Realistic Tropical Island - Aztlan -
polycounter lvl 14
Hello , as trainign , exercise , fun and whatever more I am trying to make a realistic looking tropical island by scratch in cryengine2 on the Blue Mars platform , wich use the same engine ....I want to create all by scratch and get the same ( hopefully better ) quality of the original Crytek tropical Island Environment ....
SInce I am creating every texture , model etc from scratch I would like to use this thread to get lot of constructive feedback and sugestions , I premise I am not at all a pro or an expert so be gentle please
.... but I woudl like to become one and may be you can help telling me if I could or not ...
Here some reference photoes of what I want to try to achieve , as you can see is not just liek the crytek island but more like a "paradise " island but realistic look ....
Image References Links from Google ...
Example of Sandy shoreline
midday
http://www.emilyangelfish.com/images/maldives_20beach_1.jpg
afternoon/early evening
http://www.zastavki.com/pictures/1920x1200/2009/World_Maldives_Beach_013522_.jpg
http://leolaksi.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/maldives-beach.jpg
http://www.fabiovisentin.com/photography/photo/30/tropical-beach-wallpaper-06200.jpg
http://www.fabiovisentin.com/photography/photo/30/tropical-beach-wallpaper-06250.jpg
Example for Tree Distribution on Shore
http://www.landscapedvd.com/desktops/images/paradisestrand1280x1024.jpg
http://www.kerala-honeymoon-tour.com/gifs/beautiful_tropical_beach-1471.jpg
Example for top views
http://www.imagebookers.com/gallery/d/639-1/landscapes_desktop_wallpaper-132821tropical_island.jpg
Example for Colors and Palms and vegetation
http://5minutesguide.com/maldivestravel/maldives_island.jpg
http://mayang.com/textures/Plants/images/Trees/tropical_beach_flora_5160195.JPG
http://mayang.com/textures/Plants/images/Trees/rainforest_5151244.JPG
http://mayang.com/textures/Plants/images/Trees/palm_trees_5160264.JPG
http://thedoctorswife.co.uk/images/bigstockphoto_Tropical_Beach_1572138.jpg
Example Reference for Sand with mixed Leaves on ground
http://belizephonecard.com/freestuff/wallpaper/wpimages/scenic/beaches/lighthouse_reef_beach11.jpg
Example Reference for Algae and Seaweed dried on shore
http://belizephonecard.com/freestuff/wallpaper/wpimages/scenic/beaches/lighthouse_reef_beach21.jpg
http://www.aboututila.com/AccomInfo/Sandy-Cay/Photos/Sandy_Cay_Beach-10.jpg
Example Reference for Shoreline and water colors
http://images.nbii.gov/RFemmer/D_med-res/7%20Tortola%20-%20British%20Virgin%20Islands.jpg
Example Reference for Rock / Vegetation Clustering
http://images.paraorkut.com/img/wallpapers/1024x768/t/tropical_beach-1496.jpg
Exanmple for close sand grass type
http://www.fabiovisentin.com/photography/photo/30/tropical-island-wallpaper-06460.jpg
http://www.fabiovisentin.com/photography/photo/2/boracay_white_beach_fun_2087.JPG
How Can I reach this kind of reflection sparlking in cryengine on the wet shoreline?
http://www.fabiovisentin.com/photography/photo/30/tropical-beach-wallpaper-06194.jpg
http://www.fabiovisentin.com/photography/photo/30/tropical-beach-wallpaper-06197.jpg
EDIT:
BEACH SHORELINE
Adding A Picture that shows my current textures worked :
1 Smooth and Messy ( with small things ) comparison by close
http://img85.imageshack.us/i/37066370.jpg/the total number of textures ( over 16 available ) tha tI want to dedicate to sand is :
1 Smooth ( wet seashorline)
2 Messy ( with small things )
3 Underwater ( ondulated by sea )
4 Messy ( clean with small higher dunes)
5 Sandy and pebbles
I was also thinking that may be are too many suggestions welcome about types....
Other Textures :
5 Sands
6 cliff rock
7 coral rock
8 grass forest
9 grass plains
10 forest leaves soil
11 river basin
12 mudd
13 coral underwater
14 estra
15 extra
16 extra
Decals
Seaweed Dried
Scattered Shells
Dried Foliage ( from trees , bushes or palms )
Scattered Sea dried elements
Shorelie Water flux carvings
Beach different messy sand
Elements to scatter on the shoreline ( physical modeled procedurally scattered )
larger shells
Random wet sea weeds ( like just arrived on shore )
random small wood dried branches
Random big Wood wind carved dried branchs
Replies
As for the wet sand. I would use something fairly noisy, with good contrast to light and darks. There is some color noise too. I would assume that's from the cameras sensor. But if you're going for photo realistic, I would add the color noise.
Maybe something like this. I'll play around when I'm off work, ;D.
Edited the main post ...
What yu think?
8 in morning
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/4346/sabbia1.jpg
12 in morning
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/6778/sabbia2.jpg
Subscribed!
bringing the total number of sand textures to 4 :
smooth wet
underwater wavy
walked over
scattered debris
what do you think of the blending and the textures?
Here is the fresh grass ....
What you think? I worked a lot on trying to eliminate any pattern repetition but its quite hard to go further in improving it without destroying much of the texture sharpness... to me at least....
here is a close and distant view I applied some displacement parallax maps ...
Have you considered blending a few grass textures to break it up some? I don't think the parallax is working for you there, makes it look more like a field littered with green beans.
Here I got rrid of the pattern I guess at cost of ruining a bit the crispiness of the texture by close tough ...
What you think?
Here is a "small bush" Of course this is at maximum detail closeness possible to approach in teh editor ..... How does it look ?
I added 2048 diffuse , 1024 normal 512 specular and opacity , plus a 1024 detail bump .... I coul dprobably reduce after the dimensions of the textures , but I usually like to start big ...
How does it looks? I am trying to fgo for a similar Rainforest in Crysis , but possibly more alive , more dense and bit more bright .... looks good? Suggestions on how to improve? Couse if the texture is fine I ll make more bush shapes for that....
I want to make a tropical Rainforest , I woul dlove to model a Banyan tree once I am done with te bushes , small trees and details around ....
this is my first time making Crytek assets ... or "trying to get closer to a "pro" level content creation , since Iam just an amateur ...
SO this is the Island handpainted out ..... of course a very rough shape still but I think could be functional ......
The problem is I never did b4 Crysis levels or thelike so this is my very first time and I am not sureof the "liveability" the ambient is enough large and spacious to not feel to be like in a fish tank?
How is the layout landscape in general?
My main points where to have a sandy beach area very much tropical flat sand and palm trees , then a rainforest area with mangroves and intricated jungle , then a very beautyfull waterfall place , river basin , some cliffs on sea and some peculiar thailandese like limestone rocks in sea on the rocky area .....
What do you think of this area?
Please give me suggestions and feel free to paint over my map to give may be your ideas if you want
I am mainly concerned about the habitat and walkeability of the areas , I fear is may be too much mountains?
the top height is around 600 m ....
The colors mean more or less Green jungle / palm trees and broun nude cliff rocks or mixed with some vegetation ....
I need opinions on level design / ambient usability wise ...
Depending on how strongly you blur them, ofcourse, I imagine you wouldn't blur them that much. Anyway, whatever works, I'm just +1-ing the practice of hand-editing mipmaps!
They're fine...
http://www.asiatravel.com/malaysia/gifs/mountains.jpg
http://www.hiltonpond.org/images/GuateBeachMountains01.jpg
http://www.lostvirtualtour.com/lost/filming_locations/waikanepier/8770d_large.jpg
At OP...
Looking forward to a couple more posts to really give a good critique.
what do you think ?
I have mismatched the two textures on the top of this small bay island also , I used some painting for darker areas etc.....
I am not sure of the result so I ask you experts .... I was wonderring that may be I shoudl add rocks on all around the small island to put a further distance between the people and the texture ....
Id say that I 'd call those like texture level 1 , 2 and 3 , with the first beeing the more far and the closer beeing the modeled rocks that will be in prominence view tothe players....
Opinions cryticism ? I am not at all a pro and this is my first time so be gentle
I would like it to look extremely realistic possibly so this is my exercise goal ..... and for that I would like all cryticism
I know it sucks ... but at least I got to understand how the layout of the palms work and the materials , I count to improve soon after this one , just I would like if someone knows a may be trick to setting up plants and palms like those in 3dsmax to save time and work , after a while adding lot of transparent planes or alpha or whatevewr becomes messy and is hard a, at least for me to understand what is what and work well placing the planes with the leaves...
Also I have to add vertex painting tothe leaves , this do give the bending detail to wind etc but I was wondering if I can place it befoure on a leav and only after clone this around with the same vertex painting and eventually at the end attach them all to the main root trunk , would I loose the vertex painting? Or I should cut from the plant and readd only after but then It woudlnt make much sense no?
Any ideas or tips?
here is my first palm Wip ....
Also here is the texture work I did on the palm , I tried to imitate the crysis one but I dunno if I had success , I made them by scratch taking a leave and then modifying , distorcing etc rearranging all and coloring manually , here is a sample of the texture , what do you think ? thanks a lot for any constructive criticism
I realy want this palm to look like or better than the crysis ones
How it looks?
total vertexes 1200
polys 700
I have managed to blend my custom textures better by working them really " A LOT " in the tuning the similar tone color of the texture among imilars like sands and then work a lot on the colors and the hardness and the lightning of the texture setting ingame , also adding a detail or a normal sometimes may resultin steppy look , as well as having a low resolution map , but I 'd say that almoust 90% of the work is how is made the texture....
Here another update I made now a young palm ...
here is the "hard" , for me , Work at making blendeable and smooth transitional textures , what do you think of them ( in blending and transition and eventually the look of them ? )
All textures are custom made .
This is the grass I have been making the last days , I must say that this , altough it may be seeming easy , is what really gived me the biggest problems to get a proper look , I remade textures by scratch at least five or more times , I even downloaded a pay site a texture to check how is done , and finally I decided to go for a personal drawed solution , like I did for the palms ... the problem is that ingame the grass just looks desaturated , light and looses much of the colors , also this coude I add the get color by the texture and then I adjoust the texture blending to 0.5 , wich appears to be the minimum in the settings of the material ... I then copied all settings by crysis , but I still get a difference , in Crysis the textures look more colored and seems that the texture passes more thorught the color filter of the game , while mine altough is very much more saturated , and at Traits I can say it looks better than the crysis texture , it doesn't get out so realistic , or may be I am just pretending to make it too much similar to the crysis grass that I am loosing the focus on mine? May be mine looks enough good but just different?
I have no idea but its the thing that took me the most of the time so far now and I still not yet sure if it looks good or not and if there is a way to improve it ... may be the problem is the way of the texture blending alpha threshold or what?
Anyway enough talking now here is the picture so you can tell me ....
on left there is one single patch placed , on right there are like 5 patches placed in similar place to increase density ....
the informations ofr the model are:
Polys: 1280
Vertices:2008
Textures:1024x1024 tif made by scratch hand drawed nad a bit of pictures
I think with some more mixed up ground plants and colors it will look better. Add some random heightness to the gras blades too.
They look very nice from a distant position I guess.
Another suggestion or actually more of a question; does this grass texture have a normal map? Adding a normal map/ spec/ subsurface/bump might really help sell it better. If you don't have one already! Your other foliage looks really beautiful.
I wouldn't try to match 100% the crysis look/style. Make it your own and you might come out with a stronger pace than before!