Modeling HMS Victory, poly count limit?

Selaznog

Hey guys, I'm new to the forums here. Right now I'm attending a one year intensive course at VanArts. For my demo reel, I am making a pretty basic sci fi UDK deathmatch sort of thing as well as a galleon. I chose to do the HMS Victory because there is a ton of reference for it. Plus, it's freaking badass.


Here is a link to a photo album of it: http://www.modelships.de/Museums_and_replicas/HMS_Victory_Portsmouth/Photos_HMS_Victory.htm


Since I want to be a videogame environment artist, I'm going to keep it game res. Assume that the ship is the main environment in my hypothetical videogame. I have a few questions, and if anyone can answer them, it would be much appreciated

- What should the poly count be for something like this? I want it to look good (current gen detail, more along the lines of Battlefield 3 realism and detail, rather than low poly WoW style), but I don't want it to be film res. (any current gen titles have ships like this in them that I could look at for reference that you know of?)
- What would be a good texture limit to set? I plan on doing a lot of tiling textures, and texturing using channels (Tor Frick is a genius!)


I am very scared about the ropes/rigging/masts. Anywho, thanks for reading and any tips would be awesome!

Andreas

(Before someone else says it.)

What you are asking is basically like asking how long a piece of string is. How close is the viewer going to be viewing it at? Are you just modelling the outside, the hull and deck? For the ropes etc. I would just use a single strip for the most part, especially one's far away from view. Is all that detail on the hull going to be seen? Or does all the action take place on the deck.

Xoliul

Anywhere between 3000 tris to half a million, depending on what you intend it for

bugo

Xoliul wrote: »

Anywhere between 3000 tris to half a million, depending on what you intend it for

I agree, it could be 2 tris if you are doing a sprite

Selaznog

Sorry guys, I wasn't very clear. This is for my demo reel for my game art class. I aim to have a job as an environment artist for current 3d games (Skyrim, Halo, Battlefield etc). So the quality I'm aiming for is realistic and high poly. Not Crysis level of detail, but something you could expect to see in one of those games I mentioned. Not a sprite, or Nintendo DS game.

@Andreas: I will only be modeling the visible parts of the ship, (this includes the underside). I won't be doing the inside. All the action will take place on the deck, however I want the sides of the ship to look nice as well because my camera is going to pan around the sides.



Parts such as the figurehead will be sculpted in zBrush and then retopo'd for the ship.


Basically the level of detail I'm aiming for is this would be a first person game level. This is going to be in the middle of the ocean so the only thing taking up polys would be the ship, the water, and maybe some cards in the distance for mountains or something. Thanks

Yozora

Use as few polies/textures as you need to make everything look how you want it to look.

Lazerus Reborn

Be modular and you good to go.

As for teh rigging's a clever alpha mapped plane can look like a rope.

Ott

I actually did a model of the HMS Surprise from the film Master and Commander for my senior project back when I was in college.

Knowing what I know now, and specifically if you were going for an environment art position, you need to think of it like an environment and treat it as such, as well as render and present it as such.

Think of the floors of the ship as the floors of a level, the sides of the ship as deco trim, etc. Making a giant ship in the background or for an RTS is one thing, but if you treat it like a level and gameplay space - that's something else entirely.

You can't look at environment as a single asset and ask for a specific set of "rules". You simply make your "environment" as a gameplay space and keep your geometry, texture calls, materials used, pixel density, etc. dependent on the target platform, streaming state, player sizes, etc.

Building a giant prop doesn't make you anymore qualified to be an environment artist, so you need to focus on this as a gameplay space and not just a giant model.

Kwramm

I'm curious how you'll solve modeling all those ropes - this certainly needs some planning. Maybe start out with more geo and then move up to planes as you reach the top? Will players be able to climb up into the rigging? Which I think would be extremely cool and different from most "ground bound" ship maps you encounter in most RPGs - the platforms on the main masts of the Victory are quite large and that's where they put snipers during the battle.

There's a reason most ships in computer games look quite unrealistic. most of them because quite unrealistic when you look at the rigging and the masts. but good luck and keep us updated!