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This is what I have so far. I added a barrel, several baskets, a couple of shields and swords.

Sighvatr, I thought of that, but on the other hand, unless they are flat on the deck, any other place on the boat would be pretty much the same. I'll try to rearrange them a bit and maybe come up with something better. -nick

Thanks Enrique. I added 2 swords and 2 shields.

Quick question: if one of these empties/helpers is the parent of a shield for example, do the pivots of the shield and the helper need to match? Does the size of the helper matter relative to the prop I'm trying to parent?

Thanks, I'll have to try again. Perhaps I did something wrong, although I simply imported the two models without altering anything else. I'll update you tomorrow on my progress

@Enrique: I tried importing kart_ship_quinquereme.dae and maur_shield_bell.dae to figure out what the size of the three sail boat should be. However, the boat is enormous and the shield is barely visible (more like a dot). So my question is, if I add weapons and shields by importing dae files to the three sail boat, is it ok to rescale them? Will that create any problems with the "helpers" I will have to export later on along with the boat?

nice tutorial Lion! I should follow your example and put more work in my 2d images.

Thanks! I really need to learn how to find the useful stuff

Thanks for the advice lilstewie. I'll add one or two of the shields which are already in game as soon as I figure out where to get them from. Sorry, I'm still new here -@Enrique: is there a repository where I could find the shields lilstewie was talking about? This http://svn.wildfiregames.com/public/ps/trunk/binaries/data/mods/public/art/meshes/structural/ doesn't seem to have the shields lion was working on and which are already in game.

Sounds good. Where can I get those from?

Here's a quick update for the boat. I made the changes Enrique suggested and I did part of what lilstewie suggested. I made the oars a bit more consistent, I slightly desaturated the boxes and changed the wood color of the shelter. I also added a couple of shields. As for what I couldn't do and lilstewie suggested is the drawing on the back of the boat. Unfortunately I can't do that because only a quarter of the hull is textured and the rest is done by symmetry. I could, for example, texture the back of the hull separately from the front, but that would take more texture space and would make other parts of the boat lower res. If it's imperative I make the front different from the back, I will definitely try and come up with something. Thanks again for all the feedback! -nick Thanks Shield Bearer! I'll definitely try to do that.

Thanks Enrique! I'll make those changes later today and I'll post the result.

Here's a quick update. I made the mast a bit thicker, added some props (crates, ropes etc.), added some slight dirt to the sails and made the wooden sail supports thick to make them look more stable. -nick EDIT: Triangle count is 1430 at this point

Thanks for all the feedback everybody! I'll make an update tomorrow and attach a new image. Lion.Kanzen: I'm using 3ds max 2012

Thanks Yves, it makes perfect sense. I was actually wondering the same thing myself as to how to make the sails look more stable. I'll see what I can do.

I quickly found some things I didn't like so I'm attaching a new image. These include, slightly larger paddles and some decoration on the wooden support for the ropes. Also, don't pay too much attention to the sails since those are duplicated planes and produce weird results upon rendering, but it should look fine in game.

Hi guys, here's an update for the three sail boat. Sighvatr suggested that maybe the steering oars need to be added, but I'm not sure this kind of boat has that... so I'm leaving that out for now. Other than that, triangle count is 1080; if that's too much I'll try to reduce it. The texture is 512x512 for the render below. Please let me know what you guys think so far.

Thanks a lot. I'll make an update later tomorrow with whatever changes I make

Hi guys, I started working on the large boat and this is what I have so far. Triangle count is ~760, however, the ropes and sails still need to be duplicated. It's still a work in progress in terms in geometry, but before I continue, I'd like to know if you guys think if there is anything wrong with what I have so far. Thanks!

Looks a lot better with the ambient occlusion. I'll start work on the three sail boat today or tomorrow and I'll post an update.

I used one of the symbols you attached. I think it looks better now. https://www.dropbox.com/s/po56dj4994vx2lq/boat-Diffuse.png

Thanks Enrique, I'll make an update when I'm done.

Thanks lilstewie! Should I start work on the three sail boat?

I initially added the player color on the sail, but I wasn't sure weather the stuff I added was in tone with the game. I had three diagonal lines on the sail. Is there anything in particular that we could use, such as logos or emblems, that we could add to the sail as player color? If so, let me know and I'll make the changes and reupload the .png alone. As usual, thanks for all the help!

Ok, I think I got it working. Hopefully no more bugs/mistakes on my part this time around . I was using Autodesk Collada for export and apparently it's not very good, so I had to find Open Collada. Here's the link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1mznrjaqg0i7un9/boat.zip