Modifications to defensive building models needed

[BulletMagnet]

Why not have a seperate foundation object of fixed (abundant) height applicable to all defensive structures?

Hence you would have 'defensive structure' at the highest terrain height sitting on top of a 'foundation object' which is added automatically and doesn't intrude upon the icon sizes and, unlike other structures, builds downwards from the defensive structure. ^_^ For building purposes you could have a temporary seperate construction icon.

considering all bunkers are the have the same footprint, that might work.

having a foundation mesh for bunkers, and another for walls, and a third for HP's might be a bit more work for the art-guys, but it would probably solve the problem the best way.

[Olrox]

Why not have a seperate foundation object of fixed (abundant) height applicable to all defensive structures?

Hence you would have 'defensive structure' at the highest terrain height sitting on top of a 'foundation object' which is added automatically and doesn't intrude upon the icon sizes and, unlike other structures, builds downwards from the defensive structure. ^_^ For building purposes you could have a temporary seperate construction icon.

considering all bunkers are the have the same footprint, that might work.

having a foundation mesh for bunkers, and another for walls, and a third for HP's might be a bit more work for the art-guys, but it would probably solve the problem the best way.

Ah, but if the game files are separated already it isn't anything hard to do - I believe. Models like that are faster to make, as they're very simple structures. Not like vehicles and weapons, that are more complex mechanisms.

It would be a little harder if we had to add new models, and that wouldn't be hard, yet :rolleyes: Only would be *hard* if it involved adding a new feature.

Adding a separate mesh for the foundation and making it appear only when placing the bunkers/pits/emplacements should be very similar to the way Tiuz found to add the gate's door on his (definetely great) mod. And it would be easier because it wouldn't need to vanish when your own (and only your own) units get into a certain range.

[Olrox]

looks good, comrade! (I can make textures for those right away, if you want )

what is wrong with my texture?[/quote]

Oh, there's nothing *wrong*, I just think it can look better

[Per]

what is wrong with my texture?

Ah. Of course. I did not think of that. The model needs to be drawn without the extra foundation when displayed in the menus.

Not sure how to implement that. A few solutions I can think of right now:

• Simply clip the model to the space allocated to it in the menu. It will still show the foundation, but it won't obscure the view of other models. Simple, but perhaps not the best looking solution, since all defensive buildings will clip at the bottom.
• Put the foundation in a separate PIE level (mesh), and code some handling for it that only draws the extra mesh for the terrain. It is an ugly design, though, and may not work well with future animation support.
• Use a vertex shader to drop all vertices below zero height. Pretty neat, but adds a requirement on working shaders to the game.
• Generate two versions of the model when it is loaded, the normal one for terrain, and another one where all vertices below zero height have been removed. It will look as good as the shader option, but I suspect that the code for this will be nasty.
• Set a clip plane through the model at zero height. I have never worked with OpenGL clip planes, so I am not sure if this will work, or whether there would be artefacts.

[Zarel]

• Put the foundation in a separate PIE level (mesh), and code some handling for it that only draws the extra mesh for the terrain. It is an ugly design, though, and may not work well with future animation support.
• Generate two versions of the model when it is loaded, the normal one for terrain, and another one where all vertices below zero height have been removed. It will look as good as the shader option, but I suspect that the code for this will be nasty.

I like these.

[Olrox]

Like in Tiuz's gate, if I remember right, the door isn't displayed at the build menu. When you build the base strcture of the gate, the door is automatically placed.

[MaNGusT]

Use a vertex shader to drop all vertices below zero height. Pretty neat, but adds a requirement on working shaders to the game.

I like this because it's useful for a future graphics improvement.

[cybersphinx]

[*]Set a clip plane through the model at zero height. I have never worked with OpenGL clip planes, so I am not sure if this will work, or whether there would be artefacts.[/list]

Sounds like the simplest solution. The others all need more work and special casing, without any gains.

[Per]

Like in Tiuz's gate, if I remember right, the door isn't displayed at the build menu. When you build the base strcture of the gate, the door is automatically placed.

IIRC, that is done with a script, so the situation is not comparable.

[Zarel]

I can't imagine a separate PIE level, such as Tiuz's gates, or modules on a structure, would be that much more work. Clipping might even be undesirable in some situations, and using separate PIE levels would alleviate that.

Of course, if clipping is easier, I'm not opposed to that, either.

[Olrox]

Is there any progress on this, or we're still in need of the goodwilling artist? :rolleyes:

[Per]

Is there any progress on this, or we're still in need of the goodwilling artist? :rolleyes:

Still in need of an artist's help.

PS to Zarel: For the record, neither gates nor modules are implemented as separate PIE levels. They are separate PIE files.

[poVoq]

Is there any progress on this, or we're still in need of the goodwilling artist? :rolleyes:

Still in need of an artist's help.

What do you need an artist for exactly? I am pretty skilled in 3D art and if it can be done quickly I would be willing to help.

[Per]

What do you need an artist for exactly? I am pretty skilled in 3D art and if it can be done quickly I would be willing to help.

To add a subterranean base to each defensive structure. See viewtopic.php?f=33&t=3992&start=15#p39502 for illustration. See the first post in this thread for rationale for why this is needed.

[poVoq]

(excuse me for not being a Warzone expert)

So there is need for a nice base for each defense building, or could it be a shared one for several? How many different defense buildings are we talking about? Also walls?

Technical questions: What should be the specs (polycount & texture size)?, how deep does it have to go into the ground (relative size compared to defense buildings)? Can I just use the blender export script I found in the svn tools directory to export the models to pie, or is there any additional procedure required? Do the defense buildings have to be modified too?

To sum it up... all the code is there, just right now it's an ugly grey square used as the base, thus if someone would do a few nice foundation models everything would be done, right?