Question to Custom Scenery Gurus...(lighting plants)

[shyguy]

I'm experimenting with making foliage for RCT3. By using alpha textures, my results are coming along pretty well. But I've encountered one stumbling block...


http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/3619/plants8gc.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The little bush on the right is mine. It looks pretty darn good...



http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/5301/plants28lh.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Until I move the camera to the back and view the shaded side. It now looks dead. But the in-game plant on the left remains fully lit.


Does anyone know how Frontier did this and if it's possible to do? I used the .sid settings of the in-game bush, but it made no difference.


_

[DarkRidePerson]

I'm experimenting with making foliage for RCT3. By using alpha textures, my results are coming along pretty well. But I've encountered one stumbling block...

The little bush on the right is mine. It looks pretty darn good...


Until I move the camera to the back and view the shaded side. It now looks dead. But the in-game plant on the left remains fully lit.


Does anyone know how Frontier did this and if it's possible to do? I used the .sid settings of the in-game bush, but it made no difference.


_

maybe create two planes, and have the alpha and texture on each one, and have them back to back (so the texture faces outward) then have two more planes, (same setup) only they are perpendicular to the other two (like criss crossed over each other) so you have the alpha show up from all views.

that might work. (kind of hard to explain, and even worse I am bad at explaining so do you understand what I am saying???)

[Aceana]

Check out the Alpha experiment thread. Also, try exporting as an .obj file that is double sided... it's what fixed the alpha problem for me.

[Vodhin]

Wow! now that's a great looking bush!

Shyguy- try making your image on a magenta background (also plain black) and use the SIAlphaDS for it the DS seems to mean Double Sided. This will really keep the polygon count low

Also, I find that the mask itself can include shades of gray- so if you take your image and first make it black and white, then negative, you'll get subtle transparancies (translucent leves...)

[shyguy]

I should have explained this a little better. That bush IS made up of double-sided planes. There are 4. One faces forward, one is on a 90 degree angle, and the other 2 are on 45 degree angles. But it only lights up on the side the sun is facing...just like a regular wall. When you view it from the shaded side, it looks SO dark, that it appears almost black. This is also the way the lighting works on walls. But the bushes that come with RCT3 are lit up on all four sides, regardless of where the sun is. So they don't look dark on the shaded side.

Vodhin...

Does using the SIalphaDS create bright surfaces on both sides? I will experiment some more tomorrow.



In the meantime, I got some better results using a denser texture and adding 4 more planes angled upwards a slight bit.


http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/6431/window2rc.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[sebar]

This looks sweet. Does it mean we can get snow covered pine trees for winter plants???

[weasel497]

Hopefully... Shyguy, These look awesome!!! I need to get back into making scenery... But I don't wanna clutter-up my nice, shiny computer with sid's and ovl's and obj's and this texture, that texture...bla bla... too much crap right now.

[shyguy]

I've had some interesting results using SIalphaDS. I created a bush using four single-sided planes. The picture below shows the same bush placed 4 times. I used the 'z' key to rotate the bush each time I placed it. The lighting remains the same for each bush as I rotate the view.


http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/3948/bushes1ov.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
In other words, the first bush in completely shaded from all views, and the last bush is lit up 360 degrees. So depending on how you rotate it, you can get a healthy bush, 2 semi healthy bushes, and one dead one. :p

It's interesting how the dead one doesn't even have a shadow. :bulb:

[Vodhin]

Shyguy- did you unweld your vertexes? Also, make your image 2 sided on a single plane, and fold that over on itself= a single planewith two sides...

[CoasterSim.Fan]

Not to sure about what to do to help the shadow but very nice plants. By the way what program are you using.

[shyguy]

I'm using 3ds max.

I've come to the conclusion that I would need to orient each plane in 3ds max, so that the light source shines on it. Each plane would have to be it's own object. Then each object would need it's own texture, creating a very large file for a very small object. Not worth the time and effort.

So my bushes will just have to act like walls, in other words, they'll be very dark when the sun is on the opposite side. Not a big deal. But I'd still like to know how Frontier keeps the light source on all sides of the plants, so they're never dark.

[Uries]

Hey I like that, you can have dead, dying and healthy bushes in one set piece.

[Vodhin]

Shyguy, I use milkshape and do nt have that problem- perhaps because I don't have a light source? More than likely it's because I played arounf with a setting for "Emmissive" and "Specular" qualities of the texture...

[marnetmar]

Shyguy, I use milkshape and do nt have that problem- perhaps because I don't have a light source? More than likely it's because I played arounf with a setting for "Emmissive" and "Specular" qualities of the texture...


Vodhin, according to Jonwil the only texture information the importer picks up is the mapping info, the specular, emissive, etc. don't get used.

[Vodhin]

Vodhin, according to Jonwil the only texture information the importer picks up is the mapping info, the specular, emissive, etc. don't get used.


I'm not so sure of that- emissive, no, but specular- i've seen some odd results... experiments continue in alpha land...

[iceatcs]

Shyguy, have you tried on SIAlpha Mask Low yet?
Because you don't have semi-transparent on your plants. Mask Low only required Black or White for transparent or non-transparent so it is better off to use that.
It might not help with your shadow problem. All I can think of it might be missing texture style since like a billboard bug which it won't show in the game.
It won't work for latest jonwil version, you may can get the Extended's Importer tweak version from Potter for billboard with new missing texture style.

(Discovered by myself - http://www.rctextended.com/forum/index.php?topic=42.0 (need to member for extended but since Potter have an accident so you may have to wait longer.)


Specular is a light water reflect like bottom of the pool. I don't see have any problem with these. Behave just like Opaque.
Also the emissive too.
Not sure how we are going to emissive for. Only I can think to use it is something you want to have shadows effects after the light through the glass. or Ghost shadows?

[shyguy]

Thanks for the input, everyone. I'm content with what I've come up with. I don't have any desire to pursue it further, as I only needed to make some plants for my window boxes. That's it for my foliage making...for now.



And iceatcs....

I'm shyguy, not Sebar. :p

[iceatcs]

:confused: ...okay