maybe i can help soi, perhaps instead of adding a blade to it, u could sharpen the edge of the lower half. and try sharpenening the detail of the heat gauge, it looks crappy in the fp model.

I still think a plasma blade would be a nice addition to the Brute variant.

Ok, guys, I tried everything I could, but it seems that this time most of us have different ideas.
Since I want to get rid of this weapon (I'm working on it since four days D:> ), and I changed it billions of times, I'll make this definitive.
The blade now has two tips, and I brought back the old fins, like Master Noob suggested:



@Dumb AI: I also liked more the plasma blade idea, but I thought that making it in iron instead of plasma would fit better the primitive Brute design. But I'd like to put a plasma blade on another weapon, in future. Currently there are already the Energy Sword and the Energy Cutlass as melee energy weapons, but a third weapon isn't too bad, after all...

@Greg: I tried to make the gauge sharper, like you suggested, but the result is always the same. I think the problem isn't in the texture, but in the angle of the gauge. In fact, at a different angle, the gauge looks greatly:



But the strangest thing is that, with the maximum resolution, it looks better even in the idle animation:



Honestly I don't know how to solve this, maybe I'll make the color darker, so it won't merge with the other lights.

For today is enough, guys, I'm tired, and I'll work on the Beam Rifle directly tomorrow...

the way you designed the blade is incredibly impractical, as I've pointed out earlier. 2 tips changed nothing.
I was thinking something more like this, where bringing the weapon down would actually be effective at close range as the tiny blade you have needs specific aim.

the thicker holder on the blade would also prevent it from snapping off as easily, and give better results from stabbing.

It would also make it more intimidating.

SOI Weapon reviews: TL;DR edition


Easily the best Flamethrower showcased in a game. The flamethrower always looked inspired by Aliens to me and now, even moreso.. Also, that sharkface is doing a bit of foreshadowingjustice



Love the design of this, right here. It looks much more tandem than the other BR models. I like how the scope looks from an exterior vantage. It looks almost like a reflex sight, rather than a scope... The FP view of the scope? Probably could use a little more work, imo.



Targets with lasers. Fires with lasers. Raises the question; Why couldn't you do both at the same time, then? Otherwise, I like the model.



That is by far the cutest gun I have ever seen



I like it.



The UNSC entered a partnership with Afterglow. Can you make it so the grenade launcher makes a "BOOP" sound everytime it fires? I feel like it needs a "BOOP" sound.



Looks like a shark.. I like sharks.

I based this edited photo roughly off of your design master noob.

I love the plasma rifles, but that blade just didn't look right IMO.

sorry soi but i think zobieking's idea looks much better than yours (no offence meant). i did however like how the one on yours was fastened to the gun. i believe thought, that both could use some work, perhaps adding some of the rifle frame pieces to the blade would help make it look more unified. just trying to help, and soi i must say the textures look much better this time around.
Edited by greg079 on Sep 2, 2013 at 06:57 PM

Quick teensy little idea here - would the BPR look better if the heat gauge and pretty lights were a pale red color?

yes

Or perhaps orange, as red indicates that the weapon is about to overheat.

I think it'd contrast badly; neon blue stands out pretty well against dark blue, but I don't think pale red does the same. How about yellow? Or even purple, since the BPR is already a magenta-burgundy color?

As for the knife/blade/bayonet, what if you embed it into the core of the weapon itself and make the bottom part wrap around it? Something like this (editing thanks to Zobi3king):


Edited by renegade343 on Sep 3, 2013 at 12:29 AM

This is how it would look like with pale red.

Also @renegade343 I'll make your concept all pretty and pm you the result.

@master noob (the post under this one) here's what it looks like with orange lights.

Edited by ZOBI3KING on Sep 2, 2013 at 11:49 PM

make it orange to better contrast against the shell.

I can't believe how much you're helping, guys. I really appreciate it, your feedback is very important to me. I'm also happy to see that finally we got a solution that makes everyone happy.

I have to agree with greg079: that blade that Master Noob suggested and Zobieking visualized is way better than the two-pointed blade I made yesterday. And the orange lights are also a great idea. I worked on it and tried to get a result as close as possible to your renders:



The result is almost the same, the only difference are the attachment of the blade and the hole. For the gauge, I think that this colour would be the best choice, because a more saturated orange would make the red hard to distinguish when the weapon is about to overheat. Maybe a yellow background could work as well.
I hope this time it came out decently. Feel free to give me other suggestions, if the BPR still needs some work.

Definitely brute-ish. The orange color is similar to the color of the lights on the Reach Spiker and Grav Hammer.

only further suggestions are optional and in this order 1 bumpmaps, but that would require sauce so... 2 neat particle effects (ask ifa... i can't spell his name, from CMT) 3 better cubemap, masternoob maybe? 4 blood on the blade of the rifle.

I'm really, really, happy!

@greg079
1) I could still make a fake bumped diffuse map for the blade, and bake the normals
2) I'm already using Ifaudafi's particles ;)
3) Uh, dunno if he has something that wants to share. The BPR is currently using the default PR cubemap, but I have also a neat cubemap ripped directly from H4 (the Covenant Carbine one). I could try it and see if it is better
4) No problem for that
Edited by SOI_7 on Sep 3, 2013 at 02:52 PM

@Dumb_AI: lol, you busted me :P

Finally, the last weapon of Echo77's list is finished. Here is the new Beam Rifle:



HOW IT IS MADE:

The starting idea was to lengthen the Beam Rifle to the pre-Halo 2 size. Here you can see the difference between the H2 Beam Rifle and the new one:



Of course, my work didn't stop here: I have applied the HR Needler handle to the Beam Rifle, and added some details on the texture, like bumps and Covenant symbols. The plasma color has been darkened to a more violet tint, in order to differentiate it from the needler crystals. A miniature of the Beam Rifle scope has been added, though it is barely noticeable in fp.





But the biggest change are the particles. This is the first time I gave more importance to them, because the Beam Rifle has always bugged me for its effects. In Halo 2, I liked the expanding ring, but the plasma flash was too poor in terms of quality. In Halo 3 they made the opposite: they removed the ring, and enchanced the flash! The overheating effect was even worse, and the contrail didn't satisfy me. But now, thanks to Ifaudafi and his particles, I made a mix of them, and obtained something really cool. The great thing of his tags is that you can make billions of combinations and obtain always different results:



The firing effect (that you can see in the sequence above) is a mix of 4 different particles (plasma flash, plasma twirl, electricity and the expanding ring). I can guarantee that it is fantastic.



The overheating effect is a mix of smoke and sparkles that come from the muzzle, while an electric ring flows through the whole barrel (thanks to zteam for that tip).



And, finally, the contrail is a modifed version of Ifaudafi's Impaler contrail.

The firing sound is the H4 one. lol I was joking, it's the H3 one, I just wanted to scare you! ^^

Magnificent. o.o

Far superior to what I'd imagined could be done with the base design. Much sleeker, has a nice, slim profile as opposed to the H2 Beam Rifle's triangular shape. Very nice.

I imagined that you would have used previous advice in future projects, but that seems not to be the case.

soi i heard u describe the h2 beam rifle, so i'll assume u played h2. what i'm getting at is i would love to have the h2 firing rate for this gun(brief refresher, i could fire 2 shots at almost the same time, i preferred that over head shots because it was quicker). also this seems to be some of your best work yet.

Honestly, I posted that pic for laughs. Didn't know that you had something else to work on.

Pretty much every weapon he's made thus far has been the result of "previous advice". So... really not sure what you're referring to.

just about every problem that I've pointed out in previous pages persists in his current work. the unadjusted textures, warped UVs/shapes, etc. I can't see how you missed those.

I think this is what he's talking about @Echo77

But he has used previous advice in projects. Just not all of it.
Edited by Echo77 on Sep 5, 2013 at 11:15 PM

Seems to me like he pretty much ignored all of master noob's advice. not sure what you're talking about echo.

that statement made no sense, but nice try at backpedaling anyways.
Edited by master noob on Sep 5, 2013 at 11:08 PM

He's taken most of my advice, so maybe that's why I didn't notice. My apologies.
Edited by Echo77 on Sep 5, 2013 at 11:16 PM

I hope you're joking, because I'm sorry, but I must protest. I always tried to satisfy you and all the rest of the comunity with each weapon I made, I never ignored your suggestions (just think about how much times you made me change the Brute Plasma Rifle. The current blade and the orange lights were a your idea, if I'm not wrong). You told me to bake the ambient occlusion masks, adding bumps to the diffuse and make the top parts brighter and the bottom parts darker, and that' exactly what I did. If you don't believe me, I can post the current texture and the original one ripped from H3. Maybe that's not enough to you, but consider that, using gmax, I can't render the normals to the diffuse, so I had to make everything manually using Photoshop, and I can guarantee that it wasn't funny to do. Should I switch to 3ds Max just for the textures?
When you pointed me the UV errors (like in the Flood Combat Form) I tried to fix them as much as I could, and I always make it when I edit the geometry of my models. For example, in the PR/BPR, if there were still warped UVs, the detail exagons would look horribly stretched, and you can see in the pics that, on the other hand, they look fine. About my last work (the Beam Rifle), I just modified the length and the handle. All the other edits are in the texture, and don't concern the model or the UVs (unless, of course, you would complain Bungie for how they UV mapped the model).
Don't misunderstand me, I don't want to sound rude and/or argue with you, but -at least to me- it seems that you are never satisfied about someone else's work. And I'm not referring just to my weapons, because I know that I can't compete to the other members here. I'm sorry if I offended you in some manner and I apologize for it, but this is what I feel.

while master noob may be hard to please, he is only trying to help. however instead of u guys going back and forth maybe u two could get on xfire (or some other junk u guys love to use), and he could walk u through it sometime, or even point u to a tutorial so u could do it yourself.

Everything I suggest is easy to do and I have posted the various techniques in various places all over the forum. it will take a while, but I'm going to post a massive dump of various tuts here to show what I mean.

I'm here for this. Do you have something that is doable manually with Photoshop, too?