UnrealEd, CShop, and Blitz mapping

Community Forums/Developer Stations/UnrealEd, CShop, and Blitz mapping

JoshK(Posted 2003) [#1]
I've been playing with UnrealEd, and have taken notice of a number of things they are doing with the Unreal II engine, particularly the use of static meshes and lighting.

Static meshes do not appear to cast shadows, and are only vertex-lit, although many of these are pre-lightmapped and have a shadow texture. First, the complexity of the level is cut down hugely by the use of static meshes, so that the actual brushes that form the shape of the level are less complex than a Half-Life map. Second, all the static meshes are pre-lit, so lightmapping time is cut way down.

I'd really like to see Blitz users collaberate on the creation of packs of these static meshes. I am downloading Unwrap3D right now to see if I can write a quick lightmapper to make single lightmapped meshes with. I'll post the program for download, but I am not shooting for anything too high-quality; just enough to make greyscale lightmaps of small meshes that are already UV-mapped.


*(Posted 2003) [#2]
Bloomin heck I told ya about that ages ago ;)

Its a sneaky way of doing it but it can give amazing results.


JaviCervera(Posted 2003) [#3]
hmm i have never used UnrealEd, but i've heard that is very good. What do you mean by "static mesh" ?


jhocking(Posted 2003) [#4]
I've not used UnrealEd (nor am I terribly familiar with the level technology of Unreal II) but it sounds like the static meshes you refer to could easily be lightmapped in Lightbulb and then exported to b3d.


Richard Betson(Posted 2003) [#5]
Halo,

This is only vertex-lit with a static mesh, textured:
http://www.blitzbasic.com/bbs/posts.php?topic=21532

Is this what your talking about? I'm just wondering, am I in the direction of what your putting forth.

l8r,


JoshK(Posted 2003) [#6]
Yes, Ed suggested this to me about a month ago. Thanks for showing me the light!

Birdie was kind enough to post a UV transformation function, and if it works okay I will return with a quick-and-dirty shadow mapper to make pre-calced lightmaps.

You may notice in Unreal II the static meshes have identical shadows on them! The actual brightness of the faces appears to be vertex-lit.


Skilled modelers and espcially skinners are needed.


JaviCervera(Posted 2003) [#7]
would someone be kindly enough to explain to me what this is all about? :)


Richard Betson(Posted 2003) [#8]
Cool...

Hey, if your in to a cooperative effort let me know. I still have not got the model to work right.;)


Birdie was kind enough to post a UV transformation function
Were did he post that (/me wants).

l8r,


JoshK(Posted 2003) [#9]
This is what they're good for. This is something that would work well as a collaberation:




JaviCervera(Posted 2003) [#10]
i suppose the great thing is that these are imported meshes, or what?


Richard Betson(Posted 2003) [#11]
This is what they're good for. This is something that would work well as a collaberation:
It's reporting "Not Found" :\

L8r,


JoshK(Posted 2003) [#12]
Forgot to pay the bill...it will be back up in 15 minutes.


Richard Betson(Posted 2003) [#13]
Still no pic. . .

l8r,


JoshK(Posted 2003) [#14]
...or not.


JoshK(Posted 2003) [#15]
Well, it should be back up, but it seems they are upgrading servers, and there "may be some downtime".


JoshK(Posted 2003) [#16]
Server's back up.


Richard Betson(Posted 2003) [#17]
Yes, very nice! :)

L8r,