render issue

[hallowedking]

I'm kind of hoping LHammonds will give some advise here but if anybody that has blender knowledge can help me I would appreciate it.I found a tutorial at blendercookie.com for modeling an m4 rifle,I followed the tut. every step of the way and recalculated the normals and on the stock at the top,on the bottom part of the pic it is like part of it is missing.The author of the tutorial does not get the issues,will it cause problems in game or will it be fine?The model is not finished yet and when is finished I might just change the stock because I primarily wanna build a M110 sniper rifle and the body is very similar to an m4/sr25 rifle but the stock is different,more similar to an R700/m40 rifle.I also want to use this as an sr25 rifle and the stock would be the same.I am also worried about the poly count because the model is not finished and still needs allot of details added to the mag,I still gotta do the receiver and such.I am proud of this because I am not very good at modeling and I spent allot of time with the tutorial and building this and really would like it to be perfect in game,this is made in the newest beta version of blender and I noticed that opening in 2.49 it wont export to nif properly because of some difference in the beta and 2.49 versions even though they are both blend files,so I will probably have to exprt as .3ds or .obj file to get into nif.Any how back to my original question,I'm just worried that after spending so much time building the model and getting the render issue I am just afraid that when in game part of the stock is gonna disappear.Its there in object mode but when render the issue happens,and again I did recalculate the normals as I followed the tutorial and cant find what is happening.

[LHammonds]

The only thing I think you need to worry about is if the normals are facing the correct way (outward).

 

You can check by making the normals visible which turns it into a cactus. The lines are on the sides that the texture will be displayed on. They should all be facing outward.

 

I don't know the exact steps for turning it on in 2.5 but in 2.49b, you press TAB to enter EDIT Mode and click the "Draw Normals" button on the "Mesh Tools More" panel.

 

You can then tweak it by increasing or decreasing the NSize value (which defaults to 0.1)

 

LHammonds

[hallowedking]

Alright,thanks,I followed the tutorial the same way as the one on blender cookie.com and did the normals the same way as the author of the tut.and he didn't have the issue with his model.I thought I used the same settings and everything as the author of the tut.Guess I missed something.Another thing I am really worried about is the poly count as this is starting to be really high poly,and I still got allot to accomplish.My computer can handle the poly count fine but I'm not sure about the game,is there a limit on these things?I know its probably a dumb question,but thought I would ask. Edited December 30, 2010 by hallowedking

[LHammonds]

It's not a dumb question at all and is something we all struggle with when creating models. It is a balance. How much do we put in the model? How much and what goes into the texture? There is a lot to consider.

 

If you are making a model for renders, the only thing you have to worry about is whether or not your computer and modeling program can handle it.

 

When you are designing it for a game, there are even more things to consider. Is it something that will take up a lot of screen real estate? (is it a gun in your hand or a rock in the wastes that you might see for a second in passing) Something that will liter the scene (is everyone wearing that armor or just the player?). Are the details something that cannot be noticed such as not visible if casting a shadow? Is it something that can be accomplished in a bump map or texture?

 

One way to get a quick gauge is to import the assets that ship with the game and see how complex the geometry is with similar models. If you find that all their assets range from 1,000 to 5,000 faces, you are probably over-doing it if you have a 10,000 face asset. But again, it depends on a lot of factors. If your object will be seen up close and is unique, it might be OK. However, you don't want to be wasteful.

 

For example, in your model, it looks like you have geometry details etched into the various buttons...such as grip ripples. It would be better to make those areas flat and fake the detail in the texture and normal maps. Those kinds of details are not visible if you were to try and see them on a shadow of the model. I refer to the shadow a model casts as a kind of reality-check and general rule-of-thumb.

 

LHammonds