[Amnesia] Screenshot criticism thread

**Artyom** · 08-04-2013, 11:24 PM

The first and the second picture is absolutely brilliant John! Although try to blend in a few more colours to create a more professional looking environment.

**JonnyAnomaly** · 08-04-2013, 11:30 PM

Thanks guys, glad you like it. Trying to make outside maps that look good and run well is proving to be a huge challenge... I had a lot of grass filling the map but it hammered the fps unfortunately...

**JonnyAnomaly** · 08-05-2013, 01:08 AM

I think some of the lighting in the screenshots is down to the large billboards standing in the face of the camera. It seems to smooth everything out and add some nice atmosphere. Other than that, there's nothing too contrived other than trying to position myself in a way that flatters the scene a little more!

**CarnivorousJelly** · 08-05-2013, 10:33 AM

Guess who's alive :D
Jonny's (let me know if I should never call you that again) Screenshots:

Spoiler below!

I'd also really like to request some feedback on a map. It's not complete, there are no decals and only one particle system, but I'm having trouble optimizing it (although that may just be my computer) so I don't want to throw anything new in out of fear that my computer's going to combust if I do. In other words, I'd really appreciate focus on the lighting/architecture/composition c:

Spoiler below!

**Kreekakon** · 08-05-2013, 10:43 AM

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but there's fog in this map right?

Just a heads up that fog can look a bit strange when used with bright skyboxes, because the fog will not affect the skybox, and you'll have a foggy map with a clear sky which can look weird.

You can counteract this by putting planes around your map. There's a method I haven't tried this myself personally so not sure if it works, or not, but maybe try, and put in some planes which are somewhat transparent to keep your skybox while making the fog effect consistent?

EDIT: Black background boxes should become standard for posting screenshots. The screenies are eons better to see! Big Grin

**CarnivorousJelly** · 08-05-2013, 11:35 AM

(08-05-2013, 10:36 AM)Robosprog Wrote: Ground is too flat. Also, roofs do not look like that. Ever. You might want to use planes with the roof as well, slanted etc.

Oh my god, you are brilliant and how did I not think of that!? Welp, it's 4:30am and I'm going to just keep mapping now that you said that. Also,this doesn't apply to my game's geographical location, but still.

(08-05-2013, 10:43 AM)Kreekakon Wrote: Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but there's fog in this map right?

Just a heads up that fog can look a bit strange when used with bright skyboxes, because the fog will not affect the skybox, and you'll have a foggy map with a clear sky which can look weird.

You can counteract this by putting planes around your map. There's a method I haven't tried this myself personally so not sure if it works, or not, but maybe try, and put in some planes which are somewhat transparent to keep your skybox while making the fog effect consistent?

EDIT: Black background boxes should become standard for posting screenshots. The screenies are eons better to see! :D

You are 100% correct! I might dim-down the alpha a little more since the fog is really mostly there for texture and the rain element. I tried planes and it just looks really, really weird (they show up opaque in-game). I'm glad the black border was worth-while :D

**JonnyAnomaly** · 08-05-2013, 03:04 PM

(08-05-2013, 10:33 AM)Kiandra Wrote: Guess who's alive
Jonny's (let me know if I should never call you that again) Screenshots:

Spoiler below!

Cab1:
I seriously love your work, so it's hard for me to really find anything that I even want to criticize. The only complaint I can think of is possibly reducing the brightness of the smaller billboard, it looks a little bit too solid. Maybe try making the boxlight a little bit less white-looking, night-time tends to have a slightly blue-grey tint to it. Other than that, your modelling skills are impressing the hell out of me.

Cab2:
The box light's a little bit faint, looks almost like there is no boxlight. Other than that, the level of detail looks really good and I like the atmosphere.

Cab3
I'm really loving those trees! The fog looks like it's been stretched out too much, though. The lines where it gets thicker are really obvious. I found that changing the alpha instead of the distances works pretty well.

I'd also really like to request some feedback on a map. It's not complete, there are no decals and only one particle system, but I'm having trouble optimizing it (although that may just be my computer) so I don't want to throw anything new in out of fear that my computer's going to combust if I do. In other words, I'd really appreciate focus on the lighting/architecture/composition c:

Spoiler below!

On a black bg so it's easier to see.

Thanks for the feedback! There is no boxlight at the moment (not sure why actually), just a couple of large spotlights with shadows turned off. I'll try a boxlight since its more of a consistent lighting than what I have now.

Colour scheme in your map looks good, and the rain/fog works well, but if you're running into performance problems, maybe try using more fog with culling. Although unless you're using a skybox with the same or very similar values as the fog, it can look weird as Kreekakon said. And then you're sort of forced to use an overcast day sort of thing which might not be what you're after. In the first screenshot, where the roof meets the sky, I think using something to cap off the edge will make it look more solid - At the moment it looks like it could be a little thin in that area.

Speaking of performance, does anyone know if the number of static objects in the map can affect performance regardless of poly count? So like thousands of objects with like 2 polygons each for example.

**The chaser** · 08-05-2013, 03:32 PM

(08-05-2013, 03:24 PM)Robosprog Wrote: The map I made with over 9000 rocks, a few thousand dirt piles and hundreds of grass stuff

Dude, you better optimize that or the story will be unplayable for lots of people...

**Rapture** · 08-05-2013, 05:27 PM

(08-05-2013, 03:32 PM)The chaser Wrote:
(08-05-2013, 03:24 PM)Robosprog Wrote: The map I made with over 9000 rocks, a few thousand dirt piles and hundreds of grass stuff

Dude, you better optimize that or the story will be unplayable for lots of people...

Not really, I've made a bunch of maps with over 8000+ objects in them (Which is hard to gauge because, the "Find Objects" doesn't update. Unless anyone knows how to do that.)

And they ran fine, I do separate them somewhat by big mountains, but overall the FPs is very stable.

Unless you have a shit ton of lights, particle effects, in full view does performance take a huge hit.

**JonnyAnomaly** · 08-05-2013, 05:30 PM

I just did some testing - I made a 4 tri object in Maya, and a 256 tri object, made a new map with just a plane and a box light. First I put down the 4 tri object and duplicated it about 6000 times, which came to 24,000 tris. Fps when looking at it went from solid 135 to 17. Seemed to improve as I got further away from them, even though I still remained looking at them. The editor became ridiculously slow also.

Then I took the 256 tri version, and duplicated it 500 times to make 128,000 tris in the one spot. Took a while to load the map, but the FPS only went as low as the mid 50's. Should note that these are all in one spot in the face of the player, not spread around and being culled etc.

Conclusion... don't make 6000 objects...

Edit - Again, this was with them all on top of each other which you're never going to have in a map, so I guess the difference in a real situation would be less dramatic