Empires and world/model rendering, or not.....

Discussion in 'Coding' started by Misfire, Mar 29, 2017.

  1. Misfire

    Misfire Always Lost

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    I'm dropping this out here as a conversation piece for devs mainly. I don't have the answer but I'm curious to know why game items are rendering the way they are.

    The more I've delved in to model making and painting the more Empires seems to be missing something in the realm of rendering that maybe it should have. I'm posting a couple pictures as an example, I hope they show up well enough for the explanation.

    I took a new model and gave it a very exaggerated $bumpmap (normal map) and some unusual specular attributes via the vmt file to highlight the differences. Here's the result as viewed in the half-life model viewer util (HLMV). Hopefully the picture shows the very lumpy, shiney gloss covered surface with orange areas and the tire treads concaved.

    upload_2017-3-28_18-35-55.png


    However, put the same model in to the game and Empires seems to ignore the bumpmap, specular and vmt file configuration information. Is Empire not implementing parts of the steam render engine capabilities?


    upload_2017-3-28_20-23-9.png


    And a shot of the full model for the curious....

    upload_2017-3-28_20-21-34.png
     

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    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
    Kidpaler likes this.
  2. LordDz_2

    LordDz_2 Strange things happens here

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    Looks like your testing map is running in fullbright, isn't lighting needed to affect the specular lighting of the model?

    (Just guessing here as map maker)
     
  3. Misfire

    Misfire Always Lost

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    lol, dunno. Been doing a lot of reading about it but nothing helpful to me so far.
    But here's another thing.... there are many existing model that have normal maps, but show no signs of recognizing the details in our current maps, not just my test.
    Is there something about how maps are compiled? Or something deeper in Empires code?
     
  4. Thexa4

    Thexa4 Developer Staff Member Moderator

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    It's hard to debug something like this through screenshots. Can you send me a zip with the vmf, model, material and texture files?

    (bumpmaps are supposed to work, we're not different than other source engine games unless you use weird shaders)
     
  5. Misfire

    Misfire Always Lost

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  6. Kidpaler

    Kidpaler Member

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    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]


    Looks great! Can't wait for the BE version.
     
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  7. Smithy

    Smithy Developer Staff Member Administrator

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    HLMV doesnt render correctly in the first place. Don't rely on that since cubemaps and stuff differ.

    Make sure your convars are right too, dont play on low settings :/

    Mat_bumpmaps 1
    Mat_specular 1
     
  8. Misfire

    Misfire Always Lost

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    For curiosity I plopped the same model in to UE4
    Barrel and tires are a bit closer to what I'd originally created.
    You have more control over textures in the UE4 editor, but that could be good or bad depending how much work ultimately has to go in. I find most don't even notice details in the steam engine so great looks != great game.

    upload_2017-3-30_21-23-56.png
     
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  9. Avatarix

    Avatarix Member

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    May I suggest making carriage thinner/smaller and barrel aiming higher? Because it looks like a medium artillery piece.
    Also this bullet shield is pure sex, love it <3
     
  10. Kidpaler

    Kidpaler Member

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    If anything, I'd eventually like the barrel to be it's own model so I can manually adjust it myself to make it a field gun/artillery piece.

    Edit: Could even probably rig up some cool entity work to it to make it "fire" and use Bloodwipers cool entity based rocket launcher.
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2017

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