WIP: stuff you are working on!

[abs 2]

Hey guys, it's been a long time since I'm posted here. I couldn't work on my car for a while because Bulldozer was messed up. Luckfully the problem didn't persist with my new hard drive and I finally finished the exterior.

I'm not sure how I should make the bottom of the car. Should I fill in the most I can with a large rectangle and then fill in the gaps, like this:

[mg]http://www.isarapix.org/pix67/1213313452.jpg[/ig]

Or is there a better way?

Also, a long time ago someone mentioned that I should add the mirrors as an object. However I'm not too sure how to do that or even what it means exactly.

It's really hard to see it from that angle. I'm not even sure if we're looking at the top or bottom. Also, we don't have a good idea of what the wheel wells look like, so it's almost impossible to make a proper recommendation. Got a better pic?

Abs

[smellyjelly 0]

It's a view from the bottom, and I really just drew it to give an example of my idea. I didn't pay too much attention to accuracy because I just wanted to show the technique. The lines represent the different faces on the bottom side of the vehicle.

If no one else get's it then I'll redo the picture.

[namreg 0]

Hello mates!!!

VXR Thanks for your comments and for your texture advices... I couldn't have done it without your help

RobertHammer THX, I'm glad you like it

Panda[PL] It took me a while at the begining, trying to figure out how normal maps and specular maps worked. But then, as you said, It was really fun to do.... now I'm trying to put it all together to see it in the game...I'm really getting excited about it!!!!

Here you can see my heli in O2, after importing...

... and with textures applied.

But then I got this problem when I added the rvmat material to the glass at the front. I searched and found the rvmat files that were applied to the model, at first I thought that it could be a problem with my O2 copy but....

... I put into ArmA and it looks the same way..... you can see through it, but still you see the gunner's seat.... why this object and not the others?

FischKopp I like your M60s and I'm really waiting to see them finished....

smellyjelly Hi man, why don't you try to create a 1/4 sphere around tohse wheels in the interior part and then join them with the lower part..... Here I made a quick drawing of it.... hope it helps.... and I repeat... it is a quick drawing

[scubaman3D 0]

^that usually has to do with texture sorting. Especially with transparent parts of a model, the alphas need to be moved to the top, I think...or is it bottom?

Well its one of those. That should take care of the problem if you select the faces and go to faces -> move to "x'

[abs 2]

Hello mates!!!

VXR Thanks for your comments and for your texture advices... I couldn't have done it without your help

RobertHammer THX, I'm glad you like it

Panda[PL] It took me a while at the begining, trying to figure out how normal maps and specular maps worked. But then, as you said, It was really fun to do.... now I'm trying to put it all together to see it in the game...I'm really getting excited about it!!!!

Here you can see my heli in O2, after importing...

[ig]http://www.oriolajuan.com/arma/118a.jpg[/img]

... and with textures applied.

[ig]http://www.oriolajuan.com/arma/118b.jpg[/img]

But then I got this problem when I added the rvmat material to the glass at the front. I searched and found the rvmat files that were applied to the model, at first I thought that it could be a problem with my O2 copy but....

[ig]http://www.oriolajuan.com/arma/118c.jpg[/img]

... I put into ArmA and it looks the same way..... you can see through it, but still you see the gunner's seat.... why this object and not the others?

[ig]http://www.oriolajuan.com/arma/118d.jpg[/img]

FischKopp I like your M60s and I'm really waiting to see them finished....

smellyjelly Hi man, why don't you try to create a 1/4 sphere around tohse wheels in the interior part and then join them with the lower part..... Here I made a quick drawing of it.... hope it helps.... and I repeat... it is a quick drawing

[ig]http://www.oriolajuan.com/arma/coche.jpg[/img]

I thought I'd link you to this thread, mate, just in case you hadn't seen it. The chopper is looking good!

Abs

[Panda-PL- 0]

the alphas need to be moved to the top, I think...or is it bottom?

"deeper" faces occlude the more "shallow" ones.

So every transparent part must be moved to top.

Select glass, faces>move top.

And I cannot see enviroment map on the pictures, is it really the right RVmat?

@Nephilm

I thought procedural means you don't need to draw it by hand.

Sorry if it means something entirely different.

And I didn't use a pro application. Wings 3D is a freeware subdivision modeller. I simply told it to draw stuff along edges.

As to the plastic - I agree. I have also see this gradual brightening on oxidised steel, however you're perfectly right in this case since RIS and mounts are not oxidised (I won't even start on how many alternative finishes we nowadays have). Brightening the edges might be justified for WW2 weapons, but not anymore. I'll dull the effect.

If I can ask a professional's advice: is it reasonable to add letters as 3d objects if I allready plan to have lowpoly textures baked from hipoly textured model?

And I think you ment cavity map extracted from normal map?

It looks exactly like AO map in case of small details indeed. Maybe indeed it's faster to render AO from lowpoly only and overlay the cavity map? Is that what you ment?

[namreg 0]

I did what you said, and its fixed, but now I can only see the texture from the outside. Is there any way to make those faces double-sided or I have to duplicate them and change normals?

[Panda-PL- 0]

I did what you said, and its fixed, but now I can only see the texture from the outside. Is there any way to make those faces double-sided or I have to duplicate them and change normals?

Making them double sided is quite labourous. You can do it, but in the end after binarising the result will be exactly the same as if you duplicated them and reversed.

Binarisation cuts model along sharp edges.

So I wouldn't bother hand-picking each face and creating a coupled face since the result will not be different in the end.

[namreg 0]

So..... how do I do it?

[nephilim 0]

Quote[/b] ]f I can ask a professional's advice: is it reasonable to add letters as 3d objects if I allready plan to have lowpoly textures baked from hipoly textured model?

well youre partically right about the procedurals.

procedurals can be used as fillers to "flood" an object with just one solid color, or create a seamless pattern on an object, eg wood, or clouds, noise similar to photoshop.

however, procedurals are continuosly calculated.

so eg, you have a procedural wood texture, the texture will always change as the model moves, as procedurals arent really made up the UV coordinates (to some extend) but rather simple XYZ information.

of course this really isnt a problem with solid colors.

a better solution would to create the procedural, and then bake it down as a diffuse map and apply it to the model.

Quote[/b] ]And I think you ment cavity map extracted from normal map?

It looks exactly like AO map in case of small details indeed. Maybe indeed it's faster to render AO from lowpoly only and overlay the cavity map? Is that what you ment?

AO map and cavity map is basically all the same..

the cavity map just captures additional AO information from the normal map.

you could also just bake down an AO pass from the highpoly model.. but that doesnt seem to be very usual around here...

rendering the AO from just the low poly is.... well stupid :P

all the shadows that would be captured in the nooks and cranies that the normal map fakes wouldnt be there..

get the normal map first, then worry about ao, then about diffuse and spec.

this gives me the fastest and most easy results.

alternatively to a cavity map you can simply take the normal map, switch to the blue channel copy it, and blend it over the diffuse map via multiply, eventually duplicate and blur it a little.

its some sort of AO fakery then.

cheers

[Panda-PL- 0]

So..... how do I do it?

Select glass in O2, Ctr+C, Ctr+V, it will be selected allready (maybe make it a new selection here just in case), press W to invert faces. It should by default be at the top alpha layer after pasting in.

Can be a good idea to make it a new selection right after pasting it in, to make it possible to select it easilly later.

[namreg 0]

@ June 13 2008,12:42)]

So..... how do I do it?

Select glass in O2, Ctr+C, Ctr+V, it will be selected allready (maybe make it a new selection here just in case), press W to invert faces. It should by default be at the top alpha layer after pasting in.

Can be a good idea to make it a new selection right after pasting it in, to make it possible to select it easilly later.

...as simple as old copy and paste procedures.

Thanks man, done... now I'm going to do the LODs...

[icebreakr 3101]

SBP presents FN F2000, Slovenian Army main rifle:

[AAC Stu 0]

nice work mate

[MehMan 0]

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

[[frl]myke 14]

Well, i would like to have some shiny stunning pictures to present but i'm affraid my project will not include any addons as models.

The Project is to have a system which allows to choose ANY weapon from ANY addon loaded without any scripting at all. Just add a new addon and you may use the included weapon on any plane you want and in return, use any weapon you already have on your new addonplane.

At least on pic i can offer, a scratch i made with GIMP how i think the menu might look like (just the basic idea).

Link to the original thread:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=73913

Greetz

Myke

[scubaman3D 0]

Am I getting closer?

I tried to add some shading and scratches, etc. I can't quite seem to get the right weathering on the receiver.

Also, I think I ruined the magazine with my over zealous shading.

[[aps]gnat 28]

I guess I could be stating the bleeding obvious, but you can add weathering by messing with the SMDI file too.

[nephilim 0]

the specular?

well yea but a specular map is what it is... it controls specularity.

ok if hes got scratches on the body on the spec map, but no actual diffuse map with the scratches being visible (eg blank metal showing through), how logic is that?

you might add specular details where grease is or on the plastic parts, or rough plastic parts get more specular from being heavily used, eg grips, then this is correct.

but detailing just with specs is...

however, a good normal map will only look good your spec map looks good too.

look at lotta guns pics.

get a feeling what pieces are exposed and where exactly weathering takes place most.

its not that hard

just adding random scratches wont really do mate

oh hell .. heres an example of my ak74 textures, all 1024*1024

lightning on the model is a bit screwed sorry.

i first created the low poly back then and uv´ed it.

then diffuse etc etc.

since i could recover it from my hd crash ive made a highpoly model out of the previously made lo poly parts so i can get a nice clean normal map.

this i combined with details from the diffuse map, eg to get really small details done without having to model them (like the rough pattern on the stock, serial numbers etc).

then a baked an AO of the lowpoly with the normal map applied, which gives me a nicer AO or so called cavity map (for whatever reason its called that way...).

for the receiver i made a similar approach like you.

solid color with some blurred noise and cloud pattern renderd on.

this gives us nice variability.

then ive added more structure using custom brushes.

ive added a masked layer with an alluminium base and painted the scratches and painted heavily used parts that start to shine through.

added rust, dirt etc etc.

specular map is derived from the diffuse.

just completaly desaturated and cranked in contrast values to get the specs i need. (not that this is not a arma-spec map yet).

my honest advice. get the normal map done first.

if this ones done, study good photographs of your weapon and other similar weapons that are being heavily used and abused.

look for the details.

cheers

[TankCommander 3]

@nephilim

Excellent advice there. I have a couple questions though. What does the AO stand for? I recognise cavity map (or bake shadows) but out of curiosity I'd like to know what that one is. And what program are you using to model and normal map in?

One other thing is that you mentioned merging a normal map derived from the high poly model with just a regular b+w texture. How is this done?

Cheers

[USSRsniper 0]

@nephilim

Excellent advice there. I have a couple questions though. What does the AO stand for? I recognise cavity map (or bake shadows) but out of curiosity I'd like to know what that one is. And what program are you using to model and normal map in?

One other thing is that you mentioned merging a normal map derived from the high poly model with just a regular b+w texture. How is this done?

Cheers

AO is Ambient Occlusion. But i never heard it being called cavity map...

And what was said above by Gnat about SMDI, i bet he didn't mean just adding scratches with SMDI, get scratches on diffuse map, or even on normal map, if scratch is deep. SMID just makes metal shiny where pain't is gone due to scratch.

[nephilim 0]

basically AO, cavitymap is all the same.

cavitymap was just introduced with crazybump or xnormal (afaik), where an additional AO pass was baked from the lowpoly but with the normal map applied.

this gives even more detail to the AO.

Quote[/b] ]And what program are you using to model and normal map in?

technically i doesnt matter what i model in

its just a matter of your knowledge, not the program you model in. if you cant make a model in prog. A, you wont be able to make a good model in prog. B

but for that model i used modo and plain photoshp cs.

[TankCommander 3]

Oh I wasn't asking in regards to the modeling but more for where you managed to bake an AO map from using a normal map. I suppose I asked incorrectly. So if you did that in Modo I will need to check it out

And now that I see AO is ambient occlusion, (I've been behind on the lingo but I still use it) the cavity map isn't the same thing. Cavity maps only create shade in areas like wrinkles and any other geometry where there is a larger surface angle. AO creates a shadow map, when baked, with broader surface shading where for example two objects near one another would shade each other as well. AO is also well suited for creating good shadow maps for buildings etc where with the low geometry a cavity map would do mostly nothing.

[nephilim 0]

well just put your normal map over your lowpoly in modo and make an ao pass.

there you go.

dont get confused with shadow maps and ambient occlusion.

its 2 totally different things.

shadow maps have been used in eg ut2k4 where there wasnt any real dynamic lightning, so all the shadows had to be prebaked into the textues.

Ambient occlusion is not dependant on light sources but only on geometry, whereas shadow maps will cast/bake shadows depending on geometry AND light.

cavity map /ao all the same to me..

if you bake a AO pass form a high poly model with lotta wrinkles it looks just the same.

example:

ambient occlusion

http://www.antropus.com/private....001.jpg

notice how all the shadows huddle in nooks and cranies and close together geometry, also wrinkles (under the eyes).

no shadow casting from a light source, just geometry-spacing dependant.

shadow map.

http://pixelstoomany.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/pixelstoomany_vsm.png

a shadow that is baked into a seperate texture and being overlayed over the original one.

the shadow is static and cant be manipulated with light sources.

the cavity map is usually derived from an applied normal map, to prevent any dis-location of texture information,

but its basically the same scedule as if youd create an AO pass.

it really doesnt matter.

if you bake the ao from a very smooth surface, with basically no features, itll look bland and pretty empty.

if you have a very detailed reference model with lotta geometry, wrinkles, slopes and whatsoever, the AO will have more detail of course.

cheers

[max power 21]

To add very little to what Nephilim was saying, a cavity map is an ambient occlusion map that used a normal map to calculate where the recesses are. The process are quite different, as you can imagine, considering you are calculating an ambient occlusion map in a 3d scene, in 3 dimensions, with curvature of the surface where it is curved and so on. On a cavity map, you are using a normal map in all of its 2d flatness to derive a faked ambient occlusion. The result is an AO map that was calculated as if the normal map was a planar surface with bumps on it. I've found that, using xnormal, you can get some pretty funky results if you don't set up the cavity map setting correctly or if the object is not in the right scale... more funky than an AO map that's out of range. I think xnormal makes virtual geometry out of the normal map and then shines lights on it from different angles and makes in the shadows it makes. I got this weird cavity map with shadows all over it that looked like stadium lighting. Anyways, the point is that cavity maps and ambient oclusion maps are 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.