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**vblanco** · 03-02-2013, 12:12 PM

i see no gameplay, but awesome level

**MrRipGames** · 03-02-2013, 01:21 PM

Nice work !

**XilenceX** · 03-02-2013, 02:53 PM

Originally posted by SeanO'Connor View Post

. Lightmass was not used, this is fully realtime. Landscape was not used either, and the "terrain" is using vertex blending.

Thanks for posting this, it is really inspirational as I am setting up my level in exactly the same way.
I particularly liked the normalmap details on the rocks and tree trunks and the beautifull ground vegetation. I think the leaf bulks still need some work. I set up my first tree in the same way... but it looks kinda unrealistic and ugly by comparison to another one with more randomly distributed leaves.

The one question I got to ask after seeing the flythrough is... how did you set up your directional light properties and the engine lighting settings to get the sun&shadows to look so nice while still getting a decent framerate?

Here is my current WiP level with it's bloblike shadows, but running at 60FPS on my GTX560M:

I use a DDL and all objects in my level have use precomputed shadows turned off.

**FraktalZero** · 03-02-2013, 03:19 PM

really nice environments!
Cheers

**SeanO'Connor** · 03-02-2013, 11:26 PM

Thank you for the replies everyone.

@vblanco: No gameplay yet, for now it is just an environment demo.

@XilenceX: So the leaves are not spread out enough? It was proving difficult to make those leaves using SpeedTree, both in terms of distribution and shading. I have had others say the leaves could use work too, but I am having trouble figuring out exactly what needs to be done with them.

As for getting nice shadows with a DDLM, it is a combination of the actor properties and config files. Specifically:

DefaultSystemSettings.ini

Code:

;------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
;SHADOWS
;------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DynamicShadows=true
bAllowWholeSceneDominantShadows=true
bEnableForegroundShadowsOnWorld=true
bEnableForegroundSelfShadowing=true
bEnableBranchingPCFShadows=false
LightEnvironmentShadows=true
AllowImageReflectionShadowing=true

ShadowTexelsPerPixel=4.000000
MaxShadowResolution=2048
MinShadowResolution=256
MinPreShadowResolution=256
ShadowFadeResolution=256
PreShadowFadeResolution=64
ShadowFadeExponent=0.250000
PreShadowResolutionFactor=0.500000

MaxWholeSceneDominantShadowResolution=2048
CSMSplitPenumbraScale=0.50000
CSMSplitSoftTransitionDistanceScale=1
CSMSplitDepthBiasScale=1
CSMMinimumFOV=40
CSMFOVRoundFactor=4
PerObjectShadowTransition=60
PerSceneShadowTransition=600

bAllowHardwareShadowFiltering=false
ShadowFilterRadius=2
ShadowDepthBias=0.060000
ShadowFilterQualityBias=0

The DDLM properties:

Note that ShadowFilterQuality should probably be set to SFQ_Medium or SFQ_Low for actual gameplay. By the way, I am running a GTX 570 which is not much different than your card, so you can get similar framerates hopefully.

@FraktalZero and MrRipGames: Really appreciate the compliments, thank you.

**XilenceX** · 03-03-2013, 12:42 AM

First of all about the Speedtrees: If you haven't seen it already watch this tutorial: http://www.showmethatagain.com/lms/m...view.php?id=22
However what should help you the most with your leaves is the Leaf Collision setting. You can find it by clicking on some empty space in the modeler viewport.
Set the dropdown for "Automatic" from none to Spread then Cull or Cull then Spread and experiment with the Spread Factor. That should give you a more realistic and quality VS performance friendly leaf distribution.

Thanks for sharing your shadow settings, they include some changes I never even experimented with!
However the changes in the config files I tried so far never had any impact on what actually appeared in-game.
So did you deactivate Lightmass like me by ticking the Force No Precomputed Lighting option in the World Properties - Lightmass section?
Also did you turn off the use precomputed shadows option on your meshes?

These are the only two changes I made from a default UDK installation... So if I can get those two settings the same as yours, my lighting should look the same too.

**FraktalZero** · 03-03-2013, 01:06 AM

The fact you mentioned Dark Souls is quite interesting to me

**SeanO'Connor** · 03-03-2013, 01:41 AM

@XilenceX: I will check out that video for sure. As for the shadows, I am pretty sure that is everything I changed. I did check bForceNoPrecomputedLighting, as well as uncheck bUsePrecomputedShadows for every static mesh's master archetype. My config files are a bit different than the ones Epic ships with UDK. I basically rewrote them from scratch leaving out what I do not need and taking properties from Engine that I did need, and I also merged all the "UDK" configs to their masters (i.e. DefaultEngineUDK and DefaultEngine became DefaultEngine). I say this because you might have other settings from Epic overriding yours--make sure the shadow settings are not being defined elsewhere.

Also worth noting is that my DDLM is not alone. I have a SkyLightToggleable placed as well, which acts as an ambient light and can be used to lighten the shadows.

I used DirectX 11 for this, and I notice an all around increase in quality when switching back and forth between 9 and 11. If you are using DX9, your shadows may be uglier.

@FraktalZero: Dark Souls completely redefined the way I thought about game design. I was first introduced to it last August when it came out for PC, and I have not looked back since. Before Dark Souls my RPG was a cheesy Oblivion/Skyrim clone (it did start as an Oblivion mod after all). However, Dark Souls' level and character design inspired me to take my RPG to new heights, and it is far better for it. Dark Souls lacks graphics, but its design near flawless. My game always had graphics thanks to UDK, but never had a solid design. Thanks to Dark Souls (and others, but primarily Dark Souls), this is now fixed.

**FraktalZero** · 03-03-2013, 02:04 AM

Originally posted by SeanO'Connor View Post

@FraktalZero: Dark Souls completely redefined the way I thought about game design. I was first introduced to it last August when it came out for PC, and I have not looked back since. Before Dark Souls my RPG was a cheesy Oblivion/Skyrim clone (it did start as an Oblivion mod after all). However, Dark Souls' level and character design inspired me to take my RPG to new heights, and it is far better for it. Dark Souls lacks graphics, but its design near flawless. My game always had graphics thanks to UDK, but never had a solid design. Thanks to Dark Souls (and others, but primarily Dark Souls), this is now fixed.

I'm curious, are you looking for any kind of help at this moment? I was working in a personal project and the game design was close to Dark Souls. By the way, I'm a character artist, and Game Designer.

Cheers

**Chosker** · 03-03-2013, 10:17 AM

good job there, very nice assets. like others I see no RPG but an environment, but it's a great start.
also nice to see I'm not the only crazy guy using pure dynamic lights+shadows.

Originally posted by SeanO'Connor View Post

If you are using DX9, your shadows may be uglier.

I can't for the life of me make DX11 shadows look any better than DX9. have you been able to tweak the shadow filtering at all? or are your DX11 shadows just prettier by default?

also I haven't played Dark Souls, but being an Oblivion/Skyrim fan maybe I could take your word for it and try Dark Souls in hopes it might 'open my eyes' in design aspects I haven't considered.
Then again you're only comparing it to an Oblivion/Skyrim clone and not the actual ones (what's the name of the clone?), and it's likely our tastes in design can be entirely different. plus Dark Souls strikes me more as a game with a third person top-down-ish camera (ie. with the rotation not fixed towards where the character faces, like Prince of Persia, Assassin's Creed, any Legacy of Kain, or any MMORPG), instead of an FPS-like mouselook third person camera (ie. Oblivion/Skyrim, Mount&Blade, Gothic) - which despite being a small difference actually changes the game mechanics completely. still I'll consider getting Dark Souls

**XilenceX** · 03-03-2013, 10:58 PM

I tried all the lighting changes now. ^^ First of all the DX11 mode which did not seem to make a significant difference+I got the white dots you made a thread about. Even with the normalmap workarround it seems quite annoying so I left DX11 alone.
Next I tried replacing my DDL with a DDL Movable with your settings. This improved the performance quite a bit! Unfortunately this brought back the evil white lines following the player arround. http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/...eed-this-fixed in case you don't know what I mean. So I had to go back to my DDL...
The last part was certainly the most interesting one with your config file change.
Here is the original:

And here is the one with your DefaultEngine.ini settings:

So this is definitely a visible difference, but the Framerate drop is even more noticeable. ^^
For now I didn't take over the settings as the improvement doesn't seem to be worth the cost.
Would it be possible to change those settings in an in-game menu?
I think it would be the best for everyone if the players could increase the shadow resolution via a button that triggers a console command to change the setting. Finding a compromise between dynamic shadow quality and performance that is right for everyone seems like an impossible task. heh

**SeanO'Connor** · 03-04-2013, 01:11 AM

I suppose I should have titled the thread "Autumn Forest Environment for My RPG" -- I did not realize at the time that people would expect to see gameplay, so my apologies for the confusion.

I have had those white lines appear in my forest environment, but very rarely and they are hard to notice. I have an image of what my shadows look like without being obstructed with vegetation and textures (which is part of getting nice shadows I might add--hiding the ugly):

First is DX11:
[shot]http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/3899/zdvft.jpg[/shot]

DX9:
[shot]http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/7070/fgnxfg.jpg[/shot]

It is really hard to tell any difference, but ingame I think DX11 shadows look slightly better. I am not sure if it is possible to change the actual config values at runtime, but I know you could get the DDLM instance and adjust it through code. The lights have shadow resolution and filtering settings in them, and, if they are not native C++ variables, they can be set easily by your HUD code. I never actually tried that, but I imagine it is possible.

I have a name for my game, but I am not sure about it yet. For now I either call it, "My RPG", "Dark Scrolls", "The Elder Souls", or "Project AfterRealm". All codenames of course, but that is how it is for the time being.

Dark Souls' level design and flow is one of its best features. The art design is very good, but it was let down by poor graphics (I wish they would have licensed the UDK). Dark Souls is indeed a third person action RPG, but I always intended my game to be third person. I am a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls, and back in the day before the UDK, Oblivion's editor allowed one to make huge worlds and that was awesome. What I like about the Elder Scrolls is the depth and freedom--being able to explore any direction and physically throwing apples at people never gets old. However, every Elder Scrolls game feels stale sometimes--you are always going into caves and running on fairly flat terrain; Skyrim made a good attempt to fix this I might add. Oblivion was notorious for having very similar looking ugly people that all sounded the same.

Enter Dark Souls. The areas are so interesting and gameplay is so fun that you want to keep going. I have a few screenshots I took:
[shot]http://imageshack.us/a/img39/1766/screenshot2012122203280.jpg[/shot]
You see the vertical space they have built into the design? That is everywhere, and the world is interconnected in a very interesting fashion.

Some of the armor is cool too, and again check out the awesome vertical space:
[shot]http://imageshack.us/a/img534/575/screenshot2012121603505.jpg[/shot]

At the risk of getting my house ransacked and banned from the internet, I could say what I think an RPG should not be.

Mass Effect.

**XilenceX** · 03-04-2013, 11:58 AM

I even tried a custom light type once, they definitely aren't native. The DDLM has a defaultproperties section where some CSM properties are set.

Yeah I think you have a quite solid approach for your gameplay. However you should start prototyping it quite early to see if it works in practice. The best ideas can become stale when you implement them. Kismet is awesome for quick gameplay prototypes. Making your terrain out of static meshes gives you the ability to include as much vertical gameplay as you want.

Be carefull about the AI bots though they might not take that too well... and walking animations tend to look silly in such situations as well. That's probably why other game developers often include very little vertical gameplay.

**SeanO'Connor** · 03-14-2013, 01:04 AM

Finished a new asset--the demon slaying sword Vignsang. It is a very important sword in the game, please check it out and leave feedback, thank you.

[shot]http://imageshack.us/a/img199/4509/vignsang01.jpg[/shot]

ZBrush sculpts:
[shot]http://imageshack.us/a/img404/8818/vignsang02.jpg[/shot]
[shot]http://imageshack.us/a/img14/1752/vignsang03.jpg[/shot]

Video for you:

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Various Artistic Works for My RPG

Various Artistic Works for My RPG

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