DTS Environment Buildings with Lighting Baked In
by Joe Bird · in Artist Corner · 08/16/2005 (12:52 pm) · 3 replies
I recently checked out a 3DS MAX Tutorial showing how to create buildings with lighting baked in for game environments. The tutorial building uses a 512x512 texture with good results.
Making Game Environments with 3ds Max
I was able to reproduce this technique in XSI for a Virtools model using the RenderMap feature. I am planning out a game level slice for TGE and want to have buildings with baked in lighting. I'll be using Greenbriar Studio Toolbox for the XSI to DTS conversion. However, I was told by Adrian Tysoe in a seperate thread that baking light into texures is "wasteful" and that I should create buildings with tiled textures. I was reminded that TGE does not use Texture Compression, so perhaps textures of this size would be to large.
My plan was to do a Morrowind style slice of a town. The buildings would be DTS, with single textures 512x512, with lighting baked in. The user would go to open a door and would be loaded into an interior just like in Morrowind. Would my initial plan work, or should I consider a different method?
Making Game Environments with 3ds Max
I was able to reproduce this technique in XSI for a Virtools model using the RenderMap feature. I am planning out a game level slice for TGE and want to have buildings with baked in lighting. I'll be using Greenbriar Studio Toolbox for the XSI to DTS conversion. However, I was told by Adrian Tysoe in a seperate thread that baking light into texures is "wasteful" and that I should create buildings with tiled textures. I was reminded that TGE does not use Texture Compression, so perhaps textures of this size would be to large.
My plan was to do a Morrowind style slice of a town. The buildings would be DTS, with single textures 512x512, with lighting baked in. The user would go to open a door and would be loaded into an interior just like in Morrowind. Would my initial plan work, or should I consider a different method?
#2
I will have to test it out and see. The Mesmer building is lit the same from all directions except the bottom, which allows the artist to use overlapping UVs for each side, except the front door. I will have to plan my models out for that. With enough overlapping UVs I hope 512x512 textures will be enough.
08/16/2005 (1:13 pm)
Yeah I never thought it would be a problem until you pointed out that TGE does not used compressed textures. At that point I got nervous. The level slice I am creating will not have many buildings. I am at 4 right now. But I would want it to be something that could be scaled up to a complete level or town if needed.I will have to test it out and see. The Mesmer building is lit the same from all directions except the bottom, which allows the artist to use overlapping UVs for each side, except the front door. I will have to plan my models out for that. With enough overlapping UVs I hope 512x512 textures will be enough.
#3
i tried to convince Tom over there that i was getting the exporter to bring over the lightmaps from CShop directly into TGE... baked in or something...
anyways, here's the link to the thread...
www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=30435
with details on what i did... maybe it'll be of some interest...
scene in Cartography Shop (cathedral model by Josh Clint)
same scene in Torque
--Mike
08/16/2005 (1:22 pm)
You know... i ran into something like this when i was testing out the Cartography Shop DTS exporter/Torque Pipeline thingee... i tried to convince Tom over there that i was getting the exporter to bring over the lightmaps from CShop directly into TGE... baked in or something...
anyways, here's the link to the thread...
www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=30435
with details on what i did... maybe it'll be of some interest...
scene in Cartography Shop (cathedral model by Josh Clint)
same scene in Torque--Mike
Torque Owner Adrian Tysoe
If you were making a large asymetrical building you would find it difficult to repear the textures and have the baked shadows work correctly without designing the building with the lighting in mind first.
I say just try it, and see what you can do. Won't take long for you to figure out if you can pull it off or not. The lighting on that building is diffuse enough that you could get away with vertex colours in a lot of engines.