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The Minas Tirith Project 56k = good luck

Started by Ysaneya Jun 17, 2004 at 4:49 AM 38 replies 15.7k views

Original Post

Jun 17, 2004 at 4:49 AM

I didn't know where to post this.. it's not directly related to programming, but it's not an announcement either. Just wanted to show off a new project i'll be working on this summer (note: i will try to regularly update this topic with new screenshots as progress is done). There's this group of 3D artists that are collaborating to create a massive 3D model of Minas Tirith. Just as a challenge: not for a game project or whatever. All done in medium to hi-polycount. I proposed my help to display (or try to.. ) the model in real-time. At the moment the model is 1.3 millions polys, and is not textured (how they are going to texture it, that's beyond me..). The ASE file is 450 Mb on disk. It's only the very top of the city, with the main hall and Ecthelion's tower. This is basically 1 / 100th of the total model they're trying to recreate. Some screenies: 1.

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Comments: 1. An overall view of the current model 2. The main hall (1 million polys) from outside 3. Another view of the hall, a bit further away 4. A side view (on the left) looking at the hall 5. Entrance 6. Back view from the left 7. Back view from the right 8. Interior, near the entrance 9. Interior, under the roof 10. Interior, some statues 11. Zoom on a statue 12. A wireframe of the statue (there's more polys in this statue than in a whole Quake2 level) 13. Candle holder 14. Wire for candle holder 15. Bird view, from top of Ecchtelion's tower 16. Wire for fun: main hall from front 17. A side tower 18. Back view of the hall Y. Edit: used some thumbnails for the sake of my website's bandwidth.. [Edited by - Ysaneya on June 17, 2004 10:30:37 AM]

Tooko

Jun 17, 2004 at 4:55 AM

That's... just amazing.
Seriously, great work. I don't know how you got the FPS you did, even on a top range system.
Wow.

Senses777

Jun 17, 2004 at 5:23 AM

Amazing! How do multiple people work on the same model though? Is it built in parts that the moddelers can check out so there won't be time conflicts?

Rixter

Jun 17, 2004 at 5:26 AM

Wow, that's really cool. Modeling an entire city just for fun? Does that mean people will someday be able to download it themselves to look at or walk through? That'd be cool. I'd love to see that thing textured.

AnonymousPosterChild

Jun 17, 2004 at 5:38 AM

I'm more impressed by the frame rate to polycount thing you got going on, but I'm weird like that.

evolutional

Jun 17, 2004 at 6:32 AM

Incredible. What sort of culling algorithms are you using on that?

benryves

Jun 17, 2004 at 7:40 AM

Nah, I reckon he's 'shopped the framerate ;)
Woo, that's impressive! Great modelling!

pi_equals_3

Jun 17, 2004 at 7:48 AM

WOW! Definitely let us know how that goes. I can't wait to see the finished product, and possibly download the walkthrough.

That really needs to be made into a game someday, even if it's "Hide and Seek in Minas Tirith."

QzarBaron

Jun 17, 2004 at 7:52 AM

*jaw drops*

WOW!! what amazes me is the amount of detail in that map. Its just incredible. Its going to be a pain to texture. But still I would love to see the finished product.

benjamin bunny

Jun 17, 2004 at 8:07 AM

Great artwork. Looks like you could really benefit from some occlusion culling in there. A binary file format might be a sensible idea too if you don't want to be storing and parsing 450MB at init time.

Rob Loach

Jun 17, 2004 at 8:47 AM

Wow, nice work.

rohde

Jun 17, 2004 at 8:51 AM

Very good work I must say. I'm thouroughly impressed.

Sander

Jun 17, 2004 at 9:00 AM

Really impressive :)

I wonder if it can be converted to a map for some 3D shooter though... Perhaps the Quake3 Raytracer engine can handle those polycounts.

Radan

Jun 17, 2004 at 9:01 AM

I was enjoying the pictures until I got to the wireframe one. That's where I glanced at the framerate ... ... What machine spec is that being rendered on?

b2b3

Jun 17, 2004 at 9:57 AM

I've tried scene with about 1.1 mil polygons in my engine and got about 4 fps when everything was on the screen.
When I turned on wireframe, my fps dropped down to 1 or 2 :)
I've also used .ase file which had more than 400 megs (3 decimals precision)...
What kind of culling algo are you using? And what are system spec?

Ysaneya

Jun 17, 2004 at 10:08 AM

I've received a few more buildings ( in a different part of the city ), couple of new screens:

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Now to the questions:

Quote:

Amazing! How do multiple people work on the same model though? Is it built in parts that the moddelers can check out so there won't be time conflicts?

Everybody works on the part he wants to. They are working from pictures and photos of the LOTR movie. To synchronize they use this map.

Quote:

Wow, that's really cool. Modeling an entire city just for fun? Does that mean people will someday be able to download it themselves to look at or walk through? That'd be cool. I'd love to see that thing textured.

That's the idea, yeah.. and for the textures... i agree. But i doubt it will be done anytime soon..

Quote:

Incredible. What sort of culling algorithms are you using on that?

and

Quote:

I was enjoying the pictures until I got to the wireframe one. That's where I glanced at the framerate ... ... What machine spec is that being rendered on?

All these shots were taken from an Athlon 2.4 Ghz and a "simple" Radeon 9700. There's surprizingly very little visibility work done - only frustum culling at the moment. I plan to add LOD and occlusion culling (via occlusion queries) when the model will grow bigger.

The screens were all taken with antialiasing x4. No texture, and 3 directional light sources (per-vertex). Code uses OpenGL with VBO/IBO.

Quote:

Great artwork. Looks like you could really benefit from some occlusion culling in there. A binary file format might be a sensible idea too if you don't want to be storing and parsing 450MB at init time.

Agreed, occlusion culling shouldn't be too hard to code, maybe if i have time this week end. I've just finished implementing a custom binary file format, so now i've taken the whole scene back to 50 Mb.

Y.

[Edited by - Ysaneya on June 17, 2004 10:08:08 AM]

Wolfmanyoda

Jun 17, 2004 at 10:49 AM

Is this the same group that started a Minas Tirith project on CGTalk awhile back?

fraKtal

Jun 17, 2004 at 11:09 AM

Holy crap! Awsome. Definately have to keep this up to date... can't wait to see what it looks like when it's done, and textured...

Ysaneya

Jun 18, 2004 at 2:49 AM

Quote:

Is this the same group that started a Minas Tirith project on CGTalk awhile back?

Yeah :)

Raduprv

Jun 18, 2004 at 3:01 AM

What's so cool about the frame rate? It's normal for a non textured model.
Anyway, great work, but I want to see it textured :)
And then Yann will show you some even better looking screenshots, running twice as fast :D

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