Scatter Sky and Pacific Ocean: video
by JR Wilde · 11/15/2012 (1:17 am) · 5 comments
I'm planning on reworking or creating new terrain textures using Blender and Xnormal so the terrain really pops. At least, that's the idea -taking it to the next level. Here's the initial video; I think it has a nice feel to it so far:
also, my machine is an HP Pavillion Dv7 notebook with a "switchable" graphics thing (can't call it a card really). It can barely handle recording video while playing with T3D but the scene plays smoothly when not recording; appologize for the slight
also, my machine is an HP Pavillion Dv7 notebook with a "switchable" graphics thing (can't call it a card really). It can barely handle recording video while playing with T3D but the scene plays smoothly when not recording; appologize for the slight
About the author
see website: http://www.synchronicity3d.com email me at syncyronicity3d "at" gmail.com if you'd like.
#2
11/15/2012 (3:00 pm)
That's a great improvement JR. Good job there. The terrain textures look a lot sharper, and the pebbles really stand out. Looking good. Thanks for the video too. The water looks great! 
#3
It may help with the frame skipping but again I have not tried it on my laptop so I can not say for certain.
Overall, very nice and I am glad to see another quality environment artist out there. I personally think the community needs people like us, we can help make Torque LOOK good. The coders all ROCK and the scripters are amazing! However, as artists, well we need to step up! That you did! Grats and much success!
Send me an email: kapaun01 at gmail dot com.
I have some stuff I want to share with you.
Ron
11/15/2012 (4:59 pm)
Nice work JR! I am glad you took the advice and not view it as criticism. The video looks good. Understand you have issues with capture, and that is fine since you explained why you were having the issue. I may also suggest, though it may not help much, using CamStudio. The url is here: camstudio.org/It may help with the frame skipping but again I have not tried it on my laptop so I can not say for certain.
Overall, very nice and I am glad to see another quality environment artist out there. I personally think the community needs people like us, we can help make Torque LOOK good. The coders all ROCK and the scripters are amazing! However, as artists, well we need to step up! That you did! Grats and much success!
Send me an email: kapaun01 at gmail dot com.
I have some stuff I want to share with you.
Ron
#4
But of course I can imagine that you as an artist doesn't mind putting a little more effort into your textures than me as a programmer who wants the easiest way out!
Anyway here is an image of a basic prototype normal map(created with no special effort from my side)
Parallax off
Parallax on
I'm not posting this because there is anything wrong with your textures!
Your textures are looking very nice, it's just because xNormal is so troublesome to work with to get the correct output, and I have used hours and hours to look for the best free normal mapping solution, and always returned to MapZone! :)
And great video btw, the ocean looks so nice, blows my mind everytime :)
And the trees are very nice aswell and the whole scene has got a very nice uniform color scheme to it! It feels very natural!
11/15/2012 (11:24 pm)
@JR a nice way of creating textures is simply finding a tiling texture (or create one) and create the normal in mapzone 2 (it's free) mapzone 2 will create both the normal and parallax and is very simple to use (it has got a grey to normal filter)But of course I can imagine that you as an artist doesn't mind putting a little more effort into your textures than me as a programmer who wants the easiest way out!
Anyway here is an image of a basic prototype normal map(created with no special effort from my side)
Parallax off
Parallax on
I'm not posting this because there is anything wrong with your textures!
Your textures are looking very nice, it's just because xNormal is so troublesome to work with to get the correct output, and I have used hours and hours to look for the best free normal mapping solution, and always returned to MapZone! :)
And great video btw, the ocean looks so nice, blows my mind everytime :)
And the trees are very nice aswell and the whole scene has got a very nice uniform color scheme to it! It feels very natural!
#5
@Dan, I so admire what you do. I'll try and take your example and have no "meh" textures hanging about, perhaps I'll even succeed :D
@Ron I concur with you whole heartedly on the looking good, and speaking of that, shaders are fast becoming the focus of my attention. Seems to me that if a studio like Ubisoft has a liscense, T3d has every potential for making a AAA game -and I"m convinced it has everything to do with light and shaders. Torque can do directX 10 I believe. . .
@Lukas, Thank you for the tip. I had mapZone there for awhile; that is one <i>deep</i> prog! I'm trying Filter Forge to make some new stone textures (they don't look as natural as the image-based sources I've been using but I'm certain that's my inexperience with the plugin) I will definately return to mapZone and take a more thorough looksee -maybe even sort out how to create textures with it -time to be intrepid in my endevors!
Thanks again with your truthful comments you are all helping me create something that I think will be very useful to the Torque community and most importantly: not disappoint.
J.R.
11/16/2012 (10:18 am)
Thank you all for your candour; it's very important to me.@Dan, I so admire what you do. I'll try and take your example and have no "meh" textures hanging about, perhaps I'll even succeed :D
@Ron I concur with you whole heartedly on the looking good, and speaking of that, shaders are fast becoming the focus of my attention. Seems to me that if a studio like Ubisoft has a liscense, T3d has every potential for making a AAA game -and I"m convinced it has everything to do with light and shaders. Torque can do directX 10 I believe. . .
@Lukas, Thank you for the tip. I had mapZone there for awhile; that is one <i>deep</i> prog! I'm trying Filter Forge to make some new stone textures (they don't look as natural as the image-based sources I've been using but I'm certain that's my inexperience with the plugin) I will definately return to mapZone and take a more thorough looksee -maybe even sort out how to create textures with it -time to be intrepid in my endevors!
Thanks again with your truthful comments you are all helping me create something that I think will be very useful to the Torque community and most importantly: not disappoint.
J.R.
Torque 3D Owner Novack
CyberianSoftware