[Weapon] Flak 18 (8.8 cm) [WIP](WW2)

[Ratface]

Ok, this is where I am at. I went through, detattched some things, took out some polys where I didn't need em, and reattached them (such as the little hooks and such on the legs, the main foot plate on the feet, ect).

Let me know what you think of this. Maybe a couple more things then I will have another go at UVing, and I'll to a practice texture myself (good photoshop practice! haha).

Polys: 3,155
Tris: 6,812
Verts: 3,644

p3d.in - flak_almost_done

[sweedensniiperr]

boner, evry tiem.

[Microwaife]

Wow man, I don't know anything about modeling, but this is looking great!

THE DETAILS!

[Rhino]

Looking good on the whole modelling wise, can't speak for accuracy but a few small optimizations and fixes I spotted at a quick look over the model:

This bit needs to be welded up otherwise will zfight:


Same for these bits, and the middle handle support bits on the bottom right need a different smoothing group from the main outer wheel handle, possibly do and the SGs just got screwed up on upload but just encase since they are screwed up a bit now:


small optimization here welding these verts to these corners since they are not needed:


and same for these ones on all sides.



Other than that looks pretty good at a glance, some small bits are a bit poly heavy for their size but not a problem since your model is pretty low poly and easily cut down on the lods

[Ratface]

Awesome, thanks Rhino! I'll work on it a bit and check out the rest of the model if I find anything else similar. Many thanks!

[paul161616]

wow that is bonafied bad ***. hope you find the time to include another piece of yours into PR once youre done with this

[lucky.BOY]

some things i found on a quick glance:

http://i.imgur.com/yRFQOST.jpg

connect the two verts with the red edge (and on the other side too), should help with smoothing.


http://i.imgur.com/2ZZOpgE.png

[Ratface]

Ok, here are two versions of it after tweaking, ignore the smoothing groups on the mount at the top back corner, I forgot to get those right before uploading

Shielded
http://p3d.in/Pn34F
Unsheilded
http://p3d.in/xFchd

[Ratface]

Hello, long time no see

As a quick question, does anyone have any good references/tutorials for packing? I'm looking some up now but any recommended ones would be grand...

many thanks!

[Ratface]

[Arc_Shielder]

Looking forward.

[3===SPECTER===3]

If you take a look at my FMK mine thread in community modding, Rhino gives some good tips and tricks. As for actual tutorials: I started here "http://blip.tv/cgtuts/next-gen-weapon- ... e-2477867" and rhino gives some good tuts I think in that thread also

[Ratface]

Thanks! I'll be looking at them this week for some more practice then!

Here is my quick update, not as big as I wanted yet but everything is UV mapped, just needs packing, minus the shield, which is already packed.

Unshielded:
p3d.in - flakfinalnoshield

Shielded:
p3d.in - flakfinalshield

[Ratface]

Quick question:

We have decided (for now) that we will unwrap the shield onto it's own texture sheet, and the cannon onto its own, as to not waste as much space and to keep the texture details between the shielded and non-shielded cannons similar.

While I will be using a full sheet for the cannon itself (more than likely), I only need a half sheet for the shield section.

What is the best way to unwrap to a 1024 by 2048, or anything in that scale? Not saying that the texture will be that big obviously, but just as an example. At the moment I am unwrapping onto (what I think is) a about half of the sheet square, then rendering at the desired dimensions the texture artist wants. The only issue is that this stretches the UV map a lot.

I will continue playing with it for now but any advice would be great, thank you!

[Rhino]

Quick question:

We have decided (for now) that we will unwrap the shield onto it's own texture sheet, and the cannon onto its own, as to not waste as much space and to keep the texture details between the shielded and non-shielded cannons similar.

The only reason to really consider this approach is if its likley that the non-shielded versions is going to be used on its own on a map, with no shielded versions on the same map.

If they are both likley to be used on every map they appear on, or if the shielded version only is going to be used on the map, then your best off having it all on one sheet.

While I will be using a full sheet for the cannon itself (more than likely), I only need a half sheet for the shield section.

What is the best way to unwrap to a 1024 by 2048, or anything in that scale? Not saying that the texture will be that big obviously, but just as an example. At the moment I am unwrapping onto (what I think is) a about half of the sheet square, then rendering at the desired dimensions the texture artist wants. The only issue is that this stretches the UV map a lot.

I will continue playing with it for now but any advice would be great, thank you!

For an object like this you shouldn't have a sheet size over 1024x1024, at least for the main cannon. If you have an extra shield texture on top then an extra around 512x512 texture would be required, although may need to go down to 256x256 to be the same pixel ratio as the main weapon.

[Ratface]

Awesome, thanks for the advice Rhino, I'll get back to getting things working right and get back to an update/ more questions soon. If anyone else had anything to add I'm all ears, will check back again soon.

[Ratface]

Alright, it's been a while, but UVs are almost done and I've tweaked a little more on things. Here is a little preview including a mock crew for fun! This includes the ammo box, the ammo itself, and the cannon (now with a sight for the gunner).

Any feedback would be awesome, although I realize it may be a little hard with the crew, but I thought that'd be fun to add in haha! Crew measure 5'10" in height, and tweaked things according to them as far as the seats and such go. Thanks!

p3d.in - flak crew

[Kovanaama]

Awesome man... awesome.

[Ratface]

Alright, after a long time I have worked and attempted another UV map! I hope this looks better, I do realize there are slight holes but I did my best to fill em up. We decided to go ahead and put the shield on its own UV map at half size (not shown). Feedback would be awesome, many thanks!

(Note, shield UVs are stretched due to half-sheet, ignore this)

https://scontent-b-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hph ... 7469_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hph ... 0969_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hph ... 3217_n.jpg

[Rhino]

nice, but tbh your packing could be a lot better.

First of all for barrels, while you have modelled it in a cone your UV for the inside of the barrel which you currently have overlapping your barrel UV (which is very bad), I would recommend to be a panel UV of it front on, with also the barrel end on the outside of it like so:

Rhino;1841523']Also always for barrels you should always have a cone rather than a cylinder with a back face as for starters, its far less tris but not only that, it also gives a much better "bottomless" effect when textured with a shadow in the middle and takes up far less UV space and easier on the LODs









But saying that for a 1p handheld weapon like this your not going to ever see down its barrel, only in 3p but still best to model it just encase it dose come up in the animations and also helps with future proofing etc

As you said yourself, you have quite a lot of unused UV space. This can be used up by re-jigging some stuff about and also enlarging some bits into the gaps. Better to have an extra detailed bit, especially if its going to be near the players 1p or 3p view than to just waste space.
Some simple rotating and moving about of parts can open up missives amount of space on your UV. Like in the top left where you have those three ">" parts lined up like so:

>
>
>

If you just rotate the middle one 180, or flip it horizontally you can save a massive amount of space between them:

>
<
>

Same also applies to the side holder bits somewhat below them where there is massive of space around and many other parts of your UV.

The spacing between a lot of your UVs is also quite varied and I can see quite a bit of texture bleeding coming from it. I know its hard but you should try and keep an equal amount of spacing of at least around 4px for a 3p model (less if the faces next to each other are of a very similar material and can be right up next to each other, even stitched in some cases if connected on the model with the same material and especially if using the same SG. Only time you wouldn't want to in this case if your baking normals and its not on the same SG). You should read this: https://www.realitymod.com/forum/f189-m ... eding.html

I know this can be a frustrating task but its really worth getting it right. One of the main reasons why I re-made the new paveway series of bombs was because the old paveway bomb's UVs where not efficient (as well as a few other issues) and wasn't worth making the new ones off of it as a result.

gl and keep up the good work