Ancient Empires: Persia...or...uh...Video Update!
by Alan James · 11/23/2009 (11:39 pm) · 15 comments
Hi Everyone!
I've jumped back onto a few other packs that have been sitting on my drives nearly complete. Here is a preview of a series that I want to do, called "Ancient Empires". The first one will be "Ancient Empires: Persia". It is nearly finished, I'm now just going back through and optimizing some of the models (adding additional LODs for performance and such), also need to set the material scripts up (as you'll probably notice none of the models have normals in the screens below).
UPDATE
Instead of posting a new blog (at least until it's released) I've updated this plan with a short video of the Night Level version of "Ancient Empires: Persia":
Now I know that a lot of these aren't extremely "historically" accurate, but the Persian Empire ran roughly a thousand years ( The Persian empire was established by Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC, conquered and changed by Alexander the Great in 330 BC, and finally overthrown by the rise of the Islamic civilization in 537 AD.) so I figured I had a little leeway to work with.
I'd imagine you could use the content for just about anything from the early B.C. empire up to and including some modern day Middle Eastern scenarios, depending upon the additional content used and such. I also have the "Gold Rush" Pack nearly complete, just need to do the same optimization.
Anyway, I had intended on releasing it today, but I want to go back through a few things, but definitely before month's end. I'll post again soon with some more info about the "Gold Rush" Pack, since I'm pretty excited about it and was pretty blown away when I'd revisited it and in TGEA it was running in the 200-300 fps rate! (T3D was 60-90)
So enjoy and I'll post again soon!
Alan
[required pimpage]
Oh, by the way it will be available on www.monsterpacks.com!
[/requred pimpage]
I've jumped back onto a few other packs that have been sitting on my drives nearly complete. Here is a preview of a series that I want to do, called "Ancient Empires". The first one will be "Ancient Empires: Persia". It is nearly finished, I'm now just going back through and optimizing some of the models (adding additional LODs for performance and such), also need to set the material scripts up (as you'll probably notice none of the models have normals in the screens below).
UPDATE
Instead of posting a new blog (at least until it's released) I've updated this plan with a short video of the Night Level version of "Ancient Empires: Persia":
Now I know that a lot of these aren't extremely "historically" accurate, but the Persian Empire ran roughly a thousand years ( The Persian empire was established by Cyrus the Great in the 6th century BC, conquered and changed by Alexander the Great in 330 BC, and finally overthrown by the rise of the Islamic civilization in 537 AD.) so I figured I had a little leeway to work with.
I'd imagine you could use the content for just about anything from the early B.C. empire up to and including some modern day Middle Eastern scenarios, depending upon the additional content used and such. I also have the "Gold Rush" Pack nearly complete, just need to do the same optimization.
Anyway, I had intended on releasing it today, but I want to go back through a few things, but definitely before month's end. I'll post again soon with some more info about the "Gold Rush" Pack, since I'm pretty excited about it and was pretty blown away when I'd revisited it and in TGEA it was running in the 200-300 fps rate! (T3D was 60-90)
So enjoy and I'll post again soon!
Alan
[required pimpage]
Oh, by the way it will be available on www.monsterpacks.com!
[/requred pimpage]
About the author
#3
11/24/2009 (8:06 am)
Looking good. Love the shadows on the lantern. 
#4
11/24/2009 (1:40 pm)
Great looking work. 
#5
11/24/2009 (3:04 pm)
amazing work, like always... ;D 
#7
11/24/2009 (7:03 pm)
Great looking stuff. Sort of reminds me of Battlefield: Bad Company in places.
#8
I'm off to run a couple miles (just got home from work) but then I'm hitting it to try and get this pack all finished up in the next few days! Yeah!
11/24/2009 (7:05 pm)
Hey, thanks everyone! I'm off to run a couple miles (just got home from work) but then I'm hitting it to try and get this pack all finished up in the next few days! Yeah!
#9
11/25/2009 (7:48 am)
Looking great Alan, really great. 
#10
11/25/2009 (9:12 am)
Swe'eet! Very nice man! :)
#11
And a few screens of the Night level for the "bandwidth challenged":
11/27/2009 (7:24 am)
Thanks again everyone, small post to bump the update with video. Yeah!!And a few screens of the Night level for the "bandwidth challenged":
#12
Extremely impressive.
It reminds me that we need to add some more animation features to the lights. It would rock if the lighting would dance a bit from those flames.
If you have an gripes and wish list things you want in Torque 3D 1.1 let me know Alan.
Anyone looking to learn how to make good art for Torque or any game engine should be purchasing this pack.
11/27/2009 (8:31 pm)
Thats probably the best looking scene you or anyone else has done with Torque 3D... hands down.Extremely impressive.
It reminds me that we need to add some more animation features to the lights. It would rock if the lighting would dance a bit from those flames.
If you have an gripes and wish list things you want in Torque 3D 1.1 let me know Alan.
Anyone looking to learn how to make good art for Torque or any game engine should be purchasing this pack.
#13
Yes, the animation features for the lights would be cool. I was actually thinking the same thing when I was setting up the level.
There are a few minor things here and there, I'll try and see if they're on the "to do" burner for T3D before I bug you with them.
Right now I'm just dealing with one of my "man I'm an idiot" epiphanies. The buildings in the night level version above are all Collada, many converted from interior models. What I didn't realize it that it wasn't converting the LOD's along with them...and at least from what I understand it won't.
So now I'm back converting them each by hand through an effective but pretty convoluted pipeline. It's only about twelve or so models that need the conversion/LOD work, since some of the stuff was mesh work from the start, but at 30 minutes or so for the whole process per model (along with hitting the right scaling) I feel kind of dumb for not noticing it from the start.
But I already see the performance gain with the Collada meshes, and the material scripts are kind of jacked up for DIFs anyway (lighting is all weird).
No big deal, we all should be moving on from them anyway...grumble... grumble...old man...mumbling...new fangled things... =P
So that pretty much puts it out a few more days, since I can only get a few solid hours a night in after my regular 9 to 5, and repetitive model conversion is right up there with unnecessary oral surgery on my favorites list...
11/28/2009 (12:16 am)
Hey Tom, thanks!Yes, the animation features for the lights would be cool. I was actually thinking the same thing when I was setting up the level.
There are a few minor things here and there, I'll try and see if they're on the "to do" burner for T3D before I bug you with them.
Right now I'm just dealing with one of my "man I'm an idiot" epiphanies. The buildings in the night level version above are all Collada, many converted from interior models. What I didn't realize it that it wasn't converting the LOD's along with them...and at least from what I understand it won't.
So now I'm back converting them each by hand through an effective but pretty convoluted pipeline. It's only about twelve or so models that need the conversion/LOD work, since some of the stuff was mesh work from the start, but at 30 minutes or so for the whole process per model (along with hitting the right scaling) I feel kind of dumb for not noticing it from the start.
But I already see the performance gain with the Collada meshes, and the material scripts are kind of jacked up for DIFs anyway (lighting is all weird).
No big deal, we all should be moving on from them anyway...grumble... grumble...old man...mumbling...new fangled things... =P
So that pretty much puts it out a few more days, since I can only get a few solid hours a night in after my regular 9 to 5, and repetitive model conversion is right up there with unnecessary oral surgery on my favorites list...
#14
If your working with your materials still and are working from the 1.1 alpha build we now support detail normal mapping. This is a second normal map which repeats tightly and blends with the regular normal map. It really helps with rock or other materials with detailed surface geometry... like your stone walls.
Not a great example... but you get the idea.
11/28/2009 (1:06 am)
Yea the DIF to Collada is a fairly simple conversion process... LODs are not included at the moment.If your working with your materials still and are working from the 1.1 alpha build we now support detail normal mapping. This is a second normal map which repeats tightly and blends with the regular normal map. It really helps with rock or other materials with detailed surface geometry... like your stone walls.
Not a great example... but you get the idea.
Associate Rene Damm
Wow!! Love the texturing and lighting work.