Units for TA-springs

disciplus · Post by **disciplus** » 24 May 2005, 16:59

Here is some testing units made by Sinclaire (creator of Evolva). He don't have Internet at this time, so he asking for me to put his units on this messageboard.

Right clic on this link and ... save as.
http://membres.lycos.fr/stock3d/cortex/Objects3D.zip
Unzip the file in your TA-Spring directory

And some screenshots with the number of faces of each unit...

Commander : 1452 faces

Maverick : 1848 faces

Zeus: 1834 faces

Peewee: 618 faces

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 24 May 2005, 17:40

they look great, but won't they overload our computers...

aTTacK · Post by **aTTacK** » 24 May 2005, 17:55

they look damn good

but i think this will kill my 800mhz pc... i will see (*dl it*

[edit] link doesnt work o_O (with right click save as...)

Storm · Post by **Storm** » 24 May 2005, 18:16

Indeed, they look great, but I fear uploading those might cause furthermore compatibility problems. I, for one, would rather wait for a semi-complete version.

Nemo · Post by **Nemo** » 24 May 2005, 23:40

yow, those look absolutely amazing...the only problem is that i'm thinking they might cause serious slowdown with the high number of faces

what a treat for those with the computer to use it though.

Post by SJ » 24 May 2005, 23:44

Sigh if units start looking that good I will have to improve the rest of the graphics to match. :)

Storm · Post by **Storm** » 25 May 2005, 00:05

No, SJ, don't do it! Think of the children!!

^_^

Dragon45 · Post by **Dragon45** » 25 May 2005, 01:25

Arghs! We dont need more polys, we need UV mapping! More polys == teh suck. UV Mapping == teh win.

Zoombie · Post by **Zoombie** » 25 May 2005, 01:49

U...V Mapping? what? eXplain please

Zoombie · Post by **Zoombie** » 25 May 2005, 01:55

When i clicked on the link it lead to a cool story bord. THAT SOULD BE THE INTRO! Just dont have it be in the launguge it is in (French i think) cause i cant read french (or whatever it was). But it was still cool

Ace07 · Post by **Ace07** » 25 May 2005, 03:25

They look crazy good. I liked spring before, but with an update to the models, spring will be unstoppable!

Although, the commander can be as many polys as you want, the other units (Maverick and Zeus) might need to be scaled back a bit to increase speed. Possibly you can create low poly and high poly models for the lower end computers that can't handle the high poly ones?

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 25 May 2005, 05:17

Can't we make it so that the models used don't need to be synced betweem players? So you can play with lower-polygon models if your computer sucks? It shouldn't affect gameplay..., and we NEED those models! They damn well rock!

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 25 May 2005, 05:19

Will we have models like these for every unit?

Gnomre · Post by **Gnomre** » 25 May 2005, 05:57

Well, the main thing with different models is the location of the firing point. In OTA, you could simply kind of raise the firing point of say, a Samson, to allow it to fire over any wreckage... Sure, it could be made so the models have the exact same firing point location, but the slight differences could make a world of difference...

disciplus · Post by **disciplus** » 25 May 2005, 07:40

Sinclaire made this units to know the limit of the number of face we can reach.
I think too that the Maverick and the Zeus must be optimize.
But finally the question is, Ta-Spring will be a wargame with a top view? Indeed this units have too many faces, or TA-Spring will be a strategic game with a near view like FPS, in this case the models must be more detailed.

It is possible to make units with own texture, or we must be used the TA maps? Because made units with own textures can be a solution.

Thank's Zoombie, the storyboard (in French sorry

) is for a little animation that I make with a friend. And when I discover TA Spring project I was thinking too this animation will be a good intro for the game.

Sean Mirrsen · Post by **Sean Mirrsen** » 25 May 2005, 08:19

These units do indeed look good. However. They are WAAAAY to detailed for Spring. This isn't GC2, where they don't have more than a hundred units at any time on screen, and even there they have like 4 LOD stages to reduce polycount. I'd suggest to make a simple LOD system that would take similarly named 3do files (ARMCOM, ARMCOM1, ARMCOM2, etc) and set them as the unit's model depending on its distance from the camera. Currently, these units can only be used as the LOD0, the most detailed stage. 600 faces for a PeeWee isn't something most PCs can handle. The Evolva models qualify as LOD2 (or LOD1, since we don't have other models), and the OTA models could be used for LOD3. Later, a switch could be made so that when a LOD level is lacking, either the first higher level, or the first lower level is used, so in case with the current state of things, at the LOD1 distance, either the new ultra-detail model will be used (next higher, more CPU load), or the Evolva model (next lower, less CPU load).

disciplus · Post by **disciplus** » 25 May 2005, 09:17

Yes it's a good idea...

Storm · Post by **Storm** » 25 May 2005, 09:20

I concur, my vote on Mirrsen.

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 25 May 2005, 09:33

Guys we can't use the OTA models, legal reasons. So how about we use the ultra-high ones (the have less than double that of Evolve, don't they, so they are not that mega high) and have lower-poly ones for a distance. The thing is that they both have to be based on exactly the same model - we can't go from Evolva to this because they look nothing alike. How about for the low ones go for keeping the shape and removing the detail - try and half the number of polygons for the low ones. Remember, at a distance you can replace polygon detail by just having it directly on the texture.
Anyway, I am just NOT willing to sacrifice these models for performance reasons, because just imagine where computers will be in two years time. You will have to redo all the work! Currently we need springs requirements to be high, although not outrageous, because they won't stay that way!

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 25 May 2005, 09:38

Also, remember that detail become more obvious with dynamic lighting - the flatness of simpler models will look ugly, whereas the complexity of these new ones will look even better! If it does become a feature (and it probably will, in a year or two)...

Spring RTS Engine

Units for TA-springs

Units for TA-springs