project 'perch'

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 7:03 pm

am back in rivoch on weekend. planning to spend most of it with the perch.
test things, find a final solution for the reflections, then straight forward again.

i'd love to have that plug in the neck to speed things up.

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 4:35 pm

spacemen, (& ladies)

it works. when the simple things are that close.
add 'customizable smudge, fingerprints and blood on the windscreen' to the you'll get list.

dunno..maximilien and others who mod on mesh lvl; since you put that amazing lvl of detail in your cockpit.. little decay, etc <3, try it.
ccpitlights might be cool for scratches, actually a proper replacement for the frost layer.
ccpitreflect to simulate rotten tint or burn marks? (:
in combination.. uhah. dirt!

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 8:05 pm

preorder now and make sure you receive one fabulous..
mug!
with your cockpit.
from rivoch.

content may be hot.

Accountant · Post by **Accountant** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 11:14 pm

Does the cockpit have a cupholder to put the mug in? I hear the best cockpits have cupholders

-Accountant

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 10:03 am

that would only be consequent, hu? (:
am currently tyring to guess if g-forces could take over the job of a french-press coffee machine. and if consuming it in cockpit happens intravenous or oral.

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:30 am

the mug counter tells me you are ignoring its content .

salve.

texture jobs for console, chair and some thingies is done.
added dual cartridge high pressure coffe injector with chair bound pipeworks in the rear.
added external tungsten compound frame for extra depth and stability.
the internal frame is a pain to texture due to its twists and shape. i want its textures to follow its structure (which will enable you to turn it into distortion free bambus, if desired). half done.
some hydraulics still to model.

depending on the weather (spring feels different with 30+ and may catch my attention), leto may get the prototype within ..mhm.. a week, max.

stay tuned.

forgot a picture /o\\

thats spartan in our brand new nanofiber look. you can expect it to look like this (possibly better) in game. (using AA will be a big plus.)
the yellow thingy is a roughly textured seat mount stearing assistance/g-force compensator unit .

[Edited on 3-22-2012 by ijon]

Post by **Marvin** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:32 pm

What about the handle for the ejection seat?

Twilly Frost · Post by **Twilly Frost** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:35 pm

Mmm...it's good...but could you make it spaceshipier? More, you know, like "KA-BLOWEE" and less "KA-BLAMMO".

If that makes no sense, congratulations, you're normal.

Can't wait buddy, this is shaping up nicely.

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 4:15 pm

ejection handle is a good point. although right now it would smash you into the top bar.

i'll build something.

regarding the look i'm not 100% sure yet. i find the obligatoric steal look and glossiness a bit boring, while this looks quite smooth in the studies. the inner frame has a similar material, making it appear light weight with only soft reflections.
current seat is black denim in stainless steel. even less spaceshipier? (:
seeing it a rather pragmatic way (what would i expect from a cockpit) glossiness and lots of reflections wouldn't be it. now this has to be balanced with 'looking good in a game'. for my taste.

i'm also setting up (trying to) most of the uvs in a way that you can change which ever surface you want to change. you'll be able to texture-mod that mod nicely.

Accountant · Post by **Accountant** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:49 pm

hahaha, love the coffee button. Looking very nice!

-Accountant

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 2:57 am

(: coffee doesn't dehydrate the body, else i'd be dust allready.
kafka

to give you an idea of the mod's modability:

the speed you achieve this will depend on how fast you can shuffle a layer in your image manipulation program.
the wood texture is the same on booth wood looks, just rotated 90Â° and tiled.
on the frame this has its limits. patterns. you'll not be able to draw a smiley on it. effort...
on most other components you'll be able to do so.

the black squares are reinforced nodes. untextured, atm.
but not only. no no. they contain micro charges to rip your cockpit appart for safer ejections.

i'm a bit lost with the handle since the computer covers a good chunk of the look downwards. its pretty much above your legs where the chair ends.
the roof is to high and beside the seat appears a bit displaced.
if i tell you, the ejection handle is below your computer, would you trust me?

yarr?
a dedicated dangerous looking button on the spartan is doable though.

[Edited on 3-23-2012 by ijon]

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 5:08 am

From post: 133680, Topic: tid=9020, author=ijon wrote:if i tell you, the ejection handle is below your computer, would you trust me?

I would if you said it was below your monitor screen ... somewhere along the top row of your keyboard.

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 11:49 am

didn't take me as long to get that one as the tie

the spartan got moved a bit. the ejction handle is where one would expect it.

pilotes, ladies, aliens.
it might interest you as well that the cockpit entered closed beta (that sounds marvelously important) and is about to get finnished. since i'm not alone anymore, i'll not announce any dates but the obligatoric soon(tm).

soon!
(:

Post by **DaveK** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 7:10 am

From post: 134032, Topic: tid=9020, author=ijon wrote:pilotes, ladies, aliens.
(:

Hope Cindy and Kat don't read this or you are hot dust!

I love the cockpit - can't wait to try it

Twilly Frost · Post by **Twilly Frost** » Fri Mar 30, 2012 3:25 pm

/paces around the office

closed beta...closed beta....

/paces

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 11:57 am

i have to backpedal a bit with the windows. they are still incuded with separate textures and (imo) add a decent weee to the optics
but its not as pretty anymore as my prototype. smudges, dust and dirt flair, yes. but all on a very subtile lvl. fancy burnmarks have to be cancelled. sorry for raising these expectations. blizzard style!

this leads to 2:
the cockpit will be optimized for the shaders i can touch and rather high detail settings. (although meshwise its still sleak compared to the alternatives)
not entirely sure i wrote that allready, but one important approach for me was to make use of the 3d view. so beside a clear and compact design its based on more or less hidden things that will show up only in mouselook, flying manuevers.
why do i write that: this allows to reduce the meshload quite a bit and if there is a demand for an open cockpit, feeding older hardware, i'm willing to build a 'light' version, too. after releasing this one, a break, the dokus and if there is demand. (est 2050)

beware of the diablo.

edit..

what you get in exchange are normal maps and a better control over glossyness.
what does it mean? you'll be able to draw a screw, for example, and give it depth in game. simply put you'll be able to control that depth via grey scale. depending on your pov this may simulate a high detail mesh to a degree that the screw looks modeled. i think its a fair deal.
i'm not sure how tidy the unwraps will be for release but i'll expand the texturing options and work that over after the EM expansion. so be carefull when i say 'easy texturing of all surfaces' as well.

if you want to prepare allready, get the gimp. its free and we will speak the same language when it comes to 'how to'.
for the modelers: i made up my mind about source files and think the max files are a bad idea. xforms will be reset, all stacks collapsed and several loops destroyed in favour of ploycount. + the danger of missing dlls, version conflicts, etc.

so what would be adaequate? obj/ fbx? blender can handle that afaik, what about the other plattforms used out there?
it will still take some time still; just let me raise these questions before i forget it. if you are unsure, give me a list of file formats your modeling tools can import.

[Edited on 4-2-2012 by ijon]

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:26 pm

You've bitten off quite a bit, here. Especially since you're targeting other modders ... allowing us to add parts in 3D. Very cool ... but expect clueless modders like me to be asking a lot of questions. Either that, or include an in-depth ReadMe with the download. Standing by for the finished product. And good luck.

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:43 am

(: yup. dangerous. but that rabble keeps me going. i suffer the infamous 90% phenomenon and have a bazillion unfinnished personal projects. this one will be finnished.

i'm happy with the model, rearranging some uvs to keep the promises. getting some order into the chaos.
next on schedule is separating text and vectorlike grafics from the main textures so i can provide 2 resolutions; 2048 and 1024px.
512 will be tricky, i'll try though.
2048 is what i'm working on. this map will contain all textures beside separate window textures, an illumination layer for the gauges and the pngs you know for the 3 main gauges as well.
said map will come in 3 versions, diffuse (general look), specular (glossiness) and something purple for the bumpmaps.
you'll have to change all 3 for a decent result but i'll explain how.
and the reflections still arn't done. :/

leto is working on the hud and experimenting with the rest

beside a little 'where is what' i'm trying to narrow down how deep such tutorials should be. i'll keep it simpel but will answer questions as well for sure.

Letoras · Post by **Letoras** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 10:30 am

Yes amigos!!!!!!
I am putting my hands into this lovely cockpit and i am finishing the first version real soon.
Had some hard times at work so i was delayed...

I have two versions on my mind, will start with the first one for feedback and ideas.

:D

ijon · Post by **ijon** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 8:33 pm

o/

3 pages of rabble should be easy!
i hope you guys had a pleasant egg hunt.

a release within 1-2 weeks is doable but not promised. leto is doing interesting things and that may lead to further changes in the unwraps.
we'll take the time and you won't regret waiting. well, thats hope but it usually dies last. (:

what has been done the last days:
*2 very different looks based on textures. i'm so absolutely not sure wheather you get both or one. or none!..and what not /o\\
*gauges from hell
*square texture sections with 99.9% straightened uvs for 'on the fly' texture modding of the general look; targeting beginners
*free space on the uvw map for additional textures and geometry

*stuff

do rabbits make a noise?
insert that here. and greetings from rivoch!