Want to help : Modeling

[Olrox]

  Yeah, I should've thougt of talking to grim before even starting :-[
  And yeah, about lighting, it does ruin performance. I've been playing Splinter Cell 2 quite recently, and the havoc created by lighting effects is most noticeable. There's the normal vision with lights, real colors, normal range (if it's illuminated you'll see it) and noticeable shadows. There's the nightvision, with less lights, monochromatic tones, greater range (shows the dark too) and almost no visible shadows. There's the thermal vision, with no lights, temperature scales instead of colors, small range and no shadows at all.
  Presumeably, the mode that causes more trouble is the normal, and the fastest mode to play is thermal (about two times faster in fully illuminated ambients with pillars, furnishing and people). Nightvision, even increasing the range, is already faster, because part of the illumination effects are deactivated.
  Apart from that, small details such as the lighting of a cannon, smoke from it, headlights illuminating does indeed make difference. For FPS or RPG mainly, because, as giel said, most of the time those features would be almost not noticeable when using models that averagely take up 20x20~60x60 pixels of your screen. Alright, polys won't also be all noticeable. But hey, I feel cheated when I see that python have only 11 polygons. I feel like it could be better than that. And I'm disposed to help this to improve in any way I can.

  P.S.: I don't have ICQ although. I'll try to discover his e-mail.

[Olrox]

Grim (you may have seen his gfx pack) just recently said that WZ's gfx engine is not yet at its limits.
But esp. when creating models, you have to take care about a few things.
So I guess before you continue, you talk to him to see if he can give you some tips. He's been into modeling and texturing Warzone (but not solely) for years, so I guess there are some things one could learn from him.
Olrox: You can usually meet him on IRC, US timezone.

  Do you know his e-mail?

[Giel]

...
P.S.: I don't have ICQ although. I'll try to discover his e-mail.

Erm, DevUrandom said "IRC" not "ICQ"; yes both are TLA (Three Letter Abbreviations) of a chatsystem, but that's about all they have in common.

Anyway; try #warzone@freenode; Look at our IRC info page if you don't have an IRC client.

PS he's there right now (i.e. when typing this) using the nickname "GrimMoroe"

[Oelpfanne]

  For me the fact that 30 polys looks better than 10 polys makes sense. That's why I'm posting those files.
  Also, I think Warzone 2100 can compete with great titles of RTS, in popularity. I'm helping the way I can, in the case I'm sending Models to the dev team to decide wether they will be of any good or not. Sorry if this makes you mad, but I am waiting for replies from the dev team: a single "stop" or "continue" would be enough for me.

  And, alright, it will never look so good in WZ2100, but it could look better. And let me make myself clear that any texture on the screenshots I post here is merely illustrative.

Thats the problem: it will also not look better with 30 polys...

[Olrox]

Sorry, but I don't know if you have enough experience to guarantee that.
Nor do I have enough experience. That's why I'm going to talk to Grim.

//merge multipost

[kage]

as long as you stay under a few hundred polys, you're not really pushing it (though this is from experience with the commercial version of warzone, which didn't have shadow rendering). i can't remember the exact cap i hit.

[Olrox]

  Why did you register yesterday ????

  Well, anyway, I will speak to you via e-mail not to pollute the topic.

[DFStormbringer]

as i stated.. "from what i read in another thread" that soeone had stated that most of 2100s work was done in the cpu and not hte gpu.. and my post was mostly based on that assumption as ive also stated in anotehr thread i know NOTHING about coding lol.
sorry if i made a mess of things.

[Olrox]

  If you care, I don't know anything too. And, just like you (I think), I'm willing to help the dev team in any means I can.

  Anyway, have anyone of the team get any of my models? If so, what do you think 'bout it?

[Per]

There is a lot more to making models for Warzone than just making some 3D models. The final droids shown on screen are composed from different models that are glued together on the fly, so you do not make a full droid with wheel, but just a body that fits with the propulsion models, and has connectors to show where the propulsion model should go, and where weapons should go. It is complicated. I recommend using pieslicer for now, if you have Windows, and you can ask Grim if he can help you out with it. I hear he is making a tutorial for it.

[Olrox]

  Sure, models aren't 3d solids roughly, I know it. I meant if anyone did take a superficial look on them, for saying: a-this is crap! b-it looks average. c-it is good. d-variables on a, b, and c.

  And, from what I've heard, pieslicer is almost paleolithic. I'll take a look when I'm not at work.

[rush2049]

i wish I could offer more help these days, but I go to drexel in september... and untill them I am swamped...



on some of the modeling issues....


the poly counts are realative, because of the more advanced processors now-a-days and the things that have been added to the engine, there really is no way to tell how much warzone can handle.

I would stay below 500 polys for a unit. and stay below 1500 for a building (main building). and stay around 500 for a defence structure also.

My HQ model is 772 faces and it looks alright....

pie slicer is probably the second thing on the list of upgrades, once WZ supports floating point pie file pie slicer can be upgraded to support that, and then blender can get a converter to change to pie files.....

but right now the real problem is UV mapping...  we need to get someone good to do it, I tried for a while but quit in the end....


I like your models and I applaud you on doing them all so quickly... a few notes to change about them, the points on the frot of the viper needs to be pointier then have a flat drop, perhaps rounded but try to follow the originals. The bug needs a much pointier style. same with others, you have to have a point in front.


.3ds or .ac I think were the formats we decided to post our models up in because they seem to be widely supported, we just need to get a converter into pie format for them....

.ac supports UV mapping also....  soooooo  some coder get on that....



Ta Ta for now, and untill later happy gaming