[DaBrain]

I'm almost done with my first map.

The Ares map is super-hard to improve.

I don't know what to do next, I just feel it's not finished yet.


The contrast will be adjusted when the map is ready.
The lines will be deletd/smoothed too.

Any suggestions ?













Release

http://www.8ung.at/dabrain/hercbone.zip
(Texture)


http://www.8ung.at/dabrain/hercbone_gs.zip
(Glow and shine map)

Better maps
Lightspeed finished new spec maps for it. (recommended)

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,23518.msg470999.html#msg470999

[Unknown Target]

Wow! Finally some noticable improvement
Anyway, work on the color a little. Some of it still seems washed out, or has bizzare specks of yellow

[karajorma]

Definately an improvement. I'll reserve final judgement for when you tone down the contrast but so far I'm impressed

To be honest the high contrast method is quite good cause it allows you to see the improvement quite clearly without having everyone shout for brighter screenshots all the time

[Turambar]

but the contrast still needs a lot of lowering

[Janos]

Sexcellent, but try to make the nose textures a bit more... subtle? They stand out a bit too much.

BTW, I wuv you for making my favourite fighter so much better.

[TopAce]

I wouldn't see those changes in a dogfight. Why don't you improve on capship textures?

[Turambar]

Myrmidon!

[DaBrain]

Originally posted by Turambar
but the contrast still needs a lot of lowering

Originally posted by DaBrain
The contrast will be adjusted when the map is ready.

... some other suggestions ?


@Janos Yeah, it stands out too much. I'll try to fix it.

[TopAce]

Release it.

[DaBrain]

It's almost ready. Just some tweaks...

I'll release it together with my Ulysses texture.
And perhaps I'll put my old ursa texture into this too.


Edit:
It's nice, but I'll redo it as soon as I have time to do so.
(I don't like what I did to the part near the engines...)

[Lightspeed]

While the Ulysses and Ursa obviously still need a lot of work, the Ares texture definately is a *very* good start on improvement.

What's making it look a bit 'unfinished' is that it is too 'perfect' for the model. You'll need to edit in little damaged parts, certain specks and/or bumps. Also, I suggest lowering the contrast a bit, as it looks too sharp in some parts.

The best image to show it is here:



see the lines between the metal plates, theres a visible "line inside the line", or the plates on top of the wing, they're weak and line up in the original, whereas the contrast in your image makes them seem to 'disappear' to an empty hull (looking cut-off) - if you'd additionally try to smoothe the pixelated shading that still looks through from the original maps they would be perfect.

Else than that, the Ares is really pretty.

[adwight]

The ares should be black, not some ugly red color.

[Lightspeed]

I like the red.

@DaB: almost forgot it, make sure you kill off any colour compression artifacts of the retail map, there seem to be some (above the red/white triangle for examle).

[Turambar]

*use the blur tool luke*

[Lightspeed]

Not exclusively

Here, I found some image to demonstrate what I mean:



see the 'wrong colours' in the wing plates, and how they vanished on the left side.

Just as in bad JPEGs theres red, green, blue, yellow all at one place when it actually shouldve been brown

[DaBrain]

(Some things you pointed out, went the extreme way beacause of my horrible shinemap... '1min work shinemap')

Perhaps the lines will be removed.
But I think it's better so smooth them at certain poins.




I'll do something about the old map (main layer).

The Ares map is a nightmare of work...
I think had enough of it today.


Edit:

Originally posted by Turambar
*use the blur tool luke*

 Good one.

[Lightspeed]

All FS2 maps are.

Seriously, it takes me about 2-3 freaking hours just *to get rid of the damn colour problems* they have

Lets go and steal [V]'s harddrives.

[DaBrain]

Originally posted by Lightspeed
All FS2 maps are.

Seriously, it takes me about 2-3 freaking hours just *to get rid of the damn colour problems* they have

Lets go and steal [V]'s harddrives.

That would be BAD, but...

Originally posted by Lightspeed
Not exclusively

Argh, you have some secret tool !!!

Admit it !!!  


Edit: Have you ever heard of a cheat in Photoshop ?
If you use the filters in a certain combination, you'll get a new tool, which makes all your pics look better.

[JarC]

nope, my guess is lightspeed just knows how to use the texture-preserving smooth filter the way it is supposed to be used...

[DaBrain]

I think it took so long, because he had to (soft) reshade the map.
After he blured the hell out of it