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Squaresoft Town

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polycounter lvl 15
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cycloverid polycounter lvl 15
Okay, it's been a while. Here's a new project of mine.

I'm using a Squaresoft concept painting as a springboard to experiment with simple, clean textures and parallax mapping! (but not overboard :poly142:).

chocobos-dungeon-toki-wasure-no-meikyuu-20070920031057404_640w.jpg

Pretty cool. Now, I just started learning Sandbox 2 this last weekend, since UT3 just wasn't cutting it. So, here's a couple test props in Sandbox:

SquareComp.jpg
Lamp ~ 1600 tri -- 256X512
Barrel ~ 320 tri -- 256X256
Statue ~ 1600 tri -- 256X512
Sign ~ 900 tri -- 256X256
Enviro Sheets -- 512X512


Tell me what you think needs improving. Otherwise I'm just going to use this as a WIP thread as things come along. Also, I have two monitors now, and for the first time color/contrast accuracy is hazy. Anyone use a colorimeter ? (the difference between my two monitors is pretty crazy)

Replies

  • Mazvix
    Are you handpainting it all of it or you are mixing photo source? I recommend having diff variations on the lamp post- one bent and other straight, just like the concept. This indeed is an awesome concept. I might do it in the future :P hoping to see more!
  • cycloverid
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    cycloverid polycounter lvl 15
    Mazvix wrote: »
    Are you handpainting it all of it or you are mixing photo source? I recommend having diff variations on the lamp post- one bent and other straight, just like the concept. This indeed is an awesome concept. I might do it in the future :P hoping to see more!

    Thanks for the advice, the multiple lamp instances is a great idea.

    I'm using a mix between high poly modeling and sculpting on top of some hand-painting. It'll be tricky to get clean. There are still some crisp seams I wish I could remove, but such is the state of current normal mapping technology.
  • Shogun3d
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    Shogun3d polycounter lvl 12
    I'd try and stick with a basic color palette for your assets as a lot of the colors can be unified with the lighting. Colors/Brightness/Contrast look fine on my screen right now.

    This piece should be awesome, given you pull it off :)
  • shinobix
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    shinobix polycounter lvl 16
    Wow good start cycloverid! I really like the cobble stone texture you made, and the wood sign is starting to look pretty pimp!
  • MattW
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    MattW polycounter lvl 10
    Lookin really nice, the pavers could use a bit more color variation like you have in the walls. Out of curiosity, do you know what the concept was for?

    Edit: Looks like from the name of the file it was a chocobo's dungeon game.
  • SHEPEIRO
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    SHEPEIRO polycounter lvl 17
    sweet
    i would keep the diffuse clean and as simple as poss for now, get the environment worked up with shaders then see how much you need to add
  • HAL
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    HAL polycounter lvl 13
    cycloverid wrote: »
    Thanks for the advice, the multiple lamp instances is a great idea.

    I'm using a mix between high poly modeling and sculpting on top of some hand-painting. It'll be tricky to get clean. There are still some crisp seams I wish I could remove, but such is the state of current normal mapping technology.

    Why exactly do you habe those seams, got any closeups for us? maybe it can be solved :3
  • FlyByKnight
    Looking good so far, cant wait to see more! :)
  • cycloverid
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    cycloverid polycounter lvl 15
    I'm just going to post up a in-editor paintover. As I'm fleshing out details, it'd be nice to get a little feedback.

    LevelPaintOver.jpg

    The terrain editor in Crysis is giving me problems, so that isn't showing up for now. The final cropping will be different, as I haven't figured out how to adjust a camera while looking through it. The red lines indicate some composition changes.

    This is a big ass scene, so I've got my work cut out for me! I'll probably post up some props, as soon as I get a few more done.

    Edit: I need to figure out something in terms of getting a higher res shot. Perhaps adjusting my monitor to portrait instead of landscape for the screen-cap. The perspective in the concept art is crazy, and I'm going to try to get some of that nice curvature in the models.
  • buddikaman
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    buddikaman polycounter lvl 18
    Looking good.

    -Buddikaman
  • Marcan
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    Marcan polycounter lvl 12
    Great work, keep it up.

    I love the sort of pastel colour palette going on in the concept art. If you can manage to get this vibe going in your editor it'd be nice!

    Can't wait to see some more textures.
  • ikken
    Looking cool
    I'm feeling nostalgic, lol :)
  • JasonLavoie
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    JasonLavoie polycounter lvl 18
    woooowww.... this is awesome, keeping an eye on this one for sure!
  • PhattyEwok
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    PhattyEwok polycounter lvl 9
    Here's a question for you. On the face of the buildings are those floaters? (the windows doors molding etc)

    And 2nd.....
    not to thread jack, but what are the pros and cons of having floaters in the game engine vs a continuous mesh?
  • cycloverid
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    cycloverid polycounter lvl 15
    PhattyEwok wrote: »
    Here's a question for you. On the face of the buildings are those floaters? (the windows doors molding etc)

    And 2nd.....
    not to thread jack, but what are the pros and cons of having floaters in the game engine vs a continuous mesh?

    Quite a bit of the geo is floating atm. Some of the struts running up the buildings aren't. There aren't many downsides to using floating geo, it just saves time modeling. Your UV's will be cleaner if you keep it manifold, but for tileable stuff like this it isn't a problem.

    Funny that you should ask this though. These particular props, if given a deformer to get some of that nice curvature going, might not deform correctly with the floating geo I have. It will have to be done carefully.
  • killingpeople
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    killingpeople polycounter lvl 18
    You are owning this dude!
  • cycloverid
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    cycloverid polycounter lvl 15
    Well this is a pretty pathetic update, but I'm thinking about opening up the scene a bit horizontally, so it isn't so vertical. I spent a good number of days figuring out the terrain editor (which I probably won't need) and playing with the clouds (can only edit by hand with xml?). There is so little documentation on sandbox2!

    LevelPaintOver5.jpg

    Too much empty space? It'll be a good day when I can stop blobbing paint on my update images!

    Things are going to be a lot smoother now though.

    Edit: Oh, and have a good laugh at the tri-count. Incidentally, my scene is only about 60k right now. That's sandbox for you.
  • Tactical Bagpipe
  • griffinax
    This looks something out of Flyff, sweet work. Keep it up!
  • adam
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    adam polycounter lvl 19
    Shots for review are useless without seeing some wires. Let's see how you're making these assets as well as the scene itself.

    I would try and nail your composition early before you dress the scene. Right now you're running with a pretty standard (read: safe) composition. This scene could get a lot of attitude from something a bit more dynamic (tilted camera, higher FOV, closer to the ground, etc. etc. All things you could try.) I wouldn't mimic the concepts view of this town, but instead use it as a basis for your building designs (which you have) then give us a whole new perspective on this area of town.

    As for multiple streetlamps/variance in props: You could easily make 1 lamp that has a bend in it, and rotate it with each new instance that is placed. This way you'll end up with some straight, some bent, and all looking different - all while using one asset.

    Are you going to fill out the left side (our left) of the building farthest to the left or keep it opened like that? If you rotate the camera to our right a bit, you could skip making new art for that and have that building (or tree) be what blocks the view past the little town here.
  • divi
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    divi polycounter lvl 12
    looks great.
    really interested in individual asset shots
  • Razorb
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    Razorb polycounter lvl 15
    yea this is lookin lovely : )
  • cycloverid
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    cycloverid polycounter lvl 15
    Hey guys,

    I randomly got a job 1 month ago (shortly after my last post), so I've just been picking away at it.

    Adam: Thank you so much for your input on this... I have tried to take everything you said into consideration. The shot could still be more extreme, but I do want it to be somewhat of an 'establishing' shot.

    If you really nitpick, there are some lighting problems, but mostly because Sandbox2 has no light baking. I learned at work about the value of AO vertex bakes, and have included it here (perhaps it's too strong? - but looks pretty good IMO).

    SquareBeauty.jpg
    Can't figure out how to get rid of the Info (top right)!

    WireframeSquare.jpg

    StatueProp.jpg


    Sorry about not posting more wires/props, but I'm tired :(

    I've learned a lot from this project, and will next time refrain from doing fan art. It's so fun though!
  • A.Kincade
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    A.Kincade polycounter lvl 9
    Wow!!! This turned out awesome. Very well done. Congrats on the job as well.
  • ikken
  • tda
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    tda polycounter lvl 16
    nice scene dude!

    if i recall, "cl_displayinfo 0" should get rid of that garble in the top right for ya
  • throttlekitty
    Nice work, it's got lots of character to it!
    And how do you just 'randomly' get a job?
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    looks awesome, Id really like to see how you laid out uvs for those buildings? are they made up of modular parts?
  • Hazardous
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    Hazardous polycounter lvl 12
    Dude, simply awesome i think your nailing the style and getting closer with the colours! I think if you can really isolate the lighting so that it looks more like the ground and street is being lit up by the lamposts that will really give some more depth to the scene!
  • Ben Apuna
    Lovely scene :)

    I also second what Hazardous is saying about the lighting on the ground. Maybe just lower the radius of the lights a bit to better define some pools of light and darkness.
  • HAL
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    HAL polycounter lvl 13
    Really nice work, I like what I see. I agree with the others, the lighting could be tweaked pretty well by adjusting it to the lanterns.

    (something else. (might also be way to late as you might found this already) anyway. you mentioned that there is little documentation about ce2. Might check this out. Nearly covers every aspect of the engine, asset creation and the editor)

    http://doc.crymod.com/
  • Shogun3d
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    Shogun3d polycounter lvl 12
    Outstanding work. I love the shapes, colors and organization of your layout. The composition shot is fantastic.

    Could you show a breakdown of your tree? you've managed some nice deep shadows in there.
  • bounchfx
    I really like this
  • teaandcigarettes
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    teaandcigarettes polycounter lvl 12
    and here I was convinced you could only make photorealistic stuff in CE2 :) Great stuff!

    Just in case you didn't know; try out those commands when you take your final beauty-shot.

    e_screenshot_width = (put whatever you want)
    e_screenshot_height =
    e_screenshot_quality = 100
    e_screenshot = 1

    They produce the same results as tiledshot in UDK.
  • adam
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    adam polycounter lvl 19
    Yes! Yes! Yes! It's looking fantastic, and spot on with 'Squaresoft Town' :D

    EDIT: Let me know when you're finished with this piece and we'll get it up in the banner rotation. (I'll need something 1024px or wider.)
  • dippingsauce
    This looks great! I like the trees especially :) The colours remind me of Kingdom Hearts and Disney a little more than Final Fantasy, but that's not a bad thing at all :thumbup:
  • Famouz
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    Famouz polycounter lvl 8
    The colours remind me of Kingdom Hearts and Disney a little more than Final Fantasy
    YES YES YES me too.
    It's so beautiful I'll save that Pictures.
    Awesome work.
    You want to make a Mod of it?
  • cycloverid
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    cycloverid polycounter lvl 15
    Thanks for all the great replies!

    A.Kincade, ikken, bounchfx, skayne: Thanks for the praise guys.

    tda: displayinfo is exactly what I wanted!

    throttlekitty: the 'random' job I guess is a little exaggerated. It had just been a couple months since I had applied anywhere and had somewhat given up hope... it SEEMED random.

    Ged: here's just a breakdown of the building pieces:

    UvBreakDown.jpg
    next time I'd probably go with less floaters, as my overdraw goes a little crazy on that house in particular.

    Hazardous, Ben Apuna, HAL: Thanks for the lighting advice, this has helped a TON. I'm not sure what I was thinking before!

    kaburan: to get the tree to shade well at night, I had to model the leaves almost as if they were manifold. There are probably other ways to approach this, and I'd love to hear them!treeBreakdown.jpg

    teaandcigarettes: I really wish I had known these commands earlier, but it will help a ton for future projects!

    adam: would be so awesome to have a spot on the banners.

    dippingsauce: Squaresoft definitely has gone a little more Disney-esque since they worked on the Kingdom Hearts games. It's a cool mix if you ask me.

    Famouz: Really appreciate your praise, but I'm afraid my mod days are over. Sorry! :(





    NEW UPDATE with AA:

    SquareBeauty3.jpg

    I could keep fiddling with this, but I think it's better to call it done (changes certainly aren't out of the question if suggested). I was going for very simple and clean with this (as my past work has been too noisy overall).

    I'll definitely return to these techniques at some point for something of my own design!
  • Needles
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    Needles polycounter lvl 19
    Very inspiring work thanks for posting :)
  • audi100
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    audi100 polycounter lvl 11
    Great outcome! this would perfectly fit to an adventure style game.
  • Ben Apuna
    The ground looks much better.

    Neat breakdown of the building and tree. Your tree looks great, the construction method seems to work well for this visual style.

    Congrats on the getting hired, and the banner spot :)
  • undoz
    That looks great! Maybe some anti-aliasing would help ?
  • jmiles
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    jmiles interpolator
    Lovely piece :) grats on the job.. well deserved
  • Harry
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    Harry polycounter lvl 13
    i'd suggest adding a bit more murkiness/mist, it looks really clear but in that sense its lacking the atmosphere of the concept
  • PixelGoat
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    PixelGoat polycounter lvl 12
    frikkin awesome. I'm in love :)
  • Hazardous
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    Hazardous polycounter lvl 12
    Sensational man, if there were front pages on polycount I'd nominate this piece for sure. SOOOOO refreshing to see a non photo real, light hearted environment.
  • Anuxinamoon
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    Anuxinamoon polycounter lvl 14
    I agree with hazard. This has got to be one of my favourite environment pieces I have seen in a while :D

    Great job!
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    very nice I like the update and thanks alot for the breakdown of the pieces.

    sorry to ask but are those pieces all on seperate textures?

    I just wonder what best practice is when doing enviro works.
  • Famouz
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    Famouz polycounter lvl 8
    Famouz: Really appreciate your praise, but I'm afraid my mod days are over. Sorry! :(
    Oh, well thats sad.
    But maybe you can give some advice, what you did to get this mood?
    I'll try to copy this style.
    Please give some advice.
  • Frump
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    Frump polycounter lvl 12
    A shot of this at 1080p with AA would make my wallpaper, and my day! This turned out awesome. I also get a very Disney feeling from it, and that's a good thing!:)
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