i have decided to try my hand at creating units for spring. I am not a noobie at modelling but i am for spring. i looked at the wikki for answers but most of it seems aimed at unit creation for ota.
1) is there a limit to poly count or max number of faces on a unit?
2)does the unit script animate the unit?
3) if a model has moveing parts i.e. a tank and its turrent. The tank and turrent are 2 seperate objects or one???
4)anything else that you might think is helpfull to the spring noob.
noob unit creation questions
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SwiftSpear
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1)It's a logical limit you have to deal with. Consider your average video card and understand what kind of 3D rendering draw is taken on it with all the features and what not enabled. Spring is a fairly efficient 3D renderer so you can get away with fairly high unit polycounts and still not kill your average computer... Still, I'd restrict myself to some reasonable limit, you can still overdo it if you try to port HL2 models to spring.
2) Yes
3) I belive they are two objects in an object hiarcy... you would have to ask more experianced unit creators.
4) Work with s3o's rather then the old modeling format. If you are an experianced modeler you are probably much more familiar with UVmapping texturing then the per face texturing that used to be used. Plus there is no 2000x2000 pixle texture limit to deal with and you get fun extra features like reflection maps and self lighting.
2) Yes
3) I belive they are two objects in an object hiarcy... you would have to ask more experianced unit creators.
4) Work with s3o's rather then the old modeling format. If you are an experianced modeler you are probably much more familiar with UVmapping texturing then the per face texturing that used to be used. Plus there is no 2000x2000 pixle texture limit to deal with and you get fun extra features like reflection maps and self lighting.
1) There is no poly/triangle limit, within reason. I'd say 1000 triangles for a common unit isn't excessive - you'll only hear that from me though... most TA modelers are still stuck in 1997 standards where anything about 100 faces was a sin against God. Good reading: http://taspring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3662
2) The script animates the unit, yes.
3) The two are seperate objects, but if you are planning to uvmap the object (as any modern mod will surely do), there must be a heirarcy arranged in 3DS max. All objects must be attached, directly or indirectly, to the base object.
4) Remember that as Spring is, in its current stage, stable but wildly inefficient, anyone who plays it has a reasonably powerful computer (generally in the 2+ ghz range with 512 ram and a GF4 equivalent or better). Model your mod or whatever around that, and don't cut corners on detail unless it's ridiculously excessive, ie, 50,000 triangles or something. By the time Spring has become a more efficient engine, which I'd put at maybe a year down the road or more, minimum system specs will likely remain the same or only a little lower - there are many, many engine features which remain to be added, and if the SYs and other developers have given us any indication so far, they intend to add many of these features. But the thing is, a year down the road systems like the one I said above will be low-end, bargain bin, or worse.
2) The script animates the unit, yes.
3) The two are seperate objects, but if you are planning to uvmap the object (as any modern mod will surely do), there must be a heirarcy arranged in 3DS max. All objects must be attached, directly or indirectly, to the base object.
4) Remember that as Spring is, in its current stage, stable but wildly inefficient, anyone who plays it has a reasonably powerful computer (generally in the 2+ ghz range with 512 ram and a GF4 equivalent or better). Model your mod or whatever around that, and don't cut corners on detail unless it's ridiculously excessive, ie, 50,000 triangles or something. By the time Spring has become a more efficient engine, which I'd put at maybe a year down the road or more, minimum system specs will likely remain the same or only a little lower - there are many, many engine features which remain to be added, and if the SYs and other developers have given us any indication so far, they intend to add many of these features. But the thing is, a year down the road systems like the one I said above will be low-end, bargain bin, or worse.