This is one of the most refreshing maps I've played in many years. There are so many dark, industrial levels. And I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, but a theme like this is like a cool breeze on your face on a hot summer day.
UT3 VCTF-HangingGardens[Pics][PC][PS3]
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Actually this is how I've always imagined in next UT's - Clean and (possibly) bright levels themes, good for the competitive crowd, and brain. For the most part, UT3 has this huge Gears of War influence to which I'm not hating for vehicle gametypes, but definitively for non-vehicle maps. Because it doesn't work for me. None of the retail DM maps are keeper for me, except MAYBE that one with the goo water and the amp at the same level on a necris theme. AKA the map you kill Akasha on campaign.
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Yes, this is definitely what UT3 should have looked like... Or rather, what part of it should have looked like, as each map should preferably have its own distinct theme, color scheme, layout etc. Also, there should have been much more interactive elements like the breaking glass. And traps, ffs!
Basically a map like this shows exactly what's wrong with UT3: it's drab and uninspired.
Nathillien
۞Thilsa۞
I saw the screenshot on the front page and I thought, wow what is that? Clicked on it and 
!!! This map looks absolutely incredible, gonna try it out right now!
!!! This map looks absolutely incredible, gonna try it out right now!
Looks more like an architectural vision than a UT3 map imo ... very not my style, very clean ... Good to see new content and experimentation however
Except when glass is shattering all over the map and blood is smeared on all those pristine white walls and floors
the fact that it is like an architectual vision is what makes it so amazing and unique from some other ut3 maps
So how I assumed you did this was calculated the lightmaps outside of the engine and imported them...
... So how *do* you import external lightmaps anyway? There might be some situations that I'd like to Photoshop my lightmaps (or perhaps even generate them in Mental Ray or something.)
... I don't think there was any tom-foolery involved... after all, all I did was just install your map... so obviously whatever you did was contained in the map cache file.
... So how *do* you import external lightmaps anyway? There might be some situations that I'd like to Photoshop my lightmaps (or perhaps even generate them in Mental Ray or something.)
... I don't think there was any tom-foolery involved... after all, all I did was just install your map... so obviously whatever you did was contained in the map cache file.
Ohhhh... he bakes them onto the textures.
Hmm... that's a bit inefficient but -- eh, it works. Would have figured he pre-calculated the lightmaps and imported them.
(When I say "inefficient" I mean you can't really tile your textures if you bake the lighting data into them... though you can tile your colour texture but not tile your lightmap if the lightmap way were possible... unless I'm thinking of something different)
Hmm... that's a bit inefficient but -- eh, it works. Would have figured he pre-calculated the lightmaps and imported them.
(When I say "inefficient" I mean you can't really tile your textures if you bake the lighting data into them... though you can tile your colour texture but not tile your lightmap if the lightmap way were possible... unless I'm thinking of something different)
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Actually, I do have tiling textures with precalculated lightmaps... let me explain:
Lightmaps are basically a mapped on image that defines lighting. For HangingGardens, most surfaces have a single greyscale lightmap image. By using only a single lightmap (instead of directional lightmaps), and by compressing using greyscale, I can achieve extremely high resolution lighting for a comparatively small file size. I can also maintain smooth gradients, which would be utterly destroyed by DXT compression (even Mirrors Edge has some notably rough edges due to compression artifacts).
Note that even with greyscale compression, you can work color back into the final result: with textures (grass, concrete), with shader trickery (see the Bar) or with post process effects (slight warmth to the sunlight).
Also, it is important to note that the lightmaps are separate from the textures. Unreal supports multiple UVW channels; this means that I can have two sets of mapping for every mesh, should I choose. pureLIGHT unwraps meshes on the second uvw channel by default - this means that most meshes mesh in the scene have a tiling surface (such as the subtle stucco, concrete, or floor pannel texture) with a directly mapped lightmap blended in via the shader.
The lighting and texture use in hanging gardens, considering the target aesthetic, is actually substantially more efficient than if you were to follow the standard Unreal workflow
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Lightmaps are basically a mapped on image that defines lighting. For HangingGardens, most surfaces have a single greyscale lightmap image. By using only a single lightmap (instead of directional lightmaps), and by compressing using greyscale, I can achieve extremely high resolution lighting for a comparatively small file size. I can also maintain smooth gradients, which would be utterly destroyed by DXT compression (even Mirrors Edge has some notably rough edges due to compression artifacts).
Note that even with greyscale compression, you can work color back into the final result: with textures (grass, concrete), with shader trickery (see the Bar) or with post process effects (slight warmth to the sunlight).
Also, it is important to note that the lightmaps are separate from the textures. Unreal supports multiple UVW channels; this means that I can have two sets of mapping for every mesh, should I choose. pureLIGHT unwraps meshes on the second uvw channel by default - this means that most meshes mesh in the scene have a tiling surface (such as the subtle stucco, concrete, or floor pannel texture) with a directly mapped lightmap blended in via the shader.
The lighting and texture use in hanging gardens, considering the target aesthetic, is actually substantially more efficient than if you were to follow the standard Unreal workflow
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Okay so M.A.D.X.W. steered me wrong... so I decided to just simply open up the editor and look for myself.
Seems like you're multiplying in the pre-calculated lighting to the shaders themselves. It seems like from the shader you're taking care of the specularity by a cubemap too.
... if that's right... hah... that's cool. Probably a pain in the arse to get it running, but lets face it, your results are great.
Seems like you're multiplying in the pre-calculated lighting to the shaders themselves. It seems like from the shader you're taking care of the specularity by a cubemap too.
... if that's right... hah... that's cool. Probably a pain in the arse to get it running, but lets face it, your results are great.
Correct; all the magic happens in the shader. (though semantics aside, M.A.D.X.W. is also right; the pureLIGHT content is outside of Unreal's own lighting knowledge, so it will show up in Unlit mode as well).
The function that blends in the lightmaps is a little more than multiply though; you'll notice that the sunlight can actually brighten a dark texture, such as the granite. This is just an artistic approximation of propper tone-mapping.
The setup really isn't all that bad; take a look at how many materials are used in something like UT3, and my dozen or so shaders look pretty underwhelming
. (I do make heavy use of the instance material system, but setting up instances is extremely fast and easy).I've also setup dozens of pureLIGHT based scenes with equal or greater density, so the publishing is actually kind of mundane for me at this point (the fun part was building the architecture / curves, and getting the lighting "just right").
Regarding the cube map, I only use it on the "polished" materials, like the paneled floor or dark tiles. For the white stucco and pipes, I experimented with using real lights for the specular, but aesthetically I preferred the results of using a fake-specular based on a Fresnel function. This also prevents having duplicate lighting (any pureLIGHT surface is effectively "off" from Unreal's perspective, with the exception of the few that receive dynamic light from weapons and such; the lack of "lighting" in this map is why we can push more detail yet get better performance than the average UT3 map).
Thanks! (and thanks to everybody else who has commented on the visuals; your comments all really mean a lot to me!)
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I'll be honest with you, I wouldn't have attempted this method because I'd figure the materials lookup time would kill me and the performance hit of doing (the albeit simpler) calculations in Kismet (technically Materials Editor) versus native coded rendering engines would defecate on my withered remains.
Seeing your framerate I know it works though. Unless Lightmass comes through soon I might just ignore lighting in UT3 and do my lighting in Mental Ray. ((AFTER Skyhook 1.1 of course... that one's WAY TOO far in the pipe to kick it back to square one for lighting))
Good luck with your entry in MSU (though I'm pretty sure it will at least win Best Graphics in a Map if only on cool++ points... or ++cool if you're a C programmer... for the external application alone.)
Also good luck selling your ((middleware's not the best word for it... but you know what I mean)). I know MSUC must be one of the better ways to promote it.
Congrats.
Seeing your framerate I know it works though. Unless Lightmass comes through soon I might just ignore lighting in UT3 and do my lighting in Mental Ray. ((AFTER Skyhook 1.1 of course... that one's WAY TOO far in the pipe to kick it back to square one for lighting))
Good luck with your entry in MSU (though I'm pretty sure it will at least win Best Graphics in a Map if only on cool++ points... or ++cool if you're a C programmer... for the external application alone.)
Also good luck selling your ((middleware's not the best word for it... but you know what I mean)). I know MSUC must be one of the better ways to promote it.
Congrats.
The Material Editor _IS_ the native coded rendering engine. Any committed change in the material editor is compiled into HLSL code (or something like that) - there are some questions of efficiency (ie the difference between a shader written by a programmer and a material crated by an artist), but all the fancy materials effects used by Epic for UT3 and Gears are done through the material editor as well.
The big telling point for performance is that Unreal already uses much more complex shaders with far more materials (normal maps, spec maps, and its own lightmaps (which themselves are split 4 ways), so if you think of it, there is really nothing being done here that Unreal isn't doing... we just have fewer "real" lights.
Lightmass basically adds bounces to the standard Unreal baked-light process. In some respects its absolutely excellent; though I really can't see any small studio or mod developer using it efficiently though. (major hardware requirements for usable render times). I doubt that we'll see it in UT3 any time soon (likely for this reason).
Baking light using Mental Ray though is a pain... not that Mental Ray (or I prefer VRay) aren't excellent products, but the workflow for making game-ready lightmaps is painful. Keep an eye on the pureLIGHT site; its far more appropriate for high quality lighting in realtime environments.
I'm hoping on best graphics in map; that would be a real feather in my cap. We'll have to see what the Judges say though... (now back to the agonizing wait).
(I'm not sure I'd call pureLIGHT middle ware either, unless it was integrated directly with the engine... as it is, its more of a lightmap generator; not unlike how CrazyBump makes normal maps)
Thanks again!
Just did a run through of the map and its really awesome.
Though I was wondering. You had to place some light sources in the unreal editor so you can get dynamic objects to not be pitch black, however the problem with that is the dynamic objects don't match the surrounding environment then. For example, whether my character was in the orange tinted room or in direct sunlight it had the same shading.
So would there be anyway to have the dynamic objects like sample the lighting from the light maps so they shade better?
Though I was wondering. You had to place some light sources in the unreal editor so you can get dynamic objects to not be pitch black, however the problem with that is the dynamic objects don't match the surrounding environment then. For example, whether my character was in the orange tinted room or in direct sunlight it had the same shading.
So would there be anyway to have the dynamic objects like sample the lighting from the light maps so they shade better?