Photogrammetry objects

sjefen · March 29, 2022, 06:02:58 PM

Hi,

I've invested some time and money on photogrammetry lately for the purpose of having the ability to create some good looking assets for myself to use in Terragen. After some recent tests with some new equipment I'm pretty sure I'm able to pull of something decent.

I sad some time ago I would like to share some models here on this community, but I haven't gotten to that point just yet. I just wanted to share some progress and ask if this is of any interest? I'll share some models for free in tgo when they are ready.
I would only need some help to create some of the image maps like specular and glossiness. I have no idea of how to make those. I'm able to create albedos and normal maps.

Here's a link to a screen capture from RealityCapture. This is just a quick test based on 60 images, but it was way too dark for me to see where I was flying. Anyway, I think it came out pretty good considering it was so dark outside and only from 60 images. What do you think? Is this if any interest at all?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/i9tNJgxPb4GUvR517

Best regards,
Terje

KlausK · March 29, 2022, 06:51:58 PM

Thanks for showing this! This is very interesting indeed. And I think your example looks quite good already.
If you ever find the time in the future maybe you can describe your workflow.
Which Hard- and Software you use, for example.
There is information about that to be found on the internet of course but,
your insight would be sort of first hand

Very curious to see your first models in a scene!

CHeers, Klaus

WAS · March 29, 2022, 06:53:33 PM

That's impressive! You were already making some stunning stuff, so this is something I'm excited to be added to your toolset with TG.

pixelpusher636 · March 29, 2022, 11:52:14 PM

Wow! Really impressive geometry and texturing from just 60 images! I'm looking forward to your assets. Still love your beach scene, I know, random.

Dune · March 30, 2022, 01:44:53 AM

That is really great! I'm sure folks here would be interested in some fine assets like this. Did you do any tree-trunks and stuff like that as well?
I use Pixplant (older version) for my displacement/bumpmaps, and today I see it also does PBR material maps: https://www.pixplant.com/download.php Maybe that's of use.

sjefen · March 30, 2022, 03:31:45 AM

I can explain a little more.

I bought myself a drone for this. A DJI Air 2S which has a pretty good camera actually. It's not as good as a DSLR, but it's much more convenient compared to placing a camera, take a picture, move a meter or two to the side, place it again and take another picture and so on.

After I've taken the pictures, I just feed it into RealityCapture which is pretty easy and does most of the work by itself.

There's more, but I'm at work now. I can explain more when I have something more complete to show. I just also wanted to share one of the images from this project to show how bad lighting conditions I was working with. I think this could be even better if I where to do it with better lighting conditions. This image is compressed so i could upload it here btw.

sjefen · March 30, 2022, 06:00:17 AM

Quote from: Dune on March 30, 2022, 01:44:53 AMThat is really great! I'm sure folks here would be interested in some fine assets like this. Did you do any tree-trunks and stuff like that as well?
I use Pixplant (older version) for my displacement/bumpmaps, and today I see it also does PBR material maps: https://www.pixplant.com/download.php Maybe that's of use.

Yeah, I made a tree trunk some time ago, but that was capture on my phone, so not as good as what I can get from my drone

. I will try again with the same trunk with my drone. It's only one minute of walk from home. Eventually i want to create lots of stuff. Many rocks and cliffs, more trunks and hopefully find some abandoned buildings I can try it with. It'll be fun.

I know it won't be "Quixel quality", but they should be quit nice when everything is done. Maybe if they are good enough Matt could put them on the Terragen download site as free tgo models for everyone using Terragen to enjoy?

I'll check out Pixplant. Thanks 🙏

Looking forward to when Terragen can handle normal maps. I think that can help out alt so we can import less heavy models maybe

Dune · March 30, 2022, 06:28:30 AM

Sounds good and like fun indeed!

Hannes · March 30, 2022, 07:32:37 AM

Quote from: sjefen on March 30, 2022, 06:00:17 AMLooking forward to when Terragen can handle normal maps. I think that can help out alt so we can import less heavy models maybe

Oh yes, indeed!!!

Great stuff, Sjefen. I used a lot of photogrammetry objects lately, most of them from Sketchfab. But you can't have enough of them. And it's good, if someone who knows, what you need for TG, creates them. Most of the time you need to rotate, scale, clean and probably retexture downloaded objects. Most of them are free, so I don't want to complain.

WAS · March 30, 2022, 12:50:44 PM

Quote from: Dune on March 30, 2022, 01:44:53 AMThat is really great! I'm sure folks here would be interested in some fine assets like this. Did you do any tree-trunks and stuff like that as well?
I use Pixplant (older version) for my displacement/bumpmaps, and today I see it also does PBR material maps: https://www.pixplant.com/download.php Maybe that's of use.

What all does that do? I see it has a clone tool and stuff, or editing only a masked portion of file. But not seeing much to justify 100+ bucks over a free alternative.

sboerner · March 30, 2022, 12:54:08 PM

Very cool indeed. I was puzzled by your reference to flying before you mentioned the drone. But of course. This really sounds like a fun project.

QuoteLooking forward to when Terragen can handle normal maps. I think that can help out alt so we can import less heavy models maybe

Same.

WAS · March 30, 2022, 12:55:34 PM

Until then you can use Materialize. It'll load normal as XYZ displacement, and fire lighting in 360 (actually I think 180 for all it needs for 2d) degrees to create a heightmap.

sjefen · March 30, 2022, 04:51:35 PM

Quote from: WAS on March 30, 2022, 12:55:34 PMUntil then you can use Materialize. It'll load normal as XYZ displacement, and fire lighting in 360 (actually I think 180 for all it needs for 2d) degrees to create a heightmap.

I've used Materialize allot, but I just don't understand how to create glossiness and specular maps? Is it just guessing until it looks good, or is there somehow "a right way" to make them?

WAS · March 31, 2022, 01:46:05 AM

Uses the same 0-1 most engines interpret. But you get no intensity debug info, so yeah it's more "yeah, that tone matches this tone, which produces this specular" etc. So a secondary reference is probably needed. Since most engines actually do kinda interpret maps differently, and display them differently, this may be good practice to produce for whatever you're using anyway.

Dune · March 31, 2022, 02:07:35 AM

I think glossiness and specular (even bump to some degree) can't be derived from one photo (so I actually don't believe in any software that does that), because any caught pixel is just a tone (can be just a whitish color, or a reflection on a dark green area). I think it can only be derived from several photo's from several angles, which can see the differences of that one particular pixel/area in changing angles.