Stella Artis Mod - A OSS Fast RTS

[Stan`]

20 minutes ago, vladislavbelov said:

Why not replace arrows by the X model and move them by a straight line?

Line must be continuous  It's like a lightning beam.

[vladislavbelov]

6 minutes ago, Stan` said:

Line must be continuous  It's like a lightning beam.

So it's the question to the projectile manager, not the graphics one, at least for now 

[Stan`]

7 minutes ago, vladislavbelov said:

So it's the question to the projectile manager, not the graphics one, at least for now 

Not really because the projectile manager supports in theory constant damage (no reload time) but we have no way to draw it.

[vladislavbelov]

3 minutes ago, Stan` said:

Not really because the projectile manager supports in theory constant damage (no reload time) but we have no way to draw it.

Doesn't matter, some gameplay stuff that generates beams and accounts damage.

[Stan`]

3 minutes ago, vladislavbelov said:

Doesn't matter, some gameplay stuff that generates beams and accounts damage.

To generate beams we need some way to draw it X) Js can only make object pop, not draw laser beam using a shader from point a to point b. Or am I misunderstanding you?

I want this, the game supports the damage but not the VFX.

[vladislavbelov]

5 minutes ago, Stan` said:

To generate beams we need some way to draw it

You can draw it by popping a scaled X model. And it's already done (without scaling) in the projectile manager.

5 minutes ago, Stan` said:

not draw laser beam using a shader from point a to point b.

You don't need shader for that.

[Stan`]

49 minutes ago, vladislavbelov said:

You can draw it by popping a scaled X model. And it's already done (without scaling) in the projectile manager.

You don't need shader for that.

We don't support model scaling IIRC 

If we want to animate it we do?

[vladislavbelov]

28 minutes ago, Stan` said:

We don't support model scaling IIRC 

If we want to animate it we do?

You just need to look inside the projectile manager

[Radiotraining]

Okay so, I was trying to figure out what I could do to make the project move. I learned a bit of the basics of actors and templates while working on updating Millenium AD, so I thought I could take some steps. But, to be honest this is a bit of another story.. I'm still not that confident with Blender and 3D to tackle something completely new as this. What I can probably do, at the moment, is provide support in the art department, such as concepts textures and graphic elements that may be useful (icons, portraits etc.. ) 

So here I made a concept for a Terran CC.. the general shapes are those of Starcraft, since I think that was the general direction (at least to start). I hope this could help to develop a 3d model. Anyone who is interested to pick from this and try something..?

Meanwhile I hope I can get better with modeling to be more useful in this area.

 

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

12 minutes ago, Radiotraining said:

Okay so, I was trying to figure out what I could do to make the project move. I learned a bit of the basics of actors and templates while working on updating Millenium AD, so I thought I could take some steps. But, to be honest this is a bit of another story.. I'm still not that confident with Blender and 3D to tackle something completely new as this. What I can probably do, at the moment, is provide support in the art department, such as concepts textures and graphic elements that may be useful (icons, portraits etc.. ) 

So here I made a concept for a Terran CC.. the general shapes are those of Starcraft, since I think that was the general direction (at least to start). I hope this could help to develop a 3d model. Anyone who is interested to pick from this and try something..?

Meanwhile I hope I can get better with modeling to be more useful in this area.

 

 

What a good thing that you drew it for architecture, I'm bad. Space architecture.

[Radiotraining]

I know it's a bit too early to even consider this.. but since I'm still blown away by that freaking good art in Homeworld, I was wondering @Stan` what would you think of "painting" the textures to give this sort of cel-shading effect? Could it be an interesting artistic experimentation for 0ad engine?

Maybe it could open to a whole new visual result that can show the alternative styles possible within this engine?

Just ideas, of course.. as I said, it's also probably too early for this

 

[Radiotraining]

okay, random attempt (I don't even have idea of what I'm doing):

- I wanted to try out the concept I made yesterday + a flat texture to simulate that cel-shading effect.

Maybe next time I'll try to unwrap on a simpler surface to manage it better

I don't know.. this is a very poor, improvised version. I'm sure things can be improved further, but it's just to try things out 

- Stan, what can be done to help out a bit more practically? Should I participate on github?

I think one of the main elements is to define the resources before adding further templates, what do you think? Would you need icons for that?

 

 

 

prova_cc_03.blend

[Stan`]

Oh man I love it

[Stan`]

Do you want criticism on the model itself?

[Radiotraining]

Oh well.. I had no idea where to even begin and what I was doing, it was more like an experimentation to get to some quick result. Also the unwrap is very random just to get a general idea. 

So a lot can be criticized! ehehe but feel free if you have some feedback  on the fly.

Anyway if you think something like this can be used into the game, I can try to refine it further, cleaning up extra faces ecc..

i just don't know how I could help effectively to make at least some attempts for this mod 

[Stan`]

4 hours ago, Radiotraining said:

Anyway if you think something like this can be used into the game, I can try to refine it further, cleaning up extra faces ecc..

Well one has to start somewhere. and art is really important. If we add a normal map and a spec map it might look really cool  

The only constraint is to respect the footprint of the current placeholder cube in the game, I made it to be the exact size of the Startcraft cc

 

 

Here are some comments, you can try to be more creative and do a different shape for the building so it's not a 1:1 copy.

[ChronA]

21 hours ago, Radiotraining said:

So here I made a concept for a Terran CC.. the general shapes are those of Starcraft

I think "general shape" is a bit of an understatement there, Radiotraining . The Starcraft CC has 3 major features: a pseudo-dome body with an open bay on the bottom, a flying bridge on top, and thruster "legs" on the sides. It looks to me like you have just those same 3 features for your design as well. That makes it look less like a stand alone concept and more like a SC2 custom skin.

Maybe that's what you are going for, because if the intent is to convey that this building will work exactly the same as a Starcraft CC then the first design succeeds admirably. Otherwise I think you should really try to remix one of the features. Even when using someone else's work as a template, I think aesthetic innovation is an important mark of craftsmanship. It demonstrates that care and thought were invested in the project. For instance, (unless this building can fly like a SC CC) you might want to change the thruster legs into auxiliary habitation pods or armored weapons ports (if it will be able to attack when garrisoned like a 0 AD CC). Or maybe stick a fortified landing pad on top in place of the bridge-looking thingy...

Anyway, you get the idea. On the whole this is impressive work and a good start. 

[Radiotraining]

@ChronA@Stan`well guys.. thanks to both of you for the super useful feedbacks!! It was really a basic attempt just to move the waters, and at least for this case, it's kinda working!

Yes to both of you, you have all solid points.

To answer ChronA, yeah absolutely! I went for the super-safe route since it wasn't exactly clear what were the expectations or a consensus on visual aspects. But but I'm actually more than happy to experiment further and move away from Starcraft! Glad to hear this!

Consider this only as an experiment (and also an exercise on 3d for me), but I'm also studying Homeworld concept designs and I find those much, much interesting! They're mostly inspired from actual industrial and mechanical buildings/machines and those are something we could possibly learn from in terms of shapes, functionality etc..

Again, that was something only improvised to experiment a bit the possibilities, but I'm glad it opens up this sort of discussion, because it gives more clarity over style, boundaries etc.. other than this, no need to explain further, I'm with you on that!

 

Also big thanks Stan for taking the time to give off some feedback. Those are quite useful universally also for other models, so I'm taking note on that!

- If I would study an alternative CC (or other buildings) would you consider them into the mod? Because in that case I can definitely put more effort studying some alternatives that can be effectively used. I'm not really very experienced with 3D, so my only worry is that I can't go much far. But if, as initial model, is not completely horrendous, and if there are people that may want to check/supervise in this area, then I can def try something. 

Also, since you've mentioned normal and spec map, what do you think of this flat style for textures? Might be a viable/alternative choice from the hyperrealism of vanilla 0ad?  Would it be worth to try in this direction?

 

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by Radiotraining

[Lion.Kanzen]

we can differentiate the concept to improve the figure of the pseudo dome Or try another way, I gave an idea in the futuristic references post.

Some of the spatial shapes remind me of elaborate helmets.

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

The CC reminded me, to the Fallout helmets.

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

speaking of Space Marines ...

 

[Radiotraining]

This trailer is pretty lit!! Thanks for posting it!

It also makes me think this : since Stella Artis will work alongside the main game, there could be the opportunity to mix up some of the assets of the classic period also into this futuristic timeframe. So maybe can be possible to enact something similar of what it's seen in this trailer, like battles among Roman ruins and such. Sounds like a cool recipe for some maps/scenarios!

I don't know .. just something that came to mind watching the trailer ehehe

[Radiotraining]

Chapter resources: again, is difficult to reach a consensus or proper namings that can satisfy all, but I think they can be synthesized into 2 types : metal (to produce structure, vehicles etcc..) and energy (to actually run the vehicles). 

We can decide how to interpret these elements and how they can be harvested. There may be also multiple ways to source them, but at least by having 2 defined categories helps to get things down, since resources are an important element in the simulation before creating further templates. 

[Lion.Kanzen]

Minerals/Crystal 

in Dragon Ball they invented the concept of a gold-like blue mineral.

Blue Aurum also known as sky gold.

 

 

 

 

 

[Radiotraining]

well.. yes, I mean the idea to give maybe two broad categories is that we can possibly include a variety of resources without getting stuck over a single choice. So we may have blue-looking minerals, as well as other mineral sources. Pretty much like in 0ad metal/stone are represented by different types of boulders and elements.

To give an even more "scenic" flavour, some of this metal could be sourced also from relicts of fallen ships or satellites (similarly how in 0ad you have shipwrecks containing treasures and resources).

Anyway to be really honest, the problem is not to find other good ideas (there're plenty), but just to stick with a few good ones. We can call them "metal", we can call them "minerals" or "spices", I don't really care. The important is to find something functional and coherent that can help move the project forward.

So, in our case, I would argue that a good combination of customized resources for this mod would be: some material + source of energy (and we'll can debate which what), and having settled this down will allow to create further docs / templates and such