[IceFire]

I see no pictures...

[Solatar]

Me either. I saw them earlier though.
*Anxiously runs back to TVWP forum to make sure screenshots are there*

[IncendiaryLemon]

achck... I'd love to see these higher poly models

[Bobboau]

open a cob in ts, hit the nurbs button

[HotSnoJ]

Originally posted by Unknown Target
Could someone PLEASE update the engine to enable up to 10000 polys for cap ships, and 5000 for fighters? I know that may seem like overkill, but that's actually pretty small compared to today's games. Why should you do this? Why, for this, the brand-new, SMOOTHED Herc MK. I:
 

Those Hercs are ugly!

[KARMA]

personally i think that around 1200-1500 triangles for a fighter should be fair  enough, and shouldn't hit so much the performance in slower machines, like mine, as soon as you do all the lods, and maybe if you increase their number too: in this way the higher poly LOD will appear only when a fighter is very close.

more again, i doubt that an higher polycount will give you higher visual quality, since you will not notice on a small model like a fighter all the small details, expecially during action
personally i think that once you reach a good enough level of details, what can increase more the quality are textures instead of more details

[Unknown Target]

Hey, you guys don't have to use it. I'm just so tired of seeing these old, outdated, BLOCKY models in FS2. Did you do the math? The Ulysses is FIVE YEARS OLD! It's about time it needs an update! The Myrmadon? 3 years old! Other games have left FS2 in the dust!
Plus, I'd just like to note that you're thinking in terms that would be appropriate for a 1999 or 2000 game-today, those polycounts are low. Guns in First-person-shooters have more polys than the current proposed 2000 polys. Besides: What's wrong with upping the polycount? The worst that could happen is that we don't optimize the engine for higher polycounts, and a few ppl make models, but they're choppy on some ppl's machines. No biggy. Did you know the asteroids polycount in this game? 88 polys. That's right: 88 polygons. That's lower than most RTS game's LOD 4's!

[Unknown Target]

I should probably also add that next I'm going to bump-map all the textures, and make them brighter, more colors, etc.

[Stunaep]

Originally posted by Unknown Target
Could someone PLEASE update the engine to enable up to 10000 polys for cap ships, and 5000 for fighters? I know that may seem like overkill, but that's actually pretty small compared to today's games. Why should you do this? Why, for this, the brand-new, SMOOTHED Herc MK. I:
[PICS]

heh... this looks like a cute fluffy teddybear on crack

[Unknown Target]

Hey! That thing looks l33+!
Ok, fine, I'll show you the new Perseus, and the new Hecate when I get home-you'll see then! BWAHAHAHA!!!!:drevil:

[Bobboau]

nurbs look better with tension of 0 than the default of .5 and a dencisty of 2 (TS termonology)

[Unknown Target]

As you can tell from the screens, I don't use TS. I'll re-do the Herc, and make it less rounded, so you'll quit complaining about it, k?

EDIT: You gotta admit, though, the myrmadon looks a LOT better curved.

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Unknown Target
As you can tell from the screens, I don't use TS. I'll re-do the Herc, and make it less rounded, so you'll quit complaining about it, k?

EDIT: You gotta admit, though, the myrmadon looks a LOT better curved.

As it stands, its TOO curved. It needs a few hard edges to make it look like a fighter, instead of an inflatable toy given out at a GTVA Airshow.

[Unknown Target]

That would be cool!
Tell you what: I'll leave the Herc alone (for now), and begin my process of bump-mapping all of the textures.
But, before I do: is there any program that will take a cob file an turn it into a pof file, WITHOUT losing sub-objects? Cob2FS2 and Cob2POF lose the sub-objects.
Lastly, LODS: How do you do them?

[Unknown Target]

Here are some side-by side comparisons of the Hecates, one smoothed, the other not, let's see if you can guess which is which :







EDIT: If they're not showing up for you, try these links:

http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=1027433

http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=1027434

http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=1027435

Now, I admit, it looks a little organic, but I can simple remove that little, erm, uh, thing?

[Galemp]

All I'm getting is spacer.gif...

[KARMA]

personally i think that the higher polycount should be used to add more details, than for making things more smoothed
surely some surfaces are too blocky, but very often they are simply assumed to be blocky...i suggest you to don't smooth a whole object but just specific parts....
and consider also that there isn't a big appearence difference between...uh for example a cylinder of 10 faces and a cylinder of 30 faces,when you apply smooth shadings...
so the risk if you go over a certain limit is to add faces that are not needed at all, when you can use those extrapolys to add new details..
well this is at least my opinion

[Fury]

I don't know you but in my opinion this nurbs thing is not good at all...

FS2 models are good as they are now, if you really have too much spare time, make them more detailed instead.

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Unknown Target
Here are some side-by side comparisons of the Hecates, one smoothed, the other not, let's see if you can guess which is which :
 

I'm guessing the ugly curved one is the smoothed one.

Using curves is good.  Look at the Super Hoover. If ever there was a model that could use some smoothing, that's the one.

Abusing curves is bad. Smoothing a Herc1, which is, seemingly, intentionally angular, is a very bad idea. Smoothing a Herc1 gets you an uglier Herc2, which aside from the Aries, should not be possible.

I'll agree that higher polycounts would be nice (wouldn't it be nice to see a 20000 poly Mjolnir dropping glowing blue-green death on NTF blockade runners?) but not if its just going to be abused.

[Bobboau]

gee were would we find one of thouse,
I doubt anyone here would havve the proponerance of free time to do that...