UT2004 WIP Vehicle/Mod : A load of balls.
The mod has been in contruction for over a year now due to various memebers being tied up with other projects during it's development, but with a last final push we should hopefully have a beta to play sometime before christmas.
The original idea comes from Simeon 'Lord Simeon' Spargo (of AS-Outback fame ) who together with Mike 'Blitz' Breuer put together the first working alpha version of the new gametype, which is a cross between last man standing and a traditional lap based racer.
Here are the early concepts
The models so far with basic block colour skins. Polycounts are around the same as the existing default vehicles.
Wires
Shaded
Crits are much apreciated, especially suggestions about detailing.
Thanks!
The original idea comes from Simeon 'Lord Simeon' Spargo (of AS-Outback fame ) who together with Mike 'Blitz' Breuer put together the first working alpha version of the new gametype, which is a cross between last man standing and a traditional lap based racer.
Here are the early concepts
The models so far with basic block colour skins. Polycounts are around the same as the existing default vehicles.
Wires
Shaded
Crits are much apreciated, especially suggestions about detailing.
Thanks!
Replies
First thing that comes to mind is a slight doubt of that fan underneath, hehe.. First of all I think a fan for holding the ball of metal levetating off ground would be pretty huge. Far more area than the ball itself. I like the idea of an inside ball being the "wheel" better, just a couple of stabilizers on that. Or just throw on an anti-gravitation engine.
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Yeah, there are three Ball 'classes' a the moment, each with the usualy advantages/limitations, Small / fast / low armour
, big/slow/heavy armour and something inbetween.
They're going to have some kind of emitter/light effect on the bottom where the glowing blue things are to show the anti-grav thing more prominently.
Big Ball:
- Change the color scheme to a darker maroon.
- have some big defections plate armor or blast away armor that hangs off the sides. Hang it in a way that it looks kind of like saddle bags and is heavy to help explain why it is slower. Split the Ball down the middle and move the two parts away from the middle about the width of a player. Then give the center a cockpit with a tiny slit. Something like this.
HoverBall:
- Leave the color scheme red.
- Dig the middle into the model a little, so the sides come up to about knee high. Maybe add some light side platting or a guard rail. It would look more like a short pill or capsule instead of a ball.
SpeedBall:
Its perfect!
Overall they are cool, but similar and at a distance could be confusing. I see a few areas you can crunch some polys and those polys could be put back in as detail such as high antennas or exhaust piles like the top concept?
Cool idea! But you need to break them up more so they aren't so similar. If these where mine I would make the following changes.
Big Ball:
- Change the color scheme to a darker maroon.
- have some big defections plate armor or blast away armor that hangs off the sides. Hang it in a way that it looks kind of like saddle bags and is heavy to help explain why it is slower. Split the Ball down the middle and move the two parts away from the middle about the width of a player. Then give the center a cockpit with a tiny slit. Something like this.
HoverBall:
- Leave the color scheme red.
- Dig the middle into the model a little, so the sides come up to about knee high. Maybe add some light side platting or a guard rail. It would look more like a short pill or capsule instead of a ball.
SpeedBall:
Its perfect!
Overall they are cool, but similar and at a distance could be confusing. I see a few areas you can crunch some polys and those polys could be put back in as detail such as high antennas or exhaust piles like the top concept?
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Cholden / Vig - Yeah, for the moment they probably look reasonabluy similar from a distance. The balls themselves will have numerous attachments onto which weapons/defense systems will be added. Things like the massive oversized weapons for the big ball, and some secondary colours on the skins should make things a little more obvious.
The gameytype itself is quick tight and short range, so you won't be able to see things more than 100 yards away.
I'm trying to keep them fairly compact and tough looking though, something like the robots from 'batteries not included' in style.
Also , as the gametype involves a lot of tunnels etc, any large trailing stuff can cause far to many headaches for our poor overworked programmed , both with potential snags collision wise, and clipping issues. Sadly the engine doesn't have provision in the physics for bendy whip-like ariels etc (which would rock, especiall with those little triangular flagson the end!)
Progress on the skins so far. [updated]
If I want to add more model detail I'm looking at having to do extra skinmaps, that or laboriously scaling each layer to fit a new UVW.
Maybe make the speedball even smaller?
I think you should retain the basic ball shape, there is no problem with that - it's the games main feature right? Although the 3 balls need to be more unique, why not make the speedball smaller and the big ball really big with a huge cannon?
Also take note of the polycount you have where the spheres polygon poles are (the sides where all the polygons connect), they are very dense and packed with polygons, some optimisation is needed in these areas to bring the count down.
Yeah, the speedball is the final hurdle, we really need an expert on skeletal animation to work up some new poses for us, as we're still using the default driving animation, which doesn't work at all with the speedball.
With the pole polys, is there a more efficient way to have them? Should I, for example, simply collapse the center ring on the big ball sides?
In game shots
A lot more detail can be added to the skins/models, but at least they look mostly okay now for a beta release.
Get some bumps on there, scratches, and chipped paint!
These look like they might bump into things a lot, and i kind of imagine them to bop up and down as if on water.
For anyone interested, we're due to put out a beta shortly - some shots in game are available here:
http://urd.unrealplayground.com/screenshots.html
I like the red/blue contrast a lot, and the materials look quite appealing.
The cannons seem to be made from an entirely different sort of metal though. There's a decidedly different feel to them.
I feel the sides of the ball could really used some asymmetrics. Like missing panels or something to break them up visually.
cool designs esp the big ball.
would like to see some more metal panelling details like rivets/hatches/exposed machinery, but overall the looks are nice.
one thing i wuld say, is that maybe its wise to keep the sides a nice clean (form and colour wise not grim)metal armour panel, then the different team motifs can be added on floating polys with an alpha over the top.
cant wait to play.
Will definitely get around to adding more detail to things, both physically and with the texturing, the team icon/decal is a great idea, and would be nice to add an element of personalisation to the vehicle, especially for identifying people at a large distance.
Perhaps coloured balls?
Here's a couple of teaser shots from the maps in progrss - just finished the 'pit' mesh, again still low detail on skin and might add a lot more pipes or something to flesh it out, but it looks okay so far I reckon.
Give them a meaning. Don't just scrape up the harsh corners because they look like they need it. Try to think about every dent, ding, and scratch you put in. Is it realistic? Is there a real reason for that scratch to be there? If so, what is it? Is it because an enemy rear-ended the ball? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
One of my pet peeves is when someone just randomly throws dents and scrapes onto their vehicles, or buildings, or whatever, just because someone told them to. It doesn't look realistic. Think about why the huge scrape is there, and if you can't come up with a logical explanation, don't put it there in the first place.
Just my two cents. Keep up the good work. It's been great to look through the thread and see it progress from the concept to where it is now.