Corto

As I promised, the DLT-19:

https://jkhub.org/albums/F6wmm

I'm going to be spending the week creating the UV maps and the initial textures. I should take a couple of weeks to finish the textures the way I like them, but I hope to have the gun released before I go out on vacations.

You are right. That edge flow is very poor. It's better to clean it up first. No big deal, but there´s not magic solution.

Looks like it can be fixed using a normal editor. Maybe using a weighted normals plugin in 3dsmax, Blender or Maya could do the trick. Sometimes the topology is almost perfect smooth and the model could still look fucked up because of bad normals.

I started working on the DLT-19. It will take some time, but I would like to keep the same standard as with the E-11.

And do not aspire your own chokes.

I've modeled a very nice tie fighter recently. Maybe you can have them flying around in the sky to create some sense of larger scale battle.

The shader. It probably has a couple of transformation fuctions enabled.

Looks like a combinations of shader effects mounted over a 3d mesh. That's exactly how I would have done it too. Looks like a nice challenge.

Is it a matter of textures? Shaders? Efx? How is it done? Maybe we can create a better hyperspace effect and make it public for those who want to include it in their mods.

Maybe you should ask TTimo if the gtkRadiant C++ source codes neatly contain all the entity defintions and all their parameters in some of the source code files...

It may be too much to ask, but is there a chance to have something like this for Softimage?

There is a hell and it's called GTK Radiant.

I would say that it looks more "Star Wars" than the original model. A few more details, like an energy clip of some sort, iron sights, something like a heat dissipation device around some part of the barrel and voilá!

I would say so too.

can that gunsight even see over that spatoon-shaped barrel? Will you post a sideview?

That's one of the features I would say make this gun "less believable". But Ashura didn't sound too welcoming about my opinion, so I just left it there. His model, his call.

I learned everything with 1 written tutorial, there was no such thing as video tutorials back then:

https://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/joanofarc/joanmenu.php

 

If you want a no brainer video tutorial then watch this series:

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorials/massing-forms-video.html

 

He's got a whole bunch of "retro" art making too:

http://www.poopinmymouth.com/#tutorials

 

Even if you're not a max user, the modeling is so basic that you can follow along and do the same in any other software.

 

#NoMoreExcuses

Lmao really hard. I forgot about poopinmymouth. Modeling is very easy once you stop making excuses. The only reason why the learning curve may feel steep at the beginning is because most modeling software are very unfriendly. Even for the most experienced user, some times is hard to understand why the f*ck do they place some tools where they are. There is no single "best" modeling software. It will always be about which one suits you better.

But Softimage was THE best... ehem...

I'll try to get back to work on the animations, been working 12hr days lately and gf wrecked a car that I was supposed to flip for a profit which was supposed to get me the scratch to build a new PC which I was hoping would jumpstart my desire to work on 3D projects again. Unfortunate events have been leaving time and money tight lately. =(

So sorry to hear that man. I was looking forward to team up with you in SWBF2 sooner than later. But you'll get there!

Is there a Pic model in progress?

It would be great to see short stories being created for SP with all these characters.

Yes.. this is transparent texture with the holes. The model with the holes would be very vert'y..

 

I am not into the programs for texturing.. i use shitty paint.net program.. i am standing in one place for years. Even is models are starting to look not bad - they are not in the qquaity of 3D models that are made this days.. Hand madeing and shading on texture is dying these days. Most of the newer programs use materials , substances or other things.. From what i looked it is 50% genereting method. The textures tho looks more natural and they going with the shape of the model.

I agree that a software like Substance Painter can do things that are virtually impossible to do manually. But you can still do wonderful things without the need of simulated materials and procedural texture generation. Let's take the case of the E11: except for the ambient occlusion and baked lighting maps, I made the rest completely by hand using nothing more than the tools Photoshop has to offer. Then I overlaid some real life material pictures to create some randomness, dirt, rust, etc. using different blending modes and blending options. You can't beat current technology nor fight it back, but you can still produce amazing stuff without fancy tools and techniques.

That DLT-20A is not bad at all! What are you saying? You just need to work on the texture in my opinion.

As for your ending statement, let's be fair and not elevate my E-11 or myself to a level from where I could easily disappoint you guys. For my blaster I used +7k triangles and a 4096 by 4096 pixels diffuse and specular maps. While using such a high definition texture can be both beneficial and a pain in the ass, the polycount can't go wrong. So, before bringing your stuff down versus mine, first consider how many triangles you have used for your models and how many I have and the size and detail of your textures.

Making good textures is about looking at reference pictures for a long time and figure out how to replicate that which makes real life "real". Most of the bland looking textures I've seen, are not because the artist lacks the skills, but because of time constraints that artist may have or simply because they slack. I used to be one of the slackers back when we were making the Dark Forces mod.

The question is which one will go first, not which one will go. I will model the DLT-20A. I need a good replacement for the disruptor rifle and another one for the repeater. I will not, however, model a new repeater rifle.

If I'm not mistaken, I saw a better version of the trip mine on a video, done for a mod. Maybe that mod team can release it as a standalone item. Sharing is caring.

All the gun parameters should be made external and then have a few firing functions on the code, so anybody can modify the arsenal at will. I know it´s doable because I made something like that on an abandoned mod for JO. But that's outside the scope of what I have planned in the near future. Right now I'm only agreeing to work on stuff that it's also going to serve my own ends. And the code for my little project will be the very last thing I'll do.

I'm ok with either choice. I will only cast my vote in case of draw.

After seeing there's public for both the DLT-20A and the DLT-19 and even though I would like to model both, one will have to wait longer than the other. So I will let the community decide which one will go first.

Here comes the "poll"ice... Ok. Will do.