[WIP] [Vehicle] Super Etendard

[anantdeathhawk]

Okay i'll first complete the 3p with the aircrafts few signature details and then i'll do the 1p and the wreck.
I see what hierachies does,thanks.I'll showcase the 3p model soon with smoothing groups applied.

[Mr.VdHeide]

Also, it would be good to UV map the 3p model before you make a wreck - and 1p model.



D.J.

[Rhino]

Try searching around these community modding forums for info on it. I've posted many a time what the diffrent geoms are and the best ways of going about making them.

[anantdeathhawk]

To [R-CON]Mr.VdHeide:Alright i'll do that first as soon as i finish the 3p model.

To [R-DEV]Rhino:Alright i'll do a search about it.

[Mr.VdHeide]

Maybe you found this one allready but just to be sure:

https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f189-m ... cture.html


Really nice tut, helped me a lot when I started modelling for PR.




D.J.

[anantdeathhawk]

To [R-CON]Mr.VdHeide:Yes, i did find it before.[R-DEV]CTRifle also referred to this for lods and cols and i did read the introduction of cols and lods.

Thanks for the reference

As from that tutorial, i have one question.Is the spade,shovel in that small barn static attached? if not, can only statics have separate objects on a plane or dynamic objects like vehicles can also have two or more separate objects in a scene i.e. not welded but existing so close together, giving the impression that they are welded?

[Mr.VdHeide]

Yes, you can have one object consisting out of separate elements:





As you can see the hinges on this tank's engine deck are separate elements attached to the main body.

The advantage of working this way is that you keep the tri count low + you don't have to weld everything up so it works faster as well.

I don't really know about the disadvantages though. I can imagine the lighting would be different since there is no clear edge defined in between the deck and the hinge. Would be nice if somebody knows more about the downside of not welding things up.





D.J.


PS: Install BFmeshview, you can use it to open the .bundlemesh files located in your PR install folder. Just copy those files and paste them in a new folder and you can open PR models like I did for this post.

[anantdeathhawk]

Thanks. So,i'll make the landing gear as a different object.I intalled the mesh view and viewed some models.I was seeing everthing in triangles, so is it how it was really made in a modelling software?

[Mr.VdHeide]

You definitely have to make the landing gear as separate objects since they are retractable and need animations.

Everything in PR is made out of triangles, you can model in polygon mode though.



D.J.

[anantdeathhawk]

update:

Made the front landing gear as a separate object made up of different separate objects and needs approval so as to make the rear landing gear the same way.It's 590 tris.

1.

2.

3.

Tail details.

1.

2.

3.

mid section.



Pylons.

1.General purpose pylon.


2.Exocet pylon


Overall look:Total tris 5136

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

No smoothing groups fixed as of yet, will do after the whole 3p model is done.

[Mineral]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hvd7v0u699xz4z3/f18.max?dl=0

Here, this might assist you a bit. it's the F18 of PR. If you press H(to open hierarchy) you can see all the different parts that are needed. I also gave it some different colors to give you a better idea. Don't worry about names or doing it all the same, just use this to get an idea what different parts need to be separated (wheels, flaps,...)

Be careful with those little round details. Don't invest too much polygons into somebody nobody will be able to enjoy from up close (like detail on top of the flaps and wings)

[Rhino]

Landing Gear / Wheels need far more tris, little lights etc need very few tris. The bigger the object, the more tris it needs (unless its flat or not requiring poly detail etc), the smaller the object, the fewer tris it needs.

Quick landing gear I made recently that might help:



And I did a high poly wheel for the normals (and AO + basic colour):

[anantdeathhawk]

To [R-DEV]Mineral:It is very helpful, thankyou.I took a look and realized how some edges were collapsed and all, i think i might be able to reduce much of the tris count now,hopefully.

To [R-DEV]Rhino:Thanks, i'll try collapsing unnecessary edges on the wheels too and will make it more round.
--------------------------------------------
:
So, should i not give much detail to the landing gear and make it like any landing gear?
Should the landing gear look like its in real life?

[Rhino]

The Landing Gear should look like it does in r/l, as much as you can, without spending to much detail and also having it work ingame. Also note that the landing gear can be recuded quite a bit in the LODs, espically since most of the time its going to raised up and its only when its on the ground or landing you see it, so lots of the little details can be removed beyond lod1.

Some examples of landing gears, note, that all of them are not perfect (harrier is probaly the best but could be optimized quite a bit), but should give you ideas and you should be looking at them yourself instead of us providing pics of them for you to see how other things are made, and learn from the mistakes of the old models.
http://imgur.com/a/j8tRx

[Tim270]

I don't really know about the disadvantages though. I can imagine the lighting would be different since there is no clear edge defined in between the deck and the hinge. Would be nice if somebody knows more about the downside of not welding things up.

The main problem for floating elements in bf2 is very bad Z-fighting. In the example you posted, small latches etc wont really be a issue, but say, a drivers hatch floating on top of the hull, will result in Z-fighting quite badly with bf2.

The other downside is wasted UV space, there are some work-arounds to this, but essentially, you end up with parts of your texture that are just a shadow under something, were as when you weld it up, you dont have any hidden uv space, thus none wasted.

All in all, its a balance, weld up big things like the hull, turret. Any small boxes, latches, hand rails, that are not large overlapping faces, leave them floating.

[anantdeathhawk]

To [R-DEV]Rhino :O kay, i understand.Yes i did see some models in mesh view when told by Mr.VdHeide to do so and i was puzzled by seeing the models with irregular triangles and i thought if the model has this many jagged edges how does it looks so smooth in game.
I reduced the tris count to 4500ish from 5136 as of yet and will continue reducing as much as possible.

To Tim270:Thanks for the explanation.

[anantdeathhawk]

update:
Front landing gear TRIS count=626 ,previously it was 590
wheel has 18 sides and the unnecessary edges have been collapsed, front cylindrical thing also has few more sides.


Whole landing gear TRIS count=2154


Rear landing gear TRIS count=764
1.
2.
3.
4.

Overall look(reduced TRIS on the main body)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

[Mr.VdHeide]

Do you have reference pictures for the landing gear? A quick google search only gave me this. Your model's wheels look a little smal IMO. Do you maybe have better refs?

Good luck!




D.J.

[anantdeathhawk]

Yes, i do have references,it was provided to me by [R-DEV]Rhino upon taking the task.The wheels are matched with the blueprint.
Side view:

[Rhino]

needs more detail. Take note of the Harriers landing gear detail, but just ignore the unoptimized wheels etc: