New Track : "Green Valley"

[sj04736]

Wolfs, can you re-export this track with the latest versions of the exporters? There was a bug - fixed in r11470 - which created invisible shapes in STK 0.7.3 and potentially earlier versions. Your track is affected by this bug.

[Wolfs]

Wolfs, can you re-export this track with the latest versions of the exporters? There was a bug - fixed in r11470 - which created invisible shapes in STK 0.7.3 and potentially earlier versions. Your track is affected by this bug.

I re-exported the track and all LOD objects vanished .

[Auria]

Could you give screenshots of an object that disappeared, and which version of STK are you using? I downloaded this track and saw nothing obvious

[Wolfs]

Could you give screenshots of an object that disappeared, and which version of STK are you using? I downloaded this track and saw nothing obvious

Sure

How it should be:
1:

2:

3:

How it is when it is exported with the new scripts:
1:

One of the water plants has been turned by 90 degrees, the other one has vanished

2:

Some of the water plants have been turned by 90 degrees, the others have vanished

[Wolfs]

3:

This is the place where all LOD models are placed. The water plant and the sheep should be invisible, but they aren't. On the left you can see that the sheep stay in their low-poly versions.

All other LOD objects (for example the flowers) work correctly.

[Binky]

I've been experimenting with yellower grass to match the skycube.(attached)
I think it would work better with a new tree texture.
Have you considered putting some deciduous trees? Perhaps overhanging the track in some places?

[Auria]

Hi, the problem with these LOD instances is not that they don't appear, if you look carefully they are here but rotated. The reason is that the LOD *model* is exported in local coordinates, meaning that its rotation and position in blender are not considered. So simply apply rotation to the LOD model in question

EDIT: I am using latest trunk however. If you want the track to work with 0.7.3 I'm afraid it was bad advice to ask you to update the scripts since you are never guaranteed that scripts from trunk will work with STK 0.7.3

[Wolfs]

Hi, the problem with these LOD instances is not that they don't appear, if you look carefully they are here but rotated. The reason is that the LOD *model* is exported in local coordinates, meaning that its rotation and position in blender are not considered. So simply apply rotation to the LOD model in question

Sorry, this did not work; the track stays the same. I think that there is something wrong with the exporter, because I can also see the LOD model in-game, which should be invisible and because the track displayed fine with the older scripts. IIRC I made no changes to the track, I just exported it with the new scripts.

EDIT: I am using latest trunk however. If you want the track to work with 0.7.3 I'm afraid it was bad advice to ask you to update the scripts since you are never guaranteed that scripts from trunk will work with STK 0.7.3

Do not worry, I am using the latest trunk, too .

[Wolfs]

I've been experimenting with yellower grass to match the skycube.(attached)
I think it would work better with a new tree texture.
Have you considered putting some deciduous trees? Perhaps overhanging the track in some places?

These images are very nice, however I have the feeling that the new color is too yellow . Perhaps it would be better if the skybox was adjusted to match the original colour. What do you think?
I like your new road texture very much. You do not happen to have a version in the original colour, do you?

[Auria]

Hi, the problem with these LOD instances is not that they don't appear, if you look carefully they are here but rotated. The reason is that the LOD *model* is exported in local coordinates, meaning that its rotation and position in blender are not considered. So simply apply rotation to the LOD model in question

Sorry, this did not work; the track stays the same. I think that there is something wrong with the exporter, because I can also see the LOD model in-game, which should be invisible and because the track displayed fine with the older scripts. IIRC I made no changes to the track, I just exported it with the new scripts.

well it works for me after the change I suggested :/ maybe you can upload the blend file after doing the change I suggested, and also post the resulting export, so that I can compare both with what I did on my side

I however can confirm that I see the LOD model, this needs to be fixed, thanks for the report

[Binky]

Re textures, I can certainly draw a road with different edges.

The thing thats bothering me about the grass is that it looks completely flat - is there any way this could be improved within the limits of normal GPUs?
I can also tweak the colours on the skybox

[ctdabomb]

Re textures, I can certainly draw a road with different edges.

The thing thats bothering me about the grass is that it looks completely flat - is there any way this could be improved within the limits of normal GPUs?
I can also tweak the colours on the skybox

normal mapping support or an actual 3d model

[Auria]

grass in commercial games is usually done with a bunch of billboards. unfortunately irrlicht billboards are software billboards, and I'm pretty sure that commercial games use hardware billboards with instancing. nonetheless it could be worth a try

[Wolfs]

grass in commercial games is usually done with a bunch of billboards. unfortunately irrlicht billboards are software billboards, and I'm pretty sure that commercial games use hardware billboards with instancing. nonetheless it could be worth a try

Perhaps it would be possible to write a python script for blender, that generates for each face with a grass texture on it an object with a lot of new faces with blades of grass textures. This object could be using LOD and only show up if the player is really near. It could also generate some more LOD models with less faces to make the transition more smooth. If the grass texture (like the current one in Green Valley) fits to the blade of grass texture, this could give a good illusion, while LOD keeps the number of triangles on a medium level. What do you think, could this work or would it be overkill for [whatever manages LOD objects ]?

[Auria]

grass in commercial games is usually done with a bunch of billboards. unfortunately irrlicht billboards are software billboards, and I'm pretty sure that commercial games use hardware billboards with instancing. nonetheless it could be worth a try

Perhaps it would be possible to write a python script for blender, that generates for each face with a grass texture on it an object with a lot of new faces with blades of grass textures. This object could be using LOD and only show up if the player is really near. It could also generate some more LOD models with less faces to make the transition more smooth. If the grass texture (like the current one in Green Valley) fits to the blade of grass texture, this could give a good illusion, while LOD keeps the number of triangles on a medium level. What do you think, could this work or would it be overkill for [whatever manages LOD objects ]?

I am not sure, without hardware billboards / instancing I fear this might be too slow

[Binky]

Making the horizon less sharp (as though there were shrubs/small tufts on it) would help a lot

[Binky]

Road-grass texture:
Is this better?

[Auria]

Wolfs : i just committed an update to the exporter script that should fix the model being visible. You will still need to apply rotation to the model to make the instances appear correctly

[Wolfs]

Making the horizon less sharp (as though there were shrubs/small tufts on it) would help a lot

I agree, but I don't know how this can be done .

I am not sure, without hardware billboards / instancing I fear this might be too slow

You are right there, it is by far too slow for even a small part of the track (have tried it ).

Wolfs : i just committed an update to the exporter script that should fix the model being visible. You will still need to apply rotation to the model to make the instances appear correctly

Thank you, everything works now.

Road-grass texture:
Is this better?

Yes, I like it very much . Do you agree to release it under CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)? Under which name should I give you credit (e.g. "Binky" or your real name)?

[Binky]

Making the horizon less sharp (as though there were shrubs/small tufts on it) would help a lot

I agree, but I don't know how this can be done .

Perhaps, find the edges closest to the horizon when looking from the track, and add some vertical quads with (partially) transparent textures not unlike the grass fringe used in cresent crossing

[Wolfs]

Making the horizon less sharp (as though there were shrubs/small tufts on it) would help a lot

I agree, but I don't know how this can be done .

Perhaps, find the edges closest to the horizon when looking from the track, and add some vertical quads with (partially) transparent textures not unlike the grass fringe used in cresent crossing

Well, this could work, but it would mean that you have to add such a face to nearly every edge in the track . Perhaps there could be a "blurry property" or something like that be added to the game engine, but I doubt that any dev would take the effort to do this .

[Wolfs]

@Binky
I would like to add a new revision of the track to STK Addons that contains your texture, but I have to know whether you agree to license it under CC-BY-SA 3.0. And under which name should I give you credit?

[Binky]

Any of my artwork posted here can be used/distributed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 unless otherwise stated.
Credit as 'C.Stone (Binky)'

[Wolfs]

Any of my artwork posted here can be used/distributed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 unless otherwise stated.
Credit as 'C.Stone (Binky)'

Done .
I uploaded a new revision of the track to STKAddons. It contains several better textures.

[Barsook]

With that bug fixed also?