Descent 3: Ultra Pyro-GL

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 1:12 pm

Current rendition of my mesh. Currently at 2308 polys, triangulated.

Sniper · Post by **Sniper** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 1:24 pm

That looks really awesome. I really like the angle on those intake fans!

Aggressor · Post by **Aggressor** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 1:24 pm

It's very intresting, but its good!

Top Wop · Post by **Top Wop** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:38 pm

Sniper wrote:That looks really awesome. I really like the angle on those intake fans!

Im completely opposite. It looks inefficient and impractical.

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 6:57 pm

You know.... I can't do a single thing professionally.... it always has that *WOOPS* look about it. See... typo in pic above

The engines are designed like that on purpose. The original intakes were a weird oval shape that looked a little like turbines, but we know that turbines aren't oval, being that a fan won't exactly spin very well in an oval. So, I tilted them up to make attaching them a little easier. I suppose I could make them strait if people want them that way. I just thought they looked better and more interesting if they were tilted back. Turbines on a ship like this aren't even necessary as most of the planets don't have oxygen and some may even cause it to pull in warm air which would be bad. The turbine isn't necessary on a an antigravity ship. Just a helper.

I wanted to add something that would give the ship a little life anyway.

My next move is to detail out the bottom and see where that goes.

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:10 pm

Update:

As by request of Top Wop, I added scoops and detail to the bottom. Model is currently at 2650 polys. I'm going to reduce the polycount on the engines, a bit more on the body, and on the tail fins.

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 9:06 pm

Some renders to show off the model a little bit better. Currently at 2430 triangles:

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Thu Mar 29, 2007 9:19 pm

Looking much better Messenjah!

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 1:01 am

Triangles: 2582

Reshaped the engines, tail fins (thanks Top Wop), turbines, added detail to the back, shortened the engine exhaust cones and added side vents.

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 1:04 am

WOW! Even better!

That rocks!

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 2:49 am

Ok.... I had to do it. I'm sorry. I had to do it. Probably my most bold and controversial move for the Pyro GL:

Hope this doesn't look too much like the GX. Somehow I REALLY love the look of this though. Top Wop and I were discussing what made the GX such a cool ship in the first place. The cockpit is what gave it, it's rugged look. Somehow the GL looked too compact. The cockpit seems to fit the bill for me somehow. If others think it makes it look too much like the GL. I can pull it.
I also plan on re-making the cockpit model when I'm done with the ship. I've already started on the new HUD images.

d3jake · Post by **d3jake** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 11:11 am

Looks cool to me! I think one of the main things that made the GX cool was the back wings. If you notice the back wings on the GL are small and they don't even bend at all.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 4:52 pm

I'd like to take this moment to (again) reiterate that the fins on the side of the pyro were originally the intakes for the engines. That's why aren't any on the sides of the GL. Nice ship. I likes the idea of the intakes being slanted up.

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 5:24 pm

NM

I needed to read both comments before I asked a dumb question.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:26 pm

Try turning smoothing off - gives you a more realistic idea of what it looks like since the game doesn't have it anyway.

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 2:46 pm

The game.... sort-of smooths it I guess. The lighting gives it a smooth effect.

The reason I turned smoothing on is because people complained about the non-smoothed version.

Floyd · Post by **Floyd** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 3:52 pm

you should even consider to replace radiuses with chamfers to reduce poly count, should this become a playable model.
otherwise, well done so far

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 1:56 am

Radius'? You mean IE: in a cylinder, you have a central vertex that connects a group of triangles? I just deleted the faces and replaced them with squares and that reduced it a bit.

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 11:28 pm

Solid view, as requested.

Been straightening edges and I'm working now on the high-poly version that I will use for creating the textures.

Sniper · Post by **Sniper** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 7:56 am

nice!

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 12:37 am

This is like watching someone sculpt a model. Less common approach for this kinda stuff, which makes it even more awesome.

Diedel · Post by **Diedel** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 5:17 am

WOW!

How about widening the parts of the fuselage bearing the sideway oriented intakes and moving the intakes to the front, simultaneously removing the intakes behind the cockpit?

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 11:23 pm

Interesting idea. I'll toy with that tommorow when I get some time. I haven't been able to touch it much this past week. I ended up having a rough week at work.

Top Wop · Post by **Top Wop** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 10:01 am

I like your model alot. Its interesting to see how little changes can make a big difference.

Sniper · Post by **Sniper** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 11:39 am

I think I prefer the solid view look more. It's looks stealth-ier to me. HOT!

Sniper · Post by **Sniper** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 11:39 am

I think I prefer the solid view look more. It's looks stealth-ier to me. HOT!

d3jake · Post by **d3jake** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:20 pm

Must be if you post that twice

Top Wop · Post by **Top Wop** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 2:44 pm

So how soon are you going to release the model?

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 7:44 pm

When it's done!

I just spent the weekend testing different texture ideas and laying out UVW coordinates.

Top Wop · Post by **Top Wop** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:06 pm

[]V[]essenjah wrote:When it's done!

You DO work on the Duke Nukem for Ever team!!!!!! I KNEW IT!!!

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 8:20 pm

When that thing gets a paint job, it just screams \"give me teeth\" so it would look like the mega missile. XD

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:05 am

Sorry I have been away from this project for about a week now. I've been researching new ways to texture it. I have been experimenting a lot with texture baking. I tried making an ambient occlusion of the model but found that I was unhappy with the end results. Ambient occlusion (at least in Blender) doesn't save information pertaining to the specular map. Thus, I have to manually apply the dodge tool to highlight it enough to give it the illusion of specularity. I found that my hand painted textures for testing looked better in the end because I shadowed and highlighted everything by hand and I could add the shadow exactly where I wanted it. I'll probably use a combination of techniques in the end.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 2:34 pm

could you send the model to someone else with a higher end software package to render it for you? Anymore, you shouldn't have to bake your textures.

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 11:13 pm

Yes, but this ship is intended for in-game use.

D3 still requires you to bake your textures unfortunately since we don't have the source code to fix that issue. D3 doesn't use materials, self shadows, or any decent form of specular lighting for models. Everything is sadly baked in. Actually, the GL looked the best out of all the models I've baked so far. If nothing else, I do have a guy that can bake it for me.

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Sun May 06, 2007 11:37 pm

So, bumps, or no bumps?

After a long time making those... I'm kind of thinking I like it better without. Which kind of sucks because it took me a long time to make those. :\\

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Sun May 06, 2007 11:43 pm

DBB crapped out on me. Sorry, DBL post.

BTW, Duper, I've looked at it a few times and took the rivets off. Looks really nice now. Guess I just went a little overboard. I will add a little rust too it though.

Duper · Post by **Duper** » Sun May 06, 2007 11:45 pm

yeah.. no bumps. (sry)

Aus-RED-5 · Post by **Aus-RED-5** » Sun May 06, 2007 11:47 pm

[]V[]essenjah wrote:So, bumps, or no bumps?

Bump would be fine if they were much, much smaller.

To me they are way to big, making it look out of place.

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Sun May 06, 2007 11:49 pm

Yeah, that's another problem I've discovered with this. If I shrink them down anymore, you wouldn't even be able to tell that they are there. So, I think it is best to remove them.

WillyP · Post by **WillyP** » Mon May 07, 2007 4:57 pm

You might look for inspiration at photos of modern military aircraft.

Descent 3: Ultra Pyro-GL

Descent 3: Ultra Pyro-GL

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