Baelkin Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Just wanted to post a small update concerning an item I've been working on for the past couple of weeks prior to having a small X-mas hiatus and after New Years. Before the GECK was released I noticed a topic in the Modification Requests section and really liked the idea of the armour from the Manga and Animé Jin Roh in-game as the "official" combat armour of the Chinese invasion force, so I decided to implement this in Fallout 3. While it seems a pretty straightforward project, I've had to relearn a lot of modelling techniques in 3ds max which is the main reason the modelling has taken so long. Now I just need to texture the damn thing and add proper normal maps based on the diffuse textures and other small adjustments, but that's for a later update. The mask itself is compatible with different types of helmets (at least the Combat armour helmet), and once I've gotten around .nif'ing and texturing it proper, I'll have a German M32 helmet ready as a companion piece, fully completing the headgear of a Jin Roh Panzer Cop. :) A sexy detail, which most people probably won't even realize except other modders, is that the .nif is organized such that different parts of the mask can be removed - so if you want one without the goggles, or just want the goggles and the upper part of the mask it's easy to just disable these in NifSkope and within minutes have a new model with the desired features. This of course also increase the amount of data in the NifSkope file, with a total of 11 NiTriStrips blocks and just as many texture files to allow easy retexturing for other modders. I haven't tested it on a female model yet though or a male with a different facial structure, so that's something I'll need to sort out as well. Hopefully it won't require that much more work to get it look good on all characters, if I'll even bother fixing it. :P Anyway, without only a litte further ado, below are some screenshots of the item in question - the textures used are the NifSkope UV export tga's so it doesn't look completely like crap, but I still need to make the real textures so I can't show it in the finished state (hence the WIP tag). The eyes *do* glow in the dark though, and honestly I think it looks pretty good despite what some sceptics in the original discussion thought about that kind of thing in a game vs. how it looked in the Animé. :D First how it appears in the GECK preview: http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp337/Baelkin/GECK_preview.jpg In-game screenshots: http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp337/Baelkin/ScreenShot49.jpg http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp337/Baelkin/ScreenShot50.jpg http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp337/Baelkin/ScreenShot52.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baelkin Posted January 5, 2009 Author Share Posted January 5, 2009 Just finished setting up the M32 helmet with collision detection and proper seamed UVs. The textures are going to look much like the Talon Company armour surface, so I've stuck my guy in one so there's something to comapare to. I tried the mask on both male and female faces as well, with the only severe clipping happening on very heavy or broad faces. There is still some issues with the top head strap clipping into the scalp of the head on some heads, but unless anyone knows how to make NiTriStrips "scale" to match the size of of the head, it's not easily fixable. http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp337/Baelkin/ScreenShot54.jpg http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp337/Baelkin/ScreenShot53.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flickone Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 hey mate nice one there iam just a bit shocked how many polys it has :happy: :ohmy: . But i like the idea keep up good work and bring MORE! :thumbsup: good idea for tallons i think this mask fits tham very well... waiting for textures :smile: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skojolt Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 I agree with the polygon thing. Don't skimp as the engine can handle it. You can probably use a lot more around the eyes to help with shading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baelkin Posted January 6, 2009 Author Share Posted January 6, 2009 Haha, well I'd like to keep the polys somewhat low, because you never know if you are going to need a small army of NPC's equipped with it. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rekicker Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Looks amazing! Very stylish, mate, very much so. I'm envious of your modeling skills as I lack the ability to manuever around in Blender for more than a few minutes without feeling sick. Good job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flickone Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 iam just interested how many polys are there??? :smile: :whistling: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baelkin Posted January 7, 2009 Author Share Posted January 7, 2009 Small update. All I've got left to finish are the textures on the nylon strips that run from the sides and top of the mask to the retainer at the back of the head, so I thought I'd post a few teaser screenshots of roughly how the final mask will look like when worn with the accompanying helmet. It's perhaps a little dark, but that's basically how it has to be when looking at my source material. I still need to tweak the glow of the eyes a bit to a more dark red as it looks quite pink right now, but overall I'm pretty satisfied with the result: Screenshot 6 Screenshot 7 Helmet and side detail Just a few more hours painting and a few more Q&A'ing left. :D Looks amazing! Very stylish, mate, very much so. I'm envious of your modeling skills as I lack the ability to manuever around in Blender for more than a few minutes without feeling sick. Good job. I learned modelling on 3d max so I'm using a "trial" version of Max 9 for hobby purposes. I've tried getting into Blender but the GUI kills it for me. Honestly I get depressed looking at Blender's GUI for more than five minutes at a time. :D As for the polycount, it's currently pretty heavy because I haven't optimized it. Currently it's ticking in at 7065 for all parts, however I could cut this into half with a bit of work by removing the polys that you don't really see and welding the different mesh parts of the mask together into a single NiTriStrip mesh. For instance, the bulk of the mask consists of a lower part, a top part, a lining with it's own mesh, a cushion around the lining on it's own mesh etc. which all could be united into one mesh, cutting away ~50% of the current polygons without it actually being noticable. I'm aware that you should always strive to minimize the amount of polys, but I'd rather give people something to play with and make a subsequent optimized release at a later date. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheOutlander Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Screenshot 6 Screenshot 7 Helmet and side detailUgh :pinch: I just noticed how small the mask is, what with the character's chin sticking out the bottom. :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baelkin Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 Screenshot 6 Screenshot 7 Helmet and side detailUgh :pinch: I just noticed how small the mask is, what with the character's chin sticking out the bottom. :confused: Myeah, but once I a balaclava done to put under the mask done it won't be as noticable. At any extent, making an extention to the mask, covering up the lower part of the chin should be pretty easy, but until I have the body armour ready I don't really know what size it should be to fit it proper, or if that piece should indeed be part of the armour rather than the mask. ;) Making the "sealing" part of the body armour seems to make more sense to me, as the mask is just an add-on to go between the helmet and the body armour itself. I'm planing on making a balaclava to put under the helmet as well as part of an alternate version, which will make the exposed chin less noticable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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