Asset creation

Test Flight

So, You've made it through the Map_Editing and the lengthy New_Art pages, following it to the letter, and have it all working? If not, please go at least to the latter and make sure You have it all properly set up.

Here we will discuss an most simple asset to be built. We produce merely an Container. Its purpose is to just have an grasp of the art pipeline and to have it done quick and easy.

Asset creation in free software

The free software movement is going strong lately. Never before could we choose an production grade suite for the cost of literally nothing. Let us harness this power for the moment and see what can be done with software free of charge (and guilt).

Blender

Most meticulous part of the art is produced in blender3D.

Luckily Blender is an dependable tool, and does not crash often. Although one can't overdo Ctrl+s.

Open blender and use the box that is present as the default scene. This object makes a good start for an container. enter edit mode by pressing [tab] key and by pressing [a] key several times, ascertain all of the nodes are selected. Select a view to easily move the box so it "touches the ground" instead being half way inside of it. press [tab] to return to Object mode and find the material properties tab.

/TODO/

-material

-UV mapping preset

-Save to PNG

-load the PNG into the initial texture for the UV

-Paint the texture in blender initially (stencil, creation of soft brush and hard brush)

-Export the texture to SVG (for applying final decals)

-How to make bump-maps too - if necessary

Inkscape

- opening the UV preset

- editing in the surfaces (clip, pattern, import bitmap)

- exporting back to PNG

Blender

- importing the UV bitmap (PNG)

- how to adjust it if necessary, what spoils the UV and what does not.

Inkscape

- producing black & withe UV map copies

GIMP

- Adjusting the colors of the black & withe UV maps to become bump maps, normal maps or specular maps...

blender

CryEngine naming conventions and art precautions explained

- preparing the art for export (steps and measures)

- exporting to Collada(DAE, options which and why set or not)

- exporting to lightvawe (OBJ, options)

Collada

- converting the *.dae file to the *.cgf

- what to copy and where (a dummy map or TC_Reference)

GIMP

- Converting the PNG files to DDS (better compression) or TIF (older format, more widely supported - no obvious advantages)

File Manager

For each object the belonging *.cgf *.mtl and *.dds file is to be located and copied to the place it will be referenced from (usually the map's folder).

The MTL file is to be edited for the bitmap names to be adjusted. This can be done in the Sandbox2 editor when the object is already imported into the map. In the material editor just select the according material and adjust the file in the maps section. Usually it is the Difuse map and it will usually have an *.png entry. The proper DDS bitmap is to be found in the map folder. This will allow for the bitmap to be distributed alongside the map.

Sandbox2

- the editors likes starting from scratch (Save, Exit, Run, rE-load Map = SEREM)

- the copies get corrupted all of sudden (copy1, copy 11, copy111, copy1111) and daily backups, version control

- importing the asset from inside the map folder (new assets are those not included with the game - so the only place left is the downloadable map folder)

- correcting materials (material editor of Sandbox2 updates edits in real-time - like Gnome and GTK apps)

- checking if corrections are properly applied (SEREM)

Asset creation with professional tools

While professional tools of such mileage (~10 years) are plagued by many short comings, still there is no match for the level of feature support versus them. The only way to import animations into Sandbox2 are the professional tools (yet).

3D Studio Max

- make box

- export UVs

Photoshop

- process the maps from 3dsmax

- produce height, bump and normal maps

- export for cryengine compatible formats (DDS,TIF)

3dStudioMax

- apply the UV maps created in the Photoshop

- export the object to cryengine from within 3dsmax

Sandbox2

- check the created object in the editor

- locate it on the filesystem

OS file manager

- copy the files (graphics file (cgf, cga), textures (DDS, TIF, TGA) and material (MTL) files) to the map-local folder( new assets are those not included with the game - so the only place left is the downloadable map folder).