maconbot

You just reminded me about the 2D options! I check back here few times a year. Found this one blog, and already useful info. Thanks.

wow 3 likes on my OP, my best yet lol. i like the new site layout, easier to navigate. any luck on that research?

Well, first thing would be just your "off the cuff" opinion (since you live in uk) what assets that you've created would still be historically accurate to use. If I didn't care about authenticity, I would just grab the generic medieval guys and put them in...but I think they are more 1500s yea? Basically need, clothing, armor, weapons, props, crating gear. But really most of the crafting gear would be universal so may consider starting there, because I believe that is one area you are light on? idk...or maybe just reorganizing all the existing stuff into a crafting pack and maybe add a few things would be a good place to start. My personal game has a timeline, so I have some prehistoric stuff...but nothing really around 1000 AD. And I am allowing the player to advance through time so I at least need a few things to get them from greek/roman centurian to knights of the 1500s. I am still pretty weak on this period of history, as its ignored by hollywood for some reason...which is why I think doing some stuff there would be interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England I was doing some reading on the Viking conquest of England and thought this would be an interesting period of history not many people know about. Would any of the art already created by you work for this period? What wouldn't work. Thanks Steve (and others)

Thanks for the tips…I found this: http://u3d.as/conten...esh-baker-2/3DL However if we are combining the current UV's into a mega atlas the size of any characters merged uv diffuse texture would exceed 4096 … as the maps currently are all about 2048 and we are talking a 2048 for a leg, 2048 for a hat, etc. I'd like to see some improvement on how these UV's get made up. It's something I am working on in my own art and will always be a growing need. At first I thought, well with hard drives getting bigger and download times getting faster…who really cares in the long run. But I have come to realize, outside of the reducing the draw calls….that I will eventually want height maps, along with my normal maps and specularity maps. And in coming future we may even start wanting decals available. So that can get to be an extreme amount of file space. So less is more here.

I also agree with this request and we have danced around it in various other threads. As far as the above mentioned fantasy models: ...what I found was that the base kits were overwhelming at first and very difficult to find out what types of characters I could make with it. I quickly found out that really the base kits are just all the different models you see in the store put onto one skeleton. I found that if I tried to wear one leg type with a different torso type it wouldn't line up and look really bad. If there are a crazy amount of character that do line up - a sample Unity Scene along with a text file containing what matches what would help a great deal. The Unity scene would contain each major variation of the model, although really having any minor variation might be the best bet. So we can really know where we are at rather than just assuming it is workable…with out trying to use it in a practical sense like we have. And really to have a great pack…all interchangeable pieces should attach not just a few. As I opted for membership I still feel I've received the value and beyond of my membership…however if a person just bought the base kits I think they would be at a loss and feel the kits are disorganized from a coding perspective. I think what we are experiencing here is the typical communication gap that exists between the artist and the coders. We certainly all need to come with one voice so he is not hearing 20 different voices and ideas. My main frustration was finding as described above - a lack of standardization of the models and textures and materials. Making a unified female and male character controller seemed to almost require as much work as building one from scratch as it just wasn't setup the way it needed to be. Also yes the bone weights have problems especially in the female models on smaller framework game engines like XNA. I agree with above suggestions. And I think doing the following will make your library more enjoyable for you as well as for us. The List: Single mesh nude base male and female - optional underwear/bathing suit texture Ideally the same equipment mesh fits both male and female If this is too hard, the same look is available for male and female with 2 meshes but same material and texture files - optional looks can be added later that are unique to sex later, however we need a base for a start that is the same for both Standard Naming Convention and Nomenclature - Single Track and Broken out FBX animations all have the same name - Textures are all the same - Materials are all the same Using this approach we can begin to come up with different materials that allow for equipping our character. If we want to allow a sheep, bear, cat, bone skinned leg armor - this should be easy to do in the UV mapped texture. You also can soon offer 30 different textures that fit a basic leg and torso setup and have great value. I agree start with fantasy, and then build these suits/armor sets/equip sets into sci fi etc. Keep the same base model offer different faces and hair…and let's clean up the UV maps while we are doing this. From a texture artists perspective there needs to be a lot of clean up. Draw calls need to be reduced on static objects. Materials should be shared and reshared as much as possible. I recommend creating a palette of textures that you continue to grow. I would much rather have a building that uses 5 materials but those materials are shared across my 30 building scene…and thus only have 5 draw calls versus…each building have it's own texture and now my scene has 30 draw calls, huge file size and I am limited to desktop apps only. I have some examples of great texture artists that I can share with you if need to see an example. I appreciate you being willing to accept feedback. I love the models and your style…just a continuous improvement thing here. Cheers, maconbot

I just discovered flattr.com it could work perfect for the voting system idea...but makes it simpler. There are a few other options out there CentUp.com etc. But flattr seemed to be the first in.

Could create a separate forum, but hopefully its in same domain as this one, just a link or something. I'm more familiar with Wordpress so I'm not sure what in vision zone offers. Perhaps anytime someone posts a request on the current forum you drop them a link to go vote. There may b some google docs type survey that's perfect for this. If not interested in the kick starter approach. May consider letting people start with 10 votes. These votes are free. They can buy additional votes for X dollars and get Y votes. Perhaps you just do this manually until you find something that automates it for you. Once a project hits Z amount if votes it starts getting worked on. I know as an artist myself I'd do 50% of my time what inspires me and the other half what brings in money.

It is good to know that you already put this to practice. I'd suggest making this single person request ability for non exclusive material a little more public such as a forum topic of something. Just so we know we have the avenue if we need. I'd also suggest doing the poll system and not trying to merge the two ideas as they function better separately. Polling is a way of crowd source funding for you...a bid process would be even more fitting. And if our bid wins we pay...could even consider utilizing a service like kickstarter to handle this bidding for you i.e. create different project ideas and we can go agree to pay, lock in our bid amount...if it gets funded bam all $ processing is done for you with little hassle. Then just point to it from here. This also increases you exposure to a new audience. Obviously the balancing act would be not to get overly busy and miss expectations.

Good points. I'd prefer a donation goal or something, rather than making lifetime members pay again. I'm sure Steve would avoid that. However setting a donation option would allow us to pay for things we want first, money always motivates.

I am looking for the LOD's mentioned here http://arteria3d.com/collections/animated-characters/products/fem-scifi-base Model is supplied with 3levels of Detai l Main:8986 Lod1:5050 Lod2:3556 Lod3:1748 I was also trying to find the Female Recon here and had no luck looking in downloads area. I've ran into a problem with the base pack in that having 3-4 models wearing nothing, slow due to try count on Xbox 360 and mobile. The characters are the largest tri count objects in my scene and when I hide them my frame rate goes back up. Draw calls I'm sure are a factor as well but I understand it's a give and take. Having access to the LOD's will let me decide where and when to give. Thanks!

What engine r u using? They both use the same rig...so it's just a matter of applying it.

Are you planning to add all weapons to the revised Male Base? I had mentioned here but not sure if you saw it. Thanks for all your hard work! http://arteria3d.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/87-weapons-on-base-packs/