DirectX-11 Environment with The Afflicted Assets

[DevinSherry]

Here is a scene that I worked on about a month ago when I wanted to learn about the new DirectX-11 features that were being supported by Unreal. The assets used in the environment are all custom props/materials from The Afflicted made by the 3 man art team of the project. Tell me what you think!



http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...65060309_n.jpg

[DevinSherry]

I updated the image-based reflections in the environment, one of the artists I work with figured out how to more defined reflections by increasing the specular and specular power of the material you want to reflect, in my case, the road. Tell me what you think!

[FRAG69]

Your work is looking amazing, I especially like your use of lighting in the scene although in the latest image you posted, the floor looks disconnected some how.

Really nice work though, look forward to seeing more.

[White Paper Games]

How many projects do you have going! Loving the shots. DoP is a bot sharp on that first image but as for the atmosphere it creates, top marks!

[DevinSherry]

Thanks for the advice guys! To FRAG69, the floor looks disconnected because I may not have bEnableImageReflectionShadowing enabled in the world info. This gives static objects the important shadowing so that the ground and the objects look connected.

WhitePaperGames, this was just for a class assignment/a way for me to learn some of the new DirectX-11 features in the UDK,its not a major project of mine haha. The art assets are all from a current project(The Afflicted) and the assets were made with a custom shader made specifically for DirectX-11 so it was a lot of fun to create this environment. I will be making some changes based on what you both said so stay tuned!

[FRAG69]

Ah I see, Still a very nice piece of work you have, how are you finding the DirectX 11 features? I've only started having a look into material tessellation from the provided documentation at UDN, would love to create a DX11 game for my final project but the computers in Uni only support DX9 sadly.

[DevinSherry]

On the machine I use, I am using the November build of the UDK and if you want to enable DirectX-11, you need to go into File--->Switch Renderer--->DirectX 11. The UDK will then have to restart, but when it does it will be running DirectX-11

There are a few steps to this process in order to get image-based reflections working. The material that you want to have the image-based reflections on, the road for example, must have a few properties in place before any reflections appear. The material needs to have a specular and a specular power property set in the material editor. The best results are with a specular of 2 and a very large specular power, between 200-500. The material also needs to have a diffuse, normal and things like that, but the specular and specular power are the specific needs of the material. Next, in that same material, you need to go into the properties in the material editor and go into D3D11---> and check the image based reflections property. Now your material is ready!
Now for the actual object that is giving the reflection, perhaps a neon sign, or street lights. These objects need to have an emissive property, the more the better, but what ever looks good haha. Do the same thing with this material and enable the image based reflections and it should be good.
The final step is to place an image reflection scene capture into the scene. To find this, just go into actor classes and type it in. When placed in the environment, it will display a large white circle as a way to preview the reflection, but when you bake lighting, the real image reflection will be there instead. Under those properties you can change the color of the reflection itself, and its intensity.

You can also place an image reflection shadow plane into the environment and that provides dynamic shadows for characters and any other dynamic objects. Here are more references: http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Image...flections.html

Make sure you have a lightmass importance volume in place and everything should work. If you run into any issues let me know and I will try my best to help you.

[FRAG69]

Wow thanks DevinSherry, I'm going to jump into UDK now and give it a shot!

[DevinSherry]

No problem! Hopefully I didn't forget anything haha, let me know if something isn't working properly. Any screen shots will help diagnose any problems.

[DevinSherry]

Here is another screen shot of the environment, I put in some post processing effects as well as a spark shower particle effect that I learned in a new tutorial that I found.

[Bryce Chernyha]

I don't know about you, but i think martial law has been declared haha.

Looks great Devin. Has UDK always been able to produce reflections like that? and could you explain the DirectX-11?

[DevinSherry]

Hey Bryce,

UDK has been able to use DirectX-11 features since the April 2011 beta. I talked about how to produce reflections like these a few comments up, its a huge paragraph so you can't miss it. Just to reiterate, these assets were made by the Afflicted art team, not myself. I used the assets to practice producing image-based reflections and the provided environment is the result of that practice.

[FRAG69]

Are there any more updates regarding this piece of work DevinSherry?

[DevinSherry]

Not at the moment FRAG69, I have been busy working on The Afflicted for our push to get a really good build of the game ready for GDC in a little over a week. Overall, this environment is done for the sake of the purposes I created it for, but if anyone has any remaining questions about DirectX-11, or any UDK related questions at all, I will be more than happy to answer them

[White Paper Games]

Hey Devin, wondered why you had been so quiet recently Hope The Afflicted is coming on nicely, would be cool to see some WiP when you guys are all set for GDC. Good luck to the team guys!