Volumetric Particles? Bah, who needs 'em!!

Ok, so I decided to take a shot at making decals. I've had trouble with getting stuff in-game before so I didn't spend much time on it, just enough for something to be visible in-game, make sure I did everything right. It looked good so I decided to put it in the level I made to show off my ice texture segment since the decal was a mist one and it'd make sense if the room is cold. After putting a few here and there and seeing how it looked, I decided to see what would happen if I filled the room with the decal. Here are the results...who said we need volumetric particles?



Crouching in the fog




By moving the decals up a little bit with some beneath them I got a full out fog effect


Making the decal the way I did, I unwittingly added a new effect...when you walk into the mist, it actually moves out of the way or to the side, like real mist or fog kind of does. And I have not modified these pictures in any way or anything, no hoax. The only downside is that the decal doesn't move; it doesn't have an animation...

Oh my god!!! I would totally buy that, along with the segments! Wow! Amazing, man!
(Are your segments available for download in the TGC store yet?)

Note the TGC store has a problem with sellers at this time it wont let segments to be uploaded but lee is working on fixing

Thanks for the enthusiasm!
I haven't been able to get any of my stuff in the store yet--I've been having the same problem as Jason. He and Lee are working on it though...so as soon as that problem is solved I'll be able to get my stuff up.

Edit: oh, you beat me to it Jason

Jingle Fett wrote:Thanks for the enthusiasm!
I haven't been able to get any of my stuff in the store yet--I've been having the same problem as Jason. He and Lee are working on it though...so as soon as that problem is solved I'll be able to get my stuff up.

Edit: oh, you beat me to it Jason

When I buy your segments, those would be the first items I bought in the TGC store.
So how did you get the walls to shine like that? Did you have to give it any settings in the editor, or is it built into the texture?

It's built into the texture. It looks shiny that way thanks to the specular map. Specular maps are grayscale versions of the regular texture where the lighter parts reflect more light and the darker parts reflect less. This one I made it sort of a light grayish with some white parts...the bumps and stuff are from the normal map.

Jingle Fett wrote:It's built into the texture. It looks shiny that way thanks to the specular map. Specular maps are grayscale versions of the regular texture where the lighter parts reflect more light and the darker parts reflect less. This one I made it sort of a light grayish with some white parts...the bumps and stuff are from the normal map.

Wow...I have so much to learn. That's amazing. You're very good at this

I would say Jingle Fett is one of the best at textures and normal and spec mapping hes getting very very good at it cant wait for your models in store.

Looks good. I think though, that there is a reason for volumetric particles:

Loading a level down with decals takes up way more resources than volumetric particles do, and although they require a higher-end pc, they look nice and perform well.

Jason Brook wrote:I would say Jingle Fett is one of the best at textures and normal and spec mapping hes getting very very good at it cant wait for your models in store.

Me too. I would love to see some texturing tutorials by him some day

WOW that loos more the beatiful

That's a great method right there. Keep it up!

@Jingle Fett,

Are these in X9 or X10? If they're in X10, then your blood decal in the TGC store may seem a bit of a fool's play. No offense, it's great, but I'd like to now whether you created a shader for X9 or done it in X10.

-FCV

If they have shaders for X9, you've got my money

I'm confused...are you talking about the fog decal, or the segments or what? This is an X10 board, so naturally, the pictures are in X10...

So when can we expect the fog to be at the 'store?

I'm confused...are you talking about the fog decal, or the segments or what? scratch This is an X10 board, so naturally, the pictures are in X10...

You have the blood decal in the TGC store yes? The picture looks like it was taken in X10 when it is for use with X9 :S

The blood overlay screenshots were taken in X10. Nowhere does it say that it was X9 or anything, or that it's specifically for use in X9 only. But that's besides the point because there are plenty of other items in the store that also use shaders even though they're also X9. All pictures of the Brute are with shaders enabled, even the in-game shots for example. Not to mention the fact that unless I'm mistaken, efx mod for X9 can use normal/specular maps...

And it's not fools play, because I haven't done anything that other sellers selling entities with shaders do in the store.

In the meantime, please remain on-topic. If you have other gripes about it, please pm me and we can sort it out.

@ Darth Dem
I'm still undecided if I should release the mist decal or not...it worries me that people will think it's cheap or something because it's so plain simple. Personally I think that if it gets the job done then it doesn't matter how technically cheap it is (For example, there's no need to use volumetric particles for simple stuff when decals would get the job done almost as well). The problem is that's just me; other people might not think the same...
I do know that other games like CoD 4/WaW and others like Assasins Creed use similar techniques though...

Okay, sorry if that came out wrong, it was just that it looked like X10, but you hadn't specified

I actually think you are great at all of this modelling and texturing, way better than me (even though I've just started), but I hope I didn't cause any offence.

None taken bro, don't worry about it Sorry if I jumped on you a bit, I had other things on my mind at the time...It's good to get the customer's opinion, especially the criticisms. That way changes can be made and stuff..

Actually, in the description I originally added the line "Intended for X10 but will work with X9" right before mentioning that it included normal and specular maps, but it appears as though the administrators deleted that line; that's why I was a bit confused...

Ok. If I save up some more money (wasting it on LIVE), I'll buy it. It looks fab, and I hope you make more outstanding products such as these.

Jingle Fett, can you make a list of the 'material index' things? Janet from the TGC Store keeps making me resubmit my segments because I always put the wrong material index. I just wanted to know which number meant which material so I wouldn't make any mistakes like that in the future
I'm sure it would be very helpful to other forum users, too

Material index? Hmm..I don't think I've looked into that. Umm...I guess I could but if I were you I'd look it up, I know I've seen it mentioned somewhere...(may have been Nickydude's guide). Or you could look at the .fps of different stock segments and check what the material index number is for each one