So, what are you working on right now?

[Chiron]

yeas please, I would like toi have this as my dual desktop at work and home (3360*1050)

 

Me too !

[Diego]

@JB

Now that looks fantastic! wow :-o

 

And yellow as well.. Please, don't think I'm criticizing your extraordinary work, but this is something that always bugged me: How to get more color variation in a game that is mostly dark with fire being the main light source?

 

I mean, some circumstances do allow some variation: We can get some blue/purple out of the night's natural light (not realistic but looks natural and pleasant to the eye). Vitrals from cathedrals and such! Besides these, it's hard to make anything not yellow. I would suggest abusing artificial lights (electric and magic) making them emit different colors.

[Sir Taffsalot]

I like the somewhat limited colour of the lighting. It gives the whole scene a feeling of cohesiveness. It makes the setting look unique. It gives the feeling of a warm Autumn night. I personally approve of the choice of colour for the lighting.

[Baddcog]

Options for color include:

 

light crystals , mushrooms, stain glass, moonlight... True it's a bit limiting. Also blue/blue-grey textures can be used more.

 

That's why in 1.08 my 'newer streetlamps' (the models that are a bit newer/fancier looking) will have a more white(tiny blue tint) hue. It was just a simple way to give maps a little more variety. When cleaning up the light entities I noticed just about everything was yellow.

[demagogue]

In cinema there's a long tradition of rendering moonlight & night by blue light, especially for a room, so it's something we're already trained to accept. Changing the street lamp would work, like BC said, more blueish or more orange. Even torch colors could work too, like put in more orange or red. You could also have bright colored walls and simulate radiosity to get more color in.

 

We definitely need more variety though... in textures and objects also.

I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea for mappers to get into the habit of taking existing textures and objects and tweaking them to their own color schemes & aesthetic styles. That way it's low-hanging fruit -- not making something from scratch -- but still getting variety into missions. Especially just only adjusting the hue & saturation of textures could be very easy and dramatic I think.

[DeTeEff]

Not so much of an overview but at least some humble progress from Sweden...

 

[Melan]

That's a nice shot, too - the way you have used grime adds a creamy sepia tone to the building, and there is pleasing irregularity all around.

[Springheel]

Love the uneven ground!

[Bikerdude]

And the very cool use of that texture on the small walls, though the screenshot a bit on the bright side.

[DeTeEff]

Thanks guys Oops, forgot to lower the ambient_world...it has a value of 20 there...

[AluminumHaste]

Very nice shots JB, one thing though the crest on the central building seems to have it's normal map inverted.

That's awesome Fieldmedic

[Sotha]

Very organic and nice, FM! No humility in that progress, I'd say.

 

I like the idea how those organic stone barriers were made from patches. Gotta learn that for you.

[Johannes Burock]

yeas please, I would like toi have this as my dual desktop at work and home (3360*1050)

 

Ok, here you go: a 360° panorama screen of the scene in a 4505 x 1352 resolution. Nearly the same aspect ratio so it shouldnt be distorted to much.

 

http://minus.com/m3NarQriV/

Edited April 18, 2012 by Johannes Burock

[demagogue]

Oh man that looks so cool.

[Melan]

Hell's bells!

[rich_is_bored]

How the hell did you manage that? That would make a nice banner for the top of the page here.

[Sotha]

*tears falling*

 

Good God!

 

Have to absorb everything in and learn learn...

[Arcturus]

If I may suggest, it would look better if you used varied brightness of the lit windows. There should be couple of levels for each window, but robably not all window textures have them.

[Sotha]

If I may suggest, it would look better if you used varied brightness of the lit windows. There should be couple of levels for each window, but robably not all window textures have them.

 

That can be easily done by attaching small noshadows lights in front of the windows. Use different _color:s to make it interesting, a good starting point is the _color values from a standard torch. Use the biground1 light texture.

[STiFU]

Good idea. I guess you could achieve that effect using the blend modulate keyword in a material definition?

 

I also think the canal could be improved. It is somehow lacking in detail and variation. Maybe add a very subtle ambient light to it and maybe even some faked caustics?

[Flanders]

That can be easily done by attaching small noshadows lights in front of the windows. Use different _color:s to make it interesting, a good starting point is the _color values from a standard torch. Use the biground1 light texture.

Another idea is to use one of the various corner_grime decals on top of the windows though this is more difficult for models since it's hard to align the decals to it. But the effect is really nice because the edges are nicely darkened instead of one colour over the whole window and you don't need to use extra lights.

[SeriousToni]

How does one do these rounded stone walls around the tree and before the door, like Fieldmedic did?

[Johannes Burock]

How does one do these rounded stone walls around the tree and before the door, like Fieldmedic did?

 

take a 9x9 point patch, bend it to a upside down "U" with -> 3 point vertical, 5 point 180° rounding, 3 point vertical.

Now bend this upside down "U" to a ring or so...finished...extreme easy going.

Use bigger patches for more complicate geometries...

 

edit: or use 3 patches, 2 for the more or less verticals and 1 for the 180° rounding. so two 9x3 and one 9x5 patches...than u can divide the 180° rounding patch more for the optics and save performance on the vertical parts.

But than u have to do some work with texture alignment of the 3 patches

Edited April 18, 2012 by Johannes Burock

[ungoliant]

Good idea. I guess you could achieve that effect using the blend modulate keyword in a material definition?

 

can only darken with modulate/filter. if you need r g or b values greater than the source, it cannot be done this way.

[Arcturus]

Most of our window materials have this code:

 

{
diffusemap _black
blend add
map textures/darkmod/window/pointedtop_circles_brightlit
rgb 1
}

 

It means that texture doesn't react to light and has always the same brightness. If you change code to for example rgb 0.5, texture will be half as bright. Couple of our windows have such variations and it's a matter of only picking the right one in radiant.