Animated grass - test map

[Arcturus]

It's a small map for testing purposes. I've been working on it for the last 3 months. It's only one large "room" so there's not much gameplay but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway.

 

You can download the demo here:

http://www.moddb.com...ated-grass-demo

 

The file is rather large because there is a lot of custom material: models, particles etc.

 

NPCs are set to neutral. There are fish in the pool but they are easy to overlook. If you use godmode and swim a bit longer you should spot them.

 

I created the map with LOD set to 'very high'. By default it's set to 'normal' so you should set 'Object detail (LOD)' in Video -> Advanced to 'Very high'. Otherwise models will disappear too soon.

 

Some more screenshots:

 

 

 

 

[Aprilsister]

Very Highly Awesome.

[jdude]

Wow, hard to believe this was once Doom3.

[Fidcal]

This is outstanding, Arcturus. Look terrific and I got virtually max framerates everywhere. This is wonderful grass. Yes one can nitpick and under scrutiny see all the blades of grass on each plane moving together but that is a small tradeoff. Overall it is superb.

 

Also the underwater plants and fish are great. Might want to put some slower fish in as well as fast (unless they don't look good under close examination. )

 

The water also is probably the most natural I've seen and the ebb and flow works great.

 

Great work Arcturus!

[nbohr1more]

That performed WAY WAY better than I expected.

 

Normal FPS on the hill was around 12. Highest was around 30. Lowest was looking back from the castle at the field 6 or 7 FPS.

 

Very playable on the low end.

[Arcturus]

I'm glad to hear that

I noticed that I had shadows turned off while taking the screenshots. The difference is not big though.

[Springheel]

Screenshots look awesome!

[Arcturus]

Thanks! I wonder what you all think about the fire particle effect (torches).

[Arcturus]

Might want to put some slower fish in as well as fast (unless they don't look good under close examination. )

The fish is pretty detailed actually A bit too detailed for the murky water.

 

[Bikerdude]

Wow, hard to believe this was once Doom3.

Jesus, aint it just. That last screen shot looking up the stone walled path is just breathtaking in the extreme.

 

 

@Arcturus, Is this all custome patchwork and models btw..?

[Arcturus]

Thanks Bikerdude

 

It's practically all modeled in Blender. The only patches in map are the droplets on waterlilies. Brushes are used only for the non-visible stuff. Edit: waterlilies are patches too.

[Sotha]

I was amazed by the screenies, but walking in the scene brought a teardrop in my eye. It truly was amazing.

I almost drowned in the pond, watching the fish scuttle around..

 

I'll contribute a few screenies showing some fun details.

 

Tris:

 

And pretty visportal ripples:

[Tels]

Thanks! I wonder what you all think about the fire particle effect (torches).

 

Haven't checked them out yet, but don't tell me you too created new fire torch particles?

[Arcturus]

I was amazed by the screenies, but walking in the scene brought a teardrop in my eye.

 

Haven't checked them out yet, but don't tell me you too created new fire torch particles?

There are two versions, one for metal and one for wooden torch. They use 4 materials, one custom and three Doom's. I wanted to try something different to what we've been using. They look better in game than on screenshots.

[Tels]

 

 

There are two versions, one for metal and one for wooden torch. They use 4 materials, one custom and three Doom's. I wanted to try something different to what we've been using. They look better in game than on screenshots.

 

I'll check them out in a minute Do you think that would something that should be added to my black light addon?

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/12336-add-on-black-light-aka-pimp-my-visuals/page__hl__black%20light

 

Edit: Hm, I like the wavering air (mine have this, too), but the more real flame texture isn't exactly what I have in mind. It looks a bit "fake". It is hard to express, but I think that it falls into the "uncanny valey". E.g. by making the flames more real, they look worse than before, because they are obviously still fake. Whereas the TDM particles are more of a comic style, e.g. obviously fake and thus easier to "accept". (Hope you get my meaning)

 

The map is very pretty, but I had a couple issues:

 

* with the wind blowing the grass that hard, shouldn't there be a wind sound? or did I not hear it?

* the columns under the lions where invisible for me (no idea why)

* the lamp with the flies had antialiasing/pixel waves effects. Maybe the texture misses mipmaps? or it has too much detail coupled with my antialiasing settings?

* even with no object detail, no models disappeared for me. (maybe a v1.07 bug? maybe thats the same bug that made the columns invisible?)

* I LOVE the door texture. Wish it was 2x or even 4x the resolution so you could walk close to it and examine every detail. It is just lovely and would deserve every pixel!

 

All in all very very pretty!

[Arcturus]

If you like it, why not.

[Tels]

Ah, think Iknow why the columns are invisible:

 

WARNING:  func_static_14: LOD 2 m_DistLODSq 39601.000000 < LOD 1 m_DistLODSq=40000.000000 (this will not work!)

 

This is repeated for a lot of func statics. Seems the distance for the LOD 2 stage is smaller than the one for LOD 1.

[Arcturus]

Hm. From def:

 

entityDef atdm:stairs_columns
{
"inherit"				"atdm:lod_base"

"editor_displayFolder"	"Static/Decorative"

"editor_color"			".3 0.8 0.5"
"dist_check_period"		"2"

"model"					"models/darkmod/Arcturus_stairs_columns.ase"

"lod_1_distance"		"400"
"model_lod_1"			"models/darkmod/Arcturus_stairs_columns_med.ase"
"noshadows_lod_1"		"0"
"lod_2_distance"		"600"
"model_lod_2"			"models/darkmod/Arcturus_stairs_columns_low.ase"
"noshadows_lod_2"		"0"

}

 

Also, hide probability is set to 0. On my end they don't disappear.

 

 

[Arcturus]

Func_static_14 is atdm:grass_02:

 

entityDef atdm:grass_02
{
"inherit"				"atdm:lod_base"

"editor_displayFolder"	"Nature/Grass"

"editor_color"			".5 0.6 0.5"
"dist_check_period"		"0.7"

"model"					"models/darkmod/static_grass1.ase"

"lod_1_distance"		"200"
"model_lod_1"			"models/darkmod/static_grass1_med.ase"
"noshadows_lod_1"		"1"

"lod_2_distance"		"300"
"model_lod_2"			"models/darkmod/static_grass1_low.ase"
"noshadows_lod_2"		"1"

"lod_3_distance"		"350"
"model_lod_3"			"models/darkmod/static_grass1_lowest.ase"
"noshadows_lod_3"		"1"

"hide_distance"			"400"
}

[Tels]

Func_static_14 is atdm:grass_02:

 

entityDef atdm:grass_02
{
"inherit"				"atdm:lod_base"

"editor_displayFolder"	"Nature/Grass"

"editor_color"			".5 0.6 0.5"
"dist_check_period"		"0.7"

"model"					"models/darkmod/static_grass1.ase"

"lod_1_distance"		"200"
"model_lod_1"			"models/darkmod/static_grass1_med.ase"
"noshadows_lod_1"		"1"

"lod_2_distance"		"300"
"model_lod_2"			"models/darkmod/static_grass1_low.ase"
"noshadows_lod_2"		"1"

"lod_3_distance"		"350"
"model_lod_3"			"models/darkmod/static_grass1_lowest.ase"
"noshadows_lod_3"		"1"

"hide_distance"			"400"
}

 

Hm. Hm. I have to debug this, but maybe the code enforces a distance scaling for the higher levels, and that causes them to get a distance smaller than the smallest LOD (which is not scaled as it is too close).

 

Thanx for the testcase!

[Arcturus]

Func_static_14 has

hide_distance 200

added in editor. There are many atdm:grass_02 entities and some have overwritten code some not. I don't remember why (maybe I wanted to force faster hiding). I never noticed anything strange happening.

[Tels]

Func_static_14 has

hide_distance 200

added in editor. There are many atdm:grass_02 entities and some have overwritten code some not. I don't remember why (maybe I wanted to force faster hiding). I never noticed anything strange happening.

 

Hm, yeah, a hide distance shorter than a LOD x distance won't work (hide is LOD 7, so it can't be before LOD 1..6

 

But there is still the problem with the columns, I need to check if this is a LOD issue. Anyway, thanx for your work, very inspiring!

[Arcturus]

Edit: Hm, I like the wavering air (mine have this, too), but the more real flame texture isn't exactly what I have in mind. It looks a bit "fake". It is hard to express, but I think that it falls into the "uncanny valey". E.g. by making the flames more real, they look worse than before, because they are obviously still fake. Whereas the TDM particles are more of a comic style, e.g. obviously fake and thus easier to "accept". (Hope you get my meaning)

I get your point.

 

* with the wind blowing the grass that hard, shouldn't there be a wind sound? or did I not hear it?

There should be audible wind sounds.

 

* the columns under the lions where invisible for me (no idea why)

I don't know too.

 

* the lamp with the flies had antialiasing/pixel waves effects. Maybe the texture misses mipmaps? or it has too much detail coupled with my antialiasing settings?

Maybe you could post a screenshot?

 

* even with no object detail, no models disappeared for me. (maybe a v1.07 bug? maybe thats the same bug that made the columns invisible?)

I don't know. It works for me on latest SVN version and version 1.06.

 

* I LOVE the door texture. Wish it was 2x or even 4x the resolution so you could walk close to it and examine every detail. It is just lovely and would deserve every pixel!

It's already 1024x2048px. But I have 2048x4096

 

All in all very very pretty!

Thanks

[Serpentine]

Heh, I was very skeptical... but wow.

 

This is some lovely work , and a really good showcase of some of the new features, as well as more advanced editing. I am already stealing a bit of this for a little something!

 

Re : Door texture, it's res is pretty solid already, I think it just needs the normalmap strength increased a bit The diffuse itself is perfect res. The lily-pads seem(I havent checked the mtr) to be missing a normalmap in the ambient, _flat should take care of that.

[Midnight]

The Lion statues and fish were missing for me, but other than that this was a stunning example of what's possible. The feeling I got from this was of a castle belonging to a 12th century knight during the times of the crusades. Please tell me that this is not going to remain "just a test map", I'd love to see this turned into a full FM someday.