Authentic Model Improvement

[NightFright]

I made my "threat" come true and did a rollback on the BSPs (except for the health boxes). Gotta admit it looks a lot better like this. More detail isn't always better. Lesson learned the hard way (one day of tweaking --> trash).

The ID1/ROG rocket boxes still profit from some significant skin optimizations. On top of that, I have refined the plasma cells which hopefully look more polished now and can be accepted as "non-voxelish" replacements. I have really tried hard to make their shapes a lot more interesting. (Besides that, the lower part of b_plas0 had been completely untextured before, which is now corrected.)

Download all reworked BSPs (0.2 MB)

jEqpYLr.jpg
cIqVL8S.jpg X6wWZyt.jpg

[talisa]

yeah that looks a lot better for the DoE plasma, more round-ish details rather than everything being square 90-degrees-angles shapes

[osjclatchford]

they were by no means trash. Im using the rocket ones now.
simply so its not just a flat texture.
but to be honest I'd prefer if they were just the suggestion of shape.
you know, a bit of an octagonal or more cylindrical shape to define the edges of the 'tube' of the rocket, some diagonal lies to create the 'cone' of the top, but leave the 'ring' part the same depth as the tube of the rocket. the fins are fine but the suggestions that talisa said would be greater still.
please dont give up on those, yeah the shells/nails added little but was not trash. consider it practice for the work your doing now. you got any idea how many skin variants i go through before posting here? hell even AFTER posting here LOL (thinking ogre, here )

the plasma ammo is amazing. I never saw any issue with it before but now its even better.

I'm not bothered by the shells and nails either way as I use these:

some edits from ad renamed from mdl to bsp like the dirty,hacky bastard I am.
I merged the lid and small ammo models together so the small have the lid on and the large don't.
I always felt that, when at full speed, the quake ammos were a bit amdroginous and unclear as to what size they were till you'd stumbled over them.
these are much plainer and easier to tell at a glance, lid/square = small, no-lid/oblong = big, red = shells, grey = nails.
like how hte difference between doom's small/large ammo was more obvious.
also use these (also from AD):

for the cells as they have just the right amount of new detail to be interesting. I like how they look less like a big-ass car cell and more like they actually fit inside the thunderbolt somehow...
Look, I know they are useless for this specific project as its all about faithfull authenticity but I guess I just fancied sharing today!

[NightFright]

I guess the general idea for the rocket shape would be something like on the right side, then?

[osjclatchford]

perfection! just needs a domed top and the fins and you can take it to the bank!

cant help but wonder how it would look with just the cylindrical addition. that might even be enough tbh...

[NightFright]

Experimenting with different shapes and detail --> https://i.imgur.com/t1r1eLv.jpg

TBH, the more detail I add, the shittier it looks. Maybe the simple cylinder (right) is really enough. I gotta admit, it looks pretty good already ingame. Dunno if it's necessary to add more details like fins or anything.

Preview of the "cylinder only" version:

QFk7yiM.jpg

[osjclatchford]

that is outstanding!
i'd say you've nailed it. its enough detail to match the level of the the others but not too much to look out of place in the project.
essentially its kinda like we're using quake2 level of details as a bar. if it goes too far beyond that its a bit too much.

so, no. I don't think you need the fins at all. let the graphics on the model suggest at those alone.
well done... best one yet!

so.... link please LOL

*edit*
oh yeah one thing I wanted to say, you know how the id1 rocket ammo has the small box with the small rockets and the bigger box with the fatter rockets. and you did an alternative of the big box with the small rockets for consistancy. (a great idea btw)
any chance that when you do this next release you could also do a version thats the other way round; a small box with the fat rocket in it yo match the big box? that way we'd have lots of choices available, depending on induvidual preference! just an idea...

[NightFright]

So here are the new rocket ammo boxes. This minimalistic approach also made sure we are not going too excessive on the brushes. Performance in big levels with lots of pickups might suffer otherwise (even though I am sure modern PCs should be able to handle it, but anyway).

Download rocket ammo boxes + source (0.1 MB)

Previews:

ZnUhX4S.jpg

Alternate models available:
- Small (multi-)rocket ammo box with large rocket: b_rock0-alt / b_mrock0-alt
- Large (multi-)rocket ammo box with small rockets: b_rock1-alt / b_mrock1-alt

(Most realistic approach would probably be to use small rockets for both box sizes since it's supposed to be 5 rockets per crate. I can picture it much better with small rockets, otherwise some bad-ass magic must be used to make these fat rockets fit in. But that's how id pictured it, apparently.)

[osjclatchford]

You, sir, are a steely eyed missle man!

[NightFright]

I wonder if I should call it a day now with the bsp models. What could be done with the shells/nails/batteries boxes? Add indentations on the top for the grip parts? But then again: Do the models actually profit from that? Making that NIN logo stick out certainly wasn't a good idea, so I certainly wouldn't do that again. Simplicity is king.

[osjclatchford]

yeah you could add the divots to the dark parts either side of the top 'handle' but it would not add much. or perhaps it would? worth a try? up to you I suppose. as I say, i've no real personal invested interest in those models. but options are always welcome.
perhaps the wires on the cells could be embossed?

also, re the rocket ammo. top notch job man. lovely work and, yes I know the big rockets in the boxes make so very little sense, numbers wise, but I just prefer the look of them against the small ones and I like that you can have matching ones now. I mean just look at the size of the shotgun shells on the ammo I'm using, they look fricken huge, man! LOL
no, its all good and the oversized almost cartoon nature of them is ideal for quick recognition.
that being said, the fact that the small have small rockets and the large have large rockets is an obvious design choice by id, so that you can see at a glance which ammo type it is, at any angle...

[Tea Monster]

Try this one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0ndink8vao...ubbyb.zip?dl=0

Those BSP models are storming.

[osjclatchford]

@TM, I opened the shub in qme; it appears to have a different skin, is this your original or new? its very dark is all... also does not eppear to have death anims, although to be honest I couldn't test in game as it wont work with quakespasm, crashes on load... too many verticies I think was the crash report...

[Tea Monster]

That's weird, it works here. Yeah, it's the original skin.

[NightFright]

q1mv also won't open that model for preview, also complains about too many vertices.