Random WIP 2006-2011

[Zpock]

That is definitely not some different rendering to blame, but what happens when the whole texture has about the same brightness all over. A few think dark lines on a medium gray just won't cut it, you need large areas of a light color and large areas of a dark one to look good at small size.

Something like this:

[smoth]

Specular will correct this. You are looking at a scaled down flat shaded model.

DO NOT CHANGE THE TEXTURE! just post shots of it in game with the specular and reflective working. With team color being flat without specular.

[rattle]

Are you sure smoth? Spring's specularity is a spotlight not a hemilight, you can hardly see the specularity on entirely soft shaded objects...

edit: eugh

[smoth]

you can see it fine if it is set right. Specularity will show.

[Saktoth]

Specular will correct this. You are looking at a scaled down flat shaded model.

DO NOT CHANGE THE TEXTURE! just post shots of it in game with the specular and reflective working. With team color being flat without specular.

Visibility is important for gameplay reasons, not just pretties. You must be able to tell the location, facing, and unit type at the barest of glances and with the minimum of effort. Some people (myself included) do not play with reflective units on. Some maps have crap lighting or high ambient, such as Darkside Remake and Comet Catcher Redux, and on others the lighting isnt very much at the best of times. It is to be expected and perfectly acceptable that units do not look as good under these circumstances but they should not be more difficult to see.

This is my major concern- not so much that it will look bad at a distance, but that it will be hard to see (though naturally, this is an RTS, we have to think about how a unit looks at standard play distance). The current spherebot texture, despite the differences you see in my little comparison shot, already has this problem. It is much harder to see than most 3do units.

I am of the opinion that the all gameplay information should be conveyed clearly, even on minimum settings. Relying on hardware-guzzling settings to make the unit visible is just a bad idea, smoth.

Id like to see what the texture looks like rendered in-engine though, im sure the antialaising etc isnt helping it. Im sure it will look much better than in that comparison shot, with or without reflective units. Just dont listen to smoth >_>.

[smoth]

facing is more obvious based on the animation when it aims. oh and where it is shooting there is muzzle flash and movement in that direction. Sure when it is standing idle but honestly, either version is not going to be any more obvious unless you make the gun a different color.

YES, I do consider effects on gameplay, that should go without saying. However, obviously stating such things is pointless as we should have that in mind without having to say GAMEPLAY.
*edit*
bit stripped off for pm
damnit, part of the post I cut off :\ retyping

[smoth]

godamnit that was supposed to go to pm.

[bobthedinosaur]

thats spelled goddamnit meaning 'god damn it'

[Snipawolf]

Where is your WIP pic? Less nitpicking, moar WIP pics.

(I don't have any myself, damn >_< )

[rattle]

I have one but no one cares anyway.

[smoth]

thats spelled goddamnit meaning 'god damn it'

HOLY SHIT NO WAI!

[KDR_11k]

Rule of texturing: Do not hope that the engine will do your job for you!

It can and WILL happen that your model is drawn with little or no shading and it should still look good when that happens.

[Zpock]

Specular would just add highlights to the model, not change the fact that the thing has the same looking color all over. I just don't see how it's relevant. Maybe you could use it for added effect with some parts of the model having more specular (shininess) then others, giving an impression of different kinds of material, which would be good, in addition to using different colors/brightness to avoid having a monogray blob.

+1 KDR, why not use the cool effects to add ontop of a good basework instead of using it as an excuse to have a crappy base texture.

[smoth]

I still want to see ingame rather the mockups or raytraced shots. NONE of these shots show what it really will look like.

[Zpock]

That would better illustrate the point, although a bit hard to do when the texture is unreleased, or is it? And the general idea is that details will melt together in a 40 pixel high picture of the model regardless of how it's rendered or made.

[smoth]

he can put the model in game. Whenever I want to quickly test a model I put it all together as one object, drop it in upspring save it. Afterwhich I replace the model file used by one of my wall features and BAM the model is in game. Takes about 5 minutes and it is in game. he doesn't need one of us to do it for them.

[daan 79]

Hi

I had some spare time this day so i piced up old hobby. I am in a twist to make those pilars just one faced but i prefer 3d actually. But it eats polygons.

[Guessmyname]

Anyone else thinking "Combine Prison Pod system" when looking at that?

[Sheekel]

Also added a small render of how it will look like (more or less) when zoomed out.

Will this be available for public use in mods, like Mr.D's remakes?

[daan 79]

i hope some will reconise it as a cylon resurrectionship lol. Anyone have an idea not loosing to much stuff but get rid of some poly?