Learning 3D, Questions Options

[Valiant]

About the old houses - here´s the one I made a few months ago... SK would recognize... maybe he already posted it somewhere...

 House01J.jpg ( 58.25k ) Number of downloads: 25

[Sir-Kill]

yeah that is a great replica of a SoA house.

no I have not posted it anywhere yet.

[HERD]

Did not have enough time and skill to follow through SK's tut till the end.
Went back to learn maps and modifiers, made this terrain with regular Displace.

 terrain.png ( 279.43k ) Number of downloads: 15


Added stones, lights, camera - looks almost like BG1 (but not 3d)

 terrainKamushki.png ( 1.32mb ) Number of downloads: 17


Will see what could be squeezed out of this method by changing setting and textures.

[HERD]

Grass and Sand

 terrainGrass_Sand.png ( 500.03k ) Number of downloads: 14


Grass and Stone

 terrainGrass_Stone.png ( 593.16k ) Number of downloads: 19

[Sir-Kill]

looks good whats the poly count? its got to be high fr that level of detail

second pic looks like nashkel mines area, throw grasses and some scrub plants and you'll be all set

[HERD]

what it says in tut

..Ground01 will now have 320000 faces...

don't know how to count polys

here is the source
from 3dtotal.com --->tuts --->3dMax--->beginners--->'Smart Terrain'
by Cristian "Freespace" Alexandru Ciocotisan

This post has been edited by HERD: Oct 20 2008, 09:19 PM

[Sir-Kill]

that is a lot.
2 ways 1. select object and hit 7 on your keyboard. 2. frome the create tab move the mouse over to the hammer icon that is the utilities tab there should be a Polygon counter, if it is not there you can click the more button and add it.

you mean http://www.3dtotal.com/team/tutorials_2/te.../terrain_01.asp (links are easier to use btw)
this is a great time to create a normal map and cut your poly count by a couple of 00's unless you are making a Hollywood movie you don't need a crazy poly count like that.
you can find a max 3dsmax.chm or a tut in 3dsmax_t.chm to find out how. or in a vid but you don't really have to make a model smaller like they say.

but if you dont mind rendering millions of polys forget what I suggest.

[HERD]

Remembered about "Lather" tool, made a temple

 Temple1.png ( 793.6k ) Number of downloads: 14
 Temple2.png ( 690.97k ) Number of downloads: 14


Q: What is the "Lattice" tool for ? (does wierd things, especially in the corners of the model)
What is the "Show safe frame" in the camera view does ? (what is supposed to be safe?)

This post has been edited by HERD: Nov 4 2008, 09:22 PM

[Sir-Kill]

I kind of liked the first image better (blue windowed one)
I have yet to find a practical use for lattice besides make a bunch of polys.
safe frame is the actual portion that will be rendered. if you are rendering an image that is twice as wide as it is tall, w/o safe frame checked the viewport will show more than what you will actually render.

[HERD]

I kind of liked the first image better

This is in no way a finished product, just learning how to attach/detach polys and other details.

Still not giving up on plants

 zSunFlowers.png ( 470.98k ) Number of downloads: 14



SK, you gave me once these flowers in 2d, but if there ever were a 3dMax file for them, I would love to take a look.

 zFlowers50.png ( 29.11k ) Number of downloads: 8


This post has been edited by HERD: Nov 5 2008, 12:21 AM

[Sir-Kill]

those are oblivion's plants. I thought you had them.
since you cant see all the details (for use in the IE) you could make those single poly plants with just those images. breaking each plant into its own image.

load one of those plants into your mat.editor
just copy the diffuse channel to the opacity channel
then in under "Bitmap Parameters" in the "Mono Channel Output"
* if the image is a png with a transparent background leave it at "RBG Intensity"
* if the image has an alpha channel (like a tga) select "Alpha"
then apply that to a plane (plane should be created top VP)

select that plane and right click on it
select properties
and un-check the "Cast Shadows" located under the Rendering control section

you could do that with your new sunflowers too
render them in the proper 45 degree angle and apply them to plane you created in the top VP
you do not have to render them very big no bigger than what they will be in your final scene render. so 64x64 might even be big for 1 flower.

This post has been edited by Sir-Kill: Nov 5 2008, 01:44 PM

[Sir-Kill]

EDITED last post
top VP not left/front
also added more to the last paragraph.

[Sir-Kill]

A note about lathe:
when you make your spline make sure all the vertices are selected and right click them and select corner this will reduce your poly count without sacrifice. Because if you have bezier or bezier corners when it is converted you will have a ton of vertices that you do not need (this can be controlled by the interpolation the higher the number the higher the vert count). You can also save this step before you create your spline you can change the drag type to corner (located in the 'Creation Method' section.

You might have noticed that there is a black spot(s) on you model that you might not have understood. this is common when you either have non-quad geometry of an overlap of faces.

I don't use lathe much I like the border extrude method much better, I think it gives you more control.

This post has been edited by Sir-Kill: Nov 8 2008, 04:20 PM

[HERD]

I like lather because it seems that models made with it are easier to texture.

when you either have non-quad geometry of an overlap of faces

I was wandering about the black spots, my guess is, in order to eliminate them, the original spline should be created more carefully ( besides what you suggested above )

Q about this reference picture: was it made by hand out of planes/splines? I wanna try something like this for building's "siding"(?).

 ahouse_005.png ( 105.47k ) Number of downloads: 9

[Sir-Kill]

could be done a couple of different ways. but this looks like a polygonal Cluster F**k, you do not have to build photo real. since you are over 100 ft away in an IE view and not in a 3d environment
However if I was going to make it I'd start with a cone or cylinder and build one level then clone move up and rotate

looks like the maker there used about 36 sides. for the main tower portion. so create a cone/cylinder with 36 sides, 1 height, and 1 cap.
then selecting one poly at a time on the vertical side and use bevel from edge select the top edge of that poly and pull up/down to get it right. if bevel does not work extrude from edge will but you will have go to select vert and scale the 2 new verts horizontally.

once you have one ring done this is when you clone up and rotate.

same principal for the roof.

walls look like they were made with boxes 3 or more length segments, move some of the verts to give it a warped look.

the bottom pieces could have been been created by extrude (poly) along spline
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
personally I would make a model like this but not use it in a scene I would use it as a texture maker and bake the normal map and diffuse maps. then make a box for the wall, a cylinder for the tower, and a cone for the roof. then apply my new textures to them, this would cut my poly count to maybe 300-600? instead of 30,000? +
then if I wanted to make a bit of added detail I could use the bevel/extrude from edge on just a few key polys that are located on the edge of the building depending on where you have it placed (rotated) in your scene.
but people do not notice these things so why bother. I took a big chunk out of a building that I made and no one noticed it, so that was a few hours wasted.

This post has been edited by Sir-Kill: Nov 12 2008, 01:04 PM

[HERD]

It is hard to find a good wood texture, so I thought of using bark texture+bump and other maps.
This looks like another solution, more time consuming, but I still want to try, since I am learning new stuff anyway.

this would cut my poly count

For now I render each building/piece of empty terrain separately then put area together with photoshop (like from screenshots), so poly count doesn't bother me too much, unless:
Does poly count affect anything else besides rendering time?

This post has been edited by HERD: Nov 12 2008, 10:12 PM

[Sir-Kill]

oh I though you were making all in 3d.
as far as ie is concerned no but how long is ie going to last?

[HERD]

as far as ie is concerned no but how long is ie going to last?

What is ie ?

[Sir-Kill]

infinity engine what bg uses

[Baronius]

or internet explorer what SK not uses