Picked this up to give it an inspection of the models.
*edit* So I made a bit of a mistake with this review. Turns out I was looking at the Last Rites Pack. There are a few real stinkers in there. I looked through some pieces on this specific pack and the UVs and models are quite a bit better put together. I'll leave the following review up for now. Dev feel free to reach out if you wanna chit chat about it.
Pros:
- Lots of models with decent topology. No human artist could beat that price ;)
- interesting theme and props
- you could make some decent scenes with some heavy filtering and not looking too closely
- Asset pack is pretty well structured but doesn't have a blender zoo with all the props. Does have blend files for each prop which is a plus.
Cons:
- Textures of the props are not good with any kind of close inspection
- UVs are not texel consistent or scaled correctly in many cases.
- Some bad topology on faucets and cords. Probably more elsewhere I only looked at like 10 models
In summary could be useful to someone doing a hobby project who needs a lot of props that this theme fits with. Yes it's AI generated for sure. I can't imagine the other packs are any different. If you're thinking you could just retexture this stuff with your style, be prepared to fully UV these badboys. At that point you should just git good and just make it yourself.
Thanks for taking the time to write this up, this is the kind of feedback I can actually work with.
You’re right on the textures and the UVs. They’re painted at 64 to 256 px for a PS1 look at room distance, and the texel density is not uniform across props, so they don’t hold up to a close inspection. Faucets and cords are the thinnest geometry in the pack and I’ll go over those. A single .blend with every prop laid out is a good idea and I’ll look at adding one.
On the AI point, the page says what was and wasn’t used: the models are built in Blender, no generative image or 3D model tool, and the text, docs and code were written with AI assistance.
I’m doing a pass on exactly these points now and will post here when the update is up.
Thanks for the correction, and for leaving the notes up. Last Rites is the oldest of the three packs and it’s getting the same pass as this one: closed geometry on the thin parts, one texel density across the props, textures rebaked, and an all-props .blend. If you remember which Last Rites models were the worst, I’d like to know so I can check those first. I’ll post here when the updates are up.
Yeah, specifically the autopsy table was the most glaring example to me. the cooler wall also. I'd go over all of them again in that pack. Now I can't say for sure about the Ai gen claims, I'd hate to put another artist down undeservedly. It's just that the amount of assets you've put out in the last 30 days plus the quantity + price and the ashen icons looking as potentially generated plus the diversity of styles in the last 30 days makes the claims of not using gen ai for the art makes me a little suspicious.
You may want to go a bit more in depth talking about your process of making these things. There were only 5 days separating the release of this pack and the the last rites pack. That is an ungodly amount of work to do in that short of time. even if the resolutions are low and the models are basic. Again, I personally don't care how you make your stuff. But based on what i saw in the the last rites pack I'm left wondering.
The updates are up: Visiting Hours v1.1, Last Rites v1.3 and Cold Cuts v1.1, and it’s a free update for anyone who has them. I closed the geometry on the thin parts like taps, cords, chains and straps, put every prop on one texel density and rebaked the textures from the same painted sheets, and each pack now has an all-props .blend. The autopsy table and the cooler wall were the first ones I redid, since you pointed at them. Thank you for opening the files and writing it all down, it showed me exactly where the packs fell short. If you take another look, tell me what still looks off and I’ll go through those spots.
On the process, since you asked: the models and textures in the three location packs are built in Blender by scripts, one script per prop, which is why the packs came out close together and why the shapes read as basic. No image or 3D generation model was used for those props or textures. Where AI was involved is on each page: the page text, the documentation and the scripts themselves were written with AI assistance and reviewed by me, and that is why itch’s AI tag is on. The one product with generated images is the free Ashen Deck Lite icon set, and its page says so. I’d rather be plain about that than argue it, and your notes on the autopsy table and the cooler wall were right either way.