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Author Topic: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod  (Read 132767 times)
Angelfish
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #30 on: September 28, 2010, 04:43:08 pm »

I could have sworn they looked the same. Ah well, sorry. 'Course, I haven't played Timwarp in ages, and SC3 in even longer.

That aside, I can't say I'm particularly fond of quite a few of the Timewarp models either. Because there were so many different artists on the project, there's no cohesion to the look of the ships either; while a lot of the SC3 models don't stay true to the source (and some of them look quite terrible), they do at least look internally consistent with their art style.

Most of the timewarp ships were just created 'to get the job done'. Some artists have however taken quite a bit of creative freedom and changed how the ship looked from above.
It doesn't really bother me, back in the day I was just glad that someone had made HD-versions of SC2 ships.
That being said, if someone can make 3d-models in the same art style all around, go for it. If you can't.. leave it be.. because it's waay too much of a hassle Wink.
Although an alternative could be to get a good 2d-artist on the team who can deliver the same SC2 'cartoony' look for all the SC2 ships (look at what Arne has done for example). But a disadvantage would be that you'd lose all the shading Wink.
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Angelfish
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #31 on: September 28, 2010, 06:45:09 pm »

I just thought of another possibility: Those models date back to really early, as much as 1998 or something... With the current software and high-end systems renderings could be substantially improved ofcourse Wink.
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dczanik
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #32 on: September 29, 2010, 05:49:16 pm »

Well, given the skills I have in 3D, I think I can actually make some better 3D Models, and make them in higher quality too. Timewarp, and SC3 stuff looks good, but show their age by today's standards. And I always thought Timewarp veered off the original too much in the Kohr-Ah ship design.

For those with 4 minutes to kill, here's a video of a 3D sculpt I made. So you can see, I can do 3D too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv5SlnG4FTY

One thing I'd like to have in a newer version of  UQM  is it to be a lot  more open to modding.  Let people add an override text file, that allows the game to use a custom directory for ships.  Obviously for fairness, this file would be disabled for online play.  There's a lot of artists like myself who would love to add some of their art to the game, but the work involved to add a custom ship, and share it with people is just too much. And, it would be fun to do things like replace the Earthling Starship with the Enterprise. Smiley
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- Damon
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Alvarin
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #33 on: September 29, 2010, 07:02:10 pm »

The Earthling Cruiser already IS the Enterprise. Plus two nacelles = minus copyrights lawsuit.
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Megagun
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #34 on: September 29, 2010, 07:16:07 pm »

Now, I must admit to not being that into all that 3d stuff, but as far as I know 3d sculpting is pretty different from regular 3d modelling. For one, the amount of polygons your model will end up with is enormous, and due to the way these models are made it's insanely difficult to "get rid" of the excess polygons. On the other hand, making organic shapes (life forms) becomes a lot easier than when using regular 3d modelling..
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Lukipela
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #35 on: September 29, 2010, 07:44:51 pm »

Dragon has made some pretty models for the SC1 ships, and about half of the SC2 ships as well, although I still haven't managed to get the SC2 models up.
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dczanik
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #36 on: September 29, 2010, 07:51:36 pm »

Well, polygons are not an issue.  It's rendered as a 2D Sprite.  I'm not going to use Mudbox to sculpt an Earthling Cruiser.  But, I'll probably use it for the Mycon ship. The best tool for the job. I was just demonstrating I can do 3D stuff too. 

You want other 3D examples but made in 3D Studio?
Kilrathi Fighter
3D Homer
Like Tron?
Terminator Endoskeleton
Truck outrunning an HK Tank

A lot of stuff in Star Control 2/UQM is so easy it would almost be a joke to create in 3D Studio. The Spathi Eluder? It's spheres and some cylinders.  I'm not the greatest 3D Modeler, but I think I can outdo even the best 3DO models.

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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #37 on: September 29, 2010, 08:29:09 pm »

Ah, right. I should've checked the other videos on your youtubes. My bad. Tongue
That terminator looks nice.
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Angelfish
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #38 on: September 29, 2010, 09:56:58 pm »

Well, given the skills I have in 3D, I think I can actually make some better 3D Models, and make them in higher quality too. Timewarp, and SC3 stuff looks good, but show their age by today's standards. And I always thought Timewarp veered off the original too much in the Kohr-Ah ship design.

That's where we differ in opinion. I always thought that the most beautiful model in Timewarp was the Kohr-Ah. It was actually an incredible improvement Smiley. Also, I like to encourage creative freedom as much as possible. The ship is still recognizable as the kohr-ah marauder and from the look of it it still has the same functions.
You can do anything you like, but in my opinion it's better if you work on things that haven't been done by the community before. Those comm screens are great, keep working on them Smiley.

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One thing I'd like to have in a newer version of  UQM  is it to be a lot  more open to modding.  Let people add an override text file, that allows the game to use a custom directory for ships.  Obviously for fairness, this file would be disabled for online play.  There's a lot of artists like myself who would love to add some of their art to the game, but the work involved to add a custom ship, and share it with people is just too much. And, it would be fun to do things like replace the Earthling Starship with the Enterprise. Smiley

It's the goal of UQM to do just that in the future, by  getting an easy format (probably XML) to describe the universe, ships, dialogue etc in. But for now, don't get your hopes up of that happening soon Wink. I'm actually surprised cedric got as far as he did without getting stuck, because so awfully much has to be done in so much lines of code. Even getting the animations running properly is done half in code, half in some ANI file, and ofcourse the actual images Wink. This is the only way in which the unique feel of SC2 can be achieved, but I'd like to see these animations become a bit more artist-friendly so you can edit these with an editor rather than having to go into code and textfiles.
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Cedric6014
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #39 on: September 29, 2010, 10:42:11 pm »

I'm actually surprised cedric got as far as he did without getting stuck, because so awfully much has to be done in so much lines of code. Even getting the animations running properly is done half in code, half in some ANI file, and ofcourse the actual images Wink. This is the only way in which the unique feel of SC2 can be achieved, but I'd like to see these animations become a bit more artist-friendly so you can edit these with an editor rather than having to go into code and textfiles.

Luckily its not just me otherwise I would have been stuck a looooong time ago. I’m fortunate to have three excellent programmers on the team. Nothing seems insurmountable with those guys on board, at least not to my naïve eyes. 
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #40 on: September 30, 2010, 09:58:34 am »

Perhaps you could reduce the number of images by using a rotate function instead of having separate sprites for each ship angle? I'm not sure how easy this is, since I've never used C. Does SDL have any useful sprite manipulating functions?
No, but I do have a sprite rotation routine I wrote (both OpenGL and pure SDL) lying around here somewhere. There are probably lots more somewhere around the 'net.
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #41 on: October 23, 2010, 09:55:50 am »

Very nice work - the Kohr-Ah too.

--Eino
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Dragon
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #42 on: November 03, 2010, 10:33:24 am »

Dragon has made some pretty models for the SC1 ships, and about half of the SC2 ships as well, although I still haven't managed to get the SC2 models up.
I've now rendered then out as well, if you head over to this thread at the SCDB you can find the full details there.

Or you can just grab the file here.  Renders are 512x512 and each ship has 72 frames of rotation.  eg:


Quote from: Angelfish
In regards to the HD work, i'm not quite sure if these look better than the models already created for Timewarp.
Quite often mine don't look better (see Mycon Podship in particular) however the problem with the Timewarp images (or maybe it would be better say the decision taken at the time) is that they're really, really small.  About 50 pixels across vs 500 so on modern screens running HD they can't be zoomed in for close combat without looking pixellated.

I've answered Angelfishes comment here and at the SCDB because there've been a couple of comments about using Timewarps sprites in the HD project and my opinion is that I don't think they'll work unless they're re-rendered at larger resolutions.
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dczanik
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #43 on: November 03, 2010, 05:37:39 pm »

Well, with a lot of help by Zenzmurfy, we're about 2/3rds of the way through all the ship models ourselves.  Your models did inspire me to work on my Mycon Podship last night.  Since there's no way I can please everybody, I plan on opening up UQM-HD so you can use alternate ship models. So the more models, the merrier! Smiley



And since I haven't been updating lately, I give you my Vux with an homage to Zarla's artwork.  

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- Damon
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #44 on: November 04, 2010, 01:46:35 am »

Another nitpick: The little red sliders on the command console in the VUX comm screen look a little... flat, they don't pop out like the other switches/knobs. Other than that, superb! The Podship model is especially good, especially for a WIP.
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