The_Major Posted December 27, 2004 Author Posted December 27, 2004 sory for the lack of updates, but christmas has been extreamly hectic for me, and i havent had much time to work however, work will be resuiming now and i hope to have some sort of update in the next few days.
Cdr Fokker Posted January 5, 2005 Posted January 5, 2005 Sorry for any Zjentohlauedy-lovers out there, but they are no longer the most powerful race in-game... The Meltohlauendy Flagship and Standard Battleship aren't fully armed yet, and the Meltohlauendy High-Speed Cruiser isn't in those pics either (it needs even more work still).
Gammera Posted January 6, 2005 Posted January 6, 2005 Cdr Fokker why do you spell Zentraedi the way you do? These two pics are from the 20th anniversary DVD. I don't mean to take from your work wich is great, it is just something that bugs me.
Cdr Fokker Posted January 6, 2005 Posted January 6, 2005 Cdr Fokker why do you spell Zentraedi the way you do?These two pics are from the 20th anniversary DVD. I don't mean to take from your work wich is great, it is just something that bugs me. Talk to Lestat about that. (Nanashi can probably comment on it as well). IIRC, it's due to a translation from the Zentradi characters from the "truce" scene in DYRL? and thus is correct (and "more correct" here... remember, this is a DYRL project)
Boxer Posted January 10, 2005 Posted January 10, 2005 Not to be impatient, but nothing after five days?
dedalus001 Posted January 10, 2005 Posted January 10, 2005 yeah true my macross faith is dwindling i popped in my zeta gundam dvds today. cmon cmon cmon. don't let me down.
The_Major Posted January 11, 2005 Author Posted January 11, 2005 hey were still working, its takeing a lot for me to get the textures right on the zentran ships im working on.
Cdr Fokker Posted January 11, 2005 Posted January 11, 2005 Not to be impatient, but nothing after five days? I've had some health concerns to take care of, and have been working on paying work lately instead. I will most likely be working more intently on SWO after classes start in a week (as then my other works slows).
Boxer Posted January 11, 2005 Posted January 11, 2005 so be it. Glad to hear you guys are still alive though!
Lestat Posted January 12, 2005 Posted January 12, 2005 I've been sick lately, and having RL money issues, so it's on the backburner I'm afraid. Working full time on getting my next d20 e-book out (Shameless plug: The Immortal: Vampires) so that's what's keeping me for now. Zjentohlauedy is spelt as such because that's how Kawamori spelt it, in english/romanji in the DYRL production notes, most notably for the peace treaty scene. To date, that's his official spelling, and hence the Studio Kappa/Nanashi's/Macross DYRL TC spelling of the word. Meltohlauendy is an extrapolation of the same phonetics, as conjectured by nanashi.
Lestat Posted January 12, 2005 Posted January 12, 2005 Oh, and lately my MSN messenger has been stuffing up, otherwise I would have contacted you guys.
chrono Posted January 12, 2005 Posted January 12, 2005 I'm a little pressed for time right now and don't have the time to go through the thread looking for an answer.... Are you placing a Zen Picket ship in the game? And if you want I can give you my low level version(about 1200 faces).
Boxer Posted January 13, 2005 Posted January 13, 2005 The intention of this mod is to put all Cannon units and then some into the game (Save the large-scale kill everything command stations, and the factory sattlite). I'll let the dev team make the response on that. And I'll wait for more models to get done before tackling some more units... still getting back together over here after 'Stuff'.
The_Major Posted January 13, 2005 Author Posted January 13, 2005 hey crono, got any pics of the Picket ship?
Lestat Posted January 13, 2005 Posted January 13, 2005 Major haven't you seen his high poly version? Don't hesitate, say yes! Of course we'll take it. We appreciate the help. 1200 is a good number for a ship of that size. It could probably afford another 300 or so of additional detial if you wanted.
chrono Posted January 13, 2005 Posted January 13, 2005 The_Major, Just check out my WIP thread here. It has the images that you want. Lestat, 1500. Well that's ALOT to work with. I've reduced my current model down to roughly 620 before tesslating. Keeping most of the details intact(trench, launch bay). I still have to further adjust some things.
Lestat Posted January 13, 2005 Posted January 13, 2005 Well, basically, we're talking at least 1500 for a LOD 0 model. Of course, 640 or whatever will be nice for like, LOD 1 or 2 or something... the average fighter model is around 800 polys in HW2, and we're talking about a 500 m ship here, not a 14 m fighter... Detail is good. It's better to have a higher count poly model with lower textures than vice versa.
Cdr Fokker Posted January 13, 2005 Posted January 13, 2005 Several thousand for capitals should be fine. Actually, I've been increasing the detail of some of Lestat's Meltrandi ships lately by adding more "goblin" type structures (i.e., making the raised bumps actual geometry, which is faded out as sort of a "bonus LOD" in between 0 and 1) The only problems arise with the really big ships - LOD for the large flagships doesn't work so well, due to the sheer size of the ships and the fact that the more advanced lighting in HW2 is basically only on LOD0 (though it seems to also be distance-based; whichever comes first, I think). This causes more abrubt and noticable switches on the very large craft. And it's best to have a balance of geometry and textures. Too low-res of textures will result in an incredibly bad-looking result, no matter how much extra detail is in geometry; the key is to acheive a good balance which is effecient and effective.
chrono Posted January 13, 2005 Posted January 13, 2005 (edited) I wasn't being sarcastic about the poly count 1500 IS alot to work with and lets face it we are not talking about a ship that will figure largely in both scale and senenios, so 1500-2000 is actually about right for a limited use ship that maybe used alot by the players. Anyways back to work! I do have a question though. What is the angle of the in-game shader? Edited January 13, 2005 by chrono
Boxer Posted January 13, 2005 Posted January 13, 2005 Limited use? I don't think so- I think the scout might be one of the most frequent Zjent capital craft because of it's low cost and yet status as a capital ship. Next to my Tuliqui-Sovis I would picture it as the bulk of a Zjent assault force. Reguardless, can't wait to see it come together in-game.
The_Major Posted January 14, 2005 Author Posted January 14, 2005 Hey Chrono, Yes we will take it that means one less zentran ship i have to muddle with untill its right
chrono Posted January 14, 2005 Posted January 14, 2005 Well I've got it partially finished it doesn't have any of the inset thrusters, all the various bumps and stuff are there though. Which sucks because after tesslation it's poly count is 1988! Ugh... I think the poly count will end-up at about 2200 the way things are going. I got a question on what format you want it in? TS is limited in what it can save to. Can you use DirectX?
The_Major Posted January 15, 2005 Author Posted January 15, 2005 .x format, yeah i can use that and convert it with 3D exploration. 2200 ey, well that shouldnt be too bad.
Cdr Fokker Posted January 15, 2005 Posted January 15, 2005 Best bet would be to save in numerous common formats supported by your app, so that we can then see which converts the most cleanly and easily over for work in Maya.
chrono Posted January 17, 2005 Posted January 17, 2005 Yeah sure. Here you go it's a quickie screen capture and currently doesn't go more then 952 faces. Lots left to do yet. Gotta fix a few more things and hand triangulate this baby for it's best possible performance. I haven't worked on it since friday though, I've been working on it's older brother most of the weekend.
Lestat Posted January 18, 2005 Posted January 18, 2005 Cool, looking good. Is the engine section on the top view meant to be so sharp? Loving it.
chrono Posted January 19, 2005 Posted January 19, 2005 I'm not sure what you mean Lestat. Are you referring to the little top and bottom fins on the larger engines or the appearant sharpness in the bend area of the large engines themselves? Not alot I can do with either without adding 10-30 faces and then I have to question whether it's actually worth doing because the game shader may be able to deal with that. I'm gonna try and finish the model today, or at least get it to pre-triangulation.
Cdr Fokker Posted January 19, 2005 Posted January 19, 2005 I think he's talking about the top view - how the engines have that sharp transition about halfway back. Would probably be worth an extra row of polygons to have it not be so sharp.
chrono Posted January 19, 2005 Posted January 19, 2005 At first I thought it was an illusion because of the added wireframe overlay, but it IS sharp. So I'll adjust that. I'll also soften other areas too. Because I just checked the finished model and it's something like 1950 after triangulation.
Lestat Posted January 20, 2005 Posted January 20, 2005 Sounds like a plan, and yeah, the commander was right about what I was referring to. Seriously awesome looking model. I hope you can do some more stuff for the mod. Even if you can't texture so well (I haven't seen your textures yet), we still need models done, and zjentohlauedy models can be trickier because of their organic nature.
The_Major Posted January 21, 2005 Author Posted January 21, 2005 well ive hit a road block, finished the model Quiltra Queleual, and im almost done with the Queadol-Magdomillia model but i cant get a decent UV Map done... everytime i do something doesnt match. soo hence the reason for my lack of normal updates.
Lestat Posted January 22, 2005 Posted January 22, 2005 The problem is most likely that some of the faces are linked. There should be a tool in your mapper that lets you break vertices, which should kill the relationships it has with the polygons around it. Basically, breaking the mesh into individual polygons. Maybe it's not, but it could be.
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