Archived Poll: Artistic style

[Cervator]

Placeholder - going to add examples for most/all the options later

Edit: WARNING: Poll votes cannot be changed and I'm not sure there's an addon to fix that

So please wait for the examples unless you're sure what you are voting for

 

[A'nW]

Rats. Missed the meeting. O well, read the transcript, looks like things are going well but are also going to take more thought to work out.
On my part, I go for the more blocky, attached limbs, consistent style, with low poly counts and cartoony.
That might make me sound really boring and "stick-in-the-mud" ish, but I sincerely think that adhering to things like that for a game such as this is the best option to get the nicest, most consistent look to things. I also want to mention that rather "normal" choices such as that have absolutely no bearing on the actual sort of content gets into the game or the gameplay mechanics, etc. Those merely represent the visual aspects that I would personally like to see. I have yet to see a game with a blocky world, high-poly models mixed with low-poly, different sorts of textures, etc, that looks good. I will gladly reconsider if someone has an example of that. As for content, as I said, I don't have any thoughts on that. As far as I am concerned, someone could make a time-travelling, jet-pack wearing, fire breathing, pancake, and I would be willing to try it in-game.

 

[Perdemot]

I still want to vote for 1048 px textures
512 is not enough :/

 

[Cervator]

Haven't caught up yet, but I briefly played with the Mo'Creatures mod for MC and was impressed with how nicely detailed crocs were, yet they don't really seem to stick out:

That seems like a lot of polys and resolution, but the style seems right on anyway?

And fair warning: I'll probably put up a new more detailed poll with examples ready, and keep that as a permanent guidance source (although admittedly not being able to change your vote over time sucks)

 

[SuperSnark]

I like the croc ... he fits right in

 

[Double_A]

Why don't we ask Mo if we can use his models? :-D

 

[Cervator]

Why don't we ask Mo if we can use his models? :-D

You mean the Mo'Creatures guy? His disclaimer seems somewhat discouraging for alternative uses for his work, even if fully credited. And it seems to be a very popular MC mod, so we might want to just strike out on our own - it seems we have plenty of eager modellers anyway

 

[A'nW]

Haven't caught up yet, but I briefly played with the Mo'Creatures mod for MC and was impressed with how nicely detailed crocs were, yet they don't really seem to stick out:

View attachment 548

That seems like a lot of polys and resolution, but the style seems right on anyway?

And fair warning: I'll probably put up a new more detailed poll with examples ready, and keep that as a permanent guidance source (although admittedly not being able to change your vote over time sucks)

Hey, just noticed that (about, a week and a half late...), and just want to and my 0.02$.
You are right, that croc does have a fair bit of polies and texture res (at least for this style of game...). You'll also notice, however, that that everything about it is completely blocky. Its texture is fairly high res (again, comparatively...), true, but it is pixelated giving it that low poly look. It is made out of cubic shapes with all right angles that are close enough together to give the illusion of being connected. Another aspect of it, is that it is color graded to very nicely fit in with the swamp grass, water, etc.
All in all, it demonstrates many of the principles that I think should be held to in a game with this sort of style.

 

[glasz]

Isn't the fact that it allready exists a good reason to make something different?

 

[A'nW]

Isn't the fact that it allready exists a good reason to make something different?

Was that addressed to me... ?

 

[Cervator]

I figure it might mean that despite it working well in that setting it doesn't exclude the idea of trying something different

 

[Eleon]

And in which style i should design the Creatures?

 

[Perdemot]

And in which style i should design the Creatures?

now this my freind is the big question. You might look into the results of the poll to get an idea.

 

[Darkhog]

So, I have two questions to ask, since it seems to be related to this topic.

1. Will it use same style for Mobs, etc. that Minecraft is using? I'm asking, because when they'll help me with importing Terasology into Netbeans, I'd like to do some Mob/survival work.
2. If so, is Terasology codebase compatible with Techne-exported models?

 

[A'nW]

And in which style i should design the Creatures?

First, you might want to hold off on creating stuff for bit, as there is the danger that it won't be used. Second, if you really feel that that doesn't bother you, here is my answer.

We currently have no written guidelines for what sort of style creatures should be made in, though I am thinking about soon making a "design guide" for modelling creatures and such. With that said, if you want something to have the possibility of getting into the official release (as far as visual style goes), these are the guidelines you should follow. These guidelines probably won't please everyone. Unfortunately, that is impossible, and I have to do what will make the base game look good, attract people, and just be generally cohesive. Remember, there is going to be mod support.

General guidelines:

Modelling: Key guideline, keep it blocky. That does mean mostly using cuboid shapes with right angles. It does not mean limiting yourself to crazy small amounts of faces, eg. Minecraft characters are made from ~6-12 cubish shapes. You are welcome to use more shapes and faces than that. It also does not mean no sloping faces. If they are used well, by all means, use a few.

Texturing: Key guideline, keep it pixelated. That does not mean having to use textures as small as Minecraft, which uses, for example, a 64x32 pixel image to texture the players character. You can easily use a much larger texture and still have it look pixelated.


More specific things relating to this poll:
Blockiness: Covered
Limbs: Not quite sure yet. This could very well be something that could very a lot. As for now, I would lean towards "connected" (which really means, suggests being connected. aka. A leg touches a body instead of floating way off in space), to being just slightly floaty. I wouldn't go way floaty. If you know what I mean.
Culture: Honestly, we're not even close to have whole separate cultures. When we do get there, I think they could diverge quite a bit in certain aspects, thought probably not in really basic things such as modelling approach.
Detail: Sort of covered. If it stays blocky and generally follows the Modelling guidelines, then a character could be fairly detailed and "high-poly".
Texturing: Pretty much covered. As far as color palette goes, I don't have any advice on that yet.

Perdemot I covered what should be pretty vital, though the poll could still help.

Darkhog I'm not really sure what to say. Maybe you're answer is above?

Well, that is my "short, quick" answer. I'll try to answer most art related questions fairly quickly, so if you have any more questions, just ask.

 

[Cervator]

What's "Techne" ?

In a broad sense "Minecraft style" is in the same ballpark as what we'll be aiming for. Probably with a bit more open potential with detail, but still blocky.

Look around here in the art forum for some more examples. Some are rather different from others or the "average" we're aiming for, so use your best judgement

While I'm eager to have more mobs I'm not sure we've crossed past prototyping to really get our feel right yet.

 

[Darkhog]

What's "Techne" ?

http://techne.zeux.me/Techne

In essence I'm asking if I can do any useful work with it so I'll be able to use it with Terasology codebase (it has nifty feature of exporting models as Java source code - it is compatible with MC, but dunno about Terasology).

 

[Josh]

http://techne.zeux.me/Techne

In essence I'm asking if I can do any useful work with it so I'll be able to use it with Terasology codebase (it has nifty feature of exporting models as Java source code - it is compatible with MC, but dunno about Terasology).

Mostly blender is used for the Models at the moment, if you look at some of the models in the source code you can see that it's not really code, but a whole bunch of coords and stuff like that. I believe Immortius made a plugin for Blender so it exports into that type of format. So, if you want to try to make a model I believe you have to get that plugin but, I've never used blender so that's just what I'm guessing and what I've seen people say.

 

[A'nW]

http://techne.zeux.me/Techne

In essence I'm asking if I can do any useful work with it so I'll be able to use it with Terasology codebase (it has nifty feature of exporting models as Java source code - it is compatible with MC, but dunno about Terasology).

Well, really, something like that isn't really necessary for Terasology. You can simply make a model and export it to the correct format and have it in Terasology.

Mostly blender is used for the Models at the moment, if you look at some of the models in the source code you can see that it's not really code, but a whole bunch of coords and stuff like that. I believe @Immortius made a plugin for Blender so it exports into that type of format. So, if you want to try to make a model I believe you have to get that plugin but, I've never used blender so that's just what I'm guessing and what I've seen people say.

Well, there is an addon for block shapes (which I am making a tutorial for actually), not models at the moment.

 

[Cervator]

Yeah Terasology doesn't use any sort of weird format for models or anything - although block shapes are a little custom, but barely so if you know a bit of modelling