Generic 'urban' level props

Click for faceted/wireframe

Gotta love muddles.

Edit: Someone like to explain why the [ a ] tags aren't working? chwaga: I wanted to avoid having to do too much scrolling by only linking to the second image.

And why did I put two ls in barrel...

try this:

try putting http:// before the url

That is before the URL, you just don't see it.

good work, anyways, although, they seem a bit poly-heavy, especially for props, a lot of the detail (especially on your barrel) could be done with normal maps and stuff :)

good stuff noel

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=72422

Those models look very good - my favourite is the swing-lid bin, followed by the bin next to it (with front opening).

That's a lot of polies for generic prefabs. Textures make 60% of the job IMHO. Noless, good work so far.

well perhaps that was the case, but looking ar next gen assets, the poly counts are much higher.
But don't forget the way you construct stuff is different also. You have to build a high poly version to create a normal map.

you can then optimise the version that you have to bake the normal map on to, but if you take the polycount too low then the vertex shading starts to look poor anyway.

Look at the way noel has built the trash can for example with chamfered edges. if you didn't do this then when you subdivide you lose the form completely.

Try subdividing a cube in max with the cube on 1 seg for width , height , length and you will get a sphere. To avoid this you have to chamfer on the edges

Noel, you've always been a very good graphic artist! I wish you continuing sucess and hope to see you in #blitzcoder again.

-Chad

In addition to what Ruz has mentioned, this is also done for the purpose of smoothing out vertex lighting. Many independent developers still cannot afford the time needed for generating normal mapped content, and so having a few props with normal mapping and many others without will results in a large inconsistency. As such, you model with the knowledge that the end result will not be receiving per-pixel lighting and you can effectively control the shading much more.

These meshes are built in such a way that I can easily go from low to high poly without losing shape, and if necessary I will not need per-pixel lighting in order to maintain a consistent and good-looking shading across the surface of the objects.

Again, take a cube and set it to entirely smooth shading -- you'll find it's not that pretty. If you chamfer, or bevel, the edges then you'll get much more consistent and smooth but useful lighting that will not stand out, for instance, on a crate.

Oddly enough, I still haven't modeled a crate, so here's a dumpster.


Click for wireframe

And here's Krusty the Clown.

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Edit: Someone like to explain why the [ a ] tags aren't working? chwaga: I wanted to avoid having to do too much scrolling by only linking to the second image.
""
Mark was saying something in general about wierdness with the tags to be expected.

I am pleased you explained that noel , because I was wondering whether to actually bake in the edges of my subdivided model.
But actually If i builld in enough bevels in the right places, the vertex shading looks really nice.
trying to bake edges on top of edges is not a good idea. My normal maps are now only resolving micro detail, not chamfered edges.
Nice dumpster BTW

So does that mean all serious game releases (other than cell shading or so) use normal maps on all textures today?

Personally I think normal maps are only a temporary work around, 2.5D for surface details sotosay, and probably they will vanish pretty soon. I could be wrong tho.

Yup, most probably. Normal maps are here to stay, they are easy to do and understand and have great impact when used properly. To me they are just as normal (pun intended) thing to have than diffuse, specular and ambient occlusion maps. You can't do "nice" visuals without those these days. Blitz3D is of course slightly behind techwise but it is pre-shader era product so that is "understandable"

Mustang is more or less correct. I've got these things ready for normal mapping, my desktop has just died though so I'm afraid pretty much any work I want to do on them has been put on hold (my laptop, while decent, doesn't really handle anything CPU- or RAM-intensive well, which is a pretty big problem for manipulating high-res geometry). Anyone want to donate a new high-end machine to me? Or just a new 40gb drive so I can run an OS again?