Power armour

[Pikka]

Is this the sort of thing you had in mind for the power armour?

[1][2]
Military special issue power armour, not alien derived.  Kevlar/composite armour panels, powered exoskeleton.

It's a shade under 2000 polys, which I know is overspec but it has a lot of round bits stuck on. :? I'm still working on the textures.

Edit: Male/Urban: [1][2]

[Winter]

Is this the sort of thing you had in mind for the power armour?

Hum. I'm conflicted on it. There's a lot in your model that I like, and some bits I don't like so much.

Things that could use improvement:
1) Obviously the texture needs more work. Solid brown and grey are not eye-catchers. Consider changing the brown to a more exciting colour. White, green or camouflage patterns are possible options to make things more exciting without resorting to unrealistic bright colours.
2) The space helmet.  It's oversized and would be very difficult to fight in. We'd need something that's much more compact and properly hinged to move with the soldier's head. After all, this is 2084, we want things to look sleek.
3) The oversized collar to accomodate the huge helmet needs adjustment as well.
4) I'm not sure about the elf ears on the helmet. They could be explained away, but they're a bit silly-looking.
5) The grey plates on the forearms are much too big, they shouldn't stick out like that.
6) The elbow hinge looks wrong. It should be a ball joint, not a circle joint.
7) There seems to be some rigging issues at the shoulders/shoulderpads and knees, as seen in the crouching figure.
The back of the 'boot' needs more room to accomodate the inside of the knee. It could do with being a touch sleeker in general.
9) I think it would look better if you removed one of the 'holster' pouches.

Things I particularly like are the legs and the way the backpack flows into the rest of the armour. You've captured most of the appropriate feel, you just went a bit too heavy-duty in some places. We will definitely use it if you addressed the issues I've listed.

You've made some good improvements with Male/Urban, that colour scheme works much better for it. I hope you'll consider my comments, and maybe even contribute more models. We badly need them!

Regards,
Winter

[Pikka]

Hehe... and I was worried people would think it looked too lightweight for power armour!  I'll have a look over the next few days at the issues you raised.

2) The helmet.  I didn't think it was much bigger than RL helmets.  It does stick out a bit at the front, 2001 style, I can try pulling that in a bit.

(Remember it's power armour!  everything is servo-assisted, so the bulk doesn't make it difficult to fight in at all. :lol:)

4) The "elf ears" are radio aerials, they're inspired by the original X-COM power armour (which only has one) and the GDI soldiers from C&C2.  And they make the model look a little less bland.

5) The grey plates on the forearms are for melee fighting - kevlar isn't very knifeproof.  I will have to change them though when I fix the elbows.

6) I don't know about you, but my elbows aren't ball joints!  It does look wrong in that pose, but that's because I've animated it wrong.

7) I rigged it very quickly to pose it and I made a few errors.  Speaking of which, is there an official ufo skeleton and animations somewhere, or will I have to make my own?  If it's easiest, I'm happy just to send the model out for someone else to animate and get it into the game.

[Winter]

Hehe... and I was worried people would think it looked too lightweight for power armour!  I'll have a look over the next few days at the issues you raised.

No, it's definitely got the right sense of compactness.

2) The helmet.  I didn't think it was much bigger than RL helmets.  It does stick out a bit at the front, 2001 style, I can try pulling that in a bit.

(Remember it's power armour!  everything is servo-assisted, so the bulk doesn't make it difficult to fight in at all. :lol:)

It's too big on all sides, front and back and on the sides. It doesn't matter if it's servo-assisted -- there will always be a delay in servo-assisted operations, so you want the helmet to be strapped tight to your head and be small enough and light enough that you can instantly see whatever you're turning your head to catch. A form-fitting helmet works much better for that.

4) The "elf ears" are radio aerials, they're inspired by the original X-COM power armour (which only has one) and the GDI soldiers from C&C2.  And they make the model look a little less bland.

Yes, that's what I figured. They just don't look like proper radio aerials. They're more like bits stuck on to make the model look a little less bland.

5) The grey plates on the forearms are for melee fighting - kevlar isn't very knifeproof.  I will have to change them though when I fix the elbows.

We don't use kevlar, as stressed in some of the equipment descriptions. UFO:AI is set in 2084. With ongoing weapon development, kevlar is like paper to the human guns of 2084, let alone alien weapons. The main material for human light armour is artificial spider silk, and the alien armours make heavy use of carbon nanotubes. This armour will likely have spider silk and woven metal at the joints, and hard plates of other high-tech materials, possibly ceramics.

6) I don't know about you, but my elbows aren't ball joints!  It does look wrong in that pose, but that's because I've animated it wrong.

No, human elbows are hinge joints. Which are still not circles, I hasten to point out.  In an articulated suit they would most probably be ball joints to increase flexibility and take into account the funky positions that human elbows can twist into.

7) I rigged it very quickly to pose it and I made a few errors.  Speaking of which, is there an official ufo skeleton and animations somewhere, or will I have to make my own?  If it's easiest, I'm happy just to send the model out for someone else to animate and get it into the game.

Unfortunately we don't have the code to support any model formats with skeleton rigging. You can however find source files in your UFO:AI directory or in our SVN repository with some of the vertex rigs that we use.

Regards,
Winter

[Pikka]

Ah, well there you go.  The forearm plates are hard plates of other high-tech materials, possibly ceramics.

Unfortunately we don't have the code to support any model formats with skeleton rigging. You can however find source files in your UFO:AI directory or in our SVN repository with some of the vertex rigs that we use.

Okay - I've never made an md2 model before.  I'll see if I can work it out, but it may be that I'll have to hand the model off to someone else to finish up.

Oh yes, and I just realised; I did make the helmet bigger, after noticing that the current soldier characters in AI all have very big heads. :lol: So I may be able to shrink it down so it's more realistic (but it won't match the other soldier models then, I think...)

[Winter]

Okay - I've never made an md2 model before.  I'll see if I can work it out, but it may be that I'll have to hand the model off to someone else to finish up.

Fair enough, can't say I blame you. I keep my modelling strictly part-time, mostly because I'm crap at UV-maps and texturing. When you're ready to hand it off, please post the model and texture to this thread -- with a note that you're publishing it under the GNU GPL, and your name and/or nickname for the contributors file -- and we'll take it from there.

Oh yes, and I just realised; I did make the helmet bigger, after noticing that the current soldier characters in AI all have very big heads. :lol: So I may be able to shrink it down so it's more realistic (but it won't match the other soldier models then, I think...)

The heads have been shrunk significantly since 2.0, as they were indeed freakishly big, so don't worry about that. 2.1 will be out tomorrow and fix hundreds of longstanding complaints and missteps.

Regards,
Winter

[Pikka]

Getting better?

[3-view] [pose with fixed arms/legs] [pose without collar or elbow joints]

(edit: made the head another 10% smaller since I took these screenshots)

[Winter]

Getting better?

[3-view] [pose with fixed arms/legs] [pose without collar or elbow joints]

(edit: made the head another 10% smaller since I took these screenshots)

Definitely getting better. The pose without collar or elbow joints is by far my favourite, that's exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for when I wrote the model specs. I'd say you've resolved most of my complaints.

After comparing both poses, I agree that it needs some manner of powered joint at the elbow, but something less clunky-looking than the giant circle-joint arrangement. I think a simple metal ball covering the outside of the elbow would resolve that beautifully.

Regards,
Winter

[Pikka]

Okay, I've made the elbow joints a little smaller and less clunky.  They're still the same basic design though.

I had a look through the documentation, and decided it would definitely be faster to hand this off to someone who's already animated something for UFO, especially since the sofware I use isn't covered by the wiki.  Maybe I'll try to work it out for myself later.

So here is a zip containing the models (in .3ds format) and textures.  They are hopefully to the right scale, and the collar and elbows are separate groups so they can easily be left off if that's what you decide (I'd quite like a version with them on though, for my own use at least .  Don't hesitate to give me a shout if you need help working out what verts are what.

Released under the GPL by moi, David "PikkaBird" Dallaston.

[Winter]

Just thought I'd let you know, Pikka, after some adjustments to the model and texture, we're now working on rigging your armour and getting it into the game. Thanks again!

No word yet on if we'll be able to have transparent visors, it'll depend on how it looks in-game. Unfortunately our engine only supports 0% transparency or 100% transparency, nothing in-between. Either way, the armour will almost certainly make it into 2.2, so keep your eye out for it.

Regards,
Winter

[Pikka]

Great, I'm glad you could use it.

I'm not very experienced at character modeling, I might stick to some simpler objects in the future.

[cyghost2]

The power armor looks sweet!!  *drools*

[Drag D]

I don't want to offend anyone but i think the ears do not look good.
I think only one ear would look better.
The way it is now (two symmetrical ears) reminds me way too much of elves or other fantasy creatures.