Tree Improvement Project

[benpark]

When I try to open the existing PzC LOD .x files, there appears to be nothing there. Odd.

[benpark]

Here are 5 types of trees together to give an idea of where I am headed with this. I need to do maybe 2 different sizes of each tree, these are just the bigger ones. About half of these will need new models after looking at them closer. These look like they will produce a LOT more cover. I have yet to decide what to do about winter versions. Fall will be a definite.

These are not "photographic". The problem that I had with a few of the stock textures were that they were actually photographs. These had issues because they carry all the problems that the original photographs had- made at different times of day in different light, odd highlights etc. These should have a better tonal quality that should match the colors that we use to make the maps.

These are all just two textured crossed faces. The larger models are on the back burner until these are done. These may even run faster than the stock ones with the Stridor suggested settings.

Lemme know what ya think.

[Stridor]

Ben,

Good to see the tree improvement project is in such good hands.

Looking good (except for the texture edges)

Regards

S.

[benpark]

I'm having trouble killing all of that black halo off. I'm pixel hunting like crazy on the textures, but it's still a problem. Adding any blur makes it worse. Any ideas on how to lessen?

[Stridor]

Send me your textures (the non compressed ones) and your tree models and I will take a look.

Try 255 alpha setting in MM

Regards

S.

[benpark]

Here's a comparison at 255 alpha settings. Better, but it's still there.

I know that a color layer that has blur can be utilized to get rid of this effect, but I've tried a few things and keep getting a worse black or white outline.

[benpark]

Here they be. There are place-holders for the MM included.

Thanks, as always.

[Stridor]

Ben,

I need your original base texture artwork (ie before compressing it to dds)
That is a bmp or png.

What I have now the artifacts are already there.

Regards

S.

[benpark]

Here's one to test. There is an alpha mapped .jpg as well. I've used that, as well as just using the original to make the alpha.

I'm looking at this right now, not sure it applies to what I need to do yet:

http://unity3d.com/support/documentatio ... amaps.html

[Mraah]

Ben,

You're tree textures are awesome ... well done!! Very pretty.

For the pine tree ... Can I recommend something?

Below are screenshots from Steel Fury : Kharkov 1942 .... I've seen these type's before ... taller trunk with foilage on upper half.

Thanks!

Rob

[Stridor]

Ben this is what I did to clean up the tree image without black borders

1. Load you tree in photoshop.
2. Load the tree alpha in photoshop.

Note it is not a good idea to work with lossy formats when working with textures / alpha masks (ie jpg is a no no)

Do a select all on the pixels of the alpha mask image. And the do a copy.

Now select the main tree image. Go into the channels tab and click create new layer, this will be called alpha1.

With alpha 1 selected paste the alpha mask you copied earlier. Make sure that RBG channel is selected. You will notice the background (transparency) will go red.

Now as I have 64bit PS4 and the nvidia tools don't work with 64bit, I need to do this intermediate step (if you have 32bit PS you can just save the dds now).

So I need to ... save the file as a tif with alpha transparency.

Load it up in Paint.Net (as it has excellent dds tools).

Save the tif in Paint.Net as a dds DXT-1.

There you go a nice clean texture. Because you are using a 1 bit alpha it will always be blocky around the edges! However if you want the best quality and are prepared for a tree with twice the memory size you can always save it as a DXT3 file. This will fix all your issues as the alpha blends but at a cost in memory. The choice is yours.

Here is the example textures I was talking about.

Checkout the difference between DXT3 and DXT1

Regards

S.

[Marc von Martial]

ORIGINAL: benpark

These are not "photographic". The problem that I had with a few of the stock textures were that they were actually photographs. These had issues because they carry all the problems that the original photographs had- made at different times of day in different light, odd highlights etc. These should have a better tonal quality that should match the colors that we use to make the maps.

Hey, you can even out such oddities via these methods in Photoshop. I use this process a lot when generating tiling textures.

http://library.creativecow.net/articles ... tiling.php
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20010 ... ba_pfv.htm

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Stridor
Checkout the difference between DXT3 and DXT1

Those look great, I have to say. Are these the 150 poly trees?

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: benpark
Here they be. There are place-holders for the MM included.
Thanks, as always.

They really look good, I think once you get that border issue resolved, this will be a great improvement.

Have you had much luck with the LODs yet? I think those will really make a huge performance difference for you if you include them.

[benpark]

Thanks all![&o]

Stridor, I was adding an unnecessary step that was inane to do. Man, it helps to have you around!

Marc, that's funny, I had just been looking at the second link a few days ago. That's a good description of how to make a tiled texture.

Erik, these are basically the same models as PzC uses- two faces at "+" shaped angle from one another. I didn't use any extra faces (as the PzC models do) to simulate "branches" on these. It looks too chaotic to me.

So LODs from these- how do I make an even smaller model? I believe that the .DDS has multiple levels of detail built in- am I wrong?

I have all of the smalls left to do (completely separate textures), plus a few "specials" that will be proper 3D models.

[benpark]

Hades! Alpha set for "0" sure is ugly!

[Lieste]

Ben this is what I did to clean up the tree image without black borders

You may still suffer around the edges if you do this when you look at downsampled textures/mipmaps.

A sampling area that is mostly opaque will result in a single solid pixel. If the underlying colour is green on a black background the texture may sample as darker than the high detail texture around the edges. If the texture is green on a white/sky background then the fringe will be excessively pale.

It would be better to use a neutral/averaged hue and tone as the background to the colour channels, with the high detail only over the opaque sections. This would avoid altering colour or tone inappropriately when viewing the low LOD trees.

[Stridor]

Lietse,

Agree 100%

Ben,

Don't ever use alpha 0 for anything! Otherwise your trees are looking good.

Regards

S.

[benpark]

The new tree models are adding quite a bit of additional cover, I think. There are a lot of trees on this map, so I'll have to test fewer.

This is the first game that I've had no enemy contact until turn 6. No shooting at all. I've just spotted some Soviet infantry and one SPG after I slowly moved through the forested area at the rear of the screen.

[benpark]

These run fine for me, but I want to be sure there won't be slowdown for lower end systems. Since we can't billboard, can I still do the LOD models with only 1 face (as opposed to the two there are now)?