Inside Look: The Art of VBS3

[Asid]

Inside Look: The Art of VBS3

Mark Lacey, Bohemia Interactive Simulations’ Director of Art, joined the company when it was BIA in Australia in 2007. Mark has been with Bohemia ever since, working in our Australia, UK and Prague offices. He has a BSc in Games Computing (Software Engineering) from the University of Lincoln (UK) and nearly 15 years experience both modelling and configuring for the VBS engine. He’s worked with the Real Virtuality engine (which VBS is based on) since 2001.

Outside of work,  Mark’s is an avid gamer, reader, and is also in the process of getting both his tracked vehicle and private pilot’s licenses.

BISim: Where did you get your start in Bohemia and what’s your role today?

Mark: When I joined, I was what could be best described as a technical artist. It was my job to take the output from the other artists and set it up for use in VBS. I also created a fair bit of artwork in the early days - much of the current generation of UK vehicles are my work. I am most proud of the Challenger 2 Main Battle Tanks. In recent years, I have progressed through the ranks, and am now the Director of Art, with teams in the UK, US, CZ and AU under my supervision. I have inherited and am now in charge of all the artwork in VBS. As part of this charge, I am actively working to improve the quality and the visual appearance of VBS, by introducing new technology, tools, and pipelines for the art team to use.

BISim: What continues to excite  or impress you about working with the VBS engine?

Mark: The VBS3 engine is remarkably powerful when it comes to crunching polygons.

In a recent demo, we added the Nimitz class supercarrier USS Ronald Reagan to VBS. This model alone comprises over 593,000 triangles. We can render dozens of these ships in the scene without suffering major performance loss. Such is the power of the VBS engine.

Vehicle-populated aircraft carrier deck


Nimitz class supercarrier in VBS3


Supercarrier flight deck, view from rear


Now, polycount isn't everything. The engine also supports the full gamut of rendering technology that allows us to create great looking models without having to use such high polycounts. We can use normal, specular, ambient occlusion, detail, and macro detail maps to improve the look of our models without increasing the polycount. As we have seen in recent updates, we are now using this technology more and more in order to upgrade the quality of our content.

BISim: What specific tools are you using to bringing high quality content into VBS?

Mark: Our art teams are in the process of bringing new tools into our artwork pipeline, to supplement and in some cases supplant tools we have been using for over a decade. We are doing this in order to not only streamline our process, but also improve the output quality. Common tools in our artist's arsenal include 3ds Max, Maya, Mudbox, and ZBrush. New tools that we are adding into our pipeline include (but are not limited to) Substance Painter and Designer, and Marmoset Toolbag.

Substance allows us to generate very high fidelity materials for use on our models, as you have seen in previous updates. Toolbag aids us in pre-visualising the models we make, before we get to the in-game stage. Several of our previous updates have shown models rendered using Toolbag. We are constantly looking at improving our tools pipeline, in order to make it easier to generate top-quality content for VBS.

BISim: How have these tools been applied to recent projects?

Mark: A practical use of all this technology was recently delivered to the US Army, where we upgraded their entire fleet of Stryker vehicles. The upgrades included completely remodelling the vehicles to a much higher standard inside and out. With models reaching 60,000 - 80,000 polygons, compared to approximately 20,000 polygons previously. The models were also updated to reflect the latest modification standard of the vehicles, including all-new, mine-resistant seating inside the crew areas.

Stryker Toolbag render


M1128 Stryker MGS render


Stryker 3ds Max high poly render


Stryker M1132 with plow




Not only was the mesh detail increased, but the models were created with a full set of normal, specular, and ambient-occlusion materials. We think they show a marked improvement over the old models. To show just how powerful the VBS engine is, as part of this upgrade comparative performance testing was done. Over a range of system specifications, the average change in performance was +/-2 percent. Yes, PLUS 2 percent. It is amazing what the engine is capable of with well-optimized data!

BISim: What are your goals for the future of VBS content?

Mark: Looking to the future, I would like to increase both the quality and overall cohesiveness of the artwork in VBS. As standards have changed over the years, and different artists or outsourcing companies have come and gone, we have generated quite the menagerie of content. I would like to make VBS an even more immersive, more cohesive training environment. We are also looking at new technologies to improve both the build and the user experience - anything we can do to improve the visual quality people see in VBS is of great importance to me.