Models by MaNGusT (AR)

[MaNGusT]

I want to ask devs about one thing.. Will you integrate, fix and improve I-Nod's code of normal mapping support into the new releases? or just leave it for nothing?

Where is it located at ?

here https://github.com/iNoDlite/warzone2100/tree/wzm
afaik, this code adds:
improved shaders,
wzm support with necessary directives and structure,
specular maps support,
tangent space normal mapping support for a several types of models(not all types is for sure), afair there were some problems with current wz animation system or something.

anyway, six months have passed since I posted this on the test build and you still don't react. Well, I understand that you just don't care, but many people love this game and AR team works, and they finally could see my models finished in game.

[Jorzi]

Have to agree. I understand that graphics might not be the critical aspect of the game, but we still need a bit of something to keep the motivation alive.

[swatspeedman]

Have to agree. I understand that graphics might not be the critical aspect of the game, but we still need a bit of something to keep the motivation alive.

Better graphics always attracts more players to a game, it should be viewed as higher priority.

[vexed]

I want to ask devs about one thing.. Will you integrate, fix and improve I-Nod's code of normal mapping support into the new releases? or just leave it for nothing?

Where is it located at ?

here https://github.com/iNoDlite/warzone2100/tree/wzm
afaik, this code adds:
improved shaders,
wzm support with necessary directives and structure,
specular maps support,
tangent space normal mapping support for a several types of models(not all types is for sure), afair there were some problems with current wz animation system or something.

anyway, six months have passed since I posted this on the test build and you still don't react. Well, I understand that you just don't care, but many people love this game and AR team works, and they finally could see my models finished in game.

No, I don't think you understand.
The few of us that work on this project, have little time, so most of us don't look at every single post there is, so things get lost if there isn't a ticket about it, or a thread that people will tell us to look at . Heck, I wouldn't have saw this, if I wasn't told about it.
Right now, that branch don't apply cleanly, someone would need to fix it first.
You also say fix & improve, what is broken about it ?
I never knew people were making WMZ models, nor did I know there was support for it. I am unsure how it will play with the net code (since it wants everything in ints), and whatever else may pop up, like performance issues, and whatever else.

Now, since it is too late to add new code to 3.1, it would go into master, for the next release, once a patch is made. (And no, there will not be years before we do another release.)

[MaNGusT]

You also say fix & improve, what is broken about it ?

well, it isn't broken, it works fine(I mean performance too) but as you said

that branch don't apply cleanly, someone would need to fix it first.

that's why I say "fix".
What should be improved is the tangent space normal mapping. It works only with models that don't have animation. Cyborgs, derrick, etc still can't use this type of NM because wzm format doesn't work with old wz animation system, just there is no reason to support it. Well, it's the far future perspective.

I am unsure how it will play with the net code (since it wants everything in ints)

hmm.. I think that is one of ways of how to improve it is to implement something like "rigid body" system. So, in net code, you could operate with the data of rigid bodies(that could be ints ofc) instead of the real models data. Rigid body is just an invisible box interpretation of a real model with its dimensions.
Usually in game engines the rigid body system is used by the physics engine but wz doesn't need it, so rigid body system could be simplified to be used in net code. Just a thoughts...
I'm curious, how do engines like UE3, unity, ogre operate in net code with models that don't have data in ints?

also, I want to say about WZM features that make this format very useful for 3d modelers.
it's a multi-mesh format what feat us to a very easy modeling(exporting). It has all directives and data to control the light on a model. In a future it can be improved to support the bone animation or something.
No permission to attach the wzm file to the post to show its structure, may be later.

[Cyp]

No idea what the wzm branch does¹, or whether or not it's considered² ready for merging to master, but it seems almost³ trivial to merge current master into it: https://github.com/Cyp/warzone2100/commits/wzm
The result compiles, and seems to run⁴.

________________
¹ Other than by reading this thread.
² By i-nod, at least.
³ 2 merge conflicts — 1 trivial to fix, one is in the mac build scripts, and touching the mac build scripts from a non-mac computer will apparently break absolutely everything, even if all the resulting edited files are bitwise identical to what would have been done using a mac. Therefore, when merging, we should guarantee it being broken by just using the version from the current branch.
⁴ Possible to start a game, nothing obviously odd, and didn't crash.

[MaNGusT]

The result compiles, and seems to run⁴. ⁴ Possible to start a game, nothing obviously odd, and didn't crash.

I see no reasons why it should crash without using wzm models in your test run, but I-Nod's code was tested a huge amount of times on Intel HD, Ati(4870,5770) and geforce(Jorzi's one) cards. It has no graphical artifacts due to shaders. Also performance is very good when shadows off.
Here was the discussion and the right solution of the shader's code, just for the record.

[MaNGusT]

I need some help from coders... I need a description of all connectors that the body model can have.

I know meaning only of 2 connectors:
- where turret should be placed if the unit is a tank
- where turret should be placed if the unit is a vtol

what do mean other 6 connectors?

EDIT: I-Nod has commited the last commit that he forgot to commit 6 months ago.

[i-NoD]

No idea what the wzm branch does¹, or whether or not it's considered² ready for merging to master, but it seems almost³ trivial to merge current master into it: https://github.com/Cyp/warzone2100/commits/wzm
The result compiles, and seems to run⁴.

________________
¹ Other than by reading this thread.
² By i-nod, at least.
³ 2 merge conflicts — 1 trivial to fix, one is in the mac build scripts, and touching the mac build scripts from a non-mac computer will apparently break absolutely everything, even if all the resulting edited files are bitwise identical to what would have been done using a mac. Therefore, when merging, we should guarantee it being broken by just using the version from the current branch.
⁴ Possible to start a game, nothing obviously odd, and didn't crash.

Hello,
1) IIRC it was a new model format tryout, mainly to get faster drawings (supposedly through bucket rendering and other design solutions derived from actual graphics hardware capabilities), remove old limitations (like single mesh/level drawings) and new features like tangent normal mapping, which cant be done with decade old pie format. One problem is that you cant really compare old ~100 vertex model in both formats - it will give you almost the same speed, but when you have >200 highpoly objects (same model) in view then wzm speed is decent and pie is dead slow.
2) It is completed as test two things left before ditching pie: animated models (that really stinks of wz...) and network compatibility (i read smth about int-only problem, guess wzm broke that again and should be redesigned somehow without restricting doubles in models). One thing to thought - using OGRE instead of my custom work would do much better atleast with opengl backend, so one can use wz shaders.
4) you need a wzm-mod to actually test this branch, plus i've pushed bucket-renderer commit into wzm branch. Dunno if it will fly after you merge current master...

[HorusWM]

This is my version of Viper body. I did it for the UDK.

[MaNGusT]

awesome! Especially I like texture colors and overall details. How many triangles(faces) does it have?
My version is more cartoonish though..

P.S. If you want you can release your work with CC0 or CC-BY-SA-3.0 + GPLv2 license. It will really help us.

[Jorzi]

Wow
How long have you been doing this? I can see some serious effort went down into making it. You even made the welded seams on the armour

That is seriously awesome, can we use it for recreating the "factory" cutscene?
For the game model, however, I still think Mangust's model is "good enough", i.e. suitably lowpoly with larger details that work well for the zoomed-out view.

[HorusWM]

Here, 416 polys and 4 textures (diffuse, spec color, spec map and normal map). Model can be optimized more for the old engine by reducing the poly count on cylindrical parts and bringing all parts of the model to the primitives (now its a unified whole piece - it is done so because of the specifics of the ligh calculating in the UDK). I had some plans for the development of its own version of the game, but simply do not have time, so everything slowed down on this model, though I already had a working script of units behavior and game interface in UDK. I attached the mesh view and preview textures. I'm happy to give this model for community, just tell me where to download the model, so it does not spread across the Internet) Maybe I can even help with the models for the game, if I have time - I have experience in game development and will be glad to help develop the game.
srry for my English

[MaNGusT]

Here, 416 polys and 4 textures (diffuse, spec color, spec map and normal map).

3dsmax calculates polys from tris and quads but wz engine auto-splits quads into tris, so to know how many faces your model has you need to add the edit mesh modifier and select all faces via ctrl+A.

Model can be optimized more for the old engine by reducing the poly count on cylindrical parts and bringing all parts of the model to the primitives

yes it can but then you will need to remap and rerender/redraw all textures. Just waste of time.

I'm happy to give this model for community, just tell me where to download the model, so it does not spread across the Internet)

well, you can use any of file hosts, then just pm me or Jorzi with link to uploaded archive and don't forget to choose the license.

[HorusWM]

I pm a link to MaNGusT. Expose it under the CC-BY-SA-3.0 + GPLv2 license and permission to use this model for AR Project and wz2100 Resurrection Project pointing me as an author.