Rate our models

#1 Everything looks great!

This is going to be on TSE, right?

#2 Hey Brice. :)

The vehicles are badass. The only thing I would change is maybe a little more color variation to the textures. I dont mean they need more colors. I mean there needs to be more variation within the hues and tones you are currently using (try adding a layer or two to the top of the image that holds generic metal textures and mess around with the layer blending options). Also more signs of use on the jet (burn marks aroudn the engines) would be good.Other than that, they are right on.

The humans could use a little work. The texture is good and the proportions seem to be right on. The thing that bothers me is the sillouette. It doenst seem that exciting. The sillouette is one of the very top things you should be concerned about when making a character. Backpacks and ammobelts and funky armor (or wild hair or flowing robes or unique posture) and the like can add nice little bits of contrast to the standard human form. Id look at adding a few of these kinds of elements.

#3 Nice, very nice indeed, and yes when building main character you have to think of the character's sillhoutte, Adam is right. I read it also from one of my fiction writing books, almost all of the successful characters, either in games and maybe movies too they all have distinguishing sillhoutte.

#4 Looks good except the character needs details on the back....

and the texture on the head looks strange.....


Otherwise, great!

#5 All looks good and well...

Can we see a shot from the front of the players face?
The lightning on the model... what is done there? The dark areas
seem to be in the wrong place... Under the arm the textures should
be darker... the reason being that less light gets there in real life.
The picture from the Back (underneath the one where we can see the face),
the shoulder from the top is dark... while to the bottom it is lighter as if there's
a light source from the bottom... this doesn't seem right...
Maybe the light source in your screenshots are confusing me... But there are
tutorials out there on how you can texture you model realistic just by hacking your texture to make some areas darker and some lighter... I'll see if I can find one...

- As is I'll give your character models a 7.5/10
- The Tank models' polys seems low... maybe give more screenies...
I'll rate em 8.5/10

My 14 cents... ;)

#6 Tank: Looks a little squarish esp. around the front of the vehicles, the texture looks a little too dark and patchy i think it needs more detail like paint chipping, dirt patches etc

Jet thing: looks good i rekon, probobly the best model there imho - only thing that stands out to me is the glass/windsheild, it doesnt look very 'glassy' to me (im assuming this is what its supposed to be?)

Humans: Face needs to be redone i would say, its very patchy with many highlights in strange places etc, its a little hard to guage on that angle though. The bodies i think need more contrast and detail in there texture, at the moment they are a little boring and will be easily forgotton... they need something to stand out and go 'wow' (similar to silhouette i guess)... overall though i think they just need more contrast within the different sections of armour.

last but not least take better angles shots :P, if you provide front/side views its much easier to give better critiques on the work :)

#7 Hi Brice

in answer to your question, im hoping that are prepared for honest answers and wont take this the wrong way.
regarding the quality of the models, are they good enough to compete with other products on a store shelf. firstly, i'd have to ask; in what context do you see these models? if its a RTS, id say yeah, they are definately good enough.
if its a FPS, then sadly, probably not. its sounds harsh, but compare them to doom3 and UT 2004. you have to put yourself in the position of the punter. picture yourself in a shop picking up your game, and any of the competition.

There have been games released that I have considered to have 'average' graphics. Breed, Chrome, devastation. they might have done fairly well but they do seem to have dropped off the radar somewhat.

Also bear in mind that these are last years games, so you are looking to be bettering these products right now. if you are developing something that is going to take a year, its going to be competing with even better things than doom3/far cry so it'll have to look s**t-hot!

regarding the models, the character is definately the weakest. the design is okay, a bit bland and generic sci-fi perhaps but the modelling looks fine.
the texturing is the biggest concern. needs more contrast and definition. i've a feeling that at a distance of 10 metres it will just look like a grey blur which isn't good. the head texture definately needs work, primarily the way its cylindrically mapped so the detail 'pinches' at the top of the skull leading to warped textures across the triangles.. looks very bad!

just my opinions.
regards,
Rog

#8 Thanks for the info everyone, I thought the models where pretty good but seems some people disagree. I know they aren't as good as Doom 3 and UT 2004 but that's to be expected. I'm not trying to compete with the top titles out there.

For the perspective, it's either going to be a first person or 3rd person shooter. I've been messing with both trying to decide.

We have over 70 models finished and we're hoping for a release date of 1 week after the final release of TSE. Redoing the models and textures would take a long time.

#9 @Brice - Don't take the critiques here as meaning you need to redo models. I've seen models in commercial games that do not even come close to being as good as yours.

When i wonder if our stuff will be good i take a browse thru Gamespot:

Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
Gods and Generals

Ambulance Driver
Navy SEALs: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Alcatraz: Prison Escape

... and there are many more like that out there.

If i were you i'd worry more about your gameplay and polish than your models. They're just fine... don't redo a thing... move forward!

#10 Renders aren't the best way to judge your models for games. Put them in the game engine they're intended for and see what they look like. Thats the test. I can use alot of lights and High detail textures to make a model look great but the game engine tells another story.
Your models look good (The top that guys head needs work though, if thats important). The questions are, do they meet the standard YOU invisioned for your game? Will they perform well in game? And the big kicker Is your game even worth playing or is it just pretty?

Everybody and their mother can tell where need improvement, go with your standards first..Make the game worth playing.

Matt

#11 Ok... this is a retail game actually put on store shelves by Activision Value in 2003:



I rest my case.

#12 I guess that shows that a picture can say more than a thousand words!

#13 IMO, you don't need to redo anything.

All you need to do is:
1. Use higher-contrast lighting to brighten/sharpen everything
2. Use different colored lights (for example, a yellow or blue tint depending on if it's indoor or outdoor will make the lighting look more natural)
3. Make normal maps so the models dont look so flat and to give it more detail

And, as Tom has shown, you could do far worse. :)

(Honestly, I think they look very good, they just need some extra polish to make them great.)

#14 I am trying to learn modelling with 3dMax 7, and I can't even make a simple car. Yours look awesome. By the time your ready for release, you'll have them polished up nice.

#15 I'm sure all people think they're pretty good... We're just giving input as to how to make it even better... So don't feel bad by our critism, which it isn't really... It's constructive feedback... If your whole game has that professional feel and look that is in your models, it'll be a great product!

#16 In my opinion, these models are better than average. I'm just as jaded as the next guy due to the power of multi-million dollar budgets, but if you compare these to some very successful titles, I think you'll realize just how important the game is as a whole. Doom 3 has some of the greatest looking models and effects you could dream of but all I read online is how the gameplay is botched. EQ II follows that with realistic cloth, incredible details and a sparse user community. Then you have World of Warcraft, where the focus was on solid gameplay, questing and lower system demands and people are reselling their own copies at crazy prices! Their models look pretty quaint compared to the latest cream of the crop, but due to the strong concept, it works really well.

I think you are at the tweaking stage now - definitely a strong foundation. I'd look at simple things you could do instead of redoing everything: maybe give the guy a buzz instead of a polish, add some kind of boba-fett antenna to his helmet, make the helmet textures a little more complex, give the tank some texture love. I wouldn't touch the flyer aside from some of the mild texture tweaks mentioned above. The style of gameplay and surrounding environment also makes a big difference - When I see these models/textures, I'm thinking something dark and gritty - somewhere between Tribes and Splinter Cell.

I would definitely feel good about using your stuff in a game! If your intention is to shoot squarely in the middle, the game itself will determine how good your aim is! I think you are in that last 20% of development that takes 80% of the time and energy ;)

#17 Models look great. Main thing I would say is that you cannot base the game on how it looks but how it plays. Sure many people will be attracted to a game based on how it looks but the real winner is how fun the game is to play. I have played many games that look freakin sweet yet do not dilever when it comes to replay value or even value enough to finish the game. I have also played some really crappy looking games yet would still play them to this day because they are fun. Keep up the good work.:)

#18 @ Matthew Jones We are using TSE and we don't have dynamic lighting. Having the characters currently in the engine with ambient lighting wouldn't look good.

@ Tom Spilman We will make sure the story and gameplay is polished and working good.

@ Will Harrison Yes, there will be polishing and added effects, Bump maps, reflect, glow. We are going to be using TSE so we will have all those features, we just have to wait for more of it to be finished.

@ Burning I don't feel bad. Just trying to get a feel for what needs to be corrected. =)

Overall we are trying to go for a 6.5 - 7.0 user rating. If something isn't good enough it needs to be addressed.

We have a lot of this game finished. The only places we really lack is animating and TSE programming. Once we have those positions full we will concentrate more on tweaking and optimizing.

#19 I think that it all looks great, but for the hovercraft vehicle, you might want to check out www.poopinmymouth.com

It's got a great tutorial on adding realism through grime. ^^

#20 This look better? One is in Max and one is rendered in a scene.
Let me know.