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CatD10T
December 28, 2010 - 8:19am
- 12976 reads
Hi, I thought I would have a go at a version of the buldozer in the tutorials section 
I picked a Cat D10T and im just starting to do some renders now. Any coments on how this has gone would really help me out as its the first time I have done anything this detailed! I added a couple of me ref images too, just to show what I was working from. Thanks
Awesome thanks Yes I'm going to work on the low poly next. Just got my new PC a couple of days ago (my old system couldn't handle the rendering!!) so I'm a bit delayed but will get on to it very soon
I have started the low poly piece and I've got a few questions!
1. For a next gen asset, how much symetery would be ok to use in the uv/texturing?
2. How do I make normal maps work with mirrored uvs?
3. How do I render screengrabs from unreal, I cant seem to find how to do it!
Id really appreciate any help or any comments on the high poly as I can still tweak that it theres anything I need to do on it.
Thanks
Also, I'm trying to render a nice wire, but its so highpoly it looks pretty bad. Its on turbosmooth1 with isoline display atm. What is the correct way of doing this?
The wire looks great
I have started the low poly piece and I've got a few questions!
1. For a next gen asset, how much symetery would be ok to use in the uv/texturing?
2. How do I make normal maps work with mirrored uvs?
3. How do I render screengrabs from unreal, I cant seem to find how to do it!
Id really appreciate any help or any comments on the high poly as I can still tweak that it theres anything I need to do on it.
Thanks
Answers, answers answers!
1.Try to be as efficient with your texture space as possible and use symmetry where ever you can as not only does it save UV space it also means you have to spend less time unwrapping and trying to fit everything together.
You should be thinking about mirroring and overlaying UVs for anything that the player cant see all the time.
So in your dozer example, all the the sides could be overlayed along with the tracks and things like lights etc. that are all the same mesh, but repositioned in various places.
2. Its best to offset the mirroring where you can so you dont get texture seams along the center or everything but you can remove normal map seams by rendering over half of you normal (past the center seam) and then deleting the geo)
See the paint over below for details
3. type "togglescreenshotmode" into the console and the shots should appear in the UDK folder
Paint over key is the following:-
- overlay and mirror everything in all red to the green side (example only but you get the idea )
- Where the green arrows go into the red section is where you could over bake the mesh and delete the geo once its all baked.
- The green over red dotted line is a good place to put UV seams
Thanks for your reply, I will definitely do that with the seams. I cant mirror that whole piece as it has writing on it but there is a lot that I will mirror. I was thinking of modelling in some compacted dirt to the treads so that should help to break both sides up nicely. Here is a WIP of the low poly, its currently at 12,824 tris!! Still have parts to make too 
What do you think I should aim for polywise? I was hoping about 13k but its hard! My aim is to get a nice next gen game asset for my folio but I do want it to look real nice so I don't mind going to town a little bit.
Any crits on this low poly would be really helpful. (Also I'm using symmetry for the time being so please ignore the seams as they will go )
Thanks for all your help sofar
Nice job!
A shade under 13k tris is fine and perhaps even a little on the low side for something of this size (UT3 and GOW vehicles are up to 25k tris iirc).
Geometry is cheap now really (materials and textures are the bottleneck), so as long as its not wasted you will be fine.
One thing you should check for that you are not adding tris where you dont need to though...i noticed that in some places that it looks like you have created shapes that are a single contiguous piece where you could crash individual pieces together for a greatly reduced polycount of the final part.
With LP modelling you can get away with much more than in HP stuff so its good to bear things like that in mind as ixing this sort of thing would allow you keep the same polycount and improve the silhouette of other pieces
Try to keep your cylinders relative size consistent too. (I usually use around 22 sides for something the size of a car tyre) I say this because the hydraulics with the lights on, looks around the same size as the exhaust but is using maybe half the sides so they should probably be increased to match. (along with the wheel at front of the tread too match the cog at the top of the tread)
As for writing, there is a solution!
You could use decals to place the writing upon the vehicle which would allow you mirror more efficiently (a single transparent plane floating a few mm off the surface, or a decal material in UDK)
As for the dirt, i not sure that modeling it would be a good use, unless the clumps of dirt a large) because you could normal map that info and get the same result really.
Sorry for the long post and cant wait to see how you get along with this
Yeah Decals might work For the dirt I was thinking more like this pic, I want to make the dozer look really old and dirty, like its been left in a mess. I might model in some long grass around it in the final renders so that it looks like its been left and is being grown over.
Yea that might look cool 
very nice work keep it coming 
Just posting a quick update of my normal map progress. I'm thinking of using two 2048 texture maps. Is that ok for next gen specs? I would like to get it all in to one but i just cant get the quality with the normal map, I'm already getting trouble as it is If anyone can give me some crit on my UV layout I would really appreciate it. Also I'm having a bit of trouble with the cylinder shaped on the top front section, they seem to make a wierd wavey shape of the normal map.
to my experience, you would never find two 2048 texture maps for an ingame vehicle, at best, maybe on PC, but even then, it's overkill... 1*1024 would be the best you'd get with an 512 decal texture at the end of the project hehe (after optimizations, and reality check for consoles like 360 or ps3 )
what i would suggest is mirror your uvs where you can, no need to unfload the whole chain (half of it, and put it in a line so it tiles, or if you manage, just use part of the chain on the normal , and repeat the model to make the full chain)
Then use decals for letters, etc... as well as specific dirt or damage u want on it.
If you are using some of the most recent engines (cryengine, unreal etc..) you can then use a dirtlayer helped with a macro normal map to brack repetition ;
or if its a very important model in the game, a blend texture, (damaged/dirtyed version of your texture, with vertex alpha...
don't forget vertex colours too, they will help
well, that's how i would do it, it's up to your preferences and the the engine constraints in the end...but i hope that helps
For a portfolio 2x2k would be ok but it all depends on the size of the object.
The Goliath tank in UT3 used 1x2048 for the body(diffuse, spec and normal), a 1x1024 packed mask texture for damage and a 1024x128 (diffuse, spec and normal) for the tracks for PC (it also says in the package that the xbox and ps3 use the same but im not so sure about that 
)
You should be looking at a texel ratio of around 4-6px per inch of model, which is what most places tend to use for env. stuff now, but for a folio you could get away with more.
Overlay your UVs for repeating parts, especially the tracks as they are essentially the same piece repeated over and over.
To remove the wavy lines you can either use the smudge brush in Photoshop, copy a row of pixels and transform them upwards so that they are straight or adjust the cage so that the top is closer to the end of the cylinder. (in Max the cage also adjusts the casting direction)
Hope that helps!
Do you have the blue prints to this model (very good modeling, by the way), I would like to try it but cannot find the ref planes...?
Finally got to work on this a little bit more Here is the final low poly model (just unique unwrap parts) Its all unwrapped, gonna bake it unless anyone can crit me some major issues
Your UV islands are too close in most cases. You need room for padding.
-Jeremy-
Is there a way to know how much space i need exactly? What amount of padding is good?
Thanks for your help!
Yea, i have to agree with Jeremy.
You want at least 3px minimum for the normal map to resolve correctly and more for mips.
I would globally resize everything by 1-2% and then move everything around so you have a good gap between all the islands
Ok, thanks a lot guys, I will do that and re-post. I think I'm also going to seperate the tracks on to a tiling texture like the examples given above.
quick update on the tracks with no spec yet
Looking nice man
Once spec is on, the normal will be visible. Can't wait to see it applied!
-Jeremy-
and another one
that's lookin nice dude!
Looking sweet
Re-Promoted!
Thanks Heres another quick update with some more baking
very nice texture job! i cant think of any crit for the metal! great job!
Very cool
Promoted to the forum spotlight!
Can you post some wires and are you going to do a LP?
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