WIP: stuff you are working on!

[nephilim 0]

Quote[/b] ]..similar but different, as you will not get any occlusion, say, under the armpits of your model in baking a cavity map, since the occlusion is calculated as if your character was skinned and hammered flat onto your uv plane, as per your normal map.

correct, but only if you derrive the cavity map just using the normal map (in eg xnormal)

if you´ve applied the normal map onto the lowpoly and then make the AO pass you get the cavity map with geometry shadows baked in like with a normal AO map.

however you can combine both easily, so its not real worth discussion, besides.. my teeth start aching reading bout cavities...

*munch**munch*

[TankCommander 3]

Ok the way I understand it is that a cavity map is still very different from a AO pass. An ambient occlusion pass is a pre rendered pass which renders objects without a predetermined light source in a clay like fashion. So thus when you bake an AO pass it becomes a shadow map. Now in Arma a shadow map doesn't need to be a different file but is rather applied to the colour map creating an extra sense of lighting depth as Arma doesn't possess proper ambient lighting. Neither does any other game really.

A cavity map doesn't necessarily need to be created from a normal map but can be done via geometry as can be seen in Zbrush. And as the results show from Zbrush, a cavity map only shades cavities. It's like with that AO image you posted up with the old lady. A cavity map would not yield those results. I believe cavity maps are there more as a choice for an artist to add more depth and definition to finer wrinkles and grooves etc to their models.

Seeing as we all use different programs I can see how maybe some things get confused. Like AO in Lightwave is called Radiosity and in Maya it's basically AO but can use Final gather to gain similar results.

[max power 21]

Quote[/b] ]Ok the way I understand it is that a cavity map is still very different from a AO pass. An ambient occlusion pass is a pre rendered pass which renders objects without a predetermined light source in a clay like fashion.

An ambient occlusion map is a pre-rendered map. An ambient occlusion pass is a scene pass used for compositing a full motion video or a still image. The ambient occlusion pass is much faster to calculate because it only calculates what you can see on screen. Baking ambient occlusion to a map is much slower because the lighting must be calculated for all angles for all poligons. At the end of the day, though, if you're doing a full motion video scene, baking AO might be advantageous so you don't have to rerender AO for every frame.

Quote[/b] ]

A cavity map doesn't necessarily need to be created from a normal map but can be done via geometry as can be seen in Zbrush. And as the results show from Zbrush, a cavity map only shades cavities. It's like with that AO image you posted up with the old lady. A cavity map would not yield those results. I believe cavity maps are there more as a choice for an artist to add more depth and definition to finer wrinkles and grooves etc to their models.

Zbrush's cavity map uses surface normals, just like the normal map. I guess it's pretty much the same process, but likely not the same process as an AO map, which uses ray tracing. AO will bake lighting information that makes sense in a small range of poses. You may have noticed that in the early stages of arma, the AO between the soldier's legs made him look like he crapped his pants when he was laying prone. A cavity map will fail to add the same grounding that an AO map will, but won't produce the poo-pants or under-arm smear problems that require editing.

Quote[/b] ]

Seeing as we all use different programs I can see how maybe some things get confused. Like AO in Lightwave is called Radiosity and in Maya it's basically AO but can use Final gather to gain similar results.

AO is actually a component algorithm of final gathering. It yields similar results because it's the same process.

In response to Nephilim, I think knowing the difference is important, especially for novices, so that they can understand the utility of both.

[TankCommander 3]

Thanx for clearing that up plantiff. Basically I was getting at the same thing but yeah you've said it all now

I'll also need to look into the 'crap in pants' thing. Didn't notice it a whole lot. What version was it resolved in?

[mankyle 410]

The FFAA mod presents the Alvaro de Bazán Class F-100 frigate.

http://foros.ffaa.es/download.php?id=497&t=1

http://foros.ffaa.es/download.php?id=496&t=1

http://foros.ffaa.es/download.php?id=495&t=1

It is NOT an static object, you CAN land on it and now the team is working on a way for attaching the choppers to the landing pad.

Weapons are not fully enabled yet, only the 127 mm cannon. Will probably use mando missiles consoles for weapons

[max power 21]

Thanx for clearing that up plantiff. Basically I was getting at the same thing but yeah you've said it all now

I'll also need to look into the 'crap in pants' thing. Didn't notice it a whole lot. What version was it resolved in?

I believe it was present in the demo.

[icebreakr 3157]

Bad angle, can't see jack shit besides the shadow.

MehMan, just for you stari

[MehMan 0]

Much much better. Looks much like I saw it, pretty neat weapon that is. thumbs up.

[scubaman3D 0]

Here's an update for all you ladies. I hope is weathered enough. Thanks to jonny for helping out with the spec map.

[nephilim 0]

keeps looking better.

the only thing that bugs me is the grip and the lower receiver part directly upwards the grip.

i dont think its THAT edgy.

i guess you made your normal map entirely in photochop and not using hi-res models to get the normals yes?

if so, bevel/chamfer those edges at least once.

the edges look way too sharp.

[[aps]gnat 28]

Sweet scubaman

[Inkompetent 0]

Me like, Scuba! Getting really sexy now, that rifle!

[namreg 0]

WIP thing getting unWIPped....

...shadow looks weird because I had some problems with my ShadowLOD convexivity.... so I used BIS AH-6 instead.... I'll fix it..promise

[wipman 1]

Hi, it looks very well Namreg, but isn't the nose a little bit more

clear than the rest of the body?. Let's c ya

[namreg 0]

Yes, you're right Mr. Wipman, it looks clearer because I had a problem with the color profiles.... I'm gonna fix it right now.

Until then, here's a pic of my tank hunter with the SHADOW bug. I'm in the 02 modeling forum to see if someone can help me with that and other issues.

[orson 0]

Shadow lod requires....

Closed shapes  .. use - check structure/find non-closed

Triangulated    .. hit / or \

Squarised        ..hit U

now remove textures for the part in shadow lod ( not sure if its essential but seems to be the normal way to do it)

other optionns are hit W to reverse faces .. this can solve some problems with shadow

try and stay below 4k faces for shadow

seems i was a bit out with my info .. Sgt.Ace has posted a link to the correct method in the modeling thread

[scubaman3D 0]

Squarised        ..hit U

Right key, wrong description

We wouldn't want to re-squarize our model, would we

[orson 0]

Squarised        ..hit U

Right key, wrong description

We wouldn't want to re-squarize our model, would we

Minor technicality  

[namreg 0]

Hi orson, THX for the reply, I fixed that shadow LOD problem I had, if you want you can see the results here => 02 modeling forum

And... to keep this alive here's a pic of the interior cockpit. Nothing is working right now... I'll try to fix that.

And other issue that I've encountered is that the gunner doesn't show in the cockpit.... I guess it has something to do with the config.cpp??? Because in o2 I placed all the proxies and entry points.... so.... any ideas???

[Serclaes 0]

Nice instruments, are they working? How big is the texture?

[Blackbuck 9]

He did say nothing is working in his post you know.

[namreg 0]

The whole texture is 512x512 and it contains the top part of the control panels, its backside and the TOW TV visro on the left. The control panel with all those instruments should occupy 1/4 of the texture, so I guess it is 256x256

[Panda-PL- 0]

4399 polies (quadrandulated)

I took some of Neph's advice to heart while redooing a model of my HK 416 and this time I did not render hipoly AO. Much faster. Next up Normal, cavity, diffuse, specular (in this order).

Before anyone point out I have sparse edges: I use mirrored maps to save texture space.

I still have 1/2 of 2048^2 texture free for an M203, supressor, V foregrip and maybe long barrel and hard stock.

The sights (ACOG, Leupold, Aimpoint, Eotech, maybe Elcan) will be on separate textures, since fitting all this in 2048 would not make it look right IMO. I'll organise it to have 2 sections+ sections for glass.

The main question now is whether or not use AS map (I have used it for weapon before and with the default absence of 1pp shadows it does a nice job on those RIS, but I also understand it eats some resources and with 2048^2 it might hurt even if it's only one channel). And if so whether to put AO on both AS and overlay over diffuse with lower value or leave it for AS only.

[Serclaes 0]

He did say nothing is working in his post you know.

Ah yes...Now i see it, must have overread it.

[Messiah 2]

"Day of the Jackal"

(And conversely "Day of the sitting inside on a Saturday, bored out of my mind")

Do please ignore the magical floating 50cal.