Generals, it is time.

Phage · June 11, 2003

Also thank the nonexistent Gods you are not from Apolyton. That place is so evil and associating it with you would make me think far less of someone that did so much.(yep this is kissing up folks, though to me its giving credit where it is due). ;)

DukeLeto · June 11, 2003

[lurk]

I'm not dead! Just in Almost Heaven! (10 points for figuring out what that means. :D And you're not eligible, Inoc. ;))

Anyways, I can start modelling on Sumday or Monday.

I have to warn you now, walking tanks need in excess of 400 polys a piece, no way around it, so this mod is going to slow the game down when an ATR player starts massing 'gooses or Minos... :- Anyways, I'll get started ASAP.

[/lurk]

Apollyon · June 11, 2003

Well we can get around that problem later. In that case feel free to do vehicles in more or less random order but please star with harkonnen and ordos first. And remember if you make the devastator, it's a tank, not an ugly blob. :)

DukeLeto · June 12, 2003

Ordos vehicles should be esiest, I'll have at least the Laser Tank off to be skinned by Monday.

Cyborg · June 12, 2003

An update from me :)

I am now ready to make models for you, Apollyon.

Make a list of models you would like me to make.

Apollyon · June 12, 2003

Ordos vehicles should be esiest, I'll have at least the Laser Tank off to be skinned by Monday.

Ok that's great.

In that case how about this:

Duke, you make ordos vehicles for now and Anders you make the hark ones.

Remember both of you to include the INI animation data cos you'll know what it is and to send it to me and the models to Frodo.

EDIT: Incidentally the mod is currently named Dune: Desert Power.

Cyborg · June 12, 2003

Well, I need to do some more research on ini animation, but it should be quickly done.

Apollyon · June 12, 2003

Ok that's good. :)

Dunenewt · June 13, 2003

As none of the sides I use are in your mod, could I make my three sides then give them to you for use in this mod - my sides are all dune sides mentioned in the book. I've made some maps for the Ecazi and Hagal homeworld aswell and I'm working on campaigns

Apollyon · June 13, 2003

That's an excellent idea! Do you mind if I tweak them a bit at a later stage just for balance purposes?

Major_Gilbear · June 14, 2003

Hmm, that kinda gives me a bit of an idea...

What about if each of the ini coders did one or two Houses each?

Each is responsible for getting all the relevant units, etc from various modellers/skinners.

There would be some limits, such as number of units, etc, and also some influence for the three WW Houses (OR, HK, AT).

This way, the Mod would contain as many houses as get done, and as long as at least two are finished, some balancing can occur when they are all added together.

It also occurred to me when looking through the Emp credits - The music foreach house is quite distinct, unlike other Dune games.

Frank Klepacki did not do all the Emperor music by himself - others did different houses, and this brought some individuality to each House.

Just my 2 Solaris' worth... ::)

///Aside///

Why not ask for modellers on other sites? There are *loads* of reasonably good modellers/skinners who could maybe be pursuaded to help? If you could get two more modellers, and a couple of skinners, the mod would be done in no time...

I have been thinking of doing Emperorfor Gens when I finish porting it to RA2, So I would hate to see this mod fail... :'(

Good Luck!!

Apollyon · June 14, 2003

Well that was kind of the idea I had as well and that's what we're doing with the infantry currently. I've tried on the official generals site to get some modellers but no one volunteered, unfortunately. I may try some other sites but I don't expect too much success. I agree with the music thing, but music is not out top concern right now, we'll worry about it and try to persuade Cid and some other people later...

Dunenewt · June 14, 2003

ITs not like I've got too far anyway. ::)

I've made some great infantry textures but I don't have a programme to open the *.dds files

Cyborg · June 14, 2003

I'm done with the model of a Harkonnen rockettank.

:)

It is very detailed. Almost too detailed(in polygoncounts).

However, I don't know how to make a weapon for it.

I would need all the 12 rockets to be launched. In the Weapon ini file, there is something, but I can't change the weapon models as I can't find them :(

Dunenewt · June 14, 2003

Any screenshots?

Cyborg · June 14, 2003

Here are four screenshots of the rocket tank.

You might think that it looks a bit "screwed", but it isn't textured yet(and only rendered in Gmax, which is the program I model in while working on this mod).

The purple things in front of the tank will be lights, while the big, brown thing behind the rocket barrels will be muzzle flash.

Dunenewt · June 14, 2003

how can you edit .dds files?

Apollyon · June 14, 2003

I'm not sure how you open .DDS files, although I do know that you can save them as TGA files instead if you want, except that TGAs can't have transparency. That tank looks great, Cyborg and if you mean you can't find the bullets (in this case missiles) don't worry about that cos there are various missiles already in the game that I can use.

Cyborg · June 14, 2003

Ok, to not get any angry replies in this topic, I'll merge my three posts into one.

Post 1:

But I need the 12 missiles to be launched from the missile barrels.

It would look pretty stupid if only one missile was launched every now and then...

Post 2:

Btw, the system requirements will rise when this game is released...

The rockettank model has about 100 polygons more than an ordinary tank.

I couldn't find any good way of lowering the polycount.

Post 3:

how can you edit .dds files?

That's simple.

Just download the DirectX 8 Source Development Kit, and use a program called dxtex(dxtex.exe) to edit .dds files.

To create textures whith alpha settings(sets the transparency level of a pixel), you will need this file format.

The DirectX sdk is quite big, so prepare for atleast a few minutes of download time.

Apollyon · June 14, 2003

You know the GLA rocket buggy? Well I'll get it to fire like that.

Really is there no way to lower the count?

As for the DDS files, there must be an easier way I think...

Cyborg · June 15, 2003

Really is there no way to lower the count?

Ofcourse there is...

But that will make it uglier.

The missile barrels present about half of the polygons on the tank :P

I think I should be able to remove a few on them.

Apollyon · June 15, 2003

Ok, make it so. ;)

Cyborg · June 15, 2003

Well, the rockettank is very big, so it must have those polygons, I'm afraid.

I removed 4 polygons, though :P

I've figured the system to fire a weapon from multiple places, so that is also implemented in the tank now.

I also figured out how to make a turret rotate horizontally to hit airborne objects.

I will test this tank quite soon.

However, I don't know if it will need any textures before I import it for a test.

Cyborg · June 15, 2003

I tested the w3d exporter.

It doesn't export the bones as bones... Just as ordinary spheres.

And it smoothes my model, much to my despair. A tank shall not be smooth, but edgy.

Are there some other exporters?

I think renx(the game pack for gmax) is made for character modeling, and therefore smooths you model.

There must be some tool for creating bones properly, and to export a model without smoothing it.

Apollyon · June 15, 2003

Does this help at all?

http://www.strategy-x.com/~killasmods/tbone1.html

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