Codename chocolate (say hello to the High definition)

[samuncle]

Hello everybody. (open this video while reading this topic, so you have an epic background music) :P

After nearly 2 months of intense work (and it's still WIP) I'm proud to show you some screenshoots of Chocolate, the first track that uses the new engine.

Chocolate is located in Val Verde a South American country.

Landscapes
The fountain

The village

The bridge


In game view



Technical information:
Debug visualization

Unlike Harvest or Mine, Chocolate isn't a test but a fully functional track.
It's not recommended yet to test its because it's still WIP and it uses a custom version of stk (my personal branch). So your result might be slightly different.

Polycount: 92479 triangles
Nb of objects: 340
Textures: Mainly 1k some are still 512
Performances: 70 FPS @ 1080p with a NVIDIA GTX 660 and everything set to maximum quality
Ambient light done by the skybox
100% dynamic light
GPU soft particles
Depth based contrast
Depth of Field (with bokeh)
Vignette

Bonus:
Democratic Republic of Val Verde's flag

A test of the new particle system with bokeh


If you want to help me you are welcome. You can try to make a nice object .
Here is a little list

[WillemS]

Wow! That looks really nice!

[Bertram]

^ What WillemS said. \O/

[SuperMat]

Looks really nice

If you want to help me, you cant try to make a nice object

We can't try to make a nice object

[samuncle]

@supermat, wooooooooooooooops. It's a mistake. Sorry.

Yes of course you are WELCOME to try to make nice objects. That's why I created the page on the wiki. I'm looking for some tutorial so you can get started.

Making an object is currently the easier way to help me. Unfortunately the process to make a track with the new engine is still not well defined (even for me). I had to remake chocolate nearly 3 times because I started with bad designs.

And even small/simple objects are important. For instance Auria made the red flowers .

[Ludsky]

It's wonderful job !!!!!!! Congratulations !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kosmi]

I don't like this at all For me supertuxkart in its 0.6 version with its cartoonish graphics was a way better... but this oh no STK is lost somewhere and it start to need and have very high hardware requirements for nothing

STK supposed to be fun game look what Angry Birds GO! did... what to say more

[0zone0ne]

Just my personal opinion: I think we should be worrying about the track's design and layout as much as we should about the graphical quality. Now, I have no idea what this track's layout is (because you haven't shown us), but if those screenshots are showing the best bits, then I think that's definitely something we need to work on. Graphics-wise, they look great... It just doesn't look very exciting to drive on.

[Arthur]

I don't like this at all For me supertuxkart in its 0.6 version with its cartoonish graphics was a way better... but this oh no STK is lost somewhere and it start to need and have very high hardware requirements for nothing

STK supposed to be fun game look what Angry Birds GO! did... what to say more

"Cartoonish" doesn't mean hardware requirements that would make it run on a piece of copper with a string between either. 3D animation movies take typically hundreds to thousands of hours to render - while I am very fond of 2D hand-drawn animation they are two different styles. STK is also 3D and if you seriously expect it to not move forward and to some degree up its requirements you need to find a 10-15 year old 3D game or a 2D game to run on your Raspberry Pi.

[samuncle]

I don't like this at all .
For me supertuxkart in its 0.6 version with its cartoonish graphics was a way better...

I want to ask you something. Please can you show me where Chocolate isn't cartoon ? .
It's not only a matter of using highly advanced rendering feature. It's because the old engine is OUTDATED. It means that modern GPU might drop the support for these old functionality that nobody uses anymore. They are already deprecated.

As Arthur said cartoon doesn't mean faster.
One frame from a very colorful and cartoon Pixar takes around 4 hours to be rendered in a standard computer.

Now, I have no idea what this track's layout is (because you haven't shown us), but if those screenshots are showing the best bits, then I think that's definitely something we need to work on. Graphics-wise, they look absolutely great... but they don't look very fun to drive on.

You will be surprised. All That I Can Say

[0zone0ne]

You will be surprised. All That I Can Say

Ok, that's good to hear.

Would you mind if I take some of your screenshots and draw a few scenery ideas over them? I would like to make a few suggestions...

[Totoplus62]

I don't like this at all For me supertuxkart in its 0.6 version with its cartoonish graphics was a way better... but this oh no STK is lost somewhere and it start to need and have very high hardware requirements for nothing

STK supposed to be fun game look what Angry Birds GO! did... what to say more

0.6 is still available, where is the problem ?
I agree with the fact that the computer will need to be more powerful (I will have problems). This will be a real problem and i hope some optimizations will be done in the future.

Then i really want to underline the dedication of samuncle; without him the tracks would be ugly forever. What a fantastic work!

Just my personal opinion: I think we should be worrying about the track's design and layout as much as we should about the graphical quality. Now, I have no idea what this track's layout is (because you haven't shown us), but if those screenshots are showing the best bits, then I think that's definitely something we need to work on. Graphics-wise, they look great... It just doesn't look very exciting to drive on.

The Amazonian track is very boring and i really hope this track won't be like this. Stk needs craziness, Stk needs to avoid straight lines
I will try to create objects as soon as possible

[samuncle]

Yeah sure Ozonone and Totoplus you are welcome.

But please keep in mind that 90% of the design is finished (and changing a track shape is a lot of work).
So I might not use them immediately for Chocolate but yeah it will be a very very good source of inspiration for me.

However
Something that would be gold for me is the inside of a Mayan/Inca/Aztec pyramid. There is a portion inside an Aztec temple so yeah this will be particularly useful for me.
Also a village. Use all information that I posted. You can play with the Country flag, or things like that .

If you find a way to make "aztec" road sign support I will also use them.

I'm waiting your ideas

This will be a real problem and i hope some optimizations will be done in the future.

And yeah it's my first preoccupation. Here is some of the work that we are doing:
1) Textures are 1k, but we can reduce them (and it's why I want big texture even 2k. A big texture is alway easier to reduce in size).
2) Instancing (for massive vegetation like chocolate)
3) Light prepass (A fast lighting algorithm used by all modern engines like Cry engine, Frostbyte, etc). (Here is a vido to show What the light prepass can do)
4) Texture compression (to reduce the amount of VRAM used). Very useful for old GPU that have only 512 Mb of VRAM
5) All fancy shader are optional and the game can still use the old engine.
6) Little details like the dirt on the ground or the grass can be disabled. But As I said before. The polycount isn't our main bottleneck. The main bottleneck is animation.

But optimizing now is useless. It's better to have a track to test all new feature and to see how we can downgrade things for slow GPU.
Currently the oldest target is Intel HD 3000. So if your CPU is older you might have some issues, but chocolate will be released with the next version in several months. We'll see how things go then

[0zone0ne]

Maybe it will work better if we choose between having a village section or a temple section, rather than having both. I would personally go with the village, because I think there's enough potential in a temple section to make it into its own track. What do you think?

I'm not home at the moment, but I will get started on the art as soon as I am. I'll try to change the shape of the track as little as possible.

[samuncle]

Nope, we keep the trees sections. The fountain, the village, the temple.

If you want to make the village section sure go ahead. I prefer the temple section because currently it's an empty room with only the road.

[tuxkartdriver]

-

[samuncle]

Currently main textures (aka generic texture) are at 1k (1k = 1024p). I'm planning to use 2k textures (2048p) for some particular cases (like ground) but this is still in discussion since it might cause some storage problem :P. Also keep in mind that skyrim uses by default 512*512 textures. So even "only 1k" is already high resolution

The output resolution for my personal benchmark is 1920*1080 @ 60 FPS with a middle tech GPU (GTX 660) and everything set to max quality.

Currently the poly count is ~ 100 000 poly but it's planned to go up to 500 000 (and I already tested, our engine can handle a scene with 500 000 poly, without any problem)

[kosmi]

"Cartoonish" doesn't mean hardware requirements that would make it run on a piece of copper with a string between either.

Where you see i say that ?

3D animation movies take typically hundreds to thousands of hours to render - while I am very fond of 2D hand-drawn animation they are two different styles.

Who says anything about how 3d movies and on what hardware are rendered /produced ? And...

STK is also 3D and if you seriously expect it to not move forward and to some degree up its requirements you need to find a 10-15 year old 3D game or a 2D game to run on your Raspberry Pi.

And that Raspberry Pi no one knows from where this come from... i don't have it and i don't mention anything about that hardware .

But i like your answers .

[kosmi]

I don't like this at all .
For me supertuxkart in its 0.6 version with its cartoonish graphics was a way better...

I want to ask you something. Please can you show me where Chocolate isn't cartoon ? .

Where it isn't cartoonish at all, it reminds me of Far Cry 1 on low .

[kosmi]

The output resolution for my personal benchmark is 1920*1080 @ 60 FPS with a middle tech GPU (GTX 660) and everything set to max quality.

Currently the poly count is ~ 100 000 poly but it's planned to go up to 500 000 (and I already tested, our engine can handle a scene with 500 000 poly, without any problem)

What will hardware requirements be for 500k poly? I guess something like no current Intel / Radeon HD 4850 / GeForce GTX 580 and up ?

But OK as i see no one care about optimization and then i must sound trolish .

Angry Birds Go! and Mario Kart 8 are cartoonish for me and seems like i was wrongly informed that STK is something like that and will strive to that cartoonish direction but no... this is no more like tuxkart it is more like crykart or something

[Arthur]

For the record, currently it runs fine for me with 30-40 FPS with most effects turned on at 1366x768 resolution, and if I turn off shadows I get about 60 FPS. This is with a Geforce GTS 250.

[KroArtem]

I'm eager to cite Totoplus62:

0.6 is still available, where is the problem ?

Fork, update tracks, graphics, apply optimizations, do whatever you want.

[samuncle]

Here is a little "behind the scene" for those who are interested in making textures.

In fact many textures are an improved version of older one, and by improved I mean I hand painted them to avoid the photographic look.
Cobble stones
Before

After


Wood
Before

After


Grass
Before

After


Some textures are still older one like the sand. The "banana" palm tree is identical to the previous one, the model and the texture are the same.
It's interesting because what's make the biggest difference is more objects (30 before / 540 after) and the new light/shadow system.

About the gameplay I don't want to spoil you, but yeah it's the craziest track ever made for supertuxkart .

But OK as i see no one care about optimization and then i must sound trolish .

Yeah your are trolish :P because you didn't read my post about my FIRST preoccupation (in fact it's performances) and technologies that we are implementing right now to improve them.

About the cartoonish style I didn't know Angry birds Go. I saw some video on youtube and it looks very fun and cool. However we don't want a style like that It's specified in your guidelines.

The Supertuxkart universe is colorful and contrasted but not too much. It's not a too cartoon game. It uses hand painted realistic textures and realistic object. The finished result looks like a concept art or similar to Team Fortress 2.

Don't use candy-colored, plastic-colored or plain-color textures. These should be banned.

Currently the best description is an hand painted look and something very close to concept art.
For those who want to make concept arts/textures Here is some references for the jungle:

[Totoplus62]

But OK as i see no one care about optimization and then i must sound trolish .

Yes -->

And yeah it's my first preoccupation. Here is some of the work that we are doing:
1) Textures are 1k, but we can reduce them (and it's why I want [...]

Angry Birds Go! and Mario Kart 8 are cartoonish for me and seems like i was wrongly informed that STK is something like that and will strive to that cartoonish direction but no... this is no more like tuxkart it is more like crykart or something

Ok let's compare:




There is a lack of good faith imho.
I'm sorry, I just can't agree with you (and i love Farcry 1!)

(Oops samuncle was faster than me)

[kosmi]

About the cartoonish style I didn't know Angry birds Go. I saw some video on youtube and it looks very fun and cool. However we don't want a style like that It's specified in your guidelines.

The Supertuxkart universe is colorful and contrasted but not too much. It's not a too cartoon game. It uses hand painted realistic textures and realistic object. The finished result looks like a concept art or similar to Team Fortress 2.

Don't use candy-colored, plastic-colored or plain-color textures. These should be banned.

Of course that is it i don't like Your New Guidelines but Old Guidelines, and beleve me i don't like Team Fortress And now i am a troll because i don't like Your New Guidelines .

Why dont you brothers just change a name of the game as it will be so vastly different then MarioKart, TuxKart.... Cry Fortress or something .

Tuxkart was inspired by Mariokart as i know, but now as guidelineas are so different THIS is inspired by Team Fortress / Far Cry so change da name :