Audi R8 4.2

[KS95]

It looks very noice..

 

[EAP3D]

Also, the reason the not a lot of progress has been made in the last few months is because of the seemingly ever-changing shaders in each version of racer. It's hard to test the model when I have to redo the shaders every time. If we have news that they'll be staying a certain way for an extended period, I'll push towards finishing the car and possibly releasing it for that period.

 

[aadilf1]

WOW. that looks !*^&£%"£ times better than the converted version!!

 

[Mr Whippy]

Also, the reason the not a lot of progress has been made in the last few months is because of the seemingly ever-changing shaders in each version of racer. It's hard to test the model when I have to redo the shaders every time. If we have news that they'll be staying a certain way for an extended period, I'll push towards finishing the car and possibly releasing it for that period.

The shaders might still change a bit, but it's certainly at a stage now where you shouldn't worry too much about making the content as you are now and progressing to a final state.
Any changes will be refinements, corrections or improvements, or outright additions I think, rather than big changes to the way the core shaders will work.


Nice work by the way!

Dave

 

[MitchVL]

Very nice !

The shaders are pretty much final now like Dave said.
Be sure to add a driver !

 

[EAP3D]

Comparison between Racer and GT5.
Ignore the model discrepancies for now (like the window color and the lights), I think this is a good way to check the lighting. It seems that in general, the ambient lighting in racer is a little too light and a little too blue. And the reflections in dark inner areas of the car are too strong for sure. What would be really useful is if someone could show me how to adjust the reflection map's alpha through a texture. That could easily solve the reflections in dark areas.

 

[aadilf1]

:O Yours looks like its almost done! how long left? and what do you need to do?

 

[Mr Whippy]

It seems that in general, the ambient lighting in racer is a little too light and a little too blue. And the reflections in dark inner areas of the car are too strong for sure. What would be really useful is if someone could show me how to adjust the reflection map's alpha through a texture. That could easily solve the reflections in dark areas.

The solution isn't that Racers reflections are wrong. Also, there is no need to tweak the reflection maps alpha control.

The problem is your tracks lighting conditions and the environment it is reflecting.

Also, base fresnel values may not be ideal.

Try

fresnel
{
bias=0.07
scale=0.98
power=2
}


It looks really good by the way. Just don't go break it by tweaking it's shaders, when it's not the shaders that are broken, but the tracks that are being reflected in it, and lighting it up, are not ideal (or in your examples case, not equal between one shot and the next, hence looking different)

Personally I think most of the shots you have posted look fine. Just the odd one where it's clear the track isn't so well setup wrt lighting curves, that makes the car look odd.

Cheers

Dave

 

[Stereo]

Yeah, GT5 is a lot sunnier than the recent versions of Racer. Somewhat on account of the way track lighting's set up, I think. I haven't looked at tuning all the curves yet.

Recent versions of Racer are also a lot more flat compared to GT5's HDR-ish colourmapping. You can tweak that fairly easily too, if you want the look of the 3rd/4th GT5 pics.


WRT the reflection map as alpha - if you're using dyn_standard_reflect_f.cg, that should just work (darker alpha = less reflective, afaik).

 

[FiftyOrange]

There I fixed it for you.

 

[EAP3D]

The solution isn't that Racers reflections are wrong. Also, there is no need to tweak the reflection maps alpha control.

The problem is your tracks lighting conditions and the environment it is reflecting.

Also, base fresnel values may not be ideal.

Try

fresnel
{
bias=0.07
scale=0.98
power=2
}


It looks really good by the way. Just don't go break it by tweaking it's shaders, when it's not the shaders that are broken, but the tracks that are being reflected in it, and lighting it up, are not ideal (or in your examples case, not equal between one shot and the next, hence looking different)

Personally I think most of the shots you have posted look fine. Just the odd one where it's clear the track isn't so well setup wrt lighting curves, that makes the car look odd.

Cheers

Dave

The reflections are wrong, because on the real car, areas that are facing the inside of the car reflect the other parts of the car, not the sky. Since we have to use Cubemaps in racer, and not ray-traced reflection, it's impossible to have those inner areas reflect. It's unfixable, really, but i'll try the fresnel stuff you suggested. I was messing with it at one point and it didn't seem to do a whole lot.

And yes I won't tweak the shaders to look darker, I know it's an issue with the track setups.

There I fixed it for you.

I could do that with a colorgrading map for the tracks but that's not the right way to fix it, because other areas that might need to be a very dark gray will be too dark.

 

[KS95]

I don't like the reflections in Racer.. it bothers me seeing the same thing reflected no matter where I go or what way I face..

 

[Mr Whippy]

Yeah, GT5 is a lot sunnier than the recent versions of Racer. Somewhat on account of the way track lighting's set up, I think. I haven't looked at tuning all the curves yet.

Recent versions of Racer are also a lot more flat compared to GT5's HDR-ish colourmapping. You can tweak that fairly easily too, if you want the look of the 3rd/4th GT5 pics.


WRT the reflection map as alpha - if you're using dyn_standard_reflect_f.cg, that should just work (darker alpha = less reflective, afaik).

But dangerous to reduce reflection without good reason.

The issue, as we can see, is the track lighting curves are more for a hazy day, than a sharp sunny day. I posted some 'sunny' clear day curves a while back iirc, which are much more like some of those GT5 pics lighting.

The colours can be 'punched' up more using the gamma. Standard is 1.25, using 1.35>1.5 in the constants.cg file will result in more contrast and stronger colour saturation

Dave

 

[Mr Whippy]

I don't like the reflections in Racer.. it bothers me seeing the same thing reflected no matter where I go or what way I face..

I take it you have live envmapping turned off?

 

[KS95]

No I have it on.. just turned render_once off, now I get real reflections (but bad fps). I take back what I said :tongue:

 

[Mr Whippy]

The reflections are wrong, because on the real car, areas that are facing the inside of the car reflect the other parts of the car, not the sky. Since we have to use Cubemaps in racer, and not ray-traced reflection, it's impossible to have those inner areas reflect. It's unfixable, really, but i'll try the fresnel stuff you suggested. I was messing with it at one point and it didn't seem to do a whole lot.

Ah sorry, yes, you are right in those situations.

That is the issue with the rendering of reflections. Right now we have one envmap that includes the sun in it too, so surfaces that are in shadow (dark side of the car) can actually end up reflecting the sun in them. Ie, the side skirt vents on the Lambo Murcielago do this easily. There is no elegant solution.

You can, as you say, darken the reflection map (kinda like a reflection occlusion pass) in appropriate areas. I've done this subtly on some cars. However, the cost is that in other situations it really should be reflecting and isn't any more.

It works out as being one of those things you just have to tweak a bit.

Ie, the lower lip on the front air dam of the M3 I made reflects the sky, and it looks wrong from straight ahead. But at an angle, more from the side, it looks ok to have some reflection.


I'd ignore the general lighting balance though, and reflections of the tracks in the car. I know it's hard right now in Racer with limited really good track setups with respect to lighting and stuff, but imo, your car looks good. The issue is what it's reflecting, not the car reflecting wrong

I do agree though that you might want to tweak the alpha map in your shader to turn down the power of the reflection in appropriate places. That does however mean that you will need a properly unwrapped body texture.

Thanks

Dave

 

[EAP3D]

I do agree though that you might want to tweak the alpha map in your shader to turn down the power of the reflection in appropriate places. That does however mean that you will need a properly unwrapped body texture.

Body is already unwrapped with a diffuse for AO, but I don't know how to get that to work on the reflections

 

[Raphael Buthmann]

Looks like GT5 has a different specular than racer ... hm

 

[Mr Whippy]

Body is already unwrapped with a diffuse for AO, but I don't know how to get that to work on the reflections

If you use a shader like:

vf_reflect
{
vertex_shader
{
file=dyn_standard_reflect_v.cg
}
fragment_shader
{
file=dyn_standard_reflect_f.cg
}
}

shader_YOUR_SHADER_NAME_HERE~vf_reflect
{
reflect=1
specular=0.8 0.8 0.66 1
shininess=28
fresnel
{
bias=0.07
scale=0.98
power=2
}
layer0
{
map=YOUR_TEX_HERE.tga
}
layer1
{
map=$trackenvmap
}
}


That will automatically use the alpha map of the texture map defined, to control the reflection intensity and specular intensity too (those two are bonded)...
So black alpha means matte material, and white alpha means full reflection strength and specular strength. An AO map with a short lookup distance of maybe 10cm, is probably ideal for the alpha map in this case, with some manual tweaking in certain areas if needed


Look forward to seeing more pics

Dave

 

[QuadCoreMax]

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