[Ace]

I love the new shinemaps. The old ones were too extreme with too much of a contrast.

Anyways, all of the ships shown here look great. A high-polygon version of the Dragon would be wonderful though. (same with the other Shivan ships)

[Bobboau]

I actualy started on a high poly dragon, stoped working on it a while ago though.

still don't like the lack of shine on the cockpits, glass is quite reflective, if you go out in a parking lot on a hot summer day the windows of all the cars is a glairing white from the sun. and the environment map effect isn't good enough to map the sun, it just looks bad, it needs a glaireing white specular highlight there.

[Nico]

I agree with Bob, there.

[DaBrain]

Yep.

And the loss of detail is no excuse for this super-soft map.
Just ad highlights for single plates. That will give the ship a more bumpmapped look.

[starfox]

all-around very good work, lightspeed. Keep going !

[SadisticSid]

DaBrain, your maps are fantastic. The additional contrast is definitely a good thing.

[Lightspeed]

Originally posted by Bobboau
still don't like the lack of shine on the cockpits, glass is quite reflective, if you go out in a parking lot on a hot summer day the windows of all the cars is a glairing white from the sun. and the environment map effect isn't good enough to map the sun, it just looks bad, it needs a glaireing white specular highlight there.

Exactly. They glare, but only at a wide angle, else they only have a 'lense flare' - but they're not some white blob.

http://www.tmspa.com/2002%20photos/P7110165%20field%20of%20cars.jpg

[Ransom]

I don't like the new Herc shinemaps. I think it's not shiny enough... looks too much like plastic to me. The Ulysses on the other hand looks fantastic.

Great new maps, DaBrain.

[Nico]

come on, Lightspeed, carefully choosing a pic doesn't constitute an exemple, I can do that too:
http://www.nasm.si.edu/galleries/lae/images/SR71.gif
You're missing one important point: as you say, the angle is determinent, but if you take a curved windows, and place the glare exactly where it's the most curved ( like in your exemple ), the glare will obviously be small. If, like in my exemple, it's a flat one, you'll get an all or nothing.
My exemple is too extreme for you? Fine, let's take an "halfway" approach:
curved on one axis ( like your car ), straight on another one:
http://graphics.stanford.edu/projects/mich/move-to-accademia/truck-at-lab-s.jpg
The glare will expand as much as it can along the straight axis of the glass.

I can find pics with the windows perfectly white, but obviously there will be a pb:
http://www.woodgas.com/images/Mel%20Strand%20Truck%20and%20TBR.jpg
See, the glare blinds you, since the glare is basically light coming straight at your eye ( or at the camera ), so There's basically no way to have a pic of that. Same in real life, you don't really see those, coz you'll blink.

[Turambar]

Myrmidon!

[DaBrain]

Nico is right.

It's even visible in your picture.
http://www.ystart.net/upload/20040513/1084456917.jpg

Originally posted by JTK-1701-E
Someone purdy purdy purdy please make my Ares fighter look this purdy?

The Ares map... is some heavy stuff.
(~50%)

@LS Who is GE ?

[Fineus]

GE = Galactic Emporer

Oh, and I took the liberty of remote linking to the images people have posted of cars windshields. If this thread gets as large as the last one I don't want to waste time downloading shots of someones truck.

[Setekh]

Not wanting to participate in this debate right now, I just wanted to stop in and say, LS, some of those shinemaps are really awesome - I'm especially impressed by how the Dragon maps look in-game. Well done.

[Singh]

My god........
*worships Lightspeed*

[Bobboau]

you know I think I like the higher contrast better my self.

[Flaser]

I have to agree with DaBrain - these maps are not metalic enough.

I don't mean that they're bad or anything - they just need some more reflectivity. The way they are right now is excelent for Vasudan ships or maybe Shivans, but Terrans need a harder shine map IMHO.

The best comparision I can come up with is plastic - you ship looks like a well polished piece of plastic, the problem is that plastical nice maniquen look doesn't fit with Terran design.

The older version was too harsh though - what I saw as the best example were shots of the Athena, when its base texture was used as shinemaps or the Apollo - those ships could look really good even without additional maps. Of course it could come off too harsh, but the Athena was nice.

I don't know what's your method of development, but if you're giving our public opinion some thrust, could you try a more 'metalic' version with harder shines?

That's my 2 cents on the issue.

The environment mapping, the texture sharpening, and the ambient parts look super. If this plastic/metal looking issue were solved than your terran ships would get 5/5 from me insteam 4.8.

[Nico]

Originally posted by Bobboau
you know I think I like the higher contrast better my self.

So do I, but that's probably because I tend to use high contrasts myself. Low contrsts makes me think paperboard for some reason.

[ShadowDrakken]

Originally posted by Flaser
they just need some more reflectivity. The way they are right now is excelent for Vasudan ships or maybe Shivans, but Terrans need a harder shine map IMHO.

The best comparision I can come up with is plastic - you ship looks like a well polished piece of plastic, the problem is that plastical nice maniquen look doesn't fit with Terran design.

The older version was too harsh though - what I saw as the best example were shots of the Athena, when its base texture was used as shinemaps or the Apollo - those ships could look really good even without additional maps. Of course it could come off too harsh, but the Athena was nice.

I disagree, we're talking about ships with paint on them, if it's anything like current military vehicles, that means a matte powder paint, not a glossy clearkote paint that our cars have.

I do agree that the current maps are way too harsh, and also look more glassy than they do metalic, even toned down they'd look more glassy than metallic... not sure how to fix that though since I don't know the programming or physical aspects of reflection, refraction and caustics

[WMCoolmon]

Why post car pictures when you have the jets thread?

MHO is that the new hercules shinemaps could be a bit brighter on the hull, and much brighter in the cockpit, but not as bright as the old one.

The shine in the top-middle herc looks about right for the hull, but it doesn't look like that at all in the rest of the pictures.

[ShadowDrakken]

maybe what would make it look less glassy and more metalic is just a bit of noise to add variation? not like seriously distint noise, but a soft noise (speckles you know?)... worth trying even if it doesn't end up working

the cockpits definately need a high shine on them, since they ARE glass, lol