UGAC- Master Chamber- Rules

#61

We are all waiting to hear back from Devilhacker. You could start your thread and work up concept art in the meantime.

#62

You know, I do hate to be a downer but in my current job, I’ve done an entire area with around 30MB of texture space. It is possible to do a lot with a little. Start looking at how you can economize. Look into texture layers so a small section can be repeated over a large space and the second layer being things like the dirt or scuffs being on a second layer. I’ve already started early design docs and texture budgets based upon early geometry specs.

Does 10MBs suck? Yeah. But keep in mind, this is an "unofficial game art challenge."

Instead of wasting time and energy bitching about the texture limits, start to figure out how to maximize your texture limits. Yes, if everything fits on one huge map you reach your limit fairly early. But I did NOT see a limit on the number of textures you can use. Start looking into alpha maps. Start thinking about things like “wait, who’s to say my details can’t be a bunch of smaller 24x24 maps?”

Keep in mind, unless you get very close to an object, there is NO reason to get into the heavy details. Yes, fully textured panels look awesome but so would a small screen with an obvious Prey or Doom 3 functional readout.

Sorry to sound rude but it seems like half this topic is whining about the texture limit instead of seeing THAT aspect of the challenge the actual CHALLENGE part.

#63

dont lie. :smiley: The challenge is supposed to be between all of us, who can make the most amazing thing anyone has ever seen before. It is not intended to be a challenge between everyone and the specs.

If you were around for the discussion after the last challenge, you would know that there was talk of the future of the UGAC and desire within the community to make more of it. In hopes to one day gain the official support of CG Society, we need to continuously present high quality of work here in the UGAC. I believe the general opinion in the pre discussion was 10MB of optimized textures and there was a misunderstanding along the way as we rushed Devilhacker into starting the contest.[b]

PLEASE WAIT UNTIL DEVILHACKER REPLIES BEFORE ANYONE CONTINUES THIS DISCUSSION OF TEXTURE LIMITS. [/b]

Thank you.

#64

well, i’m sure we’ve got some industry game-makers that may have been in this kinda situation before… what do they have to say on the matter?

but i do agree… with some clever optimization (for example… do you need a full 24 bit pallette when the only colours in a given texture are from red to reddish brown?) and some creative solutions it could work out i’d imagine. makes me want to take part though i know my plate is full at the moment… gah, why do you tease me my dear muse, why!!!

…

though, the limit might make giving the level a pre-rendered GI effect a little tricky… :stuck_out_tongue:

#65

Just saw the specs for textures. From the looks we will be able to use

3 1024x1024
2 512x512

Or so… I have seen charecter models with these specs. the polys are ok but the texture limit is a downer.

esp if you have a normal map, spec, and color map. One good texture that is 1024x1024. For one wall. Seems a bit useless. And this is thinking that next gen are starting to use 2048x0248 textures more offten.

Seems like a worthless project for a game comp. Idea is great but the specs for the texs are very low. The polys are okayish esp if you think of normal mapping stuff you can get away with low detail with awesome normals which is what is happening now with next gen games.

Just seems very constriant for a contest like this. And if we want to impress Cgtalk peeps to perhaps later make these offical we have to work with specs of nextgen stuff imo.

#66

Agreed. I was really hoping to use this as a portfolio piece, and to make full use of the maps that are commonplace in next-gen games (normal, spec, diffuse). Seems now that that will be impossible. Where is DevilHacker, anyway?

#67

Count me in.

#68

Devilhacker apparently stopped by, no word.

I am working within the 10MB of optimized textures that was originally intended to be the specs, and I encourage the rest of you to do the same.

#69

pdf says competition ends on june 9 :shrug:

#70

the PDF was copied from the last challenge, the date wasnt adjusted

#71

Not to make the texture conversation last any longer, but what counts as optimized?

What format should I save my textures as to get most bang for my buck?

#72

I prefer .rgb since it’s about 20% smaller than .bmp and it can hold alpha channels. You may need to find a plug-in for your image editor but I still like it.

#73

.dds with DXT5 compression is both supported by video cards (IE the compression actually works on the card, as opposed to say a jpg or such) and offers really strong compression. you can find a bunch of tools at developer.nvidia.com for working with them in PS and Max, I know there are maya tools out there too for it but I haven’t touched maya in a couple of months.

#74

So you’re suggesting DDS? I see no problem with that. Games have been using them for years! I don’t see why this is even a question.

#75

I thought we were using .bmp

if theres no compression allowed then it should be in a format that isnt compressed ,right?

#76

well, I was talking about tga, png, tif, jpg, gif… but if I choose to play along with this video card game, use I will use a DDS texture set.

#77

but isn’t .DDS a compressed format ?

#78

Yes it is.

#79

well…this just leaves me confused,I thought no compression…now we’re using dds?

what format do we use for textures?..Devil Hacker …are you around & can you answer that?

I can’t start anything till I know this as my workflow is to texture,uv & model all at the same time

#80

agreed I would like to know this also. If we have compression with that texture limit given, than we may actually have something going here.