Defunct Community Model Project

[inukshuk]

Okay, I reckon everybody is properly tired of my Stengun already. But this is different. I really started to take this seriously and figured I might as well bake all its maps. I used my Max2010 (at work) for this as I am more familiar with that than the Max8 we have to use for the CoH plugins, and because its tools are customized for myself.
The screenshots show all the maps applied in a DirectX Shader surface. The last shot is of the model itself. It is 454 triangles and you can see how the high poly model I used for the normals and AO maps is an added roughly 2300 triangles (it is hidden and is not part of the low poly model but the polygon-counter includes it in the overall budget! it will be of course deleted so the weapon will be altogether 454 tris).
Until now I was only making the essentials to have a decent low poly weapon with a decent skin and I know you liked it. But while I was making the Sten I decided to use it for my purposes as it is a simple enough weapon that I didnt have to keyframe and pull all the different meshes apart. So I made it as I do things normally and I wanted to show you what a low poly model can actually offer when handled with "loving care". All maps baked and applied and rendered out. The diffuse (or top hue) map is handpainted, there is not a single photo part on it in otherwords it is not a "photoskin".
The screenshots are real time in other words just screenshots of the max main grid and not screenies of the render (F9) yet the model with all the maps applied is crystal clear. I am pleased with the results, I think the Sten series will be more like an FPS weapon arsenal. But I enjoyed dicking around with it and I think it was worth the time. Hope you like it too.

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[DMz]

Very good As always Inuk, However i keep telling you, and the others, no black backgrounds on your textures, i believe im seing several of the dreaded black lines resulting from a uv slip onto a black background. The guns primarily grey, may i suggest a grey background, as when its animated it is guaranteed that the uv will slip down and right as it always does that will stop the usual black lines.

@Aidas wtf is that, a hibrid of a comet mixed with the 105 from Modern combats stryker lol .

And deffinatly not lol.

@Everyone else ive pissed off by causing a problem, this is my fix for it, youll get both G and E. Ignore the smoothing & few missing goblins plus a bit of reshaping, ill do that lot later, and dont worry about the texture, the nets rife with decent photos of it, its what i count as an extreamly easy photoskin tbh. And it took less then 3 hours to get these to this stage, thats with a wife and kid nagging for attention, so i really cant see the facination with porting the MoW stuff, this is 886 tri, less then the default p47.......

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Judging by the various shapes i got playing with this, i will probebly be adding a Hurricane IID a Spitfire XIV and a new FW190.

[Jagdpanther]

so i really cant see the facination with porting the MoW stuff

It's only for the missing stuff, so more a thing of "must have".

But you will teach us a better way and give us the stuff we need. As always, you did a great job man.

[VanAdrian]

Both Inuk and DMZ, very great job

Especially yuo Inuk for the texturing wich is quite beautifull

Well i see you found a way to fix all MoW's related problems DMZ Well done on this, and it's a good idea to start from the P47 aswell as trying a photoskin as first texture Keep up the good job, as always like JP said

[DMz]

Progress sofar on the G skin.

Updated, now the final skin .

109E

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109G

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Will do a Humgarian and a desert coloured one too, have to add the 109e front to it as yet anyway. total tris is 850, will do the wreck later, but it will come out a lot less then relics p47 on the tri count.
Plus i dont think i need goblins as the photo skin seems good enough.

[VanAdrian]

realy good work ^^

Well done mate

[DMz]

I may change it, pictures i found have too much light on them, they are nice and large, but i think i may well dig out a couple of my old 1:72 corgi dicastes and photograph those inseted to get an even light on it.

[VanAdrian]

yep good idea

[Aidas2]

That was fast Will you be doign the Fi 156 Storch? Spitfires and maybe Mustangs?

[eliw00d]

DMz and I discussed the following last night:

Fw 190 F-8
Ju 87 G
Ju 88
IL-2
Airspeed Horsa

Any others he wants to make is up to him, but those are the most important ones.

On a side note, adiya's SdKfz 231 series is now available for download.

[Aidas2]

The 231 looks great. Although the file structure is very unusual. I've redone the whole structure to go to the axis folder, but don't have the mg34 files it points to. I've tried the old mg34 and mg34 vehicle textures, but they don't fit. Could you upload them so I could fix it and reupload for everyone?

Also noticed that it's setup for a commander. Is the hatch animated? Does the regural commander work with it?

[Mirage Knight]

The hatch animates, but a regular commander doesn't work that I know of - even with the necessary crew_ext and animator specified (yes, I tried working that in to test). Eli's probably got something planned down the road and that the SdKfz 231/232 is still WIP but that's a question best answered by him.

For those of you who'd like the proper elevation stats for the 2cm KwK30, they are -10 degrees to +26 degrees. You might also want to tweak the behavior settings so that aa_weapon is set to false and disable_auto_search is set to true for airborne targets

[eliw00d]

@Aidas
Good luck keeping up with all future updates, then. This file structure is the new standard (and will be retrofitted on older releases). The MG 34 LMG is what you need. Hatch is animated; commander works.

[Aidas2]

Yeah, noticed that the hatch works, but no commander.

[DMz]

Post 5155 updated with final pics of the ME 109.

[Aidas2]

What's with the squished nose?

[eliw00d]

@Aidas
Add one to the .abp...

[Mirage Knight]

Whups - forgot to add that ref to the 231's ABP. Thanks for the reminder

A minor thing I noticed is that the KwK doesn't seem to elevate or depress to track targets above or below the vehicle. The correct tracking anims are definitely in place. The vehicle also floats a couple of inches off the ground...some secret Nazi anti-gravity device being tested here...?

Another than those two small things, nice job guys

[eliw00d]

Are you using kwk30_vertical for track_vertical? As for the floating, I believe there is a setting in the .abp that can fix that. I forget what it is, though.

[Mirage Knight]

Yup - using that value.

As for the floating bit, would the setting have to do with vehicle_render_offset perhaps?

[DMz]

Updated nose on Bf109 pics also updated

[VanAdrian]

@DMZ
Your talent seems to grow up more and more since you started to try skinning yourelf your models mate

Realy well done on both model and texture ^^

Oh just a small question, is it possible to replace the old mg34 model by the new one made by Inukshuk for use on all vehicles, for infantry etc... ?

[Mirage Knight]

Oh just a small question, is it possible to replace the old mg34 model by the new one made by Inukshuk for use on all vehicles, for infantry etc... ?

Eli's already working on that

[VanAdrian]

oh so it's impossible for the moment

It was just what i wanted to know haha

[inukshuk]

@DMz
Nice work on the planes. Having practically built a panzer division single handedly now you are gonna put a Jagdgeschwader together? lol

[Lord Wiffleby]

Anybody want a French MAS-36 Rifle? Here's the WIP I did of it. By the end it will have roughly 300-400 polys. It's missing texture details (especially on the stock) and a trigger, but I want to know if the community thinks its going in the right direction.

MAS-36

I'm working on this, an Adrian Helmet, and I'm considering the eventual creation of the airborne version of this weapon. Aside from that, I'm working on some infantry models and textures for the Italians and Russians. Let's hope I can do them satisfactorily.

[Aidas2]

@Aidas
Good luck keeping up with all future updates, then. This file structure is the new standard (and will be retrofitted on older releases). The MG 34 LMG is what you need. Hatch is animated; commander works.

Can you gimme the dl link of the one it needs? There's like 3 or 4 of them...

[eliw00d]

@Aidas
I told you which one.

@VanAdrian
There is an MG 34 for all vehicles and infantry already, check the German Small Arms section. Only thing that is missing atm is turret and rear pintle.

[eliw00d]

@Aidas
No, thanks. Also, in the future, please don't try to re-release things we release here without permission.

You can lower the main gun ROF by editing the .rgo. I used real data for the ROF, so it won't be changed officially.

[Aidas2]

Removed the fully setup 231 dl per Elis request. If anyone interested for the setup one, pm me.

[eliw00d]

Updated the SdKfz 231 to Version 1.1 by tweaking the .abp a little bit and adding a new state: KwK38_State. Depending on which 2cm KwK you would like your SdKfz 231 to have, use the appropriate state. KwK 30 will have 280rpm and KwK 38 will have 480rpm. Also updated the readme with a better explanation of states included.

If anybody is planning on making skins for the SdKfz 231, please PM me and I can supply you with the base Dunkelgelb texture to work on.

[Celution]

eli, what RoF does the 20mm KwK38 in vCoH have?

[eliw00d]

I think it's around 60 rpm or so.

[kapulA]

Regarding the 109 - is the landing gear animated or? Seeing both the lowered landing gear and the closed gear, skinned onto the bottom of the wings, strikes me as a somewhat awkward?

[DMz]

take a look at the default p47, its only there for the static map models

[kapulA]

Aha, thanks for the quick answer. I figured that such an oversight would be absurd, but I had to ask.

[eliw00d]

Same with the propellers, they are only there for the static models.

[inukshuk]

Nice SdKfz! I looked into the texture files and I found it doesnt actually have an occlusion map. Well it does but it is a "blank". I am just wondering if it would be possible to bake an AO map in max for it. Its just such a waste not to have one for a beautiful vehicle as this. A blank AO doesnt work. You might as well dont have it. AO controls how the incoming light is reduced for various sides and how certain extruded objects shade those sides. In a very technical term AO is the method to compute by integrating the visibility over a hemishpere with respect to a projected angle. In other words it is the method of shading. So a blank does nothing.
Baking an AO is not difficult if you bake the normals in max but a special setup is required and I could help with that. It also should always be baked to texture because if it recomputes the uv layout it is a different result again. Like DMz's PaK40 has the AO computed to the texture layout and rightly so. That is why the shading of that gun is so good.
Adiya's vehicle is such marvelous model it deserves a real AO imo!

[DMz]

it has an ao. if its not there then the wrong ones been animated

[eliw00d]

Textures don't get animated.

I used what was given to me.

[DMz]

Dont be an ass, you know what i mean. where are the OCL textures that were on HG and why arnt they applied to channel 2, or must i do everything regarding textures for everyone.

Editing to add, ive just unwrapped uv channel 2 and it isnt applied. I know for a fact the model had textures called AO in the folder. But HG update has deleted them as usual, which is precisly why i dont like storing stuff on it. Because every time a revision is added it deletes the files. To fix the problem will mean i have to import the max unwrap each part manually and apply channel 2 too it. And to be honest its a piss take of a job, i was willing to do it to my pak40, as i should have noticed it wasnt applied when gurdy uv mapped it, but im not willing to do it to this aswell as its an annoying process and involves colapsing and holding each uv mesh edit in order not to lose the bones and animations plus skin modifiers, plus i then have to reburn the rgo,and redo all the pathings in the rgm refering to base ocl..........

Ignore my ranting Inuk,Eli,Adiya, im just annoyed that it wasnt done when the thing was uv mapped and skinned, its basic stuff. Even a default generated ocl would work now that i know how to do the lighting via nrm bump along side the ocl, its just that the ocl textures, for the parts i saw on hg were very good, and an exact mirror of channel one, it really would have been very very easy for the modeller or uv mapper to apply them prior to the animating stage . Instead it now makes a lot of work.

[Darkbladecr]

There is no difference to applying textures from before or after the animating stage, you just need to condense the broken down model with the relic multi tool and apply your changes to the UV there and then just press the update button depending if you updated UV1 and UV2.

[DMz]

Im not even going to bother to answer that one, ill just giggle at it lol.

[inukshuk]

relic multi tool

Why even bother using that tool? Doing the job with plugins when all you need is max itself and the basics of how render to texture and bake maps in max? Its like cooking a delicious soup just so I can warm up a canned soup in it. lol

[TigerTanker]

DM: Thanks for the 109, it's going to be a big help for the hungarian mod as well. I could send Adrian's skin over if it's any kind of help..

[DMz]

No m8 its a MOW uv layout chances are it has theyre maps, Van can redo mine easily as theres a plain desert coloured 109e/f texture ive made.

Regarding 231 ocl files, Gurdy let me have them this morning along with his final skin which is a lot better then the one we have here. There are 3 ocl textures to match whats on the vehicle. Glad he still had his origionals .

@Inuk i agree lol i may stop using the damn multitool aswell as it always scews up half my layouts, much better to just have a clone of channel 1 onto channel 2 textured correctly as Gurdy has done. Pity only relics infantry are done like that tbh. cd f f8 a b cough cough..................

Yawn

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[inukshuk]

@DMz
What I do is I apply a DirectX Shader to the model's mesh and load all the maps on that shader real time. Then I dont have to mess with the channels. I mean for export purposes I need that setup but then I just make the texture maps again, flip them and convert them the RGT. That way the maps are what i want and not what the plugins permit me to use.
StuGs:
We might need to add some 3D details on those babies for a proper normals and AO too. Do you wanna do it or do you permit me to build a high-poly model onto your mesh?
I will have to do the layout anyway...Some is done, most isnt. Thats the current sit rep.

[DMz]

The UV has to be flipped after you burn the normal map for that to work on export m8, or the normal map ends up inverted. Also if your on about the 231. open the referance max and look at it. You will see why i was annoyed.

The Stug was yours when you got it, you may do what you want with it. At the end of the day its a bit back to front making a high poly after a low, but if you want to you can, I Personally think i could get the nrm to work quite well without a high poly, as i got used to the older bump map technique many years ago and have no problems making them look almost like a burned nrm. (Its called pillage relics bumps and match them up lol) Any way remember to flip all the uv maps after its burnt or your nrm and ocl\AO will be inverted as mentioned above.

[VanAdrian]

Very well done on your messeschmitt DMZ ^^

Must say it again and again lol

So now i just have to do another version of the hungarian's flying pupet... (sic )

[DMz]

zzzzZZZZZzzzzzzz

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