DescentBB

Hello all I am currently working on a much improved IT droid in Alias Maya. Dizzy i'll send you info on texture data that you will need soon but the model is currently in its ultra-infacy stage. My time frame for completion is not set but I have some 3 months to work on this stuff. Btw Dizzy I'm running all of your high rez-ness with a smile. Keep up teh awesome work!

This is the IT droid. Not much yet but i'll post renders as i go. For anybody wondering I am using PMviewer to view the bot as i model it, and i know it looks like a pillow lol

Aww thanks man
Sure looking forward to the bot creation

Atixtasy wrote:and i know it looks like a pillow lol

Come to think of it I am ready for a knap

heres the model with the eye done

Here's the latest major overhaul of my ITDroid.....I know it needs not be as wide as it is but I'm fixing that and of course the cylinders are not going to be the final guns....would be kinda funny though. I have one question though. I am, and will always be, going for almost exact replicas of the original but what is too far. Making everything not so....polygonal was my idea but would taking something that originally was almost like a triangular prism and smoothing the sides a little bit be bad?

Post any comments that you have constructive or destructive if you feel that way

also in the post i made before if that but of info isnt allowed to be posted in here or at all let me know or point me to the forum rules....(i was wondering if i should post it or not)

dizzy send me the vulcan model if you could please maya can clean up poly count while keeping resolution about the same.

Atixtasy wrote:also in the post i made before if that info isnt allowed to be posted in here or at all let me know

It's always a good idea to stick to the Topic of this thread.
You can edit that post and add some info to the pic you posted so we know whats going on.

Atixtasy wrote:or point me to the forum rules....(i was wondering if i should post it or not)

D2X-XL Forum Rules

Please read it.
Thanks

thanks Aus, I'll try to be more informative about the pics.

wow, Descent 2-xl is going to be so graphic intensive, it'll probably surpass Descent 3 in computer requirements, that'd be odd.

I need someone who can do nice shader programmed effects ...

diedel I would say that i could also help with the programming but im currently a noob at directx (sorry no opengl)

On another note thanks for puting everything in its own place because i didnt know how to do that.

As for current poly-count it's about 100 so it shouldn't be as much of a graphics hog as darkwolf had predicted....at least i hope.

These are the 2 different gun types that I'm trying to judge between. I'm probably going to go with the left one only because it is the most authentic.
Also, does anybody have any objections to maybe adding scratch marks within the hull?

I know the left gun is white....I have no idea why it's like that and I'm trying to fix it

Don't stay too close to the original ... feel free to pimp the bots a little - make them really cool.

Um. Yeah.

Honest opinion - there's no point re-modelling these mechs if you don't make them look much different. Just throwing polygons at the equation is more effective at reducing framerates than improving visuals.

Sirius wrote:Just throwing polygons at the equation is more effective at reducing framerates than improving visuals.

Exactly.

Awesome....i can pimp em out!!

In that case i will but not too much. If I think it's too much ill post something to let everyone know what i'm willing to do.

to correct myself on the poly count ~500 polys and ~600 faces you probably won't see it but i have much weeding out of duplicates to do.

thanks for the support, you guys are great!

Awww man, there's some cool stuff in the works for everyone, and best of all, it's quite low poly count so no massive performance hit
However, I feel it necessary to keep it under wraps until more of it is finished. I don't see a point in posting a pic of every little thing I do here. That would bog the forum down with junk.

What I will tell you is that everyone's suggestion of making the models look cooler definitly opened up my creative side as the guns will look faaar better and far more detailed as well.

Best of luck to myself as I'm learning everything I'm doing!

High vertex/poly count is only an issue with OpenGL lighting for objects enabled (which you can turn off separately from geometry OpenGL lighting).

Oh ok I see. Thanks diedel.

ok....there's good news and bad news...

the good news is that I got my grubby paws on 3ds max. This should be a boon for dizzy as we don't have to worry about conversion anymore. Yay!
Also 3ds max is, for me far easier to use than maya which was a royal PITA! This will result in more detailed and ultimatly better models and i will be able to make them quicker.

The bad news.......this move will force me to scrap the other stuff I was working on and start over Hopefully with this I can create better models in less time considering I haven't put anything out yet lol.

Here is the latest model I'm working on....it took me about 30 minutes to make instead of the hours it took me to do the other junk I was working on so these tutorials helped immensely!

I'm sure you all will probably say that looks really cartoony and/or blocky but give it time....(Rome wasn't built in a day lol)

I look forward to this being completed as do you all I'm sure. Here's a pic.

Good to see you're hard at work.

Actually these things are robots, so may look blocky (apart from tubes or bolts on them). Actually you could make a blocky bot, but with lots of small details, like antennas, and create some nice textures with rivets along the borders.

Or you could just round off the edges, which should make them look very smooth and hires, yet still lets them have some blocky basic structure ...

smoothing is an option but increases polys almost ten-fold at points...also yes I got some really great tuts (from the modelers that made UT2003!)
that showed me how to take an ordinary cube and morph it into a person with armor. With this I'm hoping to be able to include rivets from scarring etc.

Dizzy, you'll love me I'm sure for this but the tutorial also shows how to UV map properly which would be great for texturing!

took your smoothing idea into play diedel and it turned out great. This shot shows it.




The above pic shows the smoothing I applied to the body as well as the gun, which IMHO is awesome....feel free to tell me anything that could use changes or any ideas.




the above pic shown here is the current revision of the engine...The triangulated parts will be fixed. Note the part that is triangulated is the thruster body and the \"cone\" (it's not really a cone ) around it. Again comments are welcome.

The model clocks in at about 477 polys! however only half of the model is shown as i haven't mirrored geometry yet (last step).

It also took me a good 2-2.5 hours to do

EDIT: the total amount of poly's will be decreased upon finish as I haven't begun to remove excess poly's from the model yet.

I think Diedel has a good point about boxiness. In terms of the game fiction, the PTMC is about function over form. If you were going to build a mass-produced mining robot, it would probably look utilitarian and boxy because beauty is not important. You wouldn't spend money on beveled edges or artistic smoothing. The fact that D1/D2's robots look and behave like machines is a big part of their appeal. It's you versus emotionless but logical killer machines. D3 went too far in anthropomorphizing them such that they came across as cartoony rather than frightening.

Ways you can achieve this in low-poly robot models:
- Asymmetry tends to be more uncomfortable than symmetry.
- Weird angular features like horns or spikes.
- Basing designs on insects, arachnids, or crustaceans.

And the old horror movie trick:
- Make something look human, but not. An example of this is the nurse in Silent Hill. They look like typical nurses, but they have a blank face (no eyes, mouth, etc). How does this apply to robots? You could pursue a model that looks symmetrical and whatnot - but alter some aspect of it. Maybe it's missing an eye on one side. Maybe an arm. Maybe the cannon is a \"mouth\" that is massive compared to the eyes. Etc.

Very Cool points and insites Kyouryuu

Keep up the good work atixtasy,,

Atixtasy, don't make the edges too round - just a little, like the edges of a wooden plate would look after having been processed with a quarter circular router to remove any sharp edges.

will do....and thanks for the ideas!

those ideas sparked a new question....is it possible for me to (after I create most if not all of the original robots, to create some brand new ones for like an \"expansion pack\" type thing?)

i have ome cool robot designs but I can't utilize them because they look nothing like the original bots.

Thanks for the help!

EDIT: here's the final completion pic. Feel free to let me know if there needs any changes.

Is that the PEST? Because it looks like a lump of goo with guns in it. And little spikes. Not a complete model in any sense.

Unless completion means WIP.

Well I see what you mean. However you do Not have to be as blunt as you were ! I realized that yes the proportions were outta whack and needed to be fixed and as for your comments Chaos....I'm doing this on my own free will. I love this game and want to see it be bettered, however if you just want to complain then go create some stuff yourself and get off it please. No I'm really not trying to flame but that wasn't necessary.

Errrm ... Ati, I very much appreciate your efforts, and I know very well how it hurts if someone has rather negative comments about something you have put a lot of work in, and Chaos could have put it a little nicer, but I don't think he flamed you, he was just pretty direct. Don't take it personal. Actually I think he somewhat hit the mark with what he said. The bots fuselage is just to amorphous. Make it more distinctly machine-like, like I told you maybe, edgy body, but with slightly smoothed edges to make it look high definition.

Ok I over-reacted....it's not the first time lol. I scaled down the hull but as for edgy with the hull I'll pretty much have to re-do the poly's around it by hand. Also because this robot is frustrating the heck outta me I've started on the guidebot.

here's the model with dizzy's helpful hints I believe it looks far better. But for some reason the edges on the gun don't want to fillet at all! I come up with a non-manifold vertex error and i have No clue as to to solution to get it fixed. Other than that a few little tweaks and it'll be done. Also the details that were previously in the texture as a bump-map I have added to the actual model itself. And clocking in at a rough 250 polys thats pretty good (I hope).




EDIT: P.S. gotta love the horrible anti-aliasing lol!
Dizzy I'm sending you the model in .3ds format.

Looks good.

sweet!!

a poly reduction scheme allowed for the crunching of 250 polys to about 190!! Yay. Starting on the P.I.G.

I wonder, if I come back in a full year, or maybe even two years, will this project ever be done? XD