"Freshened Up" TA Units

mehere101 · Post by **mehere101** » 24 Feb 2007, 06:46

I decided recently (today) to start trying to convert some of the old 3do format TA units into the new s3o format. Of course, I'm not doing this directly, I am importing them into Blender, adding more detail, adding the parts of the units that can be seen in Spring but not TA, and UV mapping them. So far, I've UV mapped the Storm.

Right now the texture is 512x512, it'll be reduced to 256x256 eventually.

Comments and Criticisms (The texture is a placeholder til I get someone to texture these things *hint* *hint*)

Maelstrom · Post by **Maelstrom** » 24 Feb 2007, 06:48

Nice work!

Unfortunately this community is severely lacking in texturers

Warlord Zsinj · Post by **Warlord Zsinj** » 24 Feb 2007, 08:04

There was a similar project undertaken a little while ago to remodel all the TA models, many models of which ended up in XTA's pimped edition (though not all, strangely enough). Might be worth doing the ones that haven't yet been done, so that we can have a full set of remodelled TA units.

Would be really good for the soon-to-be TA to SupCom mod too.

KDR_11k · Post by **KDR_11k** » 24 Feb 2007, 08:39

I think you should do what Caydr was planning and instead of remaking the TA units make units that are functionally equivalent but not copyrighted so we can finally rid Spring of all that copyright infringement.

Warlord Zsinj · Post by **Warlord Zsinj** » 24 Feb 2007, 13:09

I think many of the people who advocate making new TA-esque units that aren't really TA units are largely missing the point of why people want to remodel the TA units. There is a certain attachment to the TA units, and they were designed with a certain level of brilliance that makes people love Thuds and Sumos and Morties and so forth.

Sure it'd be nice for Spring's sake to have a bunch of copyright-free units. But they wouldn't be TA units. You may as well go play something like Star Wars! (*hint* *hint*)

Zenka · Post by **Zenka** » 24 Feb 2007, 14:06

Caydr once worked on that. He made around 70 units (untextured). which covered most of the tech 1 units. You might want to contact him (if able) and see how things stands.

Guessmyname · Post by **Guessmyname** » 24 Feb 2007, 14:30

Those were very bad models if I recall

KDR_11k · Post by **KDR_11k** » 24 Feb 2007, 14:54

Warlord Zsinj wrote:Sure it'd be nice for Spring's sake to have a bunch of copyright-free units. But they wouldn't be TA units. You may as well go play something like Star Wars! (*hint* *hint*)

I don't think you'd like it if people made a fork of SWS that played like BA...

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 24 Feb 2007, 17:56

Guessmyname wrote:Those were very bad models if I recall

Exactly, too many polygons. Keep in mind that spring's battlefield is a huge stage with lots of actors without LOD scaling.

Snipawolf · Post by **Snipawolf** » 24 Feb 2007, 18:00

He should turn on lighting in UpSpring to see how laggy it would be xD

Guessmyname · Post by **Guessmyname** » 24 Feb 2007, 19:11

rattle wrote:
Guessmyname wrote:Those were very bad models if I recall
Exactly, too many polygons. Keep in mind that spring's battlefield is a huge stage with lots of actors without LOD scaling.

There is LOD in Spring, but:
1 We can only control the distance at which it comes into effect
2 The units-to-icons thing usually kicks in before LOD anyway

Caydr had wasted enourmous numbers of polies on those models - it wasn't that he'd gone overboard on detail - the units didn't look that detailed at all but the lack of optimisation and simple common modelling sense was just plain to see...

Have a look for yourself: http://spring.clan-sy.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6932

*shudder*

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 24 Feb 2007, 19:42

There is LOD? Alright, then I was misinformed.
UV mapping that Thud properly will takes aeons.

mehere101 · Post by **mehere101** » 24 Feb 2007, 20:03

Springs LOD is a joke... IIRC it just replaces the unit with a billboarded sprite of the unit past a certain distance.

mehere101 · Post by **mehere101** » 24 Feb 2007, 21:32

Well, I've done the Core Thud and Storm (+corpse) now. Are there any texture artists who would like the challenge of texturing these?

Screenies:

BTW I found a bug: Units that die take on the team color of the team that killed them

Warlord Zsinj · Post by **Warlord Zsinj** » 24 Feb 2007, 22:53

I don't see the link with the BA reference.

smoth · Post by **smoth** » 24 Feb 2007, 23:52

Looks nice but the team color needs to be more prominent.

mehere101 · Post by **mehere101** » 25 Feb 2007, 00:24

Well, I suppose I could boost it's prominence... Still, thats only for the period til I can find some unlucky person to texture these.

Guessmyname · Post by **Guessmyname** » 25 Feb 2007, 00:49

mehere101 wrote:BTW I found a bug: Units that die take on the team color of the team that killed them :-)

Actually they take on the colour of team 1. If there is no team 1 (first team is team 0) then you get that patchwork-texture thing. Or you do with 3dos at anyrate. God only knows what happens with s3o

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 25 Feb 2007, 01:40

smoth wrote:Looks nice but the team color needs to be more prominent.

I usually make the shapes which are team color black on the texture or add outlines. It's really sad that team color is not getting mixed in.

As for corpses you should avoid team color on them. Projectiles have had similar issues.

rattle · Post by **rattle** » 25 Feb 2007, 04:53

Speaking of TA remakes, what's so bad about making new models from scratch instead of remaking 10 year old stuff?
If the people on this board would work together as a team you could get this done in a month or two. But that is just not gonna happen...

Anyway here's a quick attempt at a thud replacement... ~700 tris
The "turret" is just a placeholder because it's late and I need to sleep.

Spring RTS Engine

"Freshened Up" TA Units

"Freshened Up" TA Units