For the general environment of my space level it is clearly an important issue for there to be a number of asteroids to make up the general scenery.
A rather quick technique of mass-producing these is done by utilising 3dsMax's modifiers.
As can be seen in the first image below, by starting with something as simple as a sphere with a standard 32 segments applied generates a model with <1k polys. (960 to be exact).
With the application of a 'Noise' modifier as seen below and the use of a unique seed on the model, it creates a fairly convincing base asteroid for use in my game.
And by creating copys of the original asteroid model and then by going through and giving each asteroid its own unique noise modifier seed, we now have a collection of unique-looking asteroid models that can be taken from 3dsMax and processed into zBrush to obtain a good set of UV co-ordinates, then to MudBox to generate the Noise and Vertical Displacement Maps, then its a case of texturing and finally getting them into UDK as part of the level!
Finally with a bit of scaling on each asteroid, there is now a collection of vastly different asteroids for me to populate my level with. The intention is for these "big" asteroids to make up a significant portion of the level and then by scaling down within UDK I can litter them around.
Just a quick update on my in-game HUD. As can be seen below is the Health Bar and Ammo Bar.
Its made in Flash Pro CS 5.5 (Actionscript 2.0). I've got an animated reticle, health bar and an ammo counter that when implemented into my game in UDK should react dynamically according to the values of the player ship.
Above you can see them in the Scaleform Launcher test, all showing correctly and while it cannot be seen here, they are animated. Now it is justa case of implementing it into UDK and placing it correctly in the lower right corner of the screen. The reticle has a slow clockwise rotation on it as well that looks quite swish so I am excited to get this implemented as soon as possible!
Here you can see the skeletal mesh that encompasses my Player Ship.
It's an evolution on the last testing rig I made for the previous flight test.
This time it takes into account the turrets, foot and wings at the back.
Below is a picture of the rig inside the Player Ship:
I took a much more comfortable root in the rigging/bone weighting method utilising an amazing piece of MEL script for Maya that allows you to allocate weighting in a manner exact to 3dsMax.
I was having a great deal of issues getting used to bone weighting using the 'Paint Weights Tool' / Component View, so after some digging around on the net, I found this very useful script!
Also when dealing with
non-organic stuff where it's just needed to weight all of sections to 1 and the model has verts that crossover in places, it is a pain in the ass to swing around
your model looking for all the verts to select.
The method I took was of simply selecting the faces for the verts I wanted then
(making sure I'm in polygon mode) > Select > Convert Selection
> Vertices! (Hours saved!).
Then it was just a case of applying the appropriate weighting to the appropriate bones!
Guess theres no more... *put on sunglasses* Weight-ing around!
Okay so now I've had a fantastically refreshing sleep, it's back to getting this blog updated to where I'm currently at, and so we continue on with the Skybox Creation and the steps taken to achieve it.
To the left here is the general camera settings and below are the render settings.
Note that each render will be a 4k Square map, this is to preserve the highest quality as I'm going between programs and any scaling for optimisation of file size will be done once the cubic map is finished.
Below you can see the render settings I have used. No cameras are currently selected as per each render this has to be changed.
Below you can see the positioning of the cameras within the scene.
With the above settings all finalised I can render out the 6 images I will be taking with me into SkyPaint to produce my 360-degrees seamless panoramic skybox.
Render #1 (Galaxy_FT):
Render #2 (Galaxy_UP):
Render #3 (Galaxy_BK):
Render #4 (Galaxy_DN):
Render #5 (Galaxy_LF):
Render #6 (Galaxy_RT):
With the above renders complete, I can now take them into the program of SkyPaint and create my seamless skybox for the level.
In the very early stages of this project I mentioned my intention to make use of the Render Paint Effects tool that is contained within Maya to help me create a highly detailed skybox that would encompass the level for my game.
I started producing this utilising the galaxy brush located in the Get Brush menu for that tool.
With the tool selected I created what would be the base spline from which the post-processed star/galaxy fields would be generated and then after tweaking the tool settings to a point at which I believed them to be at an aesthetic setting. The picture below shows what I eventually achieved after a great deal of tweaking.
With the above settled, I began the task of duplicating and tactically positioning around the World Co-Ordinate 0 to create a spherical layout. This began simply by initially creating a bowl shape on one side, then grouping and rotating around World0 to make sure a similar distance is kept.
Each paint effects spline has a random seed applied to it so every single spline (while the same base shape) emits a completely different set of post-processing particles creating a truly unique space environment.
Above you can see the skybox from outside of it's intended view, this at approximately 45% completion. I further tweaked this tidy up alot of the spline placement and then also played around with many of the splines distance from where the camera rendering out the panaromic shots would be to create a stronger illusion of depth.
After finishing up to the 50% mark I then grouped and rotated the Paint Effects to encompass the entire area around World0 as can be seen in the picture below. Further below that picture is a rendering of what that entire area looks like.
Below is the visible setup from within the Maya viewpoer and then further below is a rendering from inside the skybox (at World0). It was imperative to make sure that none of the lines truly overlapped and as a consequence cause a great deal of inconsistency in the skybox.
Now that the skybox base has been complete I can get a render produced at the 6 standard angles(each camera set specifically to 90degrees Field-of-View). Then using a program called Skypaint and it's pipeline into Adobe Photoshop via plug-in, I can stitch together a very high quality skybox for my game.
Before the next phase I decided to render out a video using the camera at World0 to scan around the skybox with the intention of checking for holes/patches, this way I had something tangible with which to brainstorm about.
Be Warned:
The camera in the following video has a FOV set to 90, this may cause motion sickness in some people due to the fast paced nature of the object. However by stopping and starting the video at different intervals you can get a really good feel for the stars surrounding the level.
It is my intention that once the final panoramic is complete that I will try to make use a great deal of NASA stock footage to add nebulae's, auroras, gas giant clouds, basically all the things that makes space so wonderous and exciting! :)
So after getting quite comfortable in the operation of Mudbox, I decided to try my hand at making some example asteroids. These are two potential environments I am considering.
I think it would be alot easier to produce your standard asteroid field much like the example that is on the left in the picture.
However I think if I could get a setup whereby the majority of the environment is in the style of Ice/Crystals (like the example on the right), that could look really incredible, however I might save that as a low-priority cosmetic change to consider when the next big deadline is out the way.
So for now I am resolute in the knowledge it can be done and how to do it but it's something
that to execute correctly I will have to set aside a good deal of time.
I will be aiming for the general environment to reflect the typical 'Rock-Asteroid' scene as it is the one at this stage that will not just be the most efficient but also the most effective in building a scene which conveys verisimilitude.
I did encounter some paticular issues when I brought the Vector Displacement
and Normal Maps over to Maya for a test render as can be seen below.
I hadnt resolved this at the time but I imagine it was due to the lack of a proper texture
on the model which cause the artifacts to look much more prominent and unwholesome
than they actually would be when combined with what's missing.
In a sense it's the opposite effect to what I experienced when looking at my textured
Player Ship without its VD/NM's applied.
Below is the asteroid you see in the Mudbox window above, except at its lowest Subdivision
with the Vector Displacement Map applied in Maya.
And below is both the Vector Displacement and Normal Map applied, however I believe a potential UV Mapping issue is what's causing the seam issues which can be seen on this side of the rock.
It may have been an error caused by myself during the sculpting of the object.
I am hopeful a fresh build of some asteroids will not encounter this issue again.
