Mil Mi-24A Krokodil

[Pathetic_Berserker]

Yeah on to it, ATM Im having trouble getting O2 to preview beyond 24k verts per Lod, not sure what the actual limit is , or if there is anything that can be done about it, but I'm finding it quite a challenge.

My pilot lod is currently about 40k verts and not yet fininished so I'll have my work cut out for me

[zGuba]

Should BIS release their MLODs, you'll get much better base for your model



You should aim below 11k verts for playable LODs. Try using proxies if you have non-retexturable parts rich in details.

[Pathetic_Berserker]

Yeah, Mlods would have helped earlier, mostly in scaling the few common components and gauges, but I'm kind of past that point now.

I'm asuming that improved Mi-24 is your work? Outstanding!
Lol, now you've set the bar I have something to kill myself trying to get over.

[zGuba]

Model is property of BIS and CWR, I only fixed and pimped up its animations if you need any help just contact me.

[Pathetic_Berserker]

Well.. now you mention it. I am having a some trouble getting my head around some animation and config issues, I'm aiming for a similar effect on the nose gun reticule and controls to what you have achieved above. Also curious, are the rocket pods controlled directly by the pilot in the above? This is another accuracy I was hoping for, but I'm not exactly confident with my scripting/configing.

Give me a couple of weeks to finish up what I can do of my pilot and gunner lods, and fix a few lose ends and I'll PM you something you can hopefully work with

And thank you for the offer

[Pathetic_Berserker]

Ok I predicted the gunner and pilot views would take me a while, and I was very right. At the moment I'm not quite ready to take up zGuba on his offer but very ready for a break. Thankfully with it being the holiday season and all I'm going to be forced into a break, but should be able to devote a little holiday time towards getting back into this project in the new year.

After reading Nodunits comments in his own thread about the state of WIP news I also thought that instead of just thowing up a few pretty pics to tease I would show you all my general process for detailing the gunner and pilot positions. (So appologies for the image quality but I didn't think focusing on a pretty cluster of verts or a near complete render was going to help my topic.)

I should also note that I still consider myself a noob at this stuff in that this my first attemp at at modeling at this level of detail so I put this out there to test the idea, if ayone knows better chime in before others may follow.

OK this first shot is not a UV map, but its my instument panels laid out and modeled in more or less a flat plane.I have found this helpfull in a couple of ways, firstly it has allowed quick copy/paste of like gauges, switches and components, also when I make my uv map from this point via 'project from view' my panels UVs are scaled nice and consistant.


Now from this angle they are difficult to recognise but the floating geometry makes it easier to keep some sections seperate when baking materials. I'm not sure about other programs but for good results in blender it is best to work bottom up for material baking though it doesnt seem to mind at all when baking normals(just pick your bottom plane and go). Of course for a good AO pass you need to have everything together


With the space left after projecting my panels on the UV, I map all the objects that are not particularly flat and that I think deserve more detail in the lod. I also move off any flicky or twisty bits (switches) that I want to remain as geometry into clean UV space so there is no pixel bleed from geometry to geometry (understood?)



Ok now I have all my geometry basics sorted and UV's created I take all the floating geometry and 'sink' it to its correct position. Once it is all in place and connected I move it into place by snapping my instument panels to and rotating from, key verts

From this point I can create a reasonable AO pass and consider my vert culling.


PS;
Another point of progress

Lod 0.6 24305 verts
Lod 1.3 19504 verts
Lod 2.1 8548 verts
Lod 3 4458 verts
Lod 4 2110 verts
Lod 5 1054 verts
Lod 6 243 verts

Does this seem reasonable? I don't realy see the target of 11k for lod 1 as being possible for this bird. I would consider proxies, but still not exactly convinced

[GossamerSolid]

Holy crap that is really detailed. How does it run ingame lol?

[Pathetic_Berserker]

The version I have in game is about 23000 verts Lod 1 and performs well, but I havn't had a chance to do any real stress testing yet, wich wil be waranted when I get the current version ingame. So far in working on various addons I've found section counts to be far more important than verts, and on that I count 2

Current machine is a Q9650 OC'd to 3.6Ghz, with 8G DDR2, and a GTX285, so not the latest but still plenty of grunt.

When I get around to it I will push it through my old machine a dual core witrh 4G DDR2 and a GT250., wich buy the way plays A2 well enough for my kids, or to be used as server.

[GossamerSolid]

Current machine is a Q9650 OC'd to 3.6Ghz, with 8G DDR2, and a GTX285, so not the latest but still plenty of grunt.

When I get around to it I will push it through my old machine a dual core witrh 4G DDR2 and a GT250., wich buy the way plays A2 well enough for my kids, or to be used as server.

Well if you need a tester, I'd be more than happy

(I'm just trying to get my hands on this masterpiece )

[KKastl8@gmail.com]

Hi is there any one who tried an addon/mod on Arma 2 operation arrowhead version 1.52. In wich it did show up in the mission editor. But it just did not play when it was first released and did Arma 2 operation arrowhead quit working and on the desktop it said bad version 50 p3d file. Also did any one try to ask a modder to fix the p3d file. Hi GossamerSolid there are these 9k79-1s from red hammer studios and they don't play on my Arma 2 operation arrowhead version 1.52 but they do show up in the mission editor. I know you are only a tester but could you fix the p3d files for them.

Thank You,