Hard Light Productions Forums
Community Projects => The FreeSpace Upgrade Project => Topic started by: FireCrack on March 08, 2008, 04:51:08 pm
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Yes, I realy was making that HTL pharos, and finaly finished it.
The screenshot isn't ingame (not even usign the same textures as ingame), my 2 seconds of trying failed to make an ingame screenshot, but it gives you a general idea.
Anywyas, I normaly used to get someone to make a pof for me, but, today that changes. As such, I need someone to review if I did everything "right" PCS 2 is a lot better than older programs though.
On another note, do we have any "real" normal map support, or only height-maps? The heightmap in this package was hastily generated, and I honestley don't expect to need a heightmap for such a small object, heck even the shinemap is pushing it, it was included anyways becasue it was the result of some testing I was doing...
Anyways, if someone could return to me if I made the pof right, thanks!
Edit: I know it bears only a very tenuous resemblence to the original, but in my eyes, that's a good thing...
[attachment deleted by ninja]
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Nice. Might look cooler with some glows though.
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Yeah I thught about putting lotsa glowpoints on it, but I don't quite know the process.
Is there an easier way than just manualy inputting all the co-ordinates.
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Yeah I thught about putting lotsa glowpoints on it, but I don't quite know the process.
Is there an easier way than just manualy inputting all the co-ordinates.
I don't think so. What I like to do is position them in something else (I use SketchUp), measure the distance from the center of the model along the axes, and then input that data into PCS2.
Anyway I meant glow maps, but glow points would be cool too.
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One glowmap, coming right up:
http://upload2.net/page/download/lI94dVyvyKE0oHo/Pharos-glow.tga.html
FireCrack: Please replace the underscores with hyphens (pharos-shine, not pharos_shine), fix the alpha on the shine map (the alpha channel is the environment map and it's fullbright), and add a normal map, because height maps won't show if there's not also a normal map.
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Haha, dude I think you read the FSU teams minds before we thought of it. We were just talking about making a cooler nav bouy last night. Now we don't have to. :D
=== POF data-wise: ===
Well there's not much that could go wrong with a nav bouy because it has basically no POF data. ;)
There's only one thing that seems a bit wrong - in the subobject properties it should be possible to check the 'Draw BSP Debug Info' box and have lots of red and green boxes appear on the model. If this doesn't appear on a model you should go to data>purge BSP cache and resave.
The reason for this is that unless you can see those debug boxes there's a chance there are errors in the data that would cause problematic collisions in game. It's not a problem for the navbouy though as for some reason they've never been solid in game. ;)
=== Texture wise: ===
AWESOME! You're now the third person to ever draw your own texture for a HTL model! :D
Anyway, about the bump mapping stuff:
FS has two shaders for this: normal mapping and parallax mapping. Each shader takes a different map: "-normal" for the normal map and "-height" for the parallax map. The normal map is something that you generate from either a high poly model or a heightmap (using something like Crazybump (http://www.crazybump.com/) and controls how the lighting reacts to the surface of the texture based on viewing angle, creating the bumped look.
When saving a normal map, you need to use the DDS type of "DXT5_NM" which you can create using the DDS photoshop plugin from Nvidia.
For the heightmap, you shouldn't use one here. Parallax mapping is for complex detail that is too big for normal mapping but too small or complex for actually modelling it in. All it does is shift the texture around to recreate parallax error on textures - kinda like a normal map amplifier. :)
=== POF data positioning: ===
Also, (Blowfish as well) - positioning data in PCS2 is VERY easy. Lets just say you wanted to place a gunpoint at the front right wing of a fighter. You'd first switch to Orthographic view (wireframe cube next to an eye on the top menu bar), go to a side view (view->right) and switch to wireframe view. This is just to enable you to see what you're doing more clearly.
Create the gunpoint and give it a forward pointing normal. It should appear in the centre of the model to begin with, so now we move it. Click the third box with a blue plane on it on the top menu. This controls the plane along which you can manually move the point. The one you've selected creates an imaginary plane that goes through the model along where the models mirror line would usually be - front to back, top to bottom. You can see this grid if you turn on the grid view (to the left of the textured, untextured and wireframe buttons).
Now in this view hover the mouse somewhere close to the gunpoint and hold ctrl while dragging. Drag the gunpoint to the position of the modelled gun. Switch to a top view, and select the first cube with the blue plane. This creates an imaginary movement plane that goes front to back, left to right and should again be plainly obvious in the gridview mode. Again hold ctrl and drag it around to the right spot, and that should be it. :)
Experiment with these controls and you'll find positioning data will become piss easy. Incidentally, right clicking while holding ctrl will move the object only along the axis perpendicular to the plane you have selected.
Hmm, this turned out a bit longer than expected. :nervous:
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Ah, Didn't even know we had parallax mapping.
That said, tghe included heightmap was a quick dump test, I'l be uploading a new version, with new textures, in a bit. First I wanna put on some glowpoints.
And thanks for the info VA!
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Okay, fixed all reported problems, added glowpoints, and even provided an actual IN-GAME-SCREENSHOT!
The thread title is much more applicable now...
[attachment deleted by ninja]
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Thing is a frakkin' christmas tree! Nice work!
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Aye!
On that note, would a large number of glowpoints slow things down? I can't see much reason so, but it might be, and it's better to be sure than uhh.. unsure...
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Very nice work, the normal map, glowpoints, and fixed shinemap really make it look complete. It actually manages to look very FreeSpacey. But I have one complaint...
Why didn't you use my glowmap? :(
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The glow on the solar panels is nice, but I think it could also use some glow on the main body.
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Trust me, your graphics card is going to thank you for using lots of glow points instead of trying to get multiple per-pixel lighting sources to work properly. The impact is negligable.
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Ah come on... In Starlancer all those blinking lights had also real lightsources connected to them. Vertex-based and with a rather small radius, but still nice.
Nice work FireCrack!
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Anyways, while everyone'ss till talking to me, coukld anyone remind me how to do transperant bits of models so the area behind it doesn't go crazy?
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Anyways, while everyone'ss till talking to me, coukld anyone remind me how to do transperant bits of models so the area behind it doesn't go crazy?
Put them first in the submodel tree so they are rendered in the first pass, and the rest of the model after them.
Like this:
(http://i28.tinypic.com/2qc18uw.png)
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Thanks! More stuff is on the way!
[attachment deleted by ninja]
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:jaw: How much stuff do you just have laying around?
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Lots...
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Next do the Argo and Rakasha(?).
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Just finishing off the piranha and EMP-A. They are mostly done now, just need to make a low detail LOD.
The argo got nearly totaly corrupted unfortunatley, I wil have to remake it from scratch...
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FireCrack, you officially win the first ever "The TheSizzler's awesome award", on account of making cool models. :p
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I don't see much point in making navbuoys, except that it's an easy starter project, requiring only a few points in the pof file. Navbuoys have only been in two retail missions, and only actually used in one. I suppose they could be useful for having the player (Alpha 1) lead the waypoint path, instead of having some other person lead.