Julius: I have thought about doing a battle armor game a couple of times as an 'interim release', each time when we have been stuck with some problems with the mek models. I guess it depends on whether its halfway to somewhere or halfway to nowhere. I feel it is probably the later.
I spent most of today chopping up Wolfs animations, and to relieve the boredom I decided to make a helmet. There was only one choice....
I am going to try to export a working version later tonight (fingers crossed). This model is the one of the best we have, it is much better than the other bipeds. It has a really full range of FPS animations, so would be suitable for an FPS player character or an NPC combatant entity. In short, a good set of soldier animatons. It lacks non weapon animations, so as it is, it wouldn't be much chop for RPG or non weapon SP games. If it exports OK I will try to mod the walk animation, so there is at least a weaponless walk.
Wolf loaded and mostly works. There are no crouch forward/backward animations with the model which is a bummer. I will try to configure it better over the weekend, It's been a while since I configured a new model. So much pain I have forgotten...
I have been feeling like Caligula playing with his heads, seeing which goes with what. I think the Isabella head will become Natalie (the hair will be made dark), and for Isabella, I was thinking of something like this:
She is only a mock up, will need to model the head.
Wolf works! Split mesh even. No ragdoll yet, and need to tune up the animations and make a crouch_forward one. Here he is in RE, note I haven't adjusted the weapon properly.
Thanks. Wolfs going to be a father to a whole lot of models, once he is finished. Still a few problems. I have got the weapon nearly right, here he is holding in MG postion:
I have arrowed a few problems, fine adjustment of the gun and an apparent hole in the mesh. The second pictures shows Wolf holding a weapon in the rifle position.
Other than those problems there are a few things to tidy up such as tuning the animations and making a ragdoll. I need to come up with a couple more animations to match what the engine expects, a crouch animation, left/right animations, and think of something for the mines.
When you adjust model configs, you do a lot of restarting of the game, it gave me a chance to see some of the new maps. Visually they are brilliant, I can see why some of the old maps are being redone. Well done.
Here is the new Natalie (actually the old Isabella with black hair) and the new Isabella, she is still a WIP, but she is looking a bit tougher. This Natalie head has been grafted on to the wolf model, so it should work, well at least as much as wolf does.
Natalie in wolfs' clothing, as pictured above, exports and works correctly, as she should, cause its really just a head job. The Heavy battle armor, which I posted ages ago, here http://teamxbow.org/cube/models/misfit/ ... r2_v04.zip has had its' mesh split, exported and is working too. Unfortunately this one is missing quite a few of the standard animation the engine expects. On to the ragdolls....
In his bad old days, Wolf killed many Imperial Troopers, including some of the members of the high born officer class, his light battle suit is now decorated with some of spoils. It might be heading a bit to much towards a warhammer chaos marine look, but I do like gold and other glittery things like jewels.
When I have finished the texture work and done as much of the animation as I can, wolf and a variant or 2, will be relased into the wild.
Pictured below are 3 Natalie models. The first is as she would travel on the Proud Mary, space craft suitable clothes. This needs a bit of texture work as its a bit of a quicky, eg she still has her runners on. The second is in light battle armor, so yes, she did manage to get into Wolfs pants. The third is as you would met her first on Jacobs World. The 4th variant, in heavy battle armor is waiting for me to fix a few problems with the battle armor.
I managed to import a bip animation of natalies animations to another biped standard model. There are still a couple of rigging areas that need to be fixed, and the texture needs to sci-fi-ized a bit, to my eye the captains head seems most suitable on it.
Wolf & Zeta player models Red Eclipse player models configured & ready to go, also source models. These models are based on Wolf07, original model done by Gabriella in early 2012 using 3DSMax biped. There are 50+ FPS animations, though a few are duplicated, some are single frame poses and a few are poor quality and need some work. Could be used as a player or NPC. Current status is about 90% complete. I have done a few variants, see vid below with helmet: youtu.be/og4CZNI1ZRQ
This contains the original Wolf07 model in Misfit3D format and a copy in Milkshape format. Each has all the animations but in Misfit they are seperated and easy to work with. Also contains the Zeta model in Misfit3D format. The Anubis model does not have any animations, but it is easy to import them. Homework. All these skeltons are compatible. If you haven't got misfit cubed get it here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/misfitcubed/?source=directory
Instructions for use of preconfigured models in game The preconfigured models are md5 models arranged in male & female folders just like the standard RE models, so basically you replace your players folder with the one in the zip. 1. You should experiment with a separate RE install, not your playing one! 2. Rename the original RE male and female folders to something else 3. Unzip :
somewhere on your PC then copy the player folder from the zip to the RE models/actors folder 4. Start RE, play!
The Characters
Wolf Wolf is a character from the SP game in MekAracde. He is wearing a light combat suit and is the original model. For back story see the MekArcade SP storyline post.
Zeta Zeta is a warrior clone of the Reticularans, a race originally from Zeta Reticularis. The Reticularans are best known as the small stealthy greys, members of the medical class, who work for the Abduction & Reproduction Dept. Zeta was cloned on Terra in a secret underground base under Archuleta Mesa on the Colorado-New Mexico border near the town of Dulce, New Mexico, sometime in 1948. Zeta, hates humans, a deep loathing in its guts, if it had any. Like many of his race, Zeta has a penchant for cows and is quick with the anal probe. Enjoys beting, Veronica Mars and long hours relaxing with his hand in cows blood, or at a pinch, strawberry ice cream. As is true of most experimental hybrids, texture work is a bit rough and there are a few issues with that big alien brain box, and the weapons seem to stick through that skinny body, but, its just for fun. Having a death animation with the head exploding and green goo pouring out would complete the picture.
youtu.be/fQ6W_3hqOfs Anubis This is even more of a quicky, derived from wolf, but no head just a wolf helmet. The gold skin and dog head suggested the Egyptian god. You will have to import the animations from wolf then export as md5 if you want to see it in game. See vid at start.
So there it is. A working, open licensed, modifiable RE character model, a couple of variants, configured and truly 'game ready'. I'm looking for people to help finish it. Needed first. If you can assist with any of these: 1. Fine tune animations and weapon position 2. Set up accessories 3. Work out what to do with parkour and other special moves 4. Fix/replace poor quality animations - swim, crouch forward, L/R run 5. Make any new animations required 6. Spec and bump map, dds textures and configuration Later - once animations and config sorted 1. Heads - Easy to change heads in misfit. Plan to put all the MekArcade characters heads on. Can heads be done as accesories? 2. Soldiers accessories & make a suitable soldier base 3. Feminise a mesh a little for the gals 4. Set up and test as NPC 5. Export in formats to allow importing into Max, Maya and Blender, build base model in those formats 6. Develop non FPS animations. I thought I might try and make some non FPS animations and use this as a general character base, but I think it is easier to add a few shooting animations to a non-FPS character, rather than the other way around. .
I took the fusion cutter to the Beholder cahssis and replaced the body with parts from the E-NA, Eonized-Nitrogen Armored tank vehicle by an artist called oomnine. Its only stuck together with sticky tape and needs some new paint. I have asked the artist if we can use the design, but I am still waiting a reply. youtu.be/NehAoyYjNTE The organic meka look is how I see the Harvesters in the Birthright story, although I pictured them as bipeds. At least it gives me something to work with. It's not rigged properly yet, when it is I will relase the model and try to make a working NPC (if the artist gives permission)
Done a liitle bit more work on the small harvester, and a bit on the boss harvester. I have tried a few color schemes, non of which I have been happy with, see them both below in green:
The boss harvester is not textured properly. I think I still like the original, accidental look, rather my deliberate attempts. These guys animated and have enough animations for an NPC, but need a few for a player character.
For color, have you tried the good old silver and white color scheme? Or are you more for a rusted metal look? I also found this, it vaguely reminded me of the small harvester, maybe you could try a color mix similar to what is used. http://reneemars.deviantart.com/art/quot-The-Shooty-Bot-quot-Turret-256259555
A rusty worn look will some meka, but the harvesters are different, they are artificial lifeforms, cyborgs, perhaps aliens. Why do they take teenagers? What do they harvest? The model below is very, very rough; a frankenstein of bits, with a few mis-influenced verts, funny feet but it does start to give a sense of aliveness, which is what I want for the harvesters,
Thanks Charlie. I don't think a half arsed release is a good idea. With the models I need to clean up a bit before I publicise them more. Wolf and Zeta are ready to go and have source files. I have been on a bit of a roll, and it's not so much the individual models but the process, or the first time I feel I have got the process nailed - I can produce working player models efficiently without it costing an arm and a leg. I you look at the pic, there are 2 derived models, plus some possible mods.
This skeleton has mainly rpg rather than fps animations, but it's not to hard to add a pistol position, a shoot animation and so forth. Once these are added and it is tested and works I will release this one. My son Tom thinks Mr Resident would look pretty cool with the RE laser or plasma shooting out the eyeball. I want to have a few variations in the torso mesh, with different clothes (T shirt, jumper, bomber jacket, suit jacket, ninja, long coat, shirtless). If you add an potentially endless number of heads, with various (game relevent accesories eg packs, belts etc) then it becomes possible to produce a lot of different models, for different genres, easily. All in a FOSSY, but blender free way. Round of applause please.
Nice work! I agree a Residents cameo would be pretty cool and add a bit of surrealism (one of my friends is really into the Residents, I bet he'll like this )
The rpg animation set came with the original model from Gabriella. She used to use Max biped, most likely its been exported from a biped rigged model, so there are many sources she may have used. I asked for a basic set of rpg animations that could be used as a player and npc. It is only with experience I have realised how easy it is to add enough fps animations to an rpg set to work with RE. I wished I had realized it earlier. I worked out the cost versus mixamo. Each animation costs about $3.50 from Gabriella, whereas if I did it through Mixamo in piecemeal fashion it would cost a minimum of $20 per animation. True, there are bulk packs, but they roughly halve the price per animation. Walters models were about the same price as mixamo on a per animation basis.
The tachyon collector has received a swag of data from approx. 3410AD, and in some of it there are details how Capt. Nagamora 'found' the alien and some more details on the nature of the alien, 'Splendid Beauty". This fills in some of the back story. Visit http://mekarcade.com/testlog/index.htm
Technical note - you need a HTML5 compatible browser with canvas support to view these. It's an experiment with canvas and JQuery mobile. I would like to use one JS framework across all platforms, so I have been playing with jQuery mobile. It's pretty neat, but complex, I can't even find which bits in the CSS I need to change to mod the appearance. The accordion, button and popup widgets are demonstrated.
If something doesn't work please let me know (+ your browser, OS). Remember this is just test stuff. We are travelling at the moment and I am using my daughters netbook, sans mouse, which makes graphics and modelling difficult. Going to a flea market today and hopefully finding a mouse (and fleas, perhaps).
Another way to present the back story would be to use cubescript and have it display at load time, there is nothing here that couldn't be done with cubescript, except the canvas bit. So there are a few options.
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