Props for Map

Rhodri

Just going to be using this as a dumping ground for props I'm making for my map as I go along (it's a lab themed map but will have a warehouse/grungey areas as well).


First up's a simple TSA crate for the marine starting area.

<a href="http://img697.imageshack.us/i/tsacrate01.jpg/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/2745/tsacrate01.th.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>

This was for another project, but may well use it in the warehouse, what kind of polycount is OK for set piece objects?

<a href="http://img706.imageshack.us/i/test13.jpg/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/1060/test13.th.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>

Still got tweaks to do to both (the walker doesn't have any normal or spec yet), but any feedback would be appreiciated.

Cheers, Rhodri.

taleden

Very nice! If you're inclined to release them to other mappers, I'm sure they'd both be very well received.

My only advice about models in general is to try to make all of the component parts line up on the 3d grid on as coarse a setting as possible. So for example, if the walker's hip axle is 100ish units from the bottom of the walker's foot, try to make it 128, or 96 or 112, so mappers can easily position other props around it to line up. One of the things that drives me nuts about the default props is some of them have wacky dimensions, like the catwalk railings.. it's been super tedious for me to make those line up with eachother and the rest of the geometry at the same time.

Another very nice touch would be to offer the component parts of each model also as separate models, so that i.e. I could construct a whole walker out of separate props for each part, but rotate its arm to make it holding something. Or maybe I could scatter a bunch of parts around, like a repair shop, or the remains of ones the aliens already destroyed. Giving mappers options is always good, the more the better. :)

taleden

Oh, one more general request, which you probably already have covered for these two: please include every outward face in the model. If it goes against a wall the away-facing surfaces ought to be culled by the engine anyway, and I can't count the number of times I thought I found some creative use for a prop only to discover the "top" or "back" or some surface was missing, so I couldn't use it where I wanted to.

Gregzenegair

HA LEAK !!!!

UncleRay

Mind if I use your walker for my map? :D

Rhodri

I will be releasing all the models and textures for use by the community, but as they are for uni work (my final year) not untill they've been handed in.

Thanks for the advice Tal, I haven't culled any back faces etc. as I hate it when you cant use props whereever, the walkers arms etc would need a little bit more work in order to have them be removable but not a lot. All the models will need resizing before I bring them into Spark though I imagine, as I tend to work to real world scales which I'm guessing is far to big.

I have max set to cm at the moment how do I set it to the scale used by Spark?

Thanks, Rhodri.

Edit: One other thing - what's the state on using alphas in the engine? I've seen seen textures in Spark like the walkways that look like they have alphas so I'm guessing it's supported, but can only be fully transparent or opaque is that right?

taleden

Awesome, thanks Rhodri. :) I think NS2 is using the "units = inches" convention, so you could try just setting max to inches instead of cm. I don't know how transparent textures work, but I agree that so far it seems to only be "color-keyed" like GIFs, so one palette color is treated as fully transparent. I'm hoping they add full alpha support for textures, but we will see.

Josemite

Well, I know they mentioned that they couldn't do glass atm, so I would guess that partial transparency is a no-go, sadly

Rhodri

Dropped off the world a bit with this project - my final year deadlines really toke a toll on me! Anyway my marine start I got pretty polished off, and can be seen in my 3rd year showreel here: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SNtmDp3unU&feature=player_embedded#" target="_blank">My 3rd Year Showreel</a>! (there's all my other work in the to I'm afraid I'll do a clean upload at some point).

I've not forgotten about releasing my models they just need a few tweaks here and there to make them more game friendly (the scales are wrong on a few of them as are the origins, and a few of the textures I want to clean up a bit). Once that's done I'll put a dump up of them :)

PS: these models are the one's I'm on about at the mo: <img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DKgn2Gi8j9A/S_nMXeYoU2I/AAAAAAAAAHQ/9EGuQ9mNK4A/s1600/Props%20in%20max2.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Syknik

Very nice stuff Rhodri, looks really good. =]

GISP

Heh, mind sharing your probs? :D