My first Torque3D project screenshots - feedback wanted :)

#1 Not a bad start. I would however recommend working your lighting etc. The level seems a bit 'generic'. Tweek the shadows, the light color and why not add a bit of 'atmospheric' fogging?

Use reference images, do your best to 'match' the references you choose. I am not certain what kind of 'look' you are after but, the water, sky and the overall 'feel' of the scene seems flat. This is NOT a dig on your skills or your intent. I just want you to start thinking about levels that look unique and 'pop' to the public at large.

Lastly, 75% of the time, trees are 'taller' than a two story building. (ok I might be exaggerating that percentage) My point is, scale is a huge key to making a convincing scene. Lastly, Lastly, variation. There are MANY MANY resources out there. (I know because I made a hell of a lot of them :-) Use them. Why use the SAME palm over and over? I provided at least 3 palm trees in the Tropics pack. Why did I do that? Because the world is a wonderful combination of variation.

In conclusion, (PLEASE KEEP IN MIND, I am not stating this stuff to 'break you down and call you out'. I am trying to help you make the best level you can.) Solid foundation but, its NOT anywhere near 'partly finished'. You need to take the time to work it and make it look something beyond 'flat, generic, T3D'.

Ron

#2 Thanks for the advice Ron, i havent started any lighting/shadows/etc yet, everything is still default bar the cloud layer !

I did use 3 trees but i dont think it shows too well and you are right about the scale, also i set my brush up with 3 palm tree elements instead of 3 individual brushes which was wrong i think

I didnt really plan this out, just played with it till i felt comfortable enough to try making a "level"

Mic

#3 Cool stuff! Some atmospheric fog would definitely help, and I'd consider changing to a different sand texture under the lake, but otherwise it looks like a strong start :).

#4 thanks Daniel, i made quite a few mistakes on the way to making this i think, but its all part of the learning curve i guess, the wiki has been a great help, especially the videos section !

heres another pic of something i tried before but ended up ditching cos i couldnt blend the path to the grass and i only had 6 buildings of a similar style/colour so it seemed fairly empty/repetitive

#5 Ooh, hopefully we can get Lukas's new terrain blending into 3.7, which would help with the path/grass transition. Also, for the medieval style, check out this guy. His modular medieval houses look very cool.

#6 he is who i got those 6 buildings from, i did see the modular ones but my blender skills are minimal and i was being lazy :P

ill have to try make a few more different buildings from his modular sets, i like them more than the ones im using now and i dont have to rename/remap every texture and then export which is a bonus !

id like some buildings i could enter as well, all the ones i find dont have the inside modelled usually and im not the most artistic of people or even that good with blender :D ill have to keep searching

EDIT: it seems exporting them to DAE and just making prefabs with them in torque is easier than using blender :)

#7 You know, for roads like that last shot it might be better to put down some sort of gravel terrain material then make a decal road with that brick material over it. The reason I say that is that I have seen many brick-paved roads and paths, and none of them look like the whole world is actually bricks under a layer of dirt....

#8 Hreikin: yeah that's what I was thinking of!

Richard: that's a really good idea!

Also, adding more details like groundcover would help to hide the transition a little more.

#9 @Richard i get what your saying, i did it this way with the terrain painter because if i remember correctly i think i tried the decal road with the texture but the cut off seemed really sharp and was hard to blend in, ill give it another shot tho, think i need to find some more textures

a problem i have is a lot of the terrain/model textures i find seem to come out with a really blue/grey tint to them which makes them look nothing like the preview, is this a lighting issue i have on the level ?

@Daniel i never got to groundcover in the last screenshot before ditching it but i did in the original ones, is it wise to use groundcover for certain bushes rather than placing loads by hand/forest painter ?

#10 @Hreikin - you'll want to add alpha to your texture so that it fades on the sides. Look at the material images in Templates/Full/game/art/roads - specifically the defaultpath images. Or you could add edger bricks on the sides of the images for better maintained roads....

#11 What are your plans, what you want to do with this level after? Since the more complicated part is still ahead for you.

#12 Being a good 'level editor' is a lot like being a good carpenter. Good carpenters make mistakes, they are just really really good at hiding them :-)

Also, yeah, if you used 3 trees... since I did not pick up on it, then the technique did not work. Not a major problem just something you need to rethink. I just want to point out that this work is a VERY good start but, the devil is in the details.

Keep in mind, I have done my fair share of 'levels' and honestly on average it takes anywhere from 2 to 3 months to put out something that I can live with. Even then, I can go back and see all the 'mistakes' I made. The Tropic pack is the best example. That is why there is a version 2.0 out there. I went back and redid a TON of it. It's better but, still not 'perfect' to me.

Don't get discouraged! Just keep tweeking and changing until you are satisfied. All of these fine people have made some good suggestions. Oh, and as for the ground cover objects, I actually REMOVED the ground cover tools from my personal builds. I find it much better to paint ground cover using the forest tool. It's a personal choice and I feel I get far better control over placement, shadows and performance. Again though, its a personal thing.

Ron

#13 @Richard thanks for the tips, just had a quick study of the images and i think i know what you mean, more research needed first i believe

@Duion im not known for my planning skills :D i was just winging it, getting comfy with making levels before moving on to the more complicated part, but my "Plan" is to just make a little demo RPG as a proof of concept , 1 level/map with about 10-20 quests on it, after that if i liked it then i was going to plan a full RPG game

@Ron it did place 3 trees but not always tree1, tree2 then tree3, like you said something i need to reconsider !

Quote:I just want to point out that this work is a VERY good start but, the devil is in the details.

THANK YOU :)

it is nice to see some encouraging/positive words from someone of your skill/calibre !

as for the groundcover/forest tool question, i will have to do some testing as i have already run into some bugs with the forest tool, which is partly why i asked about groundcover for bushes :D

thanks for the encouragement/suggestions so far

mic

#14 What bugs with the forest tools? New ones or the old known bugs?
The forest tool is really an issue at the moment.

#15 old ones i believe, the forest disappeared on a restart, people in irc suggested reading this or this

it could have been a naming issue, but i think it was because i had lots of forest files after a few failed tries, when i tried in a backup of my project it worked and i encountered no bugs

#16 Yep, just like I mentioned here groundCover really should support collisions at the very least for shapes. As a matter of fact, there's a link to Duion's suggestion of exactly this in that thread. The forest tool is meh, it's very finicky and largely limited.

@Hreikin: I think you're off to great start. Keep at it and before you know it you'll be creating amazing things with Torque!

#17 @Jesse thanks, iv been a linux user for a long time and i reinstalled windows for the first time in 8 years because i couldnt get the linux port to work and no one replied to offer any help but im not regretting it.

my only problem, like many others i guess, is time ! a lot to learn before i reach my goal

#18 The naming issue can be solved, just open the forest file for your level with a code-editor of your choice, it will be in binary and unreadable, but this will not matter, then search for the model names, they will be in a readable form at the beginning of the file.
Once you know the names you have used in your forest, you can name your shapes back to what you used in your forest, then you should be able to work with them again. But I think you have to erase all ocurences of the models in all forests of all your levels, if you want to remove, change or rename the model.
Maybe you can also update the name in the binary forest file, I have not experimented with that much, I just found that you can see in the forest file what models were used, so you can track back and repair certain things.

#19 Man, we really need to do something about this forest editor.

#20 @Duion thanks for the insight/info on how to deal with the forest editor problem, hopefully i can avoid it and not run into the problem again !

@Daniel you need linux support ;) it is close i know . . . im just being impatient :)