Next-Gen game pipelines, the power of concepting in 3D, one-button iteration solution, and the future of entertainment in the form of the VR experience.
95. ● “Polish”
● Fix assets
● Remake assets
● Reuse unsuitable
assets
● Put out fires
● Memory optimization
● Put out more fires
● …make it look better,
time permitting
● Polish
● Run through the
game and make the
POI’s shine
101. Each building is a series of components with parameters
Cardiology
Maternity Ward
Neonatal Unit
General Surgery
Cafeteria
Pharmacy
Median Patient Income
Variations Parameters
Median Staff Income
Doctors Offices
MAKE
HOSPITAL
102. Each level is a series of components with parameters
Range
Kill Hotspot Intensity
Spread
Fun
Teabagging Threshold
Rage Quit Propagation
Noob Accessible
Average K/D
MAKE
LEVEL
Random Seed
110. Blurring the Separation Between
Concept and World Peace
Michael Pavlovich
Lieutenant Commander of the Supply Closet
Editor's Notes
These types of speed things are pretty specific to ZBrush, (beyond the scope of this agnostic pipeline demonstgration) so I'll skip that and just refer them to the online videos for further information;
Keep it broad, agnostic, non-ZBrush specific (if you are fast and prefer other programs, by all means, but the basic end requirements –high res source with material IDs—stay the same)
Start with a rough sketch, just like drawing
Once you reach a certain point of refinement (may vary by project, artist, specific asset requirements), get it into game
The good thing about 3D is that all the time 2D concept artists spend honing their craft with rendering shadows, conveying material properties, lighting, perspective, symmetry, etc… all of that is free in 3D, it’s a very small step with a few techniques that provides them another outlet for the time put in developing design, function, color theory, structure, ideas, etc…
Without the time investment in polish-before-evalutation, it’s much easier to kill your babies, break something down, do it right, than “it has to be good enough because we’re out of time”
First day concept students can achieve this level of work
Refining and splitting as you go automatically groups subtools and allows for easy material ID assignment
Make the process even faster by using / building an Asset Libary (insert mesh brushes, pre-refined models that can retain material ID information)
Material Assignment and Texture Wear
Material Assignment and Texture Wear
Stumble on any of these steps? Can’t see it in engine? Just have presets to roll out? THAT’S OK—no point in continuing to carry buckets of water from the river just the front door canal isn’t finished—it’s still closer, and you can keep iterating and working on it. This leads into “pipeline widening and problem solving” in a nutshell: Find a bottle neck, widen it as much as possible, and iterate and refine tools to keep that water flowing—it may not fix everything, but iteration and tool development from the end of the canal is better than walking all the way back to the river.
Iteration
Still pretty slow, a lot of “quick” steps, but only one “automatic” step (texturing) that relied on consistent material id’s (not a big deal, but not necessarily ideal depending on the situation)
However, many, many questions answered by having a somewhat refined mesh, with materials, in game
Proving out the substance pipeline with custom materials
-PBR game specific shader for more accurate preview
-In-game cube maps for accurate HDR reflections, wear and tear, exposing parameters for the team
-Custom wear, primary and secondary previews, etc...
Covenant Materials: proving out custom materials based on previously defined parameters by 343 (in photoshop), extrapolating that info into a node based structure that can have exposed parameters and simplify the process for the eventual end user that bypasses all of the headache and fatigue associated with file management and process
R&D done by an entire studio of artists that can be implemented studio-wide based on the best results
Using the BEST tool for the job, not the most COMFORTABLE tool—One mega Mozart made from 10 chopped up ones!
-iteration on unfinished parts add functionality and elegant solutions to finish widening the bottleneck
-Ancillary tools (don’t feel stupid about tool requests like the reference viewer)
-allowing artist to use tools that best get the job done for them (agnostic across the board as possible)
-Mozarts frontload process so everybody’s a Mozart (avoid “all the assets this guy does looks awesome, too bad the game looks like shit”)
-Avoid who has the best tool to shovel shit faster, instead of eliminating shit shoveling through updated workflows or offloading the legwork to a system.
-Tiers of workers: junior guys bouncing around central (keep them well rounded), senior guys specializing in front loading and polish
-Avoid the best artist on the team doing several months’ worth of menial tasks that could be relegated to an automated process, that’s a waste of money, and demoralizing, or polish artist’s main job being cleanup
Game Res: generate from separate objects or “dynamesh”
Starts with central approved material library, shared by material team through custom filter profiles, previewable using agnostic or game shaders
Master graph used to house everything a central texture artist needs to distill down to a custom object graph preset
Custom material selection (sorted by priority), custom wear section (with already set min/max and default presets)
Exposed custom graph to player, presets already created and materials auto-filled by priority
Material swapping for the end user if needed
Removing the bottleneck of asset creation:
-reconsider the need for incorrect re-use of
Removing the bottleneck of asset creation:
-reconsider the need for incorrect re-use of assets, need for strip texturing, etc…
-extrapolate this bottle neck "widening" out to other bottle necks, and eventually prepare for a 1-button solution for a map!
-extrapolate each object to be a series of components with parameters (make door)
-extrapolate each building to be a series of components with parameters (make building)
-extrapolate each level to be a series of components with parameters (make level)
-level based on 2d input
-john henry 6 maps, or create and pick the best from a thousand and refine from there?
-extrapolate design to be a series of components with parameters (make game)
-occulus rift to explore areas, experiences, scientific collaboration, massive "correct" worlds procedurally built, based on the core concepts of rapid iteration
-john henry 6 maps, or create and pick the best from a thousand and refine from there?
-extrapolate design to be a series of components with parameters (make game)
-occulus rift to explore areas, experiences, scientific collaboration, massive "correct" worlds procedurally built, based on the core concepts of rapid iteration
-john henry 6 maps, or create and pick the best from a thousand and refine from there?
-extrapolate design to be a series of components with parameters (make game)
-occulus rift to explore areas, experiences, scientific collaboration, massive "correct" worlds procedurally built, based on the core concepts of rapid iteration
-john henry 6 maps, or create and pick the best from a thousand and refine from there?