Development Updates

[SanadaUjiosan]

To start off the new and improved Development Updates thread, here is what I worked on tonight:



Using a ground decal (drrrrrrr), we now have visual indicators of what resource drop-off units drop-off distances are! Woo hoo! They fade wonderfully when units are killed/morph, and it looks great.

Also working on some kind of metallic creep to use as a ground decal for Drone buildings, but that is not going as smoothly

[SanadaUjiosan]

What a day :D

Some highlights:

* 3 different unique ground decals for each of the Drone structures.


* Fixed some error-spamming gadgets (all by myself :) )

* Cleaned up the innards of the game some.

* Updated the Hojo model and retextured it with a .png texture. Did some animation work, most noticeably in the Jump Jet animation. It no longer looks like Super Mario when it jumps

[SanadaUjiosan]

Took a tiny break, and then I remodeled the Ueda Combat Support Mech. This unit was really needing a remodeling, and I feel pretty good about it. Most of what we're looking at is a more detailed cockpit, a cockpit hatch (+1 for more attention to realism :) ), and most importantly, little rockets that disappear after the weapons fire

The animation was worked on a lot too, and I feel like I've slightly improved it to a satisfactory state. This leg style is just a nightmare to envision...

Also did a lot of work to the ModDB page, and I think it looks a *ton* better. Woo hoo :)

Edit: Also, a before and after image of the Hojo. Would have been smart the first time

[JediDoubleJedi]

Wow! thats awesome! maybe add more guns? I like mechs with guns! like in japanese anime!

[SanadaUjiosan]

I'm kind of going for a less-is-more aesthetic as far as NKG weaponry goes. I've never been much of a fan of mechs with a bazillion weapons on them.

Anywho, remodeled Engineer (renamed Construction Mech)!



Besides being a Construction Yellow, it has rounder tanks on the back, rounder hands, a little cockpit hatch, a thinner and better looking welding shield and most importantly, Knorke's moving tank treads.

I worked on the animation a lot and the end result was something that could have taken me 2 seconds to do But it is still a small improvement. Not sure which mech I will move onto next in the remodeling craze.

[smoth]

I would round the arm hinges.

[knorke]

2048x2048 is a way too large texture for that.
64x64 would do fine. For graphic cards with low memory (eg <256mb) it can make the game very hard.

[SanadaUjiosan]

Oops, I forgot to resize the textures to the usual 512x512. Still getting used to the new process of making a .png texture. Thanks for pointing that out Knorke.

I resized one to 64x64 and it was way, way too nasty looking.

[knorke]

since everything but the windows is solid colors, you can make textures like this:

if you put areas with the same color on the same position it saves space.
It is easy and somewhat quick-ish to do in wings3d.
I always muddle my uvmaps (like above) because I put different sized stuff on top of each other, so I can not have black outlines.
But you can still do this:

It will look 100% the same.
Now also resize the invisible underside of models from 100x100 to 1x1 pixel and at least 128x128 textures should be possible. (That is 1/16 of 512x512)
Probally even smaller.
Since you are remodeling stuff atm anyway, I would at least consider it.

[SanadaUjiosan]

Most of my models have a lot of different shapes, I'm not really sure how effective it'd be for most units to line up the shapes that may appear only once or twice more. The example you gave is from before I started duplicating exact copies of objects, like wheels, after texturing. I'm doing that now, and it is making the textures a lot less complicated.

The largest .png texture I've made so far is a little over 100kb. Nowhere near the 1mb that each .tga was before. Some people have had trouble with CT before, but I really feel that after all of the units get these tiny-by-comparison textures it should make the game run a lot better for them. If it doesn't, then, well, I guess I'll see if I can do what you suggested.

Anyways:



Remodeled the Oukami Type Tank. Has the moving treads, a rounder recoiling barrel, and some fixed geometry.

[SanadaUjiosan]

The Fuma Aerial Combat Mech has gotten a rather large overhaul. Now with spinning turbines, better guns, and some other small details, the unit looks better than ever. I also added a very cool landing animation where the unit rolls back and lands on its back. It looks so much nicer than just perching itself upright and unrealistically.

I have also added landing gear to the Hayabusa Type Fighter MkII. Sure, almost no one will ever see it, but I feel better having it down there. Makes it feel more like a real plane to me. The gear folds in and hides while the aircraft is in flight. :)

[jK]

The largest .png texture I've made so far is a little over 100kb. Nowhere near the 1mb that each .tga was before. Some people have had trouble with CT before, but I really feel that after all of the units get these tiny-by-comparison textures it should make the game run a lot better for them. If it doesn't, then, well, I guess I'll see if I can do what you suggested.

The .png size doesn't matter at all (it might only speedup loading time of the texture a tiny little).
The uncompressed image size matters (= bitmap size = size your image editor shows in the bottom bar)!
The GPU can't read pngs and if it would never be efficient, instead it loads the uncompressed image into its VideoRAM. And so your 100kB image can easily become multiple MBs large.
So either switch to DDS/DXT those stay compressed in VideoRAM (those use GPU native compression formats) or you reduce the texture image dimensions by more eff. using the uv-space.

PS: nice improvements on the models :)

[smoth]

The Fuma Aerial Combat Mech has gotten a rather large overhaul. Now with spinning turbines, better guns, and some other small details, the unit looks better than ever. I also added a very cool landing animation where the unit rolls back and lands on its back. It looks so much nicer than just perching itself upright and unrealistically.

I have also added landing gear to the Hayabusa Type Fighter MkII. Sure, almost no one will ever see it, but I feel better having it down there. Makes it feel more like a real plane to me. The gear folds in and hides while the aircraft is in flight. :)

looks great, the gun barrels could be 6-10 sides

[knorke]

or you reduce the texture image dimensions by more eff. using the uv-space.

...which you can still do alot.
It is a bit better with the new model but I still thing the textures can be made much smaller.
You always cut the uvmap along all edges anyway, so it is easy to place same pieces on top of each other and rotate them a bit.
(iirc in wings 3d: select one, press i, rightlick->move to center-> move to some free spot) If you want to change color of parts (eg wheels, arms) later that is also easier.

Round turbines look much better (though maybe modeling each blade was not needed)

[SanadaUjiosan]

looks great, the gun barrels could be 6-10 sides

You're right, I realized after the texture was done that the barrels have way too many lines. Oh well, I'm okay with it. I'll try to not be as crazy with cylinders from now on.

The .png size doesn't matter at all (it might only speedup loading time of the texture a tiny little).
The uncompressed image size matters (= bitmap size = size your image editor shows in the bottom bar)!
The GPU can't read pngs and if it would never be efficient, instead it loads the uncompressed image into its VideoRAM. And so your 100kB image can easily become multiple MBs large.
So either switch to DDS/DXT those stay compressed in VideoRAM (those use GPU native compression formats) or you reduce the texture image dimensions by more eff. using the uv-space.

PS: nice improvements on the models :)

Well that is a real bummer. I guess I can make certain textures smaller than others, no one said every texture file must be the same dimensions. Today I realized I could easily fit all of the projectile UV maps on one texture. That would free up like 6 or 7 often-used textures.

*feeble thumbs up*

[SanadaUjiosan]

The rather big and dramatic update that I had been working on for... a few weeks at most, I guess, was finally committed yesterday. I wrote up a modDB news article on it, so if you're interested you can check that out.

I'll summarize it though, for the lazy or more uncaring.

* Remodeled the factory cruisers, now have landing gear and much more detailed construction scaffolding. Also now attacks other cruisers with a barrage of lasers Oh, and they can't attack ground anymore





* Implemented a new unit tree structure for the NKG, which I actually talked about mostly in another thread that barely got any responses. To summarize it, T2 cruisers have been removed, and all T2 units are built from their respective T1 cruiser factories, but must be unlocked by building either an Ace Mech or General's Tank, depending on what units you want. Building a Flagship (new name for the old battle flagship) now unlocks battlecruisers.



* These units aren't actually done yet, but there will be some new units, namely a "T1" anti-ground missile cruiser, and a smaller, cheaper, easier to use transport cruiser.

[SanadaUjiosan]

I've been doing some more cleanup work, but the most noticeable improvements I've made are a whole new batch of weapon impact CEGs. These aren't all of them, but they more or less summarize what I made.



Clockwise we have a rocket/missile explosion, a dirt-only impact for machine guns and cannons, green beam explosion for drone weapons, and blue beam explosion for the NKG's beam weaponry.

[PicassoCT]

you know.. nice.. and getting nicer ..

[SanadaUjiosan]

Thanks Picasso, it feels good to know I am slowly improving how CT looks.

I've got a new unit, and a remodeled one!



The Sanada Class Cruiser is a "bombardment cruiser", firing up to 6 rockets in a small spread at ground targets. However, it can't attack air, so it needs to be protected! It acts as a sort of T1 battlecruiser.



The beloved Taco Stand is no more! Trucked away to an unnamed landfill in eastern Mexico, it has served its quota of metal-tacos to the hungry miner workers of Conflict Terra. In its place is a new and improved, fancy to the max Resource Ship. Armed with rotating engines (the turbines are back!) and blinking lights, this beast is ready to fill the NKG belly full of Vaguenanium (not the name of metal in CT) so more giant robots can blow eachother up.

I'm sure the old Taco Stand will be missed...

[SanadaUjiosan]

Apart from some minor CEG work and thinking a lot about balance, yesterday I fixed Burrow for the Drones! Now, all of the legged Drone units (Engineer, Light, and Warrior) can burrow. Burrowing cloaks them (2 energy per second) and they cannot attack or move...

None of the Drone AIs know how to use this

I think it could be interesting for human players.