Blog for Apparatus at GarageGames.com

Textures Pack Down

Apparatus — 2008-12-10T16:57:01+00:00

Hi there everybody

If you recall the Textures Pack I released earlier this summer, well, there is something you need to know and I am not proud to say it. A good portion of the reference textures are from CGtextures.com, a very well sourced website for free maps and textures. I am using it in particular when I am in a hurry and don't have time to dig my texture collection, which is rather large; I have tons of them laying around on CD's and DVD's, many I took myself back in the days I had time to travel.

In any case, even if not all the textures used in the Textures Pack come from CGtextures, I am taking it down for a very serious reason; I failed to understand the license on CGtextures.com and missed in particular the bit where sale of textures as ..textures (modified or not) is forbidden.

I really don't want anyone to understand this wrongly, it was a blatant mistake and I am taking the blame and responsibility.

edit: I think it is fair to put something back and I am thinking to create a similar texture collection with references from Bucharest (i had that in mind anyway) only this time with specular maps in the alpha channel, normal maps and materials.cs. This will be a free release.

Regards

Apparatus

Materials Bazaar ~ Metals Library release

Apparatus — 2008-12-09T14:20:32+00:00

Metals Library

If you are reading this for the first time, follow this blog for some progress and a few screenshots explaining the way I worked on these materials.

43 unique standard materials with normal maps and specular. This library will give you an array of metals ready to be used in your project, for either interiors or dts shapes.

Each material has its own dts shape so you can drop the entire library in your project and look it up.

Product page. The price is 10 USD.

Any feedback or suggestions are welcome. The next pack will probably feature skins and other organic materials, followed by more standard materials (wood, plaster etc).

10th Release

The 10 USD price of this library reflects the 10th release on Editmygame.com, so I hope you will enjoy it :)

Materials Bazaar (II) update

Apparatus — 2008-12-07T19:19:57+00:00

I spent a few more minutes on the Material Bazaar this weekend. For those still in doubt about the name of this thing, just translate the term bazaar with library. I started with something commonly used around in projects, i.e. metals. This library segment calls for more attention to specular and normal map control. Also, with just one diffuse source a variety of materials can be created to suit more areas of your game by simply adjusting either the specular map, the normal map or the material settings; not to mention the world editor options but those are still simple.

The Bazaar is what you might call an actual library without the walls, the books or, for that matter, the librarian :) An interior floor was created with rows of 20-30 cm tall 'stands' or whatever the term for that kind of thing is in exhibits.

These shots also feature SSAO from UbiqVisuals so don't expect your dts shapes to look the same without SSAO.

Nice specular areas only where the material is scratched up;

The specular color turned red by modifying the material settings;

The best way to see a nice material with specular areas is to either move a light around it or move your camera around it.

That means I'll have to youtube something pretty soon : )

Materials Bazaar (I)

Apparatus — 2008-12-03T11:12:10+00:00

I like working with textures a lot, not to mention fiddling with shaders. However, I think basic shaders (diffuse+normals+specular) will do just fine in most cases. Custom materials is something I have in mind playing with for advanced effects at a later time. Currently my focus is on what can be done with the current technology available in Torque. And believe me, a lot can be done. Scrolling glowing console text, waterfalls, hot metals, you name it.

I am looking at ways to make the materials available directly in Torque, or at least make them available in a more streamlined way, without forcing anyone to get a bunch of materials they don't really need. I figured that small packages of, say, rusty grunge metals, or shiny new metals, barks, old wood, ceramic, architectural plaster, damaged plaster and so on will do the trick. Since we got here, Torque for architecture is rarely seen around here so I have in mind to stress that bit too, and make a small project featuring an architectural presentation in realtime.

For now I am trying to streamline the creation process for diffuse and normal maps (via photoshop actions) and create a small project (a rough material viewer), like a library you can walk around and see rows of samples.

Anyway, keep close as I have already a bunch of basic materials packages ready to list in the store.

TGEA Environment Guide

Apparatus — 2008-12-03T02:41:46+00:00

This quick guide will hopefully answer a few questions to those who wrote me, in particular about the environment pack. There is no secret ingredient to this. In fact, everything is there, in the documentation, in the forums, in the engine itself. All it takes is a bit of work. There are however a few tricks, not too many, but essential in getting all the pieces to fit together. This is not a comprehensive Bible that automagically teaches you how to pull out a realistic environment with a click. It is a brief, essential list of things you need to take care about in order to make Torque roar like a kitten and shine.

Making one of those desert areas can be pulled out with a relatively flat terrain, a bright environment light and a couple of palm trees. That is enough to induce the player the idea of desert. However, there are a few other themes that require far greater amount of work and detail to achieve a good looking, believable world. Often one needs a set example beforehand in order to realize that this or that is actually achievable in Torque. Let us never forget that a game world is, in fact, a screen, like a theater stage; whatever the player / camera do not see, will never require to actually exist in the game world.

The highlands environment example I picked up is not a random choice. Besides some reach fantasy settings, sci fi or not, making mountains other than using the Adjust Height or Add Dirt features on the terrain editing tool is rather rare. It looks like there's a sense of boldness in taking that decision and actually go ahead and model/texture a large chunk of a mountain side or huge cliffs. There was a recent release featuring Material Accumulation and other interesting features in a complete Cliff Construction Kit and it focuses more on the shaders, taking the creation of the cliff formations to an automated level. However, in order to blend the existing terrain in Torque with the features on it (cliffs, rocks) it takes a bit of hand work; but it pays off rather nicely..

Contents

1. Introduction

a. Read the documentation

b. Community help

2. Highlands environment

a. Basic terrain tricks

b. The terrain detail texture

c. Large terrain features

d. Huge terrain features

e. fxShapeReplicator

f. fxFoliage

g. Sky / Fog

h. Postprocessing

3. Making textures

4. Editing the materials.cs file

5. Resources

PDF (print quality, 19 pages with illustrations)
Example diffuse (psd source included), normal map, example material settings.

Purchase now from Editmygame.com for 10 USD. It will probably end up as a free resource but as the crisis doesn't bother to leave soon don't count on it before Christmas.

Kork 2.0, halted work

Apparatus — 2008-11-04T09:14:10+00:00

I was playing around with the idea of a next gen looking orc and decided to get the old one and give it a try adding a million polys on top of it. Everything worked fine after I cleaned up the initial design and kept only the shoulder skull plates and the fur around the waist, removed the iron boots for something made of fur as well, you know, rough looking orc guy. However.. it has to wait until the world financial crisis is over and I can afford an upgrade so I can actually handle this pipeline. It takes forever to switch from one level to another in zbrush and 9 out of 10 times it hangs the modeling package when importing a bit under 1 million polys to create the texture maps from the high res version. So much for the gigapolygon technology for me, fully detailed characters can go up to 3-4 million (or more) polys, you know, that kind of level of detail... I am stuck and also lost some time on this one. I so much hate technology slowdowns.

If anybody wants to give it a try, I'll be glad to give them the file, in obj or ztool format, whatever. I am too pissed to pick it up again and hang the machine.

Constructor Pipeline (I)

Apparatus — 2008-09-24T23:20:14+00:00

Constructor Pipeline

I know a lot of things were left out in the initial Guide so I decided to go into more detail. Some people may consider common features or keyboard shortcuts as tips and tricks. They are, in a sense, but the term is inappropriate. I am yet to discover many things but so far I found it working with Constructor easier with each day. Introduction, then:

Introductory lesson for Constructor users and level designers

This study will show you step by step how to create detailed architecture in Constructor, how to create and add dts shapes as details using Softimage XSI, Constructor specific texturing rules, extended texture panel tips, creating proper staircases and more.
To avoid mission clutter we will create only 1 interior file and 1 dts file. The finite model will contain 5 buildings. One building will be open so the player can get in, climb to the second floor.
For the constructor detail meshes we will use XSI, importing the rough interior file into a scene and creating every dts detail shape to scale and in the right place. This is also a good opportunity to introduce xsi2dts exporter (beta).
This guide will also show you how to create Ambient occlussion maps in XSI.

There is also something most people don't really know about/take into account: the interiors, or dif files, need a bit of help to really shine in Torque. The devil is in the details. Many people give up - every job is tedious at some point - but if you can cross that line and take your time, the result will be satisfactory. Once you got through this pipeline it's a matter of how much you want the same results again and next time it will be faster - and better :)

No blog without a screenshot:

This shot features rough settings for SSAO pack, developed by UbiqVisuals.

Interior Guide Pack Free Download

Apparatus — 2008-09-23T04:14:32+00:00

For Torque SDK owners

The Interior Guide Pack is now free to download. The documentation, the support files, the sources, the mission example.

To get it, go to my website and download the archive. Then go to this Constructor forum and in the top of the page you have the archive password. This way I know only SDK owners have access to it.

Have fun

App.

Kaboom! Pack for TGEA

Apparatus — 2008-09-23T03:57:38+00:00

Kaboom TGEA

Mike did a great job again and ported Kaboom Pack to TGEA. Go to the website and check it out.

Change list. Right click, save (target) as..

About Constructor

Apparatus — 2008-09-15T18:33:22+00:00

Hi there

Mirrored in this forum post:

I thought about this for some time now and I think is time to take matters into our own hands. Following my previous plan / pack release I decided to take the Constructor documentation one step further. The nicest thing that can happen is a complete guide to Constructor book and a fully documented TDN Constructor section. A big plan but if we don't try, well..

All you need to do is list here every issue you might have with Constructor and / or ways you bypassed known bugs and successfully exported your Interiors.

So please keep this as simple as possible and do not deviate to other topics.

The least we can achieve is share information and be aware of what Constructor can do for our projects, limits and a few tricks here and there.

So a forum about all Constructor relevant issues. Success stories and troublesome export / modeling, etc.. with Constructor stories.

As I stated before, Constructor (and dif for that matter) is often overlooked in favor of third party software or left out the pipeline altogether. In my opinion this is wrong. So let's make it right.