Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a

Vincentt

Hey, this is my first post here. I have been working on a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a/U1 (prototype of a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a). It has two 20mm MG 151 cannons, two 30mm MK 103 cannons and two 30mm MK 108 cannons.
The highpoly is finished. I’ve started working on the lowpoly but i’m wondering if 17k tris is too much.

So any crits or comments on the low or highpoly models are appreciated!

Reference pictures:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8801520/Me262_cockpit.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8801520/Messerschmitt_Me_262_Schwable.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8801520/Messerschmitt_Me_262A_at_the_National_Museum_of_the_USAF.jpg


Highpoly:




Lowpoly:

Vincentt

This is an update on my work on the Messerschmitt, I've baked the normal maps and I am now working on the panels and other details in Photoshop. The lowpoly has been reduced to 14k tris.

Xoliul

This looks neat. I've built a few of these as model kits when I was much younger.
You highpoly looks pretty clean, and I think your optimizing of the low went well. Perhaps it could have been a little lower still.

The only thing I think is a bit problematic, is how you don't' have any geometry edges to divide the metal frame from the window glass. You really want to do that with geometry instead of textures, trust me.

Vincentt

Thanks for the comment!
Can you explain to me why exactly I need geometry for my window frame please?:poly122:

an aggressive napkin

I think it is because the normal map will work on some things, but not everything. IMO it would make a cleaner look when you are in FPV because it will shot actual height which will be seen from all angles, instead of fake height, which will only from some angles

Xoliul

Because of the grid nature of pixels in a texture. None of your window edges will be perfectly straight on your texture, so you will see the aliasing in pixels there (even filtered AA doesn't look that clean). If your texture is highres enough, sure it can look OK, but you still need to consider transparency sorting for the plane: If the body and windows use the same transparent shader, ALL of your plane needs to be sorted, while if you just add another drawcall for a second material on the windows, you've actually got a lighter asset. Just try and make that a habit, splitting windows from opaque materials: transparency sorting is so heavy that you need to minimize the amount of polygons using it.

OutOfInspiration

looks nice! and looking forward to some nice dirt textures on it

But I also think some parts still have to much polys, maybe trying to remove some in the wheels.

Vincentt

Hey! I've finished working on the normals and also started working on the textures. This is what I have at the moment and would love to get some feedback on it!
Some parts aren't completly finished yet such as some parts of the undercarriage and the engines. :poly122:

IxenonI

Wow man, nice start and impressive attention to detail. Can´t wait to see more.

I agree with the comments regarding the glass.

There seems to be a different shading on the front part at the bottom of your fuselage then on the back...

Vincentt

Thanks for the comment! I fixed the problem with the glass and will show this in the next update with the finished plane and canopy.
Thanks for also spotting the different shading on the fuselage, I will fix that!

I've updated the first post with some reference pictures of the plane and the cockpit.

Here are some pictures of the finished cockpit:

Cap Hotkill

That looks great Vincentt!

sneakymcfox

I really love your texturing, though I have to say in terms of the cockpit I think It would take a substantial amount of wear to get to that level and for a jet that was only in service for 2 years It doesn't really work for me.

Vincentt

Cap Hotkill Thank you!

sneakymcfox Thanks for the comment! I get your point, but the background story I had in mind was an airplane that was left behind in a shed somewhere in Germany at the end of the war. I also tried to texture the airplane with wear that only appears after some time, such as the rust on the engine and also the rip in the wing.

Dr Stench

14k seems much to me. For what I am seeing right now. It looks like that tricount goes all to the cockpit. Do you really need a cockpit that detailed? (except when you see it from the inside, in that case it isn't detailed enough) And the chassis looks like it has too much divisions, while it doesn't really have detail. It is clear that you have no idea what the model should be used for. It is not suitable for a game.

The reference you used is also of very bad quality. The textures you use were also very different from the one on the reference pics. Also: your swastika is mirrored (please smack me in the face if you just didn't want to show an authentic one :P).

I am not trying to be a dick or anything, but this could really use some more work. It has some great potential though. I really think you can do it the right way.

Xoliul

I don't really agree, Dr stench. Aircraft games use a lot of poly's most of the time (mutlitudes of this one actually). Things like LOD'ing can optimize things, but even then 14k is not that much. To say that it is "not suitable" is really harsh imo.

And uhh, hhe culd just doa different paintjob than the ref? there were quite a few different camo schemes for this plane, i've seen this one before even though it's not the most common one.

Anyway, looking superb Vincentt, i must say you've improved a lot compared to your previous work i remember seeing. Especially in texturing. Keep it up and this will be a great portfolio piece!

Dr Stench

14k can be a lot when it's just a plane you see from the outside. It's all about the role that the airplane plays in a scene and what else is in the screen. the point is that the interior has way too little detail if seen from the inside and it has too much geometry if seen from the outside. So it's not just about the number of faces.

And the paint job is not about what it could be. It's about what it should be. The pics he showed us are not suitable for reference material at all. Which means he could have got the design for the texture anywhere. By the way, are you sure that the right side should look the same as the left side?

This should all be things that you should think about if you want to be a good artist. Not saying this is a bad portfolio piece for a beginning artist. It's just never bad to learn and improve. I would keep this in mind for your next 3D work.

Vincentt

@Dr Stench most of the tris go to the undercarriage, the cockpit has 1800 tris. You are right that I don't really have an idea what the model should be used for. I made this only as a portfolio piece but I agree that it would be better if I had an idea about how it could be used in a game.

The right and left side of the fuselage are not the same, but the wing is mirrored and so is the vertical stabilizer (so the swastika is only mirrored on 1 side).

I didn't use any of the reference pictures I posted, I just posted them to save you the trouble googling the plane and the cockpit. For the paintjob I combined 3 camo's. Because the airplane I am making is a prototype where only 3 of them were built I didn't have a lot of info about the scheme. I combined these 3: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8801520/CamoScheme.jpg and the "White 3" decals because I had detailed drawings of them from my model kit

@Xoliul thanks a lot for your comment!

Vincentt

Hey guys, I think I've finished this project! I do have 1 problem for the final presentation...If I take a screengrab with the grabviewport script the transparent parts aren't at the right place :poly142: http://i.imgur.com/EKzrz.jpg

I have also tried to fix the different shading on the fuselage.

Here are the screenshots of the finished plane!