Category Archives: Art

The madness of Fate

Posted in Art, Fate, Game Art, technical by

What are they doing? Seriously, some one tell me.

I mentioned that Fate converts the textures added at install from PNG to DDS. This conversion happens upon initial run of the game but also again if any of the converted textures go missing (which I use when I tweak textures and such). In addition to the main texture (or diffuse map), some textures had an alpha map (for transparency such as making the black on the sails below invisible). Then there are the “completemaps” that funk up the textures in game and honestly, aren’t very well done in Fate. Such as the one I posted last time. It was supposed to be a burned down building, but it looked completely black despite the original texture having detail and actual color. After I rebuilt the texture, it still looked dark in game. There was a peculiarity with the coloring and shading/highlighting with several of the textures. It was clear my changes were in place but something was distorting the image.

(CLICK THE PICTURES TO SEE THEM LARGER)

Original texture (resized for easy of viewing)
Partially complete rebuild

You can see in the image that my version of the boat is much cleaner (and detailed). However, when I loaded the game, my textures showed but were muddied with blemishes shown in the first texture. I thought maybe it was an engine thing (e.g. when building levels you can “paint” shadows and marks on the 3D landscape like Morrowind).

Original boat texture
New texture (but muddied by something)

I didn’t know what I don’t know

Then I discovered, there was a third texture related to the boat image. However it’s structure is very weird. This texture does two things that I can discern: 1. highlights or darkens areas on the model and 2. adds color tinting. So my amateur status here doesn’t know what this layer is called or how the heck it is made or relates to the model. It’s not just another variant of the boat texture but rather more like a piecemeal palette of portions of the 3D model.

boatcompletemap

I assume the 3D software creates the mapping on this texture…If anyone knows, please enlighten me

Trying to make it work

The lighter the color is, the brighter on the boat and the darker creates shadows. The hue tints the image that color. But the mapping is crazy…I had to experiment just to get the white on the boat to be even. I plan to minimize my efforts on those files unless one (such as the boat) really needs it. The smelter (as it’s labeled in the filename) stays mostly red due to how it’s “completemap” is mostly shades of red.

20161019203041_1

Smelter walls should be light brown.

20161026215121_1

 

After some trials, I at least got the ship to a reasonable spot. I’m not sure if I’ll come back to Fate or not but it was a fun bit of messing around.

– Martin

 

 

 

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Fate: The Tortured Texture

Posted in Art, Fate, Game Art, Game Mod, technical by

Technomancer

Occasionally, I like to test out games on my 4k monitor to see how they look at such a high resolution (3184×2160). For some games, that impact is less than you would expect while others look surprising good. For example, Bethesda Gamebyro engine-based games (Elder Scrolls and Fallout) look a little better but I’m not very wow’d by it. I think it boils down to the engine and lower resolution textures. Less aliasing (jagged edges around the 3D model) and more detail but not the punch you would expect.

On the other hand, Two Worlds looks fantastic. The textures are high resolution enough to make them really pop. Unfortunately, the interface doesn’t scale so it’s very “difficult” to play at such a high resolution. Visually, it’s very pleasing though.

 

2005 called

So one day, I got a bug to try the old game Fate. It was the predecessor to Torchlight. A top-down action-RPG click fest. My boys played all but last one in the series so as usual, there is a touch of nostalgia for me.  The only thing I had to figure out tech-wise was how to get the resolution desired in game. Some games work out of the box and some require manually editing “ini” text files. In this case, I had to edit the “ini” file AND disable scaling on high DPI settings. I did that by right clicking the program executable file and putting a check under that line in the compatibility tab. Viola…4K work for a decade+ old game.

 

Both ends of the spectrum

You can see in the screenshot (even if you don’t have a 4K monitor) that the character models are actually quite detailed. In 4K, they really stand out and don’t really need any work. Well, I could do a little but I digress…in general, they are perfectly nice. However, as you can see in the “snow/ice” texture, the non-character models are blurry low-resolution messes.  Basically, they are tiled 128×128 textures. They are so dramatically worse than the character/object textures in 4K. The building are also very low resolution…which is even more boggling since they don’t blend into the background like the landscaping. That is when I got inspired…to fix the disparity.

Getting better….

The above (partially complete) picture is post landscape editing. For the record, I’m still not crazy happy about it but small steps.The landscapes textures have revealed the oddites of the engine. A few places where they don’t actually blend and such but not too much. The real work and most dramatic change was the building and landscape objects…but that is for next time.

  • Martin

 

Experiments in Art Style

Posted in Art, Darkstone, Game Art, Morrowind, plans, technical, Uncategorized by

Art Concepts

Since I have limited time to focus on leisurely activities, a lot of what I do with game art falls more into the “Proof of Concept” category. I have an idea about what would be a interesting visual change for me and I merely want to see it in game. For example, for the Darkstone project, I was going for the look of dry erase crayons on a dark dry erase board.

Exit to Forest

Exit to Forest

For Morrowind, I simulated a cell shader (cartoon) effect with build in black outlines. Note: when I first made those textures, Borderlands hadn’t been released. However, I had already realized that it looked better to have the solid colors have some kind of texture behind them for visual interest.

MGE Screenshot 2

Fast forward to Today

I was messing around with my new art tablet last month and decided to see if I could replicate the style of Borderlands in Morrowind, at least as a proof of concept. I did some research for tips on the best way to replicate the effect and found a youtube video that explained a method that a got very close to the games style.

I chose to experiment on the vanilla Morrowind face textures. In general, they are awful and look very ugly in game. My logic being that adding the “borderlands” style texturing might add enough interest to make them worthy of keeping versus using model replacer mod (may mods replace the heads). The original textures used for faces were very low resolution, inaccurate (sloppily made) and just generals ugly as all get out.

Ugly Vanilla

Some one beat him with the Vanilla Game ugly stick

Morrowlands?

I started by doing the heads in the order of the characters you run into when you start a new game. I redid 5 faces. It was surprisingly easier than I thought.

Jiub Vanilla Base to Borderland

I’ll detail it out next time but for a teaser here’s what “vanilla” jiub looked like when I was done. I’ll explain the irregularities next time.

– Martin

 

Witness this fully operational Battle…errr…Art Station

Posted in Art, Morrowind, plans, technical by

Tech Nirvana

The same week I got my new art tablet, I had finally overclocked my computer and received my Oculus Rift in the mail. It’s not to hard to imagin that it was more of a Tech In Pinkerton than an Art In Pinkerton kind of week. For the last two weeks, I have squandered quite some time playing with my new VR gizmo which means I spent less time on other, more artsy endeavors 😉

Nerdmaggedon has arrived!

Nerdmaggedon has arrived!

Tech Nerd Note: Years ago when I built my computer, I bought a CPU chip (I7-2600K) that was designed to be overclocked but I never bothered since it was already (and still is) very capable. I finally gave it a go and ended up boosting the speed from 3.4 Ghz to 4.4Ghz (about 25% more power) with very little change in temperature. All I had to do was change two settings in the BIOS and voila…instant faster computer.

I also upgraded my computer desk and arranged my setup so it’s much more aesthetically appealing and has space for using the Oculus Rift.

Desk

Me likey

 

It’s not all for naught

I did find time to play with my new tablet though. I took its arrival as a cue to make the transition over to Photoshop from GIMP. I do have to say, it’s has taken a few weeks for me to adjust to how different it is. I feel like I have taken two steps back but I know I will catch up to speed pretty quickly. I just have to do a little more “google research” to figure out how to do things than I did with GIMP in a long time.

N’Wah

Now that I had my new art tablet, I really wanted to see what it could do and clicking individual pixels for the Arena Depixelization Project wasn’t going to scratch that itch (sorry it’ll be back on the agenda soon). I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but my favorite video game of all time is The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind. Atmospherically, it’s an amazing setting. However, it’s from early 2000s and a little clunky. The 3d models of the characters are blocky like those poseable wooden art figures (composed of multiple seperate 3D meshes). The textures are low res, blurry, and sometimes quite questionable in their construction. As can be seen in my Morrowind screenshot directory, I have experimented with that game before.

What is old, is new again

I had a (kind of) new idea. I wanted to see if I could add a Borderlands style look to that game. It’s is only meant as  a proof of concept rather than a full mod though. As can be seen in the screenshots for my various projects, the cartoon concept a recurring theme for me (it just takes different forms). It’s an “easy” way to turn an art direction on its head and give it a little more interest. The difference this time from the last time I fiddled with Morrowind’s art assets is that, besides having Borderlands as an inspiration, I’m not brand new to computer graphics this time. I have completed a few textures already but will save that for another post.  – Martin

Tablet 2.0

Posted in Art, technical by

UpgradeHurion 650 Pro

Over a month ago, the pen for my trusty Wacom Bamboo tablet (see first post ever) broke. This was quite disheartening as I love having an art tablet and it’s was hard to be motivated without it.

After much research and reflection, I have finally picked up a new tablet: the Hurion 650 Pro. The great thing about it (besides the very positive ratings) is that it functions at the level of the middle tier Wacom products but only cost $79 US dollars on Amazon.  I can’t wait to take advantage of the added features it brings.

Breaking it in

After it got installed, I fiddle with my new toy using GIMP (side note: really tiring of using GIMP and it’s limitations). I was working on a homework project and had a picture of a pencil loaded. Just for fun, I attempted a very hasty and crude pencil outline of the pencil. It’s rough but I’m sentimental and it’s the first official drawing on the Hurion. I merely looked to trace the major lines and add some crosshatching…I wasn’t very attentive to keeping straight lines because this was more to test out the tablet than make art. However, I like it anyways.

– Martin

My first creation on the Hurion 650 Pro

My first creation on the Hurion 650 Pro