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Unreal Vehicle WIP - Tachikoma

polycounter lvl 9
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Roffotron polycounter lvl 9
Here's something I've been doing for a mechanical modelling assignment, should eventually have it shoved into UT3 in the near future. As of now this is just the basic high-poly model as it stands.

C&C welcome ofc.

013.png
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I'll add in the seams via zbrush once I have an optimised low-poly before baking it on methinks.

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  • Matroskin
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    Matroskin polycounter lvl 11
    mesh looks clean.

    Would be good to see the scale (a human figure in comparison)

    But to what kind of rig u want thi one to fit? A walker (forgot how its called in game) ?
  • Roffotron
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    Roffotron polycounter lvl 9
    I'm not planning to have this walk in the time-scale allotted to me - so I'm going to make use of its wheels and have it act either on the car or tank scripts. It would depend on what I find that works. I was a little worried about having the angled wheels though; but a quick test proved otherwise.

    As for scale, research says it's the size of a small sedan, but I'll export this out as a static mesh to see what its in-game size is first and change as and when it is needed.
  • Matroskin
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    Matroskin polycounter lvl 11
    i c.

    I find that the mesh shape and details suggest huge size. There is nothing that could help understand the real scale of it. Also hard to say where does character get in and which is the cockpit.

    Regarding wheels, their relative size actually makes them look like tips on of mech legs. With such size it wont be easy to roll, i.e. mecahnically it does not look beleivable. Also wheel r turned inside, which makes it impossible to move anywhere.
  • Illusions
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    Illusions polycounter lvl 18
    Its actually based off of this here... and looks like a faithful reproduction of it considering the stage its at in development. The only thing I'd say is, if you have time for it, to not settle on either just the buggy or tank driving style, as the tachikoma are presented as quite agile in GITS. They can rotate in place, turn rapidly, or even drive sideways, and do so at the top speed of a minivan or SUV of the same size.
  • Roffotron
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    Roffotron polycounter lvl 9
    Perhaps these research images might help:

    tachikoma.jpg

    250279806_f75b9c107c.jpg

    I haven't added some of the finer detail, seeming at the moment I would find it easier to do in zbrush, so sorry if that caused a little confusion.

    As for the mechanics of movement; I agree the wheels look a bit too small to provide any meaningful traction, the chances are I may well have to enlarge them so that there is more clearance between the edge of the wheel and the tip of the leg.

    As for the inward-facing wheels, I have actually tested this on a dummy vehicle in UT3 already, with the rear wheels facing outward and the front wheels facing inward. It does work - even I was surprised at first - but it saves me a real headache later. Bearing in mind of course that the dummy wheels were relatively large compared to the ones on show here. If all else fails I suppose what I can do re-do the connection of the wheel to be a ball joint (akin to the ball-wheels of Will Smith's Audi in I-Robot), and have them tracked into a more normal direction.
  • gsokol
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    gsokol polycounter lvl 14
    Ahh, I think ive seen that show once or twice on cartoon network or something. Those little guys cracked me up.


    Anyways, looks great so far. Not too much to crit..looks like your hi-poly matches the references....with the exception of the detail you have yet to add. Looking foward to an update. Good luck!
  • NoChance
    Your edges are all too soft, you need to harden them up, even the legs which are smooth have some definition in your reference but that doesn't come across at all in the model.
  • Roffotron
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    Roffotron polycounter lvl 9
    Personally, I would have to disagree on the legs, but I shall meet you half-way with regards to the pod at the rear.
  • Roffotron
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    Roffotron polycounter lvl 9
    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysrK0o8gfqI[/ame]

    Update time!

    Imported and moving, obviously needs more finessing. The low-poly has been driven down to 14.5K and everything that needs to function is in.
  • Sage
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    Sage polycounter lvl 19
    tachicomas are blue! what's with that camo texture? Make him blue. It's looking cool though
  • HAL
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    HAL polycounter lvl 13
    I guess thats not camo but one of the stock textures of udk/ut3 applied to the mesh since he didnt start texturing it yet as it seems ;)

    Nice work getting it ingame so far.
  • Steve Schulze
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    Steve Schulze polycounter lvl 18
    Looking good thus far. Is there any chance you'll be able to make her tilt as she moves, lean into corners, jump and whatnot? Maybe a tricky thing to pull off, but it'd be mighty cool if you could.
  • albino_goldfish
  • Roffotron
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    Roffotron polycounter lvl 9
    In answer to your question Jackablade, yes, it will be able to tilt and jump once I've finished the finer points of coding. Either way, here's another update, UVs are done and a base texture is applied. Had a really FUN time dealing with the weapons, grr.

    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCrqG2ltig8[/ame]
  • Matroskin
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    Matroskin polycounter lvl 11
    cool to see it working :)

    It looks funny when it moves on its tiny wheels which remind me furniture somehow, though it is a "feature" of the original concept ;)
  • Timothy_graybill
    I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the best way to capture a video from unreal would be?
  • albino_goldfish
    Roffotron wrote: »
    In answer to your question Jackablade, yes, it will be able to tilt and jump once I've finished the finer points of coding. Either way, here's another update, UVs are done and a base texture is applied. Had a really FUN time dealing with the weapons, grr.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCrqG2ltig8

    what are the chances I could take a look at your code (for the vehicle scripting/animating/etc. and such I mean) or that you could put up a tut on how to do this???



    I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the best way to capture a video from unreal would be?

    I use Fraps although it is a little resource heavy when it kicks in, so you might get some FPS loss, there are also a few minor qualms I have with it, but overall it works for me
  • Apophis3d
    I think this is a really awesome design. However I see one issue, and that is those small wheels. I am interested to see how it responds to rough terrain. Maybe if it had a secondary walking mode to handle rough terrain. From my experience with unreal vehicles is they never respond the way you would think they would on actual terrain.
  • garriola83
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    garriola83 greentooth
    how about camtasia to capture? i use it and its awesome
  • ES_139
    Apophis3d wrote: »
    I think this is a really awesome design. However I see one issue, and that is those small wheels. I am interested to see how it responds to rough terrain. Maybe if it had a secondary walking mode to handle rough terrain. From my experience with unreal vehicles is they never respond the way you would think they would on actual terrain.

    in the series (stand alone complex) these things can jump crazy high so i imagine they would just jump up the rough terrain, jump over it or they do this kind of crab walk. Theyr crazy little things they have so many gadgets to get them out of situations obviously these cant all be done in unreal but im just trying to give you some background about the concept of the tachikoma

    check this vid about 5 mins in shows them fighting in a forest which is kinda rough terrain
    [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n55hwhRlPXo]Tachikom fight[/ame]
  • Roffotron
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    Roffotron polycounter lvl 9
    Well the good news is that the base function of the Tachikoma, i.e., moving around/suspension and weapons has been more or less finalised, but I'll clear something up now. This thing will not be able to walk, it needs a completely different set of code and as far as I know no-one outside of a professional studio has managed a walker as of yet (more's the pity I suppose), and I don't have the time nor patience to create that sort of code.

    However, I am planning to have a jump function, which is proving problematic at this precise moment, as well as a "FU" button for those times we all wish to rage quit.:poly136:
  • Roffotron
  • Shiv
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    Shiv polycounter lvl 15
    Awesomesauce! :D
    Love it man :)
  • JeremyRM
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    JeremyRM polycounter lvl 8
    I love the idle animation, looks great.
  • Roffotron
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    Roffotron polycounter lvl 9
    Just a quick WIP screenie. I'm trying to go for a really beat up look with the diffuse/specular . I should also note that texturing isn't one of my strongest forte, so I may well have gone overboard on some things and underdone in others. I'm just showing the arms and legs atm, seeming as they're the pieces with the most complete maps.

    C&C welcome, please be kind...or the puppy gets it.

    Capture.png
  • Progg
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    Progg polycounter lvl 11
    Roffotron wrote: »
    Just a quick WIP screenie. I'm trying to go for a really beat up look with the diffuse/specular . I should also note that texturing isn't one of my strongest forte, so I may well have gone overboard on some things and underdone in others. I'm just showing the arms and legs atm, seeming as they're the pieces with the most complete maps.

    C&C welcome, please be kind...or the puppy gets it.

    Capture.png

    From just a general art perspective I would say the saturation is really high on the blue. It looks very "out of the tube" blue... in painter's terms. Maybe tone back the saturation a bit. It also lacks anything that is making it "pop," namely some variations in the blue hue and some more dirt/scratches on the body. Honestly it feels like the scratches are there just because.. and not from normal wear and tear. Maybe pull some reference from some actual robot-type vehicles and check out where the most wear and tear is going to be. (probably around the lower shin areas and the wheels... and on the cockpit part where contact is made with humans getting in and out.)
  • Jeremy Wright
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    Jeremy Wright polycounter lvl 17
    Roffotron wrote: »
    I'm trying to go for a really beat up look with the diffuse/specular.

    Why?

    I don't think the scratched up look works for this particular model, especially if you take note of all the Tachikoma reference out there.
  • Roffotron
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    Roffotron polycounter lvl 9
    Its more for the assignment that this is for than anything else, I needed to do something to what, even in the references, is a pretty flat material, so general wear and tear was a good way to just add a little more oompth to the texture. As I say, its probably slightly overdone, but its nothing I need to redo in a major fashion.

    As for the blue hue, that's a fair enough comment, shall see about sorting that out in the coming days. Not right now though. Roffotron must plug an adaptor into his rear socket and recharge, ready to take over the world tomorrow.
  • SHEPEIRO
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    SHEPEIRO polycounter lvl 17
    what they said

    a desaturated greener tone might work nicer, use the AO bake as a mask to add a touch of saturation to the shadows and UV damage (the sun variety) in the paint work, and maybe colour bounce off the paint on the metal work.

    block out the textures first, get each material type working roughly
    i would start addign some base photo refed material textures in there first, layer the paint work ontop of that and get the materials rendering nicely first, some reflection mapping and gloss maps to get the metal looking substancially differnent to the (mabe matte or at least more plasticy) painted panels.

    the metal parts inparticular do not have enough variation in them, some nice aluminium, titanium, variation with rubber, carbon fibre weave, kevlar etc details might help

    once you have this, then think about wear n tear decals or painted details
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