For lack of a better term

[David T.]

What will be temporarily dubbed Dave's Armor.

It's a very bland and grungy heavy full plate suit of armor.

You wanted a set of armor, here's what I have so far. As you can tell only the helmet is textured thus far.

[Burnt Ferret]

remember to make it low poly! That and UV textures.

[Karl G.]

Snazzy! I like that there are no arms on it--if you don't put arms on the models, I can get it in the game that much faster

[David T.]

remember to make it low poly! That and UV textures.

Why do I find this comment insulting? Oh, because I've been doing 3d art for 3 years. I'm aware of the specifications, thank you.

[Burnt Ferret]

That wasn't very nice.

[Vapore]

Play nice.

[David T.]

Heavy Barbute and Breastplate w/Pauldrons
230 polygons
165 verts

I need to work on 'dirtying up' the breastplate texture a bit, but it's largely complete.

[Burnt Ferret]

what program are you using? and do you have "smoothing" on or something equivalent if you are not using blender?

[David T.]

3ds max. If you'd like me to simply print screen the window I can show you what it looks like in a game-like environment.

There is only simple smoothing groups used. No meshsmooth or similar modifiers used.

[Burnt Ferret]

would you mind uploading the texture for me to get an idea of how you make them? I have over 6 years of 3d design experience, but mainly for engineering/drafting where I haven't had to use many textures. So I can pump out models no problem, it's the texture part that I'm not all too familiar with.

[David T.]

UVW Maps and Textures. Downsized from a 1024x1024 to a 512x512 size.

I had originally thought that I was just making a helmet so that's why the textures are separate for the time being. Currently working on placing them onto one large UVW Map.

Now bear with me here, because this is actually my first unwrap in nearly a year so it's a bit sloppy.

[David T.]

Shoulder & Chest.

[Burnt Ferret]

I've heard that the use of triangles in models often times leave artifacts. May i ask why the use of so many triangles when it looks like you could have used quadrilaterals?

[David T.]

Artifacts? What the hell are artifacts?
In 3d space all polygons are made of triangles. Therefore it is irrelevant whether I use triangles or 4 sided polygons because they are all actually rendered as triangles anyway. So when talking about polygon count you should be talking about the number of triangles you have.

If you've done CAD work for 6 years this is something you should already know, it's the god damn basics of understanding 3d space. So obviously there's some sort of barrier in understanding on my end.

[David T.]

Completed. Gritty, ugly, worn, but still effective heavy armor. Texture Map downsized to 512x512 also there.

If you want the model just let me know what format you need it in so it may be modified to fit your needs.

[Burnt Ferret]

Artifacts? What the hell are artifacts?
In 3d space all polygons are made of triangles. Therefore it is irrelevant whether I use triangles or 4 sided polygons because they are all actually rendered as triangles anyway. So when talking about polygon count you should be talking about the number of triangles you have.

If you've done CAD work for 6 years this is something you should already know, it's the god damn basics of understanding 3d space. So obviously there's some sort of barrier in understanding on my end.

You really don't have to be so abrasive, and such an asshat. I'm asking questions, not making accusations or trying to belittle you in any way. You, however, take offense at whatever you can and reply in a negative, childish manner. I don't appreciate it.

I ignored it the first time, now you're just being a plain douche.

Yes, you CAN break up any polygon into simpler polygons a.k.a. triangles, that's not really what's in question here. I don't get why you would calculate the number of triangles in your mesh and figure that is the polygon count. If that were the case, why the hell would you even call it a polygon count? Since, by definition, it would be a "triangle count". Blender also goes into some detail in how you can model using triangles as well as quadrilaterals. They also make a note in a number of different tutorials on how you should avoid triangles on any surface other than a flat surface, as in many cases this leads to "artifacts" or graphical disturbances. Sometimes different video cards interpret these in different ways, or some simply don't show the artifacts when some do.

One example of these artifacts is the old diabolic plate that Ej used in Xenimus. For a number of people, anytime a diabolic plate would be on the screen, HUGE white triangles would form from the spiked shoulders. I emailed Ej regarding this phenomena, he changed the model, and presto. No graphical artifacts.

The point is, I started off by stating two pointers. I was trying to be helpful. I wasn't being condescending. Thadius also had the problem when he started doing the models, not realizing that he had to use UVs rather than just textures. I didn't know if you even had any relevant modeling experience. Well, you reply with some meanie remark stating that you had 3 years of experience and blah blah blah... Ok, cool. Now that I know you have experience, I ask you how you do your UV textures. I also asked you why your model was completely constructed with triangles, as it was against all the literature that I have ever read on 3d Modeling and gaming. They were simple, innocent questions. No need to take offense, and definitely no need to be an bum.

[kuba]

Awesome model David, keep pumpin em out you've noticeably improved from BtR modeling. I'm looking forward to what else you can work up..