Ronyx

[Alexgru88 19]

On 22.03.2017 at 0:24 PM, AmiPolizeiFunk said:

Wow! I wanna do this:

I've already upscaled AleX_BY's gorgeous Reichstag asset to 1:1 (unreleased). I think a proper dome would be the finishing touch!

I can ask him about it, but not sure if he has time atm

[R3V0 909]

inb4 fully glass train stations *drool*

Are you planning to make a written tutorial ronyx ? 

[Ronyx69 2,413]

5 hours ago, R3V0 said:

inb4 fully glass train stations *drool*

Are you planning to make a written tutorial ronyx ? 

Nothing to write really, just run the script and that's it. https://gist.github.com/ronyx69/20070de77a0dc02fb669be0ff5365eb4

I'm gonna make a video about the apple store so i'm gonna mention it.

 

Streamed for almost 8 hours... LOD doesn't work no matter what it seems, disappears, but further away is screwed up, I guess i'm gonna put an invisible mesh for the lod, it's just glass so not such a big deal.

Overall almost done, 4909 tris, need to redo the plaza lod and a couple small issues:

 

 

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

Groundbreaking stuff. So, how many objects? And what types of assets are they? How will this be plopped?

[Epic Lurker 108]

Your Apple store looks awesome. What is the issue with the lod, so far lods seem to work normally for me.

However I am not getting the beautiful shadows you're getting, my semi-transparent glass creates the same shade as if it was solid. I'm using 50% for the albedo. What are you using?

Edit: ugh, I have replicated your lod problems. For some reason the lod of sub-buildings gets butchered.

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

I don't mean to distract from the main convo about the semi-transparent glass, as that is ultra-awesome, so consider this just a little aside. The new cobble decal is also awesome and very popular, and I just had an idea to make it even cooler. Ronyx69, you know how you do "edge" decals? Like with the leaves and so? Well this cobble could also have a great edge decal, because the stones at the edges are always in a perfect line. You could make it 1/2 width, as well, to make it applicable for small paths.

Something like this?

My clean-up job wasn't the best and it would need to be color and size matched to the first decal. Each one of these stones is about the size of your fist (they're relatively small compared to most cobble).

[schokoladeneis 1 193]

@AmiPolizeiFunk I think from the pictures you posted it's difficult to see how big the cobblestones are. Each stone is about 6x6x6 cm big. Maybe it's good to post an additional picture with something to compare the scale.

@Ronyx69 Nice progress on the applestore. Incredible how this game can produce these high-res scenes with good assets. On my computer everything looks like slurry.

 

 

[Ronyx69 2,413]

20 hours ago, AmiPolizeiFunk said:

Groundbreaking stuff. So, how many objects? And what types of assets are they? How will this be plopped?

Main building, two sub-buildings, two props. Plops just like any singular building.

 

10 hours ago, Epic Lurker said:

Your Apple store looks awesome. What is the issue with the lod, so far lods seem to work normally for me.

However I am not getting the beautiful shadows you're getting, my semi-transparent glass creates the same shade as if it was solid. I'm using 50% for the albedo. What are you using?

Edit: ugh, I have replicated your lod problems. For some reason the lod of sub-buildings gets butchered.

The shadow has no transition, not sure at which % it disappears, I used 20% opacity for glass, and 60% for edges of glass, 100% for metal connectors.

I'm not sure what testing results you had, but the object disppeared at certain distance, then at another one the lod appeared later, without the semi-transparency. For the sub-building it was all glowy and stuff. I just nulled my lods to invisible triangles.

Also I'm claiming my asset is the first to use this shader, even though you got the update up. Technically I uploaded mine before your update, but it wasn't public yet until now...

 

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=890021570

 

Also you can have all the source files of my project to use as an example:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6Ccf1N5h5f7cmwzd09MdE9nQkk?usp=sharing

  Edited March 24, 2017 by Ronyx69  

[Epic Lurker 108]

That's okay, you can totally take credit! I just got lucky I had a building on hand that already had an interior.

So I made my glass as a separate building and I gave it a lod and it looked great. Semi transparency worked exactly the same on the lod. Then I used this building as a sub-building, and it looked really bad. As you'd zoom out there would be a gap where neither the full or the lod was visible, and when you'd zoom out further the lod would become visible but it would not be semi transparent. And it would have some other bright artifacts.

The texture size of the lod was 1x1 pixel so I'm sure whatever was happening was not caused by texture compression. I also don't think it is caused by the shader, it's just that terrible things happen to the lods of sub-buildings. I think if you make your main building semi-transparent, the lod will work normally. 

[Bad Peanut 826]

So I get a lack of transparency when the mesh is facing a certain direction, for instance:

as you can see, on top and (although you can't see from this angle) the faces facing away from the camera all render transparencies. but the faces that are facing toward the camera like so:

are just reacting like the normal alpha map, even though they're exactly the same texture values as on top.

@Ronyx69 did you notice any difference on the different orientations of the Apple store?

[Bad Peanut 826]

1 hour ago, Bad Peanut said:

So I get a lack of transparency when the mesh is facing a certain direction, for instance:

as you can see, on top and (although you can't see from this angle) the faces facing away from the camera all render transparencies. but the faces that are facing toward the camera like so:

are just reacting like the normal alpha map, even though they're exactly the same texture values as on top.

@Ronyx69 did you notice any difference on the different orientations of the Apple store?

update: I realised that it's the shadows casting that stop the transparency being rendered, when lights shine on it then you can see it again

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

omg your station w a transparent roof.... YES PLEASE! 

[Ronyx69 2,413]

18 hours ago, Epic Lurker said:

That's okay, you can totally take credit! I just got lucky I had a building on hand that already had an interior.

So I made my glass as a separate building and I gave it a lod and it looked great. Semi transparency worked exactly the same on the lod. Then I used this building as a sub-building, and it looked really bad. As you'd zoom out there would be a gap where neither the full or the lod was visible, and when you'd zoom out further the lod would become visible but it would not be semi transparent. And it would have some other bright artifacts.

The texture size of the lod was 1x1 pixel so I'm sure whatever was happening was not caused by texture compression. I also don't think it is caused by the shader, it's just that terrible things happen to the lods of sub-buildings. I think if you make your main building semi-transparent, the lod will work normally. 

I guess I need to do more testing. Although I did make a buildings on it's own and it disappeared at one distance, and a non-semi-transparent lod appeared at further distance...

 

2 hours ago, Bad Peanut said:

update: I realised that it's the shadows casting that stop the transparency being rendered, when lights shine on it then you can see it again

I really have no idea what you were talking about anyway, and still don't. All the windows look transparent to me in both pictures.

 

Just streamed for 4 and a half hours to continue the nuclear power plant: finished texturing the reactor and started the middle building

 

[bsquiklehausen 190]

Any way to use the Rotor shader on vehicles? I am clueless with ModTools, and I don't see a script for vehicles on your github page, @Ronyx69.

[Epic Lurker 108]

Just for fun I tried the obvious which is replacing 'BuildingInfo' with 'VehicleInfo' and this compiles with no problem and it makes the entire vehicle disappear. I guess that's not what you want...

[AmiPolizeiFunk 446]

unless you're Wonder Woman?

[Epic Lurker 108]

More seriously @bsquiklehausen the problem is that the rotor shader does not only makes things semi-transparent, it also reverses the render order so whatever is farther away is drawn over what is closer. Go ahead, load up a building in the asset editor and apply the script. It's trippy! But it also means there is no way to make non-transparent stuff look good in the rotor shader. This is why you need to have entire sub-buildings or props for the semi-transparent parts of your building. So unless there's a way to use sub-vehicles or props on vehicles, it seems that using the rotor shader would be difficult.

Of course, there is a counter example: the helicopters that we got the rotor shader from in the first place! So what's the story there, are the helicopters in the game somehow special or can the trick they use be used by us?

[Ronyx69 2,413]

6 hours ago, bsquiklehausen said:

Any way to use the Rotor shader on vehicles? I am clueless with ModTools, and I don't see a script for vehicles on your github page, @Ronyx69.

4 hours ago, Epic Lurker said:

Just for fun I tried the obvious which is replacing 'BuildingInfo' with 'VehicleInfo' and this compiles with no problem and it makes the entire vehicle disappear. I guess that's not what you want...

This is how to run it for vehicles, yes. 

However I would expect it to ruin a vehicle, because the vehicle shader contains the functionality for vehicle lights and spinning wheels.

The answer is...

 

3 hours ago, Epic Lurker said:

More seriously @bsquiklehausen the problem is that the rotor shader does not only makes things semi-transparent, it also reverses the render order so whatever is farther away is drawn over what is closer. Go ahead, load up a building in the asset editor and apply the script. It's trippy! But it also means there is no way to make non-transparent stuff look good in the rotor shader. This is why you need to have entire sub-buildings or props for the semi-transparent parts of your building. So I unless there's a way to use sub-vehicles or props on vehicles, it seems that using the rotor shader would be difficult.

Of course, there is a counter example: the helicopters that we got the rotor shader from in the first place! So what's the story there, are the helicopters in the game somehow special or can the trick they use be used by us?

The answer is most likely submeshes - VehicleInfo, just like BuildingInfo, contains m_subMeshes, which are additional meshes which have their own textures and can have a different shader. I know for a fact this is used for the poopflow of the vanilla sewer outflow.

I have not tried it yet because I was too excited to get out the apple store as quickly as possible, so I used sub-buildings instead.

More research needs to be done, but my best bet is just importing the "wannabe-submesh" as a prop and save it. Then import the vehicle as normal and copy the mesh and material from the prop into the vehicleinfo as a submesh using modtools. Only hope is that the asset editor actually saves the submeshes. 

 

 

EDIT:

It spins... probably because it's meant to be a rotor or something, idk how to make it not spin. I put the glass cube on the bus as a submesh:

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

  Edited March 27, 2017 by Ronyx69  

[Ronyx69 2,413]

Also decals for the last few days:

 

Day 24: Water Stream http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=890250292

 

Day 25: Flowers http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=891051308

 

Day 26: Moss http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=891738274

 

Day 27: Riverbed http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=892562697

 

 

[pauliaxz 195]

Is it possible to have semi-transparent parts in the vehicles/cars also? It would help with modern headlight designs.

EDIT: Silly me, didn't read posts above. Don't mind this message  

[Epic Lurker 108]

@Ronyx69 That looks like the wheel animation. The asset editor wiki says: "The connected parts of a vehicle mesh that touch ground (y close to 0) are automatically recognized as wheels and will rotate when the vehicle moves.". So maybe the spinning stops if you move everything up a bit.

[pauliaxz 195]

Yeah, as @Epic Lurker says, any mesh element that touches ground will spin. While other mesh elements will stay still. @Ronyx69, Could you do one more test with basic shape model + transparent object with that shader?

If it is possible to get it working, it would be possible to make realistic head/tail lights and even some basic interiors.

[Ronyx69 2,413]

52 minutes ago, Epic Lurker said:

@Ronyx69 That looks like the wheel animation. The asset editor wiki says: "The connected parts of a vehicle mesh that touch ground (y close to 0) are automatically recognized as wheels and will rotate when the vehicle moves.". So maybe the spinning stops if you move everything up a bit.

6 minutes ago, pauliaxz said:

Yeah, as @Epic Lurker says, any mesh element that touches ground will spin. While other mesh elements will stay still. @Ronyx69, Could you do one more test with basic shape model + transparent object with that shader?

If it is possible to get it working, it would be possible to make realistic head/tail lights and even some basic interiors.

I know how the regular vehicle shader works, but the shader is changed, so you can't assume it's going to do the same things.

Also the cube is entirely above ground.

And I did another test by importing a prop, which was 4 cubes above 0 with different vertex colors - it was still spinning all the same, but two of them were invisible.

So no progress. I guess there is something in the way the shader interacts with a vehicle to make it spin, I assume a rotors shader is meant to spin, since it's probably the one used for the blades of helis, I don't have ND so it doesn't look like I actually have the heli prefabs, although we do get the props and decals from ND even if we don't own it, i guess that's because of the building collapse.

 

[pauliaxz 195]

Well, hopes are crushed . However, I still hope it is like that just for now.  Maybe it will work in the future, maybe CO will officially make dedicated semi-transparency shaders.

[Ronyx69 2,413]

On 3/27/2017 at 11:07 PM, pauliaxz said:

Well, hopes are crushed . However, I still hope it is like that just for now.  Maybe it will work in the future, maybe CO will officially make dedicated semi-transparency shaders.

I tried attaching a submesh with the regular prop shader and it just worked as expected, attached to the bus, but the rotors shader seems to spin no matter what, I tried to change some parameters and stuff but nothing.

 

 

Day 28: Tire Marks http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=893107235

 

Day 29: Rumble Strips http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=893760650

 

 

Streamed for 4 hours and continued the nuclear power plant:

 

 

  Edited March 29, 2017 by Ronyx69  

[pauliaxz 195]

And what happens if a prop (it does support semi-transparency, right?) is just added as sub-mesh to a vehicle model? Without using that rotor shader at all?

[zimmie 521]

How about some bark mulch for a decal. Would be great for landscaping. idk, maybe that would be an idea for the guys that do the trees/bushes/flowers, etc. Could do like a real small one to keep it within the boundaries of whatever trying to fill, along with some larger ones.

[Ronyx69 2,413]

3 hours ago, pauliaxz said:

And what happens if a prop (it does support semi-transparency, right?)

If it has the rotor shader it supports semi-transparency, but it spins.

Without using that rotor shader at all?

If it doesn't have the rotors shader, it doesn't support semi-transparency.

 

 

2 hours ago, zimmie said:

How about some bark mulch for a decal. Would be great for landscaping. idk, maybe that would be an idea for the guys that do the trees/bushes/flowers, etc. Could do like a real small one to keep it within the boundaries of whatever trying to fill, along with some larger ones.

Month of decals is over, sorry, I don't want to touch decals for a long time now.

 

 

Day 30: More Dirt http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=894501604

 

 

Streamed for 4 hours again and continued the nuclear power plant: still have to do 2 props, and then get the pump and cooling tower buildings from @Jerenable

 

The entire thing is approx 22k tris now. 

 

[Ronyx69 2,413]

 

Theme Decals Mod: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=895061550

 

Also the star monument is public now: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=869208101

 

  Edited March 31, 2017 by Ronyx69  

[Avanya 2,605]

So freaking awesome! I can't wait to mess around with this!  An awesome end to a month filled with wonderful decals! Ty so much!