3D modelling

[JollyGoodBork]

Despite being roughy 600 tris models with a 512x512 texture map they actually take quite a bit of time to make. They are however quite fun to work on. The restrictions put on them means there is a challenge in trying to get the most out of as little as possible

To me this feeling is very relatable.
I have modded in regular notepad and I've made super tiny pixel animations for small game projects in programs not designed for animations. It isn't big and flashy, but that's not the point. The point is to see how much you can do with simple tools on a small canvas. It can turn out quite great
Great if you're not experienced too.

I think it's a good idea to use the interesting camos.

Your models are amazing, keep them coming! Your talent is very motivating.

[Nerei]

Indeed I remember starting out modding graphics with a freeware 3D program called Moray and trial versions of Paint Shop Pro. I think I went through like 4 trial versions of it before I got hold of an ancient but full version.
While the results where crappy by most standards it is still fun to look back at how much is actually possible with such by comparison simple tools.


Been messing around with applying a MERDC summer pattern to the M41. I might do away with the star though, it does not really fit that well on the pattern and from what I can find the US army did away with it fairly early in the cold war.



I am considering taking it a bit more in the direction of the colouration found on this illustration. That might be too dark and drab though

I agree it is more fun when vehicles look distinct. With vehicles like the M41 it would probably just be dark green with a star, iron cross, flag or something similar on it depending on nationality which is kinda boring. Still I consider that a sacrifice worth accepting.


I have been messing around with some US and Royal Navy ships. Should not be too hard to identify these even in their fairly early state. For now the priority is still to get the Nippon Kaigun vessels done. After that point I will probably give these more attention.



As mentioned these are very early state. To give you an idea when building something entirely from scratch I probably spend around 5-10% of the time on modelling, 5-10% on UV mapping and the rest on texturing. These are not even properly UV-mapped yet.

I got 4 more vessels in some state of incomplete modelling on top of the Pennsylvania I posted earlier. The one furthest along is a York class cruiser (specifically the HMS Exeter) that I made for another purpose but should be possible to repurpose for this. Given that the above percentages does not really apply.

I might also have some pre-war aircraft to go with them at some point. Planes are for the most part quite fast to make compared to say battleships.
Also by far my favourite US planes are those in the old interwar period with bright yellow, blue etc colour schemes.

Again these ride a bit close to the 900 cap (some over it if the cut-away below waterline parts is included). It is just harder to get say a battleship with 3-6 main turrets an 4-14 secondaries down to 600 when there is also a far, far more complex superstructure. But that is the challenge and one I am having some fun with if I at times curse it a bit when I have to find 25 tris to remove.

I will probably post the Japanese ships once I have some more of them done.

Also anyone know any Royal Navy warships they think are really important? I will probably give those and the US Navy ships higher priority once the Japanese ships are closer to completion.

[Balthagor]

I'm going to try and help the new guy at BattleGoat to integrate some of your work. Here's hoping...

[Nerei]

Okay should I still just mail whatever I make to you then?

[JollyGoodBork]

I'm going to try and help the new guy at BattleGoat to integrate some of your work. Here's hoping...

The new guy? Who are we talking about?

Also that camo looks great with or without star.
I dunno whether you should change to that other colour scheme. I like it like it is, but you should probably try to imagine how it will look in game. Perhaps you can send an email with two patterns and then you could get some screenshots back as a reference?

[Nerei]

It would mainly just be a matter of adjusting saturation and brightness a bit. It would really for the most part look like it is just a bit more or less bright and colourful.
This change would actually be fairly easy to make as I make the photoshop files to easily do that
For now I will probably stick with it, maybe adjust the pattern a bit so the star is not on a beige background. I think that is really the problem with it. It is too similar to the beige.
I could also just move it around a bit as there is plenty of space further back on the turret where there is a darker background will contrast more with it.



Also introducing the Type XXI submarine. Probably the single best submarine design of the war and a great influence for the post war superpowers. Given that Chinese diesel electric submarines are based on Soviet designs I guess we can also give the germans some credit for that.
This is actually the first German ship/submarine I have ever made and while interesting I do not expect to make a large amount of German things.

This one was actually quite difficult to get somewhat accurate. References are not exactly always corroborate each other. The two in US service also went through some reconstruction which means they are not that usable either.


Here is the Dai-Nippon Teikoku Kaigun in a mostly completed state.

Yes this is quite a few vessels but given the anemic ship selection (I mean visually all battleships are pretty much post reconstruction USS Tennessee) and Japan is pretty much the same story overall.

I still need to make version of the carrier textures without the Hinomaru and I will probably also want a few more cruisers, transports and maybe a light carrier before I get around to converting them.


I actually visited a friend and borrowed some books about mostly the Royal navy but also a bit of the US navy during world war 2 ships so combined with Wikipedia I should have a bit to go on there. However I also got a JRPG to go along with that so that will probably take a bit of time.

[Balthagor]

We have a student doing some content and 3D work for the summer. We'll see how far he gets. I'll be taking a day to work with him and transfer what knowledge I can.

[Nerei]

Got around to sending some more models. By far the most I have sent so far.
Total should be 22 models some with region specific textures. The ships above are all included (only variation textures there are that the carriers with a Hinomaru on the front deck also have a version without it). This should for the most part flesh out Japanese ships quite well. Again a few transports, a carrier or 2, few cruisers and maybe a small escort and it should pretty much cover everything pretty good.

Also I got around to converting some of my older plane models. The textures on the larger ones bothers me a bit but they should be serviceable.
I am using the indian airforce as a reference for the generic textures. Creating a specific version should be fairly easy if there is a need for it.
The Chinese planes also do have some inconsistencies as they are basically a KJ 2000 and Y-20 forced on a A50 and Il-76 mesh respectively. Especially the Y-20 have some inconsistencies with the tail but compared to making a specific mesh and ending up with more models with limited region specific textures I think this is an acceptable compromise.



As always bonus points for identifying everything.

[Nerei]

The M41 Walker Bulldog with all intended textures completed. Currently I intend to use those camouflage styles for future cold war and modern vehicles for from these nations (yes the UN is not a nation but I wanted a generic flag and I think that one acceptable for that purpose).
Also I know ROC shares textures with the Philippines but I kinda liked the 12 rayed sun and I think it is subtle enough that it will be okay.

I think I have managed to get the ROC and German textures different enough and the star on the US M41 should stand out more now with the adjustments done to the camouflage pattern.


Also a model of the USS Forrestal as she appeared roughly around completion

There are texture versions both with and without the large numbers.

Both have been sent so heres to hoping the actually work.

[MK4]

Awesome units, Nerei!

We have a student doing some content and 3D work for the summer. We'll see how far he gets. I'll be taking a day to work with him and transfer what knowledge I can.

I have a feeling it will go something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouKSsBi149g

[Nerei]

I am currently in the process of reworking my workflow for these models. Assuming it works out I will probably relaunch this topic in a different format. It is a mess anyway.

[Nerei]

So far it appears I can at least get models like ships to work.

Please ignore the scale. It am currently still using a uniform scale for all units
I will probably also tweak some texture colouring a bit now that I actually have an idea what they look like when inside the game.

[Nerei]

Just to make a quick note about the future of this project:

I hope to launch my Japanese units sometime next week as a modding resource (and eventually also the rest of the stuff I have been making). Once that happens I will be starting a new topic for it. As mentioned this one is a mess.
The timeline might slip as I have somewhere between 30 and 40 models to get working to reach that point but it is the goal at least.

With this method they should be functional to everyone as long as you copy some lines into default.picnums (which I hope to provide) and change the picture value in default.unit


I am making this move for a few reasons. For starters adding those warships to the game was really not harder or more time-consuming than the conversion process I had to do to send them to BG and it offers so much more flexibility to me as I can now work on getting them to look decent in-game instead of in Maya mental-ray.

[MK4]

Nerei, they look very good! I was worried the whole thing won`t go anywhere so I`m happy you were able to get on with the job in its entirety by yourself. Besides, as you`ve said, being able to check things in game will allow you to tweak things to your liking.

What other units do you plan to make btw?

With this method they should be functional to everyone as long as you copy some lines into default.picnums (which I hope to provide) and change the picture value in default.unit

Wouldn`t they also require (it`s a relative word) some small images for the UGBITS files (in the Graphics sub-folder)?

[Nerei]

Nerei, they look very good! I was worried the whole thing won`t go anywhere so I`m happy you were able to get on with the job in its entirety by yourself. Besides, as you`ve said, being able to check things in game will allow you to tweak things to your liking.

What other units do you plan to make btw?

With this method they should be functional to everyone as long as you copy some lines into default.picnums (which I hope to provide) and change the picture value in default.unit

Wouldn`t they also require (it`s a relative word) some small images for the UGBITS files (in the Graphics sub-folder)?

Strictly peaking UGBITS pictures are not needed. Right now I am testing without having any. They are however fairly practical and lacking them is slightly unprofessional. Especially considering how simple they are to make.
I have a render setup that I can import into the model scenes. That will give a fairly consistant result and after that it is just a quick trip into photoshop for processing.

I will probably have to distribute a modified UGBITS4.png file (I only work with 900+ for now so UGBITS below 4 are not touched. That should make it easier to mix and match with say Nandus conversions should you want to do that). The alternative which is to distribute all the pictures as individual image files is probably too much of a mess to be worth it despite offering more flexibility with ID numbers.

On top of those I will also have to provide some text lines for DEFAULT.PICNUMS but those I write anyway for testing so no problem there. No need for people to rediscover what scale setting gives a decent result (yes more of the models are a bit off in terms of scale. Akagi is around 50% the length of Honshu without rescaling)


What do I plan to make? Mostly just what I feel like and what I want to see. For now that mainly mean East asian units although I also intend to branch out and expand on the warship models.
If you got something you want to see you are free to make suggestions. I will not promise anything and my list of things I want to make is ridiculously long so I might not get there soon if ever but I will at the very least look at it.

I might also make models that already are in-game as I like to have more homogenous camouflage patterns for units. I might say make my own M113 or UH-60 and give it a camouflage pattern matching say the one I use for ROK or Japanese units.

The first release I am planning is around 25-30 world war 2 Japanese navy and air units. I might push them out before I start messing with their textures again and release that as an update later down the road. That initial release should hopefully be a few days away.


Hopefully the game supports more than 3 digit model ID's as I will probably run out quickly otherwise unless I go below 900 as I have around 70 models in different states of completion already and I can basically make a simple unit like submarines or some aircraft in less than a day.