Popular Post Enrique Posted October 29, 2014 Popular Post Report Share Posted October 29, 2014 Wildfiregames presents: 0AD's unit upgrade. -Why do you work on this upgrade when you should be working on pathfinder and performance improvements?-Please note that this upgrade has been done by an artist who hasn't any knowledge in programming. This upgrade has not taken away any precious work time to 0AD programming developers who continue to work on the needed pathfinder and performance improvements. -Why do you make this upgrade?For a number or reasons:Unit models are very old, around 6-7 years old. These new models are closer to today's industry standards.UV mapping and model proportions aren't ideal on the current models. The new ones have realistic human proportions and much better UV mapping.Old animations cannot be modified, only created from scratch. With the new models we can maintain the blender source files of the animations and modify them at will.Since we share the blender source files, the team and the community can make variations for their own model variations and still use the new armature.Old model's armature (skeleton) is very basic and limited. With the new model's armature we can achieve more detailed animations and are capable of basic prop animation -Are these new models already implemented? Do they work with the old animations?-No. The models are finished and ready to start animation production. We will remake all the unit animations and implement them when there are almost all of the required animations completed. However, the models are commited to the SVN version of the game with some test examples that you can check in the map editor. These examples and the models will be released in the next Alpha release (Alpha18) if you don't wan't to set up a SVN version.To check some unit examples in SVN, go to the map editor and in the object tab, search for all actors and filter by "newunit". Once selected click on "Switch to action viewer" to isolate the unit and zoom in. (please note these are just examples and they aren't final unit setups) -Do you have increased the number of unit variations of the game?-Yes, now there are non-armored unit variations, and armored unit variations with some differences. There are plans to add some more in the near future if time permits. -Can I make my own animations for my mod and use these new models?-Yes you can! Check at the bottom of this post to download the blender source file(s) of the armature and check the SVN newunit xmls example for setting up your own units. Don't forget to check the presentation video where there's a short explanation of how the armature works. -What is left to be done before I can play with these new models?-Since the unit heads have different size than the old ones, all the helmets in the game must be resized to fit them. Also as pointed a few lines above, we're going to upgrade all the animations to fit these new models. When these two tasks are complete or close to completion, we'll implement them and you'll be able to play 0AD with them. -Is there something I can make to help with this task?-Yes! If you are a skilled animator with experience in human models' animations you can open a thread in "Applications and contributions" subforum, tell us about yourself and show us some of your animation works! Male unit variations (Old Work in progress): (Click following images to enlarge) Female unit variations (Old work in progress): Download the blend file and start animating! Enjoy!New unit upgrade animation template.zip 30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzippy Posted October 30, 2014 Report Share Posted October 30, 2014 Really looks great. Unfortunately normally (i.e. in a real game) a player never zooms in that much: it isn't even possible in standard settings, also there is simply no time in a decent match for enjoying detailed unit modelling, since you are fully engaged with stratetic stuff aso.So I have a question:Do those increased unit details affect the game performance (which already is problematic), when there is much more to render?Or does this only affect the GPU? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gallaecio Posted October 30, 2014 Report Share Posted October 30, 2014 Amazing work!And I really appreciate the fact that we will have the source Blender files of all models, that's a big plus! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enrique Posted October 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2014 Really looks great. Unfortunately normally (i.e. in a real game) a player never zooms in that much: it isn't even possible in standard settings, also there is simply no time in a decent match for enjoying detailed unit modelling, since you are fully engaged with stratetic stuff aso.So I have a question:Do those increased unit details affect the game performance (which already is problematic), when there is much more to render?Or does this only affect the GPU?The triangle count is not much higher (around 250 -350 additional triangles only), these meshes still pretty lowpoly for today's standards.AFAIK the biggest performance problems are mainly caused by pathfinding and simulation calculations. So I don't think they would cause much bigger problems. There has been some improvements lately in graphical performance like better shadow culling and better alpha transparency handling too.Regarding unit detail, while it is true that the game is not meant to be played at max zoom all the time, people like sometimes to zoom into the battleground and enjoy observing how the battle unfolds (myself included), take good looking screenshots or use these models in other mods that the camera angle could be different than the standard RTS.Also my mission in this project is to make the game look as good as possible 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wowgetoffyourcellphone Posted October 30, 2014 Report Share Posted October 30, 2014 I look at sample units in the map editor and they look like glory. Well done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catalanoic Posted October 30, 2014 Report Share Posted October 30, 2014 Awesome!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wowgetoffyourcellphone Posted October 30, 2014 Report Share Posted October 30, 2014 Nice work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catalanoic Posted October 30, 2014 Report Share Posted October 30, 2014 Wow! When on SVN? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan` Posted October 30, 2014 Report Share Posted October 30, 2014 It's on SVN. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theodotus Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 Regarding unit detail, while it is true that the game is not meant to be played at max zoom all the time, people like sometimes to zoom into the battleground and enjoy observing how the battle unfolds (myself included), take good looking screenshots or use these models in other mods that the camera angle could be different than the standard RTS.Also my mission in this project is to make the game look as good as possible YES! I'm one of those people (I've bolded the words in the quote above)! And I definitely think the game should look good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenknight32 Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 Looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auron2401 Posted November 1, 2014 Report Share Posted November 1, 2014 Diggin the new animations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion.Kanzen Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 I love the Legionarie, nice work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thamlett Posted November 10, 2014 Report Share Posted November 10, 2014 (edited) When are they going to be implemented? (i mean the models) Edited November 10, 2014 by thamlett Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stan` Posted November 10, 2014 Report Share Posted November 10, 2014 Models are in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thamlett Posted November 11, 2014 Report Share Posted November 11, 2014 Yes, I see, but are they implemented? I open the scenario editor and the models are not the same..... they are still the old pointy and ugly face ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niektb Posted November 11, 2014 Report Share Posted November 11, 2014 They have a separate folder. So you need to look to something like units/new under the actors tab. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enrique Posted November 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 11, 2014 Yes, I see, but are they implemented? I open the scenario editor and the models are not the same..... they are still the old pointy and ugly face ones. -Are these new models already implemented? Do they work with the old animations?-No. The models are finished and ready to start animation production. We will remake all the unit animations and implement them when there are almost all of the required animations completed. However, the models are commited to the SVN version of the game with some test examples that you can check in the map editor. These examples and the models will be released in the next Alpha release (Alpha18) if you don't wan't to set up a SVN version.To check some unit examples in SVN, go to the map editor and in the object tab, search for all actors and filter by "newunit". Once selected click on "Switch to action viewer" to isolate the unit and zoom in. (please note these are just examples and they aren't final unit setups)From the first post 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaimele Posted November 13, 2014 Report Share Posted November 13, 2014 Nice. Maybe its just me, but the new models look more buff. Are they on something? lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poVoq Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 Awesome work, can't wait to see these in game fully animated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thamlett Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 Nice. Maybe its just me, but the new models look more buff. Are they on something? lolNaw, they're just more realistic... I mean, come on... After chopping all that wood/mining stone/metal or farming, wouldn't you have a six pack too? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Shadow Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 (edited) Wildfiregames presents: 0AD's unit upgrade. [...]this is amazing but game will be more amazing if there is more civs like crusaders japanes chines etc i thint that will be awesome and make game much better thats my opinion MOD EDIT: Don't full quote posts. Especially not if you are just replying in general. Edited December 15, 2014 by leper Remove useless full quote. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
niektb Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 (edited) I suggest you take a look at the timespan 0 A.D. covers. Crusaders come over 1000 years later. You're free to create a mod for it off course! Edited December 15, 2014 by niektb 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristonianCoder Posted December 22, 2014 Report Share Posted December 22, 2014 Wow! These are great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaosislife13 Posted December 31, 2014 Report Share Posted December 31, 2014 i know yall don't think the graphical upgrade will affect performance much, but do you think maybe you could set it up so the upgraded models are only used if a general graphics setting is set to medium or high? Thing is, I already don't like 300 unit limits even tho my game lags like mad at 100, so absolutely anything that would take a bit off of that helps. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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