[WIP] - My TA re-modeling and re-design

[Saktoth]

Is this stuff released under a permissive liscence, crem? I know there are several Spring fantasy projects that could use stuff like this.
And i know this:

Would probably be more appropriate a mount than a blue-eyed pig:

[Gota]

LoL
Knight on blue eyed pigs...
I'm not actually sure a horse would be cooler.

[maackey]

OMFG CAN I HAZ?!?

More seriously though, this is *exactly* what I was looking for. Even if its not free for use its perfect for inspiration

[Guessmyname]

And the sad part is, I recognise where the texture for the sphere bits came from >_<

[smoth]

you mean that isn't hand done </3

[Guessmyname]

CGTextures-me-do

Don't blame you though. I cheat using them all the time. CGTextures rocks.

[krychle]

Yop

When WZ asked my texturing process, I started a little unit to show him it, but as I modeled I couldn't stop at a little thing, so it growth and became a "big" thing and the texturing process became a full how to xD
So the how to is a little bit rushed because I thought it was shorter to do and I was getting bored at the end

anyway, here is the new unit.



I do not pretend to know everything but someone may find this how to helpfull.
Modeling -
http://cremuss.free.fr/3d/2009/step1.jpg
http://cremuss.free.fr/3d/2009/step2.jpg
http://cremuss.free.fr/3d/2009/step3.jpg
UVs -
http://cremuss.free.fr/3d/2009/step4.jpg
Texturing -
http://cremuss.free.fr/3d/2009/step5.jpg
http://cremuss.free.fr/3d/2009/step6.jpg

If you think I'm wrong on smthing, tell me :)

http://cremuss.free.fr/files/storage.zip

Hope you like it
C&C welcome
bye :)

nice tutorial Cremuss.

Just another tips for welding vertices (welding is one of most used functions :)

You can slide edge to one side and then hit remove doubles. This will remove two vertices. U don't need to be in svap mode to do this.

Also when welding two or more vertices, usefull commands are in ALT+M menu. I'm using weld "At Last" mostly... select vertices for welding and then hit ALT+M and select "At last" and all selected vertices will be welded to last selected vertice.

[AF]

CA shouldn't have to modify the model to show whats inside the factory, this is just a sign that their UI design isn't up to the task.

Even supreme commander manages to display basic factory queues to the user without forcing the factory open, and they already have open view factories!

[Tribulex]

good point af. Also i think there needs to be a way of giving order to a unit currently inside the factory. Even with current open factories, CA doesnt support this because of their bad factory hitspheres or something. When i click on a unit in a lab it just selects the lab unless i click on an arbitrary pixel that happens to work.

[Argh]

CA's UI already shows what's queued; you just can't select the Unit from that UI, IIRC.

As for showing what's being built inside, like a ghost... meh, that's a trivial OpenGL Widget.

[smoth]

really? I would like to see that done. I have always wondered how it works.

[CarRepairer]

CA's UI already shows what's queued; you just can't select the Unit from that UI, IIRC.

As for showing what's being built inside, like a ghost... meh, that's a trivial OpenGL Widget.

Correct, the buildbar widget shows it.

Idea: A single click on the factory icon in buildbar selects the factory right now. Let a second click (as in, factory is currently selected when you click on the icon - not a quick double-click) select the unit and deselect the factory. Or maybe a double click after all. I know jK will be rewriting the buildbar in chili so there will be some nice support for various ideas.

[Argh]

really? I would like to see that done. I have always wondered how it works.

It's really, really, easy OpenGL. Just play with Depthtest, and you can do the easy version. For more sophistication, you'd want to use a shader. I might write a Widget for this with the next release of P.U.R.E., if I get bored and have some spare time.

[Tribulex]

CA's UI already shows what's queued; you just can't select the Unit from that UI, IIRC.

As for showing what's being built inside, like a ghost... meh, that's a trivial OpenGL Widget.

Correct, the buildbar widget shows it.

Idea: A single click on the factory icon in buildbar selects the factory right now. Let a second click (as in, factory is currently selected when you click on the icon - not a quick double-click) select the unit and deselect the factory. Or maybe a double click after all. I know jK will be rewriting the buildbar in chili so there will be some nice support for various ideas.

In chili? Ew i hope its still a cool widget :/

Otherwise this is a good idea. Not to hard to do.

[CarRepairer]

Heck who needs buildbar, doubleclick on the factory to select the unit inside. Why not?

[Neddie]

Or hover your mouse over it and have the damn thing pop up in the tooltip with a rotating 3D model.

[Tribulex]

Heck who needs buildbar, doubleclick on the factory to select the unit inside. Why not?

good idea, on it

[Tribulex]

Or hover your mouse over it and have the damn thing pop up in the tooltip with a rotating 3D model.

Only in XTA (C) 2009 TRIBULEX INC

[AF]

buildbar is a horrible UI and it only shows the current unit anyway.

Your also at a loss as to which factory is building it because it doesn't show you which factory is selected..

[Saktoth]

I think it is wrong to not think of units as a part of the GUI. Probably the most important one, they display the most relevant information and they are interacted with more than any other part of the interface.

Models themselves should be more than static lumps of polygons. They should show what it is they are doing, and to what degree they are doing it. Already they show turret and movement facing, wind generators spin to show wind speed, storages should show currently stored resources, wheels should spin, jets should flare and rotate for VTOL- if a unit serves a function, you should be able to see when it is performing that function.

Its just not as engaging to go for icon wars and abstract static representations- and there is no reason to do that anyway, when a few simple tweaks to the model allow you to see it performing its job.

Selecting units inside a factory should follow the same pattern as anything else: Click on the unit to select it. For this the unit needs to be visible.

An argument could be made that units should show as a ghost behind other units or behind obstacles (Ala AoE2), thats probably not a bad idea.

A moderator should probably fork this from AF's first post onwards, this is going into hijackland.