Edited by SciFi on Mar 28, 2015 at 05:35 AM

Edited by SciFi on Mar 28, 2015 at 05:35 AM

Looks like a cross between the M41A Pulse Rifle from Aliens and the Morita from Starship Troopers. Don't forget a magazine.
Edited by Echo77 on Feb 3, 2015 at 07:31 AM

what if it's energy based

General silhouette looks nice, but you should now draw over that model to add more detail. Something I really hate with weapons is when if you look down the side of the weapon it is just FLAT...

Open that render in Photoshop, get some pictures of real life weapons/from games, and stick parts over the top and use bits of detail to add detail to yours but make it look unique.

At the moment is looks very boring and flat, give it some life! :)

The term "assault rifle" refers to a specific category of ballistic weaponry, at least in every context I can ever think of seeing it in, so I'm going to assume it's ballistic unless the author says otherwise.
Edited by Echo77 on Feb 3, 2015 at 02:21 PM

Most of that isn't a very accurate summary of actual definitions/classifications/specifications (I can clarify over PM if you'd like). In any case, if the weapon is ballistic, it needs a magazine. If it's not, it doesn't.
Edited by Echo77 on Feb 3, 2015 at 02:53 PM

RL specifications don't necessarily correlate to fantastical ones ^^

Easier to take terms at face value at first, before attempting to navigate the rabbit hole that is "Dogs can be cats and cats can be dogs in a fantasy world." Going to assume that the author isn't wholly opposed to any and all criticisms unless he he says otherwise.

Edit: In hindsight, I guess both of our metaphors are flawed because both objects in both of our comparisons are comprised of the same major components, while lasers and assault rifles aren't (hence the initial mag vs no mag debate). At this point we comprise more than half the posts in the thread, though, so we should probably just wait for the author.
Edited by Echo77 on Feb 3, 2015 at 06:49 PM

That's not comparable at all lol

A better analogy would be "cockatiels can be parrots and parrots can be cockatiels in a fantasy world"

Unless you explicitly know and deeply care about the difference between the Psittacoidea and Cacatuoidea families, the traits that distinguish them irl are easily sidestepped in classifying them as one and the same (if one would even go so far as to do so; most games simply lump any flying wildlife under 'birds'), and so the specifications differing them in our reality are irrelevant. Cockatiels are parrots in a fantasy world. Laser guns are assault rifles in a fantasy world. *shrug*

Edited by SciFi on Mar 28, 2015 at 05:33 AM

>doing work
I usually just paint the fake 3d effects on stuff in photoshop and go without a decent normal map, although I usually work in a less realistic style so it doesn't look so terrible. Or just do a super rough couple-hour high poly one, not a proper one like you'd do for a modern engine.

To this day I remain confused how people do high polies lol

I can model ok, but adding in those finer details...you can't just cut everywhere 'cause that'll just f~ up your topology, so what's the secret? Does one just tessellate from the onset to get more to work with? Or midway through modelling do you up and decide you need a little something there and then subdivide as necessary? I've seen people just opt to add details as separate geometry entirely..is that the way to go? And surely not everyone just excruciatingly plans every single poly out on a 2d surface and then goes with it; that would hinder the artistic process.

Again, I myself am no stranger to modelling, but I just want to hear the methods of adding these more fanciful elements from someone who has experience here.


e: I mean, not my intent to derail the thread, but as long as we're on the subject.
Edited by BKTiel on Feb 3, 2015 at 10:55 PM

when you're doing highpoly work, you can mess up your topology as much as you want (atleast from what I've heard).

You only need good topology on the lowpoly, wherein the highpoly can be whatever so long as it's in quads.

Well a common way to highpoly is to make a low-ish poly model made to look good subdivided to hell. So subdivide last, otherwise you'd need a superfast computer for dem polies and that many polies is a pain to work with usually. Unless you need more polies partway through or something, but as I said too many polies would get annoying fast. But yeah, just add the subdivision modifier to the stack in max and switch over to it now and then to take a peak, or have an instance subdivided or something. And details can be added as a separate entity, when baking the maps and stuffs it doesn't make a difference. And you can cut everywhere if you make sure to cut while maintaining your topo if you want, you just need to plan ahead what you're doing a lil.

Alternatively you can just sculpt it, especially for organic shapes.

The quads are just 'cause quads subdivide well. Low poly you don't need good topo in terms of the all-quads stuff, with games everything's turned to triangles anyways. Keeping everything quads for low poly is a waste. Meanwhile if you've got triangles and whatnot in the highpoly one it can make bumps and stuff subdivided, some people don't worry too much about this though and just make sure their non-quads are out of view or puny or otherwise unnoticable on the final subdivided product.

I was talking to a few people. When you're baking, you want to make sure that both the high and low polys are in all quads or as many quads as possible so that you don't get smoothing errors. You can triangulate later if need be, but you should keep it quads until right before tossing it in.

Plus if you model in quads, you can still import as quads and not have issues unless you make some really weird faces. If you have issues ingame you can always just cut the faces manually and export. Its also good modeling practice

Yeah the smoothing errors is what I mentioned with subdivision of non-quads. And although you can model as quads for ingame stuff, you can save polys by using triangles. This isn't really an issue for halo ce modelin' but for stuff with an even lower polycount, every triangle counts.

Subdivision modeling.

Edited by SciFi on Mar 28, 2015 at 05:31 AM

Actually in the world of high poly in all honesty, if it looks right, it'll work, simple as that(yes even N-gons work just fine once subdivided). Working high poly is a breeze compared to low poly. The only thing low poly needs to do is carry a good silhouette. Get your UV's set up. Get your bakes and start texturing, or with vertex painting you can just bake your color info too(though depending on what you're doing, that can look like garbage).

If it's a railgun, I'd suggest replacing the traditional-looking barrel with something a bit more blocky and representative of the housing one might find around a pair of magnetic rails.

Edited by SciFi on Mar 28, 2015 at 05:28 AM

give the sides a bit more detail and variation, and you'll be good to go now.

Edited by SciFi on Mar 28, 2015 at 05:27 AM

damn it feels good to be a gangsta

So.........merry christmas for all you wanting to go highpoly:

https://mega.co.nz/#!0dNQXKCb!69u6u3t9s42by43lQeLUyx_X3MpLRxpceZ-wErY_hJM