Base Backgrounds
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Base Backgrounds
Had a lot of free time yesterday.
Since, I tried modelling some of the alien concepts but none of them was satisfactory enough to be submitted. Instead I again tried rendering bases. They came out quite nice. I apologize if they're not as detailed as the previous artist (BTW: Who made the base backgrounds for the oceanic and arid planets? Has he left the project?). And for the glare, as well as the greenish cast of the boxes, my monitor really has gamma and contrast issues. I'm too lazy to bug my mom about buying a new one. haha. Maybe I'll try to make these darker. Can this problem be fixed with standard standard image programs? Tweak the contrast, gamma, and brightness a bit? My image programs are at home, and rendering these again would not ensure that they will not have the same problems. I made these sporadically over a span of 12 hours, so bad comments are most welcome.
Here are the jpeg 800x600 renders. The final renders are much much larger and crispier pixel-wise. They're in bmp formats at a whopping 2731x2048 res. VERY hefty to upload. I'll try to add them to the gallery and hopefully post the url here later.
AridForsakenWIP1.jpg
Arid02.jpg
<moderator>edited to link huge images, rather than inlining them</moderator>
Since, I tried modelling some of the alien concepts but none of them was satisfactory enough to be submitted. Instead I again tried rendering bases. They came out quite nice. I apologize if they're not as detailed as the previous artist (BTW: Who made the base backgrounds for the oceanic and arid planets? Has he left the project?). And for the glare, as well as the greenish cast of the boxes, my monitor really has gamma and contrast issues. I'm too lazy to bug my mom about buying a new one. haha. Maybe I'll try to make these darker. Can this problem be fixed with standard standard image programs? Tweak the contrast, gamma, and brightness a bit? My image programs are at home, and rendering these again would not ensure that they will not have the same problems. I made these sporadically over a span of 12 hours, so bad comments are most welcome.
Here are the jpeg 800x600 renders. The final renders are much much larger and crispier pixel-wise. They're in bmp formats at a whopping 2731x2048 res. VERY hefty to upload. I'll try to add them to the gallery and hopefully post the url here later.
AridForsakenWIP1.jpg
Arid02.jpg
<moderator>edited to link huge images, rather than inlining them</moderator>
Last edited by Oblivion on Wed May 03, 2006 8:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
A Step Into Oblivion
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
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Here are preview nighttime renders. I'm still planning on creating a custom night sky background. This is not final, just to show how it would look like at night.
A Step Into Oblivion
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
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Gripes, hopes, and questions for base backgrounds:
1. Will planetary bases become 3d walkabouts soon?
2. Can base backgrounds be coded to be specific for a paryicular location/type of location? e.g. I planned these backgrounds to be for Forsaken/League of Independent Human Worlds (LIHW) desert installations.
Implementing this would make aeran planets look aeran and etc. It would also make adding mission locations easier (ex. A certain planet, though containing the same base bg as others of its type, would have a special room with a special fixer... you get the drift)
3. Can there be way to make intoduce ambient lighting in bases, in such a way that they will affect the fixer sprites though not the backgrounds themselves? In this way fixers will not have to be specifically lighted each base. Example: the bar for this base will have a yellowish ambient light at render-time, obviously a fixer that has a bluish ambient light will look out of place - like a cut and paste picture collage.
4. Limiting size of ships that dock at stations/palnets. e.g a small base like this would not support a clydesdale and other capships.I'm not saying that capships will not be able to land, the ships will still be able to land on the larger facilities. It will be more realistic (by realistic, I mean believable to the players ), as large ships cannot always land anywhere they please.
5. Not related to above, but I wish to bring this up. I know ships and stations have yet to be properly standardized, and there is still not enough artstyle guides, but I can't help but dislike the appearance of the Aeran and Rlaan space stations (I mean the models, the base backgorunds is a different problem. ). The Rlaan station models (the pyramids ) do not look Rlaan. You've all seen the Rlaan ships - Personally, I like the Rlaan shipstyles, like spacegoing chinese junks. (Hope Rlaan capships are as stately) - and the stations do not look a bit like them. Rlaan stations should be spheroid (or a cluster of spheroids) instead of the harsh angular pyramid and others. it should also have the characterisitic finlike sails (solar panels) of their ships, though larger probably.
6. Adding fixers with capabilities. i.e. no need for pure BBS. Talking to a special merchant fixer will get you to a trade screen; Talking to mechanic fixers, will get you to an upgrade/repair dialogue; etc. I'm planning a permanent fixer (I'll have to create him/her separately, however) for these bases that will offer basic repairs and some other upgrade options. If anyone knows how to do that...
The aeran bases are a bit better as they reflect the love of the aerans for clean angles (as seen in their ships), technology, and aversion to organic forms - but still the models look like giant floating knick-knacks. Without the beautiful detail of human stations - and somehow lacking the sense of being an inhabited space station (probably aggravated by the fact that they are shiny as mirrors).
So at the risk of angering the modellers (I know it's hard to model ingame objects - because I don't know how. lol ), can someone try to change them (also as someone suggested once, probably increase the size - as they have to support capships).
And a Plea for HELP:
Does anyone know how to include the images ingame? I really have no idea how except that the images have to be squished to a square. And I still haven't begun to learn python. Does anyone know how to..
.
a. Music. I have soundforge but I don't know how to use it. hehe. I'm thinking that these forsaken/LIHW desert bases should have middle eastern music. So if anyone has a nice loopable middle eastern music out there...
b. Coding to make these images show up everytime you dock to an arid planet controlled by the forsaken or the LIHW. The previous artist's beautiful satellite and oil(??) fields desert backgrounds are for the rest of the arid planets (Though they should be for Andolian/Confed desert planets only... methinks ).
c. Adding the links (Don't know the term. ) to the images. It is not yet complete as the bar background for this base would take longer to make. If anyone is interested... I'll supply mine art if thou supply thy coding expertise.
Next, I'll try to render a Shmrn base, probably.
contact me astepintooblivion@yahoo.com and I'll send you the rarred final copies of these images.
Does anyone know how of export vs-compatible models from 3dsmax 5?
1. Will planetary bases become 3d walkabouts soon?
2. Can base backgrounds be coded to be specific for a paryicular location/type of location? e.g. I planned these backgrounds to be for Forsaken/League of Independent Human Worlds (LIHW) desert installations.
Implementing this would make aeran planets look aeran and etc. It would also make adding mission locations easier (ex. A certain planet, though containing the same base bg as others of its type, would have a special room with a special fixer... you get the drift)
3. Can there be way to make intoduce ambient lighting in bases, in such a way that they will affect the fixer sprites though not the backgrounds themselves? In this way fixers will not have to be specifically lighted each base. Example: the bar for this base will have a yellowish ambient light at render-time, obviously a fixer that has a bluish ambient light will look out of place - like a cut and paste picture collage.
4. Limiting size of ships that dock at stations/palnets. e.g a small base like this would not support a clydesdale and other capships.I'm not saying that capships will not be able to land, the ships will still be able to land on the larger facilities. It will be more realistic (by realistic, I mean believable to the players ), as large ships cannot always land anywhere they please.
5. Not related to above, but I wish to bring this up. I know ships and stations have yet to be properly standardized, and there is still not enough artstyle guides, but I can't help but dislike the appearance of the Aeran and Rlaan space stations (I mean the models, the base backgorunds is a different problem. ). The Rlaan station models (the pyramids ) do not look Rlaan. You've all seen the Rlaan ships - Personally, I like the Rlaan shipstyles, like spacegoing chinese junks. (Hope Rlaan capships are as stately) - and the stations do not look a bit like them. Rlaan stations should be spheroid (or a cluster of spheroids) instead of the harsh angular pyramid and others. it should also have the characterisitic finlike sails (solar panels) of their ships, though larger probably.
6. Adding fixers with capabilities. i.e. no need for pure BBS. Talking to a special merchant fixer will get you to a trade screen; Talking to mechanic fixers, will get you to an upgrade/repair dialogue; etc. I'm planning a permanent fixer (I'll have to create him/her separately, however) for these bases that will offer basic repairs and some other upgrade options. If anyone knows how to do that...
The aeran bases are a bit better as they reflect the love of the aerans for clean angles (as seen in their ships), technology, and aversion to organic forms - but still the models look like giant floating knick-knacks. Without the beautiful detail of human stations - and somehow lacking the sense of being an inhabited space station (probably aggravated by the fact that they are shiny as mirrors).
So at the risk of angering the modellers (I know it's hard to model ingame objects - because I don't know how. lol ), can someone try to change them (also as someone suggested once, probably increase the size - as they have to support capships).
And a Plea for HELP:
Does anyone know how to include the images ingame? I really have no idea how except that the images have to be squished to a square. And I still haven't begun to learn python. Does anyone know how to..
.
a. Music. I have soundforge but I don't know how to use it. hehe. I'm thinking that these forsaken/LIHW desert bases should have middle eastern music. So if anyone has a nice loopable middle eastern music out there...
b. Coding to make these images show up everytime you dock to an arid planet controlled by the forsaken or the LIHW. The previous artist's beautiful satellite and oil(??) fields desert backgrounds are for the rest of the arid planets (Though they should be for Andolian/Confed desert planets only... methinks ).
c. Adding the links (Don't know the term. ) to the images. It is not yet complete as the bar background for this base would take longer to make. If anyone is interested... I'll supply mine art if thou supply thy coding expertise.
Next, I'll try to render a Shmrn base, probably.
contact me astepintooblivion@yahoo.com and I'll send you the rarred final copies of these images.
Does anyone know how of export vs-compatible models from 3dsmax 5?
A Step Into Oblivion
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
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Sent you a PM about upload.
That's great stuff. Walking around at bases is coming very soon, I reckon. At least, the feature will be in the engine; whether Vegastrike the mod will make use of it or not I've no idea. But other mods need the feature and are waiting for it Did you see Kryo's post under General Modding? My mod, Tadpole, is set in a single system with two inhab planets, one hot, one cold. I'm sure some like this will be needed for some bases. Most of the movement between surfaces and orbits will be by space elevator, though, rather than "space ports", but your stuff is pretty generic, anyhow. Damn! We should setup a model repository so that things like this can be found in a safe place, catalogued, and available to any modders interested, when they need it.
Uhmm... What I usually do is limit the width of my pics for display
on the forum to about 600 to 700, and put regular links to larger
pics, so the text doesn't go off the screen
That's great stuff. Walking around at bases is coming very soon, I reckon. At least, the feature will be in the engine; whether Vegastrike the mod will make use of it or not I've no idea. But other mods need the feature and are waiting for it Did you see Kryo's post under General Modding? My mod, Tadpole, is set in a single system with two inhab planets, one hot, one cold. I'm sure some like this will be needed for some bases. Most of the movement between surfaces and orbits will be by space elevator, though, rather than "space ports", but your stuff is pretty generic, anyhow. Damn! We should setup a model repository so that things like this can be found in a safe place, catalogued, and available to any modders interested, when they need it.
Uhmm... What I usually do is limit the width of my pics for display
on the forum to about 600 to 700, and put regular links to larger
pics, so the text doesn't go off the screen
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A space elevator has one problem: Every planet that is landable has to have a model of it. And finding the landing bays of a space elevator "top" would be tricky.
It's supposed to be generic. A backwater station and as such should have no character, except for the bar.
Yup, sharing between modders and tha main game is something I've been wondering about. As I have not downloaded any of the mods (the file sizes are too big.), yet, I have no idea what things in the WCU, the Vega Trek, or other mods have that might be useful in VS, and vice versa. Hope that happens..though i wouldn't have any idea how.
It's supposed to be generic. A backwater station and as such should have no character, except for the bar.
Yup, sharing between modders and tha main game is something I've been wondering about. As I have not downloaded any of the mods (the file sizes are too big.), yet, I have no idea what things in the WCU, the Vega Trek, or other mods have that might be useful in VS, and vice versa. Hope that happens..though i wouldn't have any idea how.
A Step Into Oblivion
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
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OT:
Here's the space elevator CoffeeBot and I were working on...
http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... php?t=5437
/OT
Here's the space elevator CoffeeBot and I were working on...
http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... php?t=5437
/OT
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MAAAASSSIVE
But wouldn't that take away the sheer joy and beauty ( ) of being on a planet's surface? Or would planets still have explorable bases anyhow.
Anyway: How come I haven't seen these ingame? Has these been implemented for the SVN VS already? The size makes sense, much more than the current size of the space stations. A clydesdale should be able to dock at every port.
But wouldn't that take away the sheer joy and beauty ( ) of being on a planet's surface? Or would planets still have explorable bases anyhow.
Anyway: How come I haven't seen these ingame? Has these been implemented for the SVN VS already? The size makes sense, much more than the current size of the space stations. A clydesdale should be able to dock at every port.
A Step Into Oblivion
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
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Well, that space elevator station was originally meant for Vegastrike, but
there was never any expression of interest in it, so now it will be part of
my mod. Yes, in my mod, planets will be explorable, and will have many
cities, in fact. You just take the elevator, when you want to go planet-side.
You'll be able to play most of the game without going down; perhaps a few
missions will force you to descend to a planet. Well, hard to say; we don't
have a plot, yet.
Cities will be generated as needed from seed numbers; we'll need to think
about all this, as we'll need all kinds of generic, resizable
architectural sections that can be used by the generator to build towns and
cities, outdoors and indoor spaces. We'll see; it's all pie in the sky, at the moment.
there was never any expression of interest in it, so now it will be part of
my mod. Yes, in my mod, planets will be explorable, and will have many
cities, in fact. You just take the elevator, when you want to go planet-side.
You'll be able to play most of the game without going down; perhaps a few
missions will force you to descend to a planet. Well, hard to say; we don't
have a plot, yet.
Cities will be generated as needed from seed numbers; we'll need to think
about all this, as we'll need all kinds of generic, resizable
architectural sections that can be used by the generator to build towns and
cities, outdoors and indoor spaces. We'll see; it's all pie in the sky, at the moment.
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Latest version of LaGrande noodleworks (scroll down).
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Ok here are PNG versions of the images in full 2731 by 2048.
just point browser to
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid
then add a number 01 up to 11 and a .PNG at the end.
examples
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid 01.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid 04.PNG
etc...
however, there is no Arid 06.PNG.
Thanks chuck
just point browser to
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid
then add a number 01 up to 11 and a .PNG at the end.
examples
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid 01.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid 04.PNG
etc...
however, there is no Arid 06.PNG.
Thanks chuck
A Step Into Oblivion
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
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Or just click on...
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2001.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2002.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2003.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2004.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2005.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2007.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2008.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2009.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2010.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2011.PNG
No prob; try to avoid spaces in filenames; otherwise it's "%20" for space.
Anyways, as I was saying by PM, but might as well post it here, there's
absolutely no perceptible gain in quality from using PNG's for images;
just wasted
space, wasted bandwidth. Sure, JPG is "lossy" compression, but most people seem totally unaware of how insignificant that loss is...
In Gimp you can adjust the quality of JPG's; I use 85%, --very rarely 90%--, and floating point for the calculations.
Filtering is something you can optionally add.
One common misconception that jpg "filters" images. If anything, it high-pass filters (sharpens) slightly. It may lose some very subtle gradient, but the sharp stuff stays sharp. In any case, if you take any of those PNG's and save it as JPG with 85% quality, and try to spot a difference. I'm telling you: You won't see one if you gock at it for a week. What I did once was compute Difference in Gimp, between a PNG and a JPG of that PNG, and then increase brightness and contrast of the difference, in order to understand where the losses occur. Anyone having doubts should do the same; it's a very educational experiment...
Another experiment: Make a new image, just fill it with 50% gray, save it as PNG and note down the size. Now, if you're in Gimp, go to the Filter menu, Noise, Scatter RGB, move the sliders down to 01 and click OK. You won't see any difference because it has randomized the color by +/-1, so, in some places each Red, Green or Blue component could be 127, 128 or 129... very subtle noise. Save it again as PNG. Check the size now.
PNG was meant to replace GIF, not JPG; and its "loss-less-ness" comes at a very heavy price. One project we should put in the queue is to change all PNG's used in all the mods to JPG. It involves heavy mesher work; maybe a little program that could recurse through the folders and do it automatically would be the thing to do... Have I got myself a job?
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2001.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2002.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2003.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2004.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2005.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2007.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2008.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2009.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2010.PNG
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Arid%2011.PNG
No prob; try to avoid spaces in filenames; otherwise it's "%20" for space.
Anyways, as I was saying by PM, but might as well post it here, there's
absolutely no perceptible gain in quality from using PNG's for images;
just wasted
space, wasted bandwidth. Sure, JPG is "lossy" compression, but most people seem totally unaware of how insignificant that loss is...
In Gimp you can adjust the quality of JPG's; I use 85%, --very rarely 90%--, and floating point for the calculations.
Filtering is something you can optionally add.
One common misconception that jpg "filters" images. If anything, it high-pass filters (sharpens) slightly. It may lose some very subtle gradient, but the sharp stuff stays sharp. In any case, if you take any of those PNG's and save it as JPG with 85% quality, and try to spot a difference. I'm telling you: You won't see one if you gock at it for a week. What I did once was compute Difference in Gimp, between a PNG and a JPG of that PNG, and then increase brightness and contrast of the difference, in order to understand where the losses occur. Anyone having doubts should do the same; it's a very educational experiment...
Another experiment: Make a new image, just fill it with 50% gray, save it as PNG and note down the size. Now, if you're in Gimp, go to the Filter menu, Noise, Scatter RGB, move the sliders down to 01 and click OK. You won't see any difference because it has randomized the color by +/-1, so, in some places each Red, Green or Blue component could be 127, 128 or 129... very subtle noise. Save it again as PNG. Check the size now.
PNG was meant to replace GIF, not JPG; and its "loss-less-ness" comes at a very heavy price. One project we should put in the queue is to change all PNG's used in all the mods to JPG. It involves heavy mesher work; maybe a little program that could recurse through the folders and do it automatically would be the thing to do... Have I got myself a job?
Latest version of Cinemut Opaque
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WC Nexus forum, the Moonbase Tycho of WC fans.
Latest version of LaGrande noodleworks (scroll down).
An evolving La Grande How-To...
The non-working, but latest, CineMut test_bike
PU (Privateer: Parallel Universe's Home). WC or Privateer Drayman for you?
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JPG doesn't filter... it quantizes in the frequency domain.
It's a tricky concept... but needless to say, it should be exploited. A 95%-quality JPG beats the ass out of any png by a long shot, mostly for high-res artwork (which is highly compressible, much more than low-res art).
In fact, png is only preferable on very low res art, where JPG artifacts become large and noticeable at any quality level with enough compression to beat png (say... icons - sometimes).
One thing that does happen with JPG is downsampling of color information - JPG converts images to YUV colorspace, with 4:1:1/4:2:2 downsampling factors (Y is luma, UV is color). Though that is hardly noticeable on most images, some images are highly sensitive for this. Mostly line art. In those cases, some apps (I forget if Gimp has that) have an optional 4:4:4 color format which does NOT downsample at all - it's just a matrix colorspace conversion, completely reversible.
It's a tricky concept... but needless to say, it should be exploited. A 95%-quality JPG beats the ass out of any png by a long shot, mostly for high-res artwork (which is highly compressible, much more than low-res art).
In fact, png is only preferable on very low res art, where JPG artifacts become large and noticeable at any quality level with enough compression to beat png (say... icons - sometimes).
One thing that does happen with JPG is downsampling of color information - JPG converts images to YUV colorspace, with 4:1:1/4:2:2 downsampling factors (Y is luma, UV is color). Though that is hardly noticeable on most images, some images are highly sensitive for this. Mostly line art. In those cases, some apps (I forget if Gimp has that) have an optional 4:4:4 color format which does NOT downsample at all - it's just a matrix colorspace conversion, completely reversible.
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- Bounty Hunter
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Re: Base Backgrounds (For Browsers: Lotsaimage Alert!)
Oblivion wrote: (snip) so bad comments are most welcome.
(Snip)
overall i like the spartan-ness of the base and the interior shots are really nice...
i dont like the exterior much tho... it looks like a chesspiece with a landing pad attached... maybe a few auxilliary buildings? maybe a little haphazardly arranged and a few buildings un-attached too... rednecks dont go much for asthetics... (at least not the ones where im from ) (speaking of which... maybe there could be a ship or two up on blocks? )
i guess i think of the forsaken/ fronteersmen more like the rednecks of their day...
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Thanks <anonymous moderator>
Sunfire:
The bar is still WIP so it looks really geometric.
Been having problems with the shadows and reflection. There seems to be artifacts of huge light reflections (visible on the first pic on the desert floor), and in the new interior shots as well. Tried to lessen the intensity of the sun to make it less glaring. Bad idea though... I think
@chuck tried the experiments and you're right. Anyway I rendered all the final images in jpeg 100% (no smoothing, best, large file size = about 2 mb < compared to 16mb BMPs ) now (The 2731x2048 specified by wiki), and they don't look less sharp. I got GIMP but I don't use it often. I am not too familiar at it's interface. Though I do use it when I need to add alpha layers etc.
Actually, I use whatever I can for images
Sunfire:
I'll upload the next batch and then post it in the necxt message
Sunfire:
my thoughts exactly. Tried new renders AND added some junk lying around in the sand and the bar (which is visible on the exterior).i dont like the exterior much tho... it looks like a chesspiece with a landing pad attached... maybe a few auxilliary buildings?
The bar is still WIP so it looks really geometric.
Been having problems with the shadows and reflection. There seems to be artifacts of huge light reflections (visible on the first pic on the desert floor), and in the new interior shots as well. Tried to lessen the intensity of the sun to make it less glaring. Bad idea though... I think
@chuck tried the experiments and you're right. Anyway I rendered all the final images in jpeg 100% (no smoothing, best, large file size = about 2 mb < compared to 16mb BMPs ) now (The 2731x2048 specified by wiki), and they don't look less sharp. I got GIMP but I don't use it often. I am not too familiar at it's interface. Though I do use it when I need to add alpha layers etc.
Actually, I use whatever I can for images
Sunfire:
Nope. Though there will be some roughnecks (as in Cowboy Bebop), I think the Forsaken will be a very mixed group. Colonizers who went in slowships only to be overtaken by the others by the time FTL was invented. So they will be loosely governed/coordinated (if governed at all), and will come from the dissatisfied population of past Earth. Most probably they are a big source for pirates and bounty hunters. ....Nice groupi guess i think of the forsaken/ fronteersmen more like the rednecks of their day...
I'll upload the next batch and then post it in the necxt message
A Step Into Oblivion
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
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Here they are. Now smaller.
The base. Changed the sphere to "solar panels". Added junk and the bar addon. Changed the sky background. However, the smaller bases on the horizon now appear to be floating. Didn't notice that.
The desert floor for landing of the capships (wouldn't fit in the landing pad). Take note of the reflection artifacts on the sand.
The landing pad for smaller ships. fixed the greenish "toy" look of the cargo.
The BBS screens (equivalent to the concourse).Take note of a triangular light artifact(?) not sure it is. On the upper right.
The concourse leading to door going inside the base
And the still horrible bar. Will change the textures on the counter as it contrasts too sharply with the metal of the base. Also further add smaller items and refine the bottle models.
Work in progress:
The base. Changed the sphere to "solar panels". Added junk and the bar addon. Changed the sky background. However, the smaller bases on the horizon now appear to be floating. Didn't notice that.
The desert floor for landing of the capships (wouldn't fit in the landing pad). Take note of the reflection artifacts on the sand.
The landing pad for smaller ships. fixed the greenish "toy" look of the cargo.
The BBS screens (equivalent to the concourse).Take note of a triangular light artifact(?) not sure it is. On the upper right.
The concourse leading to door going inside the base
And the still horrible bar. Will change the textures on the counter as it contrasts too sharply with the metal of the base. Also further add smaller items and refine the bottle models.
Work in progress:
A Step Into Oblivion
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
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- Artisan Extraordinaire
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Yup. I guess I negelected the gorund itself. I think that's probably the reason why it's looks so dull too. I may have inadvertently added glossines and specular to it. hence it reflects light. phew. I'll work on that next. I haven't got enough maps at home... will search.
And: Did you notice that the bottles in the bar are flying? haha Overlooked that one too. The 2731x2048 versions of these images are really clear. So clear you could read the writings on those screens. And it highlights another of my mistakes. Notice that the screens show BBC and not BBS? Apologies to the British news network. haha
And: Did you notice that the bottles in the bar are flying? haha Overlooked that one too. The 2731x2048 versions of these images are really clear. So clear you could read the writings on those screens. And it highlights another of my mistakes. Notice that the screens show BBC and not BBS? Apologies to the British news network. haha
A Step Into Oblivion
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
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- Location: Livin the Dream... kinda
seems to be coming along nicely!
lol i still dont like the exterior of the base but i know youll get to that... i think the part that sticks out the most to me is the bottom... maybe if you had a few small buildings attached or.... maybe you could put the base half in a sand dune with the side facing away from the bar being half buried...
also, i hate to say this... but having a bar outside in the desert probably wouldnt be very fun... it would be
a) HOT
b)see a (oh but its a dry heat they say.... yeah and so is your oven)
c) when its not hot it would be WINDY
i suspect the sandstorms on a desert planet would get to be rather large lol maybe thats why the bottles are floating... theyre being blown away i do like the closeup of the bar tho...
you think sand on the beach gets everywhere...
also, i noticed that you textured in some sand ripples... maybe you could map them instead...
these are just ideas and meant as constructive criticism! i do like the bases in the background and the junk around the base tho...
also, another idea for the base.... id think there would be a couple of fuel containers or a fuel building seperate from the base for safety reasons...
and i still think the interior is rad...
EDIT: oh and one more thing... maybe large ships would land in the background with a small entrance to the base on the backside....
lol i still dont like the exterior of the base but i know youll get to that... i think the part that sticks out the most to me is the bottom... maybe if you had a few small buildings attached or.... maybe you could put the base half in a sand dune with the side facing away from the bar being half buried...
also, i hate to say this... but having a bar outside in the desert probably wouldnt be very fun... it would be
a) HOT
b)see a (oh but its a dry heat they say.... yeah and so is your oven)
c) when its not hot it would be WINDY
i suspect the sandstorms on a desert planet would get to be rather large lol maybe thats why the bottles are floating... theyre being blown away i do like the closeup of the bar tho...
you think sand on the beach gets everywhere...
also, i noticed that you textured in some sand ripples... maybe you could map them instead...
these are just ideas and meant as constructive criticism! i do like the bases in the background and the junk around the base tho...
also, another idea for the base.... id think there would be a couple of fuel containers or a fuel building seperate from the base for safety reasons...
and i still think the interior is rad...
EDIT: oh and one more thing... maybe large ships would land in the background with a small entrance to the base on the backside....
Last edited by Sunfire on Sat Apr 22, 2006 8:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Idea: Add some landing markers to the landing platform. That will add something interesting to it.
Idea2: Make dunes true - in geometry, rather than in texture.
Idea3: Use Max´s builtin HDR, and use postprocessing to make the outside look "hot", and the inside "ok". (perhaps you can send me the 3ds... I think I have something to load max files somewhere, when I knew someone with a legal copy of it - don't ask how that came to happen - but it's been soo long since I played with it...)
Idea2: Make dunes true - in geometry, rather than in texture.
Idea3: Use Max´s builtin HDR, and use postprocessing to make the outside look "hot", and the inside "ok". (perhaps you can send me the 3ds... I think I have something to load max files somewhere, when I knew someone with a legal copy of it - don't ask how that came to happen - but it's been soo long since I played with it...)
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- Artisan Extraordinaire
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@Sunfire - Thanks for the ideas. I'll try to do ALL of them. , it would be quick I promise. Yeah it would be hot, I'll render the bar separately and move it inside, but will show a window, not dark glass as Kangaroo suggested, but clear. Coz I want to show the dunes. (actually probably just the image of a separate render, of course) showing the exterior.
and to anyone else there, don't worry about criticizing my work. I never get insulted because I have no pride. haha Seriously, feel free to point out ANYthing that doesn't seem right. As this is my first try at making base backgrounds.
Klauss:
Dan:
Sunfire:
Klauss:
Don't know how to download this:
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Forsaken%20Arid.max
But if you pm me I'll send you the password to the ftp and the user.
The 2731x2048 image links:
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/ForbiddenArid.jpg
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/ForsakenAridBar1.jpg
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Forsa ... anding.jpg
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Forsa ... angar1.jpg
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Forsa ... angar2.jpg
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Forsa ... ingPad.jpg
and where is my slipper?
and to anyone else there, don't worry about criticizing my work. I never get insulted because I have no pride. haha Seriously, feel free to point out ANYthing that doesn't seem right. As this is my first try at making base backgrounds.
Klauss:
Yeah. I intend to. But I'll probably have to learn how to make transparent maps. Learned it once but I forgot how exactly. I'll make markers PLUS landing lights. woohoo. Can't wait for night renders.Idea: Add some landing markers to the landing platform. That will add something interesting to it.
Dan:
I'm still unsure as to what the orientation of the fixers will be. And... I will make tables with bottoms, as a solution to the no-feet problem. I'll get to work then. How many fixers should a bar accomodate?Just remember wrt the bar, if you want fixers to be sitting in there, then we'll need some tables too
Sunfire:
Klauss:also, i noticed that you textured in some sand ripples... maybe you could map them instead...
The problem... I don't know how. It's bumpmapped but it still looks flat. Will tinker with it a bit.Idea2: Make dunes true - in geometry, rather than in texture.
Klauss:
Don't know how to do that... Here's the .max file. It's saved along with the 2731x2048 images at the FTP chuck gave me (tnx). Haven't exported them to .3ds yet. I'll do that today. Give you the file tomorrow (probably)You can do anything with it. Even change it to another base. Anything to make VS more playable for those wanting better art environment.Idea3: Use Max´s builtin HDR, and use postprocessing to make the outside look "hot", and the inside "ok". (perhaps you can send me the 3ds... I think I have something to load max files somewhere, when I knew someone with a legal copy of it - don't ask how that came to happen - but it's been soo long since I played with it...)
Don't know how to download this:
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Forsaken%20Arid.max
But if you pm me I'll send you the password to the ftp and the user.
The 2731x2048 image links:
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/ForbiddenArid.jpg
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/ForsakenAridBar1.jpg
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Forsa ... anding.jpg
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Forsa ... angar1.jpg
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Forsa ... angar2.jpg
http://www.deeplayer.com/Oblivion/Forsa ... ingPad.jpg
and where is my slipper?
A Step Into Oblivion
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
Dreams of things that will never be,
Songs of thoughts only I can hear,
Leave me be to sleep forever,
To dream my dreams,
And sing my hymns,
Of things that will never be...
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- Venturer
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An idea that crossed my mind - how about making the horizon (?) have more sandlike color. Otherwise it seems like there is no wind at all. And i thought I saw some duplications on one of the junk chunks in the capship landing pic on the upper left?
There are no stupid people on Earth; they are only alternatively thinking.
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I think at the moment we need a minimum of two fixer locations, or at least we *have* at least two fixer locations. I can check, if you think there will be a problem reaching this number or greater? ... otherwise make like 4 or 5 useable spots and all is well.
As to legs, the *best* way to do this is to render the tables seperate, so we can place the background, then the characters' legs, then the tables, then the tops. We do have legs for most of the fixers, you can look in the following place to see which ones we do/don't:
http://svn.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.cgi/ ... es/fixers/
Orientation is as these images are
Dan
As to legs, the *best* way to do this is to render the tables seperate, so we can place the background, then the characters' legs, then the tables, then the tops. We do have legs for most of the fixers, you can look in the following place to see which ones we do/don't:
http://svn.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.cgi/ ... es/fixers/
Orientation is as these images are
Dan
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
-- Pablo Picasso
-- Pablo Picasso