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Topic: Empire Weapon smithy (trees)

chuckw
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Posted at: 2011-08-12, 12:51

Astuur wrote: I have no idea about how these tiles appear inside blender. Are they each an object of its own? Or clones? Or is this a fill pattern?

Chuckw wrote: That is a question for the coders. I would hazard to guess they are individual objects displayed in their native format (i.e. no manipulation above placement on the game grid). I think that would better support animations, but I'm no coder and could be completely off base.

EDIT: After reading this again, I realize I misunderstood your question, thinking you were referring to the entire graphic as a "tile". The real answer is the roof is comprised of two planes onto which a blender material has been painted. The material is comprised of a color set of diffuse, specular and mirror colors in combination with one or more layered textures.


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Marcelo_do_Pagode
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Posted at: 2011-08-12, 13:41

The new weapon smith looks great!!!


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Astuur
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Posted at: 2011-08-12, 13:49

So it's a sort of bitmap that stores the pattern?
Or at least it is the same material for all the red roof planes in all roman buildings.
I wasn't sure. Theorhetically each roof tile could have been 3d modeled as an entity and then duplicated and grouped (that is where the script idea came from).
Or else it might have been clones from one parent tile, that auto-inherit their properties. I used this technique for the water tiles to see how they will look when joined. That would have made the "variety" idea impossible without a lot of work.

"Lego look" is a good term. face-smile.png Yep, that's what I meant. I wouldn't say that I really don't like it, it's just a bit too strong an effect. The imperials seem to paint their houses on a daily basis - tidy folks.
PS: thanks for making me look up new english words! face-smile.png (onus, judicious) Hope they stay in my brain for further use, hehe.


Being no programmer, I apologize for all my suggestions that imply undue workload and for other misjudgements due to lack of expertise or relevant skills.
I am on Win32, have no means to compile, and rely on prefabricated distributions (Thanks to Tino).

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chuckw
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Posted at: 2011-08-12, 15:36

Astuur wrote: So it's a sort of bitmap that stores the pattern?

Of a sort, yes.

Or at least it is the same material for all the red roof planes in all roman buildings.

The material is not propogated across all models automatically (i.e. it is not referenced from one central library), but rather is stored in each model's .blend file.

I wasn't sure. Theorhetically each roof tile could have been 3d modeled as an entity and then duplicated and grouped (that is where the script idea came from).

Sure. We can do that with "arrays" in Blender to a certain extent.

Or else it might have been clones from one parent tile, that auto-inherit their properties.

We can do that, too.

I used this technique for the water tiles to see how they will look when joined. That would have made the "variety" idea impossible without a lot of work.

"Lego look" is a good term. Yep, that's what I meant. I wouldn't say that I really don't like it, it's just a bit too strong an effect. The imperials seem to paint their houses on a daily basis - tidy folks.
PS: thanks for making me look up new english words! (onus, judicious) Hope they stay in my brain for further use, hehe.

I hope they stay in my brain for a while, too! face-smile-big.png


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chuckw
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Posted at: 2011-08-12, 16:17

Well, I've played a little more with the empire weaponsmithy model and the result is this:
weaponsmithy3
And for comparison with a solid background, here is my previous model old smithy and the new one newsmithy
I added a new texture to the roof material to provide some subtle coloring variety and I have tweaked the trees, moved the spears and put them in a visible rack, opened the door, and did some landscaping. (phew!!) face-smile.png

Comments?


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chuckw
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Posted at: 2011-08-12, 16:36

A test in the game shows there is still room for improvement in the trees and the tiles. face-sad.png
smith3


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chuckw
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Posted at: 2011-08-12, 17:11

Better definition of the trees I think and the roof doesn't come off as bright.
smith4
I would use the tree material from the tavern, but its original textures no longer are resident in the model (if indeed they ever were).
Comments on this version?


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Astuur
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Posted at: 2011-08-12, 17:46

I agree an all points!
The last version is the best IMO. The trees are pretty good now!
I am not so sure about the roof tiles, Chuck.
At least it is not what I had in mind.
You see, the variation in the tiles comes from the burning process.
Those that were at the colder spots are bright red, then there is a type of
Siena color for the middle heat, and at the hot spots they get burnt to a bluish black almost.
This is what happens with non-industrial burning.
So I guess, it's not so much a color change within a single tile, but
a pattern that result from mixing tiles of different color.
The new pattern you choose looks more like moss on the roof, which is also nice and
anti-lego, but of course different.
I have done some thinking about those roof tiles.
Variation or not, I am not sure they used this kind of interlocking type.
I am looking for historical coverage of roman roof tiles at the moment.
No, we don't need to be copying the romans, I am just curious.
But if you're still in good spirit (I hope so) we may at least have a look at
roman roofs (if I can find any).

I love the idea with the rack! Very nice face-grin.png
I know landscape, but what is landscaping?

Found something. That is actually quite close to your model. We call it "Mönch & Nonne" in German, (monk & nun), and a variety of this is still used.

... and here is an example of the color change that I had in mind.
It's not quite roman age, though face-smile.png Again you were close.
Maybe just a bit more of the darker stuff.

I starting to get curious to learn how others judge this matter.
Maybe some would miss that "clean" look?

Edited: 2011-08-12, 18:19

Being no programmer, I apologize for all my suggestions that imply undue workload and for other misjudgements due to lack of expertise or relevant skills.
I am on Win32, have no means to compile, and rely on prefabricated distributions (Thanks to Tino).

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chuckw
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Posted at: 2011-08-12, 18:11

I got tired of wrestling with the original photo used for the tiles texture. I noticed that the headquarters used a different material, so I played around with that and came up with this: smith5
Here is the game-ready image to download and try for yourself: smithy5

Comments on THIS one? Do you think it looks too much like tweed cloth or could it pass as tera cotta tiles? face-smile.png

Landscaping is used (in the US) as a verb to refer to the act of planting flowers, bushes, trees, grass and other elements like ponds & fountains, walkways, etc. to achieve a desired overall effect. (My definition.) face-smile-big.png The word is also used as a noun to specify the result of such activity.


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Astuur
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Posted at: 2011-08-12, 18:24

Great stuff!
Forget about the color changes and keep it that way.
Yeah, that is a roof!


Being no programmer, I apologize for all my suggestions that imply undue workload and for other misjudgements due to lack of expertise or relevant skills.
I am on Win32, have no means to compile, and rely on prefabricated distributions (Thanks to Tino).

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