Preivew of things in the pipeline

[GaryChildress]

I tend to like the one with him holding the rifle. Although, I also tend not like the writing. It seems busy to me. I also like these images better than the earlier ones. They have a better overall look. Somewhat more realistic but also an illustration.

If you do decide to go without the writing, I would also tend to suggest a transparent background. The reason being that in the game you can load two images for the SFType. Thus, you can load in a single colored image for the background, and still have the opportunity for the image to be transparent and show the terrain image, if you want. Two options can be available.

What I need to check is if with an event you can load images for the various peoples as well as the main image. I suspect so, but I am not 100% sure. If so, the process of assigning images can be automated with an event rather than having to do it manually for each and every subformation and people type. A process that is rather tedious and boring. Since it is likely that there will be on more patch, I'll check and make sure that it can be done.

I confess that the one thing in the editor that I found to be the most mind-numbingy boring thing to do was to set the graphic overrides for Landscapes. It had to be done for each override. Thus, I set it up so that you can select more than one at a time, indeed all of the ones you want to override.

I can get rid of the writing. It's not essential to the game, just a little extra tidbit of info about the weapon the soldier is using for hardcore military enthusiasts or something.

[Ormand]

Event functions were mostly there, except that there is a bug in setting the extra graphics that overwrites the main graphic. I am also adding a check to determine the code, and three new execs: 1) add an extra graphic, 2) set the code for the extra graphic, and 3) set the name of the extra graphic. You can already set the counter and the two graphics.

[Ormand]

I can get rid of the writing. It's not essential to the game, just a little extra tidbit of info about the weapon the soldier is using for hardcore military enthusiasts or something.

I understand and almost agree completely.

[Ormand]

With these event functions, it will be reasonably simple to load the graphics. One has to make a stringlist that conatains things like the sftype #, the extragraphic #, names for pic1 and pic2, name for the extragraphic, etc. Then loop over them and let the event do the work. The tedium is making the stringlist, which can be a text file that then gets loaded. If there is a mistake in it, all you have to do is fix the mistake and run the event again.

Unfortunately, the current event for the extra graphics does do something wrong where it also sets the basic sprites to the extra. Which means for the time being having to do the basic sprite again.

[GaryChildress]

With these event functions, it will be reasonably simple to load the graphics. One has to make a stringlist that conatains things like the sftype #, the extragraphic #, names for pic1 and pic2, name for the extragraphic, etc. Then loop over them and let the event do the work. The tedium is making the stringlist, which can be a text file that then gets loaded. If there is a mistake in it, all you have to do is fix the mistake and run the event again.

That's great!! ATG is only getting better. I hope there's an ATG 2 with reworked naval warfare. That would be awesome. Also, the ability to import maps from other scenarios would be very cool. Of course, there would be the issue of terrain types if the different scenarios have different terrain types. Maybe that's why it hasn't been done yet.

[GaryChildress]

Would this look better for the subformation graphics?

[ernieschwitz]

I think that graphic is much better yes Getting rid of the stripe does remove some information, but as Ormand rightly points out, it clutters the image.

[Ormand]

I like it better.

[GaryChildress]

I like it better.

I like the quality of the image better than the "toon" version. The "toon" version I was using in Poser makes a dark outline around the figure and his features. I suppose this looks a bit more natural and more like a quality drawing out of an Osprey Press Series book.

[GaryChildress]

Tanks are a little trickier to represent given the dimensional ratio of the ATG subformation graphic. How does this look for tanks? Unlike the infantry which are courtesy of Poser 3D rendering software, these are courtesy of the Internet page, Tank Encyclopedia. I asked them a couple of years ago if I could use their graphics in a not-for-resale, fan-made capacity and they were nice about giving me permission. I put the idea aside at the time but I think they will go well with the new infantry graphics.

I should probably put a small line above the vehicles that acknowledges the Tank Encyclopedia website.

[GaryChildress]

I'll probably need to do something like the following to give proper credit for the drawing.

[ernieschwitz]

I like them. I like their site too. I like the one with out the dedication most But I understand why you would want it there...

[GaryChildress]

I like them. I like their site too. I like the one with out the dedication most But I understand why you would want it there...

The only other thing I can think of is maybe pay homage to them in a readme file or something that will come with the graphics DL. And, I'll make it a point to acknowledge them in every preview I release. Maybe that will suffice.

[GaryChildress]

Trying to figure out how I'm going to do all the different unit types. This is a first stab at a battleship subformation graphic for France. I used Ultimate Admiral Dreadnaughts for this.

Ships, infantry, and vehicles I can probably cover pretty well. Aircraft are my Achilles heal. I may have to use Ormand's aircraft graphics as they are probably the best we have.

[ernieschwitz]

Very nice Battleship!

I think that the worst part of the graphic is actually the flag. I wouldn't mind generic graphics for things such as battleships, so for me, losing the flag is no biggie. Also makes it so that you don't need to make ships with different flags, for all the nations. And what happens if someone makes a nation not yet represented, but wants to use the graphics. So in my mind you'd need to make a generic version anyhow.

[GaryChildress]

Very nice Battleship!

I think that the worst part of the graphic is actually the flag. I wouldn't mind generic graphics for things such as battleships, so for me, losing the flag is no biggie. Also makes it so that you don't need to make ships with different flags, for all the nations. And what happens if someone makes a nation not yet represented, but wants to use the graphics. So in my mind you'd need to make a generic version anyhow.

That would probably work out well. UAD is a design your own ship game so I could design generic ships for the whole lot. I would just need to choose the ones I like most. Or, perhaps I could make a few alternatives that people can choose from.

[Ormand]

I decided to go back and look at Blender again, and what I did with aircraft and to make a stab at tanks. It was a bit arduous as I basically forgot everything and the code evolved from 2.9 to 4.1. So, I had to relearn just about everything and watched videos from a guy that goes by Arijan, where I picked up a lot of tips. I tried my hand with a T-34 Model 1941, which might have been a bad first choice as the turret is a bit challenging to get the curve and not make some funny geometric shapes and not use triangles. Also, I put a bit more into it than I should have since I see that the holes that I had to cut into front and back sprockets aren't that visible in this view. I am also not that happy with the renders. They are a bit flat since it has a single color, and I am not that sure how to put some textures. I did find a way to cavity shading (as a filter on the render), which adds some highlights to edges, but also wound up using a line in the Cycles engine, which makes a bit cartoony, but has contrast, which I couldn't really get.



The view is a bit better than sideways, where the image pretty small. In DC, the view uses the full image in the SFT info window by not showing readiness, APs etc there. The 4:3 format is a little limiting.

Note that the image is 576 x 432, which can be brought into ATG, as it is scaled down.

T34.png (810.62 KiB) Viewed 541 times

[Khanti]

Here they are as they appear in the game sizewise.

I like the one with black carbine. More contrast than those blurred ones. Eyes-wise.

[GaryChildress]

I decided to go back and look at Blender again, and what I did with aircraft and to make a stab at tanks. It was a bit arduous as I basically forgot everything and the code evolved from 2.9 to 4.1. So, I had to relearn just about everything and watched videos from a guy that goes by Arijan, where I picked up a lot of tips. I tried my hand with a T-34 Model 1941, which might have been a bad first choice as the turret is a bit challenging to get the curve and not make some funny geometric shapes and not use triangles. Also, I put a bit more into it than I should have since I see that the holes that I had to cut into front and back sprockets aren't that visible in this view. I am also not that happy with the renders. They are a bit flat since it has a single color, and I am not that sure how to put some textures. I did find a way to cavity shading (as a filter on the render), which adds some highlights to edges, but also wound up using a line in the Cycles engine, which makes a bit cartoony, but has contrast, which I couldn't really get.



The view is a bit better than sideways, where the image pretty small. In DC, the view uses the full image in the SFT info window by not showing readiness, APs etc there. The 4:3 format is a little limiting.

Note that the image is 576 x 432, which can be brought into ATG, as it is scaled down.T34.png

Very nice! You have a great talent for making historically accurate models. Well done!

[GaryChildress]

I'm thinking for heavy (crew served) weapons I might just go the route of the original game graphics and simply feature a graphic of the weapon alone without any people in the picture.

It would make it infinitely easier to produce those subformation graphics, making my life less complicated and being able to produce graphics much, much quicker. The addition of a human figure, let alone 2 of them, slows down the rendering process significantly, and means I have to fidget with 14 different uniforms in the process.

So instead of 14 different versions of this:

HVY MORTAR TEMPLATE TEST 2_0001.png (35.87 KiB) Viewed 389 times

I would be creating only one version of this:

HVY MORTAR TEMPLATE TEST 3_0001_0001_0001.png (15.91 KiB) Viewed 389 times

Then, if I can get all the subformations covered, I can go back at my leisure and add more regime flavored graphics later if I decide to.