We need assets for Ravenbridge Mansion !

[samuncle]

Hi everyone .

I'm currently busy with some stuff unrelated to stk which prevent me to answer to people sooner. However I should be back to regular schedule soon.

One of the new next generation track (after Cocoa temple and gran paradiso) will be a brand new mansion (new road, new shapes, the only thing tha's remaining from the old one is the theme).
You can already test it in the development version of STK.

The new mansion is called Ravenbridge's Mansion, it's an old wooden mansion with a dark past. The mansion was build by a witch over an ancient burial ground, then converted to a sanatorium during a plague epidemic. After falling into derelict, the authority decided to convert it into an Asylum for mentaly hill people (and of course doing some crazy experiments). It went bankrupt and 5 years ago the kart racing team decided to build a racing track inside.

General ideas:
Haunted place, dark past, old mansion, Halloween, ghosts, skeletons, etc.

Just like previously, we need your help to create objects for the new mansion. These objects should be made with high quality and polish to be used in the mansion. Here is a quick list of stuff we need:

1) An old bookshelf, here is some references
http://cdn.animals-pics.com/pictures/pa ... r-7274.jpg
http://newartcolorz.com/images/bookcase ... per_10.jpg
Of course some book alone could be created.

2) Spider webs (mainly the texture), and why not a cute spider (it should not be too scary).

3)Various old paintings You must use our universe, for instance the face of our characters, landscape from other tracks etc, for more fun, and 2 or 3 models of frame (so we can easily create a lot of different set of picture+frame)
http://www.sothebys.com/content/dam/stb ... .1280.jpeg
http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/old-frame-24802919.jpg

4)The track is the "home of" the BSD deamon. Some nice references to BSD etc could be included (just like suzanne was in Cocoa Temple).

5) Two massive statues for the entrance holding lanterns (For instance a witch and BSD deamon, or a wizard). We won't use the "regular" lanterns for this one but instead massive different one (to add something different for the entrance).
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/ark ... 0701185312

6) old chairs and tables.
http://img00.deviantart.net/08c9/i/2007 ... ystock.jpg

7) candlestick (I have already made candles, so no need to do them)
http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/112652 ... olders.jpg

8) A garmophone
http://cdn.shopclues.net/images/detaile ... 711556.jpg

You can of course include your own ideas (as long as they fit to the old mansion theme).
If you do something please show it soon so I can remove them from the list. Take your time and do your best.

Thanks for your help

Samuncle

[Anon]

Are the style guidelines still up do date?

[samuncle]

Yes

[ArDanWol]

I'm learning to use Blender currently. I will try to contribute and make something small to start off with.

[samuncle]

Sure it's a very good way to start. Making one object is "relatively" easy and can be almost immediately included in the game.

[samuncle]

I usually don't do that but we really need your help to be able to finish Ravenbridge. So if you are really interested in doing assets and wants to contribute to SuperTuxkart it's a great opportunity to get started .

[settrak]

What is the time limit for contributions ?
I'd like to give a hand but have very limited time to give unfortunately (like many I guess).

I made a quick test for old paintings, should you like it I can try to produce a few of these.
This one was made from a screenshot I found on the internet and a few filters in Gimp.

[samuncle]

Hi everyone is welcome, if you want to try to do contribution you can.
No hard deadline but I think it should not be longer than 1 month. It gives plenty of time to try to do stuff

Here is some advices and ideas,
1) we need to explore the old world of STK's universe when there was no kart and people where traveling by horses. These "good old days".
2) For painting, I think we should carefully choose the theme. The cocoa temple looks cool but I don't think a modern jungle tracks fits in a mansion. Maybe it's better to have ancestors of current characters (like Tux with a mustache).
3) One idea is to show how it was before, like cocoa temple without the track and only the jungle + in a black and white photo in an explorer book.
4) a very old plane landing in a dirt road for grand paradiso.

Some might include:
Slackware tux (one of the oldest distribution available today) with an aging tux http://www.slackware.com/~msimons/slackware/grfx/
Nolok industries http://img15.hostingpics.net/pics/140890onclesam.png
Pidgin (a pigeon) that delivers stuff for TCP (Trans Continental Post)
References to the old tux kart

etc. Has you can see there is a lot of different ways to approach this, but it should looks like something in an old place (that Indiana Jones will explore to get more information for his adventure).

It should reminds the "glorious old days" but keep in mind we don't need 100 different painting. I would prefer to have stuff like books, old chairs, a bird cage, a piano, an old clock, an animated crows (can be based on the parrot but in darker colors).

Just make one asset at the time so you don't loose the focus and as soon as the asset is finished you can submit it for a review. It's way easier than trying to make 100 different objects.

Some people might ask but Sam, why don't you do yourself the assets ? and yes I could do them myself but I'm working on more advanced and complex stuff. If people could help us on that part that would be great. I'm right now working on other tracks (more on that later).

Sam

[charlie]

The cocoa temple looks cool but I don't think a modern jungle tracks fits in a mansion. Maybe it's better to have ancestors of current characters (like Tux with a mustache)

Or Tux with a moustache standing at the base of the Cocoa Temple before the road was built! A cool little art project for a suitably motivated contributor.

[samuncle]

Yep that would be cool but probably in a different situation. A mansion is more with knights, witches, pumpkins and wizard. For indiana jones like stuff it would be better for something like sand track

[eugeneloza]

Found those on blendswap:

Gramophone
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/72447
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/76948

Cabinet
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/67425
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/67448

Tables & chairs
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/1536
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/50957
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/41127
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/65275
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/67217
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/74130
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/75233
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/75751
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/41040
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/69322
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/69333

Candleholders
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/68766
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/79374

Lantern
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/69031
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/47427
http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/40270

[samuncle]

While it might seems cool to use assets from other repository I want to point out that they must be adapted to the requirements of SuperTuxKart regarding the style and also the performances.

In the end it might be easier to just make them from scratch.

[ArDanWol]

A bookcase will be coming up soon from me

[JVC]

Hi guys,

I have also made a bookshelf (saw the last post too late). I used to make models for FlightGear but this time I wanted to change and contribute for the first time to Supertux Kart.
Hope this can help!
Good luck for the track! Can't wait to see it!

Polycount: 3448 tris
Textures: 1024*1024
Level of detail: no
Special effect: no

Bookshelf.zip

(1.7 MiB) Downloaded 297 times

[ArDanWol]

Looks nice! Mine probably won't be as nice since it's my first object in Blender.

[JVC]

Thanks, do no hesitate to make som models. I remember my first one took a whole day to do but since then it was much faster.
For the model I am waiting for a review if something should be changed (color maybe?)

For now I plan to do a pendulum clock.

[ArDanWol]

My only thing I thing you should change is the height, I think it's a little too tall.
I've changed my project from bookcase to writing desk now...

[samuncle]

Hi, thank you very much JVC for your asset .

It's a very good start however might I suggest you some improvements:

1) The model is well done however even if antarctica can handle a lot of polygons I think 3000 is a bit too much for an object like that (especially considering it will probably all over the mansion).
* I suggest you to read this http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Sty ... #Polycount
* I would say, try to limit yourself to ~600 for the whole object (I made a big landing plane with ~3000 poly
(here is a case where I think there is too much poly (don't forget we race at 100km/h, not really a lot of time to watch this)

* I'm a bit heartbroken to say this but for the books group when they have the same height your removed the plane inbetween and that's good.
However when they are with different heights I would not do it because it's more poly. I know if we want to do "proper" modeling we should do it but for stk we want maximum performance and IMHO that's much more easier to just put them one next to the other.

2) You used a big 1024*1024 texture (which is perfectly fine) but why did you wasted so much space ? you could increase easily the resolution of object by simply using the whole space available.

* A texture even with only one pixel used from the whole image will be loaded in the GPU. So let's not waste VRAM without reason. Just increase the whole quality of the object and use the whole 1k texture
* The wooden texture part looks a bit basic. I'm sure you can improve it, add more contrasted part.
* The uv layout is a bit unclean with strange stuff

3) My suggested Roadmap:
-> Try to reduce the polycount and limit to ~600 tris (that would be roughly like a tree. I'm sure it's possible to clean up the mesh keep all the details while reducing the polycount
-> Don't forget you can let some empty places so we can add other objects (like swords etc).
-> You can also change the bottom with doors so it reduce even more the polycount + it makes it less boring (it's not only books)
(all tricks are good :P)

-> The height is a bit funky but why not . I think it makes rather original and interesting especially for the mansion, keep it
-> Redo a proper texture that use all the space avaliable
-> I really like the fact that some books have a title. However I suggest to avoid K desktop manual as a title. Ideally we should do some reference to stuff about our universe and linux but in a creative way. That could be the IRL man pages (just like TCP transport packets) (not sure how to represent that).
-
But most important don't give up. It's a really very good start, I recommend also after each steps you show me the object so I can give you clearance for the next step .

For now I plan to do a pendulum clock.

Yeah that's an awesome idea, and you should apply my recommendations about the bookshelf for the clock.

Sam

[tuxkartdriver]

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[samuncle]

Hi just a quick answer

Well, indeed there is a easy way to solve the problem about the amount of poly faces wich are created from extruded ones, and this can be usefull to diminish the amount of poly faces for any object. These unnecessary faces are showed below. I modelled two books in just one object made by extruding the faces to create another one. So, I made these rendered images to show you how it works!


Follow the steps:

1° Select the object first.
2° Enter the Edit Mode.
3° Select ALL THE UNNECESSARY FACES ONE BY ONE ( Obs: Do this proccess for each side at a time!!! )
4° Menu MESH
5° Click submenu FACES
6° Roll the scroll menu above until you find the option MAKE EDGE/FACE and click on this one!

NOPE, NOPE and NOPE. That's a very bad advice it doesn't clean anything. It just merge a face into a n-gon (but it's only visual trick). Actually for the GPU it's always tris. Please do this properly N-Gon are strongly NOT recommended for SuperTuxKart. If fact if you do that you will create a poly mess + you won't change the real polycount.

Sorry tuxdriver you certainly spend a lot of time doing the tutorial but it's not a good idea.

edit: For SuperTuxKart we recommend quads and sometime triangle when it's not possible otherwise.

And btw if you look at your own screenshots you can see the polycount hasn't changed
Sam

[tuxkartdriver]

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[JVC]

Thanks guys for your feedback!

I understand the need to reduce the amount of polys for performance. After making some changes (doors at bottom, some holes, groups of books with the same height, simplifying some books and the furniture), the amount of tris shrink down to 1715, so twice less than the first version. However, the "messy" aspect is partially lost. I will try add more covers to get the "messy" aspect back again (this was the reason for the empty spaces...).

Link here : https://www.dropbox.com/s/lnsezeslepi7a ... t.zip?dl=0

Also, the wood texture was redone.

I can still reduce to 1300 polys by removing the faces in the back (if the model is going to be against walls only), but reaching 600 will be quite hard without losing the details.

For the KDE Desktop 1.0 manual, I was thinking about Konqi so I thought it was part of the universe. And KDE 1.0 looks really Windows 9x...
I will think about something for TCP then.


PS : I have just tried using 2 faces for the books spines instead of 3 and it still looks ok. This can save about ~300 tris.

[ArDanWol]

Finished the model for the writing desk I was working on. Still need to do the texture, I'll need to look up a youtube video on how to do that. I attached the .blend file for the model. The desk has some books and an oil lamp on it that will be eventually be separate objects.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gdtgim5u6od19c1/Ravenbridge%20Desk.blend?dl=0

Hope you like it! The texture will be coming soon!
ArDanWol

[GeekPenguinBR]

Finished the model for the writing desk I was working on. Still need to do the texture, I'll need to look up a youtube video on how to do that. I attached the .blend file for the model. The desk has some books and an oil lamp on it that will be eventually be separate objects.

Hope you like it! The texture will be coming soon!
ArDanWol

Very good!

[JVC]

Very impressive!! It's really nice!
To create a texture, do not hesitate to use layers so that you can revert some changes more easily!

Still working on my bookshelf btw. I have succeeded in reducing tris to 850, but some works it still needed for texturing.