Proof a few good props can go a long way! Looks great.

Great work so far, i got a question. I'm working on similar assets and get mipmapping issues in udk. All is fine in max but in udk i have to disable mipmaps to maintain sharp detail on my alpha maps (softmasked). I tried a negative lodbias in the texture but it doesn't seem to do anything. How do you maintain the sharp detail on your leaves/needles without disabling mipmapping?

This is looking awesome, I wonder what it would like in the cryengine.

It is really coming along, looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks guys, I'm glad you like it. Here's a small update. I've built a new fence and added some contrast back in as well. The grass is also greener in this one, I wasn't liking the yellow orange it had.

RankF I don't know if it helps but I set my alpha materials to be masked and have an opacity mask clip value of .3 . It may also be the texture size, most of mine are 512s or 1024s. I also ended up following the 3Dmotive tutorial a bit which helps a ton. I definitely recommend it.

Hey Marq really great scene so far, it's coming along really well.

I don't really have any critiques for you, but a co-worker just shared this with me, and I wanted to pass it on to you - http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ColorGrading.html

I think it may help tie your scene together a little more with regards to color. And if your already using it then just ignore me, lol.

looking awesome man.

great progress!

This looks lovely!

nice work dude. for me the path is abit too noisy and maybe the blending of the grass to the path could use abit more love.

love the water edge but the water itself seams too transparent, but then i haven't rad the whole thread so i don't know what stage its at.

keep the updates coming!

Pretty fancy scene so far. As others have said though, the dirt paths could use a lot of work. Either give the texture some more love and do some blend masking or use decals instead. Do you plan on working on the mountains more too? Right now they're pretty ugly compared to the great foliage you have. I would probably just ditch the mountains and keep it all forest/lakeside.

Also here's a quick color grading I did to make the scene not quite so washed out. You could do something like this pretty easily using that link Brandon posted a few posts up.

My only critique is that I think that the dirt-path looks a tad plain compared to the grassy areas. Maybe have it with a more pronounced height-map or some more detail. It also seems to be repeating, or having a grain which goes against the direction of the actual path.

Thank you all for all of the crits and feedback. It really helps when doing something like this to have a good amount of feedback to feed off of. I took all of the crits into account and made a lot of changes to the scene. First, I got rid of the mountainous hills. They don't make sense as far as real terrain and mountains work and we're really a weak point. So the entire terrain is now cleaner sculpted and I worked on the paths more as well adding detail and depth. I also added a second texture giving more sense of depth.
I also edited how the water blends and transitions to land. I kept a hard edge and made a smoother transition from deep water to shallow. I changed the scene to have deeper more solid colors and still have to work on the color grading that brandoom suggested. I toned down the lighting bringing it back into a more realistic tone.I added new smaller trees to give more sense of scale and add some more details. I changed the grasses and added new variety as well.

And there is more to come as well. I'll be working on finishing the inn finally adding signs, barrels, tools, chairs, and other signs of life. I'm also thinking of adding a dock to the lake as well. Thanks for all of the strong crits everyone!

i kinda like the lighting from post #130 more than the current one. it looked like fairly normal sunrise and stronger light gave the scene more depth.
now the environment (especially the building) just looks more bland.

Wow, I really like this scene. Like most other people have mentioned, the main thing I can see that could do with improving, is the dirt pathways. Maybe breaking it up a bit with smaller and larger chunks of dirt/stones would make it a little more visually interesting.

Looking good.

-Your dirt path texture feels to be of a lesser density than everything else around it.

-Try and not be as liberal with your grass and foliage placement. Use it to pull the eye around to areas of the world rather than giving it an even scattering of grass. Clump them together near important places then open the terrain up to show just the ground in less important spaces. By doing so you should find that the piece becomes even more interesting to look at when you're leading our eye around more so than what is happening now.

Ok, I fixed the path and the lighting. I did a mix of the lighting of the past and I think it works better. I also got rid of most of the desaturation. Also texture tweaks in a lot of areas. Now I need to get back to work on the inn and add more detail and props around it to give it some life.
Adam: I focused on putting grass primarily where my main shots are then everywhere else it is more sparse and further back none at all. I want to create the illusion of extensive open fields as well as pockets of trees and the transitions of fields and forested area.

Hey man, really cool work especially on the grass, Keep going!

Is this the place where all the good people go when they die ? Man, awesome......!!!!!!

freaking amazing, you should try a night version or something.

I love how this has come along.
But one thing I would mention is the path again in your first image (sorry!). The larger stones in the middle of the path would be more trodden into the ground or pushed to the sides.
At the moment, it still looks a bit fake.

I only pick on small points as the piece as a whole looks stunning

Some more work done on the lighting as well as some better placement of props. Expect more final updates and new props soon as I get back online on my pc.

Now that is what a NEXT gen game is supposed to be looking like! At least from the perspective of showing what you can do with great artwork without as much geometry constraints. I like the composition as well (at least from this static shot!)

Great work.

man you sure turned this into a gorgeous environment =p right click save as...

any plan on doing some breakdowns of it?

I will be doing some breakdowns as soon as everything is finalized.