3dMedieval's Tutorial Emporium

Texturing A Medieval House Video Added

2011-08-11T06:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long delay. I created a video to complete the tutorial. It's not perfect, and the audio seems to lag as it goes on, but that's the best I've got. You'll get the idea. Ask specific questions here or on BlenderArtists.org
(BA screen name: 3DMedieval)

Texturing a Medieval House Video Blog Post
Texturing a Medieval house on Youtube (larger video)

The video is available in 720p, full screen. So, good resolution, delayed but clear audio. Sorry.

Increasing Frame Rate in the Blender Game Engine

2011-06-14T14:22:00.000-07:00

The suggestions in this post will increase your frame rate, and in some cases lower the quality of the graphics in your game. Consider creating two versions of your game - a walk around and admire the view version (maxed out graphics), and a maxed out frame rate version. Commercial games offer this flexibility.

Your Computer

Update your graphics card's drivers.
If your video card supports Anti-Aliasing, turning it off will increase your frame rate dramatically.

Game Engine Modes & General Set Up

Texture Face and Multi-Texture modes are faster than GLSL.
Use "Display Lists" (Blender Game - Render (camera icon) - Performance) for larger scenes, but not for smaller scenes. Experiment turning this on and off, and note the frame rate difference, if any.
Use "Frame Rate" (ticked by default). (Blender Game - Render (camera icon) - Performance).

Objects and Geometry

Model objects with as few faces as possible, and as many quads as possible.
Remove all unnecessary faces (internal faces, backs of cabinets against walls etc.).
Use appropriate face counts - Small or less significant props should have fewer faces than larger or more significant props. These two factors are exclusive of each other - it is possible to have large, insignificant props, such as distant buildings, and small significant props, such as weapons that will be seen a lot.
Join objects when possible (objects without physics etc.). For example, all objects made of the same material, or all of the buildings in a scene.

Shaders & Nodes

Use Lambert and Phong.
Turn specularity off in the material panel if it is not needed.
Disable use alpha if it is not needed - Texture Panel - Image Sampling - Alpha (untick).
Use mix, add, subtract or multiply for texture blending.
? Use nodes sparingly. ?
Disabling Shaders and Extra Textures in GLSL mode (Game Engine - Render -Shading) will increase your frame rate dramatically.

Textures

Textures should be sized in powers of two (16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048 px etc).
? Square textures perform best. ?
Small textures perform best.
Merge textures when possible - Diffuse and AO maps for example, or all of your plant, door or window textures.
Reuse textures in your scene, so that the game engine has to dynamically load as few textures as possible.
Use tiling textures to increase the appearance of detail without using large texture maps.
Use normal maps (in GLSL) mode to increase the appearance of detailed geometry on lower polygon meshes.
Use Mip Maps.
Use Alpha Channel textures and transparency sparingly.
Below, some common map types, listed in order from highest to lowest frame rate consumption. Worst to best.

Normal
Specular
Fake reflection (abstract image mapped to "Reflect", "Color")
Emit
Grunge/decals - Transparent Bbackground PNG
AO (Black & hhite image set to "color", "multiply")
Diffuse

This is based on an informal survey conducted on Blender artists, and is certainly open for debate.
Blender Artists Texture Map Thread

Lights

Use as few lights as possible.
Disable specularity in the Lamp Panel if possible.
Bake lighting if possible.
Bake shadows when possible, as opposed to using buffer shadows.
Set lamps to only affect objects in specific layers (ordinary lamps and buffer shadow spots).
Use scripts to move lights around with the player. Think of it as a house which turns lights on and off as you pass through various rooms.

Physics

Use rigid body and dynamic objects sparingly. Use scripts and logic to add and remove them from them your scene as necessary.
Use bounding boxes to simply physics calculations.
Remove collision from any object or mesh on which it is not required. There are two places to do this:

In the physics panel, set the physics type to "No Collision".
In edit mode: Mesh panel - Texture Face - No Collision (use copy mode to untick for all faces).
? Set gravity to 9.8 (default). ?
Use the Convex Hull bounding box type sparingly.

Special Effects & Filters

Filters such as real-time depth-of-field, screen space ambient occlusion, bloom lighting etc.can be nice looking, but are frame rate intensive. Consider alternatives (such as baking AO) when frame rate is an issue.
Video Texture scripts, used for real time mirrors and other effects are frame rate intensive. Use alternatives when possible.

World

Mist - turn it off when possible.
Use level of detail objects and scripts when possible in large scenes.
Use Occluding objects when possible.

Animation and F-Curves (IPO curves)

Bibliography & Sources

Blender.org

Bender Artists.org

Increasing Frame Rate in the Blender Game Engine

2011-05-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

The list below is intended to be a guide to getting the best frame rate possible in the Blender Game engine (if not the best looking game). Some suggestions will yield large frame rate increases, while others will yield smaller increases. Different computers, graphics cards, operating systems and versions of Blender will yield different results. This is a work progress. I will be posting some things that are absolutely true, and others that require verification -these will be italicized and marked with question marks. I invite comments, debate, & collaboration.

Blender.org Discussion Thread

If you wish to learn more about a specific technique, link to this thread and ask for help on BlenderArtists.org

Direct links to this thread:
Link Text: Increasing Frame Rate in the Blender Game Engine
Link URL: http://3dmedieval.blogspot.com/2011/05/increasing-frame-rate-in-blender-game.html

General Notes

The suggestions in this post will increase your frame rate, and in some cases lower the quality of the graphics in your game. Consider creating two versions of your game - a walk around and admire the view version (maxed out graphics), and a maxed out frame rate version. Commercial games offer this flexibility.

Your Computer

Update your graphics card's drivers.
If your video card supports Anti-Aliasing, turning it off will increase your frame rate dramatically.

Game Engine Modes & General Set Up

Texture Face and Multi-Texture modes are faster than GLSL.
Use "Display Lists" (Blender Game - Render (camera icon) - Performance) for larger scenes, but not for smaller scenes. Experiment with turning this on and off, and note the frame rate difference, if any.
Use "Frame Rate" (ticked by default). (Blender Game - Render (camera icon) - Performance).
Use a few Scenes to split up large levels. For example, create a new scene when you enter a room with a closed door in a house, or enter a cave.

The Camera

Set your camera clipping as low as you can (Camera panel - Clipping). Mist can help hide the effects of a sudden cut off, but will reduce frame rate.

World

Mist - Use of mist will decrease frame rate.
Use Level of Detail (LOD) objects and associated scripts when possible in large scenes.
Use Occlusion Culling on larger scenes when possible. Be aware that if used improperly, Occlusion Culling will increase your frame rate.

Objects, Meshes & Geometry

Model objects with as few faces as possible.
Use Ctrl - J to remove triangles. This will reduce your face count.
Remove all unnecessary faces (internal faces, backs of cabinets against walls etc.).
Use appropriate face counts - Small or less significant props should have fewer faces than larger or more significant props. These two factors are exclusive of each other - it is possible to have large, insignificant props, such as distant buildings, and small significant props, such as weapons that will be seen frequently.

Materials & Shaders

Use Lambert and Phong. These shaders are fastest.
Turn specularity to zero in the material panel if it is not needed. Zero = off.
Disable use alpha if it is not needed - Texture Panel - Image Sampling - Alpha (untick). For some reason, this is ticked automatically.
Use mix, add, subtract or multiply for texture blending. These blending modes are fastest.
? Use nodes sparingly. ?
Disabling Shaders and Extra Textures in GLSL mode (Game Engine - Render -Shading) will increase your frame rate dramatically.

Textures

Textures should be sized in powers of two (16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048 px etc).
? Square textures perform best. ?
Small textures perform best.
Merge textures when possible - Diffuse and AO maps for example, or all of your plant, door or window textures.
Reuse textures in your scene, so that the game engine has to dynamically load as few textures as possible.
Use tiling textures to increase the appearance of detail without using large texture maps.
Use normal maps (in GLSL) mode to increase the appearance of detailed geometry on lower polygon meshes.
Use Mip Maps.
Arrange as many textures on one sheet as possible (texture atlasing). It's like continuing to read from one page, as opposed to picking up several sheets of paper and reading a bit from each.
Use Alpha Channel textures and transparency sparingly.
The .DDS (Direct Draw Surface) texture format may have some benefits on game speed, and certainly on load times. For more information, see the bibliography, below. .DDS textures are used in games such as The Elder Scrolls IV, Oblivion.

Lights

Use as few lights as possible.
Disable specularity in the Lamp Panel if possible.
Bake lighting if possible.
Bake shadows when possible, as opposed to using spot lights with buffer shadows.
Set lamps to only affect objects in specific layers (ordinary lamps and buffer shadow spots).

Physics

Use rigid body and dynamic objects sparingly. Use scripts and logic to add and remove them from your scene as necessary.
Use bounding boxes to simplify physics calculations.
Remove collision from any object or mesh on which it is not required. There are two places to do this:

In the physics panel, set the physics type to "No Collision".
In edit mode: Mesh panel - Texture Face - No Collision (use copy mode to untick for all faces. Copy Mode is currently an add-on).
? Set gravity to 9.8 (default). ?

Use the Convex Hull bounding box type sparingly.

Special Effects & Filters

Filters such as real-time depth-of-field, screen space ambient occlusion, bloom lighting etc.can be nice looking, but are frame rate intensive. Consider alternatives (such as baking AO) when frame rate is an issue.
Video Texture scripts, used for real time mirrors and other effects are frame rate intensive. Use alternatives when possible.

Animation and F-Curves (IPO curves)

Place holder

Logic

Avoid Always Sensors set to True Pulse mode with a frequency of 0 when possible.
Radar Sensors perform slowly.
Near Sensors perform slowly.
Rather than running logic for every object of a specific type, loop through a list of objects and run the logic for them. More information on this technique can be found here: SolarLune's Logic Speed Increase Technique
Use states with a logic culling system (for example, enemies near the player use full AI, while those out of view can idle).

Python

Place holder

Bibliography & Reources

GLSL Materials

Blender.org GLSL materials

Textures
Mip Mapping Wiki
.DDS Discussion Thread
.DDS Tutorial
NVidia .DDS Converter fof Photoshop

Logic

SolarLune's Logic Speed Increase Technique
SolarLune's Logic Speed BA thread

Python
Python Performance Tips
Python Patterns - An Optimization Anecdote

Special Techniques
Blender 2.49 Release Notes (Scroll Down for Occlusion Culling)

Modeling a Low - Poly Medival Arch

2010-12-29T06:49:00.000-08:00

This tutorial will show how I created the arched doorway that fits the four way vault. To work through this tutorial, you'll need to have the completed the four way vault modeled in this tutorial:

http://3dmedieval.blogspot.com/2010/12/modeling-low-poly-medieval-arch.html

Step 1: Open up the vault model, enter front view, and add a circle (default 32 vert).

Step 2: Using the 4 way vault as a reference, re-size the circle like this:

The verts in the horizontal center of the circle should line up with the top of the vault column, as in the picture above. The top center vert of the circle will not line up with the center of the arch, as we are making a gothic, or "pointed" arch. It's ok if things are not precise at this point. You can tweak things in the next few steps.

Step 3: Select all the verts, and extrude the size (E - S). Be sure that the inner circle clears the base of the four way vault as shown. In the image at the very top of this tut, I made the arch clear the base more than I did in this tutorial. This is just a matter of personal preference. Size your as you like.

Step 4: Select the verts shown and delete them.

You should end up with this:

Step 5: Duplicate all the verts and flip them horizontally. Line up the two arches as shown.

Step 6: Select all the verts, and re-center as shown.

Step 7: Merge these two verts:

Select the two top verts, subdivide, then move the newly created vert into position to complete the arch. Make new faces as shown.

Step 8: Select the verts shown, and extrude down as shown.

Step 9: Enter top view, select all the verts, and extrude as shown. In this case, I extruded .5 Blender units. This is a matter of personal preference, and of course the thickness can be modified later.

Step 10: The modeling of the arch is complete. To finish it up, make sure all the face normals are pointing outward, set it smooth, and add an edge split modifier (default settings are fine). Don't apply the edge split mod, as it doubles the verts for some reason. You should end up with this:

That's it. If it serves your purpose, you can remove some unnecessary faces, as shown. These will not be visible from inside the vault.

At this point, you should have a four way vault, a straight hall section and an arch, which should all connect together nicely. It the next tutorial, I'll explain how to model a cap wall and a door.

Modeling a Low-Poly Medieval Vault

2010-12-28T15:35:00.000-08:00

In this tutorial, I'll explain how I made the four way vault that is is the basis for my low poly castle. The screen-shots in this tutorial are from Blender 3d, but the modeling principles will be the same in any 3d package. Click the images to enlarge. The shortcut keys I'll be naming are based on Blender 2.5 series.

Step 1: Fire up blender, and set this image as your background:

Step 2: Create this shape. It's best if you model one half, then duplicate and flip the verts horizontally. Be sure to join the 2 verts at the top of the arch. Re-size your arch to 4 blender units wide.

Step 3: In top view, extrude all the verts in the Y direction 4 Blender units. From the top, you should see a 4 x 4 square.

You should end up with this:

Step 4: Enter top view, object mode. Select the arch and duplicate it. Rotate it 90 degrees:

Enter front view, and make sure the duplicated arch is still the active object.

Step 5: Enter edit mode, select all the verts on 1 side, and move them 1/2 Blender unit to the side (.5 in the x direction). The result should look like this:

Step 6: For this step, be sure that you are in wire mode. Blender can't see through shaded shapes when selecting verts. Select the top vert opposite the side you just moved 1/2 blender unit - the left side in this case - and drag it in the x direction until it lines up with the top of the first arch. If this sounds confusing, take a look at the next few images and you'll see what we are shooting for.

Continue selecting verts (use "C" circle select to make sure that you grab both verts), and moving them so that they line up with the template arch. Be really careful here, and make sure that your verts line up with the other arch exactly. Zoom in really close, or you'll be sorry later. The result should look like this:

Take a look at your progress in perspective mode. You should have something like this:

Move the original arch out of the way for now. You can use it as a straight hall way section, as it will connect with the 4 way arch we are making perfectly. You should end up with this - 1/4 of our finished 4 way arch:

Step 7: Go into top view, edit mode. Place the object center exactly at the point of the arch. Select all the verts, and rotate 90 degrees, with this result:

Step 8: Merge these verts by selecting all then removing doubles, or use center select to select the 2 verts near each other, then Ctrl M, center to merge them.You'll likely use a combination of both techniques.

Step 9: Making certain that you've got no double verts, head back to top view, select all, and rotate 90 degrees, with this result:

As before, remove all the double verts, any way you like. You should end up with this:

Step 10: Make sure all of your face normals point inward, thus:

Next, set the whole arch smooth, and add an edge split modifier (but don't apply it). The default 30 degrees is fine.

That's the basic 4 way arch. If you like, you can duplicate it and join the verts as before. When you join 4 together, you'll end up with this result:

The resulting geometry has some faces we don't need. Select the offending edge loops as below, and delete (delete - edge loop).

After unnecessary edge loop removal, you'll end up with this:

At this point, you've got a hallway and a vault pattern you can use to create vaulted rooms of any size. In the next tutorial, I'll explain the construction of an arched doorway. Enjoy!

Texturing Tips #1

2010-12-09T14:27:00.000-08:00

Texturing Low Poly Game Architecture

A Unwrap your faces in such a way that stone or bricks wrap around corners
B Use grunge maps, especially on the base of your building.
C Use appropriate stencils - in this case, there are subtle rust stains dripping down the wall, from the rusty metal torches on the wall. A pair of rusty torches without rust stains would look odd. You can also use stencils to add the occasional crack or bit of damage.
D Bake ambient occlusion.
E Make sure that the building material you use, in this case, stone block, is scaled properly. This is especially true for things such as cinder blocks and bricks. Look up real world dimensions and set the tiling to be as close as possible.
E Use tiling textures for large objects, like buildings. Some people cram the whole building's worth of textures into one image, but buildings textured in this manner will look low rez up close. Besides, you can use the same tileable stone, wood, metal, grunge etc. textures for the whole town. It makes sense - buildings in older towns especially, would be made of similar if not identical materials, because that's what's available locally. For example, a little viking village on the edge of a pine forest would be built from ...yep...pine. No need to have 25 different textures for 25 buildings. One tileable pine diffuse map, normal map, & grunge map would cover the wood part all of those buildings. Simply add a small AO map that is unique to each building.
F Pay attention to how the object you are texturing would actually be built. In the image above, I've made an attempt to fit the stone to the height of the steps. This takes some playing around in split screen (be sure to set your 3d view to change as you move the UVs around). The stone arch is textured so that it would come close to functioning as an arch in real life.
G Use specular maps on windows.

Texturing a Medieval House

2010-11-19T05:01:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: Video Added.
Direct Youtube link (it's a full screen sized video): Texturing A Medieval House Video
The audio seems to lag. I don't know why. It's ok in the beginning, and then it's like watching a KungFu movie.

I apologize for the long delay. The audio seems to lag behind the video for some reason. Please post specific questions I have not answered. Thanks!

I have written this tutorial primarily for Blender 3d, but the principles are the same for all 3d packages. It assumes some basic knowledge of 3d modeling & texturing.

In this tutorial, I'll be discussing the techniques I used to model the house shown above. I won't be going into the actual modeling of the house, but I will kick the tut off with a discussion of good modeling practices, the lack of which will make texturing a lot harder, if not impossible.

Modeling
Good texturing starts with clean modeling. Some fundamentals to consider:

Avoid overlapping faces - that is, co-planer faces which occupy any part of the same space.
Remove unnecessary faces - the bottom of table legs or the back of a cabinet that stands against a wall for example. Not only does this ease the strain on the game engine, there are simply fewer faces to be concerned with in the UV editor. Also look out for extra faces - faces you can see, but that are not necessary to describe the form - a flat plane subdivided a few times for example.
Remove any internal faces - These play havoc with normals.
Make sure your normals are all outward facing - In Blender, pressing Ctrl-N will yield Blender's best guess, but if you've got internal faces, or faces that are only one plane thick (like a window in a building), blender won't know which way is out. Turn on draw normals and be certain.
Keep objects separate as you model, then join objects of the same material before you unwrap. I like to do this even if I'm going to unwrap the model to one diffuse map. It helps to keep things organized. The wood beams on the house pictured above are separate from the plaster & stone walls for example.

UV Unwrapping
I can't overstress the importance of a clean, organized UV map. Let's start with the stone foundation, steps and chimney, which are one object. There are lots of ways to unwrap a model, but for architecture, I like to use project from view. I started out selecting these faces. You can speed this up by selecting one face, then pressing Shift-G then "Co-Planer". As you add faces, remember to hold down shift, so that the others don't go away.

Select These Faces

Next, enter front view (assuming your house faces front - if it doesn't make your life easier by making it face forward) by pressing numpad 1. Get into orthographic mode by pressing numpad 5, if you aren't there already. You should be looking at something like this:

Ready to Project From View

Now, press "U" unwrap, then "Project from view". Enter the UV editor by pressing Shift-F5 (if you don't have split screen set up), and your walls will be projected on the UV map for the most part undistorted. I say that because the 45 degree corners will end up a little thinner. That's ok, you can ignore the small stretch or fix it on the UV map. Now, back in 3d mode, without changing your zoom factor (don't scroll in or out), rotate around the building using numpad 4 & 6, and project the rest of your walls. It's important that you maintain the same zoom factor, so that all of the faces will be scaled correctly in proportion to each other. I don't know about you, but I usually end up having to do this part a few times - I somehow always forget not to zoom in, or I forget which faces I've already projected. As you project each new face, go into the UV editor and move it a bit so that it is separate from the other faces. Don't worry, you don't have to position everything perfectly now. Just imagine it's a paper house. You have cut the walls out, and you are just laying them out roughly so that they are not stacked on top of each other. Once you've got all the walls projected, go back and unwrap the other pieces - window frames, steps etc. It's ok to select everything that hasn't been projected and unwrap them using smart projections.

This tut is in progress....

Whatever your unwrap method is, the resulting UV map should be clean and organized, and constrained to the size of your texture.

Texturing