Organelle Models

The monotony of the nucleus model has actually been one of my biggest gripes graphically, so this will be such a nice improvement!

Nice job. Could you add a displacement map to make it looks more coarse and so that the specular lighting isn’t as bright? Otherwise it’s a huge improvement from what we had before.

Another thing, when you’re done redoing the old organelles, could you create an “upgraded” version of the endoplasmic reticulum that extends all the way around around the nucleus?

Of course, but I think I read somewhere else on the forum (I apologize for not knowing exactly where) that we might be using an upgrade system? Should I make extra meshes like mitochondria with more folds or chloroplasts with more thylakoids?

Alright, Here’s the new nucleus with displacement and specularity mapping. I used the same png for both displacement and specularity. If we need to use jpg to save space or just for memory allocation problems just let me know.

And here’s how it looks in blender render:

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I made the new mesh for the ER, Here’s the Ogre Export

And per usual, here’s a preview in Blender Render

I don’t know how I feel about this one, I like the mesh, but no matter how much I tweak the material, it just doesn’t look right, I’ve tried complete opacity, different levels of transparency, and different normal maps, but nothing looks right. I also didn’t take the time to UV map it correctly, but I figured it wouldn’t make a difference since it will be so small in game. This one also has a displacement and specularity map, but I don’t think they’ll really make much of a difference, and could just be removed if need be.

The nucleus model looks much better now, though the holes aren’t really uniform.

Have you tried using the old material for the endoplasmic reticulum? That one was amazing, and I think this one could do with more saturated and brighter colors. Also, could you scale it to be much closer to the nucleus (almost touching it).

Great work so far. This is going to look much better than the ones currently in-game.

Alright, took me a few hours, but I UV mapped the entire mesh (almost)correctly, and have made a new material using the same method I used for the Original ER.

Here’s the Transparent Version:

And Here’s the Opaque Version:

The opaque version uses jpg to save space and because it’s more performance friendly. These meshes are also not interchangeable, the transparent is mapped specifically for the transparent material, as is the opaque to the jpg texture.

On another note, I have added extra performance friendly meshes, which have no bottoms or sides, since only the top part of the ER is visible anyways. It has half the vertices and shouldn’t look any different in game, since you only see the organelles from one angle. Each version has this extra mesh, again specifically mapped for their materials, they are caled “ERCut.mesh.”

I made 2 different versions simply because I couldn’t decide which would better, so I made both. Obviously the Opaque stands out more and is more performance friendly, but the transparent seems more realistic and can be fun to play with if we decide to have different color organelles.

It’s all up to preference, which is why I like providing multiple options.

(One final note, I am aware that there are mapping errors on the transparent version, but they are so minuscule that they aren’t likely to be noticed in game, as there is a limit to how close you can zoom in)

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Yeah, the nucleus isn’t really working. How bad does this look?

The texture doesn’t fit with the rest of the cell and the darker spots are irregular. Doesn’t look too good.

@nanu, sorry to bother you, but ogre doesn’t want to work well with displacement maps :confused: It just makes the bright light pattern you can see in the picture.

I tried to add some dots, but it didn’t help. Could you try making a “flat” nucleus model, please?

Sorry again for the trouble. The old model looked pretty awesome.

Edit: I just had an idea (which I think you proposed a while ago). Could you just create a flat circle and add the texture from your sphere onto it? It doesn’t even have to be a circle, you could use a single quad and I could do alpha mapping. Just make sure you unwrap correctly :stuck_out_tongue: But yeah, I think that could work very well—a circle mesh plus your cool nucleus model rendered to a texture from above.

Edit 2: Ooor… if you’re feeling really adventurous, you could draw up something like this or this as the texture for the nucleus for a really cell-like feel, but that’s up to you. I’m fine with both options, your model would look fantastic in-game as is.

So I made a nucleus model for the april fools release. All I need now is an image texture of how the nucleus should look.

Someone asked me about this on a PM, and I thought it was a good question. For the nucleus, the UV is just a circle inscribed in a square, so this is how the texture should look:


Remember to use a png if you want part of it to be transparent.

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Can I make a suggestion for the ER and golgi? I think they should be placed behind the nucleus so they wrap around it. At the moment they appear too separated from the nucleus, which just leads to the cell as a whole looking cluttered.

A quick and dirty illustration to explain what I mean:

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Did some research. The ER is actually connected to the outer nuclear membrane. The inner nuclear membrane is the one with the pores. Idk if maybe we want to do a cross sectional view of this with all the genetic material visible inside or a semi-cross sectional view with the inner nuclear membrane intact, while the outer membrane and ER is split.

I can do a quick sketch of what I mean when I get home

Anyway the main point is it seems that the ER and nucleus are one so perhaps separate and free floating sections would not be the most realistic choice. It’d be better represented as one model.

The outer nuclear membrane, inner nuclear membrane, and ER membrane are all parts of the same membrane – if you had a hollow sphere carved out of swiss cheese, with extra bits of swiss cheese grafted all over the outer surface, the surface of the cheese is analogous to the membrane.The nuclear pores are like donut holes, connecting the outer surface with the inner surface.

The ER irl actually forms a network that reaches throughout the entire cell. Maybe someday we’d be able to represent that, but right now I agree that the best course of action is to have a single model for both nucleus and ER, with the ER wrapping around like above.

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Nucleus + ER model concept art thingy

Question: What of the Smooth ER? How about the Golgi apparatus :0

Each golgi complex is more of a separate entity, though they generally stay quite close to the nucleus.

The smooth ER is part of the same network as the rough ER, sharing the same membrane. In your sketch maybe 2 or 3 sections of the ER could be smooth ER instead (which looks like a network of fused tubes instead of flat stacked sheets).

I’ll draw up something tomorrow.

I included the Smooth ER to the best of my ability. Whatcha think?

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Looks great! Maybe there should be more of colour gradient between the nucleus and ER/gogli apparatus. Unfortunately we’ll have to wait for models though, we can’t exactly use an image, though it’s great concept art for modellers to work off.

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