Shield Bearer
-
Posts
1.610 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
5
Posts posted by Shield Bearer
-
-
Hmm, is it true that our current models are a thousand+ tris?
-
Alright, what should be the max poly count?
-
At least in theory that sounds great and logical, hard to know for sure without having experienced what it's like in-game though =)
Anno 1404 has a great sound system(yes, everything about it is great) Which is somewhat like how stwf described. You can hear everything on screen and it gets louder the more you're zoomed in. Stuff like battles and cannons can be heard if they are a bit out of the screen area etc. Maybe download the demo and see for yourself? Not only the sound system, but the whole game
-
The reasons for making new dude meshes are many-fold.
Compatibility:
The previously mentioned Blender compatibility. Compatibility is one of the major issues holding us back in the animation dept. It makes it difficult (i.e. impossible) for new talent to jump in and begin making animations for our existing units.
Unit identification:
A wider array of meshes, representing non-armored and heavily armored dudes, would give us distinctive "silhouettes" that would assist in unit identification from max zoom. This one is important and difficult to achieve with the current meshes which all have the exact same silhouette. Basically, what we'd do is have a set of "skinny dude" meshes for archers, slingers, skirmishers, and then a set of "beefy dude" meshes for heavy infantry. The proportions of the new dude meshes would conform more closely to an "ideal" artistic human proportion. Lastly, heroes would have a set of meshes with "heroic" proportions. They would be slightly taller and slightly more exaggerated, but not overly so. The key words are "exaggeration" rather than "cartoony." Basically, the design aesthetic would be less cartoony and more "stereotypical." We stereotype ranged units as skinny weaklings, while melee units are beefier and more muscular. And consequently, heroes are beefier than that, but not freakishly so, just enough to give each set a distinctive silhouette from a distance. A big thing that would also help this would be to have a specific set of idle animations for each type of unit. Right now they all use the same set of idle animations, which makes them less distinctive. So a combination of "stereotypical" meshes and new sets of idle animations for different types of units would make our units look 10x better and even assist in making gameplay better.
Skinny, non-armored, ranged units:
Beefier, heavy infantry ("Ideal") proportions, and then "Heroic" proportions for heroes:
Its too detailed of course, since it wasn't made for 0 AD. But I could get the poly count down by quite a bit, I believe 
-
Just people trying to make the spectacular less spectacular
-
I would be strongly against Jesus, since it would injure many people's sentiments(my own included).
I would like to suggest 'Jerusalem' though as a tribute to the holy city, and include the Temple of Jerusalem as a scenario object
-
I agree with him. Our animations are well made but are not really...fluid. Now, I'm not saying that can do better, I can't. But it would be really useful for us to get a rig done. I would like to make new models too, but that seems too much work
After my exams(which end on the 6th of May) I hope to study animation a bit and get a good rig in game
-
Quick Maps? Preset Maps? Locked Maps?
-
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.
-
Do you really work better with Cylinders? Cube modelling is wayy better for me
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
-
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
-
A piece of advice. When starting, use a cylinder instead of a cube and extrude from there
-
I thought ships were gonna be capturable? If they are then we just have to give the Iberians an ability to capture ships from land
-
I shall totally support you! I would very much like to work on an Elf mod when I get the time
-
My dear fellow! You may be just what we're looking for
We need new menu background pictures and you've got the skill to do just that! Really awesome work, bro! Don't go anywhere, our Art lead will get in touch with you soon -
I believe there's a guy who goes by the name 'silnarm' on the Glest forums who did some pathfinding work for GAE, He showed interest in joining the team, but never got back to me
-
Lol, forgive me. I know you worked long and hard on them. And they look splendid, as do all your units. I'm just saying that they could pass as normal units(coz the elites are fancy anyway
), if you know what I mean. The ones I voted for were the most distinct ones and that's why I voted for them -
1
-
-
I think most heroes are very generic looking. There's not much to make them distinct from other units :/ Personally I think they should be bigger and more detailed...
-
1
-
-
-
Pretty sure in BfME2 the battalions (of swordsmen, for example) are generally 15 units, 5 wide x 3 rows. I actually prefer the battalion system to separate soldiers, but no one else seems to (although this may be self-selected, since most of our fans were Age of Empires fanatics). Oh well.
I'm with you on this, man. I would prefer it to. But only when they are in formation.
-
How about charging the player who wants to 'backstab'? Maybe double the amount of what he was bribed with. This would then allow him to attack the briber(who thinks he's safe because of the ceasefire).
-
Should attack-move also target buildings? I always thought it was meant for units only(I never used it much so what I say doesn't mean anything).
I don't think it should matter how big the group is, when an enemy unit moves too far from the initial path the units should return and resume their journey.I would go for Ctrl+Right-click and re-map garrison to Alt+right-click.
-
-
Ah, the coins look much better!
Animation Pipeline
in Art Development
Posted
I got the poly count down to 708(tris, not quads). Is this the best place for this discussion?
EDIT: @Jason: The base model only. I checked a model with a sling, so I didn't take that into account.