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Gaia: Animals


Acumen
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Started some work on a new horse model. Can I know the poly limit? This one is about 238 tris. Also, we'll need someone to texture it :P

The existing horse is 624 triangles, looks like it wouldn't hurt from having more either. I think that will have slightly more impact with skeletal models than static, because each vertex has to be skinned, even so the camel is over 1500, lions and zebras are almost 2000. Given how common horses will be in the game, it's more important to make them look good IMO, compared to other fauna.

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Do you really work better with Cylinders? Cube modelling is wayy better for me :P

Oh... Wait... That would be poly-by-poly for me... Ah. Scratch that. But seriously, is there a specific reason? Better for animating? Maintening a clean topology?

Still needs to get started. Not sure If I'll be abble to do it. :/

Well, animals are more organic and flowing and you'd have much of the torso done with a 8vert cylinder. All you have to do then is to move the vertices in place. And yes, it results in a clean topology or what I would call a organic geometry ;) But do what you find easier and better :)

The existing horse is 624 triangles, looks like it wouldn't hurt from having more either. I think that will have slightly more impact with skeletal models than static, because each vertex has to be skinned, even so the camel is over 1500, lions and zebras are almost 2000. Given how common horses will be in the game, it's more important to make them look good IMO, compared to other fauna.

I think I may be able to keep it below 1000. Well, my theory, when modeling the lion and the zebra etc. was that because they would be less of them on screen they could afford to have a lot of tris :P

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Well, animals are more organic and flowing and you'd have much of the torso done with a 8vert cylinder. All you have to do then is to move the vertices in place. And yes, it results in a clean topology or what I would call a organic geometry ;) But do what you find easier and better :)

Yeah... I just find easer to go subdivinding a cube... more tham using "stock" cylinders ;)

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What happened to the zebras?

That's been fixed. I forgot to assign one of the vertices to a group (never trust bone envelopes!).

@Shield Bearer (and anyone else modeling animals): Could you try to make sure the joints can rotate well without getting distorted? In Blender, if you set the pivot center to the cursor and move the cursor to the joint, you can test the rotation pretty well around it.

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That's been fixed. I forgot to assign one of the vertices to a group (never trust bone envelopes!).

@Shield Bearer (and anyone else modeling animals): Could you try to make sure the joints can rotate well without getting distorted? In Blender, if you set the pivot center to the cursor and move the cursor to the joint, you can test the rotation pretty well around it.

How were the zebras to animate? I need to know so I can follow a sample, if you understand me.

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  • 2 weeks later...

How were the zebras to animate? I need to know so I can follow a sample, if you understand me.

It was better than some others I did, but I think it could've used better joints. (I'm not quite sure what would work well without making the poly count too high, but you could just try to make each joint have at least two rings)

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  • 2 months later...

i have some suggestions for what animals could be represented in the game myself. there will be some overlap here, and some could be added at later times rather than all at once depending on the environment (for example, its not really necessary to include latin american animals since the game largely takes place in the old world). i'll be listing these all the same, though some would be infeasible (im just listing them from my source):

  1. Rattlesnake
  2. Pronghorn
  3. American Bison
  4. Two-Toed Sloth
  5. Marmoset
  6. Crested Seriema
  7. Mole Rat
  8. Beaver
  9. Fallow Deer
  10. Giraffe
  11. Gorilla
  12. African Elephant
  13. Tiger
  14. Tarsier
  15. Peafowl
  16. Greater Bird of Paradise
  17. Red Kangaroo
  18. Platypus
  19. Peccary
  20. Raccoon
  21. Llama
  22. Armadillo
  23. Opossum
  24. Chimpanzee
  25. Rhinoceros
  26. Antelope
  27. Squirrel
  28. Colugo
  29. Cockatoo
  30. Cassowary
  31. Tree Kangaroo
  32. Polar Bear
  33. Orca
  34. Blue Whale
  35. Crabeater Seal
  36. Leopard Seal
  37. Emperor Penguin
  38. Raven
  39. Arctic Fox
  40. Capercaillie
  41. Snowy Owl
  42. Brown Lemming
  43. Arctic Skua
  44. Musk Ox
  45. Brent Goose
  46. Rock Ptarmigan
  47. Arctic Hare
  48. Wolf
  49. Wolverine
  50. Caribou
  51. Woodchuck
  52. White-tailed Deer
  53. American Black Bear
  54. European Badger
  55. Red Fox
  56. Aurochs
  57. European Wood Bison
  58. European Hare
  59. Guanaco
  60. Saiga
  61. Springhaas
  62. Plains Wolf
  63. Coyote
  64. Maned Wolf
  65. Prairie Dog
  66. Pampas Cat
  67. Tawny Eagle
  68. Red-tailed Hawk
  69. Prairie Falcon
  70. Sage Grouse
  71. Black Grouse
  72. Roadrunner
  73. Dromedary Camel
  74. Bactrian Camel
  75. Addax
  76. Dorcas Gazelle
  77. Great Horned Owl
  78. Gila Monster
  79. Eland
  80. Wildebeest
  81. Grant's Zebra
  82. Topi
  83. Thomson's Gazelle
  84. Lion
  85. Leopard
  86. Cheetah
  87. African Wild Dog
  88. Jackal
  89. Spotted Hyena
  90. White-Backed Vulture
  91. Ostrich
  92. Secretary Bird
  93. Aardwolf
  94. Aardvark
  95. Shoebill Stork
  96. Goliath Heron
  97. Sitatunga
  98. Hippopotamus
  99. Crowned Eagle
  100. Sacred Langur
  101. Royal Python
  102. Orangutan
  103. Tree Pangolin
  104. Orange-Rumped Agouti
  105. Forest Buffalo
  106. Okapi
  107. Tapir
  108. Wild Pig
  109. Yak
  110. Snow Leopard
  111. Blue Sheep
  112. Asiatic Black Bear
  113. Rocky Mountain Goat
  114. Red Panda
  115. Amazonian Manatee
  116. African Spoonbill
  117. Spectacled Caiman

however, given this list, another thing that i would recommend is replacing as many of these animals as possible with collective versions instead of so many specific species. for example, instead of having one specifically called "American Black Bear" or "Bengal Tiger", there can just be generic "Bear" and "Tiger" so that those can be considered to encompass all sorts of similarly sized and related animals, even if its technically inaccurate. alternatively, maybe some animals can have different textures depending on the dominant biome in an area, so tigers in a predominantly winter-styled map would resemble siberian tigers instead of bengals

also, i think some generic prehistoric animals would be good for design purposes. namely:

  1. Seymouria (?)
  2. Scutosaurus
  3. Dimetrodon
  4. Lystrosaurus (?)
  5. Corythosaurus/Hadrosaurus
  6. Deinonychus/Utahraptor
  7. Brachiosaurus/Apatosaurus
  8. Struthiomimus
  9. Tyrannosaurus
  10. Triceratops
  11. Plesiosaurus
  12. Rhamphorhynchus (cosmetic)

ideally, there would be representation of at least one animal from every major group of dinosaurs and other notable prehistoric animals (which i would be happy to look into if anyone else likes it, being a paleo-nerd myself) but these twelve (perhaps replacing a few of them) would be the more important ones. alternatively, a prehistoric animal list could be compiled based on old fiction (like Doyle's original Lost World). and this doesnt even mention animals that died out more recently

i could also compile lists of plant life that could be included, if anyone's interested

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I don't think the game will need "kangaroos." :) I think the list is pretty close to complete for now. we could probably take a couple more suggestions, as long as they are essential to the biome. For the current complete list, please see the first post.

yeah, i saw the list; i was just giving my own suggestions that could be used to amend the list with new critters. of the ones i suggested, id simplify it down to:
  1. African Wild Dog
  2. Armadillo
  3. Beaver
  4. Bison
  5. Capercaillie
  6. Cassowary (?)
  7. Chimpanzee
  8. Eland
  9. Giraffe
  10. Kangaroo (?)
  11. Leopard Seal (?)
  12. Llama
  13. Musk Ox
  14. Opossum
  15. Orangutan
  16. Pangolin
  17. Penguin (?)
  18. Platypus (?)
  19. Raccoon
  20. Rattlesnake
  21. Raven
  22. Saiga
  23. Tapir
  24. Wolverine

i attached (?)'s to the Australasian and Antarctic animals because, even in the scope of maps included just for fun (like the polar ones) those ones would be less likely than an American or Far Eastern environment. as an aside, i would also recommend looking at other RTS games and cross-comparing animals from those games with your own. for example, AOM had a crowned crane as well as sharing alot of animals that you have listed

also, i thought you were also planning to include a dragon for a special random map?

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Giraffes were accidentally left off the list. I'll add them. We won't do any American animals (bison, llamas, muskox) or Australian animals.

XD Llamas we dont need that (for now) , what is Guanaco?

i get the American and Australian animals, but "bison" can technically refer to a European species. or would you prefer to use the term "wisent"?

as for your question, lion.kanzen, the guanaco is a relative of the llama (see, camels actually evolved in South America and later migrated to the Americas, where they died out completely, and to Africa and Asia, where they persist today in the more classical camel forms)

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