Contest: Defensive Structure

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 01 Dec 2006, 10:30

576 tris. Poorly optimized.

Keep in mind, we're talking something twice the height of a Holder, here- this sucker is meant to be BIG. Now for secondary defenses...

Keithus · Post by **Keithus** » 01 Dec 2006, 10:45

Seeing as I will most likely be unable to work on this during the weekend I thought I would post the current version. Very little has actually changed, a couple extra "thrusters" which can't be seen in the screenshot, a "guard" for the spinning part of the cannon and the change from a quad gun to a lower poly tri gun.

.Wings and .OBJ format as I arent sure the .OBJ will keep some of the edges:
http://dl022.filefactory.com/dl/f/0a0ae ... 03617880c/

P.S I thought that the turret would float from having the pad "blow" it upwards, and if it were to make it ingame its special FX could include blurring/turbulence/heat distortion between the turret and pad. Would look kewl, not sure if thats possible though.

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 01 Dec 2006, 11:03

780 tris. The smaller guns ride the "track" to face their target.

970 to go

@Keithus:

Very nice! I really like how that is developing

I can definitely code up the FX for that to work convincingly.

imbaczek · Post by **imbaczek** » 01 Dec 2006, 12:07

mmm bertha on steroids

MR.D · Post by **MR.D** » 01 Dec 2006, 12:10

Aw cmon Argh, thats too simple..

Make it a mechanical monster!!

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 01 Dec 2006, 12:19

1182 tris, with about 30 tris that will be cut. A much more detailed vision of the turret mechanism, without adding any real scripting complications.

I have about 500 tris to spare, so how should I spend them? More greebles on the main gun mechanism, further reinforcing the sense of complexity and scale? Perhaps breaking up the gun barrel, to allow it to retract into itself like the SquareRook? More greebling on the body of the turret, to give it an even larger feel when the skin is on it to give it a scalar feeling? With 500 tris, I can do quite a bit, if I don't waste them on things that don't really add to the visual impact of the piece...

I really hope putting up these WIPs is helping people to understand how I work through the design process and gradually create complexity without wasting faces.

Basically, it's very simple- start with an idea- even a fairly lackluster one... and do a concept drawing. I drew this turret in a side-on view, flat, in about 1 minute with a ball-point pen. I don't believe in doing a million concept drawings, but I always do at least one before committing myself to modeling time.

Next, model out the rough of that idea. If you're modeling in a mesh-only environment (I use a NURBS modeler) then you need to keep face-count in your mind the whole time. Make the rough match the specifications of your concept drawing.

Once you are done with the rough, evaluate it. Is it less than half of polycount spec? If not, you're either doing something wrong, or you may be trying to do something that's going to be hard to achieve within the tolerance you've set. If you're at 75% of polycount spec., you probably didn't model it very efficiently.

Assuming that your initial rough is within early spec, start looking for opportunities to greeble. Small detail brings a piece- especially a large one- to life. But keep greebles as low-poly as you can get away with. That allows for yet more greebling, and pretty soon, you're sitting where I am, with 500+ triangles that I can "spend" on whatever I want, and still meet spec.

@Mr. D.: Mechanical simplicity was part of the spec. It will get more complex looking as I get closer to final, but I fully intend to make it actually very simple to get into the game engine, plus I don't feel that it would be fair to compete with the crazy-cool mechanical concepts that people are putting up- you've seen what I've done with units like the Springer... I don't have anything to prove there

Das Bruce · Post by **Das Bruce** » 01 Dec 2006, 12:35

Add a little more detail to the secondaries.

PicassoCT · Post by **PicassoCT** » 01 Dec 2006, 13:17

How about Argh dropping the Little Gun, and putting Keithus Gun in its Place.. DoomdsdayBertha...

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 01 Dec 2006, 13:28

1453 tris. Maybe a bit over-doing it on detail- it's starting to feel very complex, and I'm not sure if that's helping the feel of massive scale. More interesting than the previous WIP, though.

@PicassoCT: Who said that I might not have plans for every one of the most refined designs here? There aren't rules saying I can't add more than one turret to NanoBlobs if I want to, and the Holder needs to be replaced with something finer than the current model, which was always meant to be a stand-in while I found time to replace it with a decent work

Argh · Post by **Argh** » 01 Dec 2006, 14:30

1459 tris. I think I have a few unseen faces to cut, too. 200 tris left in my budget, and as you can hopefully see from the top view, it's frightfully detailed at this point- the carved reliefs in the tip of the turret, for example, are almost going to be too small to notice at game rez, and a lot of the detail will remain hidden from player view at various angles. I've tried to drive home over and over again that you can wring a lot detail out of very low polycounts- this should help to show people how far you can really push this concept.

At this point, it has 6 true moving parts- and 7 if I want to introduce randomness to its apparent initial facing, so that building them side-by-side doesn't look very bland, and has some randomness to it- a trick that more mods should use, since that OTA feature isn't in Spring, and probably never will be.

PicassoCT · Post by **PicassoCT** » 01 Dec 2006, 19:12

[Joking]Now all it it still needs is a Key to turn the TinToy into Motion! ;D [END OF JOKING]

Looks genious.. Me wants it ingame..

LordMatt · Post by **LordMatt** » 01 Dec 2006, 20:45

oo I like Argh's models.

Peet · Post by **Peet** » 01 Dec 2006, 21:05

About to actually start mine, I hope it turns out as good as I plan. Picture an ota popup cannon, multiply it by seventeen, and give it folding out secondary weapons

Zenka · Post by **Zenka** » 01 Dec 2006, 22:10

wonderfull Argh. a true artist. (as usual).
The taped cylinder on the back does look.... out of place. Like it was just pasted on the ytuuret, instead of carefully mounted with purpouse.
I like the twin barrel gun better then the holder-type gun on the base.

Oh, did I mentiuon it looks pwonage?

Candleman · Post by **Candleman** » 01 Dec 2006, 22:52

If you could make steam hiss out of the protrusions on the back cylinder (the one Zenka's talking about) after every shot, that would add some coolness and more reason for that thing to be there.

I'm all for Argh's model ingame, and Keithus's model replacing the Holder.

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 01 Dec 2006, 23:28

Steam AND fire, CMuzzleFlameProjectile for the win (if you really gonna do that, remember to rotate the vertices where they are emitted from in the right direction)!

Felix the Cat · Post by **Felix the Cat** » 02 Dec 2006, 00:56

Steam out of the protrusions and fire out of the back would equal much win.

manored · Post by **manored** » 02 Dec 2006, 01:22

Just one idea, but how about putting some sort of hammer on the gun's top that stomps on its back at each shot? I think it would make the gun more senseless, just like nanoblobs

.

MR.D · Post by **MR.D** » 02 Dec 2006, 01:46

Here is my mechanical Monster, and maybe an engineering display too

3 stage popup LRPC, with float rotating recoil system.

I only made this for fun, its definately not something anyone would ever want to script, although it was very easy to animate.

1608 triangles.

I realise the unit itself isn't all that spectacular, its the animation that really makes it shine.

So here is it.

*Animation Movie of basic function*
1.4 MB
http://mrd.str8-6.com/files/dome_test2.zip

Candleman · Post by **Candleman** » 02 Dec 2006, 01:51

The huge ground tex makes it look kinda small...

Could you put in a knight or something for a better sense of scale?

Spring RTS Engine

Contest: Defensive Structure