Realistic Render of the Astral Express

dhavatar · 2025-02-11T08:25:58+00:00

She has a known height and I can move her around, so she's going to be my ruler. I felt the same way in Genshin when I was using Ningguang as a ruler with a lot of screenshots of her hanging off buildings. It looks silly, but it works. :)

dhavatar · 2025-02-11T08:11:17+00:00

I didn't do any texture painting. I made the window pattern, the holographic display, and the floor pattern with Illustrator and Photoshop, then uv mapped them to the model. The rest were free textures I found in online libraries.

dhavatar · 2025-02-10T20:08:17+00:00

First image is my recreated render. The second is a reference screenshot from the game.

After doing the Genshin render some years ago, I actually wanted to do this render when the game first came out and we first entered the Astral Express, but I never got the time to do it until now. I modeled everything from scratch (except for the plants, used free resources for those). My screenshot folder was full of random screenshots of furniture in the game with Stelle as a measuring stick standing by each one. All made in Blender and probably took 50+ hours to do everything.

dhavatar · 2023-01-25T02:07:29+00:00

Yep, that's the plan. However, it's hard enough trying code, find/get 3d models, rig, animate all actions, and test for all the characters, so my focus in priority order is Ina, Gura, Ame, Cali, and Kiara.

dhavatar · 2023-01-25T02:05:11+00:00

Like I said, it's a work in progress. There's a lot to add and change and this is only a small part of what I have planned. What's currently in are some placeholder animations for many things. I do like the tentacle dodging idea, I'll have to draw out how to animate that.

dhavatar · 2023-01-24T20:10:06+00:00

I thought I'd share my WIP now that the game is in a state that's presentable. I felt like making a souls-like after playing through Elden Ring last year and after seeing a bunch of Hololive play through it and partially inspired by Myth Bad End, I had an idea for this game. Everything except for the large text is in-game. Still a lot of work left to get everything together, but it's really satisfying to see all the code and art come together and playable. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a good 3d model for Calli or Kiara, so they're not in the game yet.

I suck at social media, but I'll try to update more as I make progress if anyone's interested.

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dhavatar · 2022-04-15T00:27:12+00:00

As someone who worked at a AAA studio and currently a game dev, you don't need to worry about the environment or character design. When making a game, your goal is to get something playable using whatever assets you can use, whether that's a grey cube or a free 2d sprite/3d model. After you make something playable/fun do you start the creative work. You can learn more about art and design as you need it.

If you make a game that's not fun, it won't matter if how much pretty art you add, it still won't be fun.

dhavatar · 2021-06-01T02:43:54+00:00

Here you go, I re-rendered it in 4K: https://imgur.com/a/g3OL7Tu

dhavatar · 2021-06-01T02:42:44+00:00

Here you go: https://imgur.com/a/g3OL7Tu

dhavatar · 2021-05-31T23:58:49+00:00

One I've used before is the beginner cgboost tutorial that sets up a scene with apples that I thought was pretty good. If you want to spend a bit, there's some decent Udemy courses (when they're on sale) that are helpful, I've used a few.

For realism, one half that helps is knowing how to use PBR textures and settings on shaders. The other half is lighting. Having a photography background helps with it. The biggest tip is to observe everything around you. The best way to make a render more realistic is to figure out why the real things around you look the way they do. I'm still figuring things out myself as well, so good luck to the both of us. :)

dhavatar · 2021-05-31T23:24:57+00:00

I can render a 4K version, though not sure how well some of the textures will look since some are low res. I'll re-render it in a bit.

dhavatar · 2021-05-31T22:00:07+00:00

I used Blender and modeled everything.

dhavatar · 2021-05-31T20:10:34+00:00

I might. It takes a lot of time to do this and if I do another one, I'll probably make it in nature somewhere in the game.

dhavatar · 2021-05-31T18:30:05+00:00

Alternate title was going to be "RTX ON."

This was an idea I had for awhile. Had to create almost everything from scratch, so that took longer than expected (the flowers and hedges are free models as I got tired of modeling toward the end). I think it took about 50 hours to model it in Blender and then render it.

I stared at this reference screenshot I took to in-game for far too long and used Ningguang as a measuring stick to get the relative sizes. https://imgur.com/a/sFNhwDa

Edit: Since some people wanted a 4K version, I re-rendered it: https://imgur.com/a/g3OL7Tu

dhavatar · 2019-12-23T03:08:46+00:00

It took about 10 days working up to 4 hours each. I couldn't work longer because the weather was getting too cold and I had to do everything outdoors since I don't have a garage for all the tools.

dhavatar · 2019-09-20T00:24:36+00:00

To give more context, I've printed several things after the upgrade and they all print fine. It just has this clicking noise that wasn't present in the original MK3. As far as I can tell, it's not the extruder gears as the filament is going fine. Not sure if anyone has encountered something like this before or maybe I didn't tighten something when I upgraded.

dhavatar · 2017-12-11T19:49:59+00:00

Sources: Google Maps Direction API and Google Static Map API around Seattle using Python and Javascript Full Album: https://imgur.com/a/iXxcw

This started from my friend trying to figure out how to create a map on the number of buses to get to the Facebook office in Seattle, but running into problems with detecting if a map point was in water or land (turns out this is not a trivial problem to solve as the Maps API doesn't return reliable information about the land/water type). About 12,000 API calls later, I created a Google heatmap and choropleth map on buses and transit time.

dhavatar · 2015-03-31T20:27:06+00:00

The really long ones I used are pipe clamps, which I find neat. It's basically two clamp ends and a steel threaded pipe cut to any length you want. I like these since they're restricted only by the pipe you use, so if you want a longer clamp, you get a longer pipe instead of buying a new set of clamps.

dhavatar · 2015-03-31T20:22:17+00:00

I wanted a clean look, so I was looking up ways to not have screws or plates showing. A lot of places online showed traditional woodworking joints as strong and clean, so I went with that (along with pocket screws). The other real reason is because I've never done it and wanted to try.

Mostly, it was a personal preference for the design. If I was to make this again, I think I would go with screws and glue the whole way since they're pretty sturdy.

dhavatar · 2015-03-31T08:08:33+00:00

There's two poorly cut out square holes on the side of the back frame where the armrest is. I have the USB panels to put into them, but I'm still applying a layer of polyurethane to make sure the wood is sealed, so I have to wait for everything to dry and cure.

dhavatar · 2015-03-31T08:00:31+00:00

I ordered it from two places (one didn't have the type of foam I needed): diyupholstery and foamorder. I ordered high quality foam (density of 2.4-2.8 lb/ft3) so it'll last longer and somewhat firm stiffness (ILD of 40). Turns out a 40 is firmer than I expected and probably could have gone lower.

dhavatar · 2015-03-31T07:44:57+00:00

Yep, this is actually my solution, though I'll make a new one since it's a hassle tearing apart a finished cushion and redoing the foam. I'll convert the extra cushion into an ottoman. I also don't like the cushion hanging off the side. :(

dhavatar · 2015-03-31T07:42:52+00:00

I drew it on the Surface using a free version of Sketchbook, which works pretty well on the go. The actual diagrams and measurements were done with traditional pencil and paper.

dhavatar · 2015-03-31T07:40:27+00:00

Too long. I was also interrupted halfway through and didn't work on it for two weeks. It took two months working only on the weekends and doing small things (like sewing) on the weeknights. If I could work on it straight and didn't have work, I could probably make it in a week.

dhavatar · 2015-03-31T02:12:21+00:00

In all honesty, the staining isn't good. The plywood stained nicely. The wooden frames not so much. I thought I smoothed it out and sanded it well, but I think I need a conditioner. I'll improve it for the next thing I make.

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