mechs? other art contributions?

[maackey]

@MCR: I'll get started on some tropical plants then. Perhaps a big banana tree? That should be simple and fun. We used to have some out back before this harsh winter killed everything 

@Mattn: yeah, I know.. in my ideal little fantasy world I would get compensated for my work. I actually don't mind that much what people do with it, but it just feels weird to me that someone can sell something that they didn't make. If I really need to change the license to GPL its not a terribly big deal, but tbh I prefer CC a bit more. Doesn't GPL usually apply to just code? I was under the impression that one could use non-GPL artistic sources with GPL code.
I made my models cc-by-sa (instead of strictly nc) at the promptings of I think it was the ubuntu repository packager on the Spring forums. Primarily because it was "DFSG" and it could be stored in the repositories.
Anyway, all this talk of licenses and stuff is almost as bad as politics or religion  I can make my stuff GPL, but I would prefer cc-by-sa.

@Destructivator: Thanks for offering the help! I'll probably take you up on your offer soon enough As for the modeling program that I use, I <3 wings3d. I am however trying to learn blender, as it does have a few things that wings does not, but the ui is abysmal and the learning curve is so steep its not even funny. So it might take me a bit longer than usual (beware I'm a pretty slow/sporadic worker) but eventually I'll have everything figured out.

[Mattn]

it's not that your stuff must be gpled - but it must be in some way compatible. in general that means that using the content for commericial games/apps must still be allowed - otherwise it isn't really free. in fact the sa license works for us - see http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/License

[MCR]

@maackey:
I hope this means for me that I do not have to make the artwork 4 you anymore 

[maackey]

@MCR: only if you want to but now I've got a reasonable list that should last me a little while at least.

So for my first model I was thinking that I could make a base auto turret. Its not anything like tropical plants, but it does have some functional use.

668 tris.

Any thoughts? Does it need more/less polies? Is the style acceptable? Should I go ahead and start uvmapping/texturing it? How exactly are textures handled in the engine? Keep the texture to 1 uvmap?

I am also curious as to what I need to keep in mind for the animation. Separate pieces for object translation probably, but I'm not quite sure how to show the ammo belts looping. Should they be hollow cylinders that just rotate, or should the texture be repeated/shifted and different pieces would be swapped to emulate movement?

[MCR]

Hey maackey  !
The problem is that I have no banana tree 

Regarding your questions :

668 tris should be okay (just comparing your data with the wiki).

Regarding the textures: You should use sizes that use the power of 2 like 256x256 or 512x512 or 1024x1024. I think png is the currently prefered format for them, you can use tga for sure, please do not use jpg because of artifacts.

Regarding the animation: Everything is possible that is supported by the md2 format AFAIK, so you should provide the whole model in md2 format, but almost all other formats can be converted somehow.
Interesting is the fact that you can provide up to 4 different LODs for your model, but I am quite sure that everything I tell you here, you have already read in the wiki anyway

Regarding your other technical questions: I am not an expert in this field, so maybe others can help...

Regarding the style: I like it, but cannot decide anything here 

[Destructavator]

Regarding animation:  The game uses MD2 files, as mentioned, but also TAG files which are normally only for MD3.  The game also uses vertex-based animation, although for editing and creating the animations it is usually much easier to use a rigged skeleton, which moves the verts, and when the animated model is exported out of Blender (or whatever you're using), it saves the exported vertex movements but not the skeleton.  This isn't a problem though, because once exported the skeleton isn't needed anymore, just the motion of each vertex.

If that sounds confusing, I'll help you along when we get there once the model is finalized and animation starts.

[freegamer]

http://img13.imageshack.us/i/m1color.png/
http://img410.imageshack.us/i/stormhqu.png/

Hey maackey, where do I find these two models?  I wanted to forward them to the linwarrior3d project.  I can't seem to find them in the Complete Annihilation model depot link that you posted.

[maackey]

Oops. Linked to the wrong page... ish. This page opens up if you click on models: http://planet-wars.eu/ModelBase/Models.aspx
And then if you select my name from the list of authors it still should be on the front page (or just search the names for m-1 or m-2 respectively)
Some of the info (like the licenses) is a bit outdated because there is no batch command to change them all. I am working on updating that info and cleaning up the directories (some have unneeded files, or perhaps an older version etc...) so please forgive the mess.