Nikita Lisitsa

So right now my game doesn't use textures at all, only vertex colors. However many things would benefit greatly from texturing (e.g. vegetation, clothing). Adding textures means

1. Higher engine complexity
2. Much higher content creation cost

(2) is my major concern.

Anybody got any opinions/advice on this?

Aug 23, 2024 at 8:22amWeb
Show threadMoahAug 23, 2024
@lisyarus consider using some auto generated texturing or shaders instead?
Show threadBenoît Vimont Aug 23, 2024
@lisyarus Keep it without textures if you don't have the production capacity, but invest in lighting. 3D without textures but with good lighting, whether it's real-time or baked, can look very nice.
Show threadEyeOfMidasAug 23, 2024

@lisyarus Tomas Sala does some pretty amazing textureless work. I have this article saved from ages ago about some of his techniques. https://web.archive.org/web/20190527040401/https://www.littlechicken.nl/oberons-court-textureless-3d-work/

Oberon's Court never got released but his next game Falconeer uses many of the same techniques.

Making textureless 3D work - Little Chicken Game Company

Oberon's Court - some insight into making a pure3D or textureless 3D game. It's not all that difficult, but it does require you to use tools differently.

Little Chicken Game Company
Show threadNikita LisitsaAug 23, 2024
@eyeofmidas Thanks, I'll look into it!
Show threadJames JarmanAug 23, 2024
@lisyarus I like the vibe you have going textureless. If you desperately need detail in your models you could always add additional triangles and continue using vertex colours (which I can see you've already been doing in your screenshots).
Show threadNikita LisitsaAug 23, 2024
@jargon Thanks! Yep, I've been working on higher triangle density, and tbh at this point I'm seriously concerned with performance, there are just way too many triangles. Decoupling triangles from detail density sounds so tempting!
Show threadSeanOMikAug 24, 2024
@lisyarus @jargon maybe you could create textures that make it appear as vertex colors. You'd get the same look, but won't have to increase number of triangles to get more texture detail.
Show threadAnders LindqvistAug 23, 2024
@lisyarus If your target platform can handle it then triplanar mapping can be an alternative that could make content creation cost lower, if it fits.
Show threadAnders LindqvistAug 23, 2024
@lisyarus Otherwise stylished shaders is a good way to go too. Basically embrace a style that you CAN do easily, or work very hard to get to the style you actually want. If you are lucky then the style you want is easy to do :)
Show threadNikita LisitsaAug 23, 2024
@breakin It easily can, but it doesn't fit at all, unfortunately. A triplanar mapped barrel or hat would look a bit weird :)
Show threadAnders LindqvistAug 23, 2024
@lisyarus Embrace weird! Just gotta find your weird.
Show threadDemianAug 23, 2024
@lisyarus I've been working on a project for about 6 years where we only use vertex colors. Two things are very important: a consistent and distinct art style and a well thought out color palette. You should also avoid deviating from the palette if at all possible. A palette with too many colors loses its meaning.
Show threadNikita LisitsaAug 23, 2024
@DemianDev Thanks for the advice!
Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveAug 23, 2024
@lisyarus I like how Deep Rock Galactic does it: most surfaces are plain but have detail added via a limited number of detail textures (looks like they mainly mod normal, roughness and metallic). It breaks up the uniformity just enough to make it look great when it’s really just plain coloured triangles underneath
Show threadNikita LisitsaAug 23, 2024
@sinbad Interesting, thanks!
Show threadmmbyAug 23, 2024

@sinbad @lisyarus I had a look at DRG assets a while ago (because I adore the game)

I'm not sure anymore but I think the assets were UV-mapped - please correct me if they're not - which would cause a good bit more work with the assets for a solo dev unfamiliar with it

though I feel once you get used to how it works in blender it's mainly putting seams and iterating on how your islands are placed

Show threadThe Seven Voyages Of SteveAug 23, 2024
@mmby @lisyarus the characters are UV unwrapped but the world is triplanar projected AFAICT. So yeah the unwrapping is an extra job but it’s not as finicky as if you’re painting a full texture set, it doesn’t even have to be uniquely UV packed because you actually want to reuse areas of the detail texture all over the model. So a simple per-model-section unwrap into the same texture space would work & can mostly use auto settings
Show threadNikita LisitsaAug 23, 2024
@mmby @sinbad Yeah I'm still going fairly low-poly with no complicated topology, so UV mapping should probably be fine. I can easily imagine myself spending hours tweaking textures, though >_>
Show threadmmbyAug 23, 2024

@lisyarus maybe take a look at Deep Rock Galactic - they only use faceted procedural textures to mesh with the low-poly style

you can maybe do something like this only with vertex colors - then mesh density will also mean color detail

Show threadJoni KorpiAug 23, 2024

@lisyarus tried this a while ago and it seemed promising:

1. Give all things the same 1 texture: perhaps a nice quality simplex or cellular noise one.
2. Write a shader that draws pen-style strokes or contours using the texture.
3. Add a vertex attributes/instance attributes/uniforms that control the texture’s x/y scales, and maybe the orientation.
4. Fiddle with the values and the shader until the results look intentional. :D

Show threadNikita LisitsaAug 23, 2024
@jonikorpi Yeah, I've been thinking to try something like hatching or similar techniques for quite some time!