Lost Gecko's projects

[Judazzz 1,936]

@Lost_gecko - I don't mind at all - in fact, I uploaded it mainly for you to use (it's the least I can do for those who dedicate hours of their spare time to make us happy with great assets  )

[Lost Gecko 481]

Hi everyone, I was wondering if it was possible to extract tree (and why not props) meshes and textures using ModTools... I've done a bit of research and only buildings and vehicles seem to be mentioned.

I would like to give a shot at making some vegetation and I wanted to have a look at existing trees to have an idea of how they are done

[Avanya 2,605]

I can't seem to get the meshes for default trees and props to work, but the textures export fine. For custom trees and props there doesn't seem to be an issue. So if you're just looking to see how others have done it I'd suggest exporting a few different looking trees and having a peak.

[Lost Gecko 481]

Just now, Avanya said:

I can't seem to get the meshes for default trees and props to work, but the textures export fine. For custom trees and props there doesn't seem to be an issue. So if you're just looking to see how others have done it I'd suggest exporting a few different looking trees and having a peak.

Oh great ok, I've just been missing how to dump tree meshes and textures in-game then... Because for buidings the button for it appears when clicking on the asset, how does it work for trees? Thank you for the info Avanya!

[Avanya 2,605]

Np! The easiest way is prob to load up the tree in the asset editor, then hit ctrl + e to bring up ModTools. In ToolController you should be able to find the asset and then dump mesh and texture. Pretty much the same as with buildings, there's just no shortcut to the preview.

Also I found this video tutorial a while back which seems decent at showing the basics of how lowpoly trees work.

[Lost Gecko 481]

I hadn't thought about trying in the asset editor for some (stupid) reason... Perfect then, and thank you for the link!

I'm experimenting all over the place lately with different types of assets, with my workflow... I'm not expecting anything great to come out of this but I would like to make some wild bushes so there we go...

Now that I'm there I might just show what is most likely to be released next... A cute tiny chapel taken straight out of 3D Warehouse and improved a bit. Pretty much as simplistic as it gets but I like it!

[Avanya 2,605]

Np! Sometimes things are just too obvious to spot  Cute little chapel which will fit in many small towns - and we could definately use more bushes! Looking forward to seeing how it works out for you  

[barcasam7 185]

Love this mate, really quaint building. Very Mediterranean feel. 

[Strechnitz 12]

Northern France?

[Lost Gecko 481]

@barcasam7

5 hours ago, barcasam7 said:

Love this mate, really quaint building. Very Mediterranean feel. 

1 hour ago, Strechnitz said:

Northern France?

Apparently it's from Kraskovo, not far from Moscow

I'm having a lot of fun with tree modeling by the way...Of course it's just prototypes!

 

[Kaschperl 92]

That looks fancy! There aren't that many good tree assets on the workshop with an acceptable polycount, especially generic looking ones to replace the generic vanilla trees.

[Lost Gecko 481]

19 hours ago, Kaschperl said:

That looks fancy! There aren't that many good tree assets on the workshop with an acceptable polycount, especially generic looking ones to replace the generic vanilla trees.

Thank you! Well, I was not especially planning it but I might have a try at a couple of generic trees with organic shapes  but it's not sure they will be much of an improvement, at least at the beginning...

The pictures are really not to be taken as a reference, they are just my first shots at it but the feel of the first bush is roughly what I''m looking for  As for geometry, I'll try to keep it as low as possible without sacrificing aesthetics but we'll see how it goes. I still have to see if leaves get automatically textured on both sides or if I have to duplicate them, so I might be more limited than I think.

[Kaschperl 92]

No worries! I suppose modeling plants is pretty different from modeling buildings. I'll keep myself updated on your trees!

About the polys being textured on both sides, as far as I know that's not mathematically possible. I guess that's why trees always have as many polys as they do.

[Lost Gecko 481]

@Kaschperl Thanks! It's something else indeed, but just looking at tree pictures is quite relaxing, I like it  As for the polys, I wasn't clear but I meant maybe the game doubled them automatically - or maybe already the Blender tree creation thingy... Anyway, as you said it's quite unlikely, I'll see about that, it's very early still

[Avanya 2,605]

I think trees are actually the only things in C:S which use both sides of planes/faces. I could be wrong and can't find anything about it, but I seem to remember having read that at some point.

[Lost Gecko 481]

Currently planning a complete overhaul of the Medieval Wall set... again. On the menu: mesh optimization of existing assets, completely reworked textures, improved lod's and a whole bunch of new assets. Overall I want to add diversity to the set because right now it's the same shapes and textures everywhere which isn't very interesting to whatch... There will be a number of props like butresses, doors and hoarding to be used with More Beautification and Prop Snapping alongside new towers 'n stuff (list in my mind map, of course the idea is straight out copied from Ronyx69  ).

Problem: unlike for the first update, the new wall textures are very different and I don't want to force them on people who will maybe prefer the previous ones... On the other hand, I don't want to make a second set and pollute the Workshop... Would it be too problematic to update the existing ones? Texture size will also increase in some cases in order to improve diversity. It will stay perfectly reasonable but again that's an inconvenience subscribers haven't asked for...

Second (smaller) dilemna: I would like to have towers with and without roof and I'm not too sure how to implement this. Of course I can have two different models but another possibility is to make only a flat platform variant and have the roofs as props that can then be added in the asset editor or in-game with the above mentioned mods. I always try to keep my assets playable as vanilla as possible (no required mod/prop) but I'm considering the second option because maybe people prefer roofless towers anyway. In that case people who really want roofs would be those who are more into detailing and therefore already have the required mods. So any thoughts about that?

I'll try to release it all at once, so I'll probably be busy for a couple of months...

Old texture and mesh:

 

New version. Tris count reduced by 30% in this case:

 

Prototype to give an idea of texture variation on the towers (texture size increased from 1024x512 to 2048x512):

I'm not forgetting all my other WIP projects!

[Ronyx69 2,413]

The mind map is a really useful tool.

You can go ahead and copy the entire styling of status (the colored circle emojis) as well if you want, since @Tim The Terrible has started a mind map as well that looks pretty much identical to mine.

It's not like it's my original idea or something, I just heard about it and we looked for an app and Tim found that one and we settled on it.

 

I would suggest making the assets as new, not updating the old ones. So you won't be constrained about how it works and looks for those that have the old ones, just make the new ones as good as you can.

 

Good luck with such a big pack.

[Lost Gecko 481]

@Ronyx69 Thank you for your input, I still have time to think but it would indeed be less constraining to just make new assets...

Your style of mind map is very nice but I focused on shapes instead of colours because it's way easier for colourblind me to have a clear overview that way... .

39 minutes ago, Ronyx69 said:

Good luck with such a big pack.

It's quite large indeed so I'll see if I have the patience, now that I think about it a division in 2 or 3 releases is perfectly possible...

[Lost Gecko 481]

Hi everyone,I hope everyone is doing fine! I have 2 questions today:

1.      Do assets have to share the exact same texture setup to benefit from the Loading Screen mod? For example, if two assets have the same textures but one has an alpha or colour map and the other hasn't, are the textures in common still shared?

2.      Is there a way to know what values are still available when changing the UI priority of an asset? I would like to have my set clustered together but I was wondering if it was possible to just find a suitable interval instead of shooting for a very high number.

In the same vein, it would be nice to have a UI priority index for decals. That would allow to easily give new decals a coherent value, for example to put cobblestone texture above grass (or the opposite if you want to make tiny grass patches or whatever). I might give it a try with the decals I’m subscribed to next time I load the game…

Apart from that it’s slowly coming along, I think I’ve completed the transition from Sketchup to Blender once for all as I now feel confident enough to make models with this software from start to finish… The modelling part is way faster and more enjoyable now

Now that I'm here let's just throw in some WIP...

Square tower with the texture theme of the set. The lighter regular stones around windows and loopholes are detached planes that will normally be alpha-mapped to look like the corner stones. It's an extra texture map only for this effect but oh well...:

 

Circular keep based on the Joan of Arc Tower in Rouen, France:

 

And finally a monstruosity that won't be part of the set but will stand as a unique building with its own textures: The keep of the castle of Coucy, France! It was the tallest in Europe before it got destroyed in 1917. Basically the regular towers from that castle were the size of a keep and the keep was, well... gigantic. I figured it would be a nice landmark but I would'nt be surprised if the model reaches 3k tris...

 

... Yeah, it's big...

[Ronyx69 2,413]

20 hours ago, Lost_gecko said:

1.      Do assets have to share the exact same texture setup to benefit from the Loading Screen mod? For example, if two assets have the same textures but one has an alpha or colour map and the other hasn't, are the textures in common still shared?

There are 3 textures for assets:

MainTex (Diffuse RGB)
ACIMap (R = Alpha, G = Color Variation, B = Illumination)
XYSMap (R = Normal X, G = Normal Y, B = Specular)

I think it's most likely that the loading mod compares each of those, so if the diffuse is the same it will be reused, but if any of the aci or xys textures is changed, then the whole ACI or XYS texture is different and can't be reused. So if you change only color variation on one model, I assume ACI can't be reused but diffuse and XYS can. I don't know for sure but it sounds the most reasonable.
Ingame there's no such thing as _a _c _i _n _s textures individually, when the asset is created they are combined and compressed into those 3 images.

 

20 hours ago, Lost_gecko said:

2.      Is there a way to know what values are still available when changing the UI priority of an asset? I would like to have my set clustered together but I was wondering if it was possible to just find a suitable interval instead of shooting for a very high number.

You mean what UI priority numbers are unused? That's pretty much impossible, there are about a thousand assets added to the workshop every week, now most of them don't change the ui priority but anyway how are you going to keep track of it?

 

20 hours ago, Lost_gecko said:

landmark but I would'nt be surprised if the model reaches 3k tris...

3k tris is not a lot for a landmark, vanilla merry go round uses 12k tris, the decorative abandoned little house is about 4.5k tris, there are 4x4 industrial buildings which use 10k tris and offices that use 2048 textures... once I really looked into how heavy many of the vanilla assets are, I stopped worrying about tri counts and texture sizes of the main model, so instead focus on making the LOD as lightweight as possible.

[Strechnitz 12]

The new textures on your new set look great! I love the mixed stonetypes. And Coucy? Now that is talking about a quintessential medieval castle. Nice to see that you are using the engravings of Viollet le Duc. Good luck with your endeavours!

[Lost Gecko 481]

@Ronyx69 Thank you for the info! The texture thing seems to make sense indeed. If I understand correctly there is no reason to avoid making specular maps. I'm a bit obsessed with filesizes (which isn't very relevant because things like thumbnails influence it) so up to now I didn't make any specular maps for assets without very reflective surfaces like glass or plastic thinking that it would benefit loading time but it seems irrelevant (same goes for the ACI).

For the UI priority number I wasn't clear enough: I was wondering if by any chance ModTools gave a way to see what priority numbers are unused (for example when typing a value it gives the free interval around it or I dunno). I highly doubt it does because that's not what the mod does but you never now... Of course making a list by hand of every asset on the Workshop is impossible. However this could be managed with decals and I feel it could be useful.

You're right, 3k tris for a landmark isn't that much after all. Though I was mainly saying this because I'm not used to reach such an amount of tris and also you might not expect that from such a relatively simple-looking asset. Fortunately it should be easy enough to make a reasonable lod

@Strechnitz Thanks! Yeah I'm a fan of this guy's work and these kinds of engravings are such a perfect and easy reference to work with! Have you studied architecture/art history? Because you seem to be interested by that with my assets

 

[Lost Gecko 481]

Little side project I've had fun with: Arrowhead Trio Billboard! It's kind of a tribute to all content creators who take this game to a whole new level, so let's say it's a 'thank you' present to the community for the end of the year!

I've got a couple of ideas for some more, I'll make them when I fancy doing something less demanding than full-scale projects.

EDIT: Damn, I've just noticed that the first 'i' in 'engineering' on Strictoaster's billboard is in lowercase, oh the irony... I swear it wasn't intended...

[Strechnitz 12]

On 12/27/2016 at 0:37 PM, Lost_gecko said:

 

@Strechnitz Thanks! Yeah I'm a fan of this guy's work and these kinds of engravings are such a perfect and easy reference to work with! Have you studied architecture/art history? Because you seem to be interested by that with my assets

 

 

Thank you for the compliment but no. I studied History and Law. Art-history and Architecture are just great interests/ hobbies of mine.  And you are right. Viollet- le Duc intended these engravings as references for arcitects who restored medieval buildings (like himself) or as source material for those who wanted to build new buildings in the neostyles that used the gothic and romanesque styles in a "proper" way.

By the way, I love the billboard. A very nice triple hommage!

[Lost Gecko 481]

@Strechnitz We have history and architecture in common as a interests then! Thank you, They are  among the better known youtubers and I find their collaborative project totally awesome (the concept in particular is a very promising experience). As they obviously go together it was an easy choice but there are so many other content creators (including modders and asset creators) that I would like to thank! I've been noticing an impressive increase in collaboration lately between modders, modellers and youtubers with tons of mods and custom assets made on request or suggestion, large-scale collaborative projects like the oil refinery assets... The game experience is shaped by the community to an extend that you wouldn't expect from a singleplayer game and that's beyond awesome in my opinion

 

Not done yet with my lyrical monologue because today I've reached a quite symbolic personal milestone  9 months ago my first comment on this forum was a little request to see pollarded willows if anyone was interested in making these. Well, today I imported a very quickly done prototype of such a tree in the asset editor!

 

As usual I've started a ton of projects these last weeks without completing any but here are some of them:

More half-timbered houses

 

And a 2.0 version of my chesnut fence. The former ones are too small and thin so they only look somewhat good in first person and the models have too much tris and a crappy LOD.

[Lost Gecko 481]

(forgot this part)

Prop versions of the Medieval Wall 2.0. Props have been suggested a couple of times and I wasn't a huge fan of the idea but it turns out I was wrong.

Downsides:

- Many mods required (Adaptive Prop Visibility Distance - Move it! - Prop Line Tool - ...)

- Impossible to customize with Prop Snapping (to add roofs/flags/fences on top of the walls/...). Possible with Move it! by moving up props we want to add but more tedious.

- A bit tricky to use on slopes

- No land value benefit

 

Advantages:

- Can be placed with Prop Line Tools

- More freedom of placement/better look as it doesn't follow slopes

- More freedom of wall height with Move it! and Prop Snapping

- No LOD required with Prop Adaptive Visibility Distance

 

-> overall very vanilla gameplay-unfriendly and time-consuming but way more freedom and better look

For these reasons I'm tempted to make the new set as props because it fits my playstyle and I can skip LOD's but It's as impractical as it gets if you're not a hardcore city-painter... Maybe I'll do both but I can't get LOD texture baking to work and it's driving me crazy!

If you've had the courage to read until now thank you for your patience! Hopefully some of these projects will be released in the upcoming weeks.

[Ronyx69 2,413]

Is it supposed to be mix of neutral stone and green stone or is that just wip?

[Lost Gecko 481]

28 minutes ago, Ronyx69 said:

Is it supposed to be mix of neutral stone and green stone or is that just wip?

Uh which one is green? It's not supposed to be, I'm colourblind (yeah one more) so I didn't notice...

[R3V0 909]

43 minutes ago, Lost_gecko said:

I'm colourblind (yeah one more)

Yay ! Welcome ! 

[Lee Towers 179]

1 hour ago, Lost_gecko said:

Uh which one is green? It's not supposed to be, I'm colourblind (yeah one more) so I didn't notice...

Hope it's clear, the marked bits are what I assume the colour you're going for, all the other parts have a dark green-ish hue.