Friday Facts #214 - Concrete rendering

[leitk]

My first thought was, I'd better check the date because this looks like an 'April Fools' joke...

[Lav]

I would suggest to use the new concrete graphics as bricks.

New bricks graphics as cobblestone (smaller bonus but made from stone, not bricks).

And make a proper "flat featureless industrial grey" concrete with sharp (not blurred!) hazard painting.

[Avezo]

That last pic... LET US PLANT TREES!!!

How can we send rockets to space but can't grow a tree?

[Jap2.0]

That last pic... LET US PLANT TREES!!!

How can we send rockets to space but can't grow a tree?

I don't know... maybe because you polluted the planet top nearly uninhabitable levels in the process of making that rocket ?

[Optera]

What you created there is a fantastic looking cobblestone floor, but I wouldn't want to put heavy machinery on top of something that uneven.
Even the loading zone of a factory has a smooth concrete or asphalt surface .

Early highways in Austrian where built with large concrete blocks. I like how the current concrete looks almost identical to it.
Having the concrete blocks oriented to the grid also helps designing without constantly having to turn on the ugly grid.


It takes some decades for it to look like this. I somewhat doubt many games last long enough for concrete to deteriorate this much.



Also as others mentioned painted hazard concrete should have sharp edges. Any markings on streets are either paint, or more recently plastic tape smelted into surface.

[Bizz Keryear]

There are a few issues.
The new "concrete" does certainly look great ... and I would like to keep it as well ... but since it doesn't look like concrete* (as only one reason) not for the cost of the current one.

I get that you want to hide the tiles, but
Sometimes you DO want to have tiles. Maybe for measurements, mostly to give it a more industrial look.
And hard edges are also sometimes desired as well.

So I will basically conclude what many did*²:
Add the new, but keep the old ... maybe with a slightly updated texture. But keep that simple, flat, and a tile.
_____________________________
*= As viewtopic.php?t=53637#p314402 pointed out. The new one looks more like loosely put down concrete bricks ... if I give it the benefit of doubt.

*²=To be clear I did had this opinion right after reading the blog and before reading any posts here ... what I have read here is that the majority agrees with me.

• -> Some hate the new and want keep the old and don't want the new at all.
• -> Some hate the ones who hate the new, and they want the new one asap.
• -> And many want to have both. (which would probably also satisfy most of both groups above ... well except haters, cause haters gonna hate)

[Aervanath]

Everyone above has pretty much summed up my reaction to the concrete: "Pretty but that's not concrete".

[raidho36]

I work at the factory currently and I used to live in location where the only type of pavement was prefabricated concrete slabs (yes no asphalt, no stone paths, either dirt or concrete, nothing in between). The two defining features of concrete floor and pavement are:
1) it is FLAT
2) it is GRID, if it's made of prefabricated concrete blocks rather than being cast into shape in place

When I first read the beginning of article I thought you'd make solid concrete texture with big or small features on it like on terrain. When I first saw the new concrete graphics I thought it was stone path, in fact I had to re-read it a couple of times to grasp that it's supposed to be concrete floor. It looks nothing like concrete. Do you guys even know what concrete floor looks like? Have you ever been at a factory or drove on concrete paved road? You should have, should have taken a day off to visit concrete paved locations, for inspiration and reference, then you would've made natural looking concrete. It's like when people who never touched a gun try and design a gun and turns out to look utterly preposterous to anyone with a sliver of gun knowledge. What's the fallacy called, when you assume something must be good just because you put a lot of effort into making it? I've fallen victim to it a fair few times, but if I made it worse than it used to be, I acknowledge it in the end and either do a better job or revert it. The previous graphics looked nice, it could've used more variety and attention to detail but otherwise it was perfect. As I mentioned, I originally thought you made seamless solid concrete texture, and I suggest you do just that. Bonus points for adding ability to choose between seamless and gridded concrete.

edited a few times because not all of the thought came before I would post it

[FrenchDeath]

Made some quick test on substance to make a how i would see concrete texture, tried to keep as close to factorio style, having 3 version :




I can also provide heighMap, Normal map, and even roughness map if needed

[RaviorMetal]

I'm reffering to the FFF-Post.

I like it. It matches the rough look of Factorio very well.
And the screenshot at the bottom looks fantastic!

[RaviorMetal]

Made some quick test on substance to make a how i would see concrete texture, tried to keep as close to factorio style, having 3 version :

I can also provide heighMap, Normal map, and even roughness map if needed

Those are tiles. And sorry but the designers of course know their own ways to create content. You don't need to provide them anything

[matjojo]

wow, this looks amazing, really really cool. Will this change be merged into low res textures? My laptop sucks pretty bad:(

[stootachtig]

That last picture is absolutely stunning! bonus points to whoever designed it. But the concrete does not look like actual concrete. It rather looks like a proper stone brick floor, not really the 'industrial concrete' you would expect in this game. I understand you don't want it to be completely featureless, but this is a bit too uneven and busy for what should be a flat floor.

[mathturtle]

I would suggest to use the new concrete graphics as bricks.

New bricks graphics as cobblestone (smaller bonus but made from stone, not bricks).

And make a proper "flat featureless industrial grey" concrete with sharp (not blurred!) hazard painting.

I like this idea. +1

[Mango]

I would suggest to use the new concrete graphics as bricks.

New bricks graphics as cobblestone (smaller bonus but made from stone, not bricks).

And make a proper "flat featureless industrial grey" concrete with sharp (not blurred!) hazard painting.

I like this idea. +1

+1 for me too.

[TheRaph]

I would suggest to use the new concrete graphics as bricks.

New bricks graphics as cobblestone (smaller bonus but made from stone, not bricks).

And make a proper "flat featureless industrial grey" concrete with sharp (not blurred!) hazard painting.

I like this idea.

New brick graphic looks more like cobble stone. Why not let us lay down some "stones" to get a cobble stone road (with new brick-graphic) and use the ne fancy brick-like concrete graphic for brickstone. And then add new flat gray concrete (with 3D effects at the edge) as concrete.
For players who like black places you may also add asphalt or bitumen as byproduct on oil processing.
And wooden way's may also be a nice idea ...

[torham]

I hope the warning strip blurring can be turned off, since I use the stripes to mark resource drop points...

[Linux_user404]

Well, I just want to let you know how the real concrete looks like. There are tiles AND it is on the same level as everything else.

Concrete for people

VirWHDuaceQ.jpg (604.67 KiB) Viewed 9382 times

Concrete for cars

iIACKT3BnJo.jpg (788.3 KiB) Viewed 9384 times

Smooth Bricks

LNs17L0uVa0.jpg (197.06 KiB) Viewed 9378 times

Concrete, grass, bricks and pavement

cvaqg36Dll8.jpg (218.34 KiB) Viewed 9377 times

Bricks for cars

x_76a3d523.jpg (50.05 KiB) Viewed 9374 times

Bricks for people

w_9cedfe29.jpg (476.71 KiB) Viewed 9374 times

[HalfPastZulu]

I have to admit when I first saw the images of the new concrete I thought it was a new stone path graphic. I am willing to try it though It may be that I am so used to the current graphic that I just cannot imagine well enough how nice this may look once in game. I suppose I'll have to play around with it before I make any judgments!

One thing I am concerned about though is the functionality of concrete in general. Moreover, I really wish concrete would destroy resources under it after being placed or at the very least hide it.

[Avezo]

To somewhat chime into people sayint it doesn't look like a real concrete - the issue is even deeper IMO. Factorio really needs more 'decorative' stuff baked into vanilla.