WiP in WiP, post your screenshots!

[tyler]

I like your gifs and want them larger and in higher quality. Give me gifs that take several minutes to load. I will love them.

 

[Pocket]

Thoughts?

It looks like you used normal maps to reduce polycount, which would be weird since I've never seen you do that before. Unfortunately, it makes the wrinkles look a little too smooth. Looks more Bioshock than TF2.

And like Void said, needs more fur texture. It doesn't have to be a normal map (and probably shouldn't be); just paint it on.

 

[Rexy]

It looks like you used normal maps to reduce polycount, which would be weird since I've never seen you do that before. Unfortunately, it makes the wrinkles look a little too smooth. Looks more Bioshock than TF2.

And like Void said, needs more fur texture. It doesn't have to be a normal map (and probably shouldn't be); just paint it on.

The fur suggestions were correct, it helped a lot, and give a good amount of definition. I was hesitant because it's a fine detail that I really don't like to bother with in tf2 items sometimes, but it worked out. I've used normal maps before for things like this, not just for details, but for form, you've probably just never noticed them. I still don't like how source handles normal maps (and I've already made a large fool of myself on that topic, see the manor thread). Here's some hair:

 

[Fruity Snacks]

But again, what would this be used for? Stair railing caps in a manor-esque map? I didn't know the Mann family had something for pugs...

 

[Sgt Frag]

I'm sure the normal maps are handled just like any other engine.

It adds a pass, or draw call, to the model. So instead of having one pass for a diffuse map you have two now. No biggie on one model, especially if it adds detail and saves a lot of polys.
But if every model had 2 passes it's essentially doubling the model count.

Source can handle it just fine though. I think Valve didn't use a lot of normals not for performance as much as art style.

(same thing happens with lightmaps, all terrain is really rendered twice).

 

[Rexy]

That doesn't keep me from hating how it looks in the source engine.

 

[Bermuda Cake]

and he still looks too sad

 

[Arnold]

i think it's awesome, the fact that it looks sad is fitting. I would remove the socket and hide it in a map, it's great.

 

[lana]

and he still looks too sad

Look at dogbread more often. Like once.

 

[Void]

 

[Seba]

lookslikenuketownyoushouldquit

I don't like that mailbox, it's in a weird place.

 

[FeartheMango]

 

[red_flame586]

Wow, that's some very nice lighting there, maybe a bit dark in some places though

 

[Huckle]

After finally pulling the thumbs out of my arse and putting in a couple of solid days of work, I finally got the first version of cap 1 and 2 done on cp_rockyroad (name still pending).

Maybe one more day of setting up doors, spawns, skybox and a few lights to make indoor areas not 100% black and this map will be worth alpha status and a thread of its own.

I know you don't get tired of the dev textures.

 

[Void]

 

[Vincent]

Been a while since I last mapped, my only concern is that I dramatically underscaled this.

 

[Bermuda Cake]

Look at dogbread more often. Like once.

having a bad day?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1293763/dogbread_wip_13.jpg
http://api.ning.com/files/lxq36-rYk...js*ZWOqo9trJgwrodC4VqwrCmQl8hF0q/DogBread.jpg

I think it's because rexy's dogbread is looking at the floor.

 

[Mr. Happy]

I'm sure the normal maps are handled just like any other engine.

It adds a pass, or draw call, to the model. So instead of having one pass for a diffuse map you have two now. No biggie on one model, especially if it adds detail and saves a lot of polys.
But if every model had 2 passes it's essentially doubling the model count.

Source can handle it just fine though. I think Valve didn't use a lot of normals not for performance as much as art style.

(same thing happens with lightmaps, all terrain is really rendered twice).

No. A render pass and a draw call are not the same thing. A render pass is done for the diffuse, the specular, the normal, and whatever others are needed and then they are all composited in the final scene yes, but a single render pass is actually made of multiple draw calls, and multiple render passes do not "increase the poly count." A draw call is required for each group of polygons that does not cross the boundary of a U/V island or smoothing group/hard edge. So, if you had 1 U/V island made up of two smoothing groups (or in XSI a series of hard edges crossing it) that is then two draw calls per render pass.

Secondly, like all modern shader engines the Source engine uses deferred rendering, which means the "triangle count" is only used once and so a model requiring multiple passes does not have "double the poly count". First it fins/strips the U/V (rearranges the triangles such that after the first triangle only one new point is required to define the next), then that information is used for each render pass.

 

[Steff0o]

Still busy

 

[Rexy]