UT2k4 Vehicle: Steam Buggy - Update: 10/28

Illusions

3137 Tris

*Updated, see new post.

Previous Images:

Silhouette and Blocked Out Shapes


Alrighty, so I'm redesigning the UT2k4 Scorpion vehicle for one of my classes in realistic steampunk style. Blocked out the concept in 3D, and rendered out some greyscales and silhouettes to get some feedback and critiques. Certain things like the blades aren't blocked out (I'm still trying to figure out how to build something functional looking using steampunk elements, that'll also work in UT2k4).

Mr Smo

cool silhouette makes me wanna play with lego :O

flaagan

Very cool; the hard edges and general shape of the main body of the car reminds me of the Combine 'car' from Half Life 2.

Don't know what you've got planned for the wheels, but the tire part of them can definitely have a lot more sides to it if need be.

Also, it's been a little while since my last UT custom vehicle, but I'll toss out the offer to help with importing / rigging / Unreal scripting info where I can. The tutorial dvd is pretty much straightforward about it, but there are some headaches you'll experience with customizing the vehicle settings for yours.

Have fun with this!

Ghostscape

If it's driving around on octogons don't model the bolts.

Unless it's supposed to look like the wheels aren't round, you need to put more love into the wheels and less into the smaller details. The bolts add nothing to the silohouette and would be easily painted on. Are you going to be smoothing this model at all? Right now it looks very blocky, which works for the body since it has those chamfers in it, but the piping looks very weird.

odium

He said he blocked out the details so I'm guessing he will make them better. I dont think he would be as stupid as to not give the wheels any lovin' like that in final.

Psionic

Looks cool so far, cant wait see some textures on there!!

Illusions

Ok, so its finished being modeled, and hard/soft edges have been set in Maya. It weighs in at 3137 tris, which is good since the Scorpion is 3221 without weapons. Sorry for the lack of frequent updates, as other classes have me swamped with projects as well (3D digital matte, 3D bust self portrait, rigged dummy, full human modeled in NURBs, all due by December 13th-23rd). Anyways...going to start UV mapping now, and hopefully get that done for an update next week. Crits and critiques appreciated as usual.

Links:

Steambuggy Wires
Steambuggy Shaded Views

Ohh and thank you Flaagan, I'll probably take you up on that offer when I start scripting and doing particle effects for it as I would really like to see it in game, with smoke exhausts working, and the flame thrower up top working as well.

flaagan

Just a little nit pick or two... If you can spare a few polys, make the exhaust tips V way down the tube instead of a flat plane, gives you something to put a gradient on and considering their size compared to the player the extra bit of detail will make a noticeable difference. Also, is there anything holding the fenders in place? Doesn't look like there is (and if there is are they going to move with the wheels or the body)? Is that a smokestack behind the turret? If so, may want to do what I suggested with the exhaust pipes; or you may want to extrude it down and in a bit (give it a lip) and then have a flat surface set in (can give it a mesh texture to suggest a cover for the large exhaust point). Keep in mind the suspension travel on the car if you're gonna have the fenders move with the wheels, because if it's too much the fenders will clip into the exhaust pipes.

I think that's all I can think of at the moment.

Illusions

[ QUOTE ]
Just a little nit pick or two... If you can spare a few polys, make the exhaust tips V way down the tube instead of a flat plane, gives you something to put a gradient on and considering their size compared to the player the extra bit of detail will make a noticeable difference.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, no problem there. Since its only an 8 sided cylinder it should only add a max of 32 polys total for both.

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Also, is there anything holding the fenders in place? Doesn't look like there is (and if there is are they going to move with the wheels or the body)?

[/ QUOTE ]

Nope, there isn't anything holding them to the body. I came up with some designs of how they would be, but they either ruined the silhouette and looked crappy, or added too many polygons and made the silhouette look not as good. The back fenders are flush with the body though, and I could probably fake attachment with the texture. The front ones are marginally flush with the body for what would be a half inch irl. The Paladin in UT2k4 didn't offer any help, upon further inspection its fenders aren't attached to the body either . Anyway, they're going to remain stationary.

[ QUOTE ]
Is that a smokestack behind the turret? If so, may want to do what I suggested with the exhaust pipes; or you may want to extrude it down and in a bit (give it a lip) and then have a flat surface set in (can give it a mesh texture to suggest a cover for the large exhaust point).

[/ QUOTE ]

Its housing for the fuel tanks for the flamethrower. Its ambiguous though without a texture, and it does look like a smokestack lol.

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Keep in mind the suspension travel on the car if you're gonna have the fenders move with the wheels, because if it's too much the fenders will clip into the exhaust pipes.

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This thing isn't going to have the best suspension in the world. The suspension has a lot of downward give, but since the fenders can't move, the little spacing inside the fender is about as much upward movement the wheel is going to be allowed traveling over terrain.

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I think that's all I can think of at the moment.

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Thank you, going to go work on UV mapping and fixing the exhaust.

Edit: Fixed the exhaust, it looks 10x better.

D4V1DC

Hey though i'd try and help you out since I see you have quite a few cylindrical shapes /?/ sp is the liquor talkin!

The image should explain everything, but you get the point more polys saved to be used elsewhere.

Love the design please keep going and finish with some lovely textures, I want to make a buggy now!. GJ.

Drunk dont mine me if im wrong ! LOL I ment well! after realizing my mistake i was to lazy to change it, it's not 14 faces to 7 faces it's 14 to 12 at least johny + rooster! figured it out

posting drunk = bad!

Joao Sapiro

that image made me laugh quite hard $!nz !!!

rooster

good point $!nz, although its worth noting though that using the pizza-slice cylinder means you can texture a portion of the wheel (just one slice even) and reuse it rather than giving the whole thing unique uvs, so its a toss-up between polycount and texture space

edit: actually scrap that its 12 faces I see the joke johny hehe!

pyromania

Without a vertex on the front of the wheel. UT will do odd things with the lighting.

killingpeople

7 faces, sure but how many tris? lol

http://www.bluevoid.com/opengl/sig00/advanced00/notes/node19.html

Jesse Moody

[ QUOTE ]
7 faces, sure but how many tris? lol

http://www.bluevoid.com/opengl/sig00/advanced00/notes/node19.html

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Yeah the Unreal 2 engine is all about tris man. That is still like 12 tris and will look horrible with the way unreal lights things. Better off to keep pimping that pizza slice method.

CrazyButcher

on a sidenot any engine is about tris.
per vertex lighting would not like the lack of the middle vertex due to interpolation issues

Electro

lol @ 7 faces
hilarious

Well... less verts is better, but not in this case... as it'll be spinning a lot the verts along the perimeter of the wheel will often be changing vert colour a lot, so you need at least some kind of interpolation between the edges of the wheel. Like CrazyButcher said. Pizza slice is great for texturing.. unless you have some overly complex design in mind.. MAYBE SOME MAD CHROME SPINNERS EH? :S

EarthQuake

this is all moot if he's going to be using smoothing groups

Illusions

Yeah, I'm using Maya's soft and hard edges. I'm hoping the way I've done the cylinder cap on the exhausts, and inside the flamethrower are ok the way they are. Other than that, I have one question for Maya users. Why are the fenders rendering almost black? Their normals are all pointed out, and they have the same material as the rest of the vehicle, yet they render almost black in the viewport but fine when I render out normally.