WC:T scimitar

Chevieblazer

Spaceman
well, since we're back with wc1, we of course can't go without the worst fighter of that age;)

here's the scimitar:


it's at 1126 polies, btw
 
As somone who quite possibly is the worse texturer ever I've got to say you need to really tone down those panel lines on your fighters. It looks okay on big ships but on the fighters it looks really wonky.
 
textures and the model could do with some work. that's the least nice looking scimitar i've seen. the geometry just looks rough, the cockpit is also off.
 
Maj.Striker said:
As somone who quite possibly is the worse texturer ever I've got to say you need to really tone down those panel lines on your fighters.

I wouldn't go so far as to say he's worst texturer ever.

Definitely tone down the panels and check out the Scimitar blueprints at https://www.wcnews.com/news/update/6706
 
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Whoo - tough crowd... :D Chevie, the best advice I can offer right now is "subtley". Tone down the thickness, sharpness and definition of your panel lines. So you should probably tone down the bump maps too. Add a slight dirt/dark layer around the lines - help them look worn and used. Keep your colors from becoming too saturated - this keeps it from looking cartoony. Make sure you've got some ambient light in your scene. (between 5% and 15% of the total light in the scene)
That address the texturing and lighting...now for modelling. Your models don't seem to using any sort of normals smoothing - this is particuarly evident around any curved parts of the mesh. I assume you're using 3DSMAX. Doing this is simple - just a "smooth" modifier to the object - and then turn on Autosmooth. Play with the threshold till you get something good, then collapse the stack.
This should help with the "chunkiness" of your models - and I bet you it improves your performance. Tri-stripping works best when the normals are shared (i.e., smooth)
Anyhow, I hope this helps you improve, and I'm glad you went back to WC1.

Howie
 
Well, there's about half a dozen different-looking versions of the Scim's cockpit in WC.
 
yes, howie, it is max. these aren't renders, however, but shots taken in nexus' model viewer, i propably can't help the ambient light.
using dirt brushes is definately a good idea, though a waste on fighters since they are very small and most of the time you'll only see them from the back, so the bright colors(which are just like the grey green in wc1, i think)make just that much more noticable(i'll try when i do the waterloo).
i honestly have no idea of how to use mesh smoothing(i thought that will also affect the polycount, and those fighters are already 200% of the average nexus fighter polies)
the cockpit is definatly an issue, but:
the clawmarks drawing has no protruding cockpit at all, the blueprint one has the simple glass canopy of the wc:a model and the ue version has a box cockpit. which one should i use?

other than that...the main body could be somewhat wider maybe...
 
ok, the main body is broader, i've used the canopy from the blueprint. the engine configuration looks like the one from the sprite now:



having looked at the same, i'd say the colors on my ships are dull in comparison
 
ChrisReid said:
I wouldn't go so far as to say he's worst texturer ever.

Definitely tone down the panels and check out the Scimitar blueprints at https://www.wcnews.com/news/update/6706


No, I was referring to myself as being the worse texturer. Chevie is much better than me.

Chevie, looks better, still suggest you tone down the pannels even more. I'm not sure if you're doing the texture in Photoshop but if you are I suggest you use lines of like 1 or 2px in thickness.
 
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Of your last shot(s), I think the one from the back looks the best. I'm tending to agree with most of the rest regarding the paneling; it's so pronounced that it seems the fighter's made up of legos (maybe not quite that bad). Maybe tone 'em back or remove them altogether and post up a comparison?
 
If they are already only 1 pixel wide, you need to double the resolution of your textures, and keep them 1 pixel wide. :p

It might help if you always make them in a separate layer in Photoshop, give this layer about 20-50% opacity, and set it to "Overlay" or "Color burn" blending modes. After that, you can try duplicating that layer, applying a 2-pixel wide (or so) gaussian blur to it, and setting this new layer's transparency mode to "Multiply" with an even lower opacity. It's not the best looking thing in the world, but it helps you come up acceptable low-res hull plating textures quickly.
 
Eder said:
If they are already only 1 pixel wide, you need to double the resolution of your textures, and keep them 1 pixel wide. :p

It might help if you always make them in a separate layer in Photoshop, give this layer about 20-50% opacity, and set it to "Overlay" or "Color burn" blending modes. After that, you can try duplicating that layer, applying a 2-pixel wide (or so) gaussian blur to it, and setting this new layer's transparency mode to "Multiply" with an even lower opacity. It's not the best looking thing in the world, but it helps you come up acceptable low-res hull plating textures quickly.

Yes, precisely what Eder said. If those are only 1px wide then you must be using some really small maps, definitely want to double them. (And of course follow all the other suggestions it's good stuff). :)
 
no, actually it's 512#512.

the lines are one very dark green or grey one in the middle, a not quite so dark one on one side and a light one on the other. it is true, though that the hornet and scimmy have a lot more lines than the rapier or raptor.

btw, i've already put the scimmy ingame now.
here's some shots of how it looks there, along with a rare beauty shot of the rapier. the system is dakota, btw



 
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