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ChrisV

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Blog Comments posted by ChrisV

    Josh

    Posted

    Sweeeeet!! I like what I see! This is using a 'Roughness/Metalness' PBR rendering method, right Josh? Will 'Gloss/Metalness' and/or 'Gloss/Color Specular' also be supported?
    This is only for the new Turbo Engine, and not LE, I assume?
    Btw, can I send you a selfmade model in 3DCoat, to see how it looks using the PBR implementation algorithm that you're using?  

    Josh

    Posted

    PBR isn't a marketing term, Josh. It's just a new way of rendering things, make 'em look better (more realistic), and also, more importantly...PBR makes any game model look great (and realistic) under any lighting setting/condition.

     

    PBR also uses a linear workflow, instead of the gamma workflow (that LE still uses). Physically Based Rendering is also energy conservative: the light reflected off the surface will never be more intense than it was before it hit the surface.

     

    There are three PBR workflows: Gloss/Color Specular, Gloss/Metalness and Roughness/Metalness. But, they can be used together in order to make any lifelike material.

    • Upvote 1
    Josh

    Posted

    No roughness map? That means, if i have a model of a hammer, the wood would be as shiny/reflective as the iron? Seems a bit strange to me. Why not add the possibility to use the alpha channel of the diffuse map for roughness? Then at least the advanced artists could add the roughness to the diffuse alpha channel, and those who can't, can use the roughness slider.

     

    Probably asking too much here, but one never knows, right?

    • Upvote 3
    Josh

    Posted

    Pretty cool stuff, Josh! I also get a couple of missing shader errors, same as Slastraf.

     

    The framerate is getting low at some point, depending on how dense the veggies are, but i guess you could still make a couple of performance optimizations. Overall, i really like the new vegetation (could also be used for non veggie stuff)! Well done!

     

    Btw, i also noticed that the framerate is higher when the directionnal light comes from above, and decreases when the directionnal light comes from a lower angle.

    Josh

    Posted

    Also, please no Skyboxes with suns. Sometimes the sun in the skybox will be in the wrong spot in how you want to light your scene.

    While i understand your point, having no sun in the skyboxes will make your scene look 'off'.

     

    Disabling the sunlight in Vue (deleting the lightsource for the sun), also disables the light and shadows being cast onto the clouds, and it looks 'off'. You don't get any shadows on the clouds, no variation in light, nothing. Everything looks dull and not realistic.

     

    Setting the sun size and corona size of the sun to zero (without deleting the lightsource for the sun), makes it that there's no sundisk rendered, but then you will still get that brighter sunglow around the lightsource for the sun. This still makes the sky look realistic, but if you then position your directionnal light in LE at an angle not matching the position that the sun was rendered in Vue, then your scene will also look 'off'.

     

    What would be better in my opinion, would be an option to rotate the skybox in LE, using a slider or something, so that we can easily match the position of the sun (skybox) to the position of the directionnal light in LE. What do you think, Josh? Possible feature?

    Josh

    Posted

    Saying that Indie art is kinda amateurish or terrible, is not very friendly, Josh. To begin with, most indie game developers are amateurs, not pros. We create things from scratch, unlike modders who modify existing examples. It's easier for some to mod an existing game, then to make one of their own from scratch. There are plenty of great art examples made by indies.

     

    Also, making large collections of high quality content IS profitable, but it requires a loooot of time do make one (complete) large asset pack, plus the necessary skills. My Desert pack would be bigger and more complete, if i would only find the time, considering that i have my own projects to work on.

     

    And, as YouGroove said, there are plenty of good assets on the Unity store. The problem is that there are too much different contributors with different styles or skills, and that the support of some of these assets gets lost because of various reasons: engine version changes, lack of time, etc...

    Slastraf

    Posted

    chrisv , I am very happy and thankful that you are really working on the texture pack. I will definetly credit your work and look forward to some updates. Maybe make a few more flatland (sandy) textures for different surroundings ?

    Thanks, i appreciate the credits! Regarding the flatland (sandy) textures, you can count on them, i've already done a few a while back, i just didn't update the pack yet. But, i will soonish. :)

    • Upvote 2
    Slastraf

    Posted

    Good to see my desert artpack being put to good use, Shawkly! Looks like a good start! Keep up the good work!

     

    Btw, wanted to inform you...i'm going to improve and change a few things in the pack...replacing some textures with better ones, enhancing the diffuse, normal and displacement maps on all textures, and also rename them. It shouldn't cause too much damage to your project though...in fact, the changes i'm doing will make your scenes look even better. :)

    • Upvote 2
    ChrisV

    Posted

    Much appreciated, guys! :)

     

    Guppy, you're right about the glossiness. I've worked on that, making it less shine. As for adding the bit of light, hmm...it's not easy to find a good balance between too lit, and not lit enough. Too lit takes away the scary feel of not knowing what's lurking in the darkness, and too dark makes the scary things not visible. So yeah, not easy. But, it's being worked on. ;-)

    ChrisV

    Posted

    There is some futurist display in the tunnel entrance : because it's advanced technology in some old planet ?

    The world where all takes place, is a modern world with a fantasy twist. ;-)

     

    There is some red and blue things the character can catch in the level :

    The shapes are very simple, why not make them lot more intersting like cristals ? coins ? medals ?

    The 'red' pickups in the vid, are hearts for health, and the blue ones are 'power' pickups (the shape of the model is a simple sphere atm, but that will most probably change to something better suited).

    Crystals are teh most important items in this game, as the player needs to collect all seven of them to unlock the final level and destroy the Elder God Chronos.

    There will be special fx when the player picks up an item (either particles, or animated sprite, or some other kinda effect). ;-)

     

    Will it be water areas ? siwwming , diving in water ? Water puzzles ?

    Oxygen bar ?

     

    Push a switch to empty a romm filled with water , push another to have less water in another room and be able to dive with enought oxygen to retrieve some important item ?

    Normally, there will be no swimming at all, as Celly (the main character) can't swim...which is also used to make it a bit harder on the player. Heheheh!

     

    Thanks for the suggestions, man! :)

    ChrisV

    Posted

    No problem, Pixel! :)

    A lot of the instruments in Native Instruments are samples from authentic instruments with various parameters that can be changed to shape the sound more to your liking. There's a pretty nice symphonic strings section, plus lots more.

    Not to forget the endless possibilities you can get from Guitar Rig. The pro version has a lot more. Might buy it some day. ;-)

     

    I usually use either my PC keyboard to play, or my old Casio keyboard, but it's getting rather old. Should get me a new one. Heheheh!

    ChrisV

    Posted

    The length is good enough, but try to make it loopable.

    I might make it a bit longer, but not too much.

    The song should already loop seamless. Played (looped) it in Audacity, and didn't notice any seams. :)

     

    Hey Chris, if I wanted to drive Native Instruments from a midi input what sort of latency am I looking at?

    Hum, hard to tell really. It all depends on different factors, such as CPU, memory and hard disk access speed, your operating system, and also your soundcard and drivers. Also on the complexity of your compositions, and usuage of fx/plugins.

    If you have a decent machine, up to date drivers, then the latency should be minimal, I think. There's a Latency slider to set the size of the playback buffer, so you'd have to play around with that a bit for optimal performance. And, read the documentation of your soundcard to see whether there's possibility to access the buffer via alternate driver architecture, and have more efficient low-level access to the hardware.

    So far, I haven't had any latency at all, and my soundcard is an onboard Realtek HD. :)

     

    You're interested in the software?

    ChrisV

    Posted

    Woooow guys, I'm surprised to see all these great comments! :)

    Didn't expect this at all. Thank you soo much!

     

    Cut out first 10 seconds. Drums are not very nice intro. They are too broken(?), not rhythmic. And make scary filling which is not suitable for followed music.

     

    If you want an intro, try to replace drums with may be some squeal of the wind (if it matches the picture).

    I appreciate your suggestions, Daimour! :)

    The drums at the beginning (and end) are mainly there to have a more fluent loop, but I see your point. Thanks.

    Will experiment a bit with other sounds (such as the wind) for the intro, and try out a few 'scary' sounds.

     

    Not sure about the lenght of the song, though. Should the song be a bit longer?

    ChrisV

    Posted

    Wooooow, that's a big comment, YouGroove! Thanks. :)

     

    Colors on the level why are they all same ? because of sunlight ? you could add more color tone or slightly different for outdoor solid structures.

    And i liked the blue colors of spider web , you could add more stuff colored in tha way ?

    It might seem that the colours are all the same, but it's far from it. Lots of different colours being used. The sunlight and cartoon shader have some effect on the overall look.

    The blue teints are also being used for the power pickups, and also on the mushrooms in the cave, and in other items. The second desert level (which we'll show in a later blog) has a whole other feel than the first one. ;-)

     

    Some really good gameplay suggestions there. :)

    We plan on having some form of direction indicator or map to help find the next puzzle.

    There's already a bit of 3D platforming in the first desert level, and future 3D platforming is an option. ;-)

    The Zelda grappling hook sounds like a good idea. We will discuss it, and see where/how we could implement something similar.

    One fire weapons/items for activating puzzles is a good suggestion.

    Would love to see a parachute or other item to explore the scenes, but we'll have to discuss this. The scenes aren't that big, so it might be a problem.

     

    I also like the Natural dangers you mentioned, such as swamp, or maybe quicksand, etc...

    Or, the pitfalls idea. Imagine traps like in Indiana Jones, etc... ;-)

     

    Good suggestions for powerups too, man! :)

     

    I think lots of these suggestions could be added, one way or another. Thanks again. Good luck with your project(s).

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