Tutorial; Baking Multiple Maps In Max

[mikebart]

heres the link to the tutorial http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic...p=160978#160978 hope you guys find it useful.

 

Im ready to start modelling now, so I guess ill just wait for some idea's from the art team, Im pretty excited about what you might come up with . Im still waiting for some FTP space so that I can upload a few models and textures.

[New Horizon]

heres the link to the tutorial http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic...p=160978#160978 hope you guys find it useful.

 

Im ready to start modelling now, so I guess ill just wait for some idea's from the art team, Im pretty excited about what you might come up with . Im still waiting for some FTP space so that I can upload a few models and textures.

 

Fantastic tutorial. I think I'll be giving that one a try very soon.

 

I'm going to post a few links to the types of set pieces I feel we really need.

 

A run down castle.

 

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/anothe...fon-castle.html

It would be great to have windows, walls, arches, stairs, walk ways, towers...all in pieces so they can be used to more quickly build up a level. Also, once the set pieces are constructed...it would be great if there were a few variations of a matching repeating tiled texture that could be used to go with that set theme.

 

Lots of inspiration here too.

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/anothe...hton-tower.html

 

http://www.picture-newsletter.com/chillon/

 

Feel free to indulge yourself. Thief was always about a mixture of medieval, victorian and steam punk. What you have captured in your work, is a feeling of dirt, grit and the environment breaking down the structure. It's something that a lot of our materials are currently lacking as they are far too clean. I truly look forward to seeing what you come up with.

 

I'll post some of our concept art as well.

 

Thanks for helping out Mike.

[New Horizon]

Here are some environment concepts. Let me know if you have any problem viewing these links. I may have to adjust your permissions.

 

Environments

 

- Castle Image

- City Reference Pictures (lots)

- City Street Sketches

- Fountains

- Mansion Interior with Fountain

- Mansion Interiors

- The Slough (flooded district)

[mikebart]

Thanks alot for those castle pics they should come in handy, I couldnt get access to the enviroment concepts though. Just wondering, What exactly is 'Steampunk'?

[New Horizon]

Thanks alot for those castle pics they should come in handy, I couldnt get access to the enviroment concepts though. Just wondering, What exactly is 'Steampunk'?

 

Steampunk is essentially a mish mash of different things. In thief, it's a mixture of crude steam and magic powered technology.

 

Thief is the kind of game that's difficult to explain. It's more of an experience.

 

It takes place in a somewhat medieval world...but with the aforementioned magic and steam powered devices.

 

Note to Komag: Hope you don't mind. I 'borrowed' the next two pics from your website.

 

Here you can see an example of street lights that are run by some strange technology. The glowing balls on the top are 'collectors' of sorts. Whether they collect magic...or energy from the world to power them...isn't really known.

 

 

The steampunk aspect shouldn't play a whole lot in the design of the environmental set pieces. I'll fix you up with the appropriate forum permissions, so you will be able to access those concepts.

[Crispy]

There's also some discussion of steampunk at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

[New Horizon]

Thanks for that Crispy. I never think of Wikipedia.

 

Here is some info directly related to thief.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_%28computer_game%29

[PinkDot]

Thanks Mikebart for that tutorial. The effect looks really impresive. And I never succeeded in baking normal maps using 3dsmax, so I'll take a deep look into your settings.

 

BTW - do you know if it's possible to project lighting map from hipoly model into lowpoly model? Just like normals but only light and shadow - it would be helpful to make skylight shadows on lowpoly models based on hipoly one.

[OrbWeaver]

BTW - do you know if it's possible to project lighting map from hipoly model into lowpoly model? Just like normals but only light and shadow - it would be helpful to make skylight shadows on lowpoly models based on hipoly one.

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=4751

[Domarius]

Just wondering, What exactly is 'Steampunk'?

It's a plugin. Hehe... sorry, just an in-joke.

[PinkDot]

OrbWeaver - thanks, but that's diffrent thing.

 

I'm talking about possiblity of baking the shadows (or even GI) that's on some hipoly model to low poly version. I know one plugin - Kaldera - that does it but the version I have doesn't want to work with my version of 3dsmax or Vray renderer I use.

I know it's possible to bake GI on low poly models (without projecting from hipoly), but this way I can't get any extra details, which would come from hipoly model...

[OrbWeaver]

OrbWeaver - thanks, but that's diffrent thing.

I'm talking about possiblity of baking the shadows (or even GI) that's on some hipoly model to low poly version. I know one plugin - Kaldera - that does it but the version I have doesn't want to work with my version of 3dsmax or Vray renderer I use.

I know it's possible to bake GI on low poly models (without projecting from hipoly), but this way I can't get any extra details, which would come from hipoly model...

 

Oh right, I didn't realise you were specifically asking how to do this in Max.

[mikebart]

Whoa! sorry I missed this thread yesterday, thanks for the stuff on the castle NH, Ill get to work on the it strait away and for the description of steam punk too, its sort of what I imagined. Speaking of steam punk, I went to a gold mining museum on monday and got heaps of good photos of early 19th century milling and steam powered technology, It was amazing, there was an old coach factory there too where you walk in, look up and all you see is pullys and belts wizzing around, ill post photos as soon as I can, they would be very helpful for references .

 

You definitly can render shadow detail to maps, I remember doing it quite a while ago in max 7, I cant remember exactly how I did it, I think if you save the rendered image which apears in the window to file, could be as simple as that, im not sure. You definitly have to use projection though.

[Ishtvan]

Speaking of steampunk, I went to this place in San Francisco recently where they have all the pre-electricity mechanical arcade games. It's pretty awesome, there is this mechanical horse that really reminded me of the steampunk spirit, very intricate clockwork displays, and even a steam powered motorcycle on display.

[Crispy]

There was even a steam-powered car at one point. It's amazing what you can do with a bit of plumbing.

[mikebart]

I just found out, you can also add a bump map to the 'high-poly model material' aswell as the diffuse and it will get added to the normalmap render. It looks alot cleaner than using the nvidia plugin and overlaying the diffuse, im sure that method corrupts the normal map (changes dirrection of normals).

I just wish i'd found this out earlier

Ill experiment with a few more things before I produce any final renders

[New Horizon]

I just found out, you can also add a bump map to the 'high-poly model material' aswell as the diffuse and it will get added to the normalmap render. It looks alot cleaner than using the nvidia plugin and overlaying the diffuse, im sure that method corrupts the normal map (changes dirrection of normals).

I just wish i'd found this out earlier

Ill experiment with a few more things before I produce any final renders

 

Really looking forward to seeing your work Mike. Thanks again.