DescentBB

Ok, I have been using the Vauss cannon to explore some texturing techniques. I'm not really satisfied with the result.



It feels a little tongue-in-cheek to me.

A friend who is also an artist, mentioned that textures should look even instead of having darker areas. Though he admitted to the fact that he doesn't know why either. I think I can understand it in newer games since many now allow for self-shadows and all new kinds of shading. But for a game like Descent 3, you don't really have any shadows per-say.

I used noise and a filter to create that worn look underneath the scratches. However, I also know that the scratches seem a little big. The other problem, will be that the worn metal underneath won't bump-map, though the scratches and text should.

I would like to make it look like it has rust and a coat of primer along with realistic scratches. The scratches are also too wide, but that is an effect of low-resolution textures. I have been creating the textures in low-resolution from the start so that I could stretch and organize the UV maps to take in as much sharp detail as possible. However, at low resolution, I'm finding that it is much more difficult to create textures that show tiny detail like rust and scratches.

I'm also finding that my workflow is incredibly slow texture-wise. I'm starting to think that perhaps I should start with a high resolution texture with the model laid out nicely into one texture and organize the textures and the UV's into different textures later?

Also, is bump-mapping allowed for weapons in D3? If not, I may just fix the scratches and some of the shading and leave it be for weapons.

In newer games, you don't bake shadows into textures because post processing, self-shadowing, and normal maps do that for you. In older games, the majority of the color came from the textures, so you will need to consider baking in shadows.

Can you post the unwrapped texture? It's a little hard to judge what's coming from where.

My main problem with it is that every bit of text screams \"Bevel/Emboss!!!\"

Designing textures in low-res seems counter-productive. The resizing algorithms in Photoshop etc. are good at preserving most sub-pixel detail when resized from high-res to low-res.

Well, the good news, is that I found a way to bake in the shadows, but I can't seem to get them to bake just right. The problem with just showing you since I had to cut up the image pretty badly.

I know the text screams bevel/emboss. I was playing around with it a bit. I wanted the decal on the side to look like it sticks out a bit. On the back part, I will skip out on the bevel/emboss. I agree, it's really ugly.

I don't know. It looks really ugly if I scale a 256X256 texture down to 128X128.

Can you explain to me, exactly how to get more detail out of resizing? I am still loosing a lot. Scratches and fine detail tend to vanish and it looks a tad blurry.

What program are you using?

Photoshop CS2. I use resample image, bicubic sharper.

i usually create maps around 1024x1024 or even double that size from uv-mapping, then paint it and when it looks fine, resize it in photoshop or psp to the usual 128x128 that d3 needs. makes a huge difference and is way easier to create.

I wonder if there is a way to get rid of the annoying sparkly dust?


BTW, I figured out how to re-size. However, I find that it is better to go from 256X256 to 128X128. If I try to go from 1024X1024 to 128X128 I still loose a crap-load of detail in the end and the texture ends up as a blurry mess.

To shut off those you need to add teh command line -nosparkles to your D3. On teh launcher, goto setup and then the last tab, add it to teh bottom box. In case you didn't know

LOL, but it won't do anyone else much good when I release this little project into the public.

With this. You will never know what you are trying to attempt.

That model is wrong.