Even More Advances in 3DsMax LMing

Post by **Rhino** » 2009-11-01 13:00

After getting Overgrowth to have transparent leaves as per this blog: Advances in 3DsMax LMing with Overgrowth #2 - Project Reality Forums

I found myself in a little bit of a problem where the terrain shadows didn't match the static shadows like so:

As such I decided to put my theory that I've had in my head for some time of doing terrain lightmaps in 3DsMax aswell as the objects so that the terrain could also benefit from the same advantages of 3DsMax LMing, mainly to get transparent leaves thou.

After about a week of sweat and pain with my PC almost getting thrown out of the window a few times, only saved by the cables not being long enough to get it to the window I have finally managed to lightmap the terrain fully with 3DsMax.

Normal Terrain Lightmaps with the BF2 Editor:

3DsMax Terrain Lightmaps:

And the sun lightmap files:

Normal Terrain Lightmaps with the BF2 Editor:

3DsMax Terrain Lightmaps:

As you can see, the shadows are overall more crisper but the main difference as you can see is with the overgrowth shadows and there transparent leaves, leaving a real solid shadow for the trunk and branches, and a much softer shadow for the leaves instead of the huge hard shadow from the entire tree before

And a ingame shot

I hope that more maps in the future will have there terrain lightmapped with 3DsMax but going to need to find some faster methods of setup since even thou the overall lightmapping process is much quicker, the amount of manual setup to get there is huge, cutting up and remodelling the terrain by hand etc... But I'm sure I'll sort something out in time

Yrkidding · Post by **Yrkidding** » 2009-11-01 13:18

Looks awesome! Keep up the good work!

Post by **Chuc** » 2009-11-01 13:19

That looks b-e-autiful Rhino

Aquiller · Post by **Aquiller** » 2009-11-01 13:20

Hate to rain on a parade, but is it really, really so important to commit large ammounts of time into it?
I almost cant tell a difference between 'bf2editor' and '3dsmax' LM method, but then again - its just me.

Still, I'm impressed with your dedication and skills, Rhino. I'm sure you'll achieve your goal someday. I'll keep my fingers crossed even if I dont see the point...

WilsonPL · Post by **WilsonPL** » 2009-11-01 13:39

no big difference, srsly..

Post by **Rhino** » 2009-11-01 13:46

cheers guys

Aquiller;bt1832 wrote:Hate to rain on a parade, but is it really, really so important to commit large ammounts of time into it?
I almost cant tell a difference between 'bf2editor' and '3dsmax' LM method, but then again - its just me.

Still, I'm impressed with your dedication and skills, Rhino. I'm sure you'll achieve your goal someday. I'll keep my fingers crossed even if I dont see the point...

It's not that important no BUT these little details make the game look and more importantly feel more realistic and as such the player becomes more and more immersed into the game and as a result can enjoy the game more.

I agree the differences are not that huge and for a person who has not read this blog will most likley not see a difference but like I said, when the eye picks up on the small things like when walking though a forest area, all the bits of light peaking though the leaves on the ground it will make your subconscious make you believe it is more realistic and then it goes onto the points I've already mentioned

When I started doing the terrain LMs I didn't actually think it would take as long as it did, I knew it was not going to be strait forward but my initial tests I was light mapping the entire terrain in under 20mins. Just the lightmap had lots of small errors on it which to correct them resulted in a huge amount of work and increased render time to 2hrs. But still beats the render time of the BF2 editor which is around 8hrs and if I did anouther map setting up the terrain for LMing again I reckon now I know what needs to be done and how to do it, and didn't experiment with other methods of getting it done (which I would undoubtedly do) I reakon I could set the terrain up for lightmapping in 8hrs to 12hrs work or something? So the extra 2hrs or so overall IMO is worth it to get this extra level of detail in, thou my aim like I have said is to look into better ways of setting up the terrain so it takes less time and with any luck will in the end get the setup and LMing time down under the total LMing time of the BF2 editor

200rabbits · Post by **200rabbits** » 2009-11-01 13:50

I can see the difference and I like it, I think it'll add to the atmosphere in the levels.

Post by **Tim270** » 2009-11-01 13:55

Surely some of the bigger trees leaves would cast shadows? - Or they do, I cant really tell.

Post by **Amok@ndy** » 2009-11-01 14:29

i hope you create a new tutorial to set up max for lightmapping like this

=Romagnolo= · Post by **=Romagnolo=** » 2009-11-01 14:42

Great sucess rhino !

Arnoldio · Post by **Arnoldio** » 2009-11-01 15:40

Nice touches, as always...You really push BF2 engine to the limits...

Post by **IronTaxi** » 2009-11-01 16:02

ChizNizzle;bt1840 wrote:You really push BF2 engine to the limits...

That more than anything is whats important.. Rhino doesnt give up (this sometimes leads to him being a real **** mind you...!!)

Getting lightmaps done in max could be a real boon for us in terms of time and frustration in general. And its important to note.. lightmapping in Max requires no light sample generation.. this allows us the freedom to use anyof the statics from any of the addons as well (they are fairly low quality...but so is some of the PR stuff)

Great results rhino...hats off to you..!

sCobra · Post by **sCobra** » 2009-11-01 16:44

its like bumpmapping a texture, not essential, but it makes it much, much better.

Conman51 · Post by **Conman51** » 2009-11-01 17:00

i dont even know how you guys do this stuff but it looks amazing!!

good job

Aquiller · Post by **Aquiller** » 2009-11-01 20:23

[R-DEV]IronTaxi;bt1841 wrote: Getting lightmaps done in max could be a real boon for us in terms of time and frustration in general. And its important to note.. lightmapping in Max requires no light sample generation.. this allows us the freedom to use anyof the statics from any of the addons as well (they are fairly low quality...but so is some of the PR stuff)

Well thats a hell of a good reason for doing so... You've convinced me.

Fuzzy McDoodle · Post by **Fuzzy McDoodle** » 2009-11-01 23:49

Looks great!

jojomeirenpin · Post by **jojomeirenpin** » 2009-11-02 01:00

nice one

Post by **Rhino** » 2009-11-02 01:30

[R-DEV]IronTaxi;bt1841 wrote:That more than anything is whats important.. Rhino doesnt give up (this sometimes leads to him being a real **** mind you...!!)

Truism · Post by **Truism** » 2009-11-02 06:38

Definately time to get a new computer. This stuff is amazing.

148kingtiger · Post by **148kingtiger** » 2009-11-02 16:48

nice job guys