Ship Texture Upgrading Project

[Armada]

Ahoy mateys!

This is something I've decided to start recently: an endeavour to improve various ship textures to a much higher quality!
What I believe is that great textures should really help to make the game appear less aged than it is, so all low-resolution or low-quality textures need to be dealt with.
All this work will probably be an independent add-on, seeing as it probably won't make the estimated Beta 2 release.

I'll also be including much of Craiggo's texture work which he gave me a few weeks ago, but only after we have discussed what to replace with what.
And I'll also do requests, in most cases, especially if a ship would look good in another nation's paint job.

However, I won't only be covering the lower quality ships; even the most recent models will be taken into consideration!
See this example for pgargon's Surprise1 model:



In addition, I'll be giving many textures face-lifts, by using the 'Bump-mapping' technique.
This helps to make details stand out more, and make textures look less flat. See this example, paying particular attention to the stern:



Here's another example of bump-mapping, on a gundeck- look closely at the cannons, crates, and even the deck itself:



So any opinions/suggestions so far? :will

 

[Pieter Boelen]

More quality is never a bad thing, but I'm going to have to admit I'm not managing to see much of a difference. ops2

While we're at the subject of improving ships' textures, maybe this'd also be the time to get rid of the paint schemes we don't like and replacing them with the ones we do,
removing the old ships altogether as per our original intentions for the ship cleanup.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Helping out the older ships is a good thing. It looks like there is slightly more contrast.

 

[Armada]

More quality is never a bad thing, but I'm going to have to admit I'm not managing to see much of a difference. ops2

Perhaps I should have explained things a bit better- or maybe the examples weren't good enough.
What the bump-mapping essentially does is add an effect to textures to make them appear 3D, when really they're still only 2D.
It's an effective way of adding detail without adding more polygons to a model, so should be especially useful for the stock ships.
It's also worth noting that this looks especially good on wood textures!

Here's a direct comparison of the boat texture- you can decide for yourself which is the bump-mapped version :



This effect works better with high quality textures, but it can at least give the less detailed ones a little more life as well.
What I'm hoping is that this will be a way of making our ships look more like CoAS standard (not that I've seen that first hand, but from what I've heard it's impressive).
It's sort of cheating the engine a bit, but as long as it works, I'm not complaining...

While we're at the subject of improving ships' textures, maybe this'd also be the time to get rid of the paint schemes we don't like and replacing them with the ones we do,
removing the old ships altogether as per our original intentions for the ship cleanup.

Then perhaps I should prioritise my work for replacing/improving older textures, to have something ready for Beta 2.
What I'll probably do is start with Craiggo's new textures, by asking everyone which ones we want, and what to replace.

 

[Armada]

Here's something you might like for Beta 2's ship clean-up... Link

... a better attempt at the Uncursed Dutchman- done entirely through texturing!
Essentially I just replaced the seaweed texture (Weed.tga) with a blank one, and then adjusted the rest of them according to the best reference image I could find:

This included redoing the sail texture, too, as they should still be torn even after the ship returns to normal.
The only thing I couldn't do was remove the grim reaper figurehead, but that shouldn't matter too much.
So, what do you think of her now? Better than the current uncursed model?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

She definitely looks more accurate now; good job!

The reason why we kept the old "FlyingDutchman" model is that I do like the model, even though she isn't actually film-accurate.
She was the best we had before we got ZarethPL's custom model and she did at least have the film bow.

 

[Armada]

I see why the old model has been kept for so long, because she is fairly decent.
I just felt it was time we improved on 'fairly decent' for Beta 2.

Anyway, now for a question: which of the following two interface pics is better?



The trouble is, I prefer the first one, just because I consider it a better capture, but the second one is more significant, because of the obvious sunset in the background (relating to the green flash etc), so I can't decide between then.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I'd say use the first one, unless you can Photoshop an actual green flash effect onto the second one.
Otherwise I don't think the point gets accross and you might as well use the somewhat brighter one.

 

[morgan terror]

i dunno about that bump mapping. it looks alright in some places, but on that stern it just looks like the ship's all wonky. it might seem better in 3D seaview though, since it could potentially look like wave reflections. good in general, but not on surfaces that are definately supposed to be flat.

 

[Armada]

What about the stern makes it look wonky? It might be the point of view playing tricks.
It's a difficult concept to demonstrate with images, because you don't always see the best effect from all angles.
As you said, I think it does look better in sailing mode, though.
And when you think about it, most surfaces on ship models aren't supposed to be 100% flat, especially the stern, so if anything this should be an improvement.

On another note, here's an attempt at the 'green flash' for the Dutchman:



Is that any good, or not?

 

[morgan terror]

i'm liking that screenshot.

i was referring specifically to the flat part of the stern, right at the bottom. that's looks more uneven than it should, but now that i think of it, you can't see that anyway. still, large surfaces which are undoubtedly flat logically don't have such an uneven lighting on them. it could be dirt though.

edit: oh nards, i see now. it just improves contrast in the sense of adding shinyness. nevermind me.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I DO like that green flash screenshot! Definitely gets the point accross.

 

[Armada]

Glad you like the interface screenshot- I'll use that one, then.

@Morgan, I see what you mean about the lower hull, perhaps it does look slightly too uneven.
However, the underside of the hull is (a) usually covered with dirt, and (b) hard to see, so either way I guess it doesn't matter so much.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

If you like it, just do it. I currently have a light frigate in my fleet.........

 

[Armada]

Amidst all my work to make our ships look better, I recently decided to improve some deck textures, especially ones based on 'deck.tga'.
I didn't go and completely redo everything, but I just changed the wooden planks themselves.
They've always looked a bit more dirty than they should do, but also they don't form a very visible planking pattern.

So, how does this new look suit an old ship:



I took the actual planking from an AOP texture, but adjusted and refined it.
I've made sure that the colour looks similar to the old deck, so it doesn't stray too far from the look we've all become used to.
However, there's now a much more noticeable planking structure, with a bit less dirt. Swab those decks, ye scurvy dogs!
I've changed desk.tga to use the same planking, but they're slightly darker to suit the majority of the ships which use the texture.

So, any thoughts?

 

[morgan terror]

much better. oddly similar to the walls though.

 

[Armada]

True, the side walls have always looked strange. Any idea what they should really look like? :?

 

[morgan terror]

maybe something like horizontal planking would do it. just so it won't look like the deck continues up the wall. or you could keep the vertical planking and add a horizontal plank at the top and bottom, if that's better.

 

[Armada]

I was actually on about the sides with gunports looking strange, but now I see your point.
In that case, horizontal planks at the top and bottom might do it.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Yup. The deck looks better, but not too much better. Now for the sides.