Ivy; Models And Textures

[SneaksieDave]

Still up on FTP, I haven't sync'd to SVN in a few days.

[SneaksieDave]

Okay, the ivy collection (as texture) in question has been committed.

 

Still to come:

-the tileable ivy versions

-the castle wall textures

 

@mikebart: for some reason, the ASEs in the packages present as black models (except for the ivy on the doorway - that shows fine) in DoomEd. I'm sure it's probably just a path issue, but I haven't figured it out yet. This was from just unzipping the large package on FTP into the doom folder, so I haven't changed anything yet.

[mikebart]

Okay, the ivy collection (as texture) in question has been committed.

 

Still to come:

-the tileable ivy versions

-the castle wall textures

 

@mikebart: for some reason, the ASEs in the packages present as black models (except for the ivy on the doorway - that shows fine) in DoomEd. I'm sure it's probably just a path issue, but I haven't figured it out yet. This was from just unzipping the large package on FTP into the doom folder, so I haven't changed anything yet.

 

thats strange, I tested them before I uploaded them, but ill bet if its anything it'll be the paths.

[squill]

after taking a quick look.. it's probably your texture name path starting with //darkmod. I believe it should be //base for ASE models.

[SneaksieDave]

There was an error in the materials for the castle window textures, where they pointed to a wrong folder (fixed).

 

As for the models, I tried a quick renaming within material and ASE, e.g.,

 

MTR: "/textures/blah/blah/blah" => "sometexturename"

ASE: "//darkmod/textures/blah/blah/blah" => "//base/sometexturename"

 

Although this worked for me on the few models I've made so far, it has not worked here. Will look into it more later.

 

Edit: egads are these textures gorgeous

[PinkDot]

@mikebart - I'm making ivy models using your textures. Just one question - what way is that biggest part of ivy intended to be used? It starts in the middle and grows upwards and downwards. Is the bottom part intended to creep on the ground?

I thought I could make also another two parts out of them as separate models - for more versatility.

[mikebart]

yeah, I divide the large peice up and fold it so that it grows along the ground out from the rooty bit in the middle so that its like an 'L' but with a chamfer on the corner, I divide and fold some of the other peices too like the two out stretching vine bits in the middle of the texture sheet, so that they appear curved and reaching towards sunlight or hanging.

Thats a good idea about making 2 seperate peices from the big one too, you can always cover the cuts with leaves.

 

heres some wires that might give you a few ideas, the only thing I can think of that will make them look wrong is if you place them upside down.

 

 

Btw: How are you finding them?

[SneaksieDave]

The texture versions (as well as the castle walls) are in game for a short while now, and they're fantastic.

 

Any future submissions you have are highly desired.

[PinkDot]

Thanks mikebart for explanation!

I've done some models for them so far but haven't got chance to test them ingame yet. The texture looks great, I'm pretty sure they will make plenty of walls and dark streets of city more alive and atomspheric.

 

The models I've made are usually divided into several parts, so they can be bent a little bit - that's to give ivy some volume. I want them to look interesting also from small angles. I'll post effect of my work as soon as I can (not sooner than tomorrow...)

[mikebart]

Thanks Dave, I want to update the castle textures diffuse maps with ambient occlusion as soon as I get a chance, its a quick easy technique Ive implemented it into my work flow and it makes up for all the little details you cant acheive through normal maps alone.

 

here are some good examples, they arnt ingame but they are low poly

 

 

I still want to continue working on the stonewalls. Actualy what Id like to do is develop a system for creating anything out of stones and mortar like halfwalls, bridges, wells, ruins...

By combining the high poly models with the low poly ones and then re-baking/projecting them together (for example those low poly bricks in the renders above can be combined with HP bricks and then re-baked for normalmaps aswell as diffuse and specular)

 

Lets say you want to build a stone bridge;

you could block it out with a low poly mesh apply the castlewall01 texture, and then cover all the edges and corners with high poly stones and mortar.

Then, build another low poly model around the whole lot, project it, and all the normal info would get baked onto the final low poly mesh.

 

no promises as to when ill get started on that but when I do ill definitly provide documentation which will make it a bit easier to understand.

 

Thats awesome about the Ivy pinkdot, they should be easy to use for mappers which is exactly what I wanted.

Ive got an idea for another texture; basicly just solid tilable leaves, then the tiling patern could be broken up by the ivy01 texture, aswell as edges. It would be interesting to see an environment made entirely of the Ivy textures, well maybe not entirely , but now that you guys have got the high poly models maybe someone could take on the job of creating some kind of an ivy creature.

[sparhawk]

That wall looks awesome, as always. Reminds me of my childhood when we played with toys like that.

 

Together with that graveyard assets, it should be able to create really creep atmosphere.

[PinkDot]

How to make ivy models nonsolid, so player doesn't raise up when goes into it? Nonsolid key on ivy entity doesn't make any diffrence. Material has nonsolid and noimpact keys set already.... Any more ideas?

[SneaksieDave]

Off the top of my head, I'm not positive, but I think it's some silly difference like, it's not "nonsolid" "1", but instead it's "solid" "0". Silly and inconsistent (some properties use negative descriptors, some use positive descriptors), but I remember running into this problem (or something similar) once, so maybe give that a shot.

[PinkDot]

Here are couple of screens with ivy seen from various distances in sample map. That was done quite quickly (let's say 10 min. (ivy, not map... )) and using only few of ivy parts.

 

 

 

 

 

I've changed alphatest to 0.1 (instead of 0.5), which gives it a bit of dark border. That helps ivy to distinguish more from the wall. With 0.5 it was too subtle for that wall (would look better against the plastered wall, I think). If you think it looks too cartonish we might change the background to green above leafs and leave black under leafs, so it looks like subtle shadow.

 

I can make also flat versions with darker texture for the bottom layer, to make ivy look more 3D.

 

But I think at this moment it looks very good anyway - it's really hard to do something looking bad with such a texture.

[SneaksieDave]

Lookin' great. I might also try the alphatest change with the texture versions... interesting.

[Springheel]

I think it looks great.

[Domarius]

It's good to see the wireframe - thanks for that screenshot. Can really see how low poly it is.

[mikebart]

It looks great in those shots, you've done a nice job of making it look natural.

Im not too sure whether the extra polys are really nessesary but im glad you're experimenting with it and we all know doom3 can handle alot of polys

I cant wait to see more

[PinkDot]

I think those extra polys make diffrence when you stay close to the wall and you're looking at a side - ivy has some volume, which looks realistic. Flat polys wouldn't look good, especially with such realistic texture. And they don't cast shadows, so we don't have to count each polygon of ivy, I think.

[Domarius]

It looks great in those shots, you've done a nice job of making it look natural.

Im not too sure whether the extra polys are really nessesary but im glad you're experimenting with it and we all know doom3 can handle alot of polys

I cant wait to see more

At 8 polys per object, this is probably not that big a deal...

[mikebart]

No its probably not a big deal, I think the extra polys are a good idea for when you're veiwing it close up and side on now that I think about it, but if you have alot of it in the scene then I think those polys could be better used elsewhere.

[PinkDot]

I'll upload flat versions as well - for those who would like to grow their ivy on every wall in the city and for those who would like to put some flat, darker ivy at the back to fake shadowing. (that's "cheaper" version of your global occlusion simulation using vertex blending, which you showed in some other thread, I think).