Half-Life 2: Enhancement Mod (V5)

[Com Truise]

Dont worry my material library will help with that.

[Clear_Strelok]

Here's how the normal looks so far by the way:

[T]http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/357676ravenholmsignnormal.png[/T]

I tried to add a cubemap based reflection that uses this alpha layer to determine which part is supposed to reflect the surrounding: (In that case only the orange part of the sign is supposed to reflect slightly)

[T]http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/762280ravenholmsignnormal.png[/T]

And Finally I've added what seems to be the proper code to use the bumpmap alpha layer instead of the base texture alpha:

[I] "$bumpmap" "models/props_junk/ravenholmsign_normal"
"$envmap" "env_cubemap"
"$normalmapalphaenvmapmask" 1[/I]

Did I missed something ?

[Tayley]

white is shiny, black is not shiny.

also you could add the line
$envtint [r g b] and set those values lower, even as far as along the lines of 0.1-0.01 for each value.

[Clear_Strelok]

Already find out but thanks. So with a reversed alpha layer and the lines:
[I]
"$envmapcontrast" 1
"$envmapsaturation" 1[/I]

It already looks better. The effect is quite subtle but so far I think it's better this way.

[T]http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/2996522014031800020.jpg[/T]

I'll probably get back on it once I will be more comfortable with Source.

[Falkok15]

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;44271882]Jesus Christ that outlet.[/QUOTE]
It literally is just a stick in the wall.

[MaxOfS2D]

IMHO You guys need to stop debating about the texture of a single small prop for pages on end and go a little more for quantity rather than quality sometimes, don't end up obsessing about if the texture on this road sign is accurate/perfect/realistic etc

Because if you keep doing that you're not doing an enhancement mod, you're doing a graphics self-wankery mod

I've posted this here before and I'll just post it again

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3797350/hosting/2014-03/2014-03-18_08-20-23.png[/img]

[Glitchvid]

[QUOTE=Proj3ct_ZeRo;44272115]Dont worry my material library will help with that.[/QUOTE]

Please actually use values that work when plugged into Source. Since you can get any ol' PBR sample sheet and it usually won't make any relation to Source's system.

Source doesn't have any way to take the cubemap and blur it based on a value (Other than the resolution of the cubemap itself) - so there's no way to really make 'glossy' surfaces with just the material (Barring weird workarounds).
And phong has intensity, and exponent: which is sorta glossiness, but it's only 4 lightsources: so it's hard to really simulate that.

Anyway: a nice set of balls with separate materials would be nice to at-least have a swatch.

[Com Truise]

[QUOTE=glitchvid;44274429]Please actually use values that work when plugged into Source. Since you can get any ol' PBR sample sheet and it usually won't make any relation to Source's system.

Source doesn't have any way to take the cubemap and blur it based on a value (Other than the resolution of the cubemap itself) - so there's no way to really make 'glossy' surfaces with just the material (Barring weird workarounds).
And phong has intensity, and exponent: which is sorta glossiness, but it's only 4 lightsources: so it's hard to really simulate that.

Anyway: a nice set of balls with separate materials would be nice to at-least have a swatch.[/QUOTE]

You are right about the cubemap blur problem, I am going to experiment with some workarounds I believe "may" solve the issue. The idea is to use this as a material "swatch" library as you mentioned I am going to include a PDF explaining everything as we really need artists to understand what they are doing with source or we are gonna have problems. Also new balls wip.

[IMG]http://i58.tinypic.com/14ncju9.jpg[/IMG]

[BMCha]

Not to be getting too deep into modifying complex shaders again, but if we boost the resolution of all cubemaps to a relatively high (i.e. sharp) res*, it should be possible to emulate glossiness by selecting the appropriate mipmap through texcubelod, replacing the texcube call that vertexlitgeneric usually uses. We'd just add a glossiness vmt parameter that would control the mip level selected by the shader.

However, in addition to the complications that modifying what's probably the second most complex shader in the game could(read: will) create, this technique would interfere with other cubemap-using shaders, which would have to be modified either to act like the cubemaps were still low res (or modified to also have a glossiness parameter).

Also that reminds me: I'm finally not busy and can pack up that parallax-corrected cubemap stuff for whoever wanted to look at it. Unless something unexpected comes up (and assuming I don't forget) I should be able to get that done in the next day or two.

*this would increase map sizes but considering the texture size increase that's happening in this mod I doubt that's going to be a problem.

[Stiffy360]

[QUOTE=MaxOfS2D;44274243]IMHO You guys need to stop debating about the texture of a single small prop for pages on end and go a little more for quantity rather than quality sometimes, don't end up obsessing about if the texture on this road sign is accurate/perfect/realistic etc

Because if you keep doing that you're not doing an enhancement mod, you're doing a graphics self-wankery mod

I've posted this here before and I'll just post it again

[img]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3797350/hosting/2014-03/2014-03-18_08-20-23.png[/img][/QUOTE]

Isn't the whole point of this mod to look like the industry? :v:

Granted I think we could progress a little bit quicker with things. There should be a point where we can go "eh, good enough"

[Mr. Someguy]

I think the point is they should focus on essentials before going into smaller areas of detail.

Fix glaring problems and improve the worst or most important models, then argue over dirty watermelons.

[gk99]

I'm still laughing my ass off about the dirty watermelon thing.

[tehstrelok]

Max, why don´t you join us in the development? ;)

[Shier]

You might be laughing but I feel currently like an idiot for even opening my mouth.

[NothingAteMyCat]

The watermelon issue could easily fixed by creating a second skin for watermelons, so that clean ones can be found in Kliener's lab, Resistance refuges and refrigerators while dirty ones can be found among the dusty debris of buildings and HL2 mods that focused on watermelons.

[Porky-da-Corgi]

Just wait until the mod team remodels that watermelon with 200,000,000,000,000,000 polies- then it can get a sexy 4096 (wait no 8192!) texture for the utmost realism! We're throwing our everything into creating all the little things!!!!!!!

[The Error]

[QUOTE=gk99;44276807]I'm still laughing my ass off about the dirty watermelon thing.[/QUOTE]

I have to reword what I said. By gritty I didn't mean dirty, I meant that it looked all wrinkly and shit. But I said gritty instead of that because I'm a goddamned moron.

[NothingAteMyCat]

[QUOTE=I am Error;44277131]I have to reword what I said. By gritty I didn't mean dirty, I meant that it looked all wrinkly and shit. But I said gritty instead of that because I'm a goddamned moron.[/QUOTE]

Have mercy on yourself. It doesn't really make you a moron, so all is forgiven. At least your opinion was met and received, right?

[gk99]

[QUOTE=I am Error;44277131]I have to reword what I said. By gritty I didn't mean dirty, I meant that it looked all wrinkly and shit. But I said gritty instead of that because I'm a goddamned moron.[/QUOTE]

This is truly one of the "We'll laugh at it later" things.
Believe me, I've said some fucking stupid things on FP because I picked a wrong word :v:

[BreakinBenny]

I saw in EP2's files that the watermelon's UV map and texture were compressed, which was a good idea since all that black emptiness weren't going to be used.

[Dr.Cola]

The watermelon argument still can't beat the flashlight argument in uselessness since people actually debated about it for pages.

[h4ngman]

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;44271882]Jesus Christ that outlet.[/QUOTE]

Whoop whoop, I am a professional 3D-Artist and I'm bored right now. Let me do something about it

[RaTcHeT302]

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;44271882]Jesus Christ that outlet.[/QUOTE]

There's a model anyway, no idea why a brush was used instead :v:
[t]http://i.imgur.com/0DFYyTI.png[/t]

[B]Edit:[/B] There's an actual power outlet decal, I should try that.

[Sally]

[QUOTE=BenjaminTennison;44277586]I saw in EP2's files that the watermelon's UV map and texture were compressed, which was a good idea since all that black emptiness weren't going to be used.[/QUOTE]

The reason why it has a bunch of black emptiness is because the watermelon is a reskinned antlion grub egg. Its texture name is "cave_objects01.vtf renamed to fruit_objects01.vtf" so its fair to say valve never got around to adding other objects

[t]http://anonmgur.com/up/6367df637bb8b5f1ab320b46c4c731ac.png[/t] [t]http://anonmgur.com/up/a58fbd7a1335d593047b16024f14ff2a.png[/t]

[Mr. Someguy]

[QUOTE=Sally;44280309]The reason why it has a bunch of black emptiness is because the watermelon is a reskinned antlion grub egg. Its texture name is "cave_objects01.vtf renamed to fruit_objects01.vtf" so its fair to say valve never got around to adding other objects

[t]http://anonmgur.com/up/6367df637bb8b5f1ab320b46c4c731ac.png[/t] [t]http://anonmgur.com/up/a58fbd7a1335d593047b16024f14ff2a.png[/t][/QUOTE]

This is really funny to me and I don't know why.

[SFC]

[QUOTE=Sally;44280309]The reason why it has a bunch of black emptiness is because the watermelon is a reskinned antlion grub egg. Its texture name is "cave_objects01.vtf renamed to fruit_objects01.vtf" so its fair to say valve never got around to adding other objects

[t]http://anonmgur.com/up/6367df637bb8b5f1ab320b46c4c731ac.png[/t] [t]http://anonmgur.com/up/a58fbd7a1335d593047b16024f14ff2a.png[/t][/QUOTE]
wonder how a watermelon will look with that grub egg skin...

[tehstrelok]

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;44271882]Jesus Christ that outlet.[/QUOTE]

the black thing is actually the plug, but the cable was cut

[Chaotic Lord]

[QUOTE=SFC003;44281087]wonder how a watermelon will look with that grub egg skin...[/QUOTE]

[IMG]http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090611152446/half-life/en/images/thumb/4/48/Antlion_egg_beta.jpg/140px-Antlion_egg_beta.jpg[/IMG]

[gk99]

[QUOTE=Chaotic Lord;44281952][IMG]http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090611152446/half-life/en/images/thumb/4/48/Antlion_egg_beta.jpg/140px-Antlion_egg_beta.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]

Thank you.

What about vice versa :v:

[Clear_Strelok]

[QUOTE=MaxOfS2D;44274243]IMHO You guys need to stop debating about the texture of a single small prop for pages on end and go a little more for quantity rather than quality sometimes, don't end up obsessing about if the texture on this road sign is accurate/perfect/realistic etc

Because if you keep doing that you're not doing an enhancement mod, you're doing a graphics self-wankery mod

I've posted this here before and I'll just post it again[/QUOTE]I totally agree with the statement that the fact of insisting on unnoticeable details is useless and even counterproductive. However, I have to disagree on some points. For example I don't think any serious mod wants to "look like an AAA game", first because this term doesn't mean anything (In what respect does the AAA appellation and a 100M+ budget as prevented the artistic and/or technical disasters of games such as Battlefield 4 or Call of duty Ghost ?) and then because in a commercial game, you need to rush some aspects because of a lack of time and budget. Texture artists and modelers who work on a mod doesn't have such constraints, which is why they tend to focus on details a lot.

Also note that Shiny renders are typical of the modding scene. I remember that time when shitloads of Renders was the only form of promotion used by the developers of E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy. People were already interested by the game at the time, but they could never help but to notice how obvious it was that the guys from Streumon came from the modding scene. So I think that modders doesn't want to look like an AAA game at all and even act as the opposite of the game industry developers. (With a few exceptions, of course.)

So I think that this complex of Inferiority thing is kinda wrong wrong, as well as the sacralisation of the first days modding scene. Just because modding has become way more acessible than before doesn't mean that a world full of outstanding visionaries was invaded by an army of teenagers only interested in modeling cheaps Ak-47. There's as much talented people in the modding scene today as before, and the only thing that changed is that modding has become less complex and is now kinda mainstream. Does it mean that there's going to be more poorly made or abandonned project ? Yep. Does it mean that the modding scene is now ruled by incompetent teenagers ? [URL="http://ariane4ever.free.fr/ariane4ever/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4287&sid=028d49fba23481d89b392fddccdef859"]Well[/URL], [URL="http://www.blackmesasource.com/"]I'm not really[/URL] [URL="http://dayzmod.com/"]sure about that[/URL].

We could even say that early modding figures like the co-creator of Counter Strike are now more or less forgotten (Tactical Intervention was a terrible game) while peoples who worked on more recents mods have become members of the gaming industry and are actually adding something truly worthy to it. (Rust surpassed one million copies sold and it's still a early-acess) So I don't think that having such a nostalgic approach of the modding could actually be productive.

Sorry for the wall of text, But I really think that this mod is going into the right direction. (That's why I wanted to contribute as much as I can in the first place, personally) So far I didn't see the main texture artists wasting time on textures of minor importance here and I got the feeling that the most critical parts of the game have been treated first. So yes, people will argue about minors details on the forum but I don't think it actually slow the developement process. However I don't think it means that things have to be rushed because "Oh it doesn't look so bad".

What appears to me to be the main purpose of this mod is to pay tribute to Valve's work on this game, and it needs a proper amount of time in order to stay true to the original artistic direction.
And so far I never seen any texture being discussed for more than a few posts, so I don't think we need to worry about that.

Edit: God, so many words just to say that I think that the team has done a pretty good job so far.
(Bon et parce que j'ai peur de mal me faire comprendre avec mon Anglais niveau sixième j'en profite: Pour le coup je pense pas qu'il faut s’inquiéter du fait que les gens ici fassent régulièrement la fine bouche sur des détails qui paraissent anecdotiques, parce que j'ai l'impression qu'on demande leur avis surtout pour fignoler les derniers détails et non pour commenter pas à pas la création de telle texture ou de tel modèle (J'imagine que ce serait vraiment le bordel sinon), et puis ils ont pas eu la main lourde sur la résolution en plus de bien respecter la direction artistique d'origine jusqu'ici donc je pense vraiment qu'ils devraient continuer comme ça. Pour l'instant tout ce que j'ai vu avait vraiment la tête d'Half-Life, on est loin du délire HACHDAY § de Fakefactory qui se prends pour un réalisateur hollywoodien.