SAMPA // A near-future sci-fi city in Unreal 4

[Minos]

Hey guys!

 

Figured it's about time I started a WIP thread to document progress on my new scene, simply called "SAMPA" for now.

 

My goal here is to make a small near-future city corner to get started with the PBR workflow and take advantage of the new Unreal 4 goodness. Loving the engine so far, it's like a dream coming true

 

Anyway, it's still pretty early in development but hopefully the vision I have for this should already be pretty clear. Some assets are in completely different stages of completion than others so nevermind the placeholder stuff for now.

 

I'd say this is about 30% done so far, still a long way to go!

 

[Sigma]

Mind showing the breakdown of your PBR maps so far?

[knj]

Looking good dude, as i sad before LOVE the MapCore building !

[PogoP]

Looks good so far mate! You got much ref etc or concept of where you want this to end up? I'd be interested to see that stuff!

[Mazy]

(¦)~~~superb shit Minos!~~~~~

[FMPONE]

 

So awesome... something funny is going on in my pants :X

 

In the way of crit, I think the parallax window textures aren't working so well, the illusion is broken if the plane is too close to the viewer's eye, it needs to be masked with some actual geometric depth (like on the right building in the 2nd shot, some black insetting/bordering). I also think you should try to restrict yourself to the main color blue/purple, one other color, and then one rarely used one for spice. You've got a bunch of colors in there, and I'm not sure they aren't clashing atm.

[MaK]

I like this very much so. Great work, can't wait to see more!

[Jonny Phive]

awesome!

[Minos]

Thanks guys, glad you like it so far!

 

 

So awesome... something funny is going on in my pants :X

 

In the way of crit, I think the parallax window textures aren't working so well, the illusion is broken if the plane is too close to the viewer's eye, it needs to be masked with some actual geometric depth (like on the right building in the 2nd shot, some black insetting/bordering). I also think you should try to restrict yourself to the main color blue/purple, one other color, and then one rarely used one for spice. You've got a bunch of colors in there, and I'm not sure they aren't clashing atm.

 

Yeah you are totally right My intention for the color palette is for the main color to be blue/purple with orange as a secondary color, but at the same time I don't want to restrict myself to just those two colors because well, a city doesn't follow rules like that I think it's just a matter of finding the ideal balance which I'll hopefully do as I go. My plan for the color palette is for it to be:

70% blue/purple

25% orange/gold

5% other accent colors (small signs, techy pieces and shit like that).

 

Good point about the parallax windows, I'll try to add an extra lip in between floors, that should help

 

Pogos: I'm actually not following any specific concept or reference pictures because I find doing that very restricting. I went that route when I started this project and it really got in the way, so now I restrict following references too closely just for specific things such as how does a storefront door or how sidewalks look in real life. But of course when I need some inspiration I hop on street view, check out some of my books or go over my references folder, but as I said, I'm using those resources as inspiration and not as reference. Reference is limiting, inspiration is not 

 

Sigma: They are pretty simple actually. I'm not stressing myself too much on how "physically correct" they are, but instead I'm focusing on getting them to look "right" (which doesn't necessarily mean "accurate" if you get what I mean). I think you would benefit more from checking this out: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1019260/The-Art-and-Rendering-of

[Steppenwolf]

Sigma: They are pretty simple actually. I'm not stressing myself too much on how "physically correct" they are, but instead I'm focusing on getting them to look "right" (which doesn't necessarily mean "accurate" if you get what I mean). I think you would benefit more from checking this out: http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1019260/The-Art-and-Rendering-of

 

That's something i've been wondering for a while if physically correct is even desirable for some stylized settings because i always remember that back when movies were made with practical effects they used lard and hairspray and whatnot to make surfaces more shiny. For them it was important that the edges pop on film not that it looks like real life.

[Pampers]

Looking good Minos!

 

doing stuff "physically correct" does not mean you can't do stuff stylized

[Steppenwolf]

Looking good Minos!

 

doing stuff "physically correct" does not mean you can't do stuff stylized

 

Of course when i do "metal with grease layer" it would still be physically correct. But would also get "this metal looks too shiny!" comments. Get what i mean? The question is more if people arn't a bit too hung up with realism at the moment when discussing PBR.

[KoKo5oVaR]

That's super awesome mino !! Needs a hurg black silouhette on those windows

 

@step I wouldn't worry too much, the tech is new and people are fighting to get the most legitimate use/style out of it : what does it mean to use PBR right and how i can get a benefit for myself. When everyone will be able to render spot on realistic materials easily, something else will have to added to be able to distinguish yourself.

 

Not sure if this is a just analogy at all, but look what happened to hyper realistic painting.

[Minos]

Thanks guys

 

Yeah I wouldn't worry about that stepp. PBR only makes authoring textures much faster and easier. There's a misconception that PBR is only useful for ultra-realistic styles but in fact it's just a system to describe materials easily, it all depends on how you use it. I even wonder if the new Mario Kart uses PBR because the materials there are some of the best I have ever seen.

 

It's pretty simple to think in PBR terms and just by looking at a surface one can have a rough idea of how to set it up in PBR, whereas that would be almost impossible in the old way. Basically when making a material I ask myself: is this a pure metal, a painted metal or something else? If the answer is pure metal then I use pure white for metalness. If the answer is painted metal, I use a 90~95% white for metalness, otherwise I just use pure black. Then all you need to do is to define how reflective/rough the material is and make your roughness map. The roughness map takes care of 3 parameters at the same time: specular, glossiness and reflections.

 

This chart is extremely helpful:

[Puddy]

Minos. This is some hella-sexy shit right here. Everything looks so clean, sharp and smooth. 

 

Nice work!