Authentic Model Improvement

[NightFright]

No worries. I am trying again to get Chillo's adjusted Vore he posted on Twitter two years ago. I still have his email and sent another request yesterday. I guess he is busy with Wrath right now, but considering he is posting voxels like crazy, he should have some spare time for this.

In the meantime, maybe I have a task for you: Chillo's Fiend is great, but for my taste the eyes are too big. Maybe you can apply some skin editing magic to turn the eyes into the narrow slots we know from the id1 model? Dunno if the head gibs need to be adjusted as well, but better take a look.

Direct d/l link for Chillo's Fiend:
http://www.quaketastic.com/files/mod...n_032320_1.zip

[osjclatchford]

this ok?
http://www.mediafire.com/file/3c53j7...ix_01.zip/file
or should be smaller still?

headgib not needed... no eyes on it...

*just updated this to include more original looking teeth and glow in the dark eyes...

[NightFright]

Looking good! Teeth changes help even more to recognize the original model in this. Small changes, big effect!

[osjclatchford]

no worries. let me know if you would prefer a version with the new teeth but without glowy eyes. I now use this with the glowy eyes on my setup (only just swapped to this from the bloodshot model) but I remember you had a version of bloodshot's demon without the glowy eyes before you turned to chillo's model. so let me know what you'd prefer...

[NightFright]

I already saw there's yet another skin variation included with the model. Unless I start having unexpected visions, I think the default will do. For now there are enough changes for another release. Maybe I'll still wait a few more days to give Chillo a chance to reply to my mail, but tbh I am not counting on it.

[osjclatchford]

yes as its wip ive left three skins on that model:

theres a version with the new teeth and glowy eyes.

one thats just the requested smaller eyes (that dont glow)

and chillo's original.

what I was saying is if you want one with the new teeth but without glowy eyes I can make that by combining the two then re-package it with only one skin in it...
I tend to leave the multiple skins in the model when its wip so i can still mess with stuff before im finished...

[NightFright]

Well, I don't remember the Fiend eyes sticking out very much (it almost looks as if it's blind), so maybe small, but not-glowing eyes plus new teeth might be the way to go. One skin will be enough for this one since there are no mission pack variations.

These wip releases are nice, though. You can easily cycle through all available skins with QMV and see the differences quickly.

[osjclatchford]

yes its true the id1 demon.mdl skin has no brightmaps on it. its just something that bloodshot added to his skin and I found I rather liked it. not necassary though so this:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/1h0vke...final.zip/file
is the final version.
it has the smaller eyes as requested. they also dont glow.
and its got the less derpy and more stabby-stabby nang-nang proper fiend teeth you're sure to remeber from those feind pounces that are solidily fixed in all your teenage nightmares...
I've done nothing to the headgib. it has no eyes so needs no work in theat respect. the teeth are all kinds of wrong but I personally dont like the chillo headgib model at all. its just got something about it that i cant put my finger on.
as such thats why ive not done any work to this.
im using the vanilla headgiba s I think its fine but. meh, whatayagonnado?
each to his own... i've still not found a h_demon.mdl I'm happy with as yet...

[NightFright]

Good news: Chillo replied to my mail. Bad news: He isn't sure if he still has the male Vore saved anywhere, but he will check.
Well, at least there's a chance!

[osjclatchford]

that is good news. never thought you'd here anything quake related from chillo again to be honest.
and you've struck a quake nerve with him it seems, just look at this on his recent twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1331114040744050688 LOL

anyway. I made a little skin today.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/xwpshs...d_axe.zip/file
I was playing some arcane dimensions and when going back to regular quake maps I found I really missed the new axe model.
Ive compiled the standard, unbloodied-clean one (simply renaming it to v_axe) and also tweaked the shadowaxe (bloodied one's) skin a bit so it doesn't glow in the dark anymore.

essentially its an alternative model with a choice of either a classic-bloody skin or clean skin. your choice. Ok its not as faithfull as dewarecat's but it does make a nice alternate nonetheless... (pic attatched for those just stopping by)

image_3257.jpg

[NightFright]

Well, the AD axe is a considerable deviation from the original, so unfortunately it's not usable in the model pack, but it's nice to have alternatives to choose from, anyway.

[osjclatchford]

oh, yeah. totally agreed. i just thouht it would be best to post it here as it is +/- a high detailed, yet vanilla-compatible re-interpretation of a classic model so yeah. its just here as an alternative in truth...

[NightFright]

Revision #20 has been released (version numbering is different since we started getting conflicts with similar numbers from previous releases - I am simply counting the amount of releases in total now).

The most imminent reason for this new version was that I had underestimated removing the R1M7 elevator fix for DoE in Rev. #18. Apparently without it, the game is even crashing in QSS, so it's important to have it included. It's a simple edit in newplats.qc (source files have been updated). I did not reapply Seven's buzzsaw fix since that one was meant for Darkplaces only and would actually break the buzzsaws in QSS (and probably other ports) if used.
As you can see in the changelog, there are quite some reversions in this release, too. I went back to dwere's GL/RL models since they fit better with the DoE models and have more faithful looks in general. I followed osj's advice and reverted to Chillo's previous Death Knight and Lunaran's Knight (which also fits better in DoE since we use his model for the statue there, anyway).
Otherwise, Ogre, Fiend and Vore got some reskins by osj and should look even closer to the original versions. Unfortunately, Chillo's hasn't reported back regarding the titty-less Vore model so far, therefore I decided to include osj's skin "hack" - hopefully just as a placeholder.

Download Rev. #20 on Github

Changelog:

• General: Version numbering changed for better overview
• Update: [ROG] Progs.dat refresh #3 (critical R1M7 elevator bug fixed - again)
• Update: [ID1] Chthon, Death Knight and Ogre mdls recompressed with QuArK to save 70% file size
• Update: Models reverted to previous versions
  - [ID1] Knight (+ head gibs) back to Rev. #15 (Chillo --> Lunaran)
  - [ID1] Death Knight (+ head gibs) back to Rev. #18 (Chillo)
  - [ID1] Grenade launcher (+ pickup) back to Rev. #16 (Plague/sock/osj --> Dwere)
  - [ID1] Rocket launcher (+ pickup) back to Rev. #16 (Plague/sock/osj --> Dwere)
• Update: Chillo model reskins by osjclatchford
  - [ID1] Fiend
  - [ID1] Vore
  - [ID1] [ROG] Ogre (+ head gibs)

[osjclatchford]

so, even though plagues models of the gl and rl are clearly superior models, and, with the appropriate skin , are very faithfull to the source material, yet a considerable upgrade. which is the ultimate goal of this endeavour. you've dropped them just so that the mission paks weapons have a consistancy?
that makes no sense to me at all...
mission packs are considered optional extras and oftimes have very different and out of place looking stuff in them anyway so different weapon models should not really be an issue.

I dunno. i suppose to me its like you're upping the consistancy of the models across the packs as a whole, but at the cost of the id pack's quality...


I think the point I'm making is most visible with the gl.
dwere's view model is not really much of an upgrade at all. in truth its little more than standard. which is an issue when the gl has always been the least quality weapon model in the game. just look at deware's ng and sng. MANY changes and added details yet its preferable over the original. plagues model likewise adds more polys and sense of a third dimension and , with my added skin, retains the classic visual theme that makes it fit in with deware's other models.

I dunno, I guess I've seen this before with other folks working on similar projects. you get so hung up on the must be as close to vanilla as possible that you actually loose the 'spirit' of the project.
if you use that as the logical proccess why even bother with new material at all? just use the vanilla models... its a slippery slope that ends in a lot of back and forth between different stuff that often ends in a bland and unexciting finish...

just my 2 cents.

and before anyone should say, its not me saying "use my stuff because I want it in there" you can use whatever you want. that matters not to me.
Its just I really feel that dewares gl is considerably poorer in quality to the one plague and I have managed to create...
as such I fear that the spirit of the project is being lost... and thats a shame


I can't help but wonder whats next to be sacrificed in terms of consistancy over quality...

[NightFright]

Fair enough to say. I knew the reversions would be controversial. Can't make it right for everyone. Maybe I find a more satisfying solution in one of the next releases without having to sacrifice higher quality models. That's why it is a work-in-progress still.

It's just sad there is so little forum activity here. Would be good if there was some input from other people as well, to get a bigger picture.

*UPDATE*
osj, if you can provide skins for the DoE multi-grenade/multi-rocket launcher (v_multi/v_multi2), I may consider going back to the reskinned Plague/sock model in the next revision. (You had already provided a skin for the SoA prox gun, so MP1 is covered.) So far I have come up with this for v_multi2, but it can probably be done better (basically I reused parts of the original skin for this). What should be maintained is the amount of black/yellow stripes and their orientation on the weapons - or at least stay as close to it as possible.

And yes, I need to stop reverting stuff at some point. After we have figured out this thing with the MP2 weapons, I will try hard to only replace existing content if it's DEFINITELY better than what we already have (while still being faithful, even though it's obviously debatable how this is supposed to be defined). Besides the titty-less Vore, I actually would probably call it a day with updating any existing content - then it should only be about adding new stuff.