CryEngine conversion

The past couple of days I decided to try my scene in CryEngine, and so far it's looking extremely nice. I'm still finishing up the import process, but soon I will start tweaking and adding polish to the scene.

Thanks for reading :)

Helicopter update

This weekend I set about the task of baking, optimising and texturing the lowpoly copter, and here is the result!

I managed to optimise the copter to 15k tris and textured it using a 2048x2048 texture; however, I'm concerned UDK won't be able to handle it too well, so I made a 1024x1024 version.

Not much else has happened, besides the development of additional props.

Thanks for reading!

Flames and cardboard update

Just a brief update on the scene: I've been doing a bit more work, responding to feedback and polishing and tweaking assets.

(lighting not built properly in this shot)

The main addition was the flame effect to the candles/lanterns, which really served to bring the scene to life. To make this, I made an emissive candle texture and flickered it with a particle effect.

Boxes

I've also added the cardboard boxes to the scene. When I first made the blockouts, I intended for them to be separate low-resolution textures; now, I feel it would be more efficient and quicker to work from one 1024/1024, with the ability to downscale if needed.

I crafted the highpoly boxes from using symmetry on the original open lowpoly boxes: this way, I could make my highpoly adhere to the box's construction and I could "fold" the highpoly into shape in Max.

I then took the highpoly into Zbrush and did a quick sculpt to show folds, creases and punctures in the side, lending it some extra character.

The end result came out well and was surprisingly easy to make :)

Surface-Mounted Electrics

The last niggling asset was the electric conduits on the walls; for this I did the standard high-to-low workflow, adding a bit of decorative elements to the metal of the light switch;

The result was quite nice: I again fit all these assets onto a single sheet of 1024/1024.

Future plans are to finish the hookah, which I have a nice highpoly made:

And then, to texture some bongs.

Following that? I can spend the time polishing my work, adding more stuff and tweaking the environment.

Thanks for reading!

Working on feedback, DX11 and guitars

I recently got the opportunity to network, and thus showed the current progress on my environment to various other games developers. I was after some critique, and I got quite a lot of responses.

The relevant feedback was:

• Dark areas of scene were pitch-black, needed at least an ambient blue colour
• Try and reduce clutter
• Check textures against histogram settings in Photoshop to get a better lightmap quality
• Sharpen textures using the Unsharp Mask tool to better bring out small detail
• Windows needed to be brighter

A good point given to me was that my use of warm and cold colours was good, as were my texturing and modelling skills :p

Anyway, working on the feedback, I managed  to significantly improve my environment's aesthetic with very little effort. Here's some screenshots:

DX11

The biggest difference in the scene was the use of UDK's DX11 features, which unbeknownst to me were the cause of the subsurface scattering on the candles failing to work.

The old candles as a result looked unlit and burned with bloom when they were lit due to a mistake I made in the shader.

The new candles may have a much less pronounced normal map (which I will seek to fix), but the subsurface scattering is working, allowing light to enter the object and making the candle appear to be lit without looking like a uranium rod.

Another feature DX11 boasts is the use of local image-based reflections. UDK's version of this uses a flat plane, which captures the scene some space in front of it and then outputs the result as a camera-facing reflection on any surface with Image-based reflections enabled in the material. I used this where the floorboards of the environment are most visible to make a nice enticing reflection.

Side note: If I wee to use CryEngine, the setup in there enables IBR for all surfaces with a high enough gloss map. Here's a shot of how it looks:

It definitely looks more natural, but at a higher performance cost than UDK.

Guitar

The only asset I added in this update is the acoustic guitar. Whilst doing my research, I found that hippie groups are rarely without one of these instruments, and the standard wooden acoustic is almost synonymous with the movement. For reference, my housemate let me borrow his acoustic model so I could study it, and I learned a lot which allowed me to really nail this asset.

I experimented with a stickered version. I was originally going to swath the model in artwork and decorations, but I struggled to find a relevant piece that fit.

I also started adding the first decals to the piece. I seeked the floral pattern from the concept and found a vector of it, then assaulted it with custom brushes in Photoshop to give it that painted look.

My next move will be to texture those cardboard boxes all over the place, and work my way around the few remaining meshes. Then, I can spend time finishing off the helicopter and adding particle effects and extra visual polish. The end is in sight, but still so much to do.

Well, that's all folks. Thanks for reading!

Candles, portraits and fridges update

Since the last update I've been busy on other modules, but not busy enough to shirk my texturing duties.

Here's the current scene:

In this update, I've added a series of meshes to replace the blockouts, including the much-anticipated fridge and candles.

Fridge - Resolution Issues

The fridge itself is a nice model, but would have been completed sooner had I not tried to experiment with it. Upon modelling the fridge initially, I postulated on the thought of having the appliance open to show all the food inside, and modelled and textured it as such:

However, since I was still adhering to the 1024/1024 limit I set for myself, I felt that sacrificing resolution for additional geometry detail made the asset look shoddy, no matter how little unique space I used. 

The texture here, although I tried to squeeze as much detail as possible, was just too low-resolution to look decent in the level, not to mention was my first attempt at texturing an asset like this. Also the red looked awful.

As a result, I abandoned this notion and remodelled a closed fridge with better optimised UV space, allowing me to make fuller usage of my self-imposed budget.

A much better result, and I even had room on the texture sheet for fridge magnets!

Portraits

The pictures on the walls I had been putting aside for a while, but I finally got around to making them. For the main frame, I wanted it to be more ornate than modern wood finishes seen in modern houses, so I went with this as reference:

To get the gilded look of the edges and the finish, I knew this was needed of the normal and spec maps. I decided to create the highpoly in Max, unwrapping the asset so that the edges shared the texture space to save time and pixels.

For the portrait, I decided to give the hippie pad some dignity and put in a Thomas Moran study I did once, way back when I was into digital painting :) The remainder of the look was mostly reliant on spec and gloss maps. 

I also made the smaller portraits' different variants using a 512/512 texture. On one of the frames I placed a cloth pattern, as used when a picture frame needs a Bohemian flare.

Also, Gloss Map fingerprints from those messy days of interior renovation.

Vinyl Player

I also completed the bake and texture of the vinyl player. Nothing particularly remarkable about this asset, though I did enjoy adding stickers and writing to the texture, as well as the colored overlay on top.

I also had to shift the UVs around a little to get a better resolution on the top, but it paid off with a nice asset.

Candles

Last on the list on the update was the long-awaited candles. For this asset, I remodelled from scratch and made some variants of  the same candle from an already unwrapped dripping candle mesh, then I sculpted the wax dribbling from said candle in ZBrush:

The unique challenge candles provided in the scene(and one I am still struggling with) was the use of subsurface scattering to scatter the light into the diffuse colour of the candle. Basic experiments with the blockout meshes had provided interesting results, which often overreact with the bloom effect in the scene.

However, Marmoset's features allowed me to simulate the effect I was aiming for:

Essentially, I desired a lighter falloff in the scattering; however, I need help with this if I am to replicate this inside UDK's shader system.

That's all for now. 

Changes that need making:

• Cardboard boxes, wall-mounted electrics, cooker, bongs and books still need textures
• Considering adding tablecloths to table
• Wanting to add acoustic guitar and golden buddha statues
• Helicopter still needs baking
• Kitchen needs a screen
• Particle effects and flames

Thanks for reading!