Snehk's WIP Megathread

[dmw88 24]

Snehk, Im a professional software engineer and I have not worked on coding for a 3d game before but Id like to learn. I definitely have the skills and Id like to expand my areas of expertise. Ive been working with idtech since q3, although just modelling, mapping, and scripting, but if you want another person on your team please PM me. I cant make any promises right now about any extensive and consistent time investment, but I wont commit to any deadlines I cant meet and I can put at least 4 or 5 hours a week into any clearly defined goals you can give me.

[Snehk 74]

It's been quite a while since I made anything TDM related. I'm working on a video game in collaboration with another indie studio, primarily as a modeller.

 

I thought about starting to work on TDM fan missions again. I'm thinking about a daylight parkour mission.

[Snehk 74]

Getting back to modelling. This one needs texturing and further detailing for for normal map baking.

 

 

 

[Snehk 74]

The model is done after a short break. It's a bit rough though, so I'm waiting for bad models nomination. A link to download is on the first post of the thread.

 

 

 

[nbohr1more 2158]

Looks alright to me but shouldn't there be vertex smoothing applied?

[Snehk 74]

I've got vertex smoothing with the model in the 3D suite, but not in the engine. It must be an exporter problem, as the lwo exporter from wings 3D has no option to export normals. Improved textures for the model are in progress.

Edited February 8, 2019 by Snehk

[teh_saccade 233]

I don't think the hard edge info in the vertex normals is exported by wings in lwo format, which might be why there's no 'export normals/smoothing groups' option.

If the lines aren't set to hard then it ought to export the smoothing as it's seen in the shift-tab preview, so can work from that.

Can't remember exactly, it's been around a decade since using wings...
Judith probably knows more about that stuff.

It might be more fiddly, but if you'd like a copy of something like zbrush (which is my favourite atm, even though the interface is a bit awkward), then I've a dropbox link for a version from a year or so ago. Might have maya stored there, but certain zbrush is.

 

// def gotta get it more smooth or use more polys, if it's to blend in with the other objects - it sticks out a bit being low-poly against the rest. Not sure if textures could hide that, unless maybe they were very ornate and implied that it was by design it was so angular... Maybe some carved relief like a roman pillar. If the mapping had enough depth and contrast so as to make the edges appear smoother, it might work:)

Edited February 13, 2019 by teh_saccade

[nbohr1more 2158]

Everyone is forgetting about the "Doom 3" way.

 

You CAN cure it with a texture.

 

A giant "Normal Map" baked from a high poly version of the same model.

 

It's just that vertex normals use much less memory compared to a "whole model" normal bake.

 

OTOH, given how wonky vertex normals are in this engine... A big normal map guarantees smooth poly transitions. (As long as it's paired with noSelfShadows )

[peter_spy 1602]

Not sure what you mean by giant normalmap, but unwrapping your model in unique 0-1 space and baking medium/high poly shape does great job in this engine, as in any other engine really. This is what I call "the true power of normalmaps", i.e. "replacing" the per-vertex shading of your model with per-pixel one. This also saves you some time later, since with low triangle count you don't have to make separate shadow meshes or optimize your model further with LODs, etc.

[Snehk 74]

I just recently got Lightwave 3D, so I'll just use it to give the model smoothing groups. I'll work on better textures this Sunday I think, as I'm not able to do anything currently.