Turret ideas

[Pazuzu]

I'm working on a turret model that, hopefully, would be good enough to put in 1.2. So far I've finished the base. The current turret is split into three parts (base, top, and barrel), so I'm doing the same. It's a great way to get around the 1k polycount restriction.
Here's the base (click for full, 1920x1080 awesomeness):

Speaking of polycount, Blender says this is 792 polygons.
Any feedback is appreciated before I start the other parts.

[swamp-cecil]

i like it, however, i unfortunately think it dosent look like a stationry turret base. modify it a bit. AKA make the stands wider and bulkier.

[UniqPhoeniX]

The 'leg' parts should be wider IMO, too thin atm. Make the 'feet' part lower and wider.

[Pazuzu]

Here's an updated version. Somehow, Blender apparently managed to drop it to 594 polys.

[Aelita]

Shorten the legs a little bit.

[UniqPhoeniX]

A lot better! Now the rest of the turret

[jm82792]

Reduce the poly count further by hand.
Merge verticals by selecting two then hitting ALT M.
You will get cleaner results. Now decimate will work too but doing to by hand can optimize it better.
You can use triangles in many places to save on your polycount.
Does trem limit the poly count to 1000 tris or 1000 quads or 1000 verts ??
(seriously I don't know)
Very important to know which one!

[Pazuzu]

Since the 594 is the number of quads and tris combined, it probably shouldn't matter. Polycount, I'd imagine, only applies to polygons, in other words, the faces and not the vertices. And trust me, I already hand-optimized it as much as I could, removing hidden faces and unnecessary subdivisions.

[jm82792]

Sounds good to me, it looks good and matches the poly count

[Pazuzu]

Actually, I just had a thought. If the maximum is for tris, that could mean quads are converted to tris first, before being counted. That's probably not how it works, though.

[gimhael]

There are no quads in MD3, so everything is converted to triangles. The limits are max 1000 vertexes and max 2000 triangles per surface.

[Plague Bringer]

Keep in mind the power that the turret has. It shouldn't look like a miniature cannon because it really doesn't act like one.

[Pazuzu]

Oh, good. I'm easily within both of those for the base, worst-case. And since that's per-surface, like I said, I'll have separate meshes for the actual gun, and maybe barrel. Truth be told, I'm still designing the rest of the turret right now, and juggling that with an actual engineering project for my classes, so the rest might take a few days.

[Haraldx]

590 just for the base? Hmm... I think that's quite much, however the model looks great! I wanna see the gun!

[Tamaru]

590 just for the base? Hmm... I think that's quite much, however the model looks great! I wanna see the gun!

The current turret is split into three parts (base, top, and barrel), so I'm doing the same. It's a great way to get around the 1k polycount restriction.

[Tremulant]

What you've got so far looks really rather good, i too look forward to seeing the actual gun.

[jm82792]

Finish the gun, look up how the thing is added into the game because the turret moves(are there two meshes?) then finally we will get it textured then get it into the game. There a new model that roughly matches the proportions of the old one that shouldn't effect game-play at all. With some nice texture we will have a nice upgrade Well other than aliens getting killed by staring at the new turrets!
Anyways I'll get it textured for you in Blender if you want. I dunno how to get the model, map and such intot he game properly.

[Pazuzu]

I'm not really concerned about whether the devs will include it right now (if they already have a good replacement model, then that's the end of that). I just want to make something that would be good enough to put in a game (even a community-developed open-source one). A sort of "community spotlight" model. And that's why I'm sketching out the rest of the turret before I actually model it, since I want to make it look good.

[freezway]

Nov 06 18:42:06 <freezway>   is the limit 1k verts or faces?
Nov 06 18:42:22 <nosbrain>   verts

[Pazuzu]

Nov 06 18:42:06 <freezway>   is the limit 1k verts or faces?
Nov 06 18:42:22 <nosbrain>   verts

Even better. I've got 470 of those.

[CorSair]

Not wanting to be a lamer, but meh, gimme the gun! The stationary section looks good though.

[Pazuzu]

I'm still sticking to the "OMGCOLLEGE" excuse, but I want to finish this, so I probably will.

[Pazuzu]

This just in: Pazuzu is a lazy bastard!

A lazy bastard that occasionally finishes what he starts. Sometimes.

First one is isometric view, second is perpsective (aka the last thing you see before you die). I can't texture, so this will have to work for now.

[your face]

That looks awesome!  Great work.

[Ingar]

This just in: Pazuzu is a lazy bastard!
A lazy bastard that occasionally finishes what he starts. Sometimes.

Endurance provails!

Nice turret, but it might look even nicer with a round barrel (and a hole in the front)

[UniqPhoeniX]

Keep in mind the turret has to be able to aim 90 degrees upwards, and ~30 degrees downwards. You might also want to make the bottom part larger relative to the turret.

[Pazuzu]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!

This just in: Pazuzu is a lazy bastard!
A lazy bastard that occasionally finishes what he starts. Sometimes.

Endurance provails!

Nice turret, but it might look even nicer with a round barrel (and a hole in the front)

I was planning to round it off later, and IIRC, the original uses the texture to fake a "hole" in the front, so since that lowers the polycount, I thought I'd do that too.

Keep in mind the turret has to be able to aim 90 degrees upwards, and ~30 degrees downwards. You might also want to make the bottom part larger relative to the turret.

Ah, right...

[jm82792]

We need new models for the buildings

[Skywarp]

Post it! 

[Pazuzu]

Post it! 

You mean this?

This just in: Pazuzu is a lazy bastard!

A lazy bastard that occasionally finishes what he starts. Sometimes.

First one is isometric view, second is perpsective (aka the last thing you see before you die). I can't texture, so this will have to work for now.