Posts by hessi

  • The random model thread!

    n00bs!

    mino: get your green thing on an extra MATERIAL not a seperated texture. in the one material you activate translucency in the other one you keep any translucency or alphatesting command out of your vmt.

    maybe like

    Material_trans.vmt <- for transparency

    Material.vmt <- for 100% visible stuff

    you can use the same VTF in both material files

  • How vertexlighting works

    just saying "i did not understand" isnt helpfull at all. mabye you could say WHAT yout did not understand.

    @ acumen:

    in the pdf file i posted you see some screenshots of de_train. there you see how the vertexlighting creates disgusting graphics like full bright steel under a waggon or you can see how light lits a cylinder shape waggon.

    i intended to show you how the technique of vertexlighting works and what you have to care about while working with prop_statics (which are always vertexlit). for example not making a model too big or placing it in extrem light contrast situations so that one side is bright even though the environment is completly dark. thats what turtle rock worked around on de_train at the railings on the ground i made an screenshot from in my PDF file.

    anyway: if you do not understand some parts please tell me which ones or give me a hint where to add screenshots.

  • How vertexlighting works

    because i was asked on how to light out a prop static in hl2 i made an image on how the lighting works. so take a look on this first

    [Blocked Image: http://www.thomashess.net/how_vertexlights_work.jpg]

    1. image this sphere is a vertex OR a lightingorigin which you may place as an info_lighting in hammer (and link it to a prop_static)

    there are 2 lights in the scene. one comes from the upper left and the other one from the lower right. the camera direction has no light. due to that there is a dark line on the sphere in the middle

    2. i stuck a cube with harden edges in my sphere. as you can see it is lighted like the parts of the sphere you can still see. that's a result of the vertexnormals you have on every polygon mesh.

    3. here you see those vertexnormals. each polygon has them on its vertices. the result: a vertex can have n>=1 vertexnormals (math N means integers bigger than 0; N = [1, 2, 3,...] while n is an element of N)

    take a look on the upper polygon. its really bright yellow. all vertexnormals are orientied to the upside yellow sunlight. so they say "ok polygon as to be yellow at my side. -> yellow gradient on this polygon

    same is valid for all other polygons and vertices. imagine that each vertex is this sphere i showed in the first image. place the vertexnormal on the spehere and place the lighting of this point in the sphere on your polygons vertex.

    talkin unprofessional: the sphere is a projection to all vertices telling the polygons vertexnormal how to be lighted.

    4. interesting: if you soften edges (or work with smoothing groups) your vertexnormals get merged. so they are not like the facenormals. due to that the edge i softened has a vertexnormal pointing away from all lights in my scene. result: we got a yellow lighting at the top polygon that fades to a black lighting (no lighting) and fades to a blue lighting at the bottom.

    knowing these basics you should understand why prop statics are dangerous to use in outdoor scenes. example:

    take a look on de_train. there train railings at the bottom have an extrem bright lighting that hardly cuts to a dark one.

    that is the result of the fact that there are 2 models using 2 different lighting reference points (info_lighting) the one is in the sun the other one is in the dark area. alle vertices of the prop static are referenced to this lighting point.

    so take care of how you work with statics and props. there might be ugly bright or dark models in versa lighting situations because this info_lighting is in a different room or position your vertices are.

    greets

    hessi

    edit: here is an addition that might help to understand my crappy english

    [Blocked Image: http://www.thomashess.net/how_vertexlights_work2.jpg]

  • Photoshop Video tutorial on decals by Generalvivi

    thanks for your effort vivi. great to see that more than just a few people spending time on community work

    i got trick you didnt discover yet:

    selecting a colorrange while the background isnt in a complete different color as the foreground we want to crop, is not as efficient as it could be.

    so i do like this:

    1. i do select a colorrange that is not that strong that it selects parts of my "grafitti". the problem you already noticed: background might not be selected completly

    2. well continue anyway and create a new alpha channel and fill your color range selection with white (alt + backspace)

    3. then go to image -> adjust -> brightness and contrast

    4. adjust the contrast that grey parts disapear and the shape of your decal gets clean out

    i hope you understood what i was trying to tell you.

    greets

    hessi

  • totally random texture thread

    [Blocked Image: http://www.thomashess.net/scrolltest.gif]

    maybe some of you wanted to use vertexcolors or vertexalpha which isnt working for you (or maybe just me) and today i found out how this fake vertexalpha works. its just 2 modulated textures. there is no seperated alphamask. i will write a short tutorial on this tomorrow.

    you may use this in many situations. for example: creating cool rain effects, waterfalls, smoke or fireeffects. anywhere you would need animated textures that fade out to one side of a plane.

    cya

  • [WIP]: [CS:S] de_shrooms (not psycadelic) **update**

    vote against school maps!

    btw: if you post stuff maybe you should make sure, that it is worth to show. this is far from "showable". there are no textures, all is hammer brushed, no lighting. there is even no sense. schoolmaps suck in gameplay. they always did. how do you imagine a good gameflow in a map with so many rooms? btw: your polycounts of the map will explode. crappy visblocking too.

    dont waste another day on this map and start a real project like de_INSERT_COUNTRY_NAME

  • hessi's tree thread

    how do you like my tree pimp? adding such details is fun. "oh look its a tree" sounds not as good as "look at this tree! it has a birdt inside!" using the bird AI could be usefull to do awseome stuff. but i think the bird ai only works in hl2 singleplayer.

  • The random model thread!

    Quote from st0lve

    Nice tank hessi, but its abit blurry at some parts compared to others!

    read my previuos posts:

    its work in progress. not all parts are textured. the upper parts are nearly completly textured, but the rest isnt textured at all. they just got some bakepasses like ambient occlusion and a simple lightmap.

  • The random model thread!

    maybe i didnt made it that clear: i just rextured the upper part. of course i will make it dirty at the bottom and add more detail like rust scratches and stuff. i just felt like having to show you my wip

    i will finish the tank maybe this week. gonna make the video tutorial now!