Level Design: Sewer

Posted By: Helghast

Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 16:55

hiya all,

it's been a while since i last posted something in here, so I figured i could post some new stuff ^_^

Since recently I've been using Maya, and I made some stuff i was kinda proud at, especially since I've been a progammer for about 7 years now. this is actually my first serious attempt to level design.

C&C very welcome!

so, without further chit-chat, here are the pictures im talking about:

I'm thinking about making a texture pack, based on these screens what do you guys think, usefull or not?

regards,

Posted By: Samb

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 17:19

its very VERY dark.. can't see a thing..

Posted By: aztec

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 17:26

I think its looking wuite nice good work there

Posted By: rvL_eXile

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 17:28

It looks good...
But Samb has Right... And i think its too Clear, maybe add some Stuff... some Rusty Barrels, Crates or something like that...

cYa Sebastian

Posted By: Pappenheimer

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 17:34

Its perfect, no additional things needed, unless you need them becasue of gameplay and storyline!

Posted By: capanno

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 17:47

Add some specularity and normal mapping and we have a winner! It just needs the wetness.

Posted By: Scorpion

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 17:47

hey, that is great... nothing more to say :]

Posted By: Helghast

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 17:53

Quote:

its very VERY dark.. can't see a thing..

It's not being a sewer for nothing

Quote:

Add some specularity and normal mapping and we have a winner! It just needs the wetness.

well, seeing there is no water in there as well, i dont think it's nescesary, it's being a un-used Sewer (at the moment that is

) but maybe because of underground density and water dripping through the groudn it could be possible.
i'll see what i can do about that, thanks ^_^

Quote:

It looks good...
But Samb has Right... And i think its too Clear, maybe add some Stuff... some Rusty Barrels, Crates or something like that...

cYa Sebastian

well, honestly, since when do people flush crates through the toilet?
i see no reason whatsoever to put them there right now...
And too clear in matter of texture? cuz i got some older screenshots where it indeed was very clean, i'll post them later, i think these textures did a great job for now.

thanks all for the nice words!
regards,

Posted By: lostclimate

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 18:25

well its so rusty in there that there has to be some water coming from some were, also with a good normal map you can make all your textures look a little sharp, just be wary of making too specular because remember, rust doesnt shine.

Posted By: xXxGuitar511

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 18:29

Looks excellent! I wouldn't ruin it with normal mapping, as it would run too slow unless you were using it for a render (which would work good in my 2.5D project)...

looks perfect!

Posted By: frazzle

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 18:48

For a first real try to achieve a good level design, this looks great.
I wouldn't add any specularity because the directional light which is create by the sun, will bearly be visible inside a sewer. The normal map is a good idea to achieve that wet/slimmy look you normally think of in a sewer. Water would be a nice feature but if this sewer is located somewhere around the Middle East, I can't comprehense the dry thought if you know what I mean

In overall, nicely done so far, I'll be waiting for a potential update

Cheers

Frazzle

Posted By: Dragon6261

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 19:00

I think it looks great, it reminds me of one of my all time fav games
vampire - the masqureade (redemption and bloodlines)

Posted By: ShoreVietam

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 19:02

Not too dark, just right!

Don't go with teh sahder hype, it looks good as it is.

Maybe some slime-like-plants would fit, dunno...

Posted By: frazzle

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 19:05

Quote:

...
Don't go with teh sahder hype, it looks good as it is.
...

That's why it's called a hype

Cheers

Frazzle

Posted By: KuleskoStudios

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 19:23

it looks superb. but is it rendered by the Acknex Engine or Maya? If it's the 3dgs than it's more than perfect. I like the details and the textures, don't think it's too dark. but some interesting volumetric light effects could add more atmosphere.
keep up the work;)

Posted By: oldschoolj

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 19:55

heh, everything looks great inside maya, even more so with the hi-res rendering feature. But as far as your level is concerned, it will probably look really good in A6 or A7 as well. The constant trick is tweaking your lighting values for the materials. But if you can get that to match what maya is producing then you'll be set!

Nice work

Posted By: xXxGuitar511

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 21:04

I think it's rendered in Maya...

There looks like some type of DOF effect... but that could just be image compression.

Posted By: lostclimate

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 21:11

also the way its textured, the lighting couldnt work without the use of ventilators plugin so its either that or rendered in maya.

Posted By: xXxGuitar511

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 21:17

...well, it could be baked.

Posted By: lostclimate

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 21:18

yes but in that scenario you'd need a huge texture... . I mean huge because it wouldnt be able to tile anything if it was baked lighting.

Posted By: oldschoolj

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 22:41

I work in maya daily, its definately a view panel from maya, and then the render is also maya. You can achieve the warmth he has in his textures directly in MED, but it takes hours of tweaking. As far as the lighting is concerned it would take ALOT of programming, from what I've read on DirectX it's probably not even feasable for your average user.

But, like I said, the quality of his work is good. All he has to do is make sure that he exports his model as an OBJ, and if he has less than 60k faces, he should be able to make it work and look nearly as good in A7, I do it all the time for my levels.

As far as the texturing of the model is concerned, it's not even an issue and doesnt matter how you slice it, you have to export it this way and it will work fine:

Take all of your materials, select the object, and bake a texture no greater than 2048x2048 (i usually use 1024). Doing that will allow you to achieve nearly the same look you see there. I don't see anything in the way of shaders going on, just some nicely detailed textures.

Posted By: Blink

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 23:08

i did a sewer for my project, it doesnt look anywhere as good as that,lol. what a great sewer, i see the rats and the dirty water flowing when i look at your level.

Posted By: JibbSmart

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 23:47

some say too dark, some say just right. i reckon it depends on the conditions within which you are looking at the screenshots. my laptop screen's on full brightness settings, but it's a sunny day today and i have the balcony in front of me so it was almost impossible to see anything without repositioning myself.

it also depends on the colour scheme of the forum. the default is quite dark anyway, but i use a much lighter colour scheme which contrasts with the images and makes them extra hard to see.

it does look very good though. i'd do something more with the ceiling -- perhaps have the hole seen below continue through the ceiling and have some back-lit grates and stuff at the top. or not

julz

Posted By: Nems

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/03/07 23:56

Oooooh I like that

Good designing skills here and a great approach to an old theme and man. your texture work and lighting are goood!.

Posted By: molotov

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/04/07 09:20

Wow, that's looks great. All the textures really fit together, also I don't think it's to dark, it fits the location. By the way are you going to use this in a game?

Posted By: mpdeveloper_B

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/04/07 14:02

i don't think it needs normal mapping, dennis, it's a great design and i think it's good the way it is

Posted By: Helghast

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/04/07 18:28

WOW! i would have never guessed so many people tp reply :O

but yeah, i should've told you guys, it's a maya render (using DOF indeed).

total is around 9000 faces (including the ladders pipes and everything).
all my textures are either 512x512 or 1024x1024 (except for the rusty ones from the pipes which are 512x256).
I didnt have time to convert it to 3dgs yet though, thanks for the tip on that one (oldskoolj).

also, a normal map wouldnt be too much of a problem to add, but i kept in mind that it had to be nice looking and be bale to run at a decent FPS on older systems if i ever exported it...

Btw, this is not for any project at all, i simply made it as a test on how maya works and to try out my own texture skills (I made all the textures myself 100% using my camera and whatever texture i could find around here... the pipes are a funny story, i actually hadda climb UNDER my house to get them, lol)
i guess in the end it was worth it, and if anyone here needs a level designer, i could give it a shot (keep in mind, i use maya

).

now, about my texture pack question, anyone interested (free texture pack that is)?

regards,

Posted By: lostclimate

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/04/07 18:52

the answer is simple for that...

everyone likes free stuff....

dumb question, but thanks for the offer

please do.

Posted By: oldschoolj

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/04/07 21:05

yw bud, just remember to select your material and then the model, and goto the hypershader menue, and say create texture, then set the settings to 512x512 or whatever. When you get it over to med (import as obj.) before applying your textures to the skins, make sure you flip them inside a paint program (vertically). A good baseline to start at for the material settings is Diffuse: 255 Ambient: 0 Specular, Emmisive both 60-75. that will start you off closer to the maya render then the defaults.

Posted By: MAN

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/05/07 01:43

Hi
It's very wonderful !
can i ask what is your level editor program?
when i build a big level with a lot wmb model my rendering frames going Down!
what is your run time level frame rate?

Posted By: xXxGuitar511

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/05/07 01:58

Dude... I mean Man, did you read ANYTHING that was just said?...

...or did you only look at the pretty pictures?

I think we'd all love to have those textures! Especially for free! And ha! I was right, DOF....

Also, sharp on the details oldSchoolJ. You're probably the only one that knows that

Posted By: not_me

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/05/07 02:51

isnt that cartographer 3d that comes with dark basic or am i wrong?
edit: trying to play guess that engine...

Posted By: Helghast

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/05/07 10:36

Quote:

yw bud, just remember to select your material and then the model, and goto the hypershader menue, and say create texture, then set the settings to 512x512 or whatever. When you get it over to med (import as obj.) before applying your textures to the skins, make sure you flip them inside a paint program (vertically). A good baseline to start at for the material settings is Diffuse: 255 Ambient: 0 Specular, Emmisive both 60-75. that will start you off closer to the maya render then the defaults.

awesome! currently im at my work, i'll give it a spin when i get home

btw, does it matter that im using maya7?
(btw, i added you on my msn account)

Quote:

Dude... I mean Man, did you read ANYTHING that was just said?...

...or did you only look at the pretty pictures?

I think we'd all love to have those textures! Especially for free! And ha! I was right, DOF....

Also, sharp on the details oldSchoolJ. You're probably the only one that knows that

hehehheee, yeah, but it's pretty obvious there is a DOF used

I'll see what i have left on my textures to upload for you people tonight ^_^
cuz obviously this isnt the ONLY texture set i made

regards,

Posted By: EX Citer

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/05/07 11:12

I am missing the flowing water and the dripping drops from the pipes. And maybe some 3D dirt. Check out other games sewers like TRAOD or VB2.

But good work anyways.

Posted By: Blink

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/05/07 14:47

please give us some free textures, that would be awesome!!!!

Posted By: Helghast

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/05/07 17:14

Quote:

please give us some free textures, that would be awesome!!!!

your wish has been granted:
link to user contributions thread ^_^

regards,

Posted By: oldschoolj

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/05/07 20:26

@ dennisfantasy: if you want to message me on msn messenger to chat about maya and 3dgs feel free to any time, just add my email oldschoolj2006@hotmail.com

@ xXxguitar: I wish everyone knew some of the things I've found out concerning maya and 3dgs. I just want you to know, that I've developed several techniques over the past year that will allow you to do litterally ANYTHING you want in A7 with maya. I've produced results that vary from polished surrealism, to the as good as Oblivion or better. It all depends on how much time your willing to spend and the look your trying to achieve. As far as I'm concerned there is no substitute to maya, and photoshop. And if your a student or have a friend who is, you can get either program for under 400 dollars.

@ everyone else: What dennisfantasy is showing here, is bonafide proof that you can easily produce professional, topnotch material without the use of shaders, or material effects. I give you all my word that after the release of my game around the holidays, I will also release all of my techniques in full for those interested in learning them.

@ the shader freaks out there: Remember that there are no shaders present, and that these textures are only 512x512 and 1024 at the max with under 10k faces. If you add a simple enviromental mapping to this quality work, you would end up with the highest quality (oblivion like) sewer scene in games today.

Posted By: Helghast

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/05/07 20:45

Quote:

@ dennisfantasy: if you want to message me on msn messenger to chat about maya and 3dgs feel free to any time, just add my email oldschoolj2006@hotmail.com

@ xXxguitar: I wish everyone knew some of the things I've found out concerning maya and 3dgs. I just want you to know, that I've developed several techniques over the past year that will allow you to do litterally ANYTHING you want in A7 with maya. I've produced results that vary from polished surrealism, to the as good as Oblivion or better. It all depends on how much time your willing to spend and the look your trying to achieve. As far as I'm concerned there is no substitute to maya, and photoshop. And if your a student or have a friend who is, you can get either program for under 400 dollars.

@ everyone else: What dennisfantasy is showing here, is bonafide proof that you can easily produce professional, topnotch material without the use of shaders, or material effects. I give you all my word that after the release of my game around the holidays, I will also release all of my techniques in full for those interested in learning them.

@ the shader freaks out there: Remember that there are no shaders present, and that these textures are only 512x512 and 1024 at the max with under 10k faces. If you add a simple enviromental mapping to this quality work, you would end up with the highest quality (oblivion like) sewer scene in games today.

thanks mate, that was actually exactly what i was trying to achieve ^_^

regards,

Posted By: BlueBeast

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/14/07 02:23

Oh great.... Dennis becomes level designer.... so, now do I have to become a programmer? tho itd be pretty easy to become better than Dennis was..

JK, Cool design there Dennis, textures are fun, arent they?

All I can say is I was worried for some moments until I read the posts... i thought the rust textures were scanned from your underpants... thankfully they werent

Great work Dennis!

Posted By: Helghast

Re: Level Design: Sewer - 08/15/07 16:45

Quote:

Oh great.... Dennis becomes level designer.... so, now do I have to become a programmer? tho itd be pretty easy to become better than Dennis was..

JK, Cool design there Dennis, textures are fun, arent they?

All I can say is I was worried for some moments until I read the posts... i thought the rust textures were scanned from your underpants... thankfully they werent

Great work Dennis!

hahahhahaaa!! i was telling about the pipes, not the handle bars in the middle... and please dont start programming, for the sake of your own games

regards,