Weapon Model Thoughts

[Topsy]

Hey all

I finally finished modelling this after a few hours and wouldnt mind some opinions on its quality

[SHOT]http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/3866/pic5o.jpg[/SHOT]
[SHOT]http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/7590/pic4k.jpg[/SHOT]
[SHOT]http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/3452/pic7nl.jpg[/SHOT]

Theres a little bit left to do but most of the quality is there.

[3dcamel]

Thats pretty awsome

[MegaDeth81]

Can you show the wireframe? How many polies is it?

[Topsy]

[SHOT]http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/1804/wire1.jpg[/SHOT]
[SHOT]http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/5126/wire2y.jpg[/SHOT]

Umm its about 10,000 poly's but they are mostly from the barrel as you can see . I was thinking 10,000 is a bit high but its still a good model.

[Suzume]

10.000 polys are way too many. Can you show a solid render with wireframe overlay?

[pulse0o0]

How many sides are on the barrel? And is it a tube or a cylinder? These can cause a lot of poly's and when triangulated usually doubles that amount I recommend using a cylinder instead of a tube and just texture the barrel hole as many games already do. And the ironsites seem pretty high poly too these could probably be changed to reduce the poly count what I would do is keep this model and make another one try and match this one as much as possible with a reduced poly count and use the higher poly one to make a normal map and apply it to the lower poly model.

[UnrealEverything]

Thumbs up

I really like your modell, great work!

My opinion about the polycount: As long as the model needs those details, and I assume it's a first person version so it does, you don't really have to care too much about polycount. There won't be a noticable performance impact, someone tested a simple room with staticmeshes (polycount: 2 million if I recall correctly) and didn't notice problems. Even my old notebook could/can run this.

[Suzume]

True, it depends on the usage of the gun. For pickups or weapon drops of enemies though you wouldn't want that many polygons - it could get nasty very fast.

[Ghiest]

And for a first person you would be able to get rid of allot of the polys that are being use that will never be seen unless you have some really strange Animations :P

For example, most if not all weapons wouldn't need detailing on the right hand side (unless they are smaller weapons like the mp5k or such), also the forward barrel guard doesn't need half the amount of detail you have in there and could cut 1k + from it. The rear stock is almost never seen unless you have extreme FoV settings, so you could cut allot there too.

[TheFallen1]

if your using 3ds max 2010 it comes with a new tool called a pro optimiser, it cuts down the polys by the percentage you want and it preserves the high poly look. but pay attention to the uv, im still not sure if it preserves the uv yet.

[Topsy]

Thanks for all the feedback, it helps alot.
As for the detail on the right side, I do need that because of a few animations such as attaching something to that side of the gun, so I'll need to rotate the model to face that side etc.

[Topsy]

Ive just had to remove the iron sights and create a seperate model out of them for my attachment system so that saved 2000 poly's. I was amazed at how many there were just on the sights. The sights are attached ingame though through script :P

[phale]

remeber the glory of low poly game models. faces can cut through each other, and is worth doing if it saves you wasting polys on seams or details around a faily simple object like a barrel. welded verts to get a sealed model arne't worth it.

And only model what is seen. Its sad but happens so often, you'll pour rich detail into a fully 3d awesome gun, only to realise players will see about 40% most of the time and at idle. Model for 3rd and 1st if player's will never see certain elements of the model, like the stock or underside.

[Topsy]

You will see nearly the whole gun in the game at some point in first person

[Hitpawz]

10k polys is nothin. Like it's been said already, polycounts are way less of a concern these days. However, modeling smart is the key to a great model. You need to make sure that the polygons are supporting details and aren't wasted.

For instance, having a 32 segment cylinder is in a lot of cases unnecessary, but can be needed if the object is as large as a house. Now giving it 32 height segments when it's just a straight tube will get you fired no matter how big it is.

I think the model looks great and once textured is gonna be really nice in-game.