Quake Guy 2016

[Dutch]

New Update!

Hey y'all!

Finished up a brand new look for Quake Guy 2016 the other day, figured it was time to share! The below link has also been added to the original post:

Download Here: Quake Guy 2016 - Version 2

I also updated the original post with the following:

The latest release (labeled 'Quake Guy 2016 - Version 2) is a complete overhaul of the model, and is still QuakeSpasm compliant.

The model was stripped down to the bare essentials and topography was corrected in several places, focusing on edge flow and armature weights to provide smoother, more consistent animations.

Version 1's texture was scrapped. I doubled the texture size to 512x256 and re-made it completely, adding much finer details throughout. His face was overhauled using Q3's Ranger as a base before adding my own alterations to it.

The gibbed head was remade with much gorier detail, and also included is every gibbed body part (arms, legs, torso, etc.). These models obviously will not drop into standard Quake, but a mod could be written to incorporate these for more gruesome gibs.

Of course, all Blender and external texture files are included.

Have fun, Quakers! Pics below, taken without texture filtering (a more faithful look)...

[Dutch]

Your modeling skills have certainly improved since you posted your first weapons : )
Thanks for keeping the source with the files, always much appreciated, the Ranger looks good!

Thank you sir!

[gnounc]

Your modeling skills have certainly improved since you posted your first weapons : )
Thanks for keeping the source with the files, always much appreciated, the Ranger looks good!

[Dutch]

you did a hell of a job on this guy. he looks a lot like the new quake guy from the advertising. i have just started to see that add so you made this model and skin fast how long did it take you?

thanks man. actually, the ad was the last thing I made lol. it actually took me awhile to make this guy, mostly because of the learning curve associated. I spent about a month-and-a-half or so. I think the actual hour count sits around 60 or 70, I didn't really keep track.

@gypsy

just downloaded neo, thanks for heads up. gonna play around with it some this week.

[MadGypsy]

@procedural textures

There are probably lots of programs like this out there but, I particularly like this one. NeoTextureEdit - this could be an alternative to learning procedural textures in any of the blender render engines.

What is the real difference?

If you use NeoTextureEdit it allows you to make procedural textures as IMAGE FILES that can be edited into a displacement map

if you use any of the blender options (blender render/cycles) you can make procedural textures as MATERIALS and bake them to the displacement map. This also gives you options where repetition of the material can be non-existant, regardless of the area which the material needs to span. Using the NeoTextureEdit method your material will always repeat when it reaches a boundary further than any edge of the image. If it's a seamless image it may not be a big deal that it repeats. If you are going for "as organic as possible" repetition is not something you really want. Imagine a repeating skin texture vs a non repeating skin material.

I wouldn't poo-poo NeoTextureEdit though. It's interface is quite similar to the blender nodes method of making procedural textures. If nothing else it could serve as a good stepping stone...where you play with NTE as almost a simplified overview of what to expect in blender.

[JDSTONE]

you did a hell of a job on this guy. he looks a lot like the new quake guy from the advertising. i have just started to see that add so you made this model and skin fast how long did it take you?

[Dutch]

@reference images

Yep I sure do. I found a decent relaxed t pose online that I actually used to scale the different body parts together. Where it got funny was the armor. Since the armor is obviously going to bulk him up a bit, I pulled the geometry out around the edges of the image.

@blender tender texturing
I like the sound of that, I'll be looking into this tonight hopefully. Thanks for the heads up

[MadGypsy]

do you use reference images in the background? Having something you can "trace" to some degree makes all the difference in the world. I understand that you would be hard pressed to find ranger reference material that encompasses the DaVinci poses you would need but, even just a skeleton image in the proper poses could be a big help.

@gimp - gimp is great if you are an artist that isn't challenged by drawing but learning gimp will be counter intuitive if you don't have the pen skills to begin with. May I suggest another method - learn one of blenders render engines and create procedural textures for your vertex groups. This way, you not only don't have to draw but, once you create a material you can reuse it on any model you ever make by simply importing it from it's original .blend to your current working .blend.

[Dutch]

@gypsy

I've picked out several details I wouldn't mind tweaking a bit here and there, including the very thing you mentioned. And believe me, of the countless hours I spent on this model, at least 5 or 6 of them was spent doing small little tweaks. It's extremely difficult to get it "perfect" (quotations because I realize at my skill level this is impossible). Thanks for the critique. I'll probably leave this current version as it is, but when I incorporate it into my mod I am sure I'll have to make a few modifications.

I'm currently looking at using a more modern model format to remove the nasty deformation inherent to MDLs. IQM is very appealing to me and I've been studying up on it. I'm on the fence about converting to RGB values to add some more color, and possibly upping the resolution just a smidge. I'm hesitant to do this however, because if I over-extend myself on the detail level, this project will take a shit just like riftquake did way back when. That got out of control because I couldn't maintain a level of detail I was happy with.

I'm currently in the middle of a big learning stage, and it's paying off. I know this looks fairly basic (because it is), but there was no way I could have pulled this off a couple years ago. I may be able to take the texture I currently have and step it up without much issue (don't know if you've ever used GIMP, but I equate this to Blender in the texture/photo world...totally free and absolutely outstanding). There's also a couple UV tweaks I want to make. I started thinking about all of this harder after particlebat's observations. This is why I love criticism, it makes me think harder about refining my work process to achieve better results in a similar amount of time.

This model is my test model. I am developing a workflow and fine-tuning it so I can apply it to future models.

[MadGypsy]

constructive critique:

This really is constructive cause, I think your model is great BUT, upon staring at it for a good while, it occurred to me that the shoulders are too flat, which makes him look bobble headish. If you adjust the shoulders to angle up into the neck a bit it could be an improvement.

[Dutch]

Quake Guy 2016 is now QuakeSpasm compatible!

Download Here: Quake Guy 2016 - QuakeSpasm

I have also added this link to the original post.

From the included readme.txt:

With this latest release, the vertex count has been reduced by trimming some of the more finer details (such as the ribs in the thigh guards and the top of the firearm) to allow for compatibility with QuakeSpasm. The Blender file will read 1332 vertices, however, as an exported MDL model, the vertex count raises to 1982. Apparently, there are some discrepencies present in the export process. Nevertheless, QuakeSpasm is hardcoded to accept all MDL models with less than 2000 actual vertices. Engines more faithful than QuakeSpasm (WinQuake, for instance) will still reject this model.

I dug into the QuakeSpasm engine code. Upon seeing the vertex limit had actually been raised to 2000 (from the original 1024) I realized it wouldn't be too difficult to shave a 100 or so vertices.

Have fun Quakers!

[Dutch]

Thanks vegetous!

[vegetous]

Good job!

[Dutch]

Doubling the texture more than doubles the amount of work. Probably closer to quadrupling it. I spent more time texturing than any other part of the project, because modeling geometry, rigging, and animating are a much more straightforward workflow (at least for me). Also, doubling the texture but keeping the original colors looks like garbage. Been down that road a few times and learned the hard way.

Long story short, beefing up the texture was more work than I was willing to do, so I took the old school and formula and milked it for what it was worth. I do encourage you or anyone else interested in creating a modern texture for it if you like. My focus is on cranking out more models of comparable detail and getting into the game logic again.

I appreciate your comments though, and actually do agree with you to a degree. But there was a point I was not willing to cross as far as details are concerned, because I wanted to get the damn thing done. I'm notorious for starting something simple, complicating it over time, and eventually letting it rot in my hard drive.

[particlebat]

@Deatmaster Awesome, good to hear! glad you like it man!

@particle bat You're gonna have to be more specific. God awful compared to what? A brand new video game character? The entire intention of this model was to stay somewhat true to the original. Best way to do that is using the same 255 color pallet the original used, as well as the resolution. Add a little "constructive" to your criticism, otherwise it's simply an opinion.

Well, it would be fine, but it doesn't look good with texture filtering since it just sort of smudges out the details. Since this is a graphical overhaul, I would have at least thought doubling the texture size might have been somewhere on your list. Anyway, the face itself looks like an almost amorphous shape with indents and extrusions, since there is no colour variation at all. Especially from the side, where it seems to almost melt down in a chevron shape.

Keeping the textures the same keeps it more faithful, sure, but when has a higher poly model with textures equivalent to something straight out of Test Drive 3 ever looked good?