I did not get to do too much project work this weekend as I was at a church retreat with my daughter. It was a really great break. I volunteered along with many others from church to work the camp’s kitchen and serve the 200 or so Jr HS and Sr HS Students. It was exhausting but fun at the same time and I know the students had a blast. It was a really nice break from the stresses of life and a nice distraction from this project. I also made some new friends and that in itself is a reward on top of the reward of just being able to serve these kids and help make their retreat memorable.
Now, let’s recap on some of the work that we did the previous week.
Ion created some new textures for the toolshed, a structure in-world created from pod parts and resources gathered from the surrounding area. We modified some of the shaded texture areas which created a little more realism. Notice the brightness under the roof of the first image below. We both agreed; that needed to be fixed.
Original Toolshed Textures
Now look at the following image and take note of the differences. Notice the interior roof and some of the other shaded areas.
Toolshed Texture Revamp
We updated the textures for the grain and fertilizer bags. Ion created an alternate texture for the grain and a lighter version of the fertilizer sack. The original was a darker green. The newer version was a tad bright so I toned it down with a trick Ion taught me. In Photoshop, I made a copy of the image and used a special blend option called satin. I played around a little with the transparency settings to get the texture to just the right tone. The final image is what your see below. I also kept the original texture for use in shaded areas.
New Sack Textures
Last but not least, we put in some foliage using the built-in SpeedTree demo that comes with the Mutiverse World Editor. To use it, I created a zone for a forest within the Multiverse World Editor and populated it with trees, grass and roses (those came with the demo). If we want to create more custom foilage (which we will someday), we will need to get a license from SpeedTree. That initially will be around $1600. After the project goes live, we pay the additional $7-10,000. I know it is steep but for it does, I think it is worth it. Right now, the demo objects will work just fine for the purposes of the Planet Postmoderna demo.
Farm Construction Zone with Trees
What excites me about this is the difference the trees and grass make to the scene. It adds a new dimension to what was a seemly flat landscape. Oh, okay, I lied. It is more than a few trees. 