29 réponses à ce sujet

[Tchos]

For the sake of having textures that aren't from Oblivion, I've been making some replacement textures that have similar features so they'll fit into the same spots as the Oblivion ones, but made with free-license textures as the basis, which I can release for community use.

 

I began with the ones that Kalister told me he used for his new sewer set.  The basic rusty iron was the fastest to replace, but I had to grunge it up to match the original, and of course needed to make new normal and specular maps.

 

Next was the brick, and that by far took the longest (a couple of days).  I had to make a 10-row set of bricks to match the Oblivion ones, and I decided to take the long way around to make a seamless set of bricks that I could use in many situations.  I took a free photo of a brick wall, and cut out bricks one or two at a time and placed them in new rows along a guide grid, making sure they lined up nicely.  Then I offset every other row so that they'd alternate in placement as real bricks do, while ensuring that the two sides would match up perfectly.  Then I added grunge and lichen suitable for a sewer.  I had to make three different brick textures, with different sizes of brick and different grunge patterns, because some were for the walls, some for the ceiling, and some for the floor.  The result is not exactly like the original, but I think it makes the sewer look even less sanitary.  Seeing it in action, I see that I need to adjust the wall grunge so that it doesn't have a horizontal seam, but the floor and ceiling worked nicely.

 

Last was the stone.  The Oblivion stone texture is extremely distinctive, but I replaced it with a concrete basis overlaid with some stone brickwork, and grooves made by hand.  Seeing it in action, I think I'll reduce the contrast a bit, and dull it down some more so it doesn't stand out as much.

 

I plan to make an alternate brick set with dull green bricks more like the Oblivion ones in addition to these grungy red bricks.

 

Before

 

After

[rjshae]

I think yours might actually look more interesting.

[kevL]

i like it way more

[PJ156]

The red brick feels better on the eye.

 

PJ

[Calister68]

Nice work, the red bricks are looking good. You should add some dirt and moss on the stones too.

[MokahTGS]

Yup, the red brick version is awesome.  Much better in that we don't have much at all like it, which is important.

 

Actually reminds me of a couple subway stations in Chicago, which is sad and cool...

[Happycrow]

Agreed; The red brick is boss.

[Tchos]

Well, I guess I'll make the red brick the default, then, but it'll be no problem to put in a closer-matching set as well, for an alternative.  I'll dirty up the stone with moss in addition to dulling it down.

 

I'm still working on the normal and specular maps for the bricks, which is taking a while because as I mentioned above I wanted to make a texture that I could do a lot with.  I've made a lot of brick textures in the past, but I'm doing these "right", or at least closer to "right" than my previous efforts, in terms of how I'm creating the normal maps, which is a lot of manual masking.

 

These bricks are more or less regular-patterned, though, and I know that in future textures I'll want to make some more chaotic patterns that nevertheless match up on the edges so they'll work seamlessly, but I don't have that kind of freedom here.  I'm a bit limited in this tileset, since some of the patterns have to match up in the middle of the texture as well as on the edges, because the tilesets meet in the middles and are mirrored.  Mirroring tends to make patterns more noticeable in addition.  But this seems to be necessary in some places of tiles because they have to work when rotated.

[Tchos]

It turns out that my careful specular mapping was pretty much in vain, because Tupoun's tileset is not designed to accept it.  All of the surfaces have their specular colour set to black, meaning there's no specularity at all, regardless of the texture map.  Thus, I can't make the walls look wet, and it's missing an important lighting component.

 

So now I need to decide whether it's worth editing 241 tiles and 57 placeables to set their specular settings properly.  I can do one, and show the difference it makes later.

[kamal_]

Are you working from his tileset or the version in my tileset pack? That's something I have corrected in at least a few tilesets.

[Tchos]

From his originals.  I'll check yours.  If you used a white specular with 100% specularity and somewhere below 50 glossiness, it'll work.  There's no reason to use less than 100% specularity if there's a specular map, because it only limits how well the specular map can work.

 

Could you link to yours?

[kamal_]

http://www.nexusmods...inter2/mods/860

I'm currently at work, but it's in my tileset pack. It's one of those things that is time consuming but not very difficult to fix.

[Tchos]

I know, it's not difficult at all, but takes quite a while when it's for so many files.  You just have to select each of about 4 or 5 materials in each of the ~300 files and change the specular colour, strength, and glossiness.

[PJ156]

In what form are the files to be modified? I.e. do they need to be opened in blender or some such first?

 

If it's a pain of a job I can chip in with some time if that will help.

 

PJ

[Tchos]

Blender, Gmax, or whatever else can do the same.  I don't know what the settings are called in Blender, though, as I use Gmax.  If you're willing, I think it would make a significant difference.  I'll post some comparisons a little later to show what the effect is, and you can decide whether you think it's worth doing.

 

Kamal: I downloaded your pack from the link you provided, and checked a random tile, TL_MG_TUP_0J0J.  The specular settings in it are the same as in the originals.  I can do some more random sampling to see if that was an anomaly, but are you sure you changed the specular settings?

[kamal_]

I know I did for some tilesets, but do not remember specifically Toupons. Easily possible that was not one. But in any it was worth a shot to see if I did it for that tileset

[PJ156]

I have blender and Gmax, I am equally inept with both but if this is just opening a file, changing a setting and closing it then I think I can pick it up if it is deemed worthwhile.

 

PJ

[Tchos]

First a quick shot showing the bricks with their new normal map and seamless moss.  You shouldn't notice much difference aside from the fact that there's no sharp horizontal line in the moss.
 

 
Now a video showing how the bricks look with and without the specularity settings.  First it shows how it looks as the models are currently set, where there is no specularity.  Next it shows my edit to the model, with specularity activated, so that it uses the map I created in the textures.  This affects how light plays across the model.  For the purpose of the demonstration, I used a light set to an orangeish (torchlike) diffuse colour, but with the specular colour set to a greenish tint to bring out the mossy highlights. 
 

 
Now, I made the map display a fairly high specularity because the environment is supposedly damp, but with the same specular settings on the model I can just use a different specular map texture if I want the bricks to be duller or drier, or identical to the originals.  But in general, I consider most of the OC textures to be overly dull, dry and clay-like.

So the purpose of this video is to solicit opinions on whether it's worth the effort of fixing the settings on all of the models as I did in this one.

[PJ156]

I am not sure I can see that much of a difference based on the video?

 

If anything the earlier "flatter" texture is my preference.

 

PJ

[kevL]

Pj, look at the way the light bounces off the walls toward the camera as if the bricks are slightly damp/glistening/reflective in the second half of the vid. It's set fairly high, as T. says.

meh/ great for a specifically wet place that has other things like dripping sounds & graphics, but i wouldn't spend much time on it if there's better things to do ... is it possible for a modder to activate/deactivate it fairly easily, for damp or dry places? If not i think things like that should almost be on their own as a "Wet Dungeon" set,

[Dann-J]

I prefer the 'Haysi Fantayzee' variant myself. It makes me feel as if the bad times are behind me...

[Tchos]

 is it possible for a modder to activate/deactivate it fairly easily, for damp or dry places? If not i think things like that should almost be on their own as a "Wet Dungeon" set,

 

It's a matter of dropping in an alternate handful of normal maps to change it from wet to dry.  Simplicity itself.  Anyway, isn't a sewer expected to be wet?

 

I prefer the 'Haysi Fantayzee' variant myself. It makes me feel as if the bad times are behind me...

 

Er, which one is that?

[kevL]

Anyway, isn't a sewer expected to be wet?

not necessarily. Old sewer, earthquake rerouted geology, etc etc. never know what peeps will use it for

[Tchos]

Well, with the green mossy grime on the walls, one would expect some moisture.  Of course, I'll also be making the dull green bricks without the moss, so those would have the duller speculars.

[PJ156]

I'm with Kevl on the wet sewer business, It could look wet because we expect it to be wet for sure. Would it be wet in real life, I doubt that, especially in the size of rooms you have here. Smaller tunnels might be due to condensation. A lot of images on line show glazed bricks which gives them that "wet look"

 

I think the bigger point he makes is that these tiles could be so much more than a sewer and changes would be better implemented if they keep the flexibility of the set. It's the same with Calisters new set. I can see many more uses for those vaulted rooms than sewers.

 

Just my ten cents worth. If you choose to go with wet walls I will help with the model settings.

 

PJ