Common map for testing rend2 (dropbox)

[Boothand]

Hey. I had an idea that I believe might work really well.

 

I've set up a dropbox folder called "rend2map" (link here) where I've started just making a little outdoor area in a map using all self-made assets. I'm thinking that we could have this common place to run our tests, to be more efficient and consistent when making things work in rend2. Ultimately, this could be a map that will look very good when rend2 is finished, and it's good to have a place to put your ideas in context.

 

I'd like anyone to change *anything* here, and make things look as stunning as possible. Build structures, insert models, change out textures or change things around. Some things in there, such as the water, is not looking good and should be fixed up! This would be a good opportunity to test for example cubemaps and specularity, and so when new things are made possible, people could easily test and learn how it's done by looking at the map files and shaders.

 

In the dropbox, I've set up two batch files. If you set up the paths, you can be ready to test the map just after running the "copy to harddrive", and you can submit your changes back to dropbox by running the "Copy to dropbox" batch file.

 

I'd really love to be in this sort of project. To sync it to your own dropbox, I'll need your email Anyone up for this?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[eezstreet]

This could pose a problem, however. It wouldn't be possible to account for all situations. For instance, unless @@Xycaleth fixed it recently. Some maps work perfect, some don't.

[Xycaleth]

Sounds like a good idea to me I'd like to see a mix of indoor and outdoor areas if anyone has time to expand on it so far. And also a variety of different materials like metals, plastics, wood, glass etc.

[Boothand]

So, anyone wants to help me make this look great in-game? @@DT85, @@Xycaleth? It's supposed to be shiny and smooth. It symbolizes carrying the old engine into a new world! I've made a normal map (for now at least) with a light Zbrush sculpt, which works. But the model looks like this in 3DS Max:

 

 

And like this in-game, haha:

 

 

 

 

 

[DT.]

This kind of visual problem makes normal maps kinda useless in an engine such as this. The only thing you can do currently is to strategically place the UV seams.

 

That's always going to happen unless someone comes along with a new format or upgrades the existing ones (MD3 & Ghoul2). But that would also mean updating exporters/compilers AFAIK.

 

Unless of course, there's some trickery that can be done in the renderer to merge all the normals on the models to get rid of the UV seam line splits but keep UVs intact @@Xycaleth?

[Boothand]

Actually what you see doesn't really correspond with the UV seams. They're hidden between the legs (yes, the UV seams) and on the back.

 

It seems that changing the model's lightmapscale to something tiny like 0.025 makes it closer to how it should look. It wouldn't look right without bounce light though since it's totally black and not light grey, but that takes hours to compile

By the way, the extreme highlights you see isn't specularity. It's there in vanilla too, and happens to many of my models... arr!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought maybe some shadeangle specification and q3map_nonplanar would smooth it, but they don't work in the .mtr. Also the .shader seems to override what I have in my .mtr, not the other way around, so I can't let q3map2 smooth it for me, while keeping the normal map.

 

All the files are available in the dropbox if anyone's interested in trying things out.

[Pande]

It seems you have some issues with face splits, can you post the .md3 model and I will experiment with it a bit?

[Boothand]

It seems you have some issues with face splits, can you post the .md3 model and I will experiment with it a bit?

 

Was hoping you'd join in on my super-well-setup project on dropbox In that case, you could tickle it until it looks good and edit the shaders etc, and just reupload it to dropbox.

 

Otherwise, the md3 is in the mapobjects folder, and there's a .max file for max 2011 if you can use it. But you'll probably have to setup the exact same folder path in your base for the texture to show up. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gn21gh0vjwilpmf/VQ9UU2X-cR/models/map_objects/rend2map

[DT.]

q3map2 & radiant only read .SHADER so if you want smooth angles you need to specify it in the .SHADER. .MTR is used by rend2 only.

[Pande]

My converter can't read your md3 files, first time I've ever seen that. Can you make an .obj file from Max?

[DT.]

My converter can't read your md3 files, first time I've ever seen that. Can you make an .obj file from Max?

 

Noesis reads that statue MD3 fine.

[Pande]

Neat, I didn't realise Noesis is free. Converted fine, thanks

 

 

Update: well I found nothing wierd about it. But yep use that .shader

[Boothand]

I thought maybe some shadeangle specification and q3map_nonplanar would smooth it, but they don't work in the .mtr. Also the .shader seems to override what I have in my .mtr, not the other way around, so I can't let q3map2 smooth it for me, while keeping the normal map.

 

Still have this issue.

Anyway, would any of you be interested in sort of co-crafting this map with rend2 features? Will rend2 coders use it to test stuff? The purpose of the thread was to more or less make an ultimate rend2 testing map, for mappers/coders/whoever

[Xycaleth]

At the moment the only rend2 coder is me and I'd gladly use the map to test things. Things are going a bit slowly at the moment as I'm reorganising my life a bit.

[Xycaleth]

Just had a look at this map. The grass is very shiny:

 

[Guest KENNITHH]

How bout trying terrain gen?  Or maybe even a modelled terrain like mountains or something (could try Skyrim mountains to test)

[DT.]

It having more than a few of them would probably bog or crash the game. I very much doubt rend2 is able to render more triangles than vanilla.

 

@@Boothand

 

What happened to the ground that made it not smooth?

[Boothand]

Hmm yeah normal maps tend to make everything look shiny, I think. Not used any speculars here yet. Any way around that?

 

I'll have to play around with the smoothing of it tomorrow probably, the shadeangle is currently at 20. Just got home on easter holidays a few hours ago, need some time to set it up on my laptop. Would gladly accept a brand new rend2 if anyone has one

[DT.]

Hmm must be a rend2 bug, there shouldn't be any shine at all unless you specify it.