56 réponses à ce sujet

[Master Jax]

Hey everyone! I've been fooling around for a while with the tilesets, tweaking things here and there, and for the most part, I am satisfied with the changes. However, something that keeps bothering me is the grass. As I'm sure you know, grass in NWN is composed of two main things: A basic "floor"texture, and the dynamic grass added on top of it. Toro's dynamic grass is almost omnipresent (or at least it should be), seeing as it does a lot for realism and immersion, however, the "floor" texture part has never really convinced me. Not that it is wrong or anything! I just think of a different type of grass,... wet and short, greener and "colder" if such a thing makes sense. Think the grass in the Game of Thrones tely show, or Skyrim. Zwerkules and I poissibly agree a bit more in this matter, as his medieval rural seems to go down this road, however, that's too green for me.

I know this sounds nitpicky, and I apologize if it sounds like I am complaining. This isn't about that. It was about me wondering how peopel are dealing with the grass overall. For example, I have tried several different things. My "ideal" mod used the original dynamic grass with about 60 as density value, and 200 in height. This created the perfect grass feel for me. Reminded me a lot of Dantooine's grass in KOTOR, but the framedrop is disastrous! I had to abandon such an idea almost immediately! As I mentioned, I have played with Toro's dynamic grass, and it works PERFECTLY in the forest tileset because I drew inspiration from Baba's Coniferous Forest, and textures here and there. In fact, my current rural grass uses Baba's grass at its base, because it tiles SO seamlessly, and it is very hi-res, which helps keep detail and sharpness.

Thing is, if anyone could share their own breakthroughs or concerns regarding this topic, how you deal with grass, what your settings are, or even better, share some shots, it would be greatly appreciated, and perhaps we could even pool our collective thoughts on the matter and sort of design a "perfect" setting that is balanced for both looks and performance!

Modifié par Master Jax, 27 juin 2013 - 06:06 .

[NWN_baba yaga]

hi there,

here is a grass texture i did for my outskirt tileset. I havent released it but you can use this as a base. Feel free to use/ modify it if you think it´s usefull.



it´s a bit different, not that bright and looks good even on many tiles.

If you want the tga. instead of this here just lemme know;)

Modifié par NWN_baba yaga, 27 juin 2013 - 07:12 .

[Master Jax]

WOW! Thanks a lot, Baba! (^,^) Like I said, I've been using your grass from Coniferous forest up to now, but I will play around with this one! So nice of you to offer the tga file, but don't worry, I can convert the image you have already provided! Also, would you share a little about what you think of the whole grass thing? Do you go dynamic? How tall/short? How dense? Anything would be great!

[Master Jax]

[url= _fcksavedurl=]<a class=

Ho! My first published image! SO proud! This is a look of the forest override inspired by Baba's Coniferous forest! Look at the grass! ^__^

Modifié par Master Jax, 29 juin 2013 - 06:24 .

[Master Jax]

AH! LINK!!! Y U NO SHOW LIKE BABA'S!!  The sorrow...

Modifié par Master Jax, 28 juin 2013 - 05:38 .

[Tarot Redhand]

Nice image but too big for here. Make it 500 wide and use the standard form to include it (so much easier). If you are going to use the bb codes directly you must get rid of the extra spaces (ie there are no spaces used in bb codes).

TR

[MrKWMonk]

Nice pic, well done.

[_six]

Looks neat. I like those kinds of colours too (as my work probably attests to).

[DM_Vecna]

I like the pic. For me I am trying to retain two grasses. One darker that I will keep among the options provided by toro, six, or baba. And one lighter with more flower and Rock ala Chico or seasonal Forrest. As Six has stated in the past many of the newer developments are very dark. I really think you either need multiple Forrest tile sets to achieve this or make rural light and Forrest dark.

I have however not played too much with the height and frequency. Thanks for the inspiration. I will definitely be watching this very relevant thread

[Master Jax]

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Tarot, I actually tried to follow the guidelines to get the linked image to show like Baba's, but I have fumbled. If you could give the exact example of what went wrong, I will fix it!

Vecna, I actually follow you on this! The Forest override I based on Baba's Coniferous Forest, which is darker and "browner" than usual. There are many different types of forest layouts and color-schemes, but I like this one because it feels "real" to me. This is the kind of forest you find down here, the one I know by personal experience, so it was nice to have it reproduced in-game with a certain level of realism. As for the Rural tileset grass, I want it to go precisely the other way. Not necessarily very bright and green, but certainly more so than the forest. Problem is, unlike the forest, I can't seem to get all the elements to match. Somehow, it doesn't look as "real" as the forest theme does. This is mainly why I started the thread, to see if someone has already achieved what I am trying to do with rural.

I will post a pic of what my rural looks like once I get the whole image-pasting thingie sorted out.

Modifié par Master Jax, 28 juin 2013 - 07:08 .

[T0r0]

Looking good Jax ! Been looking forward to those screenies for awhile.

[Master Jax]

Hey Toro! I haven't forgotten about you! I took lots of pics of the rural, but haven't uploaded yet due to the whole not showing thing! Also, because I still can't get the damn thing right! But I will upload the rest as soon as I learn how to get them to show like yours! In fact, could you aid me a bit on this? I read the site-info on it, but still got a measly link...-__________________-

[Zwerkules]

Master Jax wrote...

I read the site-info on it, but still got a measly link...

Tarot already pointed out that you had spaces in your bbcode. Remove the spaces and the screenshots will show.

[Master Jax]

Well, I tried removing any spaces inside the brackets and it didn't work, then I tried removing spaces between those and the link itself, and all I got was neither the link nor the image showing... I did it all through Standard Form... Uhm... I may be slow, so... if anyone could write the exact layout like... [img]link yadda yadda, I would simply copy it, the image would show, and I could see where I went wrong and just reproduce the thing for every other pic I post... That would solve it...

Modifié par Master Jax, 29 juin 2013 - 05:49 .

[Master Jax]

While I get this linked image thing sorted out, here is an image of what rural grass currently looks like:



However, as I said earlier, I am not entirely sold out on how it looks. It's so yellowy because I inserted some TNO tiles which I thought looked way better than original rural (uneven terrain, lots of natural placeables, etc) and since those use the original 1.69 resources, grass textures had to match.

I want more of a Skyrim rural theme, a greener, more realistic look, so i guess I will finally go about and do changes today. I will post the result when it is at least decent-looking. If anyone has input on the matter, please share!

As a disclaimer, the featured pics use resources from other content makers. I claim no ownership or credit over any of it! Toro, Zwerkules, Six, Helvene, Chico, Wormz and Baba Yaga are all in there, wether in texture, model or inspiration form.

[Tarot Redhand]

@Master Jax Try the "Visual Tutorial on Images in Threads" thread that I created a couple of months ago in the toolset thread. 

TR

[Master Jax]

Thanks, Tarot! As you can see, I already got it to work! ^___^

[Master Jax]

Ok, after much testing and tweaking, here is what may be called Rural 2.0



Yes, it is a simple recoloring and a little density/height tweaking. Thing is, I went the whole spectrum, trying out different floor textures and dynamic grass files. I think the best possible one is the one Rozencrantz used in his rocky mountain set, but the density count is insane. 50 is ten times what TNO uses, and my system has a noticeable framerate drop at about 11. It looks amazing, but its simply unsustainable. In the end, I went back to the same textures. The tragedy here is the lack of variation in the floor one. As most of you know, varied textures usually don't tile well, and those that do are rarely detailed enough to do the trick. Baba's floor for Coniferous was my choice originally, because it is perfect in terms of variation. Trampled grass, some dirt and rock. Problem was its resolution. In rural it looks smeared. This is why hi-res works for me in this tileset.

Anyway, setting suggestions would be hot! How do I achieve a more vibrant look? How do I get a lighter, yet colorful grass? a more varied, hi-res texture you know of for the floor?

[T0r0]

Jax, you got a great eye for detail.

[Tarot Redhand]

 I don't know if it's any use to you but I came across this on deviantArt just now. I was thinking prticularly about the pallets on there.

TR

Modifié par Tarot Redhand, 01 juillet 2013 - 09:08 .

[Master Jax]

Thanks for the link Tarot! I think I found the perfect texture for grass floor. It has lots of definition, variation, and keeps detail even at the most uneven of terrain:



Now, I spent days testing things out, trying out new dynamic grasses, etc. I cursed and yelled a lot. But I came up with a very simple, possibly final version. I would love it if you guys could offer a bit of feedback. More dynamic grass? Less? Different coloration? Anything to make it look as realistic as possible.

[Zwerkules]

I prefer the ground texture you had before because
a) it wasn't so bright
and
it wasn't so photo-like

[3RavensMore]

Both of those samples look great. From a builder standpoint, I like the second one for density, and how it would look in a brighter sun lit setting. The first would look great in a foggy setting, but perhaps a bit too olive drab in a brighter environment. I suppose it's hard to make one grass that fits all lighting styles. I'd go with the second one though.

Modifié par 3RavensMore, 05 juillet 2013 - 03:40 .

[NWN_baba yaga]

The grass texture from image 5 "days ago" looks better to me. Now you changed your style to a brigther look... which is not bad in no way but take care that it goes well together with all other textures. Nothing looks more strange as a "main" texture that dont fit to well. To get rid a bit of the photolike look tone down the color palette to say 30 and use a default nwn texture as a layer beneath and test the oppacity once your happy. Additional use a very soft rubber brush here and there to keep some nwn style if you dont want to use just the layer way of doing it. The rubber brush is for me the most usefull texture tool.

When i work on textures i always have 2 to 3 other main textures open in photoshop to see how they all look together and if there is some harmony;)

And the shot from 5 days ago looks very good to me as a complete scene, the dynamic grass fits perfect onto it:)

And what helps me also when creating textures is to take a few shots of different terrains and features and think about them. Then just paint over the screencap until it makes "bang" and you got it:D

Modifié par NWN_baba yaga, 05 juillet 2013 - 06:27 .

[Master Jax]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

The reason I chose the last texture was because of its detail, Zwerk, though I agree with you on it being brighter, and a lot more saturated... I'm not very pleased with such, so I am trying to darken/desaturate in order to get it to look more like the previous one. I think that's what modding NWN has taught me more about: Compromising. One can never quite get exactly what one wants, but I try to come as close to it as possible. 0__0

You've touched on a very important subject, 3RavensMore! Since I don't build modules, I'm always thinking as an end-user, in terms of override and one-for-all solutions. However, when it comes particularly to Rural, one can never really do that. Perhaps more than any other of the original tilesets, TTR changes according to the builder's choice of ambiance. Lighting is everything here. As mentioned earlier, though, I am trying to bring components in the different styles together, in an effort to reach some balance.

Now, Baba! Of course the texture would look better to you! Tis yours!  Thanks for the tips on how to work themes better! I follow a very similar process, always trying to match textures in a cohesive way, whether they are meant to blend in or bring contrast. Just today I went and worked on some plants to fit the new scheme!

Modifié par Master Jax, 05 juillet 2013 - 06:47 .