MWMIK Jackal 2 - Masters Thesis Project
Hi everyone, rushing a thread out here. For my masters degree I am examining whether games engines, (in this case Sandbox 2) can be used as a driver training aid for military vehicles.
Current examples include Steel Beasts 2, and VBS2 used by various organisations for training. However these are designed to interface with other simulation systems developed by the military, such as JTEN and JSAF, and therefore lack graphical realism. Which in my hypothesis I am trying to prove is an important factor when training vehicle crews.
So to the modelling. I started off with the mesh as I saw it without all the little details like bolts and rivets etc.
I then got to uv mapping everything, and optimizing the mesh, it turned out that I optimised a little too much, I hadnt put enough edge loops into the tyres for example.
Then I went back, reverse engineered the Hummvie from Sandbox, saw how the tyres were done, and employed a similar method. I also removed the guns, seeing as I am going to use the crysis mounted turret. (Ignore the poorly smoothed bags on the side, they are fixed now)
I finally got round to texturing a couple of weeks ago. and baked the normals from the tyres, the hull and a couple of other areas. (ill post a completed high poly later) and started adding in details like dirt, nuts, and scratches.
So after much difficulty with the crytif exporter, and learning that if you have PS open with your textures, they might not appear in SB2, this is where I am now, textures are making good progress, I have updated the mesh, I need to reload the new uv's as this model is currently exported with the old ones, (you can see by the ammo boxes)
But ill post more here as I progress. Im far from finished. But I thought Id post here as well as CryMod, its good to get crits
Current examples include Steel Beasts 2, and VBS2 used by various organisations for training. However these are designed to interface with other simulation systems developed by the military, such as JTEN and JSAF, and therefore lack graphical realism. Which in my hypothesis I am trying to prove is an important factor when training vehicle crews.
So to the modelling. I started off with the mesh as I saw it without all the little details like bolts and rivets etc.
I then got to uv mapping everything, and optimizing the mesh, it turned out that I optimised a little too much, I hadnt put enough edge loops into the tyres for example.
Then I went back, reverse engineered the Hummvie from Sandbox, saw how the tyres were done, and employed a similar method. I also removed the guns, seeing as I am going to use the crysis mounted turret. (Ignore the poorly smoothed bags on the side, they are fixed now)
I finally got round to texturing a couple of weeks ago. and baked the normals from the tyres, the hull and a couple of other areas. (ill post a completed high poly later) and started adding in details like dirt, nuts, and scratches.
So after much difficulty with the crytif exporter, and learning that if you have PS open with your textures, they might not appear in SB2, this is where I am now, textures are making good progress, I have updated the mesh, I need to reload the new uv's as this model is currently exported with the old ones, (you can see by the ammo boxes)
But ill post more here as I progress. Im far from finished. But I thought Id post here as well as CryMod, its good to get crits
Replies
The armor plating on the sides of the vehicle look really thin to me. Not so bad from the side view but the top views look like this thing would be crushed like an aluminum can.
Also the normals on your tires could use some love.