===[COMMITTED]=== Hellenic Helmets

[Enrique]

1 minute ago, Alexandermb said:

Bake them, i have hand paint skills but can't apply them with a mouse.

Don't worry, baking is the correct way to do it

 

Just wondering about the middle seams showing in the normals, but not in the colormaps:

Make sure that when you bake them, the lowpoly object does not have subdivision surface applied (making the modifier not-visible won't make it, since when you bake it "renders", you have to disable the render-ability of the modifier with the camera icon)

Here's what I mean in both 2.8 and 2.7x

 

Otherwise, it would bake the normals taking into account the subsurf, making the normals look a bit incorrect when the modifier is removed, which I think it may be what it is happening here.

Please disregard if it is not the case. Just trying to diagnose based on the normal seam observation.

 

Cheers!

[Alexandermb]

Just now, Enrique said:

Don't worry, baking is the correct way to do it

 

Just wondering about the middle seams showing in the normals, but not in the colormaps:

Make sure that when you bake them, the lowpoly object does not have subdivision surface applied (making the modifier not-visible won't make it, since when you bake it "renders", you have to disable the render-ability of the modifier with the camera icon)

Here's what I mean in both 2.8 and 2.7x

I don't apply subdivision on low poly objects, just in the high poly one but, disabling it would mean it will bake an awfull normal map. Its weird that line is popping up in this helmets since i always bake the same and i haven't seen that before. 

A fix would be reduce a bit the uvs in the limits of the helmet where the reflection modifier starts.

[Enrique]

1 minute ago, Alexandermb said:

I don't apply subdivision on low poly objects, just in the high poly one but, disabling it would mean it will bake an awfull normal map. Its weird that line is popping up in this helmets since i always bake the same and i haven't seen that before. 

A fix would be reduce a bit the uvs in the limits of the helmet where the reflection modifier starts.

Hmmm... I've seen that normal seam in some other helmets in this thread too.

There may be something on the baking setup that is causing this. Hard to know without a blendfile. If you want I could take a look at it.

[Alexandermb]

Just now, Enrique said:

Hmmm... I've seen that normal seam in some other helmets in this thread too.

There may be something on the baking setup that is causing this. Hard to know without a blendfile. If you want I could take a look at it.

Yeah, its happening a lot in this thread, but before with the celtic helmets didn't happend.

Gonna upload the blend. file to my drive repository and post the link since i can't upload bigger files to the forum (Connection related problem).

[Alexandermb]

hele_thracian_p (for pyrrhus)

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NEW: Laurel with better leaves:

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[Alexandermb]

@Enrique link https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yhOfmPPWMyMFqeRaoBo-sdAN7NTZWAlQ

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

1 hour ago, Alexandermb said:

hele_thracian_p (for pyrrhus)

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Pyrrhus already has a cool new helmet.

[Lion.Kanzen]

17 minutes ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

Pyrrhus already has a cool new helmet.

We have 2 references... And one can be used for dismounted version.

[Alexandermb]

hele_thracian_cap

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[Lion.Kanzen]

1 minute ago, Alexandermb said:

hele_thracian_cap

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Look like a helmet.

[Alexandermb]

9 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

Look like a helmet.

Yeah, can't get a textile look. Need to experiment a bit with new material.

[Lion.Kanzen]

2 minutes ago, Alexandermb said:

Yeah, can't get a textile look. Need to experiment a bit with new material.

Time for @wackyserious ?

[Enrique]

2 hours ago, Alexandermb said:

@Enrique link https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yhOfmPPWMyMFqeRaoBo-sdAN7NTZWAlQ

The only instance when I was able to replicate the normal seam issue was when I baked from the highpoly when the mirror modifier on the lowpoly was set to not render-able

(the one you call "reflectividad") - If you bake with that modifier to not affect the render/bake - you'll get the seam.

 

Some other suggestions:

 

1.- Extend the baking margin. (also called bleeding margin)

You can find it on the "Output" submenu of the baking. This thing is super-useful when baking to avoid unwanted parts of texture bleeding through the seam. This issue makes that the parts of the texture outside of the UV islands "bleed" inside them and when you zoom out enough, you can see the seams. This affects all kind of maps (normal, color, spec...) and it is specially present on RTS due to the mipmaps since the camera is often very zoomed away.

The more margin you give (surround the UV islands with the same color as the edges of the UV islands), the harder will be that the surrounding colors "get into" the UV map when zooming out.

Here's a example:

2.- Use the standard "Principled BSDF" shader instead of the "PBR Dielectric" shader. 

 I made that shader  long ago on blender's first implementations of PBR, when the Principled BSDF wasn't there. I became crazy making it, but I learned a lot about how PBR works. However, the Principled shader now is the standard, which is much more complete and tremendously more optimized than my "hack"  .  

 

3.- Consider adding reflections to all your metallic bakes.

I started to do this on my lastests works here when I baked any texture that was metallic. I think it turned out decent. The roof of the relic cart was baked with some reflections in it, and I think it looks much more metallic than other stuff I made. (The specular highlights end up selling the whole metallic feel too). The armor for the guy texture had a generic HDRI for the environment, which provides with a pretty generic reflection which sells better the metallic feel. I could elaborate on  this technique if you're interested.

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You can even add just a simple matcap to the shader when baking, so you don't even have to extend the rendertimes. Here's a sample setup:

Simple diffuse -> matcap "add" to the diffuse with the below setup -> result of the diffuse bake

 

I hope you can find anything useful in it!

 

Cheers!

[wackyserious]

3 hours ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

Time for @wackyserious ?

Graphics editor texture filters would help. GIMP had a textile filter I believe, I could work on it if you want.

[wackyserious]

@Enrique I was waiting for this Finally we could use it.

[Alexandermb]

2 hours ago, Enrique said:

3.- Consider adding reflections to all your metallic bakes.

I started to do this on my lastests works here when I baked any texture that was metallic. I think it turned out decent. The roof of the relic cart was baked with some reflections in it, and I think it looks much more metallic than other stuff I made. (The specular highlights end up selling the whole metallic feel too). The armor for the guy texture had a generic HDRI for the environment, which provides with a pretty generic reflection which sells better the metallic feel. I could elaborate on  this technique if you're interested.

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You can even add just a simple matcap to the shader when baking, so you don't even have to extend the rendertimes. Here's a sample setup:

Simple diffuse -> matcap "add" to the diffuse with the below setup -> result of the diffuse bake

 

I hope you can find anything useful in it!

 

Cheers!

I like the reflection, but it kinda gives a fake reflection, i was looking to replicate that effect long time ago but i have doubts if for a future visual improvement we can have skyboxes as reflection or cubemaps as a replace of that fake reflection.

[Alexandermb]

@Enrique fixed the uv bleeding by adding the reflection, i disabled it because sometimes it messed with the render at some zones.

[Alexandermb]

2 hours ago, wackyserious said:

Graphics editor texture filters would help. GIMP had a textile filter I believe, I could work on it if you want.

Yeah, sure i'll upload the last thrac_cap to the github repo https://github.com/AlexanderVzla/Helmets-Update

@Enrique fixed helmets:

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[Alexandermb]

Should i make this ones @Lion.Kanzen @wowgetoffyourcellphone? 

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[Lion.Kanzen]

1 minute ago, Alexandermb said:

Should i make this ones @Lion.Kanzen @wowgetoffyourcellphone? 

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It's not a priority, but knowing the project and that we already have maps with Scythians.

[Alexandermb]

Good enough to be used?

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[Lion.Kanzen]

3 minutes ago, Alexandermb said:

Good enough to be used?

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Better than actual...

[Lion.Kanzen]

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Edited July 30, 2019 by Lion.Kanzen

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

6 hours ago, Alexandermb said:

Should i make this ones @Lion.Kanzen @wowgetoffyourcellphone? 

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I might have to pick your brain for some Scythian asstes. 

[Alexandermb]

@wowgetoffyourcellphone 

Hele_scythian_b1

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Didn't know where to test this helmet so i place it in this unit temporary:

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Gonna experiment a bit and see if i can bake in alpha channel the last scales.