Redesign of all HQ and support factories

Jip

This topic acts as an overview. It merely exists to explain why we're redesigning the factories and it provides you with links to topics where you can discuss a factory category (land/air/naval) of a faction.

Links to discussion topics

Screenshots

All screenshots are taken on the map Seton's Clutch - FAF version as made by @svenni_badbwoi . The lighting settings of a map determine are a large factor in how factories are perceived.

Feedback

All feedback is welcome, but do make sure it is useful. If you have never read about how to give feedback than I can recommend you this guide along with two good examples of constructive feedback:

Want to help out?

Find us on the official Discord server and introduce yourself in the #pbr-development channel. There is no need for any previous experience, but it does help if you're familiar with tools such as Blender and are not afraid to learn about how the graphics in the game work.

Reasoning of redesigning the factories

There are a lot of visual issues with the current HQ factories. They originate from a mod, as described on the wikipedia article about integrated mods.

I'm unsure whether there were intentions to improve them but that did not quite happen. As a result we've been looking at the same HQ factories for a long time and a lot of us have become well acquainted with them.

The factories look bad

All factories have one or more of the following issues:

(1) There are no proper upgrade animation

All the 'HQ bits' just pop into view as the upgrade animation is finished. This is fine for a mod, but it breaks immersion when it is part of the base game.

(2) A lot of 'HQ bits' have stretched textures

Once seen you can not un-see it. It simply looks bad - no model that we ship with the base repository should have stretched textures. Sadly fixing this is hard, if not impossible because of lack of texture space on the existing textures to do it properly.

(3) A lot of 'HQ bits' have baked in ambient lighting at the wrong places

Baked-in ambient lighting is a common technique to give your game more of a 'wow' factor. But they are static, and when the mesh changes they usually need to be recomputed. This is not the case, causing all sorts of strange lighting artifacts all over the 'HQ bits' of the factories. The easiest example to see this is the UEF Land HQ, where bits and pieces are darker while it doesn't make any sense for them to be so.

(4) A lot of 'HQ bits' have bad normal maps

This is more less trivial to visualize for those that are unaware of how these properties work. But as a result of them the lighting looks off and so do additional properties such as specular lighting and reflections. One clear example is the tips of the 'HQ bits' of the Aeon land factory, which suddenly get darker and the reflection is distorted around that area:

The factories look even worse with PBR shaders

You can find more information about what 'PBR' means and what the project involves in the dedicated topic. With these new shaders we can significantly improve the visual fidelity of the game, which improves the ease of immersion.

These new shaders rely on the assets to be well-defined. This means there should be no missing channels, no sketchy normal maps, no stretching, no weird albedo maps with (bad) baked in albedo lighting. The old HQ factories have all of the forementioned issues, and PBR shaders only amplify those issues:

Left and right are both the new shader, which amplify the issues with improperly baked albedo lighting on the 'HQ bits'

As an example, this is how a mesh looks like that has well-defined assets:

Left is the old shader, right is the new shader

This entire project is still very much in development and there's still a lot of work to be done before it can be introduced to the player base of FAF.

magge

This thread is only meant as overview, not for feedback. Please give your feedback in the proper threads, which are linked in the first post.

Any replies in this thread here will get removed.

Dr_Egg

This post is deleted!

Saver

Hello , I skimmed through this forum post and wanted to know if the old HQ factory models still exist? Or whether they have been preserved as a mod?

Nomander

@Saver They're preserved in the git history. The PBR project page has almost all the related PRs, I think. At worst you can just go to every .scm file on github and just check the commit history (example).
Aeon air factories rework #4501
Aeon land factory HQ/Support visual reworks #4479
aeon navy factories #4521
fixing conflicts from last branch #4664 (Cybran air factories)
Cybran land factories hq and sup #4456
Cybran navy factories #4469

Saver

@Nomander Thank you very much And thank you for your great work in the community

Saver

Hi everyone, quick question.
Are the factories still being worked on?

If so, I could help. At least regarding the mesh model and animation.

If not, that's fine too. Then I'd give it a try. I've already finished the UEF land factory in both forms.

However, I wouldn't create a mod until a fraction is completely finished.

And that will unfortunately take time.
Job and time ^^

please excuse my bad English

Jip

@Saver from my point of view some of these units can definitely still use a touch. But it was such a sensitive topic (out of the blue) a few years ago that it's been untouched since. Could you share what you have made so far?

Saver

@Jip Hi Jip, I've only reworked the UEF land factory so far. HQ and Support now have their own construction animation. However, I had to adjust the models a bit. I will provide you with a mod via Discord. If it does not work, I can also upload it to FAF. it is already functional.

Saver

Saver

Hello everyone, as already mentioned, I'm going to revisit the topic of "Redesign of all HQ and support factories" and try to create the missing animations and adjust some designs.

Since this topic originated with the FAF team (please correct me if I'm wrong),
from now on it will be more of a free contribution from me. I'll try to pay attention to suggestions and welcome suggestions. However, please note that I will approach this topic freely and independently in my decision.

There will therefore be no interventions in the core game on my part, unless the FAF team approaches me.

Now to the project: Due to technical reasons, I've unfortunately only been able to complete the UEF land and Air factory. Since I want to save this work, I'll upload a mod to FAF with the work so far.

A big thank you goes to Balthazar. He provided me with new textures for the land factory. For me personally it looks great.

Thanks also to Jip and CDRMV, who pointed out errors in the models.

Please excuse my poor English.

Saver

Here are the current status pictures if you don't want to test the mod:

UEF Land:

Saver

UEF Air:
Here is also a good example when the textures were not improved, like in the land factories.

Saver

I'd like to visit all the factories, but for now, that's my current work status.

Blackrobe

@Saver
Nice work mate; but you've hooked the T1 Air Factory at 4800 Health. It should be 4000. Seems odd that you go from a T1 Air factory at 4800, to upgrade to a T2 Air factory that is 4000 health.

Saver

@Blackrobe Thanks for the tip. I forgot to use the new Unit BP files from FAF when I was adapting. Because I'm also using standard models from Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. They still have the old numbers from the standard game. I'll correct that today

Saver

Hi everyone, the final part of the UEF factories is complete. All factories have now received mesh and animation adjustments in all variants. Since I have to replace my hardware next week, it will take me a little longer to get the other factories working. At least all systems should be running stable again by then ^^ But it's at least a start Here are a few pictures for comparison.

The changes to the models should be not very noticeable, so just a few minor comments. The flashing lights have been corrected in all factories, and T3 HQ has received another turret.
But that's it for now. I'll let you know if there's any further progress. Mod: Savers Factory Rework

Saver

Hello everyone,

I've completed the transition to new hardware and have been able to continue working on the project.

In the next step, I want to focus on the other factions. First, I reread the forum post about the Aeon Water Factory to use the criticisms mentioned as a starting point for improvements. Like the team before me, I probably won't be able to do justice to everyone. But here, Chonaml, is my first attempt.

Here are some pictures for the current comparison between HQ and Support Factory T3 Water.

If you have any opinions, criticisms, or suggestions, please remain objective. I'll be happy to respond or implement them.
See you soon.

Saver

A quick question for the FAF team. Is it possible to make the Mercury Pool from Class: T3 a bit smaller?

It's already quite large. At least the length could be reduced a bit. If you'd like, I can edit it and make it available to you.

Aircraft Carrier UAS0303

Omen Class: T3 Battleship UAS0302

Torrent Class: T3 Missile Ship XAS0306

Here is the corresponding script area.

StartBeingBuiltEffects = function(self, builder, layer)
    ASeaUnit.StartBeingBuiltEffects(self, builder, layer)
	self.MercuryPool = import("/lua/EffectUtilitiesAeon.lua").CreateMercuryPoolOnBone(self, self.Army, '*Unitbone*', 2.5,4,4, 0.1)
end,

The "Unitbone" would have to be changed to the appropriate name and the numbers at the end and that would be fine.

I just noticed it while experimenting. I might add it to the end of the water factories as a unit adjustment.

Nomander

@Saver said in Redesign of all HQ and support factories:

Is it possible to make the Mercury Pool from Class: T3 a bit smaller?

Unless the unit script does something special, the blueprint Physics MeshExtents fields should adjust the size of the mercury pool.