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MouseBats

Started by Jmouse, September 13, 2012, 07:00:18 PM

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Jmouse

I've heard that it's impossible to learn everything about the BAT. Speaking for myself, I'd have to say, "Oh how true!" Of course, texturing is probably the most difficult element to get right, in part because it's subjective. What pleases one doesn't necessarily please all.

So retexturing the trailer has been an interesting learning experience. I tried out six of them, ranging from barely there to radical, but the "radicals" didn't turn out to be as radical as I thought they'd be.

Also, I decided to see how it would look if I cut the texture width in half, so I give you the "a" row which is 700 px wide, and the "b" row which is 350 px.



So I'll ask you to tell me which one or ones you like. If you don't like any of them, that's OK, too. Maybe one of them is not bad, but it needs more rust, or whatever. I know which one I like, but I'm not going to influence anyone.

So fire at will...
-Joan

kaylacey

I like 60b, the last one.

art128

I think I like 04b more.
I'll take a quiet life... A handshake of carbon monoxide.

Props & Texture Catalog

noahclem

03b and 06a are my favorites  :thumbsup:

I prefer the ones with the more subtle rust/dirt look to the ones that are too clean or too dirty.

FrankU

I think the a series has not a nice structure. The panels look flat. So I stick to the b's too.
I think the 02b, the 03b and the 06b have a nice weathered old look.
The 01b is clean. Useful with a less old roof texture....
The 04b has a too large contrast, making it less realistic.
The 05b shows too wide horizontal panels, making it not so nicely detailed.

But the project is definitely getting great!

Although this all can change when I take anotehr look on my own computer. The one at the office I use now has somtimes strange effects. I suspect the network we use here does some compressing of images now and then.

metarvo

I'm going to go with 06b, with 03b as a secondary choice, and 06a third.  You're right about texturing being tough, Joan.  I've played around with it a little and the textures look almost nothing like the originals when they go through the cruel rendering machine.

Keep up the good work!  :thumbsup: 
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

Shark7

I'd have to say the 05b or 06b.  The narrower texture makes it seem more in scale with what I have seen in the real world.  Also, the underpinning looks more common.

Jmouse

Sorry for the delayed replies, folks. Our DSL went down last night and pretty much put an end to any plans I might have had.


Quote from: kaylacey on September 18, 2012, 08:44:09 PM
I like 60b, the last one.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your opinion. Final scores are posted near the end of the replies.


Quote from: art128 on September 18, 2012, 11:59:28 PM
I think I like 04b more.

Thanks for posting that, Arthur. Final scores are coming up.



Quote from: noahclem on September 19, 2012, 04:02:47 AM
03b and 06a are my favorites  :thumbsup:

I prefer the ones with the more subtle rust/dirt look to the ones that are too clean or too dirty.

Unfortunately, there's nothing subtle about the rendering process. I think Matt (threestooges) once said that if the textures look good on the BAT screen, they won't render well, or something to that effect. I'm inclined to agree with him.


Quote from: FrankU on September 19, 2012, 05:00:49 AM
I think the a series has not a nice structure. The panels look flat. So I stick to the b's too.
I think the 02b, the 03b and the 06b have a nice weathered old look.
The 01b is clean. Useful with a less old roof texture....
The 04b has a too large contrast, making it less realistic.
The 05b shows too wide horizontal panels, making it not so nicely detailed.

But the project is definitely getting great!

Although this all can change when I take anotehr look on my own computer. The one at the office I use now has somtimes strange effects. I suspect the network we use here does some compressing of images now and then.

Frank, I think you've come very close to nailing down the whole issue. The "a" row textures are too narrow (the texture is too wide for the panel it covers), and they come out looking flat. In the "b" row, I think only about half of the textures might look right.


Quote from: metarvo on September 20, 2012, 07:28:15 AM
I'm going to go with 06b, with 03b as a secondary choice, and 06a third.  You're right about texturing being tough, Joan.  I've played around with it a little and the textures look almost nothing like the originals when they go through the cruel rendering machine.

Keep up the good work!  :thumbsup:

"The cruel rendering machine." I've never seen it described more accurately! Thanks for posting, and you can see the scores near the bottom of this post.


Quote from: Shark7 on September 20, 2012, 07:32:33 AM
I'd have to say the 05b or 06b.  The narrower texture makes it seem more in scale with what I have seen in the real world.  Also, the underpinning looks more common.

Thanks for voting, Shark. "This is a 'rooftop game,'" a friend once remarked, and it's so very true. I want to keep the rusty roof texture, because the finished set of trailers will be a semi-rural form of slums. So I'm just trying to find a happy medium between roofs and walls, and all of you have been very helpful.

6a, 2b, 4b and 5b tied with one vote each. 3b got three votes and 6b edged it out with four votes. I'll add my own to 6b and make it an even five. I can always make more adjustments such as tweaking the texture width or even adding the appearance of more rust. So this weekend I'll replace the old rusty-white textures all the way around, and try to produce an in-game render.

Thanks again to everyone who has posted. I appreciate your input.

-Joan


FrankU

You're welcome lady,

That's what we are here for.

Jmouse

Thank you for your post, Frank. The cabin and trailer are finished more or less, but I have run into some trouble with the BAT. With the help of my good friend and teammate Matt (threestooges) I sailed through the process of making custom LODs for the cabin. The trailer is another matter, though. As soon as I created them, they would disappear. They were nowhere to be found, either in the Parameters rollout or the "Select by Name" rollout. I started over half a dozen times before closing the file in frustration and reopening it. Now they appear, but I'll need to see how many layers of LODs there are before exporting.

That isn't the worst part, though. There's something wrong with the lighting function. Here are photos taken several months apart. The name of the selected light shows up in the first one, but is grayed out in the second.



So this is all I get no matter which light type I select:



I even DLed a fresh copy of gmax, but it didn't help. ]I'm going to see if it will work on the laptop, and if not... I don't even want to think about it! Mainly, I want you folks to know I haven't abandoned you or my pet projects, though. I'm just working my way through a sticky situation.

-Joan

Jmouse

I fear that I'm guilty of horrible timing. October and November are the busiest months for staff members who serve on one or more committees here at SC4D. But with all that behind me now, I picked up the cabin where I left off.

I spent the first week of this month trying to get a grip on night lighting with a lot of help and encouragement from my teammates Matt (threestooges) and Vester. Then I reworked the deck, but now it appears that the light is shining on the light-colored planks only. Darkening them is going to spoil the variety of the deck planks, though.


But, I've never been afraid to ask for suggestions or to learn in public – the Mouse House is proof enough of that. So fire away.

-Joan

Girafe

#31
Looks already good.

You have 2 solutions for lighting:

- spots
- self illumination maps

For your use, spots are not recommended. They are really difficult to manage and are the sources of light glitches above all if you have not a perfect modeling. Not in your case, but they are longer to render than self illumination maps.
What you want, is to give the feeling that there is life in your chalet. You have small lighting surfaces (small windows). For these reasons, I think you should try to switch to self illumination maps. The job is quite easy, just put a map in the self illumination map slot and play with the intensity (this method will allow you to have a more powerful light than spots)
What is a little bit longer is to find a good map. Search for real illuminated windows and try.

An example, where you can cut the window and apply them to your BAT:

EDIT: something I made 3 years ago with this method, it needs surely rework but the result was not so bad:

The Floraler

This is the end, hold your breath and count to ten, feel the earth move, and then...

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *    *   *   *   *   *    * 

Jmouse

Thank you for posting, Girafe. At this time, the sum total of my knowledge about nightlighting came from this tutorial written by JBSimio and reprinted by Diggis. In it, he advises the use of a target spot to illuminate the floor and an omni to spill light onto a deck or any other such surface.

So at this time, I don't even know what a self-illumination map is, much less where to find one. &mmm It certainly sounds like an idea I would like to explore, though. And I really like your snow-covered house. :)

Thanks again...
-Joan

mrbisonm

What????? :o

Jmouse is BATting? 8-) This is great!  (looking around and wondering why nobody told me yet)  Wait a minute........I have to........put this into my favs. ;)

Nice little models, I like that trailer. I'll be back for sure. Keep it going. :thumbsup:

Fred


....Uploading the MFP 1.... (.........Finishing the MFP1)

Jmouse

Hi Fred, and welcome to MouseBats. I'm glad you stopped by. I decided to create the trashy trailers for a specific purpose, and I didn't think anyone else would want them or like them. But I guess I was wrong and certainly surprised that several people have said they like them.

We have a lot of tenements and other forms of low-wealth housing on the LEX, so the trailers will give players another choice. I think of them as the southeastern U.S. equivalent of big-city slums. :D


Shark7

The trashy trailers are great Jmouse. 

And while there are several types of low wealth houses on the LEX, I think you will find that there are even more cleaner, pristine type BATs there.  Not so clean, run down looking buildings are always welcome in my plugins folder, I like having lots of variety just like real cities.   Just consider, in my little town of 2k people we have everything from run-down, abandoned shacks to 3 story mansions.  That's just what happens when towns are 100+ years old.

And its not just a southeastern thing, even small towns here in the southwest have run-down trailer parks.  Can't go through a single town around here without seeing them.  ;)

sunv123

From little duplexes to whole neighborhoods full of 2+ million dollar houses....... in North Carolina. :o :D (no, really, there are them.)


About the housing on the LEX, who are they on? I've tried you, Tooheys, Paroch, nut and vester, but i can't seem to find it. All i found was the mouse houses.
Provo, a city apart Updated July 4.

mrbisonm

I don't think that I have ever seen low res or rundown trailerhomes in SC4, unless I totally passed by them, so Ithink that they will be a great addition to the game. Ilove them.

One little thing though I think could be added, is a little roofjunk like a pipe and/or fan/antenna or something. That would make it complete. Great idea and a great model.


http://bikeacrossamerica.org/trip-report/day40/alabama-trailer-home.jpg

Fred  ;)


....Uploading the MFP 1.... (.........Finishing the MFP1)

Jmouse

Folks, I am absolutely delighted to know the trailers won't be a lot of work wasted because nobody else wants them.

@Shark7: I'm sure the southeast U.S doesn't have a monopoly on trashy trailers. ;) It's just the area where I'm from, and I continue to live there. I have a fairly nice two-story house on a large lot with 500 feet/152 meters of lake frontage. There is but a narrow strip of land between my house and a couple of trailers I could use as models.

@sunv123: The Mouse House is the only thing I have on the LEX right now. If you are looking for run-down tenements, I'm not sure who has made some of them. Let me ask Noah – he has some in Siilijoki.

@mrbisonm: Roof junk coming up, Fred! I wasn't able to finish any of these projects before stopping to take care of site work in October and November. You guys have certainly given me the motivation I need to start BATting again, though. BTW, that link you posted is priceless – and spot on. :D

mrbisonm

Quote from: Jmouse on December 12, 2012, 08:03:27 PM
You guys have certainly given me the motivation I need to start BATting again, though.

I only hope that you remember where you parked your BAT..... ;) lol


....Uploading the MFP 1.... (.........Finishing the MFP1)