The Desert (real-time environment with no Diffuse Maps)

[d1ver]

What’s up fellow Tech Artists!:D:

It’s my pleasure to show and tell you about a project I’ve wrapped up recently:

WATCH THE VIDEO:

//youtu.be/QtSbrIupviQ

Please make sure to watch through the whole video because that’s where the whole project is. All the following images are merely a bunch of working materials.
Thank you very much:rolleyes:

If youtube is not working for you feel free to check it out on Vimeo:

Now, I won’t be posting much screenshots for now because this work is not about static images at all and I really want everyone to check the video out.

It’s a real-time environment that does not use any dedicated RGB diffuse textures. I thought there was an opportunity for us to improve the way we make our games technically, production-wise and maybe even visually to an extent so with this personal project I really pushed the idea of “procedural” materials. As much as I was working hard making a visual work of art I also pushed it to make a technological statement that says “we could do well without diffuse maps”.

Now I’ve composed a whole[B] paper about “procedural” materials [/B] technology, the concept and the reasoning behind it: both technical and artistic. Make sure to check it out! And if you have ideas on the subject I’ll be more than happy to discuss them.) I really want to get to the bottom of using this technology for a full scale game production and your input would be invaluable.
Now here are a couple of images from the paper to completely lure you in:

Since this is show and tell I also wanted to share with you a couple of making of videos from this project. One is about all the technical stuff and the other one is about conception and ideation. They are a bit on the long side, but hopefully you’ll get compensated with interesting info for your time!

Technical:

//youtu.be/JxFwfZMBxT8

Conceptual:

//youtu.be/Kl5ocYJyLcY

And also make sure not to miss an opportunity to try it all out for yourself, since I’m giving away all the shader I used completely free of charge:

Click the image to grab the materials!

There are all kinds of “procedural” materials for you to check out as well as a couple of example textures and meshes. Also there’s a .PSD that makes for very smooth gradient map production as it allows you to preview your gradient mapping, normal, specular, damage and diffuse pattern influence right in photoshop! It’s like you’re painting your gradient map directly in UDK and can immediately see the end result! I’ve made a little video that will hopefully make things more visual for you:

//youtu.be/a4TcnfX5c3Y

I hope this will get you interested in “procedural” materials even on current gen tech and I’d love to know what you think!

Cheers! Thank you very much for your time, I hope you’ll find this interesting

P.S. And just in case you are interested in the artwork behind it I thought I should share it as well:
Some sculpts, or Normal Map renders to be precise:

yay goats!

Yeah my stuff rarely comes without reading material

And some concept art:

Thank you!

[telekinetic_octopus]

Wow, what a great first post! Thanks for the making of videos. I watched the technical one and it’s really helpful

[d1ver]

Hey there Emar, thank you very much for the kind words. I’m glad the making of was helpful.:D:
Do you plan on reading the paper?:rolleyes:

[telekinetic_octopus]

I read it. So, how many poeple can you replace with these techniques? Just kidding

It’s an informative read, the informal language helps too Reading academic stuff has been always difficult for me, this is easier. Using greyscale gradients to interpolate between different colors is a neat idea. I’ll experiment with it in my VFX stuff when I have the time.

Thanks again

[d1ver]

Ahahaha, you got me there, at first, Emar! :D:

Thanks, man. I dislike formal academic stuff myself. Never seen any point in it.

I’ll be looking forward to your new stuff then:wink:

cheers

[bcloward]

Wow - that’s a pretty epic post. And the demo is really nice looking too. I really like the idea of thinking outside the box to get better results and reduce memory usage at the same time.

[Xetick]

Very nice work! I think it’s worth mentioning the ultimate in procedural content generation specially when it comes to games and that would be kkrieger the ‘doom 3’ game in 96kb.

[d1ver]

Thank you very much, Ben, for your kind words! It’s a pleasure to get a line from you.
You papers on normal maps and your shaders were very useful for the beginner-me a few years back, so huge thanks for that too!:D:

Hey, Xetick, thanks a lot! And thanks for the whole reddit thing. I owe you one, buddy.
Will have to go check that link you posted now.
Cheers!

[instinct-vfx]

Damn. This looks very nice, sadly i can’t watch it. Could you upload a version with CC music or no sound at all? Because it is unavailable in .de due to the GEMA

Kind Regards,
Thorsten

[d1ver]

instinct-vfx,

…
If youtube is not working for you feel free to check it out on Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/43720484
…

And thank you for the kind words.

[Kameleon]

Wow Thanks for sharing!

[Nysuatro]

Impressive and inspiring work

[d1ver]

Thank you very much Kameleon and Nysuatro, you’re too kind, guys!)

[system]

WOW really awsum work man hats off … really eye catching work :): :): :):