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Welcome to my most recent tutorial on an issue that's becoming more and more prevalent in the FPSC community since the onset of the graphical updates. The issue is one most people aren't familiar with outside of the robotics industry- It's referred to as the "Uncanny Valley". I hope you enjoy this tutorial

imageflock.com/img/1343089028.png[/img]

The uncanny valley is very difficult to understand, and much more so to explain. It can be best described as the point at which we stop empathizing with increasingly lifelike representations.

In laymen's terms, it's that weird, creepy look of a video game character, or in this case, level, that's a little too real. In recognizing this, we immediately despise it because of how we recognize it. The uncanny valley begins at the point where our minds stop perceiving the subject in question as a graphical representation, or human-like being, and begin to perceive it as an actual human being with something horribly wrong with it. from this point, we stop empathizing with the subject, as it is very unnerving.

In the case of video game levels, it's much the same, but it refers to the graphical quality of the scenery. There comes a point in which it looks like a flawed real-life. Now, I know what you're thinking, and that's that FPSC is nowhere near good-looking enough to create environments consciously mistakable for real life. You're right, but the same isn't true for how FPSC maps can affect our subconscious. That being said, we have to still deal with the uncanny valley.

The most common example of an FPSC map falling into this valley is the typical "overuse of normal map shaders" that we see in all sorts of games. This is also the example that most often goes unnoticed. I'll give an example from SGJB's game- Crime, as well as ertlov's Into the Dark. It looks like wet plastic, but still very real. It's beginning to dip into the uncanny valley. The same is seen with a few other games, I'm sure you know the ones, but I won't name names.

imageflock.com/img/1343089769.jpg[/img]

both screens misuse shaders, and as a result, don't look great
edit- ertlov's uses no normalmap shader, it's a custom, but still illustrates my point.

The best way to fix this issue is by regulating our use of shaders, so they can be used for their specialty. The classic segment shader everyone uses looks great in the Bond1's video, but it's used on flat, clannish metal segments, which can be made good looking with the overglossed appearance that the shader tends to give off as it's used by most. The shaders as used on metal could be the peak. The sweetspot right before we fall into the uncanny valley. This being said, it's clear why a designer, that's not ignorant to this fact, that understands this, will save this shader for flat panel metal.

Another pretty common example is when the quality of the two main screen-elements do not match. This was seen more last year, but still plagues some of the newer users to this very day.

imageflock.com/img/1343089830.png[/img]

The two main screen-elements in any FPS are the hud/gun, and the level. In the case of this screenshot, the gun looks like something straight out of call of duty, whereas the map is admittedly lackluster. This creates an uncanny valley because the quality of the gun puts the bland level at the bottom of the pre-valley empathy spectrum, and the lack of quality in the level, pushes the hyper-real gun over the edge, into the uncanny valley, causing a bad looking game all around. This will be easier to understand, if I illustrate it on the actual graph of the uncanny valley.

imageflock.com/img/1343088946.png[/img]
red representing the case of the above screenshot, green representing the optimal FPSC game appearance in FPSC's current range of ability.

In conclusion, The best way to avoid the uncanny valley in FPS creator is not by trying to go beyond it, but by trying to not encounter it. To do that, is to recognize that FPSC (nor any other engine) is capable at this point of matching realism, meaning the best way to create an attractive design is to recognize that your goal isn't to mimic reality, but to make a graphical caricature of it. how realistic one makes that caricature is up to that specific designer, based on the circumstance.

Thanks for reading this tutorial. I hope it helps everyone understand some of the less visible, but equally degrading flaws in their work, so that they can be corrected. shootout to everyone whose screenshots I've made examples of. It's not their fault that their maps fall into this category of bad design, it's just something that happens when people become great designers, and try to push the boundaries further than the limitations of the current status of the game design industry allow. Every great dev has fallen into the uncanny valley at some point, and I'm just making examples of great devs experiencing the growing pains associated with becoming AWESOME DEVS.

Great work so far bugsy! You also did a good job at keeping a rather complicated aspect of design short and well readable.

Allow me to add some details:

Addendum:

A lot of FPSC Users are here for a while and use shaders not because they really look better but because they make their game resemble more a project made in a more advanced engine. The urge to create a game that is not recognised as an fpsc game and seems more recent and "current gen-ish" is often stronger than the will to commit to learn visual design and to put work in props.

Some of the older members might remember the sudden outburst of people using jailbars and girders to create as much shadows as possible. That was because we discovered how to change the shadow quality...and it made our games not look necessarily better but "less like FPSCreator".
Nowadays, this is common knowledge and isn't used that much.

Shader effects are however a great way to create your own visual style.

here are a few tipps from an old fox:

* Adjust your normalmap! Its good to edit out flaws from a generated map (via clonebrush for example) to get rid of unpretty artifacts.

* Your specular map should be really really dark (and can be in color) Since I teach a lot of folks via messenger: some people with 3D modeling background where unwilling to accept that using regular specular maps would cause an overlit plastic look (it was so unprofessional to just overdarken an image) but they quickly adapted after a few test runs FPSC does always behave differently than another engine when it comes to shaders.

*Dont overbloom your game if you want it to look at all realistic. Only very slight bloom effects will look semi-realistic.

*Never get inspiration from blockbuster games in the current generation. Especially if its fastpaced stuff like battlefield 3 or call of duty. (its not related, but I never let a chance slide to get it out there)

* If you use the effect on static entities make sure to only use it on those where reflections and shining might actually occur! Nobody ever saw a shiny wooden plank.

*You can open shader effects and adjust the values. Bond1 releases them with pretty strong effect valures...probably to please the devs so they see the difference right away.

Keep it up bugsy! You might be a pioneer in the way you approach your games over here



-Wolf

Awesome tutorial there bugsy. I fear that I may be a victim of this "virus" whereby I try to emphasize too much on wall and floor texture combinations. I'm going to try to loosen up on my habit of doing something with super perfection without being creative with it.

@Wolf I will agree with all your points except for one. I wouldn't say not to take inspiration from current generation games, rather I would recommend people to try not to replicate them. You see you indeed CAN make a level inspired by a AAA title in fpsc with fantastic gameplay,but when people try aiming for something such as replicating the mountain climbing scene from call of duty modern warfare 2, they will be disheartened with their efforts when trying to create an exact replica of the original level. I'm guessing that's what you actually meant.

Abdul Ahad

Really enjoyed it... great work Bugs! Now if only I could get myself to make a game :S

Cheers,
Anayar

thanks guys! I appreciate this finally getting some comments.

I encountered something akin to this when I tried to model my old university flat in FPSC. I don't actually have a photo to compare the FPSC version to the real-life one but there's a couple of the other flats on the accomodation website:


And here's my FPSC version:

I think that might be an illustration of your uncanny valley, because (perhaps for me more so) having lived there and having become very familiar with it, to play it in a game is very eerie, but it's made even more so by the fact that there are minor imperfections and graphical errors which stop the suspension of disbelief. Interesting.

Nice tutorial! I think other aspects of level design can also fall into this category:
- Light colour (pure white light does not exist in real life)
- Entity placement (a sofa in a kitchen?) and scale (some VWEAP.x models are oversized compared to real-life)
- Even segment placement (the world isn't made up in a nice grid pattern)

I genuinely enjoy your tuts bugs! Keep it up.

Thank you Bugsy

Your tutorial forced me me to look at my 19-month-old project with new eyes. As I plan to finish the project at the end of 2013, this tutorial came just in time for me to reassess the graphics of the game.

Thanks and keep up the good work

Eugene

well, first: nice tutorial and a major point to speak about, thanks bugsy.

the uncanny valley is mainly a term used for "human shapes", pointing to movement, shape and mainly facial expressions of emotions. main point is to drop realism when you are not capable of doing some "real" stuff. most common example is the difference between the movie "final fantasy: blabla within" against the pixar-movies. while FF looks fotorealistic in texture and movement, it looses in facial expression and shape and therefor audience doesnt get familiar with the characters. pixar goes the way down and lacks of realism and basically do classic cartoon work, they concentrate on voice and overacted feelings inside a "realistic"/common story-feel to get in touch with the audience, wich works fine as we all know.

the uncanny valley is not that much of enviromental things because its about sympathy and empathy, but you are not in an empathic relationship to a cardboard.

what you mean here is the common, instinctive knowledge of humans to know how something should look, but that has (out of my knowledge) only particulary to do with the socalled uncanny valley, while its also a psychological effect. the main effect of the UV is that people get afraid of something that is only near-human more than on things that are totally unhuman. but its not about the enviroment. i am very sure that you can avoid the valley using a (theoretically) perfect shaped, animated, sounded human model inside any enviroment, may it be cartoonish or fotorealistic with wrong set shaders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

I disagree, and must was planning on writing a more detailed thesis on how the uncanny valley can indeed relate to more than just characters.

thats what i know about the UV, but it sounds like you are very sure about this, so it would be interesting to hear more about.

Thought you might want to check this out.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/08/epics-unreal-engine-4-elemental-demo-lights-up-the-uncanny-valley
Though in the demos its still far away from even dipping into the uncanny valley its interesting how they envisage overcoming it with real time scattered lighting. I cant imagine how they got around the massive calculations required for that.


I am not sure where I stand with the Uncanny Valley as far as computer graphics or robotics go, maybe the answer is not to assume the Valley cant be 'bridged', it may be simply that things are not advanced enough to do it yet.
As far as environments go they are made from various materials mostly man made, if it doesn't look right (plastic) because of badly applied shaders then surely that's a design fault and not anything to do with 'realism'. As for robotics in the pic above the faults are instantly there...the eyes are real off and the skin lacks the depths of layers and translucency that real organic skin has, not to mention the calc and hardware that would be required to create realistic skin and muscle movement. Its the differences between organic and synthetic and I reckon it wont be so disturbing when and if its done right.

What you say makes sense when it comes to designing a game, I would encourage people to strive for realism, if that's what they want, but it does need to be done right, if something is out of place then its noticeable, some may not put their finger on it right away, but not sure if that's the Uncanny Valley or simply design error.

make that "major" and you are right

Putting the lack of detail and ...resolution aside ...the roof is missing.