Models by Jorzi (AR)

[Mysteryem]

Also... slightly unrelated to the modeling topic, but i would like to make the suggestion that the beam could have a team color mask.

Now that, is a good idea, unfortunatly the pie file that the commander 'beam' uses is used by other weapons and is hard coded, but team coloured fire and power generator rings still sounds quite cool.

[Jorzi]

Well, the firing aanimation is a bit odd, so I think we'll remake it into something slightly more logical, the way it's described in the mission briefing.
About the beam having a teamcolor, sounds like a really good idea, hopefully it won't be too hard to implement.

[n2large0shirt]

I think the beam color would just serve to just add a little clarity during battles, but honestly i don't know that many people would even notice or care that they are color coded... its more of an arbitrary change to make if its nice and simple to do.

Whats your next victim? The counter-battery turret?

[Zarel]

It looks better of course because it's technically superior, but as a modeler I'm really starting to respect the original artists.
Consider that they were making one of the first 3d rts games in history, developing it for platforms like the playstation, which doesn't even have a graphics card (it does everything on its 33MHz RISC processor)

Even their own expensive computers were quite weak, and I'm not even sure they had 3d modeling software (chances are that they made some models in notepad) or if they had a 3d program it was limited to simple vertex coordinate editing and other primitive tools.

The original textures have an indexed palette to save memory, which means the artists could choose a maximum of 256 colors to use. They also didn't have advanced drawing programs like photoshop, so the textures are propably a mix of scanned bits, pixel art and simple renderings.

So yeah, the pretty much made the best out of what they had

Most of this is true, but I'm pretty sure they had Photoshop at that time.

[cybersphinx]

And 3D Studio Max.

[Jorzi]

Oh well, I wasn't too old then so I may be unintentionally exaggerating stuf
3ds max actually existed already?
At least they weren't the advanced programs we know today...

[3drts]

Just found this thread, critiques:

Cannons:
The Heavy cannon's base (and perhaps the medium cannon's too) is too small for such a long barrel, it should look bigger (to allow for a longer recoil stroke)

Twin MG. I don't like the idea of two separate mounts for the machineguns, currently it looks like each one could pivot independently.

It should look like the turret just had the gun swapped out, without adding a second weapon mount and second servo for the second gun.



I like the idea of a twin barrel gun more than two separate guns on parallel mounts.

Thats pretty much all I got for now.

[Jorzi]

Don't worry about the cannons, mangust has made some significant improvements (you can propably find them in his thread)

Nice twin machinegun btw, where did you find it and what model is it?
However, the twin macinegun in warzone is really just two machineguns on the same mount, since both barrels fire simultaneously and not like a tandem gun where one barrel fires when the other barrel is fully recoiled. Those are mainly aircraft guns.

[KukY]

Most of this is true, but I'm pretty sure they had Photoshop at that time.

Yeah, they did have PS and real modeling software.
First versions of all of those appeared in 1990, and AFAIK, the game was created after that time.

[Jorzi]

Had a try at light tracks yesterday, I know olrox made some designs, but I'm not sure about what happened to them.
Anyway, they're 105 polys per side, 210 per tank

[Jorzi]

Started on hipoly

[Rman Virgil]

And 3D Studio Max.

Pumpkin did all WZ's art with this proggy. They even coded a Plug-in to out-put in .pie format.

Prior to the 1989 release of v.1.0 Adobe Photo Shop, it was being deved & beta-tested in 1988 on a Mac P-Plus... If your aware of the HW Specs for that comp .... well, it was pretty amazing back then and even now looking back.

Started on hipoly

Lookin' mighty fine.

- RV

[Jorzi]

Thanks Rman
So they actually had some useful tools back then already? Does anyone know what features these early versions of the programs had?

[Rman Virgil]

Thanks Rman
So they actually had some useful tools back then already? Does anyone know what features these early versions of the programs had?

Well, I can tell you that all the Campaign cut-scenes / cinematics were 3D Studio Max Projects & all the concept art like below were done in it.... should give you an idea of what you could do with that early iteration of 3D Studio Max.

I believe the version they used was 3D Studio MAX R2 and the following release history will give you many of the features:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3ds_Max_release_history

- RV
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[MaNGusT]

Started on hipoly

Oh! very very nice.