DeleD Community Edition

[Dr. Zoop]

I am curious if anyone would be interested in making a low-poly near-future tank for a real-time strategy I am working on. I know there used to be some people who loved making military stuff, I was just wondering if any of those people are around still and would be interested in helping out.

Please e-mail us at zooptek@zooptek.net if you are interested. I will also check the post here, but e-mail is faster.

Background:

I've been here for years, using DeleD. Little did everyone know, I'm actually am a game developer and I've been using DeleD as my primary modeling program all along!

Unfortunately, my skills are in programming, not so much modeling. What I am asking for here is help to create art for a prototype game. The truth is, I am just about finished with a previous project (which will be released on X-Box and PC) and I am starting to look at other /potential/ projects, one of them being a real-time strategy. Only after experimentation can I say the project will be official or not.


Cheers,
Zoop

[Jeroen]

[Mr.Fletcher]

There was an Everyone Models thread with tanks, maybe you could use some of them. (You could use mine, but I don't know if I still have the file)
I'd love to help you out and I think you are reliable but I don't know if I'll find the time. Maybe I'll play around a bit with DeleD ans see what I come up with
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[Dr. Zoop]

Jereon: I'll gladly post some screenshots when the game is released! Unless you want to play a demo for play-testing reasons, I cannot surrender any screenshots at this time though. I do need playtesters though!

Fletcher and all: Well, let's just start with one vehicle, if you're willing, and go from there. It doesn't need to be super detailed, as it is part of a real-time strategy and they'll be one of hundreds.

---

Mission: Construct a near future light tank.

The tank must be wheeled, as the main indicator of a light vehicle will be wheels (heavy tanks will be tracked, just FYI). The main armament is an auto-cannon, similar to that used in real-life light tanks like the one referenced below and the United States' Bradley tank. Reference images here: http://www.hyperscale.com/features/2000/ratelwm_1.htm .

Ensure that the turret is separate-able. Meaning, it is not merged or added to the tank's body. Eventually the turret will be exported separately. I have some tricks for "rigging parts" in DeleD, which I will explain when the time comes. This is how I will control turret rotation.

Tank does not need to have any hatches or view ports. They are all remote controlled, but designed by humans (not aliens or some such). So follow the visual style of modern weaponry.

Besides that, have fun! Thanks!

Cheers,
Zoop

[Mr.Fletcher]

What about polygon count? What are the limitations?
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[Mr.Fletcher]

I had a quick try at it, there:


362 polygons

It would help to know what kind of tank it should be, i.e. what skills does the unit have, what impression you should get of it etc.

Also, I don't understand why tanks should be that big if they are controlled by remote anyway
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[Dr. Zoop]

Awesome! That's what I was looking for! Great thing is, other units borrow from the same base. I explain below and answer your question about unit skills:

What you were modeling is going to be the tier 1 anti-tank tank. They are supposed to be cheap and quick to produce.

All wheeled tanks are light (tech 1) tanks.

Tier 2 tanks will be half-tracks, and a bit heftier. Invision them as medium tanks. (If you want them to be treaded, that's cool, as long as they're visually obvious that they're medium tanks... you're welcome to inject some creativity!)

Tier 3 tanks will be treaded, but even beefier. These are the heaviest tanks in the game, but also the most expensive and slowest.

We will not worry about other tiers for a long while though. I just need enough basic units to get a feeling of whether the game will look and play well or not, for now.

There are several subcategories of tanks. What you built was the anti-tank tier 1 tank. There will also be an anti-air tier one tank, which will sport dual heavy machine guns. There will also be a tier one mobile artillery.

I hope that helps you understand basic land units and their abilities.

---

My next "mission" for you (or anyone), if you accept it, is to give it a basic texturing job. The model should only use one texture though, mapped, as this saves on rendering time. I plan on having potentially hundreds of tanks on the screen at the time, so using many textures on the same model is a bad idea. Again, this can be rough. But just enough so I can throw it in the game and see how it feels.

---

I will post some screenshots of the environment I have been working on so you can see my end of things .

---

EDIT: Forgot to answer about your size question. Again, style is up to you. Since these are near-future tanks, I am trying to maintain some resemblance to modern day weaponry. If you believe a remote-controlled tank should be smaller, go ahead! Might be good anyway, since we need to leave room for bigger tanks later on!

Cheers,
Zoop

[Mr.Fletcher]

[Dr. Zoop]

===The Game to Date===

Pictures of the game, to date:

http://img404.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=heightmapzoomedin.png

As I said, this is a prototype I have only recently begun. All I have is random map generation using a height map with pretty water (making that water transparent was a many hour job by itself ).

Now that I have a pretty tank, I will attempt to get some basic unit work going this weekend. I have to make a tower defense game for my other job this weekend, so, we'll see how much I get done.

===Your Model===

The tank, with blue camo, looks more like a SWAT vehicle than a military vehicle. No problem though, easy to swap blues with greens. Besides that, it's good enough to test with! Awesome job, and thank you very much!!

===Game Information===

I am not comfortable with sharing all the game's details in public. If you could e-mail me at zooptek@zooptek.net, I will share the game's inspiration, "story," and ultimate purpose. I will also tell you about the factions.

Again, thank you for your help and interest!

Cheers,
Zoop

[Dr. Zoop]

I can calculate the height at any point and I can get the normal at that position:

http://img10.imageshack.us/my.php?image=normals.png

Now I will add your tank!

Cheers,
Zoop

[Mr.Fletcher]

Neat, I remember a couple of years ago, I was writing a strategy game like that myself (far future though). I browsed for some sreenshots on my computer and I found plenty Seems like I documented the development progress with screenshots. I found it pretty interesting (and surprising how far I got, given that I had no idea what I was doing). If you want to, I can upload the whole bunch so you can have a look at it. I never finished it though because I wasn't experienced enough to do things effeciently so everything slowed down in the end and it's just a huuuge task for a one man team Now you see how much time I had in school, go figure

I sent you an e-mail.
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[chronozphere]

Hey guys. Nice project. I also would like to indulge in an RTS project sometime in the future.

The models and screenies look good so far. But I was wondering. Do you use mipmapping for you terrain? I think it will be an improvement as you current terrain has a lot of "pixel noise" in it. Mipmapping should make it look a little smoother. Just a tip.

Would like to see where this is going to.

[Dr. Zoop]

Fletcher:

Yeah, in school I had tons of time too... I build about one game a year now. I used to build six or more games. Then again, my games are much more complicated than they were when I was in school.

As for your RTS, I'd like to hear about it. You can see how similar they are. It's pretty futuristic to allow what I want to allow technology-wise. You'll hear about it all in the e-mail.

Chronozphere:

Clearly a reference to Command & Conquer: Red Alert .

No, I don't do anything with mipmapping right now. This is a prototype for gameplay (and also I need the heightmap for some other projects), so absolute prettiness is not necessary. That'd be something to add down the road. That's something that didn't even come to my mind though--good eye!

As for your interest, you are welcome to assist Mr. Fletcher with modeling if you want. If you can make stuff similar to Mr. Fletcher's tank above, that'd be useful!

Cheers,
Zoop

[Mr.Fletcher]

Here's the zipfile of almost 30 mb .jpg images: http://www.speedyshare.com/404384701.html
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[Dr. Zoop]

Very impressive!

I can't say it's the same game, but definitely the same engine idea.

Cheers,
Zoop