FN SCAR EGLM wip, 9 hrs

wright.tom85

http://p3d.in/25yPs/wireonsmooth

Rather than take a bunch of renders, I figured I'd just drop it on p3d. It may not work with certain versions of Internet Explorer. If you're using NoScript, give the site some permissions.

Any thoughts on the build would be appreciated.

Amsterdam Hilton Hotel

what's your workflow here, is this the blockout?

wright.tom85

This would be the highest LOD game model. I haven't started on the normals yet. It'll be used as a hero weapon, lots of optional parts, so the polycount will be a little high.

Usually I find photo reference, start with as close to an isometric side view as I can, and start building up from a simple cube. I'll use anything cylindrical on the reference to help gauge the width of the weapon if there's no proper front or back view.

Tim270

Is this intended for a 1st or 3rd person game? As if 1p you really want to focus down some of the key FPV area's by rounding out edges and more sides on cylinders.

wright.tom85

I think mostly third person. It's designed for a game called Second Life, which is kind of a 3d sandbox chatroom sort of thing. Most of the time the camera is in a third person view, but even if it's deliberately moved into first person for a combat simulation game, I don't believe the gun is seen in the viewport.

Since weapons like these are often seen up close as personal decorations as much as functional weapons, maybe further rounding on some of the cylinders wouldn't be such a bad idea.

samurairenegade

It's not bad at all! Much more detailed than the models I make.

theSixtyEight

lots of wasted geo

wright.tom85

Saying lots of wasted geo doesn't help if you don't point out where. :P

VeeJayZee

Looking gewd! For a third person game it holds up pretty well. I kinda looked at your model zoomed out, like 3-4 feet away from usual FPS view and its good.

As far as Second Life 3rd person, hero prop reference, this things I recommend you can do to optimize the weapon.

-I notice the front cover of the scope is oval so you might want to round it up on round shape.

-I think the fire select switches don't need much beveling for such view so you can simplify that up. As well as the Eotech buttons.

-You don't need that much bevel also on the hinges of the butt stock. Even if the game uses only diffuse maps, it can easily be painted in.

-You can also simply the scope lens a tad bit more.

I couldn't see anything more as of the moment. Because I ogling at your cool gun. Good job so far. I'm gonna follow your progress here

theSixtyEight

some examples
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62830198/geo.png

wright.tom85

VeeJay, Paul, thanks both of you.

I'll see what I can do to reduce the geometry after rendering. SL doesn't use normal maps, so all artificial edge rounding has to be baked to texture, and full body normals are really only cost-effective in faking surface details. The extra geometry makes it easier to get the edges I need using simple Subdivision Approximation. This is most certainly not how I'd be doing it for a proper console game. Xp

I'll post the final here when I'm done, plus renders if P3D doesn't take texture maps.

VeeJayZee

Try sketchfab. They handle textures pretty well, generally as long as its just one texture page. And they ar good on representing smoothing groups.

wright.tom85

So 24 hours solid worth of work spread out over 4 days, I've finished the SCAR I was working on.

Attached are in-engine screenshots. Since the game has the equivalent of a 2-stroke engine, all the lighting and shading are baked. Each individual part of the weapon is its own separate object with its own texture which can be re-sized, moved or removed by its user.

The .psd version of the texture is broken down into a shadow map, an AO, and a black and white spectacular map which I run as a Color Dodge modifier to produce highlights. This allows me to make fast, localized changes if a client doesn't like specific elements of the render.

I'd love any thoughts you guys have on improving the texture work. I was specifically asked not to add surface wear or dirt to this weapon.

VeeJayZee

Nice. Congratulations. One thing you can do is do slight color variations on the Tan and Black color so that it can be visually appealing.

wright.tom85

>Implying it's not visually appealing already

No, just kidding. That's something I'll have to try. Bonus is, the way I set up the texture, that would be ridiculously easy to do.