Request/Contest - Make us some eyecandy trees

[SirArtturi]

This idea, discussion, debate, request, contest, or whatever you may find it, arise from argue with smoth on cremuss's modeling topic.

http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph ... 09#p395509

So, here we go. I challenge you great modellers to make some great, eyecandy trees, or whatever nature theme features (rocks, branches, bushes etc) for everyone, especially for mappers to use in their maps to make our maps more alive and interesting.


The goal is to get them look beautiful and realistic while still maintaining somekind of balance between performance.

Some suggestions: While christmas is coming, We are in need of snow trees and snow themed features

Winner/winners, naturally, will get their features on new maps for everyone to admire. I also will make a map with these features, as soon as I have some time and enthusiasm. Well, in the end, the whole point is to rise enthusiasm for both mappers and modellers.

Deadline will be: 31. January 2010

[smoth]

post some shots of what you think is a beautiful tree from a game. you are setting an imaginary bar that we cannot see.

[SirArtturi]

Well, you put me in quite difficult situation because this is not only for me, thus something that all should judge. But it is fairly reasonable to demonstrate so here we go.

Here is something to start with. So, not very impressive yet still decent.


And here is something to reach for, imo fair and reasonable goal. Screens from world in conflict. So nothing exremely fancy as you might think smoth.



And of course, aGorms palm trees should be inspiration for all of us

[CarRepairer]

This thread is elitist because it ignores the fact that trees can be used in Spring games too, not just maps.

And you should mention that models can go into modelbase.

[SirArtturi]

This thread is elitist because it ignores the fact that trees can be used in Spring games too, not just maps.

I don't understand your point. Of course the author of the model is free to do anything he wants with it...

And you should mention that models can go into modelbase.

Who am I to judge/authorized to do this? As also, put your model in where-ever you like. geez...

However, I'd would be rather nice to have it for uses of mapping.

Ok- Topic edited to satisfy your point of view.

[Beherith]

Easy there CarRepairer...

Also, does anyone know how to get the glest object files into wings or something similar? They have some nice looking trees we could use.

[CarRepairer]

Who am I to judge/authorized to do this? As also, put your model in where-ever you like. geez...

I am just saying to promote the use of Modelbase as much as possible because it's a pain to search the forum and find random links to old file hosts for all the models on this place. I didn't say you must demand it. There is some map resource thread here in the forum that's very hard to find (it's not stickied). In summary, Modelbase ftw.

Easy there CarRepairer...

Also, does anyone know how to get the glest object files into wings or something similar? They have some nice looking trees we could use.

Ask Saktoth. He already got the knight done (and you can see from my forum pic that it's found a home in Spring).

[Argh]

What? You guys want trees? There are many good, low-impact models in World Builder. Not just trees- rocks, bushes, all sorts of stuff. It's all Open Source so feel free to use them for whatever you want. I have even more stuff in the next release.

In terms of high-end trees... I have more fancy, low-poly flora done, like the attached pine... but they only work as Features atm, due to the shadowmap bug, which means I can't use normalmaps or the usual animation / gamecode procedures... and I don't really feel like releasing them until Unit shadowmaps work right or somebody answers the questions I posted in Dev.

[smoth]

what is the polycount on those trees?

[Argh]

64 polygons, 92 verts. 256 skin, which is a bit extravagant but came out looking a lot more real than the techniques I'm using for some of the other flora.

They look badass with normalmaps and a shader- even better than this- aside from the shadowmap problems totally ruining it, that is.

[smoth]

64 polys, that is pretty impressive, do the branches and leaves have an underside?

What is wrong with shadows? That wierd drifting thing they do?

[Argh]

On Units, the transparency is broken. Shadowmaps don't obey transparency in tex2, so the shadows look completely awful. Which is funny, since Features work just fine.

This is one of the things I've been bitching about for nearly a year, it's stopped a lot of work entirely.

[smoth]

yeah that was a shit bug. I forgot about it to be honest.

[Argh]

Well, it's a non-trivial shit bug, which is why I'm pissy about it. This is what the trees look like, with my current Unit shader. Lighting and shading is more like life (which I will be tweaking a bit more as I get nearer release- it's a low priority atm), but the shadowmaps totally destroy them and make the artificiality of it totally obvious. It is much, much worse with other flora, where I am cheating, geometry-wise, a lot more.

Yet I can't even get a simple answer to, "is $shadowmap read-only", so I'm not even wanting to waste time on doing something futile.

Trust me, folks- if I have invisible heightmaps and shadowmaps that aren't screwed up, I can now do some stuff that will rock your worlds.

[smoth]

yeah definitely not saying trivial, just saying shit sux etc.

[Pressure Line]

There is some map resource thread here in the forum that's very hard to find (it's not stickied).

yes it is.in the mapping forum, second sticky down (at time of writing)

[KaiserJ]

bryce can make some pretty sexy trees super easily; havent played much with the settings so i don't know the polycount

[Argh]

Give it a go. Worst that happens is that they're 15K tris, no-go. I've played with a lot of software, except for RealTree, and have generally come to the conclusion that for the kinds of stuff I want trees to do (branches that are randomized on create, etc.) it's best to make it by hand. Making ultra-low-poly foliage isn't hard, once you know the proper tricks- maybe I should talk about that sometime.

[SirArtturi]

Yet I can't even get a simple answer to, "is $shadowmap read-only", so I'm not even wanting to waste time on doing something futile.

Trust me, folks- if I have invisible heightmaps and shadowmaps that aren't screwed up, I can now do some stuff that will rock your worlds.

Real pity, cos' the tree looks really good.
Btw, I'm quite sorry to ask, since you have talked about it a lot, but what is World Builder?

[SirArtturi]

I am just saying to promote the use of Modelbase as much as possible because it's a pain to search the forum and find random links to old file hosts for all the models on this place. I didn't say you must demand it. There is some map resource thread here in the forum that's very hard to find (it's not stickied). In summary, Modelbase ftw.

Yes I see it's great thing. However, I cant promise something that I'm not authorized to do?

Edit: Oh, and I added deadline for this "contest" 31. January 2010
Is it too bad?