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So, what are you working on right now?


Springheel

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Some1stoleit's map? I'm glad he's still planning on releasing it. I was afraid he'd left.

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Spring, is that a new roof module on the last image? They look like very nice roof tiles :)

I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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I was going to show you my latest WIP, but this damn thing won't let me post any images from google drive or from imgur. It just says:

 

You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community.

 

Why this is I have no idea. It's been like this now for months and it's really pissing me off. So could someone please tell me,

what format is acceptable? What image servers are you using that the forum will show?

 

Frustrated! B-(

 

Neon

I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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You can upload the images in your post directly, no need for external image services. You just have to make sure the file size is sufficiently low (gimp is your friend here).

 

As we are talking about it. Was there any chance the upload file size limitation could be raised? I barely remember this being discussed in the past but forgot about the outcome. :)

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FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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Neon, I love your colorful maps... ain't no one else who does color/vibrancy like you

 

Keep 'em coming!

 

Why thank you Sir. My paintings are the same. My videos too lol. I love vibrant colour. Though in TDM it's toned down a lot, but

it's still nice to use. :)

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I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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That is more art than mapping, most of all the third scene. I'll be eager to see what you manage to do with the interiors! And indeed that thought crossed my mind too recently when I came across some screens of Briarwood Manor, vibrant colour is your trademark.

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@Neon, these streets are coming together nicely and I'm very curious to see how it plays when exploring that. Possibly going to see a lot of swimming sections? Also lighting wise, I'm wondering what's going to happen with the directions you take the shadow development. Atm it's very even toned (at least in the ambient world brightness) and doesn't leave a lot of dark corners for the player to hide out in.

I guess I'm more referring to real Venice shots where there's a bit harder shadows and dramatic casters for longer angles...

post-14594-0-34794500-1546827764_thumb.jpg

 

Just food for thought, obviously I know you're still hard at it and I just wanted to list that pointer for consideration. :D

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Modeler galore & co-authors literally everything

 

 

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If you liked that you'd probably like these too :)

 

The first part is near where the player starts in the old worker part of the town.The others are the more posh part of town along with a shot of a couple of the facades which

will all be available as prefabs once the maps finished. The nice thing is the colours of the coloured posh buildings is set in a material file rather than by texture. So

you can have them any colour you want :D

 

The maps still got a long way to go, I'm still building it out, and atm there's no interiors done yet.

 

venice-2019-01-06-19-31-27.jpg

 

venice-2019-01-06-19-32-26.jpg
venice-2019-01-06-19-33-48.jpg
venice-2019-01-06-19-34-49.jpg

 

 

That is absolutely beautiful! One of the most unique looking FMs around.

 

I am curious though, what sort of drawcalls do scenes like this draw? I know it takes a fair bit of beating this engine into submission when it comes to large open areas.

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That is absolutely beautiful! One of the most unique looking FMs around.

 

I am curious though, what sort of drawcalls do scenes like this draw? I know it takes a fair bit of beating this engine into submission when it comes to large open areas.

 

Thanks Goldwell, that means a lot coming from you :). Currently it's not visportaled properly. It's very heavy at 7200 draw cells however I plan

to cut it back. I wanted to build out what I wanted, then pair back to get an acceptable draw cell. I want to keep it under 4000, If I have

too; to get it down to 4k, I can dump the old work part of the town which is about half the drawcells. Another way to improve it would

be to eliminate the sections beyond the arched bridges in the old quarter, and have the canal connect to a T section instead that

the player can't get to. I think it's better to think big, then cut back for performance than limit yourself during the build. I may be

wrong though lol

 

One question though, would separating sections into their own separate enclosed map in the same map, and have the player

portal between improve performance for this?

 

I only have one other section to build, and that will open the map up more, and hopefully include some elevation changes.

The idea is, if I can do it; to include a good parkour section as an alternative route.

 

Epi is making a couple of models for me which I think you will all just adore. A stunning Gondola (mine are prefabs), and a nice park bench that

will suit the area.

Edited by NeonsStyle
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I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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One question though, would separating sections into their own separate enclosed map in the same map, and have the player

portal between improve performance for this?

 

Definitely yes. From my tests the draw calls and heavy hitters load in on both occupied and touching (line-of-sight) leafs that are adjacent. Complex models (with many referenced materials) are prime candidates to be combined. Especially so if the building is a non-playable and just serves as backdrop. What's helped me a lot in my current (very wide open) FM has been combining whole exterior pieces that share the same redundant material. Pretty well compacts what loads in at once. Because a lot of it just can come down to redundant, reused props that are still producing a draw. And as always, shadow casters and NPCs that are thinking too hard will cut in hard.

 

Something I'd learned from Half-Life 2 maps (largely applicable in our visportaling) is to base long sections on a slight bend. The bend being enough to cut line of sight to the end, and what this allows is slotting in vis portal cuts along the entire length to section up the otherwise big area into more bite sized pieces.

 

 

 

Epi is making a couple of models for me which I think you will all just adore. A stunning Gondola (mine are prefabs), and a nice park bench that

will suit the area.

 

Trying to finish out the Gondola highpoly as I type this. B)

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Modeler galore & co-authors literally everything

 

 

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It looks like you have some repeating elements using the same material that could be combined into one model, like windows, balconies and flowers. Most stock TDM models use several materials already, but making custom models with 1-2 materials max can reduce DCs from several thousand to several hundred.

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It looks like you have some repeating elements using the same material that could be combined into one model, like windows, balconies and flowers. Most stock TDM models use several materials already, but making custom models with 1-2 materials max can reduce DCs from several thousand to several hundred.

 

So you are saying take these facades, and export them as ASE and it'll cut the draws???

 

@Epi, My map currently has two halves joined at a corridor, so I'll separate them again and find out how to join them through a portal.

I think Dragofers River does a nice job of that.

I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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So you are saying take these facades, and export them as ASE and it'll cut the draws?

 

Yup. But, remember that number of drawcalls is not only about number of models per scene. It's also about several other things. For example, if you use e.g. 5 materials in your model, that model will be split into 5 separate models by the engine, and so it will require more drawcalls. Maintaining as few materials per model as possible is probably one of the most important things in efficient modeling and mapping. Second thing is the material complexity. Everything that's more complex than 3 basic image stages (diffuse, normal, specular), so all the additional stuff in curly brackets – that needs additional drawcall per such stage. Also, every additional light hitting a surface require such surface to be redrawn, so that's additional DCs too. In general, what kills performance (in most engines, actually) is many multi-material models hit by multiple lights. Although the main problem of idtech4 is that it has such low DC threshold in comparison to other engines. You'd be able to get away with 10x more in other engines.

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So those buildings in the final image. There's about 4 or 5 of those. They are all essentially the same building aside from a colour

change in the shader for the texture. The texture is the plaster texture for all of them, but just changed the colour. So will they

all be different draws, or will all the colours be considered the same dc?

 

I did pay attention to all the criticisms of performance in Briarwood Manor, and want to improve it on this map, but still

I won't pander to low end PC's. I'm an artist, and I never downgrade my work. lol

I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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