===[COMMITTED]=== Mauryan light & medium Warships

[ndragu]

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

Edited February 5, 2013 by ndragu

[Enrique]

Wow! Superb Ndragu!!

My only requests are to change the texture tone of the "covered-house like" part at the back of the ship to distinguish better from the color of the deck (or add it some detail) and make the oars a bit bigger/thicker.

Also you could desaturate the crates color a little bit, and add or change them for barrels

Almost there, keep it up!

[ndragu]

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

[lilstewie]

Can u add weapons and shields?

Also

The back of the ship doesnt have the sea beast design.

Like how you got it.

Edited February 5, 2013 by lilstewie

[Shield Bearer]

This is looking great! Keep up the good work

A few critiques, the house on the back could use some more work, right now it looks too plain, I'm talking about the mesh, not the texture

Also the masts seem to have some kind of support at the base...looks like a rectangular shaped rock attached to it with wood.

For barrels and crates you can try importing some already in game to save you the trouble

Looking forward to this

[ndragu]

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.

[lilstewie]

Oh, okay. I think you can add the shields lion has created. Those ones look viking or something.

Edited February 5, 2013 by lilstewie

[ndragu]

Sounds good. Where can I get those from?

[lilstewie]

Sounds good. Where can I get those from?

I think the wfg teammates can help you with that.

Edited February 5, 2013 by lilstewie

[Enrique]

Shields, barrels and weapons can be propped in via empties, (I think in max are called helpers or something like that)

To place them where you want:

• Import .dae files from the game i.e. a weapon, barrel, crate....
  
• Then create a helper and parent the weapon to the helper.
  
• Place it where you want, and name the helper prop-weapon1, prop-barrel1, etc
  

​To export the ship with the helpers

• Remove the meshes of the barrels, weapons, etc imported and leave the helpers.
  
• Parent all the helpers to the ship
  
• Export the ship with all selected with the ship as the main selection
  

After that, in the ship actor (the .xml file of the ship unit) we will tell to the engine to put the props where each helper is located (helper rotation is also saved).

This way you can have other props with other textures in your ship

[ndragu]

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.

Edited February 5, 2013 by ndragu

[Yves]

http://trac.wildfiregames.com/changeset/13047

http://trac.wildfiregames.com/changeset/13081

[Enrique]

Shields and weapons meshes here:

(starting with maur_shield_* and for weapons maur_long_sword, maur_mace_gada, maur_spiked_mace...)

http://svn.wildfiregames.com/public/ps/trunk/binaries/data/mods/public/art/meshes/props/

[ndragu]

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

[ndragu]

@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?

Edited February 6, 2013 by ndragu

[Enrique]

@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?

That is weird. I'm not a 3DMax expert, but as far as I know, they should be in their correct scale once imported. Scaling the .daes will mess their position in the final ship, because the prop is placed in the helper position.

Here I made the same .dae imports into blender and they seem have a correct scale:

Let's see if someone from the Art team with more 3DMax knowledge can help us with this. If not, I guess I can place the helpers/props in the ship for you, but it's better for you to learn the process.

[ndragu]

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

[ndragu]

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?

[Enrique]

Yes, I think.

The helper should be placed in the "center" or "pivot" of the object, because the game will use that point to add the prop.

The helper size does not matter. The helper is the 3D coordinates position where the center of the prop will be. But the shield/prop scale does matter when placing the helper.

i.e. You want to place a barrel in the deck, but if the barrel is bigger than it's scale in the game, you'll place the helper higher than it should be, because in-game it'll show it's normal scale and will appear "floating" and not "resting" in the deck. I'm not sure if I explained very well

[ndragu]

Thanks Enrique.

I added 2 swords and 2 shields.

[Enrique]

Nice, in the same folder as the swords and shields you can use barrels (wrld_barrel_a.dae) baskets (wrld_basket_a/b/c..) sacks (wrld_sack.dae and wrld_sack_rough.dae), crates (wrld_crate_a.dae) etc

Just remember to name the helpers with the same name as the prop .daes that are going to reference to set it up in the ship actor (but starting with "prop-")

[Sighvatr]

Those swords and shields are gonna slide and fall from the waves.

[ndragu]

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

Edited February 8, 2013 by ndragu

[ndragu]

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

Edited February 8, 2013 by ndragu

[wraitii]

It looks pretty good. Quite a sturdy warship so the swords and things like that don't seem like that big of a problem.

It feels kind of un-intimidating though, which may or may not be an issue.