This is to separate the tree model shite from Silk's emp_chain thread you can find here: http://forums.empiresmod.com/showthread.php?t=15595&page=11&highlight=tree+model RappMo, found a few things i'd like to suggest/mention. Setup a bunch of diff. mappers concept/usage of the model and what we could use became very apparent. (I didn't test the other skin, but I imagine its similar) HERE'S THE SETUP ROOTBASE LOOKS MUCH BETTER BURIED :/ ALSO THERE IS SOME TREE SHADOW THAT SEEMS TO BE THROWING THE COLOR MATCH OUT OF WHACK ON ROOTBASE TRIED SIMULATING SMALL FOREST, IT LOOKS ALRIGHT YOU CAN SEE THAT CERTAIN SIZES LOOK LIKE CRAP, OTHERS WORK JUST RIGHT. DO YOU NEED A NEW BARK TEXTURE MADE? CAUSE I DON'T KNOW WTH THESE SPLOTCHES ARE/ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ALSO, THE SNOW ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BRANCHES WOULD BE EXTREMELY UNLIKELY, IF IT'S AN EASY ENOUGH TWEAK, I HIGHLY SUGGEST IT Hope this is helpful, and thank you for all your work, it's really quite an awesome tree model and Empires will benefit A LOT from this type of contribution! Keep at it!
How are the collisions? Mappers can't scale trees in Hammer (without the use of a special entity that doesn't support collision), but they can position them high or low, provided the trunk is indistinct, i.e. no root ball is visible. Thus, a bare section trunk at least 150 in-game units high could be useful; the bare trunk could also allow mappers to place trees that don't provide infantry cover. If one wanted to go barebones, a typical-sized tree and a smaller 'young' tree would be enough for Empires purposes. A row (or slight curve) of a group of cheap collisionless trees to use on inaccessible hills could also be useful.
in addition, you can tilt them and yes the collisions work perfect. branches don't stop you, but the trunk does. didnt test vehicles, but i presume its irrelevent as i looked at the collision model. will be nice driving through these. now we just need some more rocks...
I was thinking of splitting from Silks thread so as not to clutter it up with useless banter not really concerning emp_chain. Good move! I really wish you hadn't gone through all this trouble with the winter skin though... that's a quick paintover I did just to test out the $texturegroup skinfamilies qc command. Main focus so far has been to get the green texture to blend well with emp_chain. As for the crits/comments: Shadow - I'm using the lowest lod as shadowlod, would it be better with no shadowlod? Rootbase - The last version I upped should look better than that, I think. EP2 tree uses some 500 verts of grass to cover it's base. One idea is geometry with gradual transparency around the base that will sorta blend with the ground... I'll try that I think. Black spots - Yeah, I baked the ambo on the first version not really thinking I'd use the texture again. I'll fix that. And the UV seam which I thought I'd already fixed. Snow - Again. Not really done any work on this yet. Might scrap the snow version all together. We'll see. As for bark texture, be my guest! I'm making these textures from scratch, the needles for example are just some bezier curves, a particle system and a very lowpoly needle model distributed over the curves. I was quite surprised it worked as well as it did. So if anyone got a decent camera and a pine around I'd really appreciate some pics of bark to work from. Painting bark from scratch could drive you insane, and I haven't come up with any method to make a highpoly model of it I can render out to a texture. Edit: Also could you upload that map? I'd love to be able to test these in engine myself without having to learn Hammer as well.
I saw this topic just after posting on the emp_chain topic. From now on i'll continue here For my feedback RappemongO, check the other topic
i'll have to pack it up, havent done that in a while, but i'll pm it to you if you want. the ingame looks almost identical to hammer 3d view, so it would be easier to send the vmf and then you can switch the model skin rather easily and check out various 'flaws' i mentioned. let me know. sorry for using winter skin, i just saw the option, and went for it, if the green skin is better, then we're laughing cause imo, the winter one is way better than most emp trees currently avail. even with its minor drawbacks. i'll check out the newest one, i was going to mention to extend/expand the root base, idk if you've seen the barracks models, but they (and most emp buildings) have 'long bottoms' to aid in placement and visually being 'complete' , be nice to have the same concept used here, but not a huge deal, to me a tree can just come straight up from the ground as is actually very common. edit: shadowlod, i've not worked with but it's worth a try, i can do some further testing on test releases for you if its helpful (can always pm or add me on steam :tuhnin)
Attempted to address the issues you guys pointed out Renamed the old one Fir01 Added Fir02 Added Pine01 Added Stump Don't mind Blenders z-transparenzy, they should look better in source. Grab em here: rappmo_pine.rar @ dropbox Edit: Derp. I lrnd 2 Hammrar. Enough to test these out at least. Not as much of a mindfuck as I first thought, Hammer. Then again, I've just dipped my feet in. They work fine, physics, shadows n all that. They do not get bulletholes though... something as simple as that $nodecal 1 in the vmt perhaps? Edit 2: Tweaked physmesh for more accurate hit detection Removed $nodecal to enable bulletholes Still here: rappmo_pine.rar @ dropbox
Rappmo, forgot to ask for skybox versions. just scale them down pre-compile in QC file typical hammer skybox's are 1/16 size which means change scale value from '1' to '0.0625' Then don't forget to denote them skybox in their name, they can go in same folder as others. Thanks a slew if you don't mind do this.
if anyone good at free form stuff could cut out some billboards for distant trees in the skybox - that might be helpful too ...
I'd planned to make some skybox versions, and fucked about with billboards. Haven't gotten any good looking results yet though. :/ What are the filestructure standards? I notice there are a few folders with familiar names... Should I make a folder named "Rappe" and stick all my shit, present and future, in there? Or is it better to keep it in the most logical folder, ie "props_foliage" for trees etc?
We have most of our Empiresmod-specific trees in common/props_foliage/, you might want to have yours in common/props_foliage/trees/rappe/ or something of that sort. I'm not sure if you can add keywords to your model qc file or anything, but if you can it might be a good idea to add Empires in there. Almost all Empires content, custom or official, is in the /common/ folder. You also want to save the materials in a place that is logical and won't need to change. Ideally in a folder structure the same as the model is in. AFAIK it's a bit harder to change where the materials are located because the model files need to give a direct link to them.
As suggested by Varbles, go with common/props_foliage/trees/rappe/ because the main trees directory is cluttered with trees that nobody uses (because some are missing textures, and the rest just look awful to begin with). Also you were right in thinking you can't add keywords to models, hammers search function uses the model folder structure as keywords. You can switch between the mounted content through a list on the search dialog so there isn't any need to tag as empires because its listed in gameinfo.txt.
Skybox versions of Fir01, Fir02, Pine01 and Stump Updated textures Still here: rappmo_pine.rar @ dropbox Still experimenting with winter versions. Best I've come up with is additional geometry that would be 100% transparent for the green version, and covered by that little patch of snow on the wintertexture in the winter version. This would significantly raise the polycount for both versions though. Edit: Goddamnit Smithy... didn't see your post until I posted. I'll chalk it down and have that in next time.
I know nothing about this so am probably completely wrong, but why cant you just make a green version without this invisible geometry and a winter version with it?
