So, what are you working on right now?

[Goldwell 2439]

On 12/22/2020 at 5:08 AM, Dragofer said:

Another "riverside" mission (no relation) beginning with a somewhat sturdier ship...

... and a riverside encampment.

Though as with the spiritual ancestor, the main action is further inland (you can just about spot the gatehouse in the background).

A tranquil scene from the more maritime sequel:

 

Oozing with atmosphere and incredible visual work as always Dragofer. You're a master of your craft!

[Spooks 700]

As I leave my crimbo vacation and return to my work duties I can feel that my time may be severely cut for mapping, so I may as well have you guys take a look at what I've been working on (you know, per the thread title and everything):

I really wanna finish this one but RL is a bit volatile atm! Fates be kind!!!

[Jedi_Wannabe 216]

Hard to follow up some of the recent screens people have been posting, but here's a little something for my beta testers to reassure them I've not forgotten about them!

Part of a new area, really going for a natural feel with some pagan vibes, might be hard to notice but I've got some of @STRUNK's new bats flying around and they cast a great shadow in the moonlight as they pass by the cave opening (it's in the screen but looks way better in person!) Ignore the fps counter; I've got a misbehaving VP in the area.

 

Edited January 13 by Jedi_Wannabe

[peter_spy 1538]

Lately, I've been researching mirrors and real-time reflections, as in most missions I've seen them super clear and 100% reflective. It turns out there are better ways to do it.

I wouldn't recommend real-time reflections in general, as there are quite numerous limitations on their use, and they're quite resource-heavy. But there are ways to make them look good. I'll go with the cubemap version, if the model ends up in my FM.

Edited January 16 by peter_spy

[AluminumHaste 1053]

Looks great

[nbohr1more 2094]

2 hours ago, peter_spy said:

Lately, I've been researching mirrors and real-time reflections, as in most missions I've seen them super clear and 100% reflective. It turns out there are better ways to do it.

I wouldn't recommend real-time reflections in general, as there are quite numerous limitations on their use, and they're quite resource-heavy. But there are ways to make them look good. I'll go with the cubemap version, if the model ends up in my FM.

Very cool!

A simple way to offer both options is to use lod_bias :

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=LOD_Bias

Object Detail Low = Static specular, Object Detail Medium = Cubemap, Object Detail High = Real

Or you can use the cubemap version for a far away LOD etc.

[peter_spy 1538]

Yeah, I could use LODs, although the whole subject is more complicated than it looks...

First off, realtime reflections need planar surfaces, you can't do them on convex or concave shapes. In order to circumvent that, I made the RT version with two materials, one for the glass, one for the frame. Also, there's an engine limitation where you can't have more than one RT reflection surface in view. If there are more, they get disabled. This is probably a good thing though, I can imagine all hell breaking loose if there was no limit to these surfaces...

[Edit] Secondly, for the sake of aesthetics, I made the player model invisible. This is a subjective thing, but I find it distracting and immersion-breaking. It's a WIP model I guess, floating with barely any animations. Your can't make him invisible for FM purposes though, as it uses several body parts from other AIs: elite city watch pants, generic npc hands, thief tunic, etc. I can't make these materials invisible, since all other characters will have these parts invisible too.

[Edit] So in the end, a cubemap is a better way to go overall; it's more performance-friendly, has none of the limitations of an RT reflection and it's much easier to work with, especially now, since you can generate cubemaps in-game without changing the resolution.

Edited January 17 by peter_spy