(Vehicle) Stryker MGS - M1128 Mobile Gun System

[LangMaster]

So i've recently decided to try and learn how to make a proper realistic vehicle model, since i usually do original stuff from my mind, this one is a different as you gotta follow blueprints and real life calculations to make the model as close as possible to the real life object.

I've decided to try and learn on vehicle called M1128 Mobile Gun System, Stryker MGS in short, i am in love with the vehicle design and i gotta say the vehicle looks mint with a cage on it, i've seen them in real life since there was one a convoy to a my country from US in 2016, those things are sick, pretty much what would you expect in a term of a glass cannon.

I am working on this for a short while now and i am close to try and make a quick texture for it just to see for my self how it would look. I was hoping it would maybe one day make it's way inside PR.

I made a quick hull design but right now i focus on the turret mainly first.
The turret now has 8000 Tris for now.

[Nate.]

wow nice!

[Mats391]

Looking real nice, but 8k tris just for turret is a lot. Easiest way to cut down on tris would be to make things less round. Especially here. Such a small detail does not need that many tris


I would also make the hatch/cupola deeper. Otherwise it will look weird when soldier crouches

[LangMaster]

Looking real nice, but 8k tris just for turret is a lot. Easiest way to cut down on tris would be to make things less round. Especially here. Such a small detail does not need that many tris


I would also make the hatch/cupola deeper. Otherwise it will look weird when soldier crouches

Alrighty, yeah i was trying to keep the smallest round stuff not that round, i guess i kinda skipped the rule for that one, as you said earlier, it's easier for the game to run when everything is merged together so yeah. The turret is pretty much finished at the moment i think i miss a camera or something spinny again on the top back, and a mg mount for the machine gunner.

The thing is this turret is insane there is tons of stuff, usually turret is just one box but this is crazy monster.

[LangMaster]

So i, played a bit with the textures and, there is alot of ways i can do this actually, i've literally just came up with this in an hour and i have no single clue what am i doing since i never did textures in blender.
I really wanted to just try it on how it could possibly look.


I mean, for a first try not bad lol, though i am still missing alot.

[Mats391]

Before starting with texture, it would be best to post your UV so others can give feedback on it. Then you can use your rather high poly model to bake AO and normals.

[LangMaster]

Before starting with texture, it would be best to post your UV so others can give feedback on it. Then you can use your rather high poly model to bake AO and normals.

Man it's not my fault that i am a fuken detailist. I swear i am saving those triangles lol. If i would be allowed to go with a full banger this thing would not even load in blender anymore.

Ima gonna try to get some tris down and get the UV

[Mineral]

Best way to use a love for adding detail is to make a high poly mesh and bake it to texture

But no matter the game, all games have budgets for textures sizes, triangle counts, draw calls,....

Unfortunately for us given the age of the game we have rather low budgets.

[LangMaster]

Best way to use a love for adding detail is to make a high poly mesh and bake it to texture

But no matter the game, all games have budgets for textures sizes, triangle counts, draw calls,....

Unfortunately for us given the age of the game we have rather low budgets.

Yeah i know there is a way to do like a shader texture or a texture that tells what is reflecting light and what not and it actually makes it look like it is modeled but its just a shadow that is doing that, i know about that and i don't know how they do that so i would have to watch some tutorials for that stuff. I did some optimizing and downed the trist to 6k count, and is this what did you want to see ?

[LangMaster]

Did a bit of an update on the open hatch so it looks how it is supposed to look.


Still missing the machine gun holder or what ever is it supposed to be called.

[Hans_Strudel]

Good model made in such a short time!
But i would suggest make a highpoly model and bake some details for your low poly model - that will save you another 1-2k triangles.
For example these areas marked red do not extrude a lot and at longer distances might start z-fighting, so it would be much easier to just bake them on turret. Turret itself can be optimised with less sides and baked too (for example T-62 turret is about 16 sides round and i can't tell it's sharp, but need to look at topology to be sure ). Green marks areas i would likely delete at all since players would never see it (except you decide to add something interesting like turret knocking out on wreckage geometry). Also you can delete faces on bottom of the turret since they are looking at hull and players would never see them too.



As for UV you shown, there are plenty of free space that can be used for more detailed texture. Less free space on UV the better it will be (2k texture will remain 2k but with a lot of unused space there will be a lot of dead weight and texture in game would look like 1k). I marked most noticeable areas you can fill with little UV islands grouped on top and right edges.

[LangMaster]

Good model made in such a short time!
But i would suggest make a highpoly model and bake some details for your low poly model - that will save you another 1-2k triangles.
For example these areas marked red do not extrude a lot and at longer distances might start z-fighting, so it would be much easier to just bake them on turret. Turret itself can be optimised with less sides and baked too (for example T-62 turret is about 16 sides round and i can't tell it's sharp, but need to look at topology to be sure ). Green marks areas i would likely delete at all since players would never see it (except you decide to add something interesting like turret knocking out on wreckage geometry). Also you can delete faces on bottom of the turret since they are looking at hull and players would never see them too.



As for UV you shown, there are plenty of free space that can be used for more detailed texture. Less free space on UV the better it will be (2k texture will remain 2k but with a lot of unused space there will be a lot of dead weight and texture in game would look like 1k). I marked most noticeable areas you can fill with little UV islands grouped on top and right edges.

You gotta go a bit slower on me, since i have never touched baking, but i somehow found out that making model is actually an easy job for me, i will try to check out tutorials on youtube about baking stuff, about the green area, i think it should probably stay as i made it because that thing lifts up with the turret depression.
The UV is generated by blender smart uv thingy, it should pack all the models nicely on the uv so it uses the least space, and i really have no clue how am i suppose to put something into these empty places, the only thing really i am missing is the machine gun tripod or whate ever it is, and one more camera on top of the turret but that will be another tris so yeah.

So the ingame models are running 2k texture and you cannot go beyond that?
and how many tris you want this thing to have, as i said earlier it's not like other turrets, this thing looks like your first house in minecraft made out of dirt, mostly turrets are round or just boxy like leo or abrams has.

[Hans_Strudel]

You gotta go a bit slower on me, since i have never touched baking, but i somehow found out that making model is actually an easy job for me, i will try to check out tutorials on youtube about baking stuff, about the green area, i think it should probably stay as i made it because that thing lifts up with the turret depression.
The UV is generated by blender smart uv thingy, it should pack all the models nicely on the uv so it uses the least space, and i really have no clue how am i suppose to put something into these empty places, the only thing really i am missing is the machine gun tripod or whate ever it is, and one more camera on top of the turret but that will be another tris so yeah.

So the ingame models are running 2k texture and you cannot go beyond that?
and how many tris you want this thing to have, as i said earlier it's not like other turrets, this thing looks like your first house in minecraft made out of dirt, mostly turrets are round or just boxy like leo or abrams has.

You can move islands by hand, and Blender honestly have great tools since in 3ds you need to make islands lined up by hand, as for MG - better finish MG and then proceed to UVing, unless you want to make with different texture.

For resolution - no, you can go with whatever resolution you need, so just refer to overall quality of textured model. That's why the less space you have on your UV, the less resolution it would require to make model looks good. Usually 2k is maximum in PR, but plently of textures are 512x512 or 1k (also there are non squared resolutions like 1024x2048 ) . Just keep in mind the less texture size the lighter model will be for game engine and people will less likely CTD when they see your vehicle )).

You can always check in game assets for inspiration and learning.

[LangMaster]

You can move islands by hand, and Blender honestly have great tools since in 3ds you need to make islands lined up by hand, as for MG - better finish MG and then proceed to UVing, unless you want to make with different texture.

For resolution - no, you can go with whatever resolution you need, so just refer to overall quality of textured model. That's why the less space you have on your UV, the less resolution it would require to make model looks good. Usually 2k is maximum in PR, but plently of textures are 512x512 or 1k (also there are non squared resolutions like 1024x2048 ) . Just keep in mind the less texture size the lighter model will be for game engine and people will less likely CTD when they see your vehicle )).

You can always check in game assets for inspiration and learning.

Oh this is gonna be pain, well, i am gonna try make a high poly model with all the metal nails on it and stuff so my blender blows up, i am gonna try somehow cut the tris for the low poly version which i have no idea how, then i am gonna try to generate a texture with a blender which i have some ideas for, gonna do some final painting with hand and then i am gonna try to put it together and see what kind of mess its gonna make.

[anantdeathhawk]

Optimization!




"remove" the vertices and lines in red, you'll get the idea. They aren't required as they are not helping the model stay in shape.

Look in this tread for how to optimize.
Here




Also check out this T80 WIP.
Here

[LangMaster]

No worries, i am using a modifier which removes unnecessary vertices for me from the model, though i still have no idea how to decrease all the tris from the model, i am at 6k right now and the lowest i think i can do is 5k if i do something horrible with the smoke launchers, because there is 16 of them.
As i said earlier this thing looks like your first minecraft house built out of dirt in your first days. It's not round it's not symmetric in any way. It's the most complicated gun turret you can find on this green rock.

Right now i am working on a high poly version so i could put the details and every nail into the texture. Though about the tris i still don't have a single idea.

[LangMaster]

Question, can the game actually animate cannons upon shooting, ?

[Mats391]

Question, can the game actually animate cannons upon shooting, ?

Depends what you mean. The barrel can move back and forth due to recoil, but we cannot do the tank-salute for reloading.

[LangMaster]

Depends what you mean. The barrel can move back and forth due to recoil, but we cannot do the tank-salute for reloading.

Ah sick ! okay alright nice, would love to see this in one as well since i made the barrel separate, can the vehicle move back on recoil? since the MGS is very top heavy it bounces to side to side like a jelly when shooting lol.

[Mats391]

Yes, our tanks already move due to force of firing.