt you were "sniping" my replies, considering I'm the one who started the topic.

Hmm that confuses me. So you want your own thread, but no replies in it? Maybe set up a secret forum for yourself then :rolleyes:

I found all replies here very informative but, nvm me.