Theory Lesson B: "Why your model looks SO bad" or "A sphere out of cubes"
Do you read this? And the first of these very annoying theory lessons didn't scare you!?
Well, don't try to trick me. I know it scared you a lot. But you tried lesson one and think all your models look like crap. I am right, am I not?
Well, I can't really help you about that, but take a look at this pic. It has a very inspiring effect on some people. (But unfortunately a very hypnotic effect on others...;) )
This is the body of the tank you seen at the index page. It looks good, doesn't it? Well, it you think it doesn't, you are at the wrong lesson.
I made the model transparent and applied different colors to the cubes, so that you can see how I formed them. You see, the body consists out of 36 cubes. you can build nearly everything out of deformed cubes... perhaps you seen the trick behind everything now, but be sure: The knowledge comes with the time. The more unit models you make, the more experienced and skilled you get. Your first model GOT to look bad, because if it wouldn't how could the veterans earn the respect they need? (It's kinda fuel for them. Or better: They behave like gods. They can only act if someone believes in them.)
Well, that's what I wanted to show you. Now some of the more intelligent guys have noticed something: 36 cubes...6 faces each... that are 216 faces! And that without the turret! Wizzball, you told us not to use more than 250 faces for an average unit, and now you nearly break your own limit! What are you teaching us here?
Well, the first thing is: I didn't model this for TA, but for another rts. Also, I can show you that the final model has less than 250 faces, maybe even less than 200! How do I do that? Is it magic? Look at this:
Given the situation that you want to make a simple football (For englishmen and others: I mean American Football, not soccer!) On the right hand side you see how I want the final model to look like. The second football model from the right shows you that I plan to make the model out of 3 cubes. Two shaped like a pyramid, the middle one a simple cube. This model has 3 x 6 faces, so we count 18 faces. But now the trick: The cubes are arranged so that two sides fit together perfectly. The side where you put them together is not visible. You can see that on the third model from the right. I took one cube and turned it a bit. You see that these are two red colored faces. They are not visible to the player later, so they are practically useless. But they suck performance. We can delete these faces and get a perfect ball without any useless crap inside it, and have only 14 faces! Guess how many faces could be useless when there are 36 cubes?
Also, it is a tank. A ground vehicle. In TA, we can think that the player will never see a tank from below, so all surfaces pointing downwards are useless....believe me now? Understood it?
If yes: that is is good, now we can train this process of "cleaning up" the model, what mean seeking and destroying invisible faces.