Fur Simulation

BLACK_PHOENIX · Post by **BLACK_PHOENIX** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 2:25 am

is it possible to simulate realistic looking fur in real time.

ive never seen an engine that supported fur and hair rendering.
i know how to get the look but how can you animate it as a reaction to wind or water.

ive been working on a creature that is meant to be covered in fur like a mammoth. but i cant seem to get the fur into the game.

Spyrewolf · Post by **Spyrewolf** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 4:21 am

well it all depends if you have access to shaders it can be done realitively easily,

however in shadow of the collusus on the PS2 - they only had a limited shader, for the hair and the result was very convincing,
they layered up multiple layers for the hair and normal mapped the hair to get perpixel lighting,

although they had access to shaders, the effect can be obtaind by an alpha-map and multiple layers.
you don't need to have fancy shaders. however if you want efficient frame rate it would be advised to look into shaders.

however from an RF stand point the alpha-map and layered effect can produce some good results
here is something made quickly, textures blow but they principle is the same..

you may notice i mention shadow ofthe collusus alot, but from a technical stand point it is almost a perfect game.

here is a link to the making of it has lots of good info on "faking" usefull to produce stunning results on minamilistic technology.
http://edusworld.org/ew/ficheros/2006/p ... _sotc.html

Spyrewolf · Post by **Spyrewolf** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 8:49 am

.*sigh* i really gotta learn to read,

basically you've got two option's....
in RF attach a bone to each hair tuft, and animate by hand

other engine, if you you have access to vertex weighting thats how you can do it, by weighting each vertex, you should be albe to produce a realistic approach

sorry for not reading properly

Post by **Jay** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 9:19 pm

whoah, spyre, the link you gave us in your first post really was an eye-opener!

Very interesting...

Spyrewolf · Post by **Spyrewolf** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:40 pm

yeah i know, i've seen this a while ago and use it for inspiration. the guys involved with S.o.t.C where geniuses, not too mention artistically brilliant!

This is why I stand firmly behind the fact the shadow of the collussus is the perfect game,

back to the topic did you get the fur simulation to work black_pheonix? it is possible but RF needs to "Fake it" via animation. maybe once we get some decent physic intergrated this sort of thing can be done a bit easier by attaching weights to bones.

zany_001 · Post by **zany_001** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 2:22 am

You could model a fur effect with a modelling program,as an animation, couldnt you,or else model a plane and put 'fur' on it,and save the render as an animated gif or something,and texture your actor with that.

BLACK_PHOENIX · Post by **BLACK_PHOENIX** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:40 am

i agree sotc is one of the most creative games, technically and artistically.

i just played sotc and noticed how the alpha maps are layered to give the effect that theres a hair coming out. im not using this only for RF, mainly for my own engine and knowledge.

thats a great way of faking fur for realtime games. i want to do this but make it more up-to-date. this technique was limited for ps2 and still looked good. by the time i release this engine, the average game pc will have 2gb ram, 512 graphics, dual core e6600 wich is much more powerful than ps2.

so that means that i can take use this thechnique without limits.
i noticed that the alpha maps were placed a certain length betweem each other and that there were about 3-6 layers. i could put 12 alpha maps and place them closer together to make it look even more releastic from the perspective and side veiw.

i just dont understand how to do this in an engine. i read something about using cross section fur texturing and using polygons for something in making of sotc. could someone explain how they implement this using the shader.

zany_001 · Post by **zany_001** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 5:53 am

Is it on an animal?if so,then,try and keep the animal small,and trymake the fur a bit ragged.like if its a wolf,then have matted bloody fur in some places,and that would pull the framerate down a bit.Keep most of the nose and mouth fur free,and the underside of the animal,if possible.Cant think of much else right now.

BLACK_PHOENIX · Post by **BLACK_PHOENIX** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 9:22 am

the moddeling part and alpha map placement is easy for me. with an engine i could do this in about 3 hours. but im not using a premade engine.

i dont know how to use this technique in my engine. im having trouble understanding how the fur shader works with the alpha maps.

how did thge sotc team get there engine to work with fur?

i know it says in the "making" but i still dont properly understand

zany_001 · Post by **zany_001** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 8:34 pm

ooohh,your using your engine,not rf!!Cant help much there.soz,bro.

BLACK_PHOENIX · Post by **BLACK_PHOENIX** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:41 am

ive kind of done it.

i didnt use any "fur" shader so its nothing special but it is effective.

theres on problem. it only works on flat surfaces.

i managed to get 4 alpha maps onto a plane but when i apply it onto a sphere it doesent work.

anyway thanks for the help.

BYS · Post by **BYS** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 3:49 pm

Well if you want some code for realtime fur look at those Links, thats fur created with shaders:

http://www.intel.com/cd/ids/developer/a ... htm?page=3

and another, scroll down this site, ther is an dynamic hair rendering simulation ( PS 2.0 ) with source code:

http://www.humus.ca/index.php?page=3D

hope this is helpfull

greetz bys