Water Towers

Discussion in 'Art' started by Darg, Jul 24, 2011.

  1. Darg

    Darg Member

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    This is an offshoot from the mappers requesting models post in the mapper section. I'll be creating two water towers, one in a NF style and another in a BE style, these will be useful for open maps to give some cover and to look pretty :)

    In the long run they might also have a climbable ladder to get up them but I'm not sure how feasible that is atm. Let's see how long it takes me to model them in the first place.

    The references I'm using for the water towers are for NF:
    http://revellphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/water-tower-original-sm.jpg
    and BE:
    http://homepages.which.net/~rex/bourne/photos/watertower.jpg

    Pretty much going for direct copies of each unless anyone can offer suggestions for improvements.

    I've spent a couple of hours today getting started, it's been a while since I used Blender and the interface has undergone a large overhaul in the last year so I've had to get used to it all again but here is what I have so far:

    [​IMG]

    Not much but you can see where it's going, It'll have a similar concrete base to the one in the reference picture so it should be easy to place anywhere on the map.
     
  2. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    Don't worry about the ladder, if you want to make a ladder, instead make a separate platform with a hole in it we can put around the tower, and the mapper can add the ladder himself. There's a huge ladder prop in source already and we can add the climbable brush easily.

    Also, if possible, make the concrete base a separate prop as well, and the support frame separate from the tank itself.

    Basically, make prop kits you can put together, that way you get more use out of them, a concrete base can be used for lots of things, as can a water tower framework, a large holding tank, and a platform.

    Take the tank off and add the platform and a roof and you've got a guard tower, the base can be used as a res node, the tank can be used as a ground storage tank, lots of things.

    It's far easier for a mapper to stick them together once than to find ways to hide all of the stuff we don't want.
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2011
  3. Silk

    Silk Mapper

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    Awesome Darg, the lack of (quality) mapping props is pretty annoying.

    Chris is right btw, making them as loose parts is quite handy. If you name them logically we'll just put them together in Hammer, and that way we can use the parts individually as well.

    Also this i just a personal view on things, but feel free to think about it:
    - Since you're making the model anyways, it'd be awesome to have a second skin to chose from. This doesn't need to be a completely new texture, simply changing some color values for certain parts would go a long way in making the model better usable.
    In Chain for example i made great use of the stock HL2 containers, that come in red and blue.
    - And in a similar way, having a smaller and bigger version of the same model is nice as well. I think that a modeller only has to scale up or down his finished product and compile it to achieve this?

    I often find a perfect looking model, that i then can't use cause it's not the right size or the right color. In udk that wouldn't be a problem, in Hammer however it is.
     
  4. f1r3w4rr10r

    f1r3w4rr10r Modeler

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    cant you scale props in hammer?
     
  5. Empty

    Empty Member

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    No model scaling in source.
    And when you do hack together model scaling, collision box scaling is a BIG nono.
     
  6. f1r3w4rr10r

    f1r3w4rr10r Modeler

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    ew thats nasty
    so how much different scales are ok if i make a new prop?
     
  7. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    Depends on the prop, but generally I would say things like making it in 64, 128, 256, and 512.

    Obviously if it's a tiny prop, you would use 16,32,64, and if it's huge, you'd use 128,256,512 etc, but basically try to keep it close to the powers of 2, because that's how the hammer grid works, and make it in as many scales as you think work, if it looks good huge and medium sized, make it in huge and medium size.
     
  8. Darg

    Darg Member

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    Wow I didn't know that about props not being scalable, that's pretty unusual, I would have thought it'd just be part of the position/rotation transformation anyway.

    Good suggestions about breaking the model up into separate props and the different skins. I might even try my hand at snowy versions of the skins as we seem to have a lot of snow maps floating around these days :)
     
  9. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    It's because the engine is old, it's not really designed for prop based mapping.

    Most modern engines, especially prop based ones, do support model scaling.
     
  10. Darg

    Darg Member

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    Not much time to work on it today but it's coming along slowly, the base and second level of the frame are pretty much done. With regards to the railings around the base should I keep those as a separate option for the mapper or just include them with the base model?

    [​IMG]
     
  11. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    Separate, that way we can have the base accessable or inaccessable, plus we can add railings ourselves quite easily.

    It also makes it much easier to optimise for you, as you don't have to build LODs, we can just make the rails a separate prop_static and fade it out at a distance.
     
  12. BloodRaven

    BloodRaven Member

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    are these going to be placeable, or are they map props?
     
  13. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    ?

    You mean, like, are they going to be something you build ingame?

    What possible purpose would a water tower serve as a base building?
     
  14. ViroMan

    ViroMan Black Hole (*sniff*) Bully

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    Make a map placed build-able water tower that gives res? Yes please.
     
  15. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    Ah yes, that most vital component of futuristic tanks, DRINKING WATER!

    Or better yet perhaps in order to allow spawning at the barracks you have to connect it to water and electricity supplies, ensure a road connection, and build schools, hospitals, and commercial districts nearby to attract soldiers to live in your barracks.

    SIMPIRES 3000!
     
  16. Beerdude26

    Beerdude26 OnThink(){ IsDownYet(); }

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    This would be my most preferred method of fucking up Empires
     
  17. Darg

    Darg Member

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    Think of the possibilities, scouts would be able to poison the enemies water supplies causing the same effects as sapping the raxes. It's awesome!

    Not going to have much time to work on this in the evenings, that's what I get for 9 hours work a day. I hope to get atleast an hour a night though which should see the modelling atleast finished soon. First though I gotta go shoot some of you :)
     
  18. Deadpool

    Deadpool SVETLANNNAAAAAA

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    we could finally implement the shoveling mechanic for snow maps!
     
  19. Darg

    Darg Member

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    Okay worked on this for almost 2 hours tonight, you can thank an annoying game of Empires for that, one of those times when teamwork seems to be a completely unheard of word. Bravo squad leader was asked to go to middle of the map with ruins and promptly said 'No I'm going to ruins to snipe and get myself killed because I don't care about the team and I'm a complete douchebag'. I might be using some artistic license but that was the gist of it.

    Anyway modelling is coming close to finishing on this, I want to do the rails at the bottom then I'll be working on unwrapping then the lower LOD versions.

    Couple of pics:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    EDIT: face count atm is around 4330.
     
  20. Chris0132'

    Chris0132' Developer

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    Make sure you put smoothing groups on the tower, and also chamfer the edges of the base a little.

    Other than that looks excellent. If you can, make sure there's a hole in the platform for a ladder near one of the legs.
     

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