Flameball model

[Rad Ished]

I made this mesh to go with the flameball launcher that i know divverent has been coding, I got inspired by the huge glowing spheres to make something with a really wide muzzle.
I am quite happy with the mesh so far, but maybe it has too many polys... 3738 faces in blender , i guess thats a yes.

Goshdurnit, shouldna left it out in the rain i guess... xD
The interesting thing is that it could have been a lot less if i had not made it one continuous mesh, however the consensus with people in the know is that this is the way to go.
Despite.. haha.. none of the models in nexuiz being made this way.. correct me if im wrong but i could not load all of them into blender.
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Here is the .blend along with the pshop file that is very bloated and containing a lot of redundant textures, and also the most recent test texture pictured above:
http://www29.zippyshare.com/v/18617544/file.html
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Please feel free to do whatever you want with it.
Leave that hamster alone.. you know who you are.
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To do: separate out glow and pants and make normals and bumps.

[ai]

but maybe it has too many polys... 3738 faces in blender , i guess thats a yes.

That's a hell yes. Don't try to go over 2000 tris. Some models I think have more than 2000 tris but still, if you can keep it below that's awesome. I think 1000 is a bit too low as much details and stuff will be hindered, and certain ideas won't go at all as it would look too polygonal.

The interesting thing is that it could have been a lot less if i had not made it one continuous mesh, however the consensus with people in the know is that this is the way to go.

Who said that? If someone said that then that person clearly isn't familiarized with game models. Use just as many separate objects as you want, it doesn't matter if it's one continuous mesh or composed of several pieces. In fact, several pieces would even be better as you can control how much polygons is on that particular object, rather than being constrained to a fixed amount.

[halogene]

The more I look at this model the more I like it. I think this has really evolved beautifully. Nice work, Rad!

[divVerent]

I'd like to see it ingame too.

Can you export it as md3 with the trigger at the origin, and save it over the existing model as v_fireball.md3?

[Sven]

i love it

[Flying Steel]

Who said that?

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

But looking at the mesh, I don't think I was understood exactly, I probably wasn't clear enough.

The large parts of the mesh should be made into one initially, as was done with the intersection of the radiator(?) cylinder middle section and the big nozzle at the front, this is good imo. And most of the intersections look like they came naturally through extrusions, which saves polys.

The fuel injectors can be separate to start with though since the parts where they attach only cover a small surface.

It seems like there are too many cylinders in the front though, in the mouth of the gun, which are fairly high poly to start with.

Finally, the model doesn't need to be one solid mesh when you are done, I find that when you separate any edges that are about a 90 degree angle, the shading artifacts, that normal mapping can't fix, disappear.


But all that technical stuff out of the way now, it is indeed a beautiful and fitting model.

[ai]

I haven't taken a look at the model in Blender, but just to put it out there. There really are no rules as how to build a model, as long as it looks good and fulfills its purpose, along with not having tremendously more poly's than necessary.
Whether an object is extruded (continuous) or not all depends on the model, the look and what one is trying to convey.
One guideline for game models though, make use of every vertex and every face on the model. Don't make more than what is needed. This guideline can actually be applied to all models, not just game models. If you can do without an extra face or two without losing (too) much, or any detail then go for it.

Note, I'm not saying how to build this specific model, I'm just saying what one should keep in mind when building them.

[Rad Ished]

ok i got some ingame pics , but can't get the texture in there yet:

[Flying Steel]

I haven't taken a look at the model in Blender, but just to put it out there. There really are no rules as how to build a model, as long as it looks good and fulfills its purpose, along with not having tremendously more poly's than necessary.

I would just add that in addition to having fewer polys being a good thing in and of itself, it is better to not have too many large surfaces covering other surfaces, pointing in the same direction so that backface culling doesn't get rid of them. That's what I was trying to get across.

ok i got some ingame pics , but can't get the texture in there yet:

That isn't your in game texture settings that's causing that? The character model there looks almost untextured for some reason. It seems like only the parts of him that are not team colored are rendering with texture detail?

[ai]

Well backface culling, or 'normals' as it is also called, need to point in the same direction, outward. If it points inward the faces could be invisible. However, depending on the format it might not be a problem and also if it is a problem it could potentially be fixed with a shader, adding a line that would allow to see the model no matter of the normals.
However, normally they are pointing outward so no matter if faces are overlapping or not it wouldn't be a problem. One can also delete the faces that are not visible or hidden within the model.

@Rad Ished:
I would think you need to place the texture in the same folder as the model. But depending on your settings in the .md3 it might be a different place. I for one put my textures in /textures/SomeFolder/MaybeEvenAnotherFolder...WhoKNows

If you have a hex editor you could edit the .md3, or if you created this one based on .smd model then converted to .md3. Then you could specify the location of the texture in that .smd file (or see current, and current is the same folder as the .md3).