Oolite Bulletins

Very nice shots! Are these Povray planets?

gsagostinho wrote: ↑Fri Feb 28, 2020 10:33 am

Very nice shots! Are these Povray planets?

Yes they are, except for the Iguana one.

The two screenies below show the new material system in action. These standard 1.88 Cobra Mk3 and Krait have received a normal map and a specular-gloss map each. Notice how there are alternating rough and glossy areas throughout the ships and how the rust and wear can be seen (although the effect shows best in-game rather than on a static shot). The combination of specular and gloss can be really powerful when creating different material types. The normal maps used are the typical Griff ones, while the spec/gloss ones can be downloaded from here: https://we.tl/t-6ebnA8aAcd

And here are a few more. Here we are using the same CMk3 normal and specular+gloss maps as before. When a spec/gloss map is in use, the shipdata gloss value works as a multiplier to adjust whatever comes in as input from the gloss map. In the pairs shown below, the top is with gloss multiplier 0.622 (equivalent to the default in shipdata) causing specular reflections to spread over a wider area, while the bottom is with gloss 1.0, resulting in utilization of the actual unmodified gloss map values, causing tighter, concentrated reflections. Note how a simple change like that creates apparently completely different materials.

Those are some very cool examples, a_c!

Some more with normal+spec-gloss maps. Maybe there will be an OXP when all ships are done, even with these very basic examples. An artist could do wonders with this.

They look beautiful.

Some more pics, while more ships receive the NSG (Normal, Specular, Gloss) maps treatment.

Wow, that really adds a lot of depth to the detail! Are those with or without normal-maps?

GearsNSuch wrote: ↑Fri Mar 06, 2020 11:59 am

Are those with or without normal-maps?

With normal maps, the ones found in Griff's packages.

another_commander wrote: ↑Fri Mar 06, 2020 12:02 pm

With normal maps, the ones found in Griff's packages.

Thank you! All the different maps really blend together smoothly for a great look.

While testing a new HUD, I noticed that you can get quite close to the planet if you try hard enough...



The picture isn't very clear, but the laser's end is where it intersects the planet, to give a sense of distance. I got a bit closer than that, even, but didn't get any more shots before I exploded.

Asp over Lave's rainforests.

another_commander wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2020 12:50 pm

Some more with normal+spec-gloss maps. Maybe there will be an OXP when all ships are done, even with these very basic examples. An artist could do wonders with this.

These look really great but (yes, it's me ) would I be right in thinking it would be possible to adjust the 'granularity' of the effect?
In this instance it makes the Moray appear rather small. Either a more sublte (less obvious) or less uniform (e.g. more isolated rough areas to mimic blast damage) might look better.

Perhaps once I understand the effect better such questions will disappear. Meanwhile, good work, this is encouraging stuff!

Redspear wrote: ↑Thu Mar 12, 2020 7:38 pm

These look really great but (yes, it's me ) would I be right in thinking it would be possible to adjust the 'granularity' of the effect?
In this instance it makes the Moray appear rather small. Either a more sublte (less obvious) or less uniform (e.g. more isolated rough areas to mimic blast damage) might look better.

Yes, the effect is fully adjustable via the gloss map. It looks like this here because I used the diffuse as a starting point for generating the gloss map and the diffuse texture has already plenty of granularity built-in I kinda messed up somewhere during the conversion.

Edit: Checked it again. It was my fault, not the diffuse texture's.