Doom3 temple WIP

[W01f]

There are two ways you're going to sell the normal maps:

1) multi-directional lighting and

2) good texture alignment using the edges well.

All the shots show what might as well be a giant noshadow fill light. It's difficult to tell there's even normal mapping on the textures.

In the second shot, the texture alignment is way off (and it almost looks like you're building on a weird grid ). When the textures get cut off away from an edge, things can look pretty bad. Use the natural edges and borders on the textures to your advantage. And break things up that way. Normal mapped edges on textures let you get away with brush/texture stacks that you couldn't get away with using only normal diffuse textures.

It's also not the number of lights, it's the number of overlapping lights. Don't be afraid to use small accents, projected lights, etc. etc. to bring out some detail and color. You're showing some good ideas and it's a cool texture set and whatnot; now just focus on making it work for you.

Yeah, in the second shot you're talking about that middle texture with writing on it? It's just that I had to scale the textures differently on that one wall, but I'll definately look into fixing it.

I have lots of overlapping lights, too...tho maybe not too noticable right now (might have to up the brightness). All of the flames have their own seperate light, and each room uses two large lights, both with shadows on. I do stop certain objects from casting shadows tho because sometimes it just doesn't look right (like the big pillars casting big dark shadows on opposite ends..)

[KungFuSquirrel]

Try a big fill light in the middle going out past the walls on the side for the pillar shadows, then light/lights as appropriate behind the pillars to fill it in. You should be able to get away with that little overdraw; shouldn't go over 3 to get a basic scheme down.

[W01f]

Try a big fill light in the middle going out past the walls on the side for the pillar shadows, then light/lights as appropriate behind the pillars to fill it in. You should be able to get away with that little overdraw; shouldn't go over 3 to get a basic scheme down.

But then I won't be able to have lights for the flames :/ Well I could, but at a pretty big hit to the frame rate.

[KungFuSquirrel]

Not if you use the lights from the flames themselves to fill in the areas behind the pillars.

If that's not what you're aiming for and you really want good lights on the flames, only extend the main fill light maybe halfway past the pillars, use an additional fill light behind, and then each light from the flame is only the second light pass on most faces aside of maybe part of the pillar (which would be at 3) if you size them well.

I don't expect you'll get it right on the first or second try, and neither should you. It's really tough to get the perfect balance of illumination and light count/shadow tris, but when you do hit the mark, the results really pop out at you... almost literally. hehe