The "What Are You Working On?" Thread

[DanTDBV]

I have split the track area up into the different surfaces. The brownish is dirt and has been split up in 7 pieces.
Gray is road, light brown is sandtraps, light green is drivable sand with a dusting of grass.
Black is pit roads. Light green is grass, Dark green is Mountain Goat.

 

[garyjpaterson]

Anyone have any advice on making LODs for cars?

I'm looking to see if I can get a LOD B (so hopefully a total of 25k, down from about 230k...) done before my first release, it may or may not happen, depending on how it goes.

But just want to check I'm not doing something really stupid, or if it really is as tedious as I'm doing it

Obviously the model no longer has a symmetry modifier, since the textures have to be asymmetrical, so when manually reducing loops etc, do I really have to do both sides or is there a better way and keeping my UV maps?

So far I've managed to reduce the main body from about 42k down to about 19k - not nearly enough yet, will have to be a bit more ruthless.

And when exporting, do I need to include dummys for animations or anything like that, or just the basic wheels/suspensions etc?

 

[Ben O'Bro]

Anyone have any advice on making LODs for cars?

I'm looking to see if I can get a LOD B (so hopefully a total of 25k, down from about 230k...) done before my first release, it may or may not happen, depending on how it goes.

But just want to check I'm not doing something really stupid, or if it really is as tedious as I'm doing it

Obviously the model no longer has a symmetry modifier, since the textures have to be asymmetrical, so when manually reducing loops etc, do I really have to do both sides or is there a better way and keeping my UV maps?

So far I've managed to reduce the main body from about 42k down to about 19k - not nearly enough yet, will have to be a bit more ruthless.

And when exporting, do I need to include dummys for animations or anything like that, or just the basic wheels/suspensions etc?

hey i'm asking myself the same question, and since i keep updating little things i can't go to make the LODs yet.
I thought about it, and i would remove loops slowly (in order to keep the same UV), but at least in my case, the body isn't the heaviest in polygons. It's all the screws and bolts. Certainly the LOD B can already remove a lot of details you only see from really close. That way you avoid cleaning too much the body itself.
LOD C though, you might go to the body more... but it'll be from further, so it will be less annoying if you mess up a little the UV here and there.
Anyway, here was my empty of knowledge answer

 

[Fat-Alfie]

3ds max has ProOptimiser, which allows you to protect the UV mapping whilst reducing the vert/poly count. I have found it to be very effective

 

[Stereo]

For the lower LODs (3rd/4th) I would do the model from scratch just keeping in mind where the UV seams are and making sure to keep edges there. It's not really enough faces that the overall modeling strategies are the same - for example I'd mostly worry about the silhouette and not bother modeling indentations.



Instead of working on the Formula Ford I've just been lapping it at Nordschleife... :/

 

[garyjpaterson]

For the lower LODs (3rd/4th) I would do the model from scratch just keeping in mind where the UV seams are and making sure to keep edges there. It's not really enough faces that the overall modeling strategies are the same - for example I'd mostly worry about the silhouette and not bother modeling indentations.



Instead of working on the Formula Ford I've just been lapping it at Nordschleife... :/

Cheers - I take it for LOD B you just have to stick with it, despite it being a bit of a bore

And I don't blame you, I think we all want to lap the Nords in the Formula Ford too

 

[AccAkut]

I'm not sure about this either. LOD B will mostly loose all the interior stuff and most of the tubeframe, maybe mesh has its transparency turned off. LOD C I'll probably loose transparency of all glass too. And afaik Blender has no feature for this.

 

[mantasisg]

Why do you need to loose transparency ? You just need to reduce polygones, well probably some objects can go away completely. Then use same persistance file for ksEditor and save without textures.

But always remember that shadders has to match too, I forgot it and did just a little last minute tweak for fresnelMaxlevel for LodA, so Jag gets just a little more reflective as it switches to LOD_B haha

I've seen some are doing entirely new materials for LODs (with a details turning from mesh to texture image). But then Lod kn5 file becomes larges, as you have to save with materials this time, or you have to map it somewhere into main texture maps, which will make textures larger.

 

[AccAkut]

Why do you need to loose transparency ? You just need to reduce polygones, well probably some objects can go away completely. Then use same persistance file for ksEditor and save without textures.

But always remember that shadders has to match too, I forgot it and did just a little last minute tweak for fresnelMaxlevel for LodA, so Jag gets just a little more reflective as it switches to LOD_B haha

I've seen some are doing entirely new materials for LODs (with a details turning from mesh to texture image). But then Lod kn5 file becomes larges, as you have to save with materials this time, or you have to map it somewhere into main texture maps, which will make textures larger.

I did it to mask the nonexistence of interior mesh. And I did it like you proposed with a duplicated persistence file.

 

[mantasisg]

I think switch from transp - to not transparent can be too visible. I we talk about LodB.

 

[Stereo]

I've seen some are doing entirely new materials for LODs (with a details turning from mesh to texture image). But then Lod kn5 file becomes larges, as you have to save with materials this time, or you have to map it somewhere into main texture maps, which will make textures larger.

On Kunos cars that's used on COCKPIT_LR in LODA I think, so the texture's available to other LODs.

 

[garyjpaterson]

Not much done today - just the steering wheel textures.
Tried making car_shift animations (so a single paddle on a rocker), but for some reason it won't load in game (just crashes when loading). Not sure if you need to have driver shift animations perhaps before it works, not sure.

So not all that productive, but a few laps put a smile back on my face It really is fun to drive, and I really can't wait to let everyone try it.

 

[millen]

Spent my fist couple of hours with Blender.

Managed to import a google maps .gpx into Blender as a spline, and put an array of planes along it to create the road, and then split those faces to create a track edge too... phew, hard work.

What next?

Think I might restart and do a nice short little track first...

 

[aphidgod]

Looks nice and wiggly.

 

[LilSki]

Spent my fist couple of hours with Blender.

Managed to import a google maps .gpx into Blender as a spline, and put an array of planes along it to create the road, and then split those faces to create a track edge too... phew, hard work.

What next?

Think I might restart and do a nice short little track first...

Yes please do something small and basic. Doesn't even have to be real to get used to everything required to build it right. Then move onto the real thing.

Your first step is good as you are in the right program.

 

[Stereo]

I still have like 400 small and large things to add to this UV map :/ I started by doing the engine block + head, expecting them to be about 1/4 of the surface area needing mapping, and I've been going through and putting other objects on at the same size. Hopefully won't run out of space before getting all the suspension in. Most recent addition is the safety power cut, you can see how small it is on the map. I'll probably pull it and a few other objects that have text on them into empty space if I have any left when I'm done unwrapping things, so the text is closer to legible.

Solid engine bay objects all modeled now, still needs flexible (hoses) and a dozen cockpit things.

 

[AccAkut]

@Stereo you're fine to use more than 2 textures per car Kunos has up to 80 nowadays

@garyjpaterson wouldn't be surprised if you get offers for that thing to appear in some Scifi game or film - that cockpit is magnificent

I haven't done much lately on any project. Just started on an idea I had, inspired by this: http://www.speedhunters.com/2017/01/the-audi-drift-sport-d-mac-s1-no-rush/

it's just some PCB from google and a custom map texture. needs tweaking bu the effect is cool

 

[garyjpaterson]

it's just some PCB from google and a custom map texture. needs tweaking bu the effect is cool

Looks mega - I take it you used the RGB map to get that effect, love it.

 

[Jim Layee]

See it in action here:

Bit out of date - the interior is a bit further on now (yellow tub not nearly as bright now ), but that's pretty much it really. Can't wait to see some vids of this thing with VR! Has pretty good visibility all round (unless you want to see behind... )

Brilliant stuff ! What we need next is a van of some kind to tow it behind, for example something by Ford

 

[AccAkut]

Looks mega - I take it you used the RGB map to get that effect, love it.

Yes, wanted to see which extremes the map texture can produce with my shaders. Also just liked the DMAC S1 design, even if its just an empty shell for now (which I doubt will ever used in drifting )

First full skin I've done in ... six years Got this far, banners not made yet and rims. And skin and map are still 2x 70 MB PNGs Enough for tonight, real life calls