A quick question:
Are the main roads going to have large paved stones for textures, and then the side roads done as cobblestone?
Secondly, I think (haven’t watched RotK in a while) that the slanted roofs are tiled with a dark-blue or black schist-like stone, rather than the white limestone rock. And I think the flat roofs are just the white stone. But you’ll have to double check that, iasuming you want to consider it for the textures
Hi Guys.
Kriket-Guy, cignox1- You both have valid points. Appreciate the thought you both are putting into this area.
The texture size we are working at for the tiles is 2k (2048x2048). I think that is a good max res to start at, and as was mentionedno one wants to go back and redo if the res needs to increase. from the 2k originals we can resized to whatever is needed…so 256…512…1024
Re types of road texture material- The tiles we are planning to make are of a variety of stone, both large white and darker cobblestone so their is felxibility in what can be used. The roads would simply need to get a unique surface id for the main section and one for the border. Then the chosen tiles, large/small/white/dark, can be dropped into those areas.
I’m planning on trying this technique or similar with some of the building surfaces as well.
Thanks for the comments on the roof textures sadroneru…will have to see where the refs are on those varieties you mention. 
I’m still planning to restart on those tile textures next week, and kope looks to be planning for July to be back to work with me on it. So you should see more wips coming soon, :wip:
It’s good to see some interest in the area, so keep the texrture comments/input coming.
Well, scale all the textures with a batch or a script should be a joke compared to the size of the project 
Models are not all that detailed compared to pixar movies, but they are compared with todays games… and since the full city wont be ready untill pc will be much more powerfull than they are today, I think that you shouldn’t estimate size and complexity using today hw. I think that when they started this project it wasn’t designed to be run on the pc available at the time…
This is, at least, what I think when I look at the viewer. By the way, I don’t compare this project to payed companies, the comparison comes itself and I think that in this hypethetical fight Minastirithproject isn’t loosing
Some progress from the morning. (btw, this is one of the fortunate weekends, cause usually i’m not that available ) I really enjoy doing this and it’s still a lot to do. Now i’m experimenting with the textures and getting rid of tiles.
Speaking of tiles i see that you waste so much time on getting rid of unique details that can be easely found on tilled object, and that is really not that necessary.Example the ground texture on my wip, were on the background you can see very well the tile, but after i add detail on the ground it’s not visible anymore (not that right in eye at least), without any hard work.
Also, don’t think so much out of the box. Maybe from high above and without any objects you can see the tile(like i have seen , but think how the viewer will see when walking. if it’s noticeable on the ground than it needs to be fixed, otherwise it’s not that of a big deal.
I know that you want to do things right, by the book, and get a professional looking result. But also think that people will understand some minor glitches, since this is collaborative. If one man will stay on a texture 1 day, than it’s not reasonable.
I have 60 textures, that make 7 megs, without the masks. So think of about 360 textures will make arround 100 megs (with larger textures for special objects, and uncompressed) and we end up with a resonable result considering the visual aspect and file size. I really can’t see why you guys think larger textures are better.Also it’s hard to unwrap this models,and only in few situation this might be used.
PS: i forgot to mask the windows, damn.
this guy’s fast! Loving the new WIP’s and already can’t wait until viewer 13, even though it probably won’t be for awhile.
Kriket-Guy-
First, have to say nice work on the progress shots!
Re your comments on the tiles/textures-
Maybe let me have a look at your texture setup and see what can be adopted.
think how the viewer will see when walking. if it’s noticeable on the ground than it needs to be fixed, otherwise it’s not that of a big deal.
I think there is still a fly through mode?? so we should take sky view of tiles into consideration.?
Very nice work Kriket-Guy! I love the style that it has. Hopefully everyone can come together for another big push, good luck guys!
Well, i kept my word and the main modeling is done.I would like to add a market place or something As i have said at the beginning, i am doing the texture part for my self in the 1st place so i can’t make you to use it since you have some standards; i don’t know what can be adoptet since i worked at a rather low rez.At least the meshes will have correct uvw mapping coordinates.
I hope i did not annoyed you with the texture subject, i just wanted to say my point.
Personally it’s the contrary: I can’t see why you think smaller textures are sufficient.
What looks good in a 3ds max render won’t look good in real-time with the camera placed at human heights.
If textures are in high quality ( 1024^2 to 2048^2 ) then you allow incredible quality for people who’ve got top video cards and lots of video memory, while not punishing those who have lesser video cards ( since all textures can be downsampled on the fly, by the user selecting a texture quality level, like in games ).
If textures are in low quality ( 256^2 ) from the start as you suggest, you punish everybody who’s invested hundreds of dollars into their video cards.
It’s also not coherent with the philosophy of the project. We’re already modeling a city that has millions of polygons, that requires top video cards. 256^2 was the standard texture resolution in… 1999. You have to be coherent: either we model the city with low polycounts and low textures so that it runs on all machines; either we model the city with high polycounts and high textures, and restrict it to run on high-end computers by design, and that’s fine: it’s our choice.
All the thoughts about the textures were in relation with the fact of making the project doable. Everyone want’s a top notch thing, but do you really think this is doable in the actual terms? Not pessemistic, but realistic.
We’re already modeling a city that has millions of polygons, that requires top video cards.
You are getting things wrong since the model has milions of polys, but not all invested good in visual detail.I see houses with thousands of tris that don’t worth that much.
Anyway, as you pointed, it’s your choise.
Pjanssen i will mail you the file with the meshes,tomorrow night in the worst case, since i have to clean some things, and tonight i am not available.
If something will come up i will let you know.
Bye!
I can guess at your method, from what you have said, but it would be more helpful to actually see your texture set.
We are still at the start of the texture and I am willing to consider your suggestions , so seeing your input will likley be useful.
You can PM here with link or email - softdistortions@_hotmail_dot_com.
Thanks
Your end product looks excellent:thumbsup:
Is it so much easier to paint 256^2 textures as opposed to 1024^2 ? I don’t really know, I’m no 2D artist
Yes, but historically, when we started the project, the goal was to use incredibly high geometric details and to make the viewer able to visualize it. Here you’re speaking of the contrary: modeling and optimizing for the viewer. I agree that the models need optimizations ( especially to save memory ), but our goal was/is not to make a typical game model with a few hundred thousands polys at most.
First off, its been a while since I’ve been back here to see the progress, and I am in absolute awe of you guys!
Its looking incredible!
I am quite new to 3D, so I want to ask a question to whom it applies:
How did you go about creating the textures for the buildings? Were they photographed, hand painted…?
Thanks, and keep it up, this is just amazing to me!
Nick
Hey,
Chances are I will have some spare time this and next week. If you guys need any more buildings, just say so, I’ll be glad to help you out.
Got about 5 years of experience in 3dsmax, so it’s pretty much all about good references and deadlines.
I have send the file, hope it camed k.
Good to have worked with you, and maybe we will again.
Bye!
size=1 Weekly Update, Week 26[/size]
Sorry for my rather late reply, I was occupied with some other things the past couple of days.
@Kriket_Guy: First of all, you did a great job on those buildings and textures! I’ve received your email containing the models. I haven’t had time to look at it yet though.
A comment that I do have on your section is that it somehow looks a bit ‘western’ to me, especially the render with the building with the ‘veranda’. Perhaps the yellowish and rather sandy look add to this feeling, but I’d consider leaving the veranda out.
I’m really looking forward to see more of your input on this project in the future when you’ve got more time. Perhaps it’d be a good idea if you would work on the textures together with the other texture guys? Or perhaps you could work on making some foliage and tree ‘props’, looking at how great it looked on your WIPs.
[color=DarkOrange]@thelotrfreak1: The ‘team forum’ we’re talking about is a small forum for team members only where we discuss some things about the project. This is just to avoid unnecessary clutter in this thread.
@sadroneru: Thanks for your input. I agree that dark rooftiles (slate?) would be very nice. It’d give some nice contrast to the white buildings.
@space-sprayer: Thanks! The textures are a combination of photographs and a lot of post-processing. One or more photos are used as a starting point, and then get modified to get the wanted texture (e.g. colour correction, painting in dirt, making it tileable, etc)
[color=DarkOrange]@Bot13: Thanks for your offer to help. Have you got a portfolio online somewhere?
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About texture and lighting colour:
The colour tests that Kriket-Guy did are really useful, thanks for those. I think that it’s obvious that we should go for either the top-right or the bottom-right one. I would personally tend towards the bottom one.
The ones on the left are either too yellowish or too greenish. The whitest one (bottom-right) comes closest to the idea of a white city, without making it look unrealistic.
We should take care that it doesn’t become too grey and monochrome. Adding contrast by placing trees and plants and using dark-tiled roofs would help there I think.
I like the sort of painted feel of your (K-G) textures by the way. Perhaps we could try something in this style. I’d like to hear your opinions about this.
[color=DarkOrange]About texture resolution:
[color=#fffffe]I agree with Ysaneya and softdistortion, we should use high resolution textures. This would indeed fit the goal of the project and it’s models. If necessary, we can always scale them down later.
I must admit that when it comes to building models I have made mistakes as a project lead and modeler. There are quite a lot of buildings that have way too many polygons that are wasteful (not adding any significant detail). This will have to be corrected. However, we can still keep the aim at creating high detail (and thus high-poly) buildings. These only deserve high resolution textures in my opinion. For as far as the hardware allows it of course.
About the new website:
A couple of days ago Emiel and I decided that continuing the plans for the new website was not really getting anywhere. We have both had too little time to be able to develop anything. And looking at the future, it’s unlikely that there will be enough time to do much. This is sad, because we were very enthusiastic and full of ideas. But the reality is that it’s just not feasible.
Therefor, we have decided to cancel the whole thing. I will now have to come up with an alternative. as the current website is really outdated. I’m thinking of something along the lines of wordpress with a couple of custom features and a custom template.
More details later; ideas are welcome.
Updates on work assignments:
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[ul]
[li]Mehmet (Aranel) is working on concepts to improve the Great Hall and Tower of Ecthellion area. We’re going to move away from the looks in the movie a bit here, as we think it can be done better.[/li][li]Pawel is going to work on some concepts for the areas 2-rf and 3-lf to provide modelers of these sections with a solid base to work from.[/li][li]We’ve unfortunately had some problems with getting 3dEffects started. Importing the buildings and wall models into the program he uses (anim8or) was not working. He would be working on the 3-lf section, but it’s a bit unsure if that’s going to continue or not.[/li][li]MarlonJohn is working on the 2-rf section.[/li][/ul][color=DarkOrange][/color]
Thanks Pjanssen!
I managed to get out and take some photos of a castle near me yesterday. I got some pretty good shots of the bricks and stone, so ill have a go at doing some textures for myself the same way as you guys are doing it for this awesome project
Nick
I don’t really have any portfolio, I should make one someday. I did however do a bit of work for the Fetch project here.
My days of the last years consist mainly of modelling for free game projects with friends, and high polygon works for small animations (which I haven’t mastered yet - animation).
Next year I will go to the Game Design & Developement study, so anything I don’t know will be tought over there.
Nice to see the project progressing again - I’ve been following this right from the start, when I still had daily contact with Wilco de Kreij.
hey guys, heres a little render of a part of my section 2-rf … tell us what you reckon, crits and comments most welcome,
Marlon J
