GMax and 3DSMax (And any other modeling program) screenies/renders

Sorry, didn't mean it to sound that way :s

What I meant was the the shadow errors are a mix of the lighting in the scene and the actual shape. I will grab a screenshot from the end to explain a bit later.

Zec
 
XCS-bogie-tex-04.jpg


Well, that the base VR version's textures done. That is unless anyone has any suggestions. I may do some more to the shadows tomorrow, but at this stage I'm happy with em. If anyone can do some light weahtering (I'm stuggling to find any that are really dirty, except for a layer of dust and faded paint).

And another version that I am doing: AN yellow.

XCS-bogie-tex-04-an-test.jpg


Zec
 
One from me

I cheated on this one, all I did was plonk the car carrier in place and click on the render button: It's someone else's scene

rendermi2.png



The car carrier could do a good job of being a bench, coudn't it... All i'd have to do would be delete the rails :)
 
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That car carrier is brilliant. Is there any chance of you releasing it. That really is a fine piece piece of work. Good Job. Keep it up.
 
That is the plan :)

I started this for the user electro, who requested it on #trainz.

It's proving to be a bit of a headache at the moment because the ambient occlusion I've used is providing annoying artifacts.... I think I might know what I could do to fix it but I've not yet taught myself how to do it.

Regardless of what happens, I plan to have it released in a fortnight.
 
That is the plan :)
It's proving to be a bit of a headache at the moment because the ambient occlusion I've used is providing annoying artifacts.... I think I might know what I could do to fix it but I've not yet taught myself how to do it.

Hi, Tommy -

What kind of problems are you having with Ambient Occlusion?

In my experience, most issues are due to poorly prepared mapping. You need to make doubly-sure that everything is flat - and on the same mapping plane - with no overlaps.

Another good trick for reducing artefacts is to bake the texture at 4 times the required scale. Then shrink it back down again in Photoshop.

:)

Perchpole
 
I've got a few screenies, which I hope will explain the problem:

The first is the wagon (in GMAX). The problem is very apparent on the sides of the diagonal parts of the truss setup:


The second and third show the affected section of the texture map in the GMAX unwrap UVW dialogue:


I believe my situation is caused by the fact that I have not devoted any real space on the UVW map to the parts of the model which are parallel to the line in which I have projected the side of the model onto the UVW plane (I hope I'm not speaking gibberish here, but I am finding it hard to explain in words). Any slight overlap in the lighting being rendered onto the texture has resulted in darkness being put onto bits which I might have expected it not to.

I mapped the wagon in that way to make it easier for me to apply the 'VR' logo to the it.

Ideally, I want to give the parts of the supports their own portion of the UVW map, but the problem with that is that I will have problems applying the logo in the right place to the newly mapped portions.
 
Another one from me. This one was done with exactly the same camera and light settings as the previous one with the car carrier.

It's interesting to look at how the different model has affected the ambient lighting: The overall feel is darker, and instead of a an orange sheen caused by the red-clay wagon, the walls are much bluer in colour here.

renderqe1.png


Oh, and if the car transporter was a bench, this one has to be a bathtub :)


Edit: I thought I'd try and combine the two to demonstrate the effect: It's nice to note what's changed and what's identical, or nearly identical in the images (if you can get over the strange effect)
 
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I've got a few screenies, which I hope will explain the problem:

The first is the wagon (in GMAX). The problem is very apparent on the sides of the diagonal parts of the truss setup:


I believe my situation is caused by the fact that I have not devoted any real space on the UVW map to the parts of the model which are parallel to the line in which I have projected the side of the model onto the UVW plane (I hope I'm not speaking gibberish here, but I am finding it hard to explain in words). Any slight overlap in the lighting being rendered onto the texture has resulted in darkness being put onto bits which I might have expected it not to.


Hi, Tommy -

Thanks for the info - and the pics!

The first image clearly illustrates the problem you're having. As you suggest, this is because the faces on the top and bottom of the diagonal trusses are not mapped correctly. There actually mapped in the wrong planbe - which is why you're getting that pixelated, stretching effect.

I apreciate size and space is a problem but the only way around this is to map everything correctly.

One of the best things to consider in this instance is "halving" your model. Simply cut your model in half (lengthways) then map it and bake the ambient occlusion. Then all you need to do is use the symetry modifier to complete the missing half. This ensures that both "sides" of the model use exactly the same UV coordinates and texture.

NB: In case you're worried about problems with reveresed logos and such, you can simply mirror the UVs in the Edit UV dialogue. The trick is to remember to make your texture "2-sided". This is exactly the mapping technique I used on my Crocodile ell-wagon.

:)

Perch
 
...NB: In case you're worried about problems with reveresed logos and such, you can simply mirror the UVs in the Edit UV dialogue. The trick is to remember to make your texture "2-sided". This is exactly the mapping technique I used on my Crocodile ell-wagon....

Neat trick Perch. Only downside is that by using a 2-sided texture you effectively double the poly count in terms of work the rendering engine has to do. Obviously the mesh stats don't reflect this but in real terms the engine has to do more calculations for visible faces. As long as you allow for that when building then it sounds like it can make some things much quicker to build and much more coherent results.


Cheers
Dave
 
Neat trick Perch. Only downside is that by using a 2-sided texture you effectively double the poly count in terms of work the rendering engine has to do. Obviously the mesh stats don't reflect this but in real terms the engine has to do more calculations for visible faces. As long as you allow for that when building then it sounds like it can make some things much quicker to build and much more coherent results.


Cheers
Dave


Hi, Dave -

Like most things, it's a bit of a trade-off - but it's worth it if you want to have more detailed textures.

In theory you can map both sides of the same object with one, large, single texture - instead of two that are half the size.

:)

Perch
 
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