Lee Towers' assets

[Lee Towers 179]

4 hours ago, squirrelarmyuk said:

Looking good, just wondering if you could release a half finished version of a boat as a prop. Would be good to have an under construction ship for dry docks.

That's exactly my plan! I'm going to release it as a functional cargo ship and a stationary park (on water) in its final state, as well as a not-fully-outfitted/half-painted version for dry docks or ship launches. Possibly going to make those as well - though a "functional" drydock version might take a lot of experimenting to get right with the wonky water physics in this game. Also planning release parts of the hull and superstructure as prefab sections. Maybe eventually other types ships shipyard related assets as well, who knows.

Does anyone know the scale of the default containers? I imagine they're supposed to be 40 ft. maritime containers but I don't know if it's a 1:1 scale in-game. My ship is based on a feeder ship that's capable of transporting 45' containers as well, so that's what I have on there at the moment. The default ship is about 120ish meters in length, I believe. That'd make it kind of like a container feeder ship, so mine will be roughly the same scale (slightly bigger).

Current progress below. Hull and superstructures are done. Placed containers on deck. 1352 tris at the moment so there's quite some room for a few details (walkways, for example). I'm definitely not looking forward to uv mapping the hull, by the way  

 

 

[Lee Towers 179]

It's been a while, but I've been kinda busy lately (and will keep on being busy). But I have continued to work on the container ship. As suspected, uv mapping a hull is a pain in the ass. Textures are almost done though, just need some input from you guys. 

1. Do I need to add more details? It's about 2500 tris in total now, and I'd really like to keep that as low as it is right now. On the other hand, I feel like it's really empty on the deck, for example.

2. I need some shipping brand suggestions for the red and green containers. I chose Cimskip for the blue containers (and the vessel itself), since the paint scheme and superstructure were loosely based on the Samskip Innovator (and her half dozen sister ships...).

3. Does someone know the illumination map colour scheme for ships? I tried 50% as neutral colour with 100% white for the windows but then the whole model lit up, except the windows and some artifacts around it...

4. Is a 2048^2 texture too big? I tested it with a 1024^2 texture and it still looked good, but since it's quite a big model I'm not sure what to choose...

Other things that are still on the to do list for this model:

- Proper window textures on the bridge (it's now a high specular value, which looks hideous)

- Add a rudder (still doesn't have one  ) 

- Create LOD

- Mirror some container faces   just noticed that after I took the screenshots

- And finally the big thing: create variations. I'll start with a stationary park (loaded), then an unfinished one for dry dock or slipway, then slice the hull in sections for use in ship yards. 

- Maybe re-texture it for different shipping companies

[boformer 3,169]

1. You could add a few details to the texture, like dirt and rust. Also some rope winches and boxes.

2. Maybe @Avanya's "CIM" transport brand?

3. No idea. Should be very similar to trains:

4. 2048² is ok for a ship of this size.

[Avanya 2,605]

Like boformer said it'll prob help to dirty it up some. And if you want to use my CIM brand, then there's the logo file. Love the CIMSKIP btw!  

[Tim The Terrible 586]

Don't be afraid to add more tris. 2.500 may seem a lot, but it really isn't for something that big. You can check vertex density with Mesh Info mod. I'd say you can go up to 5.000 tris at least. (One of the vanilla buildings is 10.000 while only being 32x32m) 

[Lee Towers 179]

Thanks for all your input! I'll keep the texture 2048^2 and won't be afraid to add more geometry... @Avanya thanks for the logo, great addition!  Just need one more brand / logo, was actually thinking of doing a San Minato related company since I'm really enjoying FreshPopcorn's series. But I'm not really good at designing logos.

Also freed up some texture space to add a lifeboat. Texturing is still not done, obviously  

[_Beardmonkey 449]

Nice work!  I'm working on a set of props with the brand Generic Industries Ltd. It would be super cool to have that on your containers! But maybe you're looking for shipping company logos? Anyway, if you're interested you can get the black logo here and the white one here. 

[Avanya 2,605]

Np! It looks great on there and I really love how the game has it's own brands pop up. Great addition as well @_Beardmonkey!  

[Lee Towers 179]

@_Beardmonkey how do you feel about green? And are you making container props yourself already?

@Avanya I love that too!

[_Beardmonkey 449]

13 minutes ago, Lee Towers said:

@_Beardmonkey how do you feel about green? And are you making container props yourself already?

Aaaaawsome! I was actually planning on making the branding i orange but I kind of like the green one as well 

I haven't started modeling the container yet.

[Lee Towers 179]

21 minutes ago, _Beardmonkey said:

Aaaaawsome! I was actually planning on making the branding i orange but I kind of like the green one as well 

I haven't started modeling the container yet.

Once you do, could you send me the files? It'll look better if the ship matches the props properly, probably (heh).

Don't be hasty btw, won't finish this ship for another few weeks I guess... 

[Judazzz 1,936]

You could use a few different colors for different sub-divisions of Generic Industries Ltd, like green for foodstuffs, orange for electronics, and so on (a bit like Samsung and other mega conglomerates). That way you can add a bit more variation without having to come up with new brand names, logo's, etc.

[Lee Towers 179]

It's been a looooong time since I've worked on this, but I'm back! I'm not going to add any more geometry than this because I really want to get this out and don't want to spend hours on details nobody is going to notice. @_Beardmonkey any progress on those containers? Otherwise I'll just use the green ones that I have right now  

 

I've come across one problem: the illumination map doesn't work. The background is 127 and I tried using different values for the windows but none of them are working. Does anyone know how the game handles illumination maps for ships (if it works at all)?

[Tim The Terrible 586]

6 minutes ago, Lee Towers said:

I've come across one problem: the illumination map doesn't work. The background is 127 and I tried using different values for the windows but none of them are working. Does anyone know how the game handles illumination maps for ships (if it works at all)?

I use GIMP and somehow the color values don't match the ones mentioned on the wiki. I use 122, 122, 122 for all my vehicle assets and that works, try that maybe?

The ship looks awesome by the way, but what is going on with the hull near the bow? Looks like it needs smoothing.

[Lee Towers 179]

1 hour ago, Tim The Terrible said:

I use GIMP and somehow the color values don't match the ones mentioned on the wiki. I use 122, 122, 122 for all my vehicle assets and that works, try that maybe?

The ship looks awesome by the way, but what is going on with the hull near the bow? Looks like it needs smoothing.

Thanks, 122 worked (using GIMP as well) with the windows 100% white. The hull has smooth faces (except the flat side because, well - it's a flat side) but the think in the bow area you're talking about is my way of simulating space for the anchor. It does some funky things with shadows around it, I need to fix that somehow. 

[Avanya 2,605]

If you're using Blender then select the edges in question and set them to sharp shading. You'll need auto smoothing enabled - it's on the right side and here's a pic to help find it.

[art just right 427]

JUST WOW! Cannot wait to try it! You are god!

[_Beardmonkey 449]

22 hours ago, Lee Towers said:

@_Beardmonkey any progress on those containers? Otherwise I'll just use the green ones that I have right now  

No, l'm afraid not! Go ahead and use the green ones. The ship is looking great!

[Lee Towers 179]

It's finally done!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=842042695

Somehow managed to figure out how to bake textures for the LOD (worked once, can't figure out how I did it so no tutorial, sorry ). 

Some stats:

Main model: 2763 tris, 2048^2 px
LOD: 871 tris, 256^2 px
Weights (using Mesh Info): 13.03 & 4.17, respectively.

I'll make a ploppable version once I figure out how to do that without crashing the game...

 

[_Beardmonkey 449]

Wow! Looks amazing in game! Well done! Loving that Generic Industries container!

[Tim The Terrible 586]

Looks really nice! Good to see you managed to smooth the bow  

Always nice to have more ships to have some variation in the harbors (especially with a ploppable version)

[Lee Towers 179]

Thanks all! Started another project this afternoon, and it is actually almost finished already... a maritime radar tower modelled after the ones in my home province (Zeeland). And yes, the radar actually rotates, thanks to an almost incomprehensible google-translated guide on Steam . Going to darken up the textures even more and will probably try to add a proper normal map this time. Also needs a custom LOD of course.

[zlotka 44]

Looking very good. Ga zo door ;).

 

Any chance of making different kind of (sea)ships?

[Lee Towers 179]

Released! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=845670468

On 18/01/2017 at 11:44 AM, zlotka said:

Looking very good. Ga zo door ;).

 

Any chance of making different kind of (sea)ships?

Thanks! I first want to continue with the Cimskip model. I still want to make a version without containers or even a half-finished one, for shipyards. I might make a few other shipyard assets as well, not sure yet. I don't have any inspiration for other ships at the moment, maybe some river ships later on.

[Badi_Dea 476]

8 minutes ago, Lee Towers said:

maybe some river ships later on.

That would be great to see! I've never really liked massive tankers trying to navigate a small winding river on a map that doesn't have an ocean.

[Ploefke 53]

I really like the radar tower. Does remind me of the one near Nieuwvliet, where I spended my vacations. 

[Lee Towers 179]

Inspired by @Avanya's container series I started working on river ships. I'm going to release one set of three size ships (different lengths, sharing the same texture) per container pack. I'm putting the containers from pack 5 into the first three packs as well, so I'll end up with three sets: 1+5, 2+5 and 3+5. I'll make every set share the same meshes, so if you subscribe to everything, you basically get nine ships for the price of three meshes and three textures. Texture size is 1024^2 to save even more on the final file size (though it means that the beautiful container textures are halved in size  - so not completely sure about the texture size yet).

Anyway, here's the basic ship model with some temporary textures (only diffuse right now, will add specular, normal and illumination maps of course). Will probably add a few more details as well, only 1375 tris at the moment.

Long term plan is to make (dry) bulk versions as well.

[Robban040 1,091]

Love your creations!

[Avanya 2,605]

Looks great! Those will be a great addition to the game!  

Tbh the containers will prob look fine with a smaller texture - without any zoom mod I doubt we could tell the difference between 1024x512 and 512x256. If you're happy with the results, then by all means scale their textures down a bit. I should prob have gone for a smaller size anyways, but it's so tempting to use larger ones - especially when previewing the textures in Blender, where I get so much closer.  

[Lee Towers 179]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=859777509

Released the first set of three container ships! A normal map made them so much better, especially on those containers (can't say this enough, thanks @Avanya!). They have specular, illumination and colour maps as well by the way. These three ships share their main textures so it shouldn't be too heavy on your system if you use the loading screen mod.

Not completely sure if I like the longest one, its length makes turns quite wonky. The LOD is also quite high on the tri count. I might skip this one on the next packs (which will basically be retextures), not sure yet. But you can turn them on and off individually in the content manager anyway.