Davaris
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Posts posted by Davaris
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Another thing that got me interested in Houdini, apart from a friend ranting about it, was these commercial tutorial videos. If my understanding is correct, you can have everything CityEngine and that Max plugin has + a lot more - without buying additional plugins! Of course the instructional videos aren't free...
http://www.cmivfx.com/productpages/product.aspx?name=Houdini_Procedural_Cities
http://www.cmivfx.com/productpages/product.aspx?name=Houdini_XML_Based_Procedural_Cities
http://www.cmivfx.com/productpages/product.aspx?name=HOUDINI_ROAD_GENERATION_I
http://www.cmivfx.com/productpages/product.aspx?name=HOUDINI_ROAD_GENERATION_II
http://www.cmivfx.com/productpages/product.aspx?name=Tunnel_Building_and_Road_Flattening
http://www.cmivfx.com/productpages/product.aspx?name=Houdini_L-Systems_Vol_1
http://www.cmivfx.com/productpages/product.aspx?name=Houdini_L-Systems_Vol_2
If you watch this demo video, they show how you can create your own plugins, by creating your object and turning its construction history into a package with modification sliders, similar to what Poser has. The end of this video demonstrates it:
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=750&Itemid=241
Anyway I sound like a sales rep for these guys. I've just downloaded the free version, so I'm going to stop gushing like a school girl and go see what I can learn.
EDIT:
Oh and I forgot to mention they also have Ptex now. I don't know what that means in terms of export though, as I am an artist newb. If it means we can export a mesh and there is very little to do after that, it will be very good for game developers.
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Okay its as I hoped it would be in that it works when you are modeling.
Note the node graph on the bottom right of the screen that is built up as he models. He can go back to any point on that graph and change something and it effects the work he did later on in the model. Brilliant!
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hmmm i will assume it comes with no cars, no people, no interiors
From what I have seen of CityEngine it makes interiors of buildings and you can make any kind of city from any era that you imagine. If you find the video on what they used to build the sci-fi city you'll see what I mean. The only reason I went off CityEngine, is all you can build with it is cities. I'd like to take a parametric approach on everything I build.
it looks good if you're one of those studios where every second of time saved is worth $1.
No I'm just a hobbyist, looking for ways to make lots of content in the fastest time possible.
But I'm guessing Houdini, as you say, XSI Ice (or whatever it has become now), as well as blender scripting + nodes can do the same things.
I went to the Houdini site and what I read on their procedural approach made me very curious:
I've heard its difficult to learn, but if you can build, texture and animate anything once and get infinite and fully controllable and exportable variations based on an object's entire construction history, then its the way I want to go.
Hopefully what is on that page is not hype and its what I imagine it is, because otherwise I'll be very disappointed. If their procedural approach goes right down to modeling, texturing and animating of individual models, then that would be very useful.
On second thoughts, perhaps it is just geometry only. I hope not.
I found another page on it:
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1000&Itemid=266
EDIT:
If you know of any other modelers that have this capability, please let me know!
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It cost $5000 dollars earlier this year, but as of July they have added a lower price point of $500 for Indies. There is also a student price of under $200, but its feature set is limited. I'm sure this is old news to some of you, but I just found out about it and I'm excited!
http://cdn.ronenbekerman.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/cityengine2010_screenshot2.jpg
EDIT:
Actually I am hearing a program called Houdini is better than this one on all counts.
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Thanks for that Pixel. I haven't tried importing an animated mesh yet. Hopefully your instructions will save me some grief later on.
What would be helpful is a FAQ sticky at the top of this sub forum to help new people with things like this.
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?? I write most of my own material files by hand ... if you dont know how then there is the wiki, the forum (via the search function) .. Icares ADN or indeed the material editor included in the SDK .. or GenMat.exe for real basic ones ...
Okay thanks for your help. I have a fair idea of how to write them, as I learned that recently after messing around with ADN, but until you said that I didn't know what file to put them in, as UU3D gives no indication.
As a beginner earlier this year, I had no idea of what to do using these "instructions" for UU3D, which don't say anything at all really:
http://www.leadwerks.com/wiki/index.php?title=Unwrap3D_GMF_Exporter
Unwrap3D GMF ExporterFrom Leadwerks Developer Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
UU3D can import all the formats found here. The gmf export plugin (if it's not already installed) can be found here under "Third Party Plugins" by choosing:
Plugin: Leadwerks Engine GMF
and your product, then pressing the "Download" button. Refer to the readme.txt found in the downloaded archive for further directives.
So I didn't bother with UU3D after that.
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Because the gmf doesn't have the same things in it that the mtl file had in it. For instance it has the diffuse file for one I have just exported, but is missing the bump file that the mtl file had.
Also how do you alter your shader settings, if no mat file is generated and there is no indication of what it should be?
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Settings for?
When you 'Save As' on a model there is a gmf option. If you pick that a dialogue box opens up called 'Save Leadwerks GMF model' with lots of options. I assume you guys just tick everything?
One problem I'm noticing right now is UU3D exports a gmf file and there is no mat file, or suggestion to indicate what it should be.
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I've previously converted dexsoft animated models in UU3D in exactly the way you describe Rick, scaling and exporting, and not had any issues. I'd suggest starting again as something has clearly gone wrong during the process. Perhaps try another format as the initial import format
Could you give us a screen shot of your settings on UU3D? I've owned it for a while and have not had any success with it.
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It looks like you are allowed to make closed source projects with Blender and sell them. At least that's what this CAD software maker is planning on doing:
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This is what an ordinary user was able to do with Blender scripting:
http://www.swineworld.org/blender/gears/
I've seen a few other nice ones, like stair makers of all kinds, a bolt maker, a ladder maker and a city maker.
Of course there are many more of varying quality and its all open source, so I assume you can use them to make new things as long as what you make is also open source.
EDIT:
Currently its for 2.49b and is okay, but the version for 2.5 will have better features, like allowing you to use your own meshes for buildings. Actually I just noticed there is a better project based on it call Blended Cities.
and
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I'm not being harsh or opinionated when I say Blender's interface is bad. It's objectively horrible.
From what I understand Blender was designed not to be easy to learn, it was designed to be highly efficient to use. Or that's what Blender artists offer as an excuse. I'm not an artist, so I can't tell the difference.
As for whats in it for you, there is a huge Blender community out there, so if word got out that Blender users could use it in LWs, then they might take an interest in LWs. If only "might" paid the bills...
I wouldn't worry about it though, if Blender users want Blender to output LWs files, there is no reason they can't write Python scripts to do the job. Python is a beautiful language and you don't have to decipher anyone elses code. All you have to do is learn the API and write what you want it to do. I'm sure I'll be learning it one day to automate things I want to do.
As for Blender staff, I don't think there are any. I'm sure they have people overseeing the direction it is going, but everything is done on a voluntary basis.
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If I am understanding Pancakes correctly, all you'd need is for Blender to output in Leadwerks format?
If the format is not secret, I don't see why someone in the community couldn't write a Python script to do it, without accessing LWs code.
They could also write a Python script that spits out Lua scripts and gmf files. The only problem is writing those scripts would be a lot of work and in the end, you wouldn't be able to sell it.
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On this page
I remember reading about using
Ctrl-A->Apply scale and rotation on all mechanical parts in object mode
before animating as otherwise, it would mess things up. Its a tute for Blender, so I don't know if the same applies to UU3D.
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I've tried Unity3d and its got a lot of nice addons and art imports effortlessly, but its terrain is ugly and its movement gives me a headache.
As I like things to look as good as they can be, I prefer LWs.
As for Torque, I've heard bad things about the code base, documentation and support for years, so I did not try it.
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I thought the Blender code was GPL, which means if you make anything using it, its got to be free. Anyway if that's not the case, it might be worth looking into, as everything can be customized, including layouts and keys and the customizations can be shared. As for plugins, they can be made in Python to automate virtually anything and I assume that includes the building of levels.
If it is true the Blender Foundation want commercial companies to take an interest, it might be worth looking into, as most people can afford a $200-$300 for a game engine, but paying thousands for 3D Max or Maya, just to make games in your spare time?
Anyway if people think Blender is hard to use, have a look at some of these video tutes. It is easier than you think:
http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html
And yeah, like Pancakes I am a Blender user as well - albeit new. I used to be a Hexagon user, but when it changed owners, they stopped fixing show stopping bugs and after being burned like that, I won't be using a complex 3D modeling commercial product again. If I take the time to learn something complex, I want it to be around and maintained for a long time and I'm pretty sure Blender is forever.
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Well it's seem right.. Could you try to invert the Y value of the normal map, maybe it's simply reversed..
Turns out there was nothing wrong with the normal map at all. I'm not sure if it was my experimentation with different combinations of .frag and .vert files, because while some look like they should be compatible, they aren't.
For some reason mesh_diffuse_bumpmap.vert does not work.
Anyway it works now and I've learned quite a bit.
Here it is:
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Ah, if you export the scene from purelight and open that in leadwerks, you see the directional light has a different name to normal. Maybe this is why you have a problem? As you say you, you should ask Josh. He knows best.
Thanks Richard, I didn't notice that.
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Hi Nicolas,
Thanks for replying. I've continued my quest here:
We think there is something wrong with the normal map. Either that or it is the way I have set up the shaders, when it comes to the normal map.
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Well it's seem right.. Could you try to invert the Y value of the normal map, maybe it's simply reversed..
Thats a good idea. I'll download this plugin for Gimp and see if what I can do with it.
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Okay I just tried MakeDDS.exe to convert cactus1_N.png and cactus1_N.tga to cactus1_N.dds and no setting I tried made a difference.
I tried ticking 'save mipmaps' and it had no effect. I tried ticking every other box and no effect either.
This is a shrunk down version of the normal map. Is this what they are supposed to look like?
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In one of the old SDK's there's a tool that Josh made called TextureTool.exe, and it works just fine for making mipmaps. Also the current Tools folder has MakeDDS.exe which also has an option button that will allow you to save mipmaps.
Mmm, i saw this type of error when the map have no (or bad) mipmap. Don't you have another way to convert it? Gimp is free maybe you could give it a try?I don't have pureLight so i can't check..
Okay thanks for your help guys. I'll give it a try and report back.
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Did you try to remove the normal map?
No normal, no gi, it works with all lights:
shader="abstract::mesh_diffuse.vert","abstract::mesh_diffuse_alphatest.frag" shadowshader="Abstract::mesh_shadow.vert",""
No normal, but with gi, it works with all lights:
shader="abstract::mesh_diffuse.vert","abstract::mesh_diffuse_gi_alphatest.frag" shadowshader="Abstract::mesh_shadow.vert",""
Diffuse bumpmap, it goes black!
shader="abstract::mesh_diffuse_bumpmap.vert","abstract::mesh_diffuse_bumpmap_alphatest.frag" shadowshader="Abstract::mesh_shadow.vert",""
I could have sworn it was black without the normal map before!
I just opened up the .dds file for the normal map and it says, (A8, R8, G8, B8 Mip 1 of 10)
I have two other kinds for the normal map, tga and png and they look the same as the dds.
I used the tga files and pureLIGHT did the conversion to dds.
I have a file ending in H which I assume means height map, it is black and white.
The normal map is shiny blue and pink.
I see Lumooja says in another thread that:
Black means the textures don't have mipmaps.I don't know what to do about this.
CityEngine Has Indie Price
in Tech Talk
Posted
Have a look here:
http://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=589&Itemid=221
They don't seem to have a comprehensive feature comparison chart that I can find, but I read somewhere it has all the features of the Master version, except for the above limitations. They also set up the Apprentice version to export for Torque - not that it helps us.
Anyway I'll post again, when I know more about it.