So, what are you working on right now?

[rich_is_bored]

I stayed up way too late playing with this but the documentation for ARB is garbage ...

 

[demagogue]

Oh but that's really cool looking.

[Bikerdude]

very impressive, we can use this in distant emitters and such!

[Aosys]

Well done on the creases! Only thing I'd do at this point (if you plan on baking it) is to get a fairly dense lowres mesh over that and maybe put some smoothing on your highres reference you've been working on. By smoothing I mean subdivision refinement. You may have to add some various edge loops so that you don't lose the good shapes going on here. But it'll make for some smooth'n snazzy normals when you're done. I'm a boss with baking in XSI but I don't know precisely how that's done in Blender (assuming that's what you're using?).

 

How's this?

 

 

Also, yes, I'm using Blender.

[RPGista]

Rich - Not sure what exactly that is in technical terms, but it sure looks hipnotic.

 

Aosys - Exactly what Epi said, you will want to add a subdivision modifier on your highpoly model. At first it will change drastically, but you can simply go back to your original model (which will work as the cage) in edit mode and add edge loops until it looks right again. Once you have all those curves smoothed and in the right place, baking a normal map on the low poly version is not hard, but like in many blender things, tricky to explain as it involves several steps. You'll need to learn how to UV and deal with material and texture files first though.

[Epifire]

I stayed up way too late playing with this but the documentation for ARB is garbage ...

 

 

Man this looks great. I'd love to hear a detailed bit on how you're getting these results. I could use something like this for some effects for my rooftop charger mast.

 

 

How's this?

 

 

Also, yes, I'm using Blender.

 

Much better! You are your own judge of what you've got in your head to go for the design. Add as much density to the highpoly as you need to smooth out the normals. On the occasion you may actually want to do the opposite for a sharp edge. So what I do in that situation is split edges (or by XSI terminology disconnect polys). If you break up the mesh you can control the hard edge factor that way. I used to rely solely upon smoothing deformers (or turbo-smoothing) to get quick previews, which is good. But it can also be limiting as to what you can do for manipulating the final highres mesh.

 

But yeah now the big thing is to make sure your cage mesh (lowpoly game version) will look like. It needs to conform to the highres shape as closely as possible. This should be very easy as you have a simple shape. Often for most of my technological works I have to blow the mesh up many many times to get rid of baking artifacts.

 

That only happens when you have reference faces (low resolution areas) that have their bake radius intersecting with other highres portions. The bake radius (or rays so to speak) fire directly along the lowres normals in towards the mesh. The radius basically just tells how far out from the mesh surface will be taken into account for the bake. So in tight corners you can get bake rays clipping through the corners. If the corner is an acute angle that is. If it's obtuse, even by a hair then the rays wont project into highres geometry. It's an annoying thing to get around but when you model complex meshes a lot it eventually becomes standard to think that part through.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Epifire

[Aosys]

Thanks Epi! I've got a rough idea of what I want to do for the low-poly mesh (I kept different copies of the khopesh at various stages of construction, and I think with some deprecation or manual editing on one of the earlier ones, I should be able to bring the poly count down to acceptable levels), but I don't yet know if it'll work. It may be worth starting a PM thread to get into the specifics.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Aosys

[Deadlove]

Use of two different natural cracked stone textures to make border edge along table. Using muliple alterations similar texture adds rich and luish layers for the atmosphere to soak you into giving the object being sculpted more personality, with more textures, and more decals.

 

 

I wish we could put decals on models like blood splatter decal on a skull. :-)

[VanishedOne]

It's fiddly and time-consuming, but it is possible to deform a patch around a model.

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/16604-what-do-you-think-adding-details-to-old-models/?p=356422

[Deadlove]

 

Another one of the same mission, it's getting more cleaned up.

[Deadlove]

 

Progress; meticulously and consistent.

 

The more you design a room, the less you're ever gonna get to the next one.

 

Har, har, har...this is just like any other form of art.

[SeriousToni]

Nice altar, but isn't the texture for it a bit too rough??

Did you try another one or downsizing its current scale?

[Spooks]

When testing goes overboard... (webm video)

 

edit: Let's just say I've got one shadow too many:

 

Edited March 4, 2016 by Spooks

[VanishedOne]

Ooh, pretty. It reminds me a little of the effects you can get with (I think) r_showShadows.

 

[SeriousToni]

Wow those shrooms Springheel built are paying off quiet well I see!

[Melan]

Spooks: That's impressive! How did you achieve it?

[Spooks]

About a dozen light_moving lights that are red/green/blue, It is hypnotic, if a bit of an eye-strain. @_@

[Deadlove]

More progress on a room that doesn't want to end.

 

 

 

[Springheel]

There's no need to copy the same post in two different threads.

[teh_saccade]

//

Edited July 17, 2016 by teh_saccade

[teh_saccade]

//

Edited July 17, 2016 by teh_saccade

[Melan]

Some inspired lighting there.

[VanishedOne]

Not wanting to appear like I a steamrolling the forum, and it being a handy place to organise notes - hope you don't mind if I start my own thread somewhere to document stuff...

 

Not sure there's much of a point in starting yet another blog, facebook page or to order the caviar and champagne for the grand opening when it is still a few months before there is anything of interest.

 

Since the resource for TDM is centralised here, it makes sense to keep related docs and stuff here too.

 

Ok, I'm doing it.

After making tea.

If an admin would give you wiki editing access, you could have a notes page like http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=User:VanishedOne

Edited March 7, 2016 by VanishedOne

[teh_saccade]

//

Edited July 17, 2016 by teh_saccade

[Epifire]

Okay so I told myself I wouldn't post any WIP shots but... oh well. No brushwork is present either. All my geometry and spaces have been planned out in XSI.

 

 

 

 

 

It's still pretty rough, but the overall form is there. Enough that it was at least worthy enough for some lousy screenshots. Been pretty excited though. Started it about a week back, and it's come a long way in a short time. All highres details, no actual texturing has happened yet.

 

Each floor will have a bit different details and layout. Can't wait to show you guys what the scenario will be, as I actually have a pretty specific plan for what gameplay will be taking place in it. As some of you already know, I'll be taking into account the megatexture theory for this run. All major surfaces (with tiling textures) such as floor, ceiling and walls will be detailed individually. Gonna see how far I can push the texture limits for this one. Still so much more detailing to do!