I'm half blind and more than a little crazy after spending the past three days learning blender.
I finally constructed something today that at least makes me feel like I am making progress.
(http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/sample_house.png)
This took me about 10 hours to learn to create. It's slow to start, but I can see where it can get much faster and having the rotations available will really speed up the process once I get more familiar with the program. The biggest frustration was the textures, I had to really fight with them to get them to line up properly. Much to learn yet.
It looks real good. The west end looks a little dark but the colors look absolutely realistic. The amount of details is also impressive. Good going Sarlock! :)
Looks really good! I started on that manic Blender-learning process, and am not too sorry that I caved in before I reached the three-days-in, half-blind stage... ;) Maybe one day...
Sarlock
The Building it very nice.
Quote from: Sarlock on October 13, 2012, 07:56:55 AM
This took me about 10 hours to learn to create. It's slow to start, but I can see where it can get much faster and having the rotations available will really speed up the process once I get more familiar with the program. The biggest frustration was th
e textures, I had to really fight with them to get them to line up properly. Much to learn yet.
You're brave ;D and result is nice.
For this reason, I don't try to learn and decide to draw addons with Blender... Because I spend so much time to make 4 rotations by hand with Inkscape (2D editor).
I know, I'm little lazy maybe.
As far I saw, after Blender, you must use Gimp (or other photo editor) to improve aspect. in 128 pixels size, textures are better IMHO. Has anybody already created completely an addon with Blender?
As VS said in another post, I also have respect for them.
I think that house looks pretty good. I think you might need to increase the size of the textures, because they just disappear when zoomed out to simutrans size.
Blender is one of those programs that has an extremely high learning curve, but can produce good results. I don't have the patience to learn it, so you have my respects as well.
:thumbsup:
There's a lot of things that are different between what a "true" 3D object might look like and what it looks like when decreased to a 128 tile size. I am going to add a few objects to the house to try and break up the long wall on the east side. Probably an attic vent at the top peak and another window. As ӔO says, the textures sort of disappear when zoomed out, so I will try and making the textures look a little more "awful" when created because they'll look better in the end result.
I have to work with the lighting a bit, the west side is a bit too dark. I used a single sun light source and environment lighting to show the west side, I can just bump up the environment lighting a tad.
Because the back side of the picture cannot be anti-aliased due to its requirement to be able to be overlaid over additional buildings and objects behind it, certain roof angles work better than others because the "stepping" of the pixels looks better.
I only had to do about 2 minutes of post-blender editing with GIMP to remove a few of the artifacts, so I am pretty happy with it.
I'll keep playing with blender, I'm over the worst part of the learning curve, I think, and can finally create objects with a bit of proficiency. Now I just need to get faster and learn some additional tricks: lighting, textures, etc. I've seen how the pak128.britain lighting was done with an elaborate dome structure with multiple lights, so I might try that and see how it looks. I might have to tweak the light settings to make it suit pak128 a bit better, pak128.britain's style is a bit darker than pak128.
Thanks for the positive feedback everyone, that was just a test model... I'll keep grinding away at it!
Incarnation #2:
Another 6 hours of blender madness. I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of this program. I actually feel like I kind of know what I'm doing now... kind of.
(http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/sample_house_2_small.png)
The large version for comparison:
(http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/sample_house_2_large.png)
Far more detailed than it has to be for a 128x128 tile, but it's also a learning tool as well. I am also curious to see how certain details get translated down to the small scale.
It's a fairly small house, so it probably needs to be shrunk down a bit more in the 128x128 size to make it fit the scale. It's only 10 metres wide, so it should stretch just 64 pixels.
[Modify:]
I changed the scale of the house to the proper size:
(http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/sample_house_3_small.png)
(http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/new_house_1.png)
It needs a few items in the yard and the sidewalk texture changed to the pak128 sidewalk texture... or at least to a colour closer to it.
Other things I'm noticing:
The texture on the roof disappears at that zoom level.
Texture on walls is a bit diluted. I'll try to increase the texture size.
The front stairs look more like a lump of snow than stairs.
Add white front trim to roof front edges, like the peaks have
The flight of stairs could definitely use more contrast (e.g. the tread white and the rise the same color as the walls, or the rise white and the tread grayish).
The testures IMHO shouldn't be re-scaled, but given more contrast, too (i.e. applying contrast to the texture before putting it in the .blend).
Some details scaled down lose their meaning: most prominently the hose, which IMHO should be removed.
For the rest: it's a great result and the size fits in perfectly in the pakset.
Could you try with Gimp to apply special filter ?
I try to explain. Often to retouch my 2D files (created with Inkscape), I use the filter of Gimp named 'sharpen' or 'unsharp mask' (I don't really know how it's named in english... In french it's named 'renforcer la nettété'). It enhance the neatness (sharpness) and improve contrast. So many details are preserved.
But after, for roof or walls I always apply texture of Gimp (I made a set of simutrans texture...)
You can also adjust the filter level for textures in blender which controls how blurry or pixelly they will look.
Bunch of fixes. Increase contrast on textures, made them larger so that you can see the definition better. Removed half of the stairs so that you can actually see them. Added white trim to roof line. Removed most of the railings and made the remaining ones much fatter so that they show up. I kept the hoses and made them larger so that you can see them better. See what you think.
(http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/sample_house_4_small.png) (http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/sample_house_4_small-rear.png)
(http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/new_house_2.png)
Edit: What is the general thought about shadows from buildings? I'm reluctant to add any shadows on the ground from the house for a couple of reasons: 1) taller buildings can't have shadows anyways because they are too tall and 2) shadows have to be dithered and don't have a nice effect. Until we get a transparent alpha channel and in-game rendered shadows (like Simcity) I think it's best to do without shadows from buildings. This raises the question of whether shadows from trees is a good idea... though they look strange without them.
Satrlock
those House loks very great. :thumbsup:
Can I ask you to keep the .blend when you are done with your addon for the time we can show 3D models in-game please? :)
Just keep it available somewere and post a link, please. :)
Good job!
Nice job, I can see the details with my poor smartphone resolution.
I never add building shadow to my 2D new buildings, either.
now that I'm removing grounds to existing buildings I tend to remove shadows as well, although I have to leave them sometimes if they seem important in the specific building.
You bet, Markohs, I will keep them all for if/when the time arrives for pak256 3D :) I'll post links to the .blend files after they are complete.
I'll add a couple of items to the yard and then I think this house is done... debating whether to do a fence or not, but I don't think I will. Also deciding whether to move the house over a bit and put a driveway and car beside the house.
Quote from: Sarlock on October 15, 2012, 08:00:50 PM
I'll add a couple of items to the yard and then I think this house is done... debating whether to do a fence or not, but I don't think I will. Also deciding whether to move the house over a bit and put a driveway and car beside the house.
I think to myself that you can keep 2 versions of the house : with car and/or fence and without like real life...
So very nice work !
Busy day for me!
(http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/res_08_06.png)
Here is the .pak for anyone who wants to put it in to a game to see how it looks:
http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/res_08_06.pak (http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/res_08_06.pak)
(http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/houses.png)
Hopefully near the last rendition for this model, I think it's just about done (except for snow versions, which I will do as soon as this is a final model).
These are the 4 rotations, cleaned up a few elements, added a tree to the front yard (that is only visible in some rotations).
Any final changes/thoughts before I commit and make snow versions and make it official?
I may make a second version of the house with different features and texture/colour walls.
P.S.: I'm having so much fun doing this.
Quote from: Sarlock on October 19, 2012, 08:04:45 AM
Any final changes/thoughts before I commit and make snow versions and make it official?
Wonderful !! No additional comments for me.
Quote from: Sarlock on October 19, 2012, 08:04:45 AM
P.S.: I'm having so much fun doing this.
The nice result shows it ! Really.
It is just great! I'll be including it in my game. :)
Sarlock
can you try those Building give a snowlook?
You bet, I will do that next... I didn't want to do it until I felt I had a final version of the regular house, since the snow has to be done manually (I could try to develop a 3D render for it but I think doing it manually will be much easier/faster).
Final version:
(http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/res_08_06.png)
Special colours removed, some windows set to shine at night.
PAK: http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/res_08_06.pak (http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/res_08_06.pak)
DAT: http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/res_08_06.dat (http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/res_08_06.dat)
Commit to the pak128 SVN if you're happy with the final product :)
Edit:
For Markohs, .blend file (and for anyone else who wants to see how it was put together... being my first model there are certainly some areas where I did weird things!)
http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/res_08_06.blend (http://www.elvenorder.com/sar/images/simutrans/addons/images/res_08_06.blend)
Super Sarlock!
Really fine ! I vote for it.
Just little comment :
I don't think that direction of light is right on last face (last in right)... Specially with snow. But may be I'm wrong.
thx. for the .blend! :)
In r982. Thanks!
Quote from: VS on October 21, 2012, 01:08:45 PM
In r982. Thanks!
And then,
they introduced awesomeness into the pak128.
On Thuesday cam the Next Nightlypakset from Pak128!
Sorry but seems to have an error graphic here ::-\
(http://imageshack.us/a/img853/5229/vqi.gif)
Interesting. I've seen that happen before with other graphics and I can't recall what triggered it. I seem to recall it occurring when I made a change to the settings.
Maybe it's because it needs "needs_ground=1" added to the DAT file.
Give this a try, copy it over the existing pak file in the pak128 folder. I added the needs_ground=1 line.
http://www.ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/res_08_06.pak (http://www.ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/res_08_06.pak)
Let me know if it fixes the problem.
Was right, this appears to have solved the problem
thanks ;)
Quote from: Sarlock on August 25, 2013, 06:34:19 AM
Interesting. I've seen that happen before with other graphics and I can't recall what triggered it. I seem to recall it occurring when I made a change to the settings.
if this helps, I think this happens in the changing
seasons (when the spring arrives in my case)
I seem to think it had needs_ground originally but it must've got lost somewhere along the lines.
Can someone with commit access put the revised DAT file up?
http://www.ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/res_08_06.dat (http://www.ssgholdings.ca/simutrans/addons/res_08_06.dat)
Thanks!
Fixed in r1273... Thank you!
I recall that flag being there before but somehow it reverted... either way, fixed now, thanks VS :)