Some suggestions for improved 3D model handling.

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Nerei
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Some suggestions for improved 3D model handling.

Post by Nerei »

First off it would be great if revolving turrets used the pivot point of the turret model instead of 0,0,0 in the scene. It is not so bad on modern MBT's as the turret is located quite near the center of the vehicle but on say IFV's it can be offset quite a bit and in those cases it stands out quite a bit.
If it has changed in recent patches it is possible I have missed it and if there is a way in default.picnums to do this please let me know as it is also possible I have missed it there.
Still I thought I would bring it up while I was at it as it does make some revolving turrets look quite bad.


Regional models would also be nice. We already have regional textures but they can only take you so far.

If you look at say the great war infantry models there are several nice models of different infantry from the different powers. That is great right until you say start trading them to allies. An a-historic scenario where Germany is allied with France and gives her infantry to fight britain would see France fight with infantry wearing pickelhaube and no amount of regional textures could change that.
Air Defence systems operated by different nations can also be mounted on different platforms.

I assume the game already checks for the presence of regional textures before loading them. Maybe add a check for models before that so if the game finds say UNIT9000G.X it will load that instead of UNIT9000.x. Basically the same principle as with textures just with models. Regional textures on regional models would probably not be necessary as it would already be made as say a specific German unit.


Finally more options for regional textures would not be bad either.

I like that it is possible to have say a US F-4 Phantom II look different from a ROK, British, Japanese or Israeli aircraft but it could be taken further. E.g. include the option to name files say U2, U3 etc. and have the game pick from these at random so not every US F-4 looks identical.

This could also be used to further add diversity to the more broad region groups.
Currently I am not going to make say a specific Greek Leopard 2 as the region group Greece belongs to (E) also includes Turkey and Spain both of which operates the Leopard 2.

Maybe add a flag in the cvp file along the lines of UsesRegionalVariants to allow us to lock certain regions to certain regional textures. E.g. set Spain to E2, Greece to E3 and Turkey to E4 and those regional textures could be specific Spanish, Greek and Turkish.
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Demonius
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Re: Some suggestions for improved 3D model handling.

Post by Demonius »

this would be very cool
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Balthagor
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Re: Some suggestions for improved 3D model handling.

Post by Balthagor »

Hi Nerei,

Looks like this request didn't get much reaction. Currently it's not something I'd put high on our priority list. Maybe bump it in a couple months, we'll see if things change.
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Nerei
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Re: Some suggestions for improved 3D model handling.

Post by Nerei »

You can ignore the revolving turret bits as that has been brought up as a bug report on the Steam boards since I posted this originally.


That said this is never going to be something that will win a popularity contest or anything if it is about the number of people actively working with it as it is something that requires using a 3rd party tool like Photoshop and so far I am the only one doing it.

I assume a significant number people does not even have any clue what regional textures even are which is the problem with things like this.
It would probably be easier if I made 10 Eastern European or Middle Eastern MiG-21 textures or maybe a Polish Leopard 2 and asked if people wanted those in-game for their respective countries but that also means making regional textures that are even more pointless than even the most exotic models I have made.


Also with regards to the number of people actively working with regional content I will toot my own horn and say that yes it might only be me doing it but around 80% of regional textures and 20% of models found in the meshes folder are by now made by me and nearly 3,2% of unit designs use those models. Chances are those number wil increase next patch as I have sent Bradley 2 unit packs and a texture pack since last patch.

I can also argue that the Nerei makes strange 3D models thread is related to this and that is approaching 1000 replies.

Basically it might only be me asking for it but even if I am the only one using it you should still get something from it and unless there is a significant change something that carries over into the core game.
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Re: Some suggestions for improved 3D model handling.

Post by YoMomma »

No offence to your work or anything, but if i had a single button to reverse all the models and use all the old ones, i would.

When you post them 100X bigger then ingame, some might be able to tell the difference between the models. For me; 1 i dont care, 2 i cant tell the difference sometimes between unit types and 3 it prolly hurts performance, since not a couple of textures needs to be loaded, but hundreds.
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Nerei
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Re: Some suggestions for improved 3D model handling.

Post by Nerei »

Personally I tend to prefer old-school 2D icons, tokens or more detailed models but we are all different and what art style we prefer is subjective so no I am not taking any offence.


If you want to remove the models all have picnums ID's of 1536 or above.

If you do not care about the UGBITS icons (or maybe if you use 3D icons though I have not checked how those work) the easiest way is probably to change what models default.picnums points towards as well as their scale. As long as you make a backup of that file updating it each patch should only be adding or changing a few lines at worst.

You can probably also use the meshes folder from the XP version available on Steam as that should not include anything from Great War either. If not remember to remove regional textures as those are called by picnums ID not mesh ID.

I do however doubt they are a significant issue when it comes to performance. I personally have never had anything but my CPU be the bottleneck and it is quite a bit better than my GPU.
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Re: Some suggestions for improved 3D model handling.

Post by SGTscuba »

I somehow managed to overlook this.

I've managed to get one model (Trafalgar class sub if anyone is interested :lol: :lol: ) into the "official" release, with another one handed over to be put in. It can be a bit of a challenge to get the textures looking right with the shading engine in the game. I actually find this the hardest part of making the models. Depending on my real life workload, I'll get a mesh made in a couple of weeks, but then spend a couple of months trying to get a decent looking texture (I suck at texturing).

I do agree with you Nerei that having models that change on region would be good as it would add even more variety, i'm just not sure how much effort it would take to implement.
My SR:U Model Project, get the latest and post suggestions here:

http://www.bgforums.com/forums/viewtopi ... 79&t=28040
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