ALPHA Werewolf
Rating: 9
baseq2/players/awolf
Intro
"HOOWWWWOOHHHHHHHHHWWLLL... The moon is almost full, time to take on true form and enter world,..well Quake2 anyways. :)"
Wow, that sound just sends chills up my spine .. (heh heh) For those of you who are not well versed on wolf facts, or those of Lycanthropy (werewolf 'disease') allow me to articulate a bit more with some more information than the usual horror flick gives. A person cursed with Lycanthropy eventually undergoes a painful metamorphosis into a wolf. Afterwards, they would be considered to be the first werewolf of the "family", also known as the Alpha Werewolf (or Alphawolf as the model states) They in turn will put "Betawolves" on the earth either by reproduction, or biting other humans and cursing them too.. I am sure you never knew there was a family structure with Lycanthropes, or wolves in general, but this isn't supposed to be a class so let's get to the review...
The Model
Well, here is yet another model I have been following the progress on for months. Not to take away from the first werewolf PPM that was released last year, but this is the wildest PPM so far. Hmmm well where do I start ? In a nutshell, this has got to be one of the best models I have seen, to date. As you can see by the comparison pic, Alphawolf does tower a bit over the standard male by about a head (or shoulder) but resizing him would sort of take away from the overall appearance of power and ferocity that the model emits. The model is not so out of the bounding box that he is unfair, on the contrary, do not worry for a second about aiming your rail slugs high on the body, they will still do the trick. At 757 polygons, Awolf is still well under the average face count that most models meet, and illustrates some incredible detail. Polygons in the limbs and body were kept to a minimum to leave plenty to use in creating the face and head (which used approximately 175 polys itself) The model is basically one mesh with some added "spike" shapes to simulate points of fur under the chin and on the back of the neck. The life-like aspects of the face is what makes Awolf the new "pioneer" in PPMs. Andrew accomplished this with some tedious work in setting up bone structures for the mouth, tongue, ears and even lips. This ensured the most life-like facial animations in a model thus far. (This will be covered further in the Animation section) There is one slight thorn in my side about the model as a whole, and that is the lack of a weapon model. (Awolf uses a "built in" weapon, which is actually a single polygon hidden within the structure of the actual model and is not seen during any animation cycle.) I know it's not every day you see a werewolf terrorizing a village with a shotgun slung over his shoulder, and with those big canines and razor claws, who needs a weapon, right ? Well, even in the best of models, I was always bugged when I see rockets and big green BFG balls shoot forth from a models hands. (which, by the way, were also an extremely realistic trait of the model.) I guess it is sort of prejudiced to expect a weapon with every new PPM, but I guess I just grew accustomed to it playing Quake 1 and 2. Nowadays not only is a weapon model standard, but multiple vwep seem so much of a "norm" and is sort of expected of a new model. Lately, even custom vweps are surfacing and seem to be another way to let the talents of authors shine through. But do not let all this talk about the lack of a weapon be any sort of a reason not to get this model because it is just to damn good to slip by. Just looking at the pics should tell you this model is an awesome piece of artwork. Wicked job with design and looks, I am just a smidgen bummed with the model having no weapon, I would have liked to see what Andrew could have come up with.. 4 1/2 Moons here....
Score: Nine
The Animations
Well here is where Andrew was able to get very creative with his subject, and you can see where the bone setups were utilized. Andrew was one of the first modelers to go the extra step in animating facial expressions. (His "Pretty" PPM has blinking eyes and a mouth that opened during pain and taunt animations.) In the latest creation he again illustrates his fine tuned methods to bring you absolutely excellent facial movements that are rivaled by none. Although somewhat simple, Awolf has, by far, the most complex facial animations of any PPM. Check out the motions during the stand sequence, Awolf looks around, and executes a slight growl with the his tongue flailing and lips lifting in a snarling position to expose his sharp fangs. His tail sways back and forth and his claws wriggle and clench in a very natural way. You can see this man-beast means business. The run sequence which (in the words of another author ) "was pure genius" has Awolf doing so on all fours, which was a new approach and extremely characteristic of the subject. (It would be hard to to run in this fashion with a blaster ,and thus I suspect, the reason for no weapon model.) Animations flow like water, and the models physics when shooting and jumping are carried out well. Even with no weapon, it is sort of scary seeing Awolfs claws reaching out to you when he is attacking. There was a few little quirks with the death animations. In the crouch death, the vertices in the tail are reshaped in a way that makes it look like it is disconnected from the body at one point (only one frame so it's not a big deal) Also, in the "death2" sequence, Alphawolf's fall, sort of does a quick shift in a different direction before he hits the ground. The Quake engine interlopes the frames so the overall animation sequence is not as jerky as it looks frame by frame in a model viewer . "Taunt" sequences are utilized well and help illustrate the viciousness and power of this werewolf. My personal favs are the salute and taunt. The former shows a great "howl at the moon" type motion, and the latter being a nasty slashing of those big claws and a snapping of that hungry mouth. (Oh how I wish id would code Quake 2 and 3 to allow sounds with taunts..) That tongue of his tends to clip through the sides of Awolf's mouth at times, but if your close enough to catch it in a DM, your probably dogfood. Well, by now, if I haven't seemed to impress upon you enough to get this model, then I'll tell you straight, DO IT.. There is no more frightening sight then playing a sweet game of Eraser and seeing a bloodthirsty "pack of wolves" chasing you down until your nothing but a tasty carcass. Some slight deductions for the few little flaws, but I am adding a little also because damn, I am a huge canine lover, heh heh. A well earned 4 1/2 Moons...
Score: Nine
The Skin
Ok here is where the model takes a little dip in scoring.. Alphawolf comes with 3 skins. (None of them are CTF but they should be on the way) Skins are 256x256, so the model is ready for OpenGL gameplay, The 30% wasted space seems a bit above the average than that of most models. The skins themselves are extremely realistic and consist of a regular wolf appearance, a much darker/evil version of the same, and a "rage" skin which illustrates a more fire-eyed, blood soaked claw look. It is usually a bit tough to illustrate hair or fur texture on a skin, but this was a great job. Nice looking skins overall, but some out of the ordinary skin mapping is where would be skinners will be totally lost. Unlike many models which are laid out rather well with arms, legs and other body parts easily identifiable, Alphawolf is a much more confusing specimen. The artist used the double vert maneuver, which is a common method of mapping many parts of the model mesh over the same skin parts where they appear similar. (The fangs, palms, soles and the left and right side of the head are examples of sections where the skin pattern is either the same or a mirrored image.) However, most of the patches of fur are sort of haphazardly mapped over each other and makes custom skinning extremely hard without a tool such as NST (Which you shouldn't be without anyway) With it, you can paint on the model itself, but be careful of the look you try to achieve so the new skin doesn't look like a patchwork quilt. The author explains his reasons for the mapping as this was to achieve the desired texture of fur he wanted for the skins, but it still makes for a tough time for the rest to make their own skins. If you look at the skin in NST with the polygon mapping option on, you can see what a bit of a mess it looks like. (There is even one polygon that is stretched from the right side of the skin to the left ?) There are also a few areas where the skin has that stretched look. This "shearing" of the pixels could be fixed by adjusting the them when the initial mapping was done. This makes for a detailed and less "stretched" look on the model faces. Because Awolfs skin is meant to emulate fur, and consists of varying shading of a few basic colors with some highlights mixed in, the "patches" of skin blend together in a symmetrical fashion and are not noticed when the model is in motion. With a bit of trial and error, you may succeed in creating your own skin. Looks, realism, detail are all pluses here, but the non-friendly mapping, and shearing on some polygons is enough for a few half moons less in scoring.. (No deductions for lack of CTF since its really not a requirement, but more of an extra..) The tally .. 4 Moons...
Score: Eight
Sounds
No but there are a few packs floating around.. Personally I use the ones made by Boris Brgel..
Visible Weapons Support
Nope.. Awolf does not utilize a weapon model at all.. I would like to see him though...
Pack Inclusion
Absolutely .. But, get it now !!
"Leader of the Pack?" "Wolf-whistle for Pretty."
review by Hunter
author name Andrew Gilmour
a.k.a.: ALPHAWolf
tris.md2
Vertices 426
Mapping Vertices 536
Polygons 757
Skin size 256x256
Skin Wasted Space 30%
weapon.md2
Vertices 3
Mapping Vertices 1
Polygons 1
Skin size 32x32
Skin Wasted Space ?
relevant links
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