Some weapon models to crit

[ArchangelTalon]

Nice models, a good amount of detail for pretty decent polycounts.

The photo-reffed textures look a bit off. Some of them look like they've been photographed under different lighting conditions, e.g. on the first three, the stock is quite ambiently lit where the bodies are generally pretty shiny and have a very visible light source.

[SnowFella]

Yeah, that's part of what I have been trying to paint out. On the frist one the stock is handpainted and the 2nd and 3rd have the top of the stock painted in by hand. As for the really noticeable lightsources on them I've tried dulled it down quite alot compared to the photo reference used.

[LOOM]

not really any complaints from me about the modelling, maybe some parts a little messy -but overal not bad :)
I think you could of gotten away with a higher tri count and modelled in the grooves on the foregrip/ris?(i forget what the damn things are called.) on the m4 and Hk.

As for the texturing, you havent done too bad for using photos - but in the end they are missing that crispness and vibrance that handpainting gives them.

;)

[HellBoy]

the last rifle is my favourite, 2nd and 3rd model are good too

overall, well done m8 :thumbsup:

[mindrot]

Weapons are never boring. I really love seeing quality weapons (like these) posted. Actually you don't really see too many posted here.

I think they could really benefit from some normal maps- would bring them to life even more.

~M~

[SnowFella]

Thanks guys.

@Loom: I tried modeling in the cuts in the RIS but it added all to many polygons, if I remember right it was around 800 polys for the HK416. The max "limit" for the engine these are for is around 4500 tri's so I didn't really want to take models up all to much over that mark.

Think the reason I don't handpaint more of the textures is because I more or less suck at it :shrug: All markings however I generally tend to erase from the photos and redo by hand and most areas go through alot of editing/overpainting to correct problems.

Here's an example of what the texturemaps generally look like once I'm done.

http://www.snowfella-modworks.com/pics/diemacomapping.jpg

It's the main map for the below model, kinda messy in areas and with some wasted space here and there.

http://www.snowfella-modworks.com/portfolio/razor/RE-diemaco2.jpg

The base for the reciever texture looked like this before I started making changes to it.
http://www.snowfella-modworks.com/pics/162_6297.jpg
http://www.snowfella-modworks.com/pics/162_6296_r1.jpg
@mindrot: Unfortunately the engine only supports colour maps and some very limited hardware T&L settings. The models are for a simulator called VBS1 and it's more or less just an "updated" to Operation Flashpoint engine. I call it a simulator instead of a game as VBS1 is used by among others the USMC and Australian Defence force as a training tool.

[requiem2d]

Looking good considering you used photo-tex's. The only thing is that they imho fail to bring out the detail of the model, when I first saw the images I had expected half the poly-count then you had listed. The photo textures can really flatten a model like that I guess.

However, it is for a simulator as you've said so it will by all means fulfill it's purpose. Not exactly the requirements of an action shooter where "gun porn" is required.

Keep up the good work :)

[JesseMoody]

Yeah if these were for say Battlefield 2 the "Gun Porn" would be great! Guns and weapons need to really stand out and the textures have to be phenomenal now in todays new games.

These are good but I think the textures could be seriously worked on and these would become great.

[LOOM]

I hope you dont mind doing a little edit on your textures :S ( no disrespect at all)

since you have the photo texture layed out with basics - you can really start to bring out the vibrance. Aswell - the game engine is limited to diffuse maps only, so it is great to simulate shine... eg :

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v389/loom/sf_edit.jpg

1. all i have done is go over your texture with a white soft brush, set on low opacity on Overlay. ( and a bit of the opposite colour for shadows)

2. Since you dont have enough free polys for the grooves, you could try adding more shadows and highlights to bring out a "bevelled" look.

hope you dont mind :)

[SnowFella]

Don't mind one bit mate, I asked for crits as it's really the best way to learn :thumbsup:

At the risk of sounding defencive though, I originally had higher highlights on the textures to as you say bring out some more vibrance and it looked great in 3dsm. Once I exported the models into the game I found it however had some serious drawbacks. The strong highlights looked very misplaced during "night ops" :sad: Showing up near self illuminated through nightvision.

Even though the engine only supports colour maps and some limited hardware T&L it does have a realtime passage of time, start a mission at dusk and play long enough and the "sun" will set. It more or less forced me to make the textures with only subtle highlights.

I'm soo looking forward to the next generation of this engine as it should have proper dynamic lighting and support for additional texturemaps.

@requiem2d: very true about the "gun porn". Doubt a service man using it as a training tool will throw a tantrum because the weapons doens't look flash enough, even from the 1st person view. The only real requirement is that the models can be easily recognised from a distance for identification purposes.

[Headless]

Some really quality work here. :thumbsup:

I'd agree with what others have pointed out; because the textures are photo sourced you have a disparity between the lighting and colour balance of the different gun parts. You might be able to eliminate this to some degree by copying the texture to a new layer, setting the blending mode to colour, then running the High Pass filter on the underlying layer ( Filters > Other > High Pass). High Pass flattens your lighting, just don't overdo it as it'll nuke some of the lighting details that you want to keep. You'll probably have to do some brightness/contrast adjustment after running the High Pass filter. You also might be able to centralize the colours a bit more by adding a third layer ontop, filling that with a block of colour (say blue or green), then playing with the blending modes (like say, overlay or maybe colour again), and opacity. These things may work, they may not, but they're really quick to do so they might be worth a shot.

Again, as other people have said, the poly count is pretty high for what they are. The wires are nice and clean but you might want to reconsider your poly distibution. For example, you only use 3 steps for the curve in your magazine, yet you use tons of polys for little details on the sights where you're not likely to notice the difference. Also think about what will get seen in-game. If they're first person view models then you can optimize anything down near the barrel end and keep anything close to the sight area high poly. You can also really optimize the trigger grip since it'll be obscured by the hand.

Another thing you might want to consider is not creating the guns as a single solid mesh. Alot of games like say Counter-Strike don't bother wasting polys on welding in details. It used to be the case where you needed to make sure everything was welded because game engines sucked at sorting out which poly should be rendered infront of which other poly, but all those z-sorting issues have been solved for quite a while now, so it's not all that important, especially on static meshes like this.

Anyway, like I said, really solid work. Very impressive. :)

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.