Grimlock
Rating: 8
baseq2/players/grimlock
Intro
Grimlock is the leader of the Dinobots. Powerful but dumb (with the exception of that episode where he created the Technobots), Grimlock is probably one of the most popular Transformers to roll of the assembly line.
Note: This picture is courtesy of Rikki Knight and Rogue13
Originality
Considering the fact there are already four Transformers (if you count the Valkyrie VF1S as Jetfire), you can't really say that Grimlock is all that original, especially since it's copied of a toy/comic book character/cartoon character. The only real surprise here is that no one thought of making a Grimlock model sooner.
The Model
The Grimlock model is boxy and inorganic, but then so was the toy. It's a fair representation of the original, but a few things bug me about it. The legs meet the lower torso on the edges rather than on a flat side, which doesn't look right. I realize that other Transformer models have the same thing, and I hate it on those models too. Another thing that bothers me is that it can't transform. All Rikki Knight had to do is add the two tail sections to the legs and he probably could have had a transform for one of his taunts. On the other hand, maybe he didn't do this because he felt it would end up like the Valkyrie VF1S, which uses up a lot of polygons for a fairly short transforming taunt. Last and probably the least of the things that bother me is the fact that the dinosaur head is too small. (I know...Picky, picky!)
Score: Eight
The Animations
The animations are neither poorly made, nor do they shine in any particular way. Aside from a slight jerkiness, the animations are well crafted, and, in a software mode deathmatch, the slightly rough nature of the animations is buried by the quickly changing frames. I wasn't particularly inspired by the animations, though. The only halfway amusing taunt was the one where Grimlock draws a line in front of him and dares you to cross it, but without an actual line there you have to see it a few times to realize what he's doing. The death scenes are the usual fall-down-and-lie-there type, with one exception containing an interesting aerial flip that look good in deathmatch.
The animations really strike me as an average job. However, I am not insensitive to the difficulties involved in doing animations with Q2Modeller. Until the author finishes bones support, animation is vertex-by-vertex and a true pain in the hind quarters. Therefore, I'm bumping the score up a star to reflect the effort needed to deal with the software's shortcomings.
Score: Eight
The Skin
Grimlock comes with one default skin and the typical blank developer's skin. (Why do they bother??? A skin with only the polygon outlining is only useful for someone who doesn't use NST.) At 256x256 for the tris.md2 and 128x128 for the weapon.md2, the skin sizes are ideal, and only the weapon skin exceeds the wasted space specification. The mapping is very well done, with each section split off to allow careful and precise distribution of the skin. All of this shows that Rikki Knight is a very good skinner in the technical sense.
As you may suspect, there's a "BUT" coming. Rikki Knight chose to skin Grimlock in the style of the cartoon character. In a gritty, dark, graphics-intensive game like Quake 2, cartoons often look out of place and unrealistic. The shading is both unsubtle and partially ineffective. In some places, the model is woefully lacking in detail, such as the inner forearms and the inside of the "wings". In my opinion, it would have been a better idea to base the skin on the product's packaging (see the picture at the beginning of this review), which is far more detailed and lends itself better to Quake's harsh imagery.
Score: Eight
Sounds
The sounds for Grimlock are lifted directly from the Transformers cartoon. There are two noticeable problems with these sounds. First, the quality of the recording isn't all that fantastic, but in Deathmatch you really don't notice it that much. The second, more important problem is that many of the sounds are too long, especially those used for the pain sounds. At some points the ends of the sounds even got cut off. Don't get me wrong; they're a nice touch, but the longer bits should have been used more sparingly.
Score: Seven
Visible Weapons Support
Grimlock has full support for Visible Weapons. The weapons (save the default weapon, which is also used for both shotguns) are the standard ones by id Software, and are not stylized.
Pack Inclusion
The violations of pack specifications are so minor that you'd have to read Rikki Knight's readme file just to know they exist. Grimlock should have no problem making it into the next pack.
review by Space Dog
author name Rikki Knight
tris.md2
Vertices 436> Mapping Vertices 470> Polygons 678> Skin size 256x256
Skin Wasted Space ???
weapon.md2
Vertices 52
Mapping Vertices 109
Polygons 109
Skin size 128x128
Skin Wasted Space ???
relevant links
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