New Rocket Launcher

[Winter]

Okay so to be clear, you are talking about a weapon system that is purely a gun, there is no rocket motor, just a fin stabilized round that travels down range out of inertia, right? What was confusing me then was the trail of smoke the current 'missile launcher' produces as its projectile flys through the air; I guess you intend to remove that effect in the future.

Hm, that is a point, but I think we're just going to have to live with it for now. We don't really have anybody working on new particles, or (as far as I'm aware) experienced in creating particles. In the future we might come up with some guided, rocket-propelled rounds with better accuracy to 'update' the launcher with alien tech to get the current particle accurate again.

The question is then, should this model have both the cartridge intact and the fins deployed (which would probably never be the case both at once) or just one of the two?

Cartridge intact, fins retracted makes more sense for stored ammo.

Cartridge gone, fins out makes more sense for the weapon in flight on the battlescape.

My thinking was, the fins are spring-loaded and retract when being stored. Having the fins out helps increase the visual effect. However, I suppose that practically the fins would be locked inside -- perhaps even hidden inside the cartridge -- until the shell leaves the barrel. That's fine with me.

Regards,
Winter

[Flying Steel]

My thinking was, the fins are spring-loaded and retract when being stored. Having the fins out helps increase the visual effect. However, I suppose that practically the fins would be locked inside -- perhaps even hidden inside the cartridge -- until the shell leaves the barrel. That's fine with me.

So then will this work--

[Winter]

So then will this work--

Sure, as long as there's a 'seam' painted or engraved onto the cartridge to show where the propellant stops and the shell begins.

Regards,
Winter

[Flying Steel]

Okay so how's this--

[Mattn]

i like them - if that counts

did you upload your source files somewhere already and i've missed that?

[Winter]

Okay so how's this--

Not bad, but can you make the coloured stripes contiguous? That is, one solid block of colour-coding without bare metal in between the stripes.

Regards,
Winter

[Flying Steel]

@ Mattn

Thanks, and yes it does count.

I'll upload everything as soon as final approval is given on the ammo. Looks like it will be 11mb including source files, is that not too much?

BTW, I'm not sure what to do about your 'roughness' map though; I don't really know how your engine will interpret it.

@ Winter

Do you think this is good to go then--

[Mattn]

I'll upload everything as soon as final approval is given on the ammo. Looks like it will be 11mb including source files, is that not too much?

no, that is not too much - it's oik for data_source

[Winter]

@ Winter

Do you think this is good to go then--

Sure, looks good to me. Unless you're feeling very generous and want to put some kind of border on the top and bottom of the colour code so it blends in a little better with the rest of the shell?

Regards,
Winter

[Flying Steel]

How's this?

[Winter]

How's this?

Good for me.

Regards,
Winter

[Flying Steel]

Alright then, here's the Source Files.

The gun and shell models are in different layers of the same blend file. I created a tentative roughness "map" (only 1x1 pixel) for each model which basically just sets material settings to something that I think should look similar to the renderings I've posted throughout this thread, but I really don't know.

[Mattn]

applied it to data_source - thanks a lot

can you also export the md2 models?

[H-Hour]

Jumping in late here. It looks great, especially with the dirtied texture. One thing I might recommend would be to use slightly less bright reds/yellows/purples. Increasing the grey in the color just a bit can help make them settle into the overall scene a little more smoothly.

But that's not really something you need to revisit on this launcher. Just something to think about in the future. Or disagree with.

[Flying Steel]

@ Mattn

Sure, but do you have a particular scale you'd want the gun to be before I converted it to an in game format? Like how many units long should this thing be?

@ H-Hour

The same issue occurred to me, mostly with the antimatter one, but the thing is I am not sure how and where these will appear in game. So the color saturation might be important for making them distinguishable at a distance in low light for example. Or it could still be too much.

Desaturation is really simple though, you can apply it to the whole unlayered diffuse textures and it will only effect the painted areas (the metal parts have no color anyway). It's just a matter of knowing how far to adjust it for the setting.

The same goes for the Roughness map.