Roman military standards (Aquila, Signum, Vexillum)

[nifa]

Hi all,

right now all civilizations use a carthagian actor for formations, though especially the romans had their own, very unique standards, e.g. Aquila (eagle), Signum and Vexillum. I put together 4 standards, which I'm adding as a mod here. Alpha for player colour still needs to be added.

@wowgetoffyourcellphone @Stan` @real_tabasco_sauce  maybe someone could take a look on it and make a PR?

we could also put together a standard bearer unit, similar to the gaul trumpeter, as a scenario unit or upgradable legionary in vanilla? They used to be called "Aquilifier" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquilifer) or "Signifier" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signifer).

 

 

references:

Spoiler

 

wikipedia links:

Spoiler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_military_standards

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquila_(Roman)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vexillum

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signum_(Rom)

 

standards.zip

Edited Tuesday at 14:14 by nifa

[Stan`]

Hey nifa, nice to see you back!

They look pretty nice. The polycount looks high though

[nifa]

18 hours ago, Stan` said:

Hey nifa, nice to see you back!

They look pretty nice. The polycount looks high though

Hey, thanks! Yeah, polycount is higher than the carthagian actor, which was basically 2d. The first three standards have 1.5 to 1.9 k tris, the last one only 800 tris. The most consuming are the items on top (eagle 1.5k, hand and wolf each 900 tris). I tried saving geometry where I could and baked a lot to normals, maybe the eagle could spare some tris though. But I think all in all it's not unreasonable high, or is it?

Btw everything is baked on one texture. Anybody who wants could easily combine the parts to make more or different standards for variety or ones with less geometry.

[Genava55]

I take the opportunity to share this study on the military standards:

https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeum/catalog/book/1394

It is written in German.

[Genava55]

@wowgetoffyourcellphone maybe the Eagle standard can be made available when the Marian reforms tech is researched?

[nifa]

3 hours ago, Genava55 said:

I take the opportunity to share this study on the military standards:

https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/propylaeum/catalog/book/1394

It is written in German.

cool stuff, a lot of nice references at the end. The museum is close to where I am from. I'm thinking about modelling a draco standard according to the one they found there. It's roman, maybe too late for 0 AD timeframe, but possible to use it for persians or scythians? Further references for other civs are very welcome

 

[Genava55]

27 minutes ago, nifa said:

but possible to use it for persians or scythians?

Scythians maybe, at least the Saka seem to use something similar, although maybe without the dragon/wolf head:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlat_plaques

Although the Dacians clearly should have them, in the future.

[Mirza Shakiba]

57 minutes ago, Genava55 said:

Scythians maybe, at least the Saka seem to use something similar, although maybe without the dragon/wolf head:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlat_plaques

Although the Dacians clearly should have them, in the future.

Nice background bro! Viva Immorality!

[Stan`]

12 hours ago, nifa said:

Hey, thanks! Yeah, polycount is higher than the carthagian actor, which was basically 2d. The first three standards have 1.5 to 1.9 k tris, the last one only 800 tris. The most consuming are the items on top (eagle 1.5k, hand and wolf each 900 tris). I tried saving geometry where I could and baked a lot to normals, maybe the eagle could spare some tris though. But I think all in all it's not unreasonable high, or is it?

Btw everything is baked on one texture. Anybody who wants could easily combine the parts to make more or different standards for variety or ones with less geometry.

Hey sorry for the delayed answer.

The polycount limitations highly depend on the number of units with those things. 

You can check out the number of tris in the editor, (disable shadows in atlas first) but i feel like it should be 400-500 considering unit models without props are around 1000. 

Lods are an option though and we could have a higher quality version for high quality model level. Does that make sense?

[nifa]

1 hour ago, Stan` said:

Hey sorry for the delayed answer.

The polycount limitations highly depend on the number of units with those things. 

You can check out the number of tris in the editor, (disable shadows in atlas first) but i feel like it should be 400-500 considering unit models without props are around 1000. 

Lods are an option though and we could have a higher quality version for high quality model level. Does that make sense?

np, thanks for your answer. Primarily use I designed it for was as formation banner like in this picture, so once for every formation. Secondary use could be for a standard bearer. There are two carnyx (the trumpets) for the gaul trumpeter, which both have around 1.500 tris, so I figured to aim for a similar polycount. Don't get what you mean with the last sentence?

 

[Stan`]

For formation banners given the size the polycount would be okay.

Yeah some of Alexandermb's models have a way too high polycount.

I mean the game supports setting three different meshes depending on the quality options. You can check the barrel actor for an example.