Game vehicle - speeder bike
 

I joined the SM challenge last month to build a game vehicle model with under 30,000 polys. I ran out of time before I'd really started, but I'd like to carry on anyway as i like the theme.

So taking influences from the imperial speeder bike from Star Wars ep6, a Ducati 1000 and the 'Ghost' vehicle from Halo... This is what i'm building (...and yes i know the concept is simple :p)

....and this is what I have so far. I'm happy with what i've done at the moment, but theres still a long way to go. Working on hand controls right now, then onto bottom section of the hull, then wings. The above view is a bit brutal at the moment 'cos it hasn't been connected yet. Crits welcome obviously :)

thats a nice sketch man kinda makes me wanna design something similar to that.

Thanks man, to be honest I think I'm a bit rubbish at concept art or whatever you want to call it. Because I was kind of designing while i was actually drawing it, I drew it in a bit of an odd way. I used vector paths & strokes (& erasers) so I could edit pretty easily what I had already done if it didn't look right later with other bits added. I really should have done an 'above' view of the speeder too, probably would have made things easier for me but I think I'll be ok.

I have pretty much done the hand controls now to where I want them, might still have a tweak or two : > I'll post more pics when I have the wings done - I decided to do that next :)

Because I'm new to game art as well as modelling, i also hope someone can help me out - How many seperate peices of geometry is the norm for vehicles? And how will that affect UV mapping? Any other tips are also welcome and probably somewhat required :) Oh also, the challenge limit i was given is 30,000 polys, but to be honest that sounds way high for the kind of game I could see this vehicle in - anyone have any idea what kind of limit would be appropriate for an engine like Quake 4 or HalfLife2?

Here's where I'm at so far. I have a top section hull, footpedals & hand controls done. I am now working on the wings as you can see from the wire below. At the moment i'm just aiming for 'clean' work, with a low/medium poly count by todays standards (at the moment 4358 polys with both sides combined). Hopefully I can add cool details later on.

I'll continue working on the wings for a bit then I'll start piecing it togther with the bottom section hull, if anyone has any suggestions; creative or critical, input is welcome!

Edit : If anyone knows of any really fast & simple render / lighting setups, could you point me in the right direction so I can show you better renders!

Progress...

its looking good so far but can you add more lights to the scene cause some other parts are hard to see.

Yeah i've decided enough is enough, im just sorting out a basic 3 point now. i havent really looked at the whole render/lighting thing before but i figure now is a good time, as just the default lights suck :)

Right, I know its hardly the worlds best render but hopefully its a bit better than previous ones. Been tidying up a little on what I already have before I move on to the front and underside hull... which will be housing the guns :ninja:

Still a bit unsure how to end the wings on the far tips... hmm.

Since posting the last screenshot I've made a few minor changes here and there, mainly just shaping the body so it looks nice and sleek. I'll post progress when the underside hull and guns are completed :D

I was going to smooth the hull, but I'm still unsure of what a decent polycount would be for a doom3/quake4/halflife type of engine. If anyone knows anything about this sort of stuff, can you please set me a limit... the smooth option looks great on it but adds a rather hefty polycount...

quote from http://www.simracingworld.com/gamesl...tham_Racing_3/

Thanks for the link and info but unfortunately i dont think that will help me. Polycounts in games vary a hell of a lot, I know car games can afford to spend more polys on their vehicles as there aren't many of them on your screen at the same time that often.

For my vehicle i'd like it to have a polycount that would suit a battlefield 2 style of gameplay (large open maps, lots of people per side, 1st person shooter) on a newer engine like doom3. Hope thats a bit clearer.

Then I would go up to 10k polys. It really depends heavily on how the game is designed. If there are some kind of speed up techniques like level of detail you could use a 50k model when the model is close and 1k if it's very far away. But around 3-10k for a vehicle is pretty normal for games developed the last couple of years.

Thats brilliant, ta mate. I'll go for a max of 10k then cheers, as i know level of detail is at least used in bf2 and quake4.

Well I've been working on it tonight... I'll have more progress tomorrow after some cleaning up and attaching the wings. I'm also thinking about putting the 'side boosters' on the wings instead of the rear top hull... I'll have a play with it.

Ahh its that time of year, haven't had much of a chance to keep this project rolling, but I havent forgotten about it.

After coming back to this today after almost a week, the guns were looking a little 'weak'... so i have started them again but already I'm thinking it just doesnt suit it. I know the edges around the barrels are a little thin on the geometry side, but aside from that if anyone has any suggestions please speak up! Maybe it needs a 'plasma' type of gun rather than a chaingun thing?

Well I've given it a new gun, personally I prefer this one so I'll keep working on it for a bit, then its back to the wings and rear end.

Edit: Merry Xmas everyone, have fun!

wow! looks very very nice!

keep it up!

Merry christmas to u too :beer:

Thanks MTM! More progress tomorrow hopefully!

Right I think I'm going to need some help. Theres 2 main 'problems' I'm having at the moment. (and lots of little questions too!)

1) The first is a matter of opinion - do I add more guns, or more thrusters to the model? Personally i think the wings look a little dull as they are, and i always intended on doing something with them.

2) I really want to work out normal mapping to get some fine detail into my model. Things like bolts, panels and so on. I am generally aware of the theory of normal mapping and ive seen millions of different tutorials, but most of these are from pretty dodgy looking sources, and using some pretty weird looking techniques and 'shortcuts' (such as converting bump maps into normal maps). Can someone just point me in the direction of a really decent tutorial for this - bearing in mind I've only ever made colour maps.

As I get close to finishing the model I'm getting curious about a few things too. Like does it matter how many 'pieces' your model is in? Should it all be a lambert or does that not matter? Would a specular map be of any use to this model, and if so how do i make them? Would i bother to make a bump map if i was normal mapping the model anyway? Ahh, so much to learn - if anyone has some experience with game models i'd appreciate some help!

Normal maps are basically a "new improved version" of bump maps. Haven't done any myself. But you basically create a high poly version of your model and then render out the normal maps and apply those to your low poly model. It depends on the renderer you use how exactly you go about it. Sorry but I haven't got a tutorial for you.

About the number of pieces it's really up to the programmer what he thinks is best. Usually it doesn't matter how many pieces there are. Although it's more efficient with fewer pieces, so don't split up the model when it's pointless.

A specular map can of course give a more realistic appearance since some parts could reflect more light than other or your model.

About the materials it also depends heavily on the graphics engine and if you gonna bake textures etc. Just use lambert and blinn for showing off the model.

Cheers for the info!

At the moment I have the hull all as one peice, and moving parts like handles, footpedals and wings are seperated. Hopefully thats a sensible way to do it.

I'll have a look into specular and normal mapping a bit more, see if i can get anywhere.

Hey Petrol

Neat Design...

Jay

Not bad at all..

But i would like to See another render with a "whiteish" background.

if you ask me, it looks more professional :P

no pictures or anything. Just modify the perspective camera settings

Jay - I know it's not much but I'm still new to this really, but thanks!

Grev - Yeah I totally understand what you mean, I really am terrible with rendering at the moment. I was looking into clay renders not long ago, I might try that soon - hopefully it will look a bit more professional. Thanks for the comment!

happy to "help"

Hey, nice design so far.
In answer to your first question, I think adding a missile bay to the two splints which hold the wings out out would look pretty cool, though this might mean that in order to aim the missiles, the player would have to alter the direction of the craft accordingly - unless of course they are self-guided. The altering course thing could act as a nice game-play dynamic, as I remember when playing Wipeout, though it did sometimes just get frustrating. Then again I am a sore loser... :p

ZeroAlarm: Thanks mate! Actually it's funny you should say that, as I had exactly the same thought. I'll give it a try when i next get a chance. The model is on a brief hold at the moment as I'm at a 3d school during the day and need to practice the days work when i get home in the evenings. But i'll come back to it at the weekends if i get some time. :)

Haha yes well great minds think alike :D
What 3D school do you go to, out of interest and are you doing a modelling course or what?

I'm at Escape Studios in London, just started a few days ago. It's for 3 months and its a 'Comprehensive' course which basically takes you to an intermediate level with Maya across the pipeline in your chosen field - in my case game art (modelling, texturing, rigging, animation etc). Theres 3 main comprehensive courses: Maya Comp for Games, Maya Comp for VFX, and Maya Comp for Characters all of which are £8,500. They also do a bunch of other courses.

It seems pricey considering the short duration, but its a highly acclaimed training center so you get what you pay for. So far the training has been intense. I've learnt more solid knowledge in 4 days than I thought was possible. :) Have a look! www.escapestudios.co.uk

I've decided to go back and redo the handles and pedals, and Im redoing the wing struts too as these were all very bland in terms of concept/detail/style. I've also deleted the rear booster as up til now i wasnt sure how represent it.

So far at the moment I'm at around 6k polys (limit 10k) without the rear boosters, I reckon after the remodelling I can get it further down, and get more detail in at the same time. (The hand/foot controls were a touch poly heavy for what they actually were).

Progress later tonight, hopefully this project is going to start coming together over the next few modelling sessions.

That's weird, I was going to say I've been looking there! It looks like a great place, especially with their links with Rare. So wait, after 4 days of training you could model that racer? If so I guess I don't need to ask how good it is

Once I've finished my A2 levels I might save up and get some training instead of going to uni, so it's really cool that you actually go there!

So what other projects have they given you?

Nah this is nothing to do with Escape, I started this project a couple of months ago to get myself some practice before i went, so actually everything you've seen has been what i've learnt from this site - mainly just from the free dog tutorial, and Mike McKinley's book.

There is no 'project' work for the first 6 weeks, so ask again later! At the moment, it's just learn learn learn. It's heavy going, but also you feel a bit like neo learning kung fu. Its cool.

Ah cool. Well Kung Fu is always handy to know :p

I've quickly knocked up some new handles as a test to see what they would look like with the horizontal grips (as the pod racer / speeder bikes are) and I like it! I'll go back and redo them anyway as they are currently higher in polys than i would like, and I'll add some wires and other mechanical bits while I'm at it. If anyone has any thoughts, do let me know. Next week I'm going to town on this baby.

I like the new handles, but they could do with being beefed up a bit to make them look more durable

Yep, I agree mate. When I redo them I'll make sure they're in good proportion. Always good to get opinions :)

Cool. I'm liking the detail on the pedals, by the way

I'm Exited to see how this turns out :D !
Are you going to texture it ?

and btw - Great job so far

ZeroAlarm - Thanks! I'm still going to redo them but I'll see what I can do.

Grev_Mivlos - Cheers mate, I'm still kinda new really but I'm hoping it comes together. Yes, definately going to be texturing this, and I'm actually hoping that won't be too far away now as I'm gonna really get sh*t done this weekend. I promise some big changes soon ;)