Author Topic: Introducing the SCF Firehawk  (Read 8058 times)

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Offline aldo_14

  • Gunnery Control
  • 213
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
SCP (sons of capella) advanced fighter.

Still to try and texture this thing properly (nightmare :eek   , but I like me model (bit of an cross between the B5 Fury and the Artemis) - this text. job actually makes it look a bit worse than it does in Ts5;

  [Images deleted ]

Poly count is a bit high - 568 when i triangulate - already had to reduce from a nicer more detailed version     .


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"Well I believe ther's someone watching over you.  They're watching every word you say. And when you die they'll take you down and take you through. You'll realise one day that the grass is always greener on the other side, the neighbours got a car that you wanna drive, and when time is running out you wanna stay alive.  There is no wrong, there is no right, and the circle only has one side...."

(c)2001 Travis

[This message has been edited by aldo_14 (edited 06-28-2001).]

[This message has been edited by aldo_14 (edited 07-04-2001).]

 

Offline Snipes

  • 29
    • http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/us
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
Looks good. Try using Segeltuch for texturing sometimes... I do, and it's not bad...

sheddup kazan  
     
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Newsie, Modder, Slave to Asta
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"Snipes... Is The Dark Continent."

 

Offline morris13

  • New Marshal in town...
  • 27
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
Thats pretty sweeet! The engine(?) pods look kind of plain though, you might see about changing their lines so that they're not straight all the way from back to front? You should be able to do that without adding any polys.
One thing i've found with 'pod' configurations of ships is that you're usually better off from a poly count standpoint not trying to make the ship one whole mesh. Normally I do that with all my ships but when I did the Gunstar which has the four engine pods I found that trying to actually connect them to the main hull geometry instead of having them 'float' a few pixels away increased my poly count a LOT.
If it aint broke, break it!

 

Offline Martinus

  • Aka Maeglamor
  • 210
    • Hard Light Productions
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
I'd have to agree there Morris, multipart models (while not 100% FS friendly) are easier to build and since they almost always are lower poly they don't drag the game engine down too much.

[This message has been edited by Maeglamor (edited 06-28-2001).]

 

Offline Snipes

  • 29
    • http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/us
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
all you have to do is amke it multi-part, then convert it to pof, then convert it back to cob with kreugers tools, and the parts all become one...  
     
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United Space
Newsie, Modder, Slave to Asta
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"Snipes... Is The Dark Continent."

 

Offline aldo_14

  • Gunnery Control
  • 213
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
I can see what you mean 'bout the engines....need to do some tweaking now  .

You should have the seen the high poly version I came out with - damn sw33t, big gunpoints and everything   ... 800 polys though

 

Offline aldo_14

  • Gunnery Control
  • 213
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
   [image deleted]

altered the engine pod rear, brought them in closer to the hull and fiddled with some of the front / end vertices.  Reduced the (triangulated) count to 480 - still can't fit on any gun models to it, though    

Think that one's any better?

[edit]
I think I'll keep this one  

Turns out it has quite a neat UV map output from Lithium  

[This message has been edited by aldo_14 (edited 06-28-2001).]

[This message has been edited by aldo_14 (edited 07-04-2001).]

 

Offline aldo_14

  • Gunnery Control
  • 213
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
Ugh...horrible pixellation or horrible anti-aliasing blurriness    

(PICTURES DELETED)

Took me the best part of last night to do this - 3 hours solid using MS Paint.

I hate Lithunwrap now     - seams on every poly, plus I got a horrible low res map output.  Sigh.....

Stuff it, I'm using multiple maps now - not worth the effort to draw it by hand.

[This message has been edited by aldo_14 (edited 06-29-2001).]

[This message has been edited by aldo_14 (edited 07-04-2001).]

 

Offline morris13

  • New Marshal in town...
  • 27
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
That looks VERRA nice =) I understand your texturing woes. I get so frustrated once i've made a really pretty model and the textures I can manage to put on it just bite.
If it aint broke, break it!

 

Offline QXMX

  • 28
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
I like it.  I know sometimes texturing can be a pain too  

Anyway, good job  

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Offline Martinus

  • Aka Maeglamor
  • 210
    • Hard Light Productions
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
When you're designing your texs draw them at twice the size you want the finished article to be. i.e. if you're making a 256 by 256 map draw it at 512 by 512 and then reduce the size later (by the way this only works for photoshop and PSP but note the little info above about the registry   ).

When you draw it larger you can fit in more detail and it has the bonus of looking less pixelated when you reduce the size. Try it, it works for me.

 

Offline aldo_14

  • Gunnery Control
  • 213
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
 
Quote
Originally posted by Maeglamor:
When you're designing your texs draw them at twice the size you want the finished article to be. i.e. if you're making a 256 by 256 map draw it at 512 by 512 and then reduce the size later (by the way this only works for photoshop and PSP but note the little info above about the registry   ).

When you draw it larger you can fit in more detail and it has the bonus of looking less pixelated when you reduce the size. Try it, it works for me.

Found a trial of PSP 7 on a cover Cd, so no point not trying it  .

Hmmm... never thought of that.  The bitmap I made is 540x540, so I can reduce the size  


 

Offline Pez

  • 26
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
 
Quote
Originally posted by Maeglamor:
When you're designing your texs draw them at twice the size you want the finished article to be. i.e. if you're making a 256 by 256 map draw it at 512 by 512 and then reduce the size later (by the way this only works for photoshop and PSP but note the little info above about the registry   ).

When you draw it larger you can fit in more detail and it has the bonus of looking less pixelated when you reduce the size. Try it, it works for me.

Is that really that smart. When you resize from 512x512 to 256x256 the map the quality should not be better. Cause what the resize does is that it takes in this case four pixels and make it to one. Which means that you don't have as much control over the situation. But hey! If it works for you thats great.


 

Offline Martinus

  • Aka Maeglamor
  • 210
    • Hard Light Productions
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
The quality isn't better but you can give the appearance of high detail. Good antialiasing is the key my friend  

When the ships flying by you at speed you just pick out shapes, that's what I concentrate on when I'm designing texs. The finer detail looks nice in the loadout screen and tech room but when it really matters i.e. ingame you don't make out half of the detail, in which case it's a little silly putting a large high detail texture on a ship.

Look at how good a job [V] did with 256*256 texs, those models look excellent in the loadout screen and ingame. I think 512*512 is probably too large, textures have a big influence on how fast the engine runs so a smaller tex has better performance in it's favor.

I'd like to point out though that a lot of ppl get excellent results from using larger texs but it makes sense to balance it out, I mean you won't be able to make out the carefully detailed pilots name under the cockpit window when your dodging enemy fire and attempting to off the bugger  

 

Offline Nico

  • Venom
    Parlez-vous Model Magician?
  • 212
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
I use bigger maps too, but to be honest, it's only coz it's more easy to work on a 800*800 map than a 512*512 one...

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Offline aldo_14

  • Gunnery Control
  • 213
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
Got one done quite nicely....
   

I lose a lot of the detail when I resize to 256x256 (this version in 512x512 maps), so it looks like I'm going to have to have a high detail map (slightly downsized to 400x400 or summat   )  for the first 50/100 meters, and use the less detailed verion for the next LOD.  Now, if only I can figure how to poly reduce this / import the uV map to the smaller version.

NB:  you are better off if you can resize from a larger texture in PSP (etc), as it automatically adjusts the surrounding pixels to try and 'blend' in where the pixel was, and reduces the blockiness otherwise.

[This message has been edited by aldo_14 (edited 06-30-2001).]

 

Offline Setekh

  • Jar of Clay
  • 215
    • Hard Light Productions
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
Hey dude, that looks really cool. Keep pumpin' 'em out.  
- Eddie Kent Woo, Setekh, Steak (of Steaks), AWACS. Seriously, just pick one.
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Offline Raven2001

  • Machina Terra Reborn
  • 211
  • Im not the droid your looking for, move along
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
Aldo, that fighter is great!!! With a little more practice on texturing, you will come out has a winner!!  

Nice work pal
Yeah, I know you were waiting for a very nice sig, in which I was quoting some very famous scientist or philosopher... guess what?!? I wont indulge you...

Why, you ask? What, do I look like a Shivan to you?!?


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Offline Martinus

  • Aka Maeglamor
  • 210
    • Hard Light Productions
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
It's worth mentioning that the newest graphics cards by nvidia and ATI or whatever the company name is are optimised for 256*256 texture maps so why not use multiple maps instead?

 

Offline aldo_14

  • Gunnery Control
  • 213
Introducing the SCF Firehawk
 
Quote
Originally posted by Maeglamor:
It's worth mentioning that the newest graphics cards by nvidia and ATI or whatever the company name is are optimised for 256*256 texture maps so why not use multiple maps instead?

I have a Voodoo 4 though, so it has to work fine on my system before I release anything