[mikhael]

I like the over all design, but I think that 'nose' bit needs more details. I'm guessing that its supposed to be like the space shuttle, and so all that repetitive texture on the bottom is heat shield tiles.

And my taste in faces is fine. I just don't like Denise Richards. One of these days she's going to forget to shave the middle of her unibrow and she's going to end up on TV looking like the Neanderthal throwback she is. She's got a freakish face. Now you wanna talk nice faces that I could look at all day, go take look at... oh say, Ayaka Akimoto. Compared to her, Denise Richards is like looking at a gorilla.

[Stryke 9]

Yeah, I think it's more appropriate. Sorta a classical military suit. Note I never said that being functional and doing something funky were mutually exclusive, though- tons of fun to be had in marine getups (look at, say, the difference between the MDK guy and the power-armored hulks in Fallout). Think you've got more or less the right general idea now, though.

And the dropship... I've never been a fan of simplistic overall shapes, but that's a personal taste. Looks solid, that's for sure.


Mik: She looks, um... nearly pre-pubescent.

[mikhael]

She's japanese. She's twenty-something.

That was always the problem in Japan though. You go to a club, you meet a girl... you GOTTA look at the ID. They'll tell you they're 19, 20, 21... but a lot of times, they're high school girls. The Navy takes a very dim view of servicemen dating minor foreign nationals.

[Knight Templar]

Not that you're into that or anything...  

[Nico]

Originally posted by mikhael
I'm guessing that its supposed to be like the space shuttle, and so all that repetitive texture on the bottom is heat shield tiles.

yeah.

On the subject of japanese girls, the pb is that half of them are ugly, and half of them very beautiful ( no inbetween, afaict ), but all the beautiful ones look the same, more or less.

[Styxx]

I like the dropship, looks like a Space Shuttle gone mad or something. And I see you also use the Brick procedural for heat tiling.



As for the trooper, it's looking good, but he needs a belt, and the helmet seems a bit too big. Reminds me of the helmets the marines use on the Halo 2 trailer, though.

[Nico]

Originally posted by Styxx
And I see you also use the Brick procedural for heat tiling.

Well I didn't exactly felt like using a map and UVmapping the whole mesh ( but I would have, you wouldn't really be able to tell the difference . To be accurate, the brick procedural is used on the bump channel only ).

[Nico]

hop, a work in progress ArmS ( Armored Suit, a mecha, a mech, a big ass robot, call it as you want, in OS canon it's an ArmS, voila ):

The thing in itself is basically done, just needs propper mapping, and the backpack/weapon platform system done, et voila.

[mikhael]

I like it. I'd like to see a better pic, and more views, though, and a close up of the head.

[Nico]

yeah, I'll post some more pics, when it's done, maybe.

[Ace]

Originally posted by Nico
hop, a work in progress ArmS ( Armored Suit, a mecha, a mech, a big ass robot, call it as you want, in OS canon it's an ArmS, voila ):

The thing in itself is basically done, just needs propper mapping, and the backpack/weapon platform system done, et voila.

With some good textures this will be pretty badass

I'm assuming that the person sits in the chest, with their head going into the head of the ArmS.

I always liked the term Heavy Weapons Platform, HWP, for this sort of thing.

[Stryke 9]

Cool.

[Nico]

Originally posted by Ace


I'm assuming that the person sits in the chest, with their head going into the head of the ArmS.

No. Well, the pilot is in the chest, of course, but the "head" is a TADS ( like the thing you have on the nose of the Apache, for exemple ), so a bunch of cameras of different kinds.
And there's actually two people in it, one controls the arms, and one the legs. That's team work at its best ( worst? ). I have a system in mind that would allow a single dude to controle the whole thing, but that would require him to stand up inside the machine, so it would make it horribly large.
Never quite understood how they manage to control mechas in most animes, with two joysticks :doubt

The pilot who controls the arms also controls the top TADS ( the "head" ), the pilot in charge of the legs controls the bottom TADS ( under the torso, you should be able to see it, granted, that's not really a TADS, doesn't target anything or stuff ). Both camera sets are linked to the virtual helmets the pilots wear, and will follow the pilot's head motion.

[Ace]

Originally posted by Nico


No. Well, the pilot is in the chest, of course, but the "head" is a TADS ( like the thing you have on the nose of the Apache, for exemple ), so a bunch of cameras of different kinds.
And there's actually two people in it, one controls the arms, and one the legs. That's team work at its best ( worst? ). I have a system in mind that would allow a single dude to controle the whole thing, but that would require him to stand up inside the machine, so it would make it horribly large.
Never quite understood how they manage to control mechas in most animes, with two joysticks :doubt

The pilot who controls the arms also controls the top TADS ( the "head" ), the pilot in charge of the legs controls the bottom TADS ( under the torso, you should be able to see it, granted, that's not really a TADS, doesn't target anything or stuff ). Both camera sets are linked to the virtual helmets the pilots wear, and will follow the pilot's head motion.

In Battletech a neural interface is used for control. I'd honestly think that some sort of driving interface (with pedals on the floor) ran by one person would work better than two.

[Nico]

yeah, ok, but I doubt that kind of thing will exist before at least 1000 more years

[Stryke 9]

Depends. We've got basic ones going right now. Nothing more than manipulating a robot arm, and it involves sticking a great ****ing plug in a monkey's head, but they work.

Fun thing about SF these days is there ain't all that much we don't have at least basic technologies in anymore. Laser cannons, nanotech... Me, I can't wait until they come out with Gibsonite waterknives. Weehee!

[Nico]

Ah well, anyway, it's too hightech for that robot, I want it to be the kind "simple but tough", if you know what I mean.
I perfer oil to electronics, in OS.

[Nico]

started working on the bump map:



Bump done only on the arms, everywhere else it's just artefacts ( I'm using a single map for the whole mesh, so all the objects w/o an UVmapping would complain so I droped a random UV on everything, and sometimes you can see parts of the bump map  on other parts of the mecha, mostly on the legs).

Please note how nice I am, I'm seting up a pose for every WIP shot I do ( the thing looks dumb on the basic pose ).

edit: removed the lvlshot tag, it doesn't like that pic format, obviously.

[Flaser]

In Battletech they use neuro-helmets.
The helmet transfers the signals of the limbs to the pilots brain through nodes that touch the pilot's scrag. It also monitors the brain like an electo-encefalograf and uses the data to conrtol the limbs.
Still actual control is achieved through the use of pedals and joysticks - but it only gives the general idea of what the mech has to peform, balancing and fine movement is taken care of by the mechwarrior who does the whole stuff subcounsciously just the way you walk and keep your body balanced.

In other anime - Gundam particulary - a very complex computer program controls the limbs called Auto-Balance-System or smg. similar.
The pilot also uses pedals in Gundam. The pedals control the legs, the joysticks the arms as well as verniers when deployed in space.

In Robotech/Macross you don't see it but the pilot has to use over 36 control devices - this is mentioned in one of the earlier episodes.
I guess this means a wide variety of pedals and highly flexible joystikcs (even today joysticks with over 12 axises are used in robot control of industy piplines.)

In Escaflowne the pilot actually wore the whole armor.
Bracers and clips huggeg his body so the suit simply copied every move he made.

In the recent mecha show Full Metal Panic the same method was used, except a computer assisted the pilot - which was controlled with voice-command.

In animatrics the same method was used for the powerarmors.

Actually this method was used in 'Starship Troopers' and Joe Haldman's 'Forever War'.


My suggestions is that you use this kind of system for powered armors and humanoid mecha (even with chiken legs) that are land based.

Anything with verniers of space use will also has to have another system (Nerve-Interface?).

BTW actual neuro-interfaces are in development as of date.
They are very basic and work like an EGG, but suprisingly people learnt to use them!
They could actually fly a simulator with it!

The most likely solution for a spacemecha will use some limited version of the said interface.
The issue wherter using complex - but not form fiting suit like -control devices (like in Macross Pluss) will be sufficient is open to debate.

I think even in this case the middle road will be the most likely:
Your movement will be partially limited and copied by the mecha, while you will still have conservative control devices to use in connection with the 'suit'.

As for those who oppose the whol mecha idea:

IIRC the American Army develops walking taks for very rough terrain where tanks simply can't mauver. (This seems futile since helicopters seem to own tanks, still to actually occupy a territory you will always need infantry - and to get them there, you'll need tanks.)
I don't know details, but even if in special cases the idea has its real merits.

[Nico]

Originally posted by Flaser
In Battletech they use neuro-helmets.
The helmet [...]- which was controlled with voice-command.

Yeah, i know all those animes ( in FMP, the voice command is just to get some infos, really, you don't pilot the AS with your voice ), but yet I can't explain how one could control a arm, + a hand + 5 ****ing fingers with a joystick.
I'm well aware the "two people thing" to control the mech isn't the best, but that's exactly what I want. I don't want it to be the best.
The control system itself is an armature around the arms and hands ( like in escaflowne or gunbuster -in FMP, they use pedals ). For the legs, well, it's the same, I shamelessly ripped the idea from matrix revolutions. It's that, or you have one pilot, still with the arms thinguy, but with pedals only for the legs, and I can't imagine two pedals being enough to control the whole legs. sure, with balance control and stuff, you can go forward or backward, but forget about sidesteps and stuff with that.

In animatrics the same method was used for the powerarmors.

Actually this method was used in 'Starship Troopers' and Joe Haldman's 'Forever War'.


My suggestions is that you use this kind of system for powered armors and humanoid mecha (even with chiken legs) that are land based.

Anything with verniers of space use will also has to have another system (Nerve-Interface?).

BTW actual neuro-interfaces are in development as of date.
They are very basic and work like an EGG, but suprisingly people learnt to use them!
They could actually fly a simulator with it!

The most likely solution for a spacemecha will use some limited version of the said interface.
The issue wherter using complex - but not form fiting suit like -control devices (like in Macross Pluss) will be sufficient is open to debate.

I think even in this case the middle road will be the most likely:
Your movement will be partially limited and copied by the mecha, while you will still have conservative control devices to use in connection with the 'suit'.

As for those who oppose the whol mecha idea:

IIRC the American Army develops walking taks for very rough terrain where tanks simply can't mauver. (This seems futile since helicopters seem to own tanks, still to actually occupy a territory you will always need infantry - and to get them there, you'll need tanks.)
I don't know details, but even if in special cases the idea has its real merits. [/B]

It's not a space mecha, it's a simple walker.

As for real life mechas, seems the french army is also working on one, for urban warfare, where tanks are easy targets.