Core LvL-1 Vehicle Factory +1

[MR.D]

Using the BA model as ref, I'm working on remaking a higher poly smoothed out version of this factory.

Not much has changed, except for rounding out the basic shape of the original, I'm still working out the Nanopod parts so consider that WIP still.

Animations are planned to use about 90% of the original script sequences, so it should be an easy install.

So far its at 470 triangles.
Original was at 240.

*BA or OTA original?*


*my remodel*

[Peet]

Don't use a plate on the ground, they look like crap because of clipping with terrain. Other than that, quite nice.

[Noruas]

Please use the light references used in xta, a high poly model can look more high polly with animated lights.

[MR.D]

The little blinky strobes?
Will do, just forgot to put them in yet.

[Warlord Zsinj]

It's a nice take on it, but I think you can afford to get a lot more detailed. While you would see the units you made being built over and over again, possibly with 100+ in a game at any one time, you're really only ever going to see 5-10 vehicle facs (certainly more is possible, but the ratio of vehicle facs to units produced is the same), so I don't see any reason why you can't detail the model a little more.

[Forboding Angel]

The only thing is that he is already using a split octotoad for them, and putting that top in a true sphere might just be unnecessarily wasteful. I know I would have a lot of qualms about using that many polies, but on the other hand I doubt it would be a big deal either way...

[Forboding Angel]

Hours later, I had another random thought.

Just make the groundplate 1 footprint(ish) thick and slight tapers on the sides, That way it looks as though it is on a raised concrete or steel platform and clipping with the terrain will be pretty much a non issue. In addition to that, most mods have the factories flatten the ground. You kinda have to with them because it would look really weird if it was built on any type of uneven terrain.

I think the above would eb a nice way to have your cake and eat it too.

I yet another idea, you could easily texture the edges of the platform to go into some sort of dried mud texture with transparancy on the edges. It would look realistic enough to be plausable I think.

[very_bad_soldier]

Yay! Nice to see you continue your awesome work!

[Peet]

Just make the groundplate 1 footprint(ish) thick and slight tapers on the sides, That way it looks as though it is on a raised concrete or steel platform and clipping with the terrain will be pretty much a non issue.

Then you get the platform clipping with vehicles, which will sit on the ground as soon as their construction is completed....which tends to look worse, in my experience. Leaving the plant open to the ground decal is probably the best idea, particularly if the ground decal were tailored to the factory's profile.

[Forboding Angel]

Good point

I didn't think of that.

[Warlord Zsinj]

In in terms of detailing, I didn't necessarily mean more polygons for the circular areas; spring's smoothing should work fine as currently. I meant primarily further detailing of the more orthogonal elements, addition of interesting mechanical details, greebles, etc.

The thing I love about the Core factory is that whole 'opening up' procedure. It's a really interesting animation. How can you adjust the model to detail this mechanism better? Could you add another element to the opening procedure? Also; it is a factory, so what other construction elements could you have? Right now you've got two pretty simple construction nozzles doing a fairly straight forward forward and back routine. Could you add to this? Consider how would a factory be differently constructed for the laying of nanobots then a construction vehicle? Construction vehicles are limited in that they must have a construction arm attached to a mobile chassis; factories, on the other hand, have a far more ideal setting for the construction process. How would they be designed to take advantage of this?

Just throwing some questions at you to see if they'll get the creative juices flowing.

[MR.D]

Good points Zsinj.

I'll see what I can come up with, there are still alot of polies to go before I hit that 1000 mark.

[MR.D]

*new animation sequence*
http://www.mrd.str8-6.com/files/corvp2.zip

Please watch the video, its a cleaned up animation that is showing the final nano pods sequences and what I had planned for it.

I added in 2 side Nanopods, which will pan across the units being built from the side.

2 ventilation ducts and fans on the bottom layer which will spin during all states of the Factory, they will only be visible once I texture it and add in the alpha.

[Warlord Zsinj]

Very cool.

If I could recommend further changes:

- Maybe some latches that exist on the outside of the model that unclip as it opens up? Sort of like a reflection (obviously not as many or as cool) as the operation that happens on the krogoth gantry.

- maybe a little more detail on the construction nozzles? Think how detailed you went with the con vehicle. Perhaps you should reflect some of the things you put into the convehicle into the factory, so that there is a consistency between construction design.

- Is there any way for you to integrate the side pylons (the ones that define the footprint) into the animation? They don't need to move, but if they were somehow related to the way the centre circle works, that could also be a clever approach.

Still, it's very cool, and I understand that you want to try to keep as many model pieces down as you can for performances reasons.

[MR.D]

Not just that, but I want it to open relatively fast (within 4-5 seconds) and adding in a ton of animated stuff for a LVL-1 factory isn't a good idea IMO, LVl-1 should be fairly simple.

Maybe some of really complex and fancy animation is better reserved for LVL-2.

[Vadi]

Love the animations!

[SwiftSpear]

I don't really see any reason to "reserve" good animation for higher tech trees...

A: The high tech civilizations of the future don't really need more technology development to figure out how to make moving parts work
B: There really aren't ever more than 3-4 factories made in any tech tree anyways, so they don't constitute a significant increase in game lag one way or another.

If anything the T1 stuff is going to be seen the most, so it needs to be the best.

[chillaaa]

+1 on Swiftspear's call. Make em awesome!!

[Vadi]

That's true

[MR.D]

WIP on the texture, alot left to do but the center dome is just about finished.

Most of the other metal parts/teamcolor areas and stuff for the non-moving outer base I haven't started on yet besides the Bee stripes, I only have the base unworked texture showing on those parts.

The vents on those mid points for the bottom deck will be transparent revealing the Rotating fans and inner ducts for exhaust during idle and operation of construction.



The round insignia on the mid section didn't turn out well after scaling down, but I actually modeled it and the fan to create those parts.