Limit Theory Forums

I'd suggest that the reason why the Star Destroyer is perceived as better-greebled is not just the amount but the distribution.

In the first image there's either a rococo level of greebling or virtually none. There doesn't seem to be any rationale, even an in-game reason, behind why the ship looks really busy in one part and and nearly bare in another. (Note that I'm not saying this ship looks bad in any absolute sense; we're just comparing relative approaches.)

By contrast, the Star Detroyer's greeble is well-distributed. It sort of makes sense that the flattish surfaces would be mostly greeble-free, and that the areas exposed in between flat surfaces might have high-variation greeble. Even if it's a little weird, there appears to be a logic of some kind that's determining why some parts of this ship are complex and others are plain.

Well, if that's the case -- how do you do that procedurally? What's the algorithm for greeble that's:

• location-appropriate
• pleasingly "noisy"
• varied between ships, but still similar to other ships from that culture
• highly varied between cultures
• efficient to generate

Flatfingers wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 24, 2019 11:19 pm

• location-appropriate

Doesn't ambient occlusion do something with local complexity of geometry? If so, you could use an AO map to designate locations of complex geometry (the ice cream between the crackers of the Star Destroyer) as high-greeble, and locations of simple geometry (the crackers forming the main hull) as low-greeble.

Flatfingers wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 24, 2019 11:19 pm

In the first image there's either a rococo level of greebling or virtually none. There doesn't seem to be any rationale, even an in-game reason, behind why the ship looks really busy in one part and and nearly bare in another. (Note that I'm not saying this ship looks bad in any absolute sense; we're just comparing relative approaches.)

To be fair, the first model is very likely a work in progress. Start with the general shape and then step by step increase the details. So the greebled parts are probably done and the simple shapes will be replaced by greebled versions later.

I like Greeble in spaceship design, especially if it looks somewhat like functional components, not just random boxes.
Also a variation between more plain and very populated section of the structure., and not just an even distribution.

Yeeeaaaah, baby, now we're talkin'.

Radiator fins and beams and handholds and trusses and tubes and wheels and covers of many kinds! Stuff that might have some understandable purpose.

Plausibly functional greeble.

As an oblique addition to this continually necro'd discussion, I liked this article about whether greebles can be overdone, which I think is another way of saying they should be done intelligently. Sometimes less is more, hence why it's great when the greebles are plausible!

I think, especially in a game, where the player can spend time investigating the world and structures within it (in contrast to a movie scene with a precrafted short visual impression), its important also to get details interesting ... or abstract them away by using an appropriate artstyle.
If elements make somewhat sense, or at least seem plausible, the world feels deeper (than it actually is).
Its fun to just imagine how things work out. Its then part of creating immersion in the virtual world.

In a space game (3rd person) , the players ship should be the main highlight in visual style - its visible all the time. Just as the avatar is in a 3rd person action adventure. (Lara or Geralt)