Straxus's Various 3D Projects

[Straxus]

Well I may not do stuff with armada anymore, though I have been learning DarkBasic Pro for developing my own video game.

So decided it was time to start making some ships for it.
No name on this one yet, just trying to come up with a basic collection of ship designs to start out.

 

[Avon]

Very nice, man. It kinda reminds me of something, but I cant put my finger on what. Looks like a cool design and a good start

So.......tell us about this game you're making

 

[Straxus]

The game is a combat simulator that I hope to evolve into a very very small scale "mmo" type game. Thinking probably no more than 2 dozen people. That is if I can find the time and patience to keep learning the software. I still have soooo much more to learn.

I have added a bit to the model and begun the deconstruction of it in peices top/side/front/back for texturing preperation.

 

[Majestic]

That is one very interesting and unique design.

 

[Ragnar]

I like it

Kinda reminds me of Eldar ships from Warhammer 40k ^^

What platform are you developing the game on? What language?

 

[Terra_Inc]

The game is a combat simulator that I hope to evolve into a very very small scale "mmo" type game. Thinking probably no more than 2 dozen people. That is if I can find the time and patience to keep learning the software. I still have soooo much more to learn.

I have added a bit to the model and begun the deconstruction of it in peices top/side/front/back for texturing preperation.

Wow, distributed gaming? I've done some programming in that direction and let me tell you, that is a pain in the butt. We used Java's RMI (remote method invocation) for that and it really wasn't easy getting Client-Server to work with that. Bidirectional RMI = do not want.

 

[Straxus]

I am using DarkBasic Pro to program the game. It supports limited network gaming. I however have not got that far in my learning...

Was reading some other posts and someone was talking about Cardassian ships. So made a quick ship few hours ago. Prepping it for texturing now as well.

 

[kjc733]

That reminds me of the ship from homeworld and those ones from the Voyager episode about the void. In any case, it's a good design, well done.

 

[Straxus]

Here is a low poly Cardassian ship I am working on. This one when done will be donated to the community and free to use in any mod anyone wants.
It's not anything spectacular mesh wise, though hoping to make it shine with the texture I am gonna be making for it.

In reflection I probably could have saved more polys if I didn't use boolian merging...

 

[Amateur]

I love the shape of that Cardassian ship, looks very sleek - I can imagine it as a light cruiser type thing.

What parts did you use Boolean on? If it was the front indented bit then I don't blame you - manually making something like that can be a pain and a half.

 

[Majestic]

Looks fantastic Straxus, on the topic of modelling, it's actually the textures that make a ship, so many low poly models look better than high poly ones thanks to their textures and from the look at this, this model is going to be in that category.

 

[Straxus]

Hmm the trick will be keeping some detail in the texture while shrinking it down. I started with a 2048x2048 for the basics. I may need to go back over it in parts when I shrink it down to 512x512.

I kinda went boolian crazy on various areas. both merging and extraction. The front part was definitely a boolian extraction.

 

[Majestic]

Well these days 1024x1024 is the standard texture size, especially if you have only one or two textures for the model. Some like me even go as far as having a single 2048x2048. All my BSG models have that size of texture.

 

[thunderfoot]

a 1024 x 1024 textures size is a pretty good compromise between detail and useage. Large enough to get some very nice details onto a mesh yet small enough for the game engine to grab at one pass.

 

[Straxus]

1024x1024 is the norm these days for Armada? (or another game?)

 

[Majestic]

For Armada 2, 1024x1024, it's the norm.

 

[Majestic]

Well personally for stock A2 for a ship I wouldn't go over 2,500-3,000, for Fleet Operations (FO) you can easily go up to and even over 6,000. Naturally it all depends on the purpose of a model, a destroyer you would have at a lower count than a battleship or a station.

The reason FO is so much higher is the extensive work the team has done updating the engine to more modern standards. I have heard that they are currently working on improving it even more in the next patch, which should remove the lag of their Borg models etc.

 

[Straxus]

Really? Wow!
If A2 would ever cooperate I would actually mod it...
Just one more hopefully not too off topic question, what is the ideal polycount these days for A2 models?

Here is an update to the Cardassian ship texture

...and another project... higher poly, possibly for my game project, not sure yet.

EDIT - realized my pics were too big so had to resize them and reupload.

 

[Amateur]

Looking good on both counts

As for poly counts, it depends really. If you're talking Stock then I always used 2,000 as the limit for ships (depending on size, very big battle cruisers and what not I would allow 3,000). The Fleetops team, coversely, have tweaked the graphics engine of the game and have ships of up to 6,000 polies.

A lot of people have moved over to FleetOps for modding, but I'd say that leaving the limit at about 2-3,000 would be good. That way it doesn't tax any system too much, and still allows those who use stock to have new things to play with .

 

[Hellkite]

I realy Like the over all feel to your Cardassian ship Straxus grate job

 

[Straxus]

Thanks guys!

Well with this talk about fleetops I ran over to their site and checked it out. Sounds like they fixed many things I didn't like about A2 and hopefully it actually playable on my system.

It inspired me to try to make a lower polygon count version of one of my favorite ship designs from EVE.

The textured versions are the origional, the untextured version is my attempt to lower the poly count. At the moment I got it down to 2500 polys. I still need to add a few mesh details. Its down from the origional which was like 7792 polys. Debating reworking the mesh to get the poly count down further. All the crazy spikes on the ship makes that more difficult...

 

[Majestic]

2,500 is a great size, especially since the original was over 7k. Very good work.

 

[thunderfoot]

I am indeed impressed. You, Sir, do very good work!

 

[Straxus]

Thanks guys!
Though the really difficult part will be duplicating the stock texture with one of my own and trying to keep the same kind of quality...

 

[Majestic]

Texturing can be the hardest and longest part of modelling.

 

[Straxus]

Poly reduction finished. Not as low poly as I had hoped but did shave over 4000 polys off the model.
Now for the texture...

 

[thunderfoot]

This is very good. A lot of the details can be recovered by proper texturing. Coxxon, the guy who made nearly all the BSG meshes and textures everyone uses regardless of what game they play, started with a single 2048 x 2048 texture sheet for all of his meshes. The amount of detail he placed into them is enormous. I am guessing he actually spent more time getting the textures right than he did the meshes. I reduced the size of these texture sheets by half for the BSGHRM v1.0 without a significant loss of detail. I think I lost a couple of running lights and some docking bollards off the portside Launch Bay, lol.

I have a 20,000 poly mesh of Galactica to go with Coxxon's original texture for her. I also have the Galactica mesh Majestic made. With Coxxon's texture applied to both meshs, the primary difference between them is the lack of turrets on Majestic's. This is not as big a difference during game play as some people believe. And I'm not complaining one bit about Maj's mesh, either. A well done texture does indeed makes a low poly ship much prettier and as accurate as a high poly mesh. A poorly done texture can thoroughly wreck the most well done mesh ever. A smaller poly mesh is easier for the game engine to manipulate. Since we're using the mesh mostly for playing the game, it does the job extraordinarily well. Maj calls himself a "Low Poly Specialist". What he is really doing is modding for effect rather than accuracy. If I place five trees alongside a road on a map in such a way it appears to the player he is driving thru a forest, and he/she thinks of those five trees this way, then these five trees are a forest.

If you place the same care and attention into the texture sheet which you've so obviously done with the mesh, I, for one, will be de-frakkin'-lighted to D/L and use this fine piece of work you've done so far.

 

[Majestic]

If you can get detailed textures done, then you'll have a stunning mesh, AS Thunder has just said a low poly model can look just as good as a high poly if done right and with some nicely done high detail textures.

For and example have a look at this and this image and have a guess at what poly count this ship is?

 

[Straxus]

My guess would probably be really far off from the reality...LOL
What is the polycount on those?
I need to check that thread out in more depth after posting these pics.

Update on the Sansha's Phantasm

For comparison, origional mesh and (for the most part) origional texture

My low poly work in progress

I am finding I have to modify the texture design a bit using the low poly "bulb" areas. What I didnt take into consideration was that for it to look good I could not texture the area perfectly rounded. So giving some semi-exposed structure areas arround the bulbs to make it blend better. (The dark areas)

 

[Majestic]

My guess would probably be really far off from the reality...LOL
What is the polycount on those?
I need to check that thread out in more depth after posting these pics.

Near about 1200 poly's, you wouldn't think so looking at the finished product.

Update on the Sansha's Phantasm

For comparison, origional mesh and (for the most part) origional texture

My low poly work in progress

I am finding I have to modify the texture design a bit using the low poly "bulb" areas. What I didnt take into consideration was that for it to look good I could not texture the area perfectly rounded. So giving some semi-exposed structure areas arround the bulbs to make it blend better. (The dark areas)

She's looking great and a fantastic work on the textures so far. I like how you're adding your own personal touch to the textures rather than just a complete copy.