Something about (unit) art

[GeoModder]

Wow, I really need to get the latest version before I start my vacation.

 

[Lord Tirian]

So... in the graphics tasklist, there is a request for a sealurk texture? Okay, here you go! Added a texture, animations and sound to the old model, screenshot and files attached.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Pfeffersack]

Beautiful, I like it!

 

[Tssha]

Looks just like the old one did!

Although, if I had to critique something, I'd say the spots are a little too big. Or there's too many of them...not sure which. Definitely the spots seem too prominent.

Anyway, looks great otherwise!

 

[The_Coyote]

So... in the graphics tasklist, there is a request for a sealurk texture? Okay, here you go! Added a texture, animations and sound to the old model, screenshot and files attached.

Cheers, LT.

great and thank you, you removed my nemesis from the 'to do' list

 

[Maniac]

Awesome! Now all native life has graphics.

 

[Lord Tirian]

Awesome! Now all native life has graphics.

That's why I did it - no bright white untextured models during the game any more!

And... I can be a bit of a perfectionist, so I also added a fx shader to the model (finally figured out how to do this without causing crashes!), so people with shaders get a wet glistening version of it - I attached to this post (it also updates the texture slightly, but only to change a little issue with the shader version, otherwise there's no difference) - just dump it into the same folder.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Maniac]

Thanks for the update!

That's why I did it - no bright white untextured models during the game any more!

Well there are still the untextured sea colony pod and material supplies models, also by The_Reckoning. Though IIRC someone (The_Coyote, Deon?) once said there were some bugs in the nif models for these units which prevented animating them. So instead of just textures these models might have to be redone entirely. I don't know.

***

Another matter which perhaps you might find interesting: I looked at the graphics of the Mars Now! mod to see if they included any useful graphics, and I found a model (attached) which may serve as the Cloudbase. One problem: the model somehow has 8000 polygons! Do you think it is possible to reduce this to 2000- somehow??

 

[Lord Tirian]

Well there are still the untextured sea colony pod and material supplies models, also by The_Reckoning. Though IIRC someone (The_Coyote, Deon?) once said there were some bugs in the nif models for these units which prevented animating them. So instead of just textures these models might have to be redone entirely. I don't know.

Right, but these units aren't seen that often, that's why it sort of slipped my mind - but I can probably try to do something on that.

Another matter which perhaps you might find interesting: I looked at the graphics of the Mars Now! mod to see if they included any useful graphics, and I found a model (attached) which may serve as the Cloudbase. One problem: the model somehow has 8000 polygons! Do you think it is possible to reduce this to 2000- somehow??

It has such a high polycount, because it uses TriStrips instead of TriShapes - the former is more efficient, but has a higher count. But I doubt that the efficiency gain though the Strips is enough to offset the massive count. Converting it will immediately reduce the count, I think - also, there are a couple of useless faces, those pointing directly downwards aren't visible in Civ4 anyway, so there are another couple of polys one could shave off.

EDIT: Also, seeing how it's only seen from above... it's a bit boring. But turned upside down, it suddenly becomes awesome! Perhaps it should be turned upside down? Because then it's still round, but has a nice tower-like structure on top of it - which looks more cloudbase-like, I think.

I'll take a stab on that later, if possible. Right now, I'm working on something else (also Planetfall- and unit-related), but I don't know how this is going to turn out... so wait a bit.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Maniac]

EDIT: Also, seeing how it's only seen from above... it's a bit boring. But turned upside down, it suddenly becomes awesome! Perhaps it should be turned upside down? Because then it's still round, but has a nice tower-like structure on top of it - which looks more cloudbase-like, I think.

Great idea!

In the same spirit, as you wouldn't see much of it anyways, the now bottom side could be made much more flat, further saving on polygons.

Perhaps, as in the Cloudbase movie, a couple long pipes could then be attached to the flatter bottom.

 

[Lord Tirian]

Great idea!

In the same spirit, as you wouldn't see much of it anyways, the now bottom side could be made much more flat, further saving on polygons.

Done both - it's now down to "just" 1300ish polygons. I have to say it's mostly a hackjob - the original nif was a conversion from Homeworld 2 already, so it was a bit messy already and my edits didn't made it any cleaner/neater - so in some places the texture looks a bit odd, but the result now is basically the best I could do for now without trying to redo it from scratch.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Maniac]

Thanks, downloaded - I'll check it out!

 

[Lord Tirian]

Hey, Maniac - when I looked through the logs (because of the promotions error in the v10 feedback thread), I caught a little error in my fungal tower model - one of the animations is pointing to the wrong file. I don't think this has anything to do with the promotions bug - but I still think you probably want to have a corrected file, so I attached it. Just replace the old KFM-file with it.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Maniac]

Thanks, included in patch c!

 

[Lord Tirian]

...and some additional unit art. Added a spread effect to the acolyte, so you can now see a Voice of Planet icon during the spread... it's fun!

Also took the Christian missionary, recoloured him a bit to make him look more friendlier and removed the silly cross from his staff. Then replaced the cross with the Edenism globe, put a little globe on top of his staff... and here's an Edenist! Also with spread effects.

Just for a little change - I needed to do something on units again - even if it's just something minor as that.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Maniac]

Thanks I'll include it in the next patch.

 

[The_J]

The units look really nice .

 

[Maniac]

The next patch will include a new Hyperian unit, available at Biofuel. It's basically the same as the Plasma Thrower, except it has an extra point of strength and starts with the Empath Song ability for free. Placed at Biofuel this means the unit can be easily researched by both Hybrids and Terraformers.

Anyway, the problem is I don't know what graphic to use. There are now four flamethrower-like units, but only three available graphics. And two of those graphics are the same except for the suit colour (plasma thrower & helion). Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[TC01]

I guess this is the thread where this goes: can I use the Locust of Chiron graphic for my FFH 2 new civ? I really like it and I think it fits my unit perfectly (which is, ironically, a swarm of locusts).

 

[Maniac]

You'd have to ask the unit's creator The_Coyote. Personally I don't mind.