Uberdog
Rating: 7
baseq2/players/uberdog
Intro
Described by creator Jude Martin as "a genetic experiment designed to produce the most loyal of soldiers," Uberdog is a hybrid between man and man's best friend, with a big gun.
Originality
The only PPM similar to this is the Werewolf, which is also a human/canine hybrid with a big gun, but Uberdog is a genetic experiment, rather than the monthly effect of lycanthropy, so it is a reasonably original idea (unless there's some kid's cartoon featuring an Uberdog character, and I'm just way out of the loop- I never know these days).
The Model
The model is of average quality, with some nice features, but also with it's share of flaws. Jude used Lightwave (the best modelling tool around IMHO) to build the model, and it portrays the dog features quite well. I like the ears and the opening mouth, and I'm happy to see that the legs are properly articulated as a canine should be, rather than just sticking a dog head on a human body. The arms don't join with the shoulder quite right (a bit low) giving the joints an awkward appearance, and there aren't quite enough polys in the lower legs for them to bend well. There are also some technical problems with the model (that don't effect the game, so no points deducted), having to do with the model being seperated into multiple objects unnecessarily, and put together without properly welding the vertices- this is the reason that I couldn't use Phong-shaded NST screenshots of the model, because it wouldn't light properly in NST where parts of the body don't have the vertices welded properly. Overall, an average quality model, but better than much of the stuff submitted to us.
Score: Six
The Animations
Animated with Lightwave, this is the strong point of the model. Inverse kinematics does wonderful things. I love the way Uberdog sniffs the air on the stand sequence. The run is very competent, with an awkward leaning to the left side weighted down by the momentum of the large gun, which fits the Uberdog well. The crouching sequences works well also, with Uberdog down on 3 paws. The waves are a bit lackluster here, although I did like that Jude used the opening mouth on the taunt (I think I saw something similar before, on some model called "Xenoid" or something). The open left paw doesn't animate much at all, which detracts a bit from the waves, and that left arm gets a little flattened in some of the animations. A better than average animation job.
Score: Eight
The Skin
Uberdog only comes with one skin, a single-tone red fur job. Jude says in the text file "I've come to the conclusion that I'm a better modeller than skinner.", but it's not really a bad job.
Jude earns technical points for using a 256 square skin for the tris.md2 (glad to see that more people are catching on about the 3d card skin scaling issue), but loses points for having a 308x118 weapon skin. The meshes are better than average, but would have greatly benefitted from some overlapping of identical parts, and better use of space- the tris.md2 mesh wastes 43% of it's space, and the weapon wastes 67%.
On the artistic side, it's pretty simplistic. All we see is some low contrast rudimentary shading, without much to make it look like fur (a direct effect of the mesh being unoptimized for space, and therefore not having enough texture resolution). There is some detail around the face and in the mouth, but that's about it. Both tris and weapon skins appear to be made solely in NST, and I would suggest that the author supplement skin work in a traditional 2d art program for a more refined product.
No CTF skins at this time, but the author asks that somebody should make some for it.
Score: Six
Sounds
Uberdog doesn't come with it's own sounds, but the default male sounds should be just fine, and the author promises a soundpack following shortly.
Visible Weapons Support
Uberdog does not support VWEP at this time, but the author already has a VWEP update in progress.
Pack Inclusion
Uberdog is eligible in all respects, and already included in the 2.0 pack.
review by Dan Bickell
author name Jude Martin
tris.md2
Vertices 361
Mapping Vertices 485
Polygons 553
Skin size 256x256
Skin Wasted Space 43%
weapon.md2
Vertices 156
Mapping Vertices 152
Polygons 144
Skin size 308x118
Skin Wasted Space 67%
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