SpitFire

Tacyarts · Vehicle Drone **Joined**: 30 May 2010

Hi everyone,

This is my first day here thanks to Banshee fixing a registration bug Wink

I recently started playing RAII and C&C-TS again and decided to trawl the net looking for some new maps.
In doing so I came across some sites hosting C&C Mods. Not knowing what the mods were about I did some reading on various sites and learned not only do mods change things in the Rules.ini file but they could actually change the graphics of units and building.

I thought to myself that this sounded like something I could play around with.
At this point I have to admit I'm both artistically and graphically challenged, still I decided to try my hand at creating my very own unit.

I downloaded VXLE III a few days ago and spent some hours trying to figure out how to use it and to be honest the results of my first attempt looked like something a 2 year old would draw, but since I have very low expectations there was no harm done.

I learned a fair bit by trial and error, mainly to make backups BEFORE I try something new Wink

I have questions reguarding just about everything but my main one is, is there a recomended maximum size for voxels ?

The reason I ask is the the larger the voxel the better the detail but I was wondering if large voxel files slow the game ?

Below is my 3rd serious attempt at creating a unit and constructive comments would be appreciated, and before anyone asks, no I dont have any 3D software. It was all hand drawn using only VXLE III.

Tac-SpitFire1.jpg

Description:

Filesize:

30.26 KB

Viewed:

3773 Time(s)

Tac-SpitFire1.gif

Description:

Filesize:

282.78 KB

Viewed:

3773 Time(s)

Palkia323 · Pyro Sniper **Joined**: 10 May 2008

Well hello there, and may I say welcome to this great community. You have defiantly come to the right place.

And on your voxel, wow. Just wow. It looks amazing! I make voxels a lot but never something that good.

What do you think about helping me with a mod? If you want more info on the mod i'll pm you.

To answer your question, of course voxels, shps, temps, pals....all slow the game down...you probably wont notice it unless its a monster voxel and you have a lot in the game at one time.

And again, welcome.

EDIT:

On the topic of previews or pictures of any sort, please use the PNG file format. It's a lot easier to see detail and is more clear.

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Orac · Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 8:12 pm Post subject:

Yar.. That looks good.

To your question about size, I'm not sure whether large voxels slow down TS/RA2, and I don't know whether any research has been done into it. However, I do know that voxels past a certain size will cause artifacting ingame - I just don't know what size that is.

As for the voxel itself, it looks really good. I don't know about accuracy, but three things come to mind about the colours.
First, the cockpit is going to glow bright neon blue ingame. I would suggest that you use the set of blues third from the left in the palette.
Second, If the propeller is a separate section then you can animate it to spin with the HVA editor.
Third, The white underside will be quite bright in RA2, I would suggest that you make it 4-5 shades darker.

Looks good. Do more.

Volgin · Commander **Joined**: 07 Mar 2009

Yes. They do for TS at least. Red Alert 1.5 used to have Kirov blimps in it for the Soviet side. Aside from the thing never wanting to land, the voxel lagged the hell out of TS when you built about ten or so. Neutral

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Victory!

EVA-251 · Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 10:38 pm Post subject:

Yes, large voxels do cause lag.

The effect is VERY obvious in Tiberian Sun (only a handful of RA2 Apocs will cause a noticeable drop in framerate). RA2's engine is better optimized though, so the voxels can be bigger and more numerous before framerate drops set in.

For a third attempt at a voxel, I must say it's extremely good. The detail and shape are pretty good, but with RA2 normals the one on the left will cause blindness. (it's sure as hell better than my third attempt at a voxel...and my fifth...twentieth...)

The one on the right has a good color set, but make sure you aren't using colors 208-239 if it's for RA2. These colors are actually all unused in RA2 and are placeheld by pinks.
In addition, that cockpit color looks like color index #2/9, you probably shouldn't use those.

Oh, and welcome!

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YR modder/artist, DOOM mapper, aka evanb90
Project Lead Developer, New-Star Strike (2014-)
Former Project Lead Developer Star Strike (2005-2012), Z-Mod (2006-2007), RA1.5 (2008-2013), The Cold War (2006-2007)

Mig Eater · Posted: Sun May 30, 2010 10:47 pm Post subject:

There isn't really a maximum size for vxls, VXLSE is limited to 255x255x255 tho as the game will have problems displaying anything bigger.

Bigger vxls don't generally lag the game, at least in my experience.

As for the vxl, I'm interested on what version of the Spitfire you based it on? The detailing is inconstant & I can't figure out which one it is >.<

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Tacyarts · Vehicle Drone **Joined**: 30 May 2010

Firstly I would like to thank you all for your warm welcome and comments.

I probably should have mentioned that I did not create the above unit with the intention of using it ingame.
It was more an exercise to learn more about the my own limitations as well as the limitations of both my ancient PC and those of VXLE III.

I now understand that VXLE III has a limit on the largest voxel it is able to handle that being 255x255x255.
I think the verdict on large size voxels is that if there is to be only 1 instance of a unit using a large voxel it should have little impact on the speed of the game but if there are to be multiple copies of a unit using a large voxel the more units the greater the chance it will lag the game to death.

"Palkia323"
Thankyou for considering me to help with your mod. I'm a total novice at present but once I have learned a little more I'd be happy to help others in any way I can, oh and I will remember to post previews ect in the PNG format in future Smile

"Orac"
Your comment on the cockpit colour is most appreciated. Its little tips and sharing of information of that nature that make it just a little easier to improve not only current work but all future work as well.

The propeller is part of the body and not a seperate section. I have no idea how to use HVA files at present but I would eventually like to learn more about animations also.

As for the underside, again thanks for the suggestion on darkening the shade. I did not realize there was a difference in colouring between RA and TS when viewing the same unit. Another very helpful piece of information.

"EVA-251"
Thank you for the information about avoiding using colour index #2/9 and colours #208-#239 not being used in RA2. That is something I'd not read about and could have caused me a few headaches.

"Mig Eater"
Thanks for the info on VXLE III's maximum size.
As for which version of the Spitfire I was basing the model on...
It was not actually supposed to be historically accurate. I was more trying to create something that was recognisable as a Spitfire in shape, dimensions and silhouette.

My first 2 attempts at creating units were based on ground vehicals. The first one had rather comical results.
Try to imagine what happens when you start using a program you're not familiar with and using it without understanding that what you're creating might look reasonable from different angles only to find what you thought was the front actually wasn't ..... needless to say driving sideways has its drawbacks Wink

If anyone wants to have a giggle and poke fun at me I'd be happy to upload efforts 1 and 2 Very Happy

I was unsure about posting the actual Spitfire.VXL file as it is rather large in both size and voxel count and I didn't know if it would be of any use to other members.
The file size is around 560k uncompressed. The dimensions are Length 200, Width 240, Height 75, with a total voxel count of around 36,000.
If you think someone might be interested in this unit I'm more than happy to upload it for general use.

Once again thank you all for the tips, comments and welcome.

Tac.