[Static Model] Container Handling Crane

[ZaZZo]

Awesome

[hall0]

Very nice

[llPANCHOll]

So you do all this in the BF2 Editor, Object Editor??

[Rhino]

So you do all this in the BF2 Editor, Object Editor??

3Ds max you model, unwrap etc then you just import the model into BF2 and view it via the BF2 editor, + you tweak its col properties etc when going on a little bit later

[KP]

Damn, this thing must've been a ***** to UV and texture...

[Rhino]

Damn, this thing must've been a ***** to UV and texture...

I'm still not finished with the UVs, got the dirt and crack layers to do yet

and statics work diffrently from weapons, they work off pallets so no need to texture unless making new pallets / textures, thou i mainly used stock textures apart from made a new yellow/black stipe colour texture, and a new wheel texture but apart from that, all stock textures.

[KP]

Well, I guess that's a start... A ***** to UV, though.

[Rhino]

a little WIP of my crack layer



EDIT: also plz note, just moved the logo on the top bar over to the left of the model to balance it out as it was making the right to "heavy" visually

[~KILL~Pirate]

Very Nice Work Rhino Awesome conversion from RL pic...

[Rhino]

Very Nice Work Rhino Awesome conversion from RL pic...

well its a mix and match of many r/l designs which best suit for my ingame model, that pic has many diffrences than the main versions ive been working off, thou is one of the best pics I have for showing as a example

[Symplify]

Is it possible to make so you can go inside the crane operator seat?

[zenrique]

Isn't a vertical stair missing there, linking the top of the first one to the bottom of the second stair? What I'm realy wondering is: will we be able to climb this beauty up to the top?

Besides, put a driveable version of it in a forest map, and I'd call this an TTRPDV: Tree Top Rally Point Destruction Vehicle.

[Rhino]

Is it possible to make so you can go inside the crane operator seat?

as in you push "e" to get into it? then it would have to become a player controled object rather than a static...

Isn't a vertical stair missing there, linking the top of the first one to the bottom of the second stair? What I'm realy wondering is: will we be able to climb this beauty up to the top?

there will be ladders on them ingame, ladders are added as seprate objects to the model

[=Romagnolo=]

Rhino, what do NOT you do ? Nice work !

[Rhino]

Rhino, what do NOT you do ? Nice work !

I dont know sh*t about game animation?

[Mora]

Well then thats about it. I mean you got everything else covert

[Rhino]

Anouther quick update, didn't bother with the dirt layer as most of the stock dirt textures in BF2 didn't have anything that I could really use, and thiought that the colour texture was already giving it enough of a dirty look, and only used the crack layer to add 3 logos as there wasn't really much else i could use them for, mostly the crack layer is used to put cracks in concrete walls etc.

So ye instead I've called my texture final, and started to work on my LODS

First I cloned all my mats and removed the bump maps from the clones then applied them to the LOD meshes as this means that low gfx users will not have to load the bump maps, which means they will get less lag from this static and all the other statics too as they all work like this

Then made started to work on my LOD1 mesh, which is basically a clone of my main mesh, and removed all the details from it, cut down on the polys in areas aswell as apply all my cloned mataerils without the bump maps to it. This is what the players with low gfx settings see, so they dont get to see the object in its full detail. Then with my LOD2 and LOD3 meshes, basically just used the multirez tool in max to auto cut down on the polies in areas around the model aswell as remove some more detail by hand

now ill list each mesh in order from LOD0 to LOD3 (highest to lowest detail) with also listing there poly counts

LOD0: 5040 polys - what the users with high gfx settings see when up close.


LOD1: 4222 polys - what the players with low gfx settings see when up close, and what high gfx players see when a little far away.


LOD2: 3237 polys - what all players see when a little more far away then LOD1.


LOD3: 1837 polys - what all players see when really far away.



Now these are here to mainly let players not having to load a huge mesh when really far away from a object, instead they only load the bits they can really see, like the main beams etc, you aint going to be able to see a hand rail on the stairs when 500m away from a object, even if it was drawing it for exsample so this means that your GFX card dont have to process the objects that you are not going to see anyways, thou when your up close you still get the full detail (providing your on high gfx)

Only really the col meshes to go and the final import guys, almost done!

[Dr Rank]

Awesome work matey! Can't believe how good its gonna look even with lowest poly LOD!! Very nice!!

[Fabryz]

I'm looking forward to play Muttrah v2, i miss too much the v1

[Rhino]

Well got hung up a little with my cols, mainly on my ladders not working quite correctly, the player was getting off them outside the walkways and falling to his death after climbing them thou with a few tweaks I sorted it

Anyways its all done now, so I've prepared a little scene to show off the final version

Bare in mind the map (Muttrah City [v2]) is still very WIP, and this little scene ive done will probably not be there in the final version, will most likely be deleted and remade in a slightly different way
Also the truck at this point have no lightmaps (shadows) cast on it, thou it will when the map is released











Hope you like it

And for thous of you who are interested in the creation of a static, here are the collisions meshes I've made for this static. The Collisions meshes determine where bullets hit a object, where players can walk on a object and where vehicles will crash into them etc
There are 3 main types of collision mesh used in BF2. Decal, Physics and Player.

Decal is used for projectiles and the like, from pistol rounds to laser guided bombs, hit the object and what kind of impact they have. The collision meshes also have materials applied to them, which detriments and effects that happen when a bullet strikes the object, for example if its metal, you will get a ping when the bullet hits it, if it was glass then you would get a glass braking sound and effect

Physics is used primary for vehicle moment, where a vehicle can and can not go. These like all the other col meshes also have materials applied to them, and when a car crashes into a metal col post, you will get a bang sound like you have hit metal

Player is really just to determine where the player can walk over the object and can not. These like all the other col meshes also have materials applied to them, and when a player walks over a metal col walk way, he will have footstep sounds as if hes walking on metal

Now the BF2 Editor has very kindly colour coded all the materials onto the col meshes so you can easily tell which surface has which materiel applied to it

Material List:


And the col meshes.

Decal:




Physics:




Player:





As you can see, they look rather plain from the meshes you can see ingame, thou this is because the game dont want to think more than it wants to, so we give it more simple meshes to work with so that we dont strain it when its trying to work out if that jet flying just clipped its wing while flying though that object

anyways hope you guys have learned from that, took me I think just under 1 month to make this from start to finish