Spring RTS Engine

Hey all I was looking at this concept art for something that would be kind of easy to try and model for practice and I chose the flash. This is what I came up with:

I've been working to get it ingame for a bit (mostly just for practice, I haven't attempted to properly UV it yet) and figured out upspring to an extent. I'm going to have to rework it a bit to have the same heirarchy as the flash in CA and while i was starting that, I noticed the CA flash has some giant boxes for the Muzzle parts of the model. How do I know how big to make those... or what are they for?
Here's a pic of what i mean

I'm a bit of a noob for this but I'm kinda reading around to get better... I'm also kind of assuming at this point that the current flash script will transfer to my model easily if I just create this heirarchy correctly; is that horribly wrong?

Also the model is just for practice so i'm open for criticism but it's really like my 4th model ever and I just wanted to see something I made ingame. I think the turret is too tall or small or something but meh, if you look at the pic i was using it makes sense i suppose.

I added them to provide a direction to effects. Dont bother putting them in your model. There are better ways to define the direction of effects, I was just being a nub.

My feedback is that the turret is probably ok, but the barrels should be longer and thinner. Otherwise it looks like a nice model

The turrets are too far apart for my taste, and the treads are dwarfed by the body, with the whole package looking somewhat like a spaceship. I think it looks like too heavy of a tank to be flash-level, but well done. For your fourth model, very well done.
And I notice everything is in quads right now. The way you model or are you planning for a .3do?

Edit: hmm looked at the source picture. Think about cutting out a slice front to back of the very middle where nothing is happening, and enlarging the treads a bit, possibly moving them outward. I think that would make a very nice looking small tank.

Meh your model pwns mine in the face ... I'm just trying to understand unit creation. Do I have to define the direction of the effects still or put an actual muzzle object in still though?

edit: its in quads to save polygons. theres tris here and there but i figured it'd be more efficient with quads. until like 2 days ago I just had it with xgons everywhere; kinda how noob i am . So i just became familiar with the tessellate function and did that real quick.

Er and I'm not sure what you mean about the slice out of the middle... like slice it, make the model wider, and put it back together ? I do agree the tracks look weird it took me awhile to settle with them like they are. If I try to make them much wider at all they poke out of the armor on the outer sides and then if I lower the tracks or raise the armor it doesn't quite look right anymore....
edit again: er maybe lowering them and making them a bit wider might work looking at it again

really just want to know if I can use the same script or not; or if i should. i wasnt going to release it to anyone if thats ok quant. I guess it might be more rewarding for me to figure out how to do it myself.... haven't looked it up though

TheBigPK wrote:Meh your model pwns mine in the face ... I'm just trying to understand unit creation. Do I have to define the direction of the effects still or put an actual muzzle object in still though?

It's not my model, it comes from the evolva set. I wish I knew how to model...

There are two ways to define the direction of effects: one is placing a point and orienting it with animations. The other is the one I use: place a piece with at least two points. The two first will be used to set the direction of the effect.
The first is the best method since it doesn't cause ugly boxes to appear when the unit is drawn with Lua.

If you want to use the CA script, you'll need to have four effect-orienting pieces with at least two points. There is no reason not to modify the script though.

Quads aren't more efficient, it's rendered with tris. What's noob about having raw polygons? O_o

I'll draw you a picture of what I meant, unless this ascii art works: Just narrowing it a little bit.

Nothing wrong with modeling in quads and ngons because it will be tris either way in the end and it's easier to unwrap... you should set up proper smoothing groups (hard/soft edges) btw., full soft-shading is eww in spring and this also helps with unwrapping since hard edges will be pre-marked as seams.

I can prepare one of the other tank scripts in like 15 minutes and as long as this is going to have properly animated treads.

There was already a re-done flash and it looked awesome...

To be more precise it looks a little like the turrets are too long, but we'd need a proper comparison from top down.

Also I would think that the turret area is sunken not raised which would be a second solution to what argh says.

For one the barrels should be just as long as the mounting that folds them in that direction, if you look at the art the barrels start half way whereas yours start a quarter of the way up.

Also I would think that the turret area is sunken not raised which would be a second solution to what argh says.

Argh hasn't said anything

DAMN YOU LURKER!

Good point AF it probably would look better if the turret area was sunken I'll have to give that a try... and I had no idea it would just switch to tris, good to know

Heres a topdown to compare

I didnt know what to do with the circled part in the back... and the turrets are a bit long. I had the middle of the body raised mostly because of the shading in the front i outlined, bit either way it would probably look different and cool if I sunk it in. It's exam week but I'll give it a try tonight after I get some coursework caught up.

your tracks are also far too thin, youc an see the back of the tracks poking out at the back.

That area at the back, is where the track covers jut out past the main body.

who says it has to stay true to original ta, i like it, i love the treads, i reckon it looks awesome.


the original looks good, but i much prefer this one with its subtle differences...

IIRC Runecrafter also did some work on this.

[EDIT] Found it:

Runecrafter wrote:Here is what I have done so far.


The Arm Flash with some texturing so to give an idea of what these models will look like after the texturing phase.

they is some nice textures

There a better-organized site for this remodelling effort so people can see what's done or needs doing?

ironized wrote:they is some nice textures

They, like mr. d's models are being shown in a ray tracer which makes everything look like sex. Even though I still like mr. d's models, I just wish we had full bright shots.

ex of raytrace sex:



some flat shaded crap:



anyway I am tired, gotta get to bed so I can go apartment shopping. long drive to the next state over so I can look around... meh eyecandy.

wow runecrater's looks awesome... did he ever put it into a mod or anything?

edit: errr... I have no idea where I pulled that from . My connection at home sux so I couldnt check =/.

TheBigPK wrote:wow sheekel's looks awesome... did he ever put it into a mod or anything?

its not mine, please read the post.