UFO:Alien Invasion
Development => Artwork => Topic started by: H-Hour on September 04, 2010, 01:31:16 pm
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Artists seeking to contribute should look here for information about what's needed:
Where to start as an artist (http://ufoai.org/wiki/index.php/Where_to_start_as_an_artist): Read this if you know what you can do, or what you want to do, but you don't know where to start.
Roadmap (http://ufoai.org/wiki/index.php/TODO/Roadmap): This is the most up-to-date list of all of our existing or planned content, with indications for things that are missing.
TODO/2.5 (http://ufoai.org/wiki/index.php/TODO/2.5): This is the small list of artwork that we need for 2.5. These items are the highest priority and any helping knocking them off the list will be very appreciated.
TODO/General (http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/TODO/General): This is the long-term list of artwork that we need for planned items.
In addition to these lists, updated or improved artwork for existing content is always welcome.
If you notice something is missing or out of date, please edit the wiki if you can or post in this thread to let us know. I will try to keep the list as up to date as possible so artists aren't confused about what's required.
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I started going through the textures folders and creating normal maps for files which had none, I've done tex_base, tex_nature, tex_terrain and texture_mattn so far. As I went through I also created some variations on some of the textures, the system I used was:
variations on an existing texture: a,b,c etc appended to the original texture name
Modifications to turn a non tiling texture into a tileable texture: -tile appended to the original texture name
Normal maps for existing textures and the variations: _nm appended to the original texture name
I've done 500+ normal maps so far, and I've nearly finished tex_buildings at time of writing, I'll post updates here as I churn through them. I don't really know enough about creating specular maps to feel confident doing a lot of them, but I figured even just normal maps for everything would be an improvement.
Normally I would host the files on Open Game Art, but since the licensing is not known for some of the source textures, and since hundreds of normals is not all that useful to other developers, I've gone with rapidshare for this lot, I hope thats not a problem.
Here is tex_base:
http://rapidshare.com/files/446618244/tex_base.zip
http://rapidshare.com/files/446619457/tex_terrain.zip
The big ones are uploading and are estimated to take another 5 hours, I'll edit this post to add their addresses when they're done.
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thanks a lot
but (sorry that there is a but ;) ): we encode the height in the alpha channel of the normalmap - see our wiki article about it. it would also be nice if you could share the heightmaps.
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I have done so mate, I went through all the jpgs in those directories, added alpha channels, set the mode to rgb where nessecary, then exported ran the normal map plugin using the settings from the tutorial and then saved them as pngs. If there are some without an alpha channel I am sure they are in the minority.
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I finally got a decent internet connection and can upload the large files, so here is tex_nature
http://rapidshare.com/files/449780624/tex_nature.zip
and tex_mattn
http://rapidshare.com/files/449781886/texture_mattn.zip
One question, its seems rather strange that you guys use the alpha channel for height, it adds so much size to the normal map files, over the course of every texture in the game it easily adds hundreds of megs of data that could have been avoided by not using alpha channels, does it really provide that much benefit?
one 1024x1024 texture i about 800kb, but the same texture with an alpha channel is about 3,000kb, this game could potentially have thousands of textures, its entirely possible to run into the gigs of normal maps alone.
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thanks a lot.
we are using the alpha channel to encode the height - for parallax mapping.
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p0ss, are you sure about the alpha channel being the reason for file size increase? Most likely, the reason is jpeg->png conversion. Remember, png is the lossless format, so it takes more space than jpeg.
BTW, which png optimizer you are using? A quck run of pngout over the tex_nature.zip you just posted saved about 330 kilobytes. Not much, but that's still an improvement. Maybe you will try this program?
And thanks a lot for providing the normalmaps!
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BTW, which png optimizer you are using?
I'm using the "save for web" plugin for GIMP, it shrinks png 8 quite a lot, but png 24 is huge, I'm yet to find anything that decreases the size of a png 24 significantly.
we are using the alpha channel to encode the height - for parallax mapping.
I just did some reading up on parralax mapping vs normal maps, I understand the difference now, thanks :) I'll make sure to encode an alpha channel in all the normal maps i do for OGA now :)
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Complexity of a normal map will effect its file size more than anything. Not every bump has to be "bumped", and if you keep normalmaps fairly clean you'll find they can be very small. Of course, some textures will require more involved normalmaps, but many won't. See the attached normalmap, 512x512, only 12.3kb, and it still bumps quite a few elements.
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may i ask you p0ss how you created the normalmaps? you should create a heightmap first, and should not "just" call the normalmap plugin on the (diffuse-) texture. that will not produce good looking results. i haven't yet checked every of your normalmaps, but some looked like you didn't create a heightmap before. btw. if you created heightmaps, please also submit them as sourcefiles (with layers and so on)
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i've just created a normalmap for one of my brick textures:
diffusemap (http://ufoai.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=ufoai/ufoai;a=blob;f=base/textures/tex_mattn/wall_bricks005.jpg)
normalmap (http://ufoai.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=ufoai/ufoai;a=blob;f=base/textures/tex_mattn/wall_bricks005_nm.png)
heightmap (http://ufoai.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=ufoai/ufoai;a=blob;f=images/textures/tex_mattn/wall_bricks005_heightmap.png;h=b26b2fbb9e066b792a5d44b1bddf3ae2df6f4215;hb=022c4092c384312d28415605becdb65d90895dc3)
the heightmap should not contain a lot of colour - i usually do them in grayscale mode. to create a normalmap from a heightmap, apply a gaussian blur filter (at least in this case) to the heightmap, add an alpha channel to the image and open the normalmap plugin in gimp. use the wall_bricks005.png as diffuse texture (open it in gimp to be able to select it as diffuse texture), increase the height to - let's say 30, preview in 3d and rotate the view to check the outcome.
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Hello,
I found in TODO/General that a Small 1x1 robot as a scout drone is needed. I thought it could be a "Hoover drone" with 4 cameras and 1 Anthena an some sort of sensor. This could be the early in game drone ... I made a model. What dou you think?
Sims
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I forgot this Picture. A little different.
Sims
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Looks kinda... steampunky.
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Agree ...
I don't know if there is an idea about the Drone. Filing one or with some sort of legs like spider or something with wheels ...
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I made an "classic" one with camera and tracks. Its more like classic human style. As i said. I don't know if any Idea is in discussion... The model is not finished, because i don't know in which direction it goes .. Sorry for my English.
Sims
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Sims, there was another attempt to create a scout drone (http://ufoai.org/forum/index.php/topic,6775.0.html). I'm not sure what the status of that project is. I've got some of the files but I'd have to dig into it to figure out whether or not we can work with it.
The most up-to-date list in terms of content is our Roadmap (http://ufoai.org/wiki/TODO/Roadmap). The TODOs for the next version tend to be fairly up to date, but I'm afraid the general TODO list is a bit of a mess. Sorry about that.
I like the design of your hover, but I think the "camera lens" parts are out-sized, especially considering the time period of the game. Camera lenses can be tiny these days and seemingly would be for a military scout drone. Unfortunately, the lens is pretty integral to your design so I'm not sure what to do about it. It is very nice looking, I'm just not sure if it's right for us.
Your tracked design looks alright. It's not as inventive or fun as the other one, but it could look nice with a really good skin. Are you able to skin the model yourself? In terms of the concept, we still haven't settled on exactly how the UGVs will work. Your design looks like it would be great with an inter-changeable turret, where the player could mount a machine gun, an observation bubble or a heavy barrel. But we haven't yet decided if this is how UGVs will work, so I can't guarantee anything.
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Hi,
Thanx for reply. I like the "spider" drone. It is more like the alien thing. Like blood spider. Humans could start to use some "human" tech and after research of blood spider manufactured the spider drone ... I remake'd the "hover" ... I see i go in some sort to right direction. I try to make some textured and better models ...
Sims
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so i saw somwere that AA beam is needed.
so i was thinking like you need 4 beam cannons to produce 1 heavy beam cannon. heavy beam cannon can be used as AA beam or on aircraft on heavy pods. probably teh same demage but higher fire rate. 2-3x faster. but that would be late technology. once bigger ufos apear.
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Is the Todo/Genral list still correct?
Is it worth to do something of that stuff? Because I have the feeling that, since the last version was released far in the past, nothing is done anymore?
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Is the Todo/Genral list still correct?
Is it worth to do something of that stuff? Because I have the feeling that, since the last version was released far in the past, nothing is done anymore?
Hello.
TODO/Generic is still valid IMHO, however its Artwork section is a bit too "generic". You may find better/easier tasks in TODO/RoadMap. For example a good "The Alien Strategy" Tech image (2D) could immediately added to the game while a new alien model need a mesh, texture, several animations, scripting and probably even a bit of code change.
Do you have anything specific in mind you would like to do?
Feel free to ping me about it so I can help.
"nothing is done anymore"
It is not quite true, but I have to admit that things slowed down a lot. The main focus of the 2.6-dev is the new UI design which is mostly done however some features are yet missing/broken. In the mean time we lost some people - even I was inactive for a while ( and still not up to full speed ). We definitely need fresh blood and need to re-organize ourselves. I would like to try to help with the latter one - but it is not so easy to do.
-geever