Alien Tank designs ideas and proposals

[TrashMan]

Because it's a great example of anti-realism?

[kurja]

and because it is, we should have more unrealistic stuff?

[Crystan]

and because it is, we should have more unrealistic stuff?

Yes please, i dont care if its unrealistic as long as the description sounds "realistic" resp. makes sense. Btw anti grav isnt unrealistic. We use some primitiv methodes already today - Quantum Levitation for example. Iam sure aliens are capable of developing something that is usable "in the field".

[TrashMan]

I'm a stounch propenent of as much beleviability/versimiltude as possible (note: it's not the exact same thing as realism), but gameplay and "the cool factor" should never be ignored either.

Flying bricks with anti-matter engines aren't really any more "real" than flying brick wiht anti-grav.

[TrashMan]

I'm texturin the UGC now..any ideas on how to animate it?

I'm thiking one animation for start of movement (the little wobble a veichle does when gaining momentum)
One for for stopping
One for moving.

Turining left/right? (for wheels)
turret?

[H-Hour]

Check the wiki for character animation information. We don't support the animations you describe (start/end of movement, turning), but if you include them they'll be there for the future if we ever do incorporate them.

[TrashMan]

Oh I have read that, but I didn't see anything specifying what your plans for UGV's are, so I was asking if you want any extra animations..or if UGV's have different animation sets.

Good to know.


Also, any way I can get my hands on a fully animated human soldier (with skeleton) in 3D max or blender?
I want to try making more animations.

[H-Hour]

I am unable to open the .max files provided by Origin for the new female and male soldiers. I believe he's using a plugin or just newer software than my 3DSM supports.

[TrashMan]

Send it over to me. I got several version of 3D Max installed, including 2011 and 2012.
 

[H-Hour]

You want to look at female.max and male.max.

[TrashMan]

Right....as I am now texturing hte UGV, and I'm gonna naime and export it when I'm done, I figure we need ot break down some basics.

As it is, a UGV only needs 1 frame of animation, since nothing it does actually requres any animation.
Turining? Done by the engine.
Turret? engine.

Death? Hmm.... normally I'd just say you play a nice, big and concealing eplosion effect and remove the model. Works and can be prettified later.
I'd propose a short and simple "fall apart" animation that is played the same tiem as hte explosion effect, and once it's done, the model is replaced with a destroyed model.

Apart from that I really dont' know. I guess I could probably animate the sensor dome to rotate in a loop or something.

And I don't think it's specified how the turrets would be attached (how would the attachment point be determined?)

[headdie]

In the discussion for the buggy drone I have in the works I think we discussed the possibility of handling the turret as a head object but not sure if anything was decided

[TrashMan]

Yo...question..animated maps are supported?
I just got to the tank threads and I realised I better repalce them with wheels, cause I din't think it will look good without animated maps.

Hm...but even if we did have animated maps....wouldn't they be on all the time? So the threads would turn evne when standing still...

Hmm...can a model support more than 1 map? (as in 1 texture for teh chassis, 1 for the tank threads)

[Crystan]

What do you think about to put a particle effect under the hover tank in case animated maps are not supported?

[H-Hour]

Turret? engine.

Ideally, you should place a tag_weapon and animate it's position for the relevant firing animations, so it looks like it is recoiling. (The actual weapon barrel could be a second model attached at the tag_weapon position, but the weapon will not be animated -- just the tag position.)

Death? Hmm.... normally I'd just say you play a nice, big and concealing eplosion effect and remove the model. Works and can be prettified later.

I'd propose a short and simple "fall apart" animation that is played the same tiem as hte explosion effect, and once it's done, the model is replaced with a destroyed model.

Unfortunately, it does not work. Not with our current implementation. I don't thikn we can spawn a particle effect on death (explosion). And we don't remove the model. We use dying animations and a final dead frame, so that the death animation should end in a destroyed state. Then you can specify this destroyed state set of frames in the .anm file.

And I don't think it's specified how the turrets would be attached (how would the attachment point be determined?)

Look at the tag information in the wiki. The turret would be attached as a weapon, and if you want to simulate a recoiling barrel, you'll want to make just the barrel the weapon tag, because you can animate the tag position but not the weapon model itself.