My WIP Ages

[janaba]

Yali has posted some amazing with Unreal created sceneries, captured in videos, on the Cyan forums, in the Obduction Backers section, which showcase astounding impressions of what is possible with that engine ...

This one is a portfolio piece by Joe Perez, who got just hired by Cyan for the Obduction development btw (there will be an update by greydragon soon - I just see he's on the Cyan Team page already), and this one is just another gorgeous example of the potential of engines like Unreal 4 (now I also know, where Adam got his former interesting forums avatar from, look in the related videos section ) ... Enjoy, Sirius and all ...

[Sirius]

Ah, my post got lost when I clicked "Submit" again...



Wow !
The Obduction video is really impressive. The sky and flying rocks are really well done. It's quite obvious the house doesn't have any collision though
I hope the motion blur isn't too strong in-game, it was horrible in RMME...

And that second video is stunning as well... the quality of the models and textures make it very realistic. That, and the awesome landscape size.

Got it running in a little over two hours using their visual scripting language. Pretty cool.

Sounds nice ! I guess it takes a bit of familiarization with the engine to do this, though. Personally I'm still stuck at "how to import FBX models so that normals and textures aren't lost". As often, the process is more tedious with Blender than it is with 3ds Max...
As for rewriting parts of the engine: it's impressive, when you're used to engines like Plasma which don't have a lot of flexibility besides Python scripts.

Anyway, I did more work on non Uru related stuff, even though it's definitely not much compared to the above vids...

Show Spoiler



Oh, and I also wrote a Blender plugin to import meshes from another fantasy game with awesome level design...


[janaba]

Ohh, Sirius, I didn't want to discourage but to encourage you and whet your appetite for more lol ...

I love that dragon and the cityscape looks awesome too ... now just imagine that properly textured and with everything else added and refined, correct lighting etc. etc. ... Way to go! Sirius ...

[Sirius]

Nah, don't worry, Janaba ! I know these guys have more experience than me with modeling and with Unreal. I still have things to learn !
Besides, disappointment should only push someone forward, not hinder him. Giving up doesn't get you anywhere (especially not forward )
I'm glad you like it though !
Now, I should get back to my little project if I want it completed...

[Sirius]

Wow, this forum is quiet these days ... Oh well, might as well post some pictures for those interested !

Alright, so this evening I've felt like working a bit on my city model !

I wanted to get a nice sky and better water in the city, and decided to use Noloben's wonderful sky. Why ? Because it's quite fun to reverse engineer things for Blender, and because it fits well enough the original concept for the city (which originally comes from a comic, and is much more detailed than what you see here).

So, here it is ! These are all pictures from inside Blender (either in the 3D viewport or using rendering). Hope you don't mind the size and number of pictures.
And a few technical explanations if it's interesting to anyone.

Show Spoiler




Getting the sky to look like in Myst needed some rework, though, because multilayering isn't the same in Plasma and Blender. The main issue was an oversaturated sky resulting in it being purple instead of blue/yellow. Also, the rendering technique of the sun cannot be used in Blender - which means I had to merge the sun plane with the skydome.

I also worked on better looking water - in these two shots, it's only the default Noloben water texture (the one used on low quality, when wavesets are disabled). In the game it looked horribly wrong, so I made it a lot more transparent to match the waveset system. Reflectivity is faked by using a duplicate of the sky under the water.




However, I wasn't satisfied by the look of the water, so I decided to experiment with Blender's mirror rendering - which means it can now reflect the sky and the buildings near it !
Thanks to normalmapping and a bit of blurring, it looks like actual wavy water, while it uses only a single texture.





Best of all: Noloben's sky went grey when using the Slate, and downpour could be seen in the distance if you looked carefully enough. Well, I managed to bring it back !


This required to merge the rain mesh with the sky mesh, which already contained data for the sun. As a result, the sky now has 8 layers with 5 UV maps. The last two are the new ones for the rain and the sun.

To reflect this, I also tweaked the direct and ambient light to make it feel a bit more overcast.



Personally I think it looks quite cool !

It still lacks rain particles, but last time I tried in Blender it looked quite bad, so I'll probably wait a bit.
Either way, I'm quite satisfied with the sky and water now !

[janaba]

Hi, Sirius and all, it is not only this forum but all forums around Uru/Moul/Cyan ... /shrug ...

There's a real awesome wedding ceremony taking place in the cavern tonight at 20:00 pm KI time btw., for all interested, and everyone's invited ... it'll be too late for me though at 04:00 am ...

However, I'd say, before heading to the dreamlands, you didn't waste your time with experimenting, reverse engineering, rendering and tweaking etc., Sirius, the water and the sky look really pretty awesome already, and I'm not just saying this to say anything and to encourage you ... No, really, great job ...

[Jhon J. Jaguar]

Hey Sirius. i have see your job, and i think is very good. I don't know what is your project now, but i can say you a thing.... I all 3D projects there are three elements who can does the excellence of a job:
1 A special fantasy, who i tell it come from a desire to live in a splendid dream.
2 The passion, who can give the determination for to climb the difficolties we can find on the road.
3 The Heart, with that we can give soul and life to our projects and to pass on to all players our dreams and give an alternative live sistem, although in a digital world.
And this things are very important in a splendid world like Myst and Uru, were we live in peace and with an emotional adventure.
Is normal can come a time were we haven't a good inspiration for that kind of job....me too i have these thinks sometime. But remember you are not only, we are all with you. (I'm sure all here think this with me.)
Take care for now. I hope to can see your job complete, one day.
Shorah B'sheem

[Yali]

Thanks for linking my videos janaba. Here are two more from my YouTube channel:

Temple and Katha Island

I really want learn Unreal as I think its simply amazing, however last time I did Level Design in school using UE3 I failed big time. Then again, the class was more about creating cool levels with interesting dynamics than learning how to build pretty environments. We never even textured our levels the whole semester!

Anywho, as for a Myst Unreal server, let me just say YES! Seeing Myst ages in Unreal is my dream. The engine can really outdo Riven and Revelation when used by a good artist. Count me in!

[Sirius]

There's a real awesome wedding ceremony taking place in the cavern tonight at 20:00 pm KI time btw., for all interested, and everyone's invited ... it'll be too late for me though at 04:00 am ...

Unfortunately, I missed it, but my best wishes go to them both of course...

I all 3D projects there are three elements who can does the excellence of a job:
1 A special fantasy, who i tell it come from a desire to live in a splendid dream.
2 The passion, who can give the determination for to climb the difficolties we can find on the road.
3 The Heart, with that we can give soul and life to our projects and to pass on to all players our dreams and give an alternative live sistem, although in a digital world.

That sounds quite right, Jhon !
Personally I think the best 3D environments are those which can also reflect a specific feeling, most of the time the mood of the story that takes place in the world.

It's also worth noting a few of my Age ideas come from actual dreams I had. It's funny, because that's when you have the simplest yet brightest ideas, probably because dreams are more about feelings than coherent thinking. Wow, that sounds queer. Well, whatever it takes to get good ideas !

Here are two more from my YouTube channel:

Temple and Katha Island

Stunning, once more. It's funny, Unreal 4 has a very specific way to do lighting and bloom, which is quickly identifiable in videos.
I'm always impressed at how people can do incredible things with only a small corridor or hall, only with texturing and lighting...

We never even textured our levels the whole semester!

You know, I recently found an awesome game using almost no texture (excluding lightmaps, obviously). It's called NaissanceE (which could be translated as BirthH, I guess).
The whole environment is designed with blocks, and yet it still feels really natural and awe-inspiring. I think it's more an interactive piece of art worthy of a museum than a game, really...
Unsurprisingly, it's using Unreal



And two new shots of the city:

Show Spoiler

I combined two textures for the water, which results in more waves when looking from a distance, while remaining detailed in close-ups. I still have to figure out better, depth-based transparency. And I'm slowly progressing on more architecture...

[Jhon J. Jaguar]

A very good job. For now i haven't work about the heaven, because my next objective is in the puzzles dificolty. The water effect is very good. I have use for the sea an easy plane with water turbolence and a dark color for the lake. In all two cases the texture in background have does an important job for the final result. But i know is not perfect. For now i have change my attention for the lights and shadows sistem....and for the puzzle logic python. About that i most understand the SDL parameters into the logic sistem file. But there is a good news..... The 9 books are ready, and the first and last puzzles work very good.....In a good occasion i will spoke with you Sirius about the heaven sistem, because i need it for to create the right perspective for the third age of my expansion. But i don't know if you work with Blender or Max7.....
Good job again. Is ever a pleasure see these images who tell us the dreams of the writers.
Good luck and have fun.Shorah B'sheem

Jhon J. Jaguar