WIP: stuff you are working on!

[GodHammer 0]

Nice animations and models PhilippRauch, looking forward to see them ingame

[BadBenson 0]

Quote[/b] ]Quote

The normal map just needs a quick sharpen, that's it

if you say so...

what would u do? just for information. the base of my texture is a foto of a loam wall with removed shadows...the cracks were black before. so i think the way i changed it makes it look that way or maybe the normalmap...got any uzseful tips?

[chops 111]

Quote[/b] ]The normal map just needs a quick sharpen, that's it

if you say so...

Oh please great sage, we beg of you, enlighten us mortals with your wisdom!

Else STFuckU.

@Bad Benson, keep at it mate. Any new buildings will contribute a lot to the various Afghan maps.

[MehMan 0]

The normal is too smooth for cracks, it either needs to be sharpened or made deeper with the tutorial that neph wrote some place, but I think that'll just make it look even smoother.

[nephilim 0]

the thing is, no clay house ive seen so far had such structure on the walls.

you´d rather see such a cracked structure on dried out seabeds, but not on walls of that type, as the clay is layered.

it would cause a total different style of cracking.

just sharpening wont do. it will make the noise just go more "pop"

the cracks in the structure are convex, which actually, if you take in account what i said above, should be concave.

thats why i said it rather looks like leather.

pics:

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/pix/dv/CrackedMud1-m.jpg

and leather as comparison:

http://www.global-b2b-network.com/direct....ect.jpg

wise ass enough chops?

[BadBenson 0]

well i think i'm gonna go for a more plain texture and add "character" on special places instead of everywhere. there are just very many types of mud textures on the walls in afghanistan. every region has it's own colour (cuz the ground they take mud from isn't everywhere the same) and different stages off wear cuz they put a new layer of mud on after a while. it's a more organic approach of house building . but i think i was researching a bit to much. i'd just go for what look good. as for your concave/convex theorie...here the pic i used

http://www.cgtextures.com/texview....3b13f40

and a sample of the texture i made out of it

http://i582.photobucket.com/albums/ss263/BadBenson/loam.jpg

so u can see there are many kinds. but still mine actually really looks like leather a lil bit. as i said i'm still playin around...so thx very much for the honest feedback...wise ass

[havocsquad 0]

Quote[/b] ]The normal map just needs a quick sharpen, that's it

if you say so...

Oh please great sage, we beg of you, enlighten us mortals with your wisdom!

Else STFuckU.

wise ass enough chops?

As much as it might be tempting to enjoy a short duel of attitudes on a 3D modelling subject of interest.  I don't believe having it turn into pettiness spat over clay wall designing would be constructive for anyone.  Been there, done and regretted that more I'd like to think about.

A small info update, I am currently working on and hopefully completing 2 other major US surface combatant warship 3D models for ArmA.

First one will be Ticonderoga CG VLS, the second will be the Sprunance DD.

Screenshots are not available of it due to the very early stage of the model.  The Tico progress is currently at 5 to 8% completed, the coarse frame of the hull is mostly done and working on getting the look of the keel correct.  After smoothing and adjusting the hull to look better, the belly of the main hull will be worked on and completed.

Then the real work comes, the ship superstructure, sensors, and deck.

Textures for it will be a real pain but far from impossible.

Making them into addons by myself is a big if, mainly because it will depend on aid from others who have made them successfully (Gnat's frigates is the prime example).

Its one thing to slap some guns on a ship in ArmA, its a whole other thing making a full combat capable warship in ArmA.

[MehMan 0]

the thing is, no clay house ive seen so far had such structure on the walls.

you´d rather see such a cracked structure on dried out seabeds, but not on walls of that type, as the clay is layered.

it would cause a total different style of cracking.

just sharpening wont do. it will make the noise just go more "pop"

the cracks in the structure are convex, which actually, if you take in account what i said above, should be concave.

thats why i said it rather looks like leather.

pics:

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/pix/dv/CrackedMud1-m.jpg

and leather as comparison:

http://www.global-b2b-network.com/direct....ect.jpg

wise ass enough chops?

oooohhh, that's what you mean.

[Nicholas Bell 0]

I think BadBenson's texture looks good - and damn close to this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos....3640281

which is an image he posted himself in another thread.  So maybe he did do his research.  

[mikebart 1]

I think it looks good too, but i think you need to paint a bit more shadow into just some of the cracks on the diffuse, you shouldnt rely too much on the normal map to define fine cracks.

[soul_assassin 1750]

Take one of the channels of the normal map (experiment which one works best) copy and paste it on a layer above ur diffuse. Then try to blend it in to get sort of a fake ambient occluson on the cracks. Try duplicating the layer several times using different blending modes, blurring etc. Try to experiment, but I hope I lead you in the right direction

[nephilim 0]

usually the blue channel works best,

other alternatives: bake a cavity map from your normal map usin xnormal or crazybump.

but basically its just an ambient occlusion pass depending on your normal map.

looks very close to the normal maps blue channel.

dont make such layers too visible on the diffuse.

if put too much effort into the shading in the diffuse, it kills all the structure the normal map creates, as well as in combination with spec map.

the diffuse should basically just include colorings, and tints, and a very slight ao pass if at all.

any shading is done by the normal and spec map.

[mikebart 1]

Quote[/b] ]the diffuse should basically just include colorings, and tints, and a very slight ao pass if at all.

any shading is done by the normal and spec map.

I think what you said there applies more to if he was making a vehicle or a gun or something like that, where you have the most noticable crevices defined by geometry.

With distressed building textures, if you dont put enough shadow into the right places in the diffuse map, details like fine cracks just get blown out entirely when a lights adjacent to it.

[nephilim 0]

not quite.

things like fine cracks also vanish in RL if you blow a 500 Mw light against it.

look, arma doesnt use the same techniques that applied in OFP or other "old" games, where you had to texture the lightning etc etc.

next gen works different.

anyway. its not my beer, if you dont want to take advice from an artist who´s been working in the industry for quite a while now.. fine.. i could care less.

[Commando84 0]

Neph whats the best 3d app? 3d max or maya? I had more time with maya and I love it more but at my current work placement I had the joy to learn max again from scratch and relearning lots of my stuff from maya talking about modeling for games.  

[nephilim 0]

Quote[/b] ]best 3d app?

your brains.

srsly

[soul_assassin 1750]

Quote[/b] ]anyway. its not my beer, if you dont want to take advice from an artist who´s been working in the industry for quite a while now.. fine.. i could care less.

its is quite unfortunate that your advice comes with a very loud attitude.

theres being wise and theres being a wise ass I'm sorry neph, but sometimes helping people who dont have your experience and a little less talented than you, not to mention don't walk around with an ego bubble as huge as yours, could come in a more friendly manner. Srsly.

The fact that the diffuse should contain only colorings is not true. Normal map and diffuse cannot possibly convey all the information about a material surface. Ambient occlusion is a major factor since the engine does not calculate diffuse light spreading over the surface. And since noone walks around afghanistan shining 500 MW lamps at clay houses a little shading should be present.

[nephilim 0]

well sorry if i appear like that, but its not been just once ive reached the straw and people giving kicks back...

aside from that, people who know me , know that my word shouldnt be taken THAT seriously

maybe i should write that in my sig or so? :P

Quote[/b] ]The fact that the diffuse should contain only colorings is not true. Normal map and diffuse cannot possibly convey all the information about a material surface. Ambient occlusion is a major factor since the engine does not calculate diffuse light spreading over the surface. And since noone walks around afghanistan shining 500 MW lamps at clay houses a little shading should be present.

of course they dont, but neither can arma´s gfx engine.

actually no game engine uptodate can create a realistic surface rendering of any material.

only hi-end renderings can do this, which is damn time intensive.

if you look around the latest game textures (ut3, crysis, etc) you´ll notice quite much that diffuse texture only contain color information.

and i dont only mean basic /abstract rgb values and flooded canvases.

it does contain shading, but in a different way. such as color variantion, flaking etc.

eg if you´d paint the shadows and the highlites into the diffuse, the normal and the spec map would be pretty much useless as the effect of these two would basically fall away and lead to wrong results.

if you have painted shadow on the bottom of an object and an normal map applied and youd rotate that model upside down, you have the shadows at the top of the model due the diffuse map, which of course is wrong.

im not saying shading/ao is a wrong thing in general, but it has to be much more subtle, than it was with previous games.

it simply wont work anymore.

of course you can paint any kind of shading into the diffuse map (SSS, spec, fresnel, chromatic abberation, IOR bla bla), but the simple real time rendition, with todays shaders, would be plain wrong/static.

anyway. i dont want to turn this thread into a stupid bashing.

this thread is for pimping and advice, so i guess either we all settle at a point and work together to get some nice results, or everyone´s doing their own thing, which would render this thread pretty useless imho.

eg when i said the clay dwelling´s surface looked like leather, i dont expect anyone to say : no its not. does that have a use? not really... what you´d should rather do is to match up YOUR work with samples from RL (or whatever) and take a closer look.

it might just be me who thinks it looks like leather, but it also might be the majority of others who thinks that.

be open to ciritque and most of all, be strict with yourself, push your own limits. it´s not about having talent. talent is not existent, just be open to the thing you do, observe and repeat.

Quote[/b] ] could come in a more friendly manner. Srsly.

gonna work on that. promise

[oyman 0]

nephilim is just trolling you guys, dont fall into her traps.

[nephilim 0]

he´s right.

i screwed ya´ll, yeehaww!

[soul_assassin 1750]

awlright awlright..I forgive u just this once though :P Can't be angry at a girl for too long

[Sniperwolf572 758]

No flirting on BI forums! Stick to the thread.

[BadBenson 0]

Quote[/b] ]people who know me , know that my word shouldnt be taken THAT seriously

i think u should just not take YOURSELF too seriously. next time just extract the constructive part out of what u wanna say. humbleness is also something you can learn by "observing and repeating". there are many capable but humble people around here u can "observe".

still u are right about the leather look...but that's another story.

just my opinion. so please not another epic clash of attitudes.

and i can't help quoting something some wise lady once said...

Quote[/b] ]this thread is for pimping and advice, so i guess either we all settle at a point and work together to get some nice results, or everyone´s doing their own thing, which would render this thread pretty useless imho.

peace out

BB

[[aps]gnat 28]

Hey, some people need to trim their egos and give a little respect to people who have been here a long while and contibuted in their way to the community the whole time.

ppl like neph have plenty of plus credits in their community bank as far as I'm concerned.

And you don't know the history, or dont have any here, then I'd suggest you cool your heals!

[VXR 9]

well sorry if i appear like that, but its not been just once ive reached the straw and people giving kicks back...

If I get kicked over and over whem reaching a straw, I do not reach a straw anymore to prevent me getting kicked again.