Spring RTS Engine

Snipawolf wrote:Does it have to be mechanical? Or can we have some thing made of flesh?

I quote myself on a question that hasn't been answered..

Ehh, knock yourself out (go ahead, for those who don't get that idiom).

lol, who wouldn't get that idiom???

People who aren't native english speakers?

I once said "throw the book at him", and my friend, (non-native english speaker) actually picked up a dictionary and hucked it at my other friends head. Hilarity ensued.

These days vulcans are built into the nose to reduce air resistance.

Air resistance isnt a big problem so much as the 45kN of force the GAU-8 avenger produces when firing.

That one's being used on A-10s iirc (and probably every other US plane. No wait, they used the M-61 vulcan! 10 mm caliber difference ).


And I remember carrying Vulcans and Avengers around in Fallout...

edit: Oh and could we raise the poly count to 1100? or 1200? Model's done at about 920 tris but in order to add weaponry that doesn't look stupid I need at least another 200 polys. It's going to be 6 rockets, 2 bombs and 2 guns and I'd rather have them not look like "carrots on sticks" :)

It's staying at 1000 (20 or so over that would be ok though). Remember these have to be suitable for real gameplay, without using a Cray XE1 as a gaming rig ^_^

The 1000-tri limit is in place to keep it a meaningful challenge. Bending the rules would be insulting to everybody who's managed to meet the cap...

I've taken off approximately 350 polys off the last one without neglecting (much) detail. Sorry for the begging
I'm just inexperienced and didn't see all the wasted polies on first glance.

Does it matter whether your plane is futuristic or not?

I don't think so.

Someone make a P-51 before I do!

I am just curious if my post was missing something so vital as to be devoid of any meaningful critique (even something like hey you forgot such and such).

I don't know. . .maybe my model is just too ugle for any one to care

@MrSpontaneous: Can we at least see a screenshot? I'm at work.

@Rattle: There are no limitations on style. You can make a bird, a flying orangutang, a flying saucer from a 1950's space movie... whatever suits your fancy.

And Rattle, you're doing fine. If you found that many wasted polygons, then you're headed in the right direction.

Some useful numbers to keep in your head at all times:

A perfect square: 2 triangles.
A perfect trihedral-base pyramid: 4 triangles.
A perfect cube: 12 triangles.
A perfect six-sided column: 20 triangles.
A perfect eight-sided column: 32 triangles.
A perfect twelve-sided column: 38 triangles.
A perfect sixteen-sided column: 64 triangles. If you ever use more than 16, it'd better be HUGE
A perfect sphere that will look perfect at almost all shading angles in Spring: 216 triangles. I should probably post mine- I have some software that will tesselate perfect spheres at various values, already spheremapped.

I'd rework the cockpit, rocket, guns, and remove the inset of the body in the back, the exhausts are fine. The cockpit could be half triangular (flip the current on Y and remove 50% of of the the upper part and replace it with a quarter dome. The guns shouldn't be pointy sticks but they're ok. This kind of reminds of an old game from 1995 called Star Crusader by Take 2 (space combat sim) thus I like it. Take a picture of it next time (don't forget to cut it down in size).

The image:

http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=podfe3.png

Has anybody ever modelled wings for a demon? Dragon? Bird maybe? I need some tips

I would Like to see a dragon, but thats just me.

You're not going for the Trogdor are you?

Well I'd try to avoid sharp edges (>30-45°) as fleshy things don't have edges (normally).

Start off with a cube and increase it's height, start doing the chest section, then lower body front, then rear section + leave place to attach parts like legs, arms, wings, the tail.
Make yourself a pattern in the cube first using the edge mode and hitting 2 to 0 (2 dispenses 1, 3 dispenses 2, etc.... vertexes on the selected edges, you can easily make a square parttern with it), and hit C then (if conncet is bound to C for you) and, well, start (de)forming a chest, lower body, what ever out of it... works for me, I've done the cockpit partially that way and several other things on different models.

You could also start working with any other shape but cubes work for me usually. octotoads are useful sometimes too.

A general advice to easen up a wings user's life when it comes to place ment of parts on each other is to use the Put On function (I think you have to enable advanced menus in the options first before that becomes available).
To use that function simply select the face on which the object should be put on, then select Put On from the context menu and lastly select the face to put it on and right click. I positioned almost everything that way on most of my models.

E.g. when you finally are done with the body and legs (and hopefully left a straight face on each of them) you can simply attach them using the straight faces in a perfect fitting position.

I am fine with legs and arms, I need help on wing structure

Don't blaim me if my wings take 250 or so polies each...