Intro Tucow comes with no description or story as to what it's supposed to be one could only guess that it's supposed to be a space marine or mercenary of the future. Knowing me though, it's probably some well-known character that I've just totally forgotten about. Tucow is Conrad's first attempts at modeling and animating a player model, and "more is on its way" according to the readme. This turned out to be a very successful first attempt; we can only expect great things Conrad's future models. The Model
Tucow is a well-built model, from poly count to overall design it's quite strong. A lot of the newer player models being made get right on or break the 800 polygon limit, but Tucow is built with the classic "around 600" polygon limit. This doesn't make the model better or worse than other models, it's just nice to see sometimes. :) I appreciated that this model was built without the need for special details, it's easier to create custom skins that can completely change the way Tucow looks. Though some could see this as a downfall to the model, and it could easily be said that it looks like a mix between the Quake 2 male and the Doom guy, generic faceless space marine saving the world from aliens. The model is a single mesh except for the arms and the thigh pads (gun holsters?). The only parts that seem slightly wasteful are the head and back, it looks like a lot of verts could have been merged and cut the count down a bit. If those polygons had been distributed to the wrists, it could have helped with some wilder animations, but like the model, the animations are very basic, and don't require much movement there. Overall, the model is really nice; the good qualities outweigh the bad ones by a long shot, a good choice for players who like the solider of the future look. The Animations
The animations are good, but they do have a nasty downside, which goes back to what I was talking about with the model, not being very stylistic. All of the animations do what they are supposed to do, no problems with them, no collapsing joints or anything like that, they are just generic. The run is a run; stand is a stand, etc. nothing really excising about them. Many of the animations seem under animated, as though he is not moving enough, like during the jump sequence, only the legs move and the upper body mainly stays still. Tucows animations are just too robotic, though he may very well be a robot, I don't think that's the reason for this. The author did say in the readme that this was a first attempt, and that the animations could have been better. For a first attempt, I'd say Tucow is a really good show of talent, and that we can expect to see some really nice player models in the future from Conrad.
The mapping is really good for making custom skins for, classic front/back planar mapping. It only wastes 20%, which is low enough, though it could have been much lower if the mapping for the arms was sketched out a bit more evenly, and it would be easier to skin. Lots of extra room for the head too, that's always good because faces are the first things people notice and can make or break a player model. The skin is good, it's got nice shading and a few simple details, but it's really dark. I increased the brightness and contrast on the skin and it really improved it. A few more original details (lights, straps, decals, etc) would have helped too, not to mention a few more skins, like CTF variants (hey, you just can't make a player model these days without CTF skins). Either way, the skin is good and it gets the point across as to what Tucow is very well. Sounds
There are no sounds included with Tucow; I think something like the cyborg's sounds would work. Visible Weapons Support There are no custom Vweps for Tucow, it does come with it's own weapon model, nothing too special but fits the theme. Pack Inclusion Of course, there is no reason not to include Tucow, it meets all guidelines and overall is a very clean, nicely done player model.
review by Chris Holden
|
|
