Low-poly Model Pack (not Lego!)
WolfWings
NS_Nancy Resurrectionist Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4416Members
NS_Nancy Resurrectionist Join Date: 2002-11-02 Member: 4416Members
<div class="IPBDescription">Hand-crafted low-poly model replacements</div> Here's what I think is the absolute bare-minimum 'Turret' model. It's obviously low-poly, and looks like something out of Quake 1, but it still looks very much like the original 'turret' from Natural Selection, to my eye at least.
For those interested, this would require the DoD .dll package, as it uses alpha-masked textures for the 'Cup' and the 'Y Bracing' part. Triangle count is a svelte 35 triangles. Of those, 13 are 'double sided' triangles, which means the 'In Game' poly count is 48, after doubling the double-sided triangles. If I removed the 'curl' in the tripod legs (built from a 6-sided cylinder) I could cut off another 6(12 in-game) triangles, but the curl seemed worth the triangle-count in this case, as it gave the legs 'thickness' even when viewed from the sides.
Anyone interested in me continuing with this?
For those interested, this would require the DoD .dll package, as it uses alpha-masked textures for the 'Cup' and the 'Y Bracing' part. Triangle count is a svelte 35 triangles. Of those, 13 are 'double sided' triangles, which means the 'In Game' poly count is 48, after doubling the double-sided triangles. If I removed the 'curl' in the tripod legs (built from a 6-sided cylinder) I could cut off another 6(12 in-game) triangles, but the curl seemed worth the triangle-count in this case, as it gave the legs 'thickness' even when viewed from the sides.
Anyone interested in me continuing with this?
Comments
it curls nicely and looks freaking realistic, from exactlly 3 sides it looks 100% like the original <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> , and not that spikey.
whatever. its upper part does not rotate without the lower and it looks awfull from above and below, but you rarely see it from below.
All 4 sided cylinders (12 faces) can be 3 sided and twisted saving 4 polygons per cylinder and makes it look rounder.
The legs top side does not need to be a 6-sided face, a vertex (top of a tetraeder) is enough i think.
The middle part should not be flat but volumetric, you can build an u-shape out of 3 tetraeders (12 polys, 9 when they share 2 faces) instead of 4 faces of a flat 2-sided square.
You only need 3 faces for all 3 outer leg faces and 3 faces for each inner leg face.
That gives 3+3(legs)+9(middle)+8+8(top) = 31 polygons.
The back round is missing for 6 aditional polygons (2 connected tetraeders/isokaeder with 2 vertexes inside the model)
The middle connection of the leg is one aditional polygon, coudl be painted on the side fades, too, i wont miss it.
it curls nicely and looks freaking realistic, from exactlly 3 sides it looks 100% like the original <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> , and not that spikey.
whatever. its upper part does not rotate without the lower and it looks awfull from above and below, but you rarely see it from below.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's a relatively simple trick to do, but not what I was aiming for. This was meant to keep 100% of the functionality of the original turret model, so I had to find a way to keep the pitch, yaw, and spinning functions intact. :-)
<!--QuoteBegin--Ollj+Aug 24 2003, 06:26 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Ollj @ Aug 24 2003, 06:26 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->All 4 sided cylinders (12 faces) can be 3 sided and twisted saving 4 polygons per cylinder and makes it look rounder.
The legs top side does not need to be a 6-sided face, a vertex (top of a tetraeder) is enough i think.
The middle part should not be flat but volumetric, you can build an u-shape out of 3 tetraeders (12 polys, 9 when they share 2 faces) instead of 4 faces of a flat 2-sided square.
You only need 3 faces for all 3 outer leg faces and 3 faces for each inner leg face.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The barrel is 4-sided instead of 3-sided-twisted because of the texture-map, actually. I tried a 3-sided-twisted, but the barrel-texture looked even sillier. Note I'm not a texture artist, so I simply re-used the existing textures fully in this replacement, which somewhat limited my design decisions.
The legs top is similairly-limited, as I wanted to maintain the 'rotator mechanism' look there, while making the ends of the legs sharp points seemed reasonable. A balance between absolute minimalism and physical realism, so to speak. I'm assuming the legs are sheet-metal ground-spikes that have been bent length-wise for rigidity and structural support.
As for making the 'cup' volumetric, I thought about that, but in testing the turrets are almost never still once activated, so the rotator cup looks quite fine in-game in my experience. I may try to re-work that area to provide a subtle 'curving' to make the illusion of volume, but I doubt I'd make a fully-modeled cup at this point.
Again, you're welcome to make your own low-poly turret, and I can probably make it a switchable version for my own, but even just this one barely uses a tenth of the triangles of the 'original' turret, which by itself should help low-end PCs noticably. Once I complete the previously-mentioned Marine structures, I'll be tackling the Alien chambers similairly, as some things (like the Command Chair) simply aren't used often enough to impact the frame-rate that much. :-)
As a side-note for the other poster, there's nothing whatsoever that would stop Flayra from including this turret as a switchable version of the existing one, I could create the model file if he was interested. Ditto on the high-poly version. It's quite possible to switch the 'main body' of a model, just like the jetpack can be turned on and off. The FireArms mod uses this for their visible-armor system as well as to switch the rank and skin-tone of their player models.
six (box) for the pitching top of the turret
five (box - bottom) for the yawing support
three (triangular prism - bottom) for the legs
Would seem to look more-or-less right from all angles? I wasn't aware you could use transparency in model textures or I would've tried this already. (Tells you how much skinning I do...)
It's a new 'feature' added to the engine at the request of the <b>Day of Defeat</b> crew. The newest release of DoD features an upgraded rendering engine for Half-Life that supports these features. <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=19&t=31664&hl=model+transparency' target='_blank'>This thread</a> has more information.
And while technically you can make 'transparent' areas, they only work 'correctly' for v-models. I.E. In-view weapons, HUDs, and the like. Otherwise, you're stuck using 'masked' textures, like I used here, which work fine regardless of placement or positioning. :-)
If so...please convert it!!
<i>[P.S. I have a mid-high end rig, but i looove the ingenuity in that 3-poly thang <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->]</i>
it curls nicely and looks freaking realistic, from exactlly 3 sides it looks 100% like the original <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> , and not that spikey.
whatever. its upper part does not rotate without the lower and it looks awfull from above and below, but you rarely see it from below.
All 4 sided cylinders (12 faces) can be 3 sided and twisted saving 4 polygons per cylinder and makes it look rounder.
The legs top side does not need to be a 6-sided face, a vertex (top of a tetraeder) is enough i think.
The middle part should not be flat but volumetric, you can build an u-shape out of 3 tetraeders (12 polys, 9 when they share 2 faces) instead of 4 faces of a flat 2-sided square.
You only need 3 faces for all 3 outer leg faces and 3 faces for each inner leg face.
That gives 3+3(legs)+9(middle)+8+8(top) = 31 polygons.
The back round is missing for 6 aditional polygons (2 connected tetraeders/isokaeder with 2 vertexes inside the model)
The middle connection of the leg is one aditional polygon, coudl be painted on the side fades, too, i wont miss it. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I remember that turret. Looks like those old sprites from doom.
-Proud Member of the 'My Machine is really Bad' club-
450 mhz
Riva TNT.
As a side-note, I'm trying to resist the urge to make PaRappa-style low-poly player models. :-)
Despite how interesting it would be to see i'd still rather have models that, despite being low-poly and blocky, were as close to the real thing as possible.
that wouldnt be bad if they moved correctly... i wouldnt dumb down the player models though, just everything else.