HybrisFactory - Terraining and Mapping Resources

[PurgeandFire]

The second model in post #95 is wonderful.

 

[marko9]

Will you incorporate the 'douche shaders' into the map?

 

[Celaquil]

And ofc the pic is taken while using my douche shaders

Meaning it won't look this beautiful in my editor?
- Douche indeed. >.>

 

[Talavaj]

http://www.mediafire.com/download/24mi1rmdd31305m/ENB_series.rar
Depends, you probably won't like it.
The shaders don't work well with things that terrainers are fond of such as fog, glows, water planes etc. That is because the occlusion fully shows through alpha and alpha blend materials regardless of whether they are visually opaque or not (you will see what I mean when you try it) although you can disable it showing through such materials, but it may have another undesirable effects. (as such it won't show through ALL alpha materials which may look weird in certain cases.
SSAO is more for detail dense interior scenes.

You can try mess with the presets though I guess, it still has depth of field, bloom and color correction. The ini file is simple to understand, you can disable SSAO there.
Open it, copy contents into your wc3 folder (or editor folder if you have them separated) fire up editor hold shift and press F12.
Not sure what are the settings in that exact setup, you may have to tinker with DOF parameters on per scene basis.

 

[marko9]

Can you show how it looks without the shaders, add some fog maybe etc...

 

[Talavaj]

That is it without shaders, and of course there is fog.
It is black.

 

[marko9]

I still like it, I think that if you add some other fog effects you can get it to look similar... I think...

 

[Talavaj]

Bump,
1.0.6 Version added, it contains a couple bug fixes. This being a mesh fix of Window balistraria variant 1 and fixes of all doorways and balistraria.
They now use texture HFTGradient.blp that has to be imported. This should fix wonky coloring of the "inside" parts in aforementioned models when using alternate texture packs, the black parts now also render correctly in the fog.

I did some experimentation with puffy trees but they look too cartoony so I'm back to square one on that.

Yes, speaking of that noticed how the blue mushroom glows ? When you put it on the ground the omni on the terrain appears to brighten and dim out.
I was wondering how they did that because animating omni light's intensity and attenuation does not seem to work for me at all.
What they did is that they animated the omni light's pivot point so it rises up and down and because wc3 is a strategy with mostly horizontal level design it is not really noticeable. (only on adjacent objects)

As such the omni from my lamp post will actually follow the lamp as it sways around and the movement should be visible (the wc3 default lamp does not do that for some reason, probably because the movement is really subtle)
Similarly, omni from a firepit and torches will flicker around.
However, at this moment I'm unable to replicate the effect. It does work but it does not illuminate doodads properly only the terrain. I have no idea why because the shroom does it without problems.

Also more about omni lights, works of a friend of mine Toby, who does some extensive work with them, made me realize some neat features of theirs.
Such as that colored omni lights stack additively. And as such, a red with a blue omni light makes purple. Or that you can actually have omnis with a lot of different colors and intensities.
His work inspired me to make another pack sometime down the road, that would be for purely cinematic purposes only. As such it would have light objects, fog, volumetric light, particles (dust, fireflies, gas and stuff like that) small "bloom" glows and even makeshift flares.
It could be used to for example light up underground/dungeon terrains while not using the default light model. (which would allow for a lot of dynamic coloring)

 

[Adiktuz]

they look nice... maybe you could keep this cartoony one, and just make a non-cartoony version... XD

 

[Deleted member 212788]

I'd agree that these look a bit too cartoony, they'd fit better with "Pez" texture pack if you ask me. as for the rest, maybe desaturating the color a bit or making leaves smaller?

 

[Talavaj]

Yeah, I will keep the design for later maybe. I'll try to make leaves just the regular way. I'll just make higher resolution than usual and make them paletted, so the filesize shouldn't be that big.
By the way what is weird on this terrain ? (not the ruined skybox)

 

[Deleted member 212788]

The turtle-like sculpture on the left and above the plants?

 

[Naze]

Pretty cool stuff you made! It's surely going to add an accessible variation to the repetitive terrain styles that we terrainers were forced to do, due to the lack of new representative resources within WC3.

I wonder where did you get the motivation to finish all that pack and make such a presentation for us, as well as continuing to develop it, lol

Good job!

 

[Talavaj]

I wonder where did you get the motivation to finish all that pack and make such a presentation for us, as well as continuing to develop it, lol.

Too much free time I guess and a lot of practice helps !
Eventually I would like to move onto unity (asset store) commercially if it still will be a thing by then.
I'll have to work these next 4 months though so I guess I will have a lot less time for further upgrades during that period.

Also the intriguing thing about the terrain is that it is not a terrain but a "self sculpting" model, I was testing how feasible it would be to make a mountain model that could have different shapes and textures in different anims yet low filesize.
It could be used as a tall mountain backdrop for example.

Also I would like to ask, what everything you would like to see in the environmental pack ?

 

[Deleted member 212788]

Hmmmm, I'd be interested to see large vines or roots for jungles and redwood trees. Also, large LOS blocking grass like in SC2 maybe? Possibly large lily pads?

 

[Shadow44]

can you make tree without leaves? For winter terrain...

 

[Talavaj]

Yes, actually trees will come in parts and leaves will be separate models so yeah you will be able to do that with all types of trees.

 

[Shadow44]

that sounds good ;]

you can make some cliffs...

 

[lord_Turin]

how is the progress on the project going?

i've been using the modulair buildings for some projects but i'dd really like some props that you should you were working on to really spice up the terrain!

 

[Talavaj]

Well, many props are done. The problem is compiling/exporting models out which takes some time.
And because I'm now working most of the week I don't have that much time.

But I reckon I can release the first ~30 props out and add others later. Pretty much most of the basic furniture is done, I can try to release the first version next week or something like that.

 

[lord_Turin]

great, looking forward to that!

 

[marko9]

Nice work dude... can't wait to test it out!

 

[Talavaj]

___________________________________________________________________
Download Modular Kingdom

___________________________________________________________________

v1.0.0 Is out ! Contains 25 doodads (props > user-defined list within the included sample map) at the moment, I didn't have time to animate most of the animated models so they didn't make it into the first release yet.
They will be added though in a day or two.
The dungeon doodads (as seen in the pic under "theme") will be added in shortly too.
Some textures updated or added, so make sure to copy the textures from kingdom into your older manor map !

Sorry for the delay ! I know it is a bit barebone right now but I managed to craft this up at least.
Time constraints, time constraints..
Cheers !

 

[Deleted member 212788]

I really like how you've made even the props partially modular. - Being able to put hay or crates inside of carts. I want to ask, will you include the rocks in the dungeon release or will they be reserved for the nature pack?

 

[Strydhaizer]

Are you a Unity Member? You're a great modeller mate. Keep making more packs/models , but please dont forget your Memento Mori Project Its more ... inspirational?

 

[Talavaj]

The rock formations you have seen before are in the dungeons theme pack. There will be some rocks in the dungeon theme pack, but mostly representing natural-ish cave walls though I guess I could throw in some separate boulders too.
Dungeons is mostly cracked stone bricks and formations, walls, floor tiles, braziers, grates and some pipes.
Second set of the dungeons models is mostly rotten wood formations, with some support beams, bridges and scaffolds for mineshaft/cave themed level design.

Currently to be animated and hence missing in 1.0.0 : all doodads with light (lamp posts and braziers), container doodads (chests, cupboards that have animated drawers) sign posts and curtains.

Also, an unity member but not active in any way. I would like to make stuff for unity but it would take time which I reeeaally don't have any of right now.
Don't worry though the reason why this thread is not getting much love is because most of my time goes towards M&M.

 

[tobyfat50]

Not receiving much love? BS, It certainly did as you already impressed us with your apparently simple and clean but beautifully stylish cartooned models. That is proof enough of the creator's magic love. The reason I haven't downloaded your packs is that I make my own models so I thought not to touch someone else's work, but trying to make my own models directed me her for some inspiration since you are one of the few good artists on this site.
Now I'll have to download your Pack, Darn you!

 

[HOooDy]

Can I have a Test Map?

 

[GreeN!X]

This is one awesome pack. All I'm waiting for right now are the props you're making. The test map you included in the downloads are really helpful too. ;3

EDIT: Yay! The props is already out! Didn't really notice that.

 

[Talavaj]

Can I have a Test Map?

For wha ? Props have a test map already included in 1.0.0.
I'll try to put in most of the other doodads sometime this weekend. ~ And thanks for your kind words !

 

[RiotZ]

How can I add self-casting shadows to the models in my map? I'm doing everything with a super dark DNC, so lighting is essential, and this is something I've wanted to do for a really long time.

 

[Talavaj]

Wc3 can't generate it by itself obviously. Long story short, you would have to create a texture with a shadow in it.

Shadows in my models are a separate material layer with a black+white texture overlaid on the normal one. (because that way you can have a higher quality texture or a tiled texture underneath a fairly low resolution shadow)
I don't draw the shadows manually, they are generated using a renderer which uses a fairly accurate ray-tracing setup and then "draws" those shadows on the texture.

So yeah, there is no one use magic-trick that can do that. It is all manual labor and you would have to make every model manually like that. You could make animated shadows too, by rendering a sequence of "shadow maps" and animate the frames but that is even more labor intensive.
Not to mention the ridiculous filesize it would munch. (I have a couple animated sequences that are about 20mb each)

 

[RiotZ]

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/members/185888-albums6426-picture73047.jpg

I meant like the above. ^

I could always just make a plane texture with an alpha channel fit to the shape of my model and place each shadow individually by each corresponding model, couldn't I? And it would use a ridiculously small amount of space, I can't imagine any more than 20kb per shadow model.

I wonder why nobody is doing this already, I guess you couldn't be able to shadow units standing inside the shadow model.

Any thoughts on this idea?

 

[Talavaj]

Shadows on the floor ? Yeah you could do that using the image- trigger that you can use with semi transparent shadow with alpha blend mode and it will stick to the terrain properly.

Like so:

People don't do it cause, lazy. And you actually can shadow them very easily lol, put regions in where the shadows are and change the vertex color of the entering unit to darkish.
That is how the protagonist in MM is shaded.
It is obviously not precise but it is still way better than a bright glowing unit in a pitch black area.
You can make version of doodads with dark variation for places with shadows which requires even less effort than shadow maps because of save with shadows and it honestly baffles me why nobody does it.
You can take it to the extreme and construct the surroundings from small doodads and give them an animation state in which they are dark and play this animation when units/objects are around them for a pseudo real-time lighting effect.
And yeah if you want a decent texture for just the flat ground it can be really small with low filesize while being of good quality at the same time.
Also, the wagon was made like that:

Shadows in my models are a separate material layer with a black+white texture overlaid on the normal one. (because that way you can have a higher quality texture or a tiled texture underneath a fairly low resolution shadow)
I don't draw the shadows manually, they are generated using a renderer which uses a fairly accurate ray-tracing setup and then "draws" those shadows on the texture.

What also baffles me is the overall progress of modding in this game, which didn't get very far in my humble opinion. Though I reckon it is just because of how easily accessible the modding is, making it harder to find more dedicated projects in the pile of metoo stuff.

 

[RiotZ]

Shadows on the floor ? Yeah you could do that using the image- trigger that you can use with semi transparent shadow with alpha blend mode and it will stick to the terrain properly.

Like so:

People don't do it cause, lazy. And you actually can shadow them very easily lol, put regions in where the shadows are and change the vertex color of the entering unit to darkish.
That is how the protagonist in MM is shaded.
It is obviously not precise but it is still way better than a bright glowing unit in a pitch black area.
You can make version of doodads with dark variation for places with shadows which requires even less effort than shadow maps because of save with shadows and it honestly baffles me why nobody does it.
You can take it to the extreme and construct the surroundings from small doodads and give them an animation state in which they are dark and play this animation when units/objects are around them for a pseudo real-time lighting effect.
And yeah if you want a decent texture for just the flat ground it can be really small with low filesize while being of good quality at the same time.
Also, the wagon was made like that:


What also baffles me is the overall progress of modding in this game, which didn't get very far in my humble opinion. Though I reckon it is just because of how easily accessible the modding is, making it harder to find more dedicated projects in the pile of metoo stuff.

I already was planning to do the vertex coloring trick, I've done that in another map of mine.

How did you get the shadow image of that tree though? I didn't quite follow your explanation...

In Triggers, the Image section, and? I'd like a detailed explanation of this process if possible.

 

[Talavaj]

The shadow texture is made in photoshop. If you want a kinda realistic shadow, you can hide the terrain (ctrl + t) press k to show the white default sky and view the model from around the angle that the light comes from, and take a printscreen.
Take it to photoshop or somewhere and make the silhouette all black, and mask or delete the white. Tadaa.

Image types are shadow, occlusion mark, indicator, selection, topmost and ubersplat. The difference I think is that they have different blending, and priority planes. Ubersplat works well, and so do some of the others, some may work only with certain textures.
Image is much better than using the trigger ubersplat, because you can scale images, have different blending types and move them or change their vertex color too. While ubersplats are fixed to a dimension based on their texture size and have only alpha blend mode (iirc) and nothing of the aforementioned advantages.
You apply it like that (or something like that):

• Image - Create an image using "texture" of size "XXX" at (x) with z offset 0.00 using image type "xxxx"
• Image - Change (Last created image): Enable render always state
• Image - Show (Last created image)

 

[RiotZ]

Okay I followed you on everything except on what I'm taking a screenshot of. The actual model? And then making a silhouette out of the model? I'm not really sure how I can get an exact shadow that way.

I was also thinking of making grass with an alpha channel, and opacity on that alpha, on the stems of the grass, so it has a fading out effect, as opposed to looking sharp on the edges. Just basic level modding intuition here, you're probably already doing this with your high res stuff.

 

[Talavaj]

That is how you make a simple shadow, obviously it isn't super accurate raytracing that also calculates realistic GI and bouncing rays and diffused light. But if you get the angle right you get a result that is pretty realistic.
After all that is how light actually works.

And about that grass, you can't have a smooth opacity using alpha mode, it will always have to be either completely opaque or completely transparent. Partial opacity can only be made using alpha blend material mode.
And using blend mode by default already makes smooth edges instead of hard ones but there are massive pop-in issues when using alpha blend mode.
The "hard edges" aren't the fault of the texture, they are fault of the filter mode.

I use blend mode for the grass in this vid. And the other foliage uses a screen material on top of alpha to smooth the edges.

 

[RiotZ]

Thank you for clearing both of those up. Going to give it a shot, just one last question, as relates to quality/size ratio, I'm trying to fit this in a multiplayer map, about what size should I make all of my shadow images? 256x256 - 520x520 etc, I imagine they could be really quite small, depending on the scale of their physical counterpart, (the object emitting the shadow.)

 

[Strydhaizer]

That shadows technique was really interesting and... awesome .
Can you please share a piece of test map . I cant do it on my own

 

[Talavaj]

-

About 128x for most maybe 256x for bigger things like trees. It only really gets blurrier with smaller dimensions, but it doesn't really matter for shadows as they are supposed to be fairly soft by default.

-

xD what else you don't understand ? I'll try make some later, I'm not on the pc right now.

 

[RiotZ]

I concur with Stryder, purely in that there should be a tutorial for this, and I can't seem to get my shadow texture to work... When I convert it from TGA to BLP the filesize reduces to 0 and it crashes World Editor. xD

 

[PurgeandFire]

If you ended up with 0 file size, then it didn't convert properly. Make sure your dimensions are powers of 2 (it isn't necessarily required, but some converters might not handle it properly). Use BLP Lab.

But anyway, I don't want to derail the thread too much. There are two tutorials on using images:
http://world-editor-tutorials.thehelper.net/cat_usersubmit.php?view=66955
http://www.wc3c.net/showthread.php?t=107737

Remember to make the white transparent.

 

[Strydhaizer]

If you end up using this resource in your mod or a terrain piece feel free to share the screens in here.
They will be added to this post for others to see and make it easier to demonstrate the resource and its usage.

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/terrain-board-267/fantasy-tower-242982/ Cant post it here , its still in WIP

 

[Talavaj]

Yerp ! I was gonna ask you whether you would want me to include it in the sample screens when I saw your thread and wanted to comment on it a few times but got distracted every time !

The night scene is even more lovely IMO.

 

[Strydhaizer]

Yerp ! I was gonna ask you whether you would want me to include it in the sample screens when I saw your thread and wanted to comment on it a few times but got distracted every time !

Yes Yes !!!

 

[tobyfat50]

Giving us useful information as always, at least for me it is. Haven't tried out the vertex thing yet but when I get back to working on OVH I'll definitely try it. The Shadow trick is interesting. I've been using images on the terrain but only for tests didn't think of adding shadows that way.

 

[FUJI]

You have got a nice model packs there ^^! +Rep

 

[N.Knight]

I have got a question about the shadow method that Talavaj has shown in the posts above. Will it work on undulated terrain?
and thanks for the modular manor models pack, I just downloaded it

 

[Talavaj]

Yup, it does. It works like ubersplats but you will have to do a lot of trial and error with aligning the shadows with doodads because they seem to appear with an arbitrary offset.