M
Rating: 5
baseq2/players/m
Intro
From the readme file:
"Hopefully a generic action hero. I would love to see more skins made for him. Any takers?"
As stated on the info page The name of the one skin is called "actionbond" so I don't think the author was really going for generic here. It also states in the readme that the total build time was two weeks. It shows.
For a more generic intro, let's try this: It's an Action Q2 model with Action Q2 VWeps which are presented in the form of VArms. Not a great model, but not terribly bad, either.
The Model
At 774 polys (418 for tris.md2, 356 for the weapon), this model isn't going to hurt most systems too much. Those of you playing with older machines will definitely notice a performance hit when you get a few of them on the screen at once, though. The tris.md2 seems reasonably well thought out at first glance, but there's little things about the geometry - like some weirdness going on at the back of the legs, just above the knees - that seem a bit silly, and just "off". The proportions are actually pretty good, but this guy could benefit from some edge turning, especially at the neck and head. The butt is a bit on the flat side, and there are some strange "tucks" in the torso region. I also noticed a few "thin" polys that could probably have just been welded out, but since the rest of the tris is so light on polys, I'm not gonna deduct for that.
The weapon.md2, though, is where things really start to get out of hand. When dealing with VArms, you expect the weapon.md2 to be a little on the heavy side, but I don't know if this is warranted. Excluding the actual gun, the arms are 274 polys. Where did they go? Mostly into the hands. They articulate pretty well, and the separate thumb and forefinger account for a lot of that. As for the arms, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this guy wearing a suit? Why was there so much attempt at muscle definition?
All in all, it's decent. Well, at least the tris is. Nothing special about it, but I have to give Oddjob kudos for including a pair of arms inside the body for the death anims.
Score: Five
The Animations
I spent about an hour in SkinView going through the animations for each weapon to see how the author handled the VArms. Not surprisingly, most of the animations are recycled with minor changes to accommodate between one- and two-handed weapons. This is not the most impressed I've ever been. The effort to incorporate the different weapons appeared to be minimal, not even adjusting to compensate for clipping.
The rest of the animations are equally disappointing, some even more so. Most notably the run. Because of the action in the game, a lot of people don't really care about the animation, stating that the action is so fast that you don't even notice it. Well, when it's this bad, you do. You don't really have a choice. I would go so far as to say "they work," since the model is in the right places at the right times, but it's not pretty. The attacks are jittery as hell, with no weight behind them at all. The pains are more like mechanical flinches. The taunts were lifeless, and even the AQ2 reload was barely recognizable. The deaths were bland and served only to signal that my time viewing the model was almost at an end. There were some good spots, though. The stand is actually okay, as is the jump which, even so, is a bit heavy and rushed in the landing.
The author states that he animated the model using Maya, which is a fairly high-end program. This goes to show that it's the skill of the animator, and not the price of the tools that really counts.
Score: Four
The Skin
I'd like to say that the skin is horrible and leave it at that. I have to go into detail, though. The skin is mostly black. The attempts at shading seemed half-hearted, which many skin authors seem to do purposely. Like they're saying, "Yep, I suck at skinning, so I'm not even gonna try." Well, I have something I'd like to say on that point. Even if you know you suck, PUT SOME REAL EFFORT INTO IT. Don't just accept the fact that you're not good at skinning and release some half-assed crap. If you feel you've made a good model, and don't want to ruin it with a bad skin, at least make the attempt. If you're still not happy with it, don't be afraid to post the model somewhere (like on our message boards) and ask for help. If it's good you'll get good help. Some of our pros do that.
That being said, the skin could use some work. The black tuxedo thing should have been augmented with some shades of grey, or the illusion of colored lighting, leaving the absolute black for only the darkest parts. A lot of people (myself included) have trouble doing black with shading, which is understandable up to a point. There are some good tutorials on skinning and shading in our resources section if you need some pointers.
The mapping is average with a decent percentage of wasted space. The face appears to be a photo import of Sean Connery's face. You've all heard it before, putting photos on your skins is not the best thing to do. I've seen it pulled off well only once, and there was a lot of editing done to the photo to make it blend with the style of the rest of the model. All in all, the skin is horrible. I'll leave it at that.
Score: Two
Sounds
No custom sounds here. A nice Connery sound pack would have helped.
Visible Weapons Support
Yep, and with VArms, too! This is Action Quake2 VWep, but if you want to see it in standard Q2, just rename the weapons as you like. That's what I did :)
Pack Inclusion
The overall score for this model was 3.5 (which rounds up to four), but just the attempt at VArms makes me raise the score to a nice even five. But to include it in a pack? Well, I'd say no, but it does meet eligibility requirements. We don't really do packs anymore so the point is kind of moot anyway. My final word is this: Unless you're a big fan of either VArms or Action Quake2, you can live without it.
This mission's gone a bit awry.
"Secret - Aaaagent maan!!"
Fighting over one of Q's new toys, are we?
They just all look ready, don't they!
review by ShadoKat
author name Oddjob
tris.md2
Vertices 223
Mapping Vertices 299
Polygons 418
Skin size 256x256
Skin Wasted Space 21%
weapon.md2
Vertices 192
Mapping Vertices 245
Polygons 356
Skin size 256x128
Skin Wasted Space 41%
relevant links
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