FreeGameDev Forums < SR General

by **CryHam** » 26 Nov 2023, 18:32

Yeah true. And props isn't even our official word, we use dynamic objects.
Go ahead with changes, you do more then than I for sure lately. You can move/rename files or even folders in git and this is a quick change (not delete and add again).

by **CryHam** » 26 Nov 2023, 20:13

Okay. Let me be completely honest here. I'm not happy about some changes to tracks.
Aus3-Canyon has now a completely empty sky, it was a nice track to show of clouds, now that part is gone.
Aln4-EjeloOutpost has a sky that is darker, and now terrain and all is brighter. But I'd rather lighten the sky. Making tracks darker is not nice, it makes them worse, sad.
Isl3-Islands another example. It's now depressingly black. I mean cool a monlight track is something good once a while on own track, but I feel like this change just made me like it much less now.
NileCity and HighJumps are very bright deserts and half of their new skies are dark like it was raining or so.

Other thing, I see you're changing skies and BTW yaw and pitch, which changes sunlight, possibly longer shadows, less light etc. Usually tracks had good brightness, I'd rather rotate sky after to match yaw but maybe too much to do.
I don't see you changing fog. Fog is always matched so it fits sky colors at low horizon well. Now in few tracks this looks bad, since fog is too bright like it was good before but sky there got much darker. IDK, I'd adjust fog to match or sky to be brighter.
Hard to say, is each track's and sky's own thing to determine best way.

But yeah the key idea is not making tracks darker, more shadowed, or less colorful.
Another general approach I'd have is making good set of skies that would fit tracks well first, then replacing skies. Not just replacing with whatever skies we have and changing tracks look a lot in some cases. Obviously not an issue for new tracks.

I somewhat like the new For9-MadMntn, it got more mad and fresh, but yeah darker too and I kind of miss my far clouds and that yellow gray colors it had.
Sad was quite original with that low sun, it's now not a sunset track but a cloudy one. I guess that's okay, I could try to get it back later.
BTW since we're at it, I dislike Cross too now. It got insanely difficult (winter is bad for stunts and bumps), it was a nice short but hard track for tutorial (I replaced it with Wet) but now happened like on Islands, I don't like it. Would be okay as a 2nd track, not a replacement. But then I'd rather see new original tracks than mods for existing.

Since you are making 1 PR with many tracks changes at once, it's not very possible to discuss each track and reject or leave its PR until changes are made after my comments. So yeah only way for me is to fix stuff myself after, if I didn't like it much, but that's more work and I'm not completely sure if I should either.

IDK maybe I should do something like a content manager and release with like 20-40 tracks, rest would be to download if you want. Still I'm just 1 developer I can't do all at once, if I start coding that then I won't do anything else for weeks I think.

by **rubberduck** » 26 Nov 2023, 21:43

yeah, ok
I am thinking about what to do next and how.
Maybe just add horizons for now, without changing the rest.
And for skies I think I am gonna add some more first and then from time to time, when I have the feeling that one sky fits post a screenshot, at least if it looks a bit different.

Another idea I had is replacing some of the older rocks, (trees), so what do I need to know or do to add trees

by **CryHam** » 27 Nov 2023, 00:15

Trees would be awesome. I love trees

.
They are in SR3 just like other objects. Just export and put mesh and textures in trees2/, add in presets.xml, new material in all.material.json (copy similar) and test in editor.

They need LODs (like 3 at least, let's say up to 6). This is very important.
LODs are done with that OgreMeshTool or could even be set (and work) in export from Blender.
If we had a tree with 30k tris it needs to reduce it very quickly. Less issue for 10k trees but still needs. And for a 3k tree that's already too low so whatever.
LODs need testing and this is tedious.
Testing is done with 1st slider on Gui tab Detail to 0 (lowest lod bias).
They can't look bad (too separated tris, lost shape, etc). If they do then total % tris reduced is too high.
But with good (e.g. 20k) trees LODs need to allow us to have many of them far without too high triangles count (F11 to test).

So firstly there is a great tool, (better than what I used to generate trees2/) new trees generator:
https://drajmarsh.bitbucket.io/tree3d.html
awesome, probably needs just textures from elsewhere

and I have a huge list of links
- We need for jungle first, this could be hard not many good models, low poly.
- Palms also, many available. Few bushes even too.
- Some other too, could be easy
So let's try first those with good tris count, 5-10k (could go up to 20-30k with great LODs).
Other way you could just use those links for leaves textures and do it with that generator above.
(Be extra cautios still, check for licenses and real artists. Avoid trolls or bots copying stuff around idiotically, there are some on sketchfab).
For bark textures our favorite Yughues did many long ago:
https://opengameart.org/content/free-ma ... k-30-redux
https://opengameart.org/content/free-ma ... k-22-redux
https://opengameart.org/content/tiny-weeds
https://opengameart.org/users/yughues?page=8

----- jungle - badly needed to replace tree.07 and tree.09
18k good for jungle? do mesh etc maybe vary trunks
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/tree-an ... c97019e6f2
41k 3x drop animation, do mesh etc good for jungle?
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/tree-wi ... 25143e4e77
4k 2x good too low?
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/low-pol ... 0d534ee12b
30k good jungle needs some variation, work
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/jungle- ... 1070f67d1e
----- too high
100k 3x good, but reduce a bit on branches
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/small-t ... 96f5ecc31b
130k way too high poly, awesome tree
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/mango-t ... 3213677de8
124k jungle leaves too high poly
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/jungle- ... cb85274d8a
111k too high, great tree reduce possible? remove vines? we need 30k or less
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/chinese ... 7c7a8170ce

----- very good tropical shrubs
https://opengameart.org/content/tropical-shrubs
https://opengameart.org/content/bushes
https://opengameart.org/content/tiny-weeds

1.6M! ultra hq, awesome tree, difficult, needs redoing leaves and decimate
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/ceiba-p ... b10da79d2a
282.3k way too high poly but awesome tree
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/realist ... e8c2e671af

102k 6x idk trunks bad
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/fantasy ... 862d4a4311
14k idk maybe? jungle, license?
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/tree-3d ... 34c619365c
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/tree-25 ... 6162b2ab60
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/whnp3v2 ... bf3e20b621

----- few at once
17k good 3x
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/elm-tre ... 32699310e2
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/beech-t ... fa78614f21
texture bad
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/birch-t ... cf94d64e80
13k idk low
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/birch-t ... cf84f06575
7k idk
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/realist ... 1c6b409bd4
3k meh, small, texture good
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/hill-si ... 5633ad84da

license ok? ue only or sth?
https://sketchfab.com/NextSpring/models

------ palms - we can have more

by **rubberduck** » 27 Nov 2023, 10:02

ok, good, I will look into that soon.
I planned to focus on the next days on alien scenery and assets, including adding horizons to alien tracks, adding new / replacing the old alien rocks as first "trees". And I will definitly post some screenshots if I done that.
Maybe later I could try to create a good replacement for the alien magic sky.

I also got an idea when it comes to replacing skies, whenever I want to replace one somewhere.
I am making a copy of the scene file, which I saw in one track, I think it was test-Hills - after I made the horizon, so it is easy to revert the sky change only.
Though I will only do the sky replacement when a new sky fits.
The same applies when I do other larger changes that affects gameplay or the look

by EP » 27 Nov 2023, 11:03

Great stuff and much progress! I follow it almost daily, but currently having no time to really build tracks or do other things.

I am looking forward to and I am excited to play the new release, trying out all the new stuff.

What worries me a bit though is that if all tracks get changed like that. Contributors in general, those now and in the future, may be happy with feedback and together improvement of tracks,

but if all tracks get just changed in a significant way but not that much that they are also a new track, I am not sure if anyone likes to contribute them.

Even though a track might not be another person taste, they represent what that specific contributor created.

He or she could also at some time modernize them too and so on. Also it is fine to copy them as base for a new track. But if you modify them without the creators involved at all in a big way and overwriting them it may be less optimal.

Such could still be better compared to if otherwise they have to be left out and the person is not available, but otherwise I doubt it is the best thing to do.

But no problems, much great stuff added! Really cool. But just my viewpoint on this particular thing which form my perspective. Of course as also said we could again revert things back later if need be. I am not sure what is best, but just little concerned about this. Some workflow might be needed.

by **CryHam** » 27 Nov 2023, 11:34

Right. I agree. Thanks EP for sharing your view on this topic.
Also BTW yes, getting any track version from git is possible, anyone who cloned tracks repo can checkout to any commit hash in history and have tracks in that date, it could mean though some data will be missing or so.

I think we should only "renew" original tracks, so modify them keeping their look, e.g. adding horizon, objects, a few new assets if they fit, maybe a fluid, replacing outdated assets to newer, etc.

Other reason like now is replacing old skies (which we need to anyway).
I can handle fixing sky issues (brightness, not matching fog) this but IDK when.

I will restore Cross, MadMntn, Islands, etc to original SR3 look, and keep recent modified versions in new folders. So will add them as CrossLoop, MadMntn2, IslandsNight, etc.

I think it's the right way, although I'm not too happy about this, as I personally don't really like track mods as much as new tracks. And this adds some data (few MB) to repo, and adds tracks to list that aren't that different.
But yeah for 3.0 I think it's okay. if we someday will have content manager in game Gui (that can browse and download tracks) this won't be an issue. But its implementation needs time. And it's lower priority for me than restoring still missing things from 2.7.
This also makes me think about starting another topic for track removal later, e.g. for those with 2-3 rating.

by **rubberduck** » 27 Nov 2023, 14:08

yeah, from now I plan to do only minor modifications, mainly doing horizons and in some cases like adding / replacing objects, skies. But if then at last, making a copy of the scene before, or even in a later commit that is separated from the rest, when the the horizon update is already merged

I will also with the next commit, where I work on alien horizons, revert the sky in Aln4, and maybe with a future update try to use a better sky and adjust fog

by EP » 27 Nov 2023, 15:33

good, whatever it is so I am happy with all the progress; as small contributor who is also not planning to do much in general I have less stake in it.... small things are no problem I guess maintaining the nature of the track -
the big work is 1 coding, 2 assets outside of the track builder which need to be created using other software; 3 building a track is almost like playing the game....

by **rubberduck** » 27 Nov 2023, 21:06

new alien rocks !!!

more are planned, also a few other types, yellow rocks, like for greece scenery, even for winter, with snow on it.I already have an idea how to do it, doing the snow procedurally on top and baking it, and modifying one of the existing.
And they are from the same guy like the other new
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/lowpoly ... 7f7ba318b6

These will together come in a few days with all alien tracks with horizons

by **CryHam** » 27 Nov 2023, 21:18

Nice

.
Cool. Just you know those are tiny rocks that we scale way up to be big rocks, but yeah there were so many of them, and it was easier. There are some bigger rocks out there but also need more data.

by **CryHam** » 27 Nov 2023, 23:59

LoL. Had to make a short video.
I mean not just for Anomaly. It could probably animate some fake lights on roads or buildings and what not.

Updated docs, materials with now many examples and objects too.

BTW, recent log cabins and radio tower are like 2x bigger than in real life. Those have human doors so need to be proper size.

by **rubberduck** » 28 Nov 2023, 08:56

he, cool

I would also fix log cabins and radio tower soon, after I am done with alien stuff, I have to check and maybe update some tracks, where they are used. Or what do you think?

by **CryHam** » 28 Nov 2023, 10:02

Yes that would be good, since they are on tracks already and I'm not sure if they have origin bottom so that scaling them down wouldn't break their location on tracks.

by **rubberduck** » 28 Nov 2023, 22:02

coming soon, maybe tomorrow

by **CryHam** » 28 Nov 2023, 22:40

Cool.

by **CryHam** » 29 Nov 2023, 19:49

Updated TestAnomaly now as regular Ano0-AnomalyFun track.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stunt ... w/view.jpg

by **rubberduck** » 29 Nov 2023, 20:55

CryHam {l Wrote}:Updated TestAnomaly now as regular Ano0-AnomalyFun track.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stunt ... AnomalyFun
/preview/view.jpg

I already saw it in the commit history, but somehow that link leads to an error 404 page

I also uploaded my alien track and rocks update.

blend files are coming soon together with the updated buildings, when I have done it, which comes next

by **CryHam** » 29 Nov 2023, 22:38

Ah fixed, yeah somehow enter got in.
Cool. Merged. Will check them out.

Recently I changed <paged to <veget tag in scene.xml, if you were checking out latest changes using RC3 that's bad (would require to change back).
I also split data to own obstacles/ and rockshex/ dirs.
Argh I need to make a RC4 now or final beta..

by **rubberduck** » 30 Nov 2023, 19:24

I commited the changes to the houses, I also just made the PR for blend files, which I may sort soon too

FreeGameDev Forums < SR General

The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Re: The new assets, content and track rework thread

Who is online