I finished the wood beams and started the texturing. Right now it seats at 4400 triangles. Which is not too bad for close up. When done with it I will make a LOD version that I will try to keep under a 1000 triangles.
takes time. need to discuss the changes on the terrain and then move on with it. WOW ! today I achieve this with trees. forza style trees without the forza cartoony art. not fully 3d but taking Y shaped concept a bit further... the difference to y shaped standard is each branch is its own card, I also use a low poly 3d trunk. so its a star shape with the branches where they would be to provide volume. it actually works. zero pseudo about it ! with this branch variation i can make many whole tree variants at no extra expense of new texture by shaping and scaling these branches. it uses scatter leaves also. depending on tree it can get as low as 220 vertices and upto 500 maximum. it can also use the y shape at its core centre and the volume can receive lod figures it can also be used to make the Y shaped tree textures. tasty 3d trees is what it is.
Be sure to test them in-game. I remember I had some issues with alpha transparency that I never properly solved (it was true especially for trees with lesser foliage). Otherwise it looks good, and if the poly budget allows it, they will be handy near the track limits.
yeah we will have to see how it goes. the light probably wont work well with them without playing with the normal. but the static type of reaction to light can still work. a trick is to cover and conceal any areas that get to darkly shadowed. asides ac im just glad to make something better than Y shape.
so I learned to use the assets I made in speed tree itself. and a new type of tree, one of the more thicker versions. this is what 600 polys does on a broadleaf gum tree amazing really. if it doesn't work for ac maybe it will for unreal . with using bigger area covering leaf cards, I reckon I could reduce it to below 400... learned a lot about trees by just studying their branches and leaves. where the branches start. the profile of shape. quite easy when you dissect it, and having a generic style multiplied per type lends itself to standardize art style required for virtual world over the whole range of trees. next will be a pine tree , the pine has a more layered effect to the branches. very often drooping down when full grown and leaved (needles). so with individual branches drooping down i can uv map from above and not the side..and capture that layering the tree character has.. cant wait to do them in 3d. also have some great idea for doing that roof top effect some roads have where they have carved a tunnel out....
this is what the branch cards look like. for this beech tree they`re just like what you have for Y shaped trees but separated. have version with no leaves too.. some of the branches even make for great miniature trees on their own just playing around
well the idea as a whole is certainly working in the editor,from every angle. only above 45 degrees viewing angle does it break down. it works better than any other tree for some reason....hmm... ive simplified it down to 142 vertices here. still a few tweaks I expect this to weigh less than 200 (editor view), I name this method the asterisk tree *
tried my best with this fly around the trees in the editor. they are not block transformed though. and they hold up quite well for a simple repeated object. better than a Y shape....? Iam well happy with this tree adventure the verticality of it still to be disguised and broken up by the extra parts ive still to add then it will be technically an *x tree, also ive still to add a 3d trunk ,still using Y shape for that...
getting the lighting working nice on them. they seem to not have the problems the usual trees have. nice sun silhouette effect too , using the grass shader with no shadows. the variation channel whilst not designed just now will add a mottled leave colour effect over a large distance. giving the effect of leaf variation.. and when that is block transformed it should be even better under sun lighting. design wise need to generalise the tree top edge and hide the trunk top.. then make variations of it.
Some test in the editor. I plan to work later on better texture and shader tweaking plus bake global illumination in the texture. Right now it's kinda flat.
looking good most buildings in AC look flat and like cardboard. even if its not realistic it must not look like cardboard .
yep the basic lighting with single sun light source is really archaic. It needs trick to have shaded area look good.
I certainly don't mind painting that AO in if necessary if the uv layouts can accommodate it. im keen to eventually bake a texture layer to photoshop into the main terrain texture for further ambience to the scenery just like kunos does on some tracks... trees really need it also especially forests... one thing im quite passionate about myself is never repeating anything with uv`s . when it comes to shaders the multi channel shader with detail channels should do that job.... ive not seen a multilayer shader building as of yet and im convinced it could be good. probably overkill . but id like to find out the hard way , I see the cardboard notion as being a lack of wood grain and ageing. paint cracking, colour deformation etc. and plenty AO... even just those poles that support the structure having difference through them of any sort is enough to convince the eye of further realism.
one aspect i still don't like is that as we travel past the tree the branch cards get thinner and fatter so to obfuscate this effect I place separate leaf cards and varying angles to conceal that change and provide some pseudo volume to each branch. the more of this the less branches there can be too if the art is right. I guess its like treating a branch as its own tree model as opposed to working with the whole tree. but its definitely working nicely there is fencing in Lime rock park that is completely covered in vegetation, acts as a sound barrier. its not quite a hedge though. and I think this method will work nicely with that...( the 3dmax lighting should be ignored)
by golly gosh it all works. but only with up normals. ive not tried yet, but im presuming that applying the block transform method upon standard object normal orientation might fix that...
