Snes controller progress:

FitzRoy · Post by **FitzRoy** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 11:53 pm

Just for reference, here's the straight angle before it was pulled.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:38 am

Think of 2 metal bars laid over each other to make a + sign, now bend all 4 extremities up so that none touch the ground. That is what your D-pad currently looks like FirebrandX :/

FirebrandX · Post by **FirebrandX** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:11 am

franpa wrote:Think of 2 metal bars laid over each other to make a + sign, now bend all 4 extremities up so that none touch the ground. That is what your D-pad currently looks like FirebrandX :/

That's the way the real d-pad is, though I may have a little too much bend. As I said before, its adjustable, so I can change it. And thanks for the rather harsh way of putting it. :/

FirebrandX · Post by **FirebrandX** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:30 am

Ok I've cut the slope by 50% on the d-pad. That's all I'm doing for today because I'm pissed off now. I'll pick back up tomorrow and actually get some new work done on the d-pad model itself.

DancemasterGlenn · Post by **DancemasterGlenn** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 3:39 am

Sorry you're pissed, don't take it too harshly. It was definitely constructive criticism, however tactless it sounded. For what it's worth, the shadows look much better now over there.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 3:51 am

I was trying to point out that it originally looked like there was clearance under the 4 directions on the D-pad.

gllt · Post by **gllt** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 3:54 am

Thought about dual lighting, like in some houses?

that other light in the room that is farther away than the bright overhead

maybe lamp etc

might help with seeing the details of the paddle more

Panzer88 · Post by **Panzer88** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:15 am

great work FirebrandX, it really looks great.

FirebrandX · Post by **FirebrandX** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:48 am

Just fixed a major booboo I had missed, which is I left the baseplate of the d-pad black by accident. I kept wondering why it didn't look right, but now it looks a lot better.

Ok, now I can finally move on to making the last improvement to the d-pad of rounding the outer corners slightly more in line with the real thing.

FirebrandX · Post by **FirebrandX** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:38 am

I was able to redesign the D-button with the rounded corners I was after, and also was able to apply a better lofting modifier for the arms in the process. I've set it to just a hair of lofting for now. The new image now has my completed D-button and has maxed out my abilities. Its accurate to within a tenth of a millimeter based on the size of the original piece.

Next up is just to work on some reflection effects for the color buttons, but really I'm left waiting for my controller to arrive in the mail before I can do any new significant work.

I.S.T. · Post by **I.S.T.** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:02 pm

My god, that is wonderful.

kick · Post by **kick** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:22 pm

Now it looks more like the real thing.
The button reflections are the only thing that doesn't look realistic.
Everything else is spot-on.

A 2560x1600 version of this baby would be great as a kick-ass wallpaper.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 3:20 pm

FirebrandX wrote:Next up is just to work on some reflection effects for the color buttons,

Yeah I was just gonna ask about that. Idunno the first thing about modeling apps, but does your program allow you to specify like a bunch of images to use for the environmental light, like a cube map? I'm talking about something that affects every surface, be it highly reflective or dull (all surface lighting comes from the environment after all, whether you can see a clear reflection or not). It'd be fun if you'd actually have a silhouette of someone taking a picture, and I imagine it'd add to the realism.

FirebrandX · Post by **FirebrandX** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:06 pm

Yeah I can do that, and its a very good idea to add realism that way. When its all said and done for the exterior of the controller. I'll render a super-high-res version for 16:10 desktops.

I'll work on it today and then report back. Thanks!

FirebrandX · Post by **FirebrandX** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:36 am

Ended up doing a little touchup work on the model. I reshaped the case lip around the d-button to be more accurate (my version had too large inner corner rounding). I also reshaped the buttons after having a closer look at them from Grin's photos, and I used the color schemes from his since the flash from his camera was a whiter source than the previous net-photo I used. The colors are now more accurate, but may appear less vivid than the previous color scheme. We can always consider reverting back if need be, though it would be sacrificing accuracy for the sake of effect.

Finally, I switched to ray-traced shadows, which really adds depth to the little crevices between the d-button and the case lip.

Edit: On a related note, I've not had a SNES in about ten years, so I just purchased a near mint Super Famicom that comes in original box with everything. I'm having it imported directly from Japan, so the shipping is more than the cost of the unit! Its cool though. I still have my MIB Kurono Toriga from way back in 1995 I think it was when I ordered it from a Gamefan ad.

What this means is I will be able to do a Super Famicom version of the controller, and also render the deck itself as an optional project.

gllt · Post by **gllt** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:42 am

I want to rub the render all over myself :[

FirebrandX · Post by **FirebrandX** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:46 pm

New update:

I started visually inspecting my new SFC controllers and made note of how the color "actually" looks on the buttons. This works so much better than looking at photos because there are no artifacts or interpretations going on, so I'm able to compare and adjust on the fly. These new button colors are pretty much the final tones I want to use. I have the buttons sitting on my desk, and they look identical in tone and saturation when I look at the render output now.

I also ajusted the tone and bump-mapping on the crosspad & middlebuttons as well.

Next, I really want to start re-shaping the case. It has an arc on the face that goes from top to bottom and peaks in the middle. I'll be working on that as a priority.

byuu · Post by **byuu** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:45 pm

Here's my redesign mockup for the input capture window:

Old:
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/2338/capture1m.png

New:
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/3808/capture2z.png

Ignore the margin / icon differences, it's a mock-up external program.
Opinions?

Johan_H · Post by **Johan_H** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:59 pm

The buttons are looking a bit too dark/desaturated to me now (except for the blue, which is perfect). Could be my monitor though, and I'm not looking at my controllers in daylight. Does anyone else agree?

Verdauga Greeneyes · Post by **Verdauga Greeneyes** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 8:46 pm

I agree.. I think I've seen this colour difference before, maybe they changed it at some point? Other than that, it could be down to monitor calibration. I have my gamma set to 2.2, but there's little else I can test objectively. If I take a few pictures in daylight, would that prove or disprove anything?

FirebrandX · Post by **FirebrandX** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 3:57 am

Could be my monitor. Its fairly bright. I'll adjust them brighter until we get more of an agreement.

btw, byuu I just like the old design you had better. A matter of personal preference

Edit: I've increased the saturation on the green, yellow, and red buttons by 15 units. Let me know if this is closer or if I need to go higher.

henke37 · Post by **henke37** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 7:21 am

I do not like the dropdown in the mockup. Use one tab per controller instead. It would make it easy to understand how to set things up in multiple controller configurations.

Also, I can not help but feel that it is easy to overlook the L and R buttons with them lacking area. How about some Picture in Picture thing to give them a fair amount of screen area?

ShadowFX · Post by **ShadowFX** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:41 am

If I may make a suggestion, I always liked the way to configure the gamepad as shown in the sample below:

I believe it's one of the better visual ways concerning user friendliness.

byuu · Post by **byuu** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:53 am

btw, byuu I just like the old design you had better. A matter of personal preference

If it's just a preference issue, I'd rather greatly reduce the size of the capture window. The groupbox with lots of buttons makes that screen way too busy for what should just be a simple "press a key" window.

I do not like the dropdown in the mockup. Use one tab per controller instead. It would make it easy to understand how to set things up in multiple controller configurations.

What do tabs have to do with that? That window is not configuring an entire controller, just a single button on one.

In this case, controller 1's select button. If you want right clicks inside the main window to correspond to that controller button, you use that menu and choose button 2 (right).

If I may make a suggestion, I always liked the way to configure the gamepad as shown in the sample below:

The biggest problem there is that we don't have pictures for the other three/four input devices.

The next problem is that window is absolutely massive. It won't fit nicely with the panel layout I'm using to put all configuration settings in a uniform container window.

And it still doesn't allow for the 'rapid' method of assigning all keys back-to-back. Something I don't support now, but could with an extra button on the capture window like <Assign All Keys> that gets grayed out when you choose the UI config parts.

FirebrandX · Post by **FirebrandX** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 11:51 am

New update:

I've shaped the maincase to have the same contour curves as the real controller does. It doesn't change the image very much, other than how the light hits the bump-mapping from top to bottom. I also shaped the backcase to match the real controller as well, though I still have to cut a few holes into it before its complete.

Byuu, I'll render a bsnes version as well, and I assume you prefer the cordless png version based on your comments about the image size. give me a few mins and I will have it uploaded shortly.