Mil Mi-24A Krokodil

[pathetic_berserker 4]

Ok I predicted the gunner and pilot views would take me a while, and I was very right. At the moment I'm not quite ready to take up zGuba on his offer but very ready for a break. Thankfully with it being the holiday season and all I'm going to be forced into a break, but should be able to devote a little holiday time towards getting back into this project in the new year.

After reading Nodunits comments in his own thread about the state of WIP news I also thought that instead of just thowing up a few pretty pics to tease I would show you all my general process for detailing the gunner and pilot positions. (So appologies for the image quality but I didn't think focusing on a pretty cluster of verts or a near complete render was going to help my topic.)

I should also note that I still consider myself a noob at this stuff in that this my first attemp at at modeling at this level of detail so I put this out there to test the idea, if ayone knows better chime in before others may follow.

OK this first shot is not a UV map, but its my instument panels laid out and modeled in more or less a flat plane.I have found this helpfull in a couple of ways, firstly it has allowed quick copy/paste of like gauges, switches and components, also when I make my uv map from this point via 'project from view' my panels UVs are scaled nice and consistant.

Now from this angle they are difficult to recognise but the floating geometry makes it easier to keep some sections seperate when baking materials. I'm not sure about other programs but for good results in blender it is best to work bottom up for material baking though it doesnt seem to mind at all when baking normals(just pick your bottom plane and go). Of course for a good AO pass you need to have everything together

With the space left after projecting my panels on the UV, I map all the objects that are not particularly flat and that I think deserve more detail in the lod. I also move off any flicky or twisty bits (switches) that I want to remain as geometry into clean UV space so there is no pixel bleed from geometry to geometry (understood?)

Ok now I have all my geometry basics sorted and UV's created I take all the floating geometry and 'sink' it to its correct position. Once it is all in place and connected I move it into place by snapping my instument panels to and rotating from, key verts

From this point I can create a reasonable AO pass and consider my vert culling.

PS;

Another point of progress

Lod 0.6 24305 verts

Lod 1.3 19504 verts

Lod 2.1 8548 verts

Lod 3 4458 verts

Lod 4 2110 verts

Lod 5 1054 verts

Lod 6 243 verts

Does this seem reasonable? I don't realy see the target of 11k for lod 1 as being possible for this bird. I would consider proxies, but still not exactly convinced

[gossamersolid 155]

Holy crap that is really detailed. How does it run ingame lol?

[pathetic_berserker 4]

The version I have in game is about 23000 verts Lod 1 and performs well, but I havn't had a chance to do any real stress testing yet, wich wil be waranted when I get the current version ingame. So far in working on various addons I've found section counts to be far more important than verts, and on that I count 2

Current machine is a Q9650 OC'd to 3.6Ghz, with 8G DDR2, and a GTX285, so not the latest but still plenty of grunt.

When I get around to it I will push it through my old machine a dual core witrh 4G DDR2 and a GT250., wich buy the way plays A2 well enough for my kids, or to be used as server.

Edited December 9, 2011 by Pathetic_Berserker
section count is main plus alpha, makes 2, oops

[gossamersolid 155]

Current machine is a Q9650 OC'd to 3.6Ghz, with 8G DDR2, and a GTX285, so not the latest but still plenty of grunt.

When I get around to it I will push it through my old machine a dual core witrh 4G DDR2 and a GT250., wich buy the way plays A2 well enough for my kids, or to be used as server.

Well if you need a tester, I'd be more than happy :p

(I'm just trying to get my hands on this masterpiece :))

[kkastl8@gmail.com 11]

Hi is there any one who tried an addon/mod on Arma 2 operation arrowhead version 1.52. In wich it did show up in the mission editor. But it just did not play when it was first released and did Arma 2 operation arrowhead quit working and on the desktop it said bad version 50 p3d file. Also did any one try to ask a modder to fix the p3d file. Hi GossamerSolid there are these 9k79-1s from red hammer studios and they don't play on my Arma 2 operation arrowhead version 1.52 but they do show up in the mission editor. I know you are only a tester but could you fix the p3d files for them.

Thank You,

Edited December 21, 2011 by KKastl8@gmail.com
I need help

[nodunit 397]

Thrilled to see that you are willing to show us some of the behind the scenes :) You've got a good head on your shoulders about the geometry bleeding..that is one mistake I made and in the longrun it is such a bite on the ass x.x

You're cockpit is also fantastic, love the detail and chances are you will have problems with it running in O2 by the default HOWEVER...you CAN make it run by way of proxy. During some tests I rigged the AH-64A to have the more basic non moving parts set to proxy and it ran just fine.

The thing to remember is placement and how it blocks the view, side panels can have rich detail as can the top because A. your view of the ground and other entitites is blocked, B. when you look up or down to the high detail even less of the world is rendered thus saving even more frames.

[max power 21]

Hi is there any one who tried an addon/mod on Arma 2 operation arrowhead version 1.52. In wich it did show up in the mission editor. But it just did not play when it was first released and did Arma 2 operation arrowhead quit working and on the desktop it said bad version 50 p3d file. Also did any one try to ask a modder to fix the p3d file. Hi GossamerSolid there are these 9k79-1s from red hammer studios and they don't play on my Arma 2 operation arrowhead version 1.52 but they do show up in the mission editor. I know you are only a tester but could you fix the p3d files for them.

Thank You,

KKastl8@gmail.com

Spamming is not permitted on these forums. If you need trouble shooting help, ask in the trouble shooting forum or the thread for the mod you are having problems with. All comments to mod developers should be made in PM or in the thread specific to that mod.

The forum is divided into categories for a reason. I suggest you familiarize yourself with it and the forum rules.

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[pathetic_berserker 4]

So here are some of the results, some in flight shots, the shadow lod is still wrong and theres a bunch of text/labels to be added to the panels but I think I'm happy with the direction.

edit = must remember to not let these sites resize images, fixed now.

Edited January 19, 2012 by Pathetic_Berserker

[icebreakr 3107]

What can I say. I'm more than impressed, that is just awesome stuff.

[HoodRussian13 10]

this looks awsome. something straight out of Red Dawn.

[pathetic_berserker 4]

*Images between 150 and 300 k*

Early production version confirmed

[wolfbite 8]

Would it be out of place if I said huba huba whoopee? Out of interest have you made the missiles wire guided?

[rksl-rock 1300]

*Images between 150 and 300 k*

Early production version confirmed

That does look very nice! I'm really looking forward to this.

[nodunit 397]

Gotta admit, had some doubts when I first saw the shading problems with the bird in the modelling program but she came out real nice, always a pleasure to see more 3D focused cockpits and the texturing is wonderful too!

[DaveP 66]

Beautiful

Impressed

[b00ce 160]

Very nice work. Is the tail rotor not getting a blur? :p

[pathetic_berserker 4]

Would it be out of place if I said huba huba whoopee? Out of interest have you made the missiles wire guided?

Well config stuff at any interesting level is often beyond me. Luckily for you and I there is now someone smarter than myself looking at that side of things, so I will raise the possibility with him.

That does look very nice! I'm really looking forward to this.

In no small way thanks to yourself and EricM. ;) Funny how now that I'm nearing the end of the modeling phase I would have greater confidence starting something like this on my own. But in knowing what it took to get to this point I think I would have chosen a diferent aircraft.That cockpit was a proverbial

At least now I think I can say MGS and COD-BO can kiss our ..Hind

Gotta admit, had some doubts when I first saw the shading problems with the bird in the modelling program but she came out real nice, always a pleasure to see more 3D focused cockpits and the texturing is wonderful too!

lol. Getting around those shading issues cost me dearly in verts, I'm think I'm about 30-50 verts from bulldozer telling me to go away when I preview my first view lod and I ended up using 1 proxy in my pilot lod. Stiil, not noticing any frame rate issues yet, even with multiple units on the screen. That reminds me, I should try it on my old dual core tonight.

Very nice work. Is the tail rotor not getting a blur? :p

Yes, it should have one, not realy sure whats broke there, but I expect the final release to have all the bells and whistles functioning. At the moment we're in an Alpha stage and I'm focusing on furthering textures while zGuba takes his first look at config issues, but i will see if I can't fix it for future screenies.

Edited January 24, 2012 by Pathetic_Berserker

[nodunit 397]

lol. Getting around those shading issues cost me dearly in verts, I'm think I'm about 30-50 verts from bulldozer telling me to go away when I preview my first view lod and I ended up using 1 proxy in my pilot lod. Stiil, not noticing any frame rate issues yet, even with multiple units on the screen. That reminds me, I should try it on my old dual core tonight.

Hahah yes they'll do that..you either get to use hard surfaces which can sometimes work..or add extra segments for smoothing. Alternatively there is the normal map option but it doesn't work in all situations..I don't think you'll have any issues with performance.

I've always defended high detail cockpits with one thing in mind..the fact at you don't see anything below, your sides are generally blind spots, and what you do see is more than likely to be in LOD's 2 and 3. That and the fact that despite all the polygons it may take to render the cockpit only 1/3 is on screen at a time if that.

Edited January 24, 2012 by NodUnit

[distractor2004 14]

Great looking Hind. I am wondering if you would ever consider creating an Mi-2 as well?

[strac_sapper 1]

Amazing.

[max power 21]

distractor2004

This thread is about Pathetic_Berserker's Mi-24A, not about Mi-2s, F4Us, or flying hippos. There is an addon request thread for a reason. If Pathetic_Berskerker is running out of ideas for how to spend his spare time, he can look you up there. Please do not spam addon topics with requests for unrelated objects.

§5) No Spam

We deem spam as making a thread or posting a reply that has no real worth, is irrelevant, useless and offers nothing to a discussion. Messages of banned members are also considered as spam. If your post/thread is not able to illicit or sustain an in depth conversation then it's spam. This also applies to other areas of the forums such as leaving visitor messages on people's profiles. Spam may be dealt with by post count reduction, PR and/or WL.

[spooky lynx 73]

Very glad to see that this warbird is on the way to release!

What skins are planned for it now?

[pathetic_berserker 4]

Early production version, Russian, in the grey green (Winter??) as shown in screens

Late production version, Russian, in two tone brown (desert) as also seen in screens

And at least one export version, Afgan or Takistani, probably in light brown and green

for some variety and maybe a North Vietnamese version, in sand/dark green.

Historicaly there are about 4 different camo's used by North Vietnam, as well as Algeria, Libyia, Cambodia( ?maybe). So I'm also hoping to get the 'setobject texture' thing to work and open it up for people to do thier own versions. But nothing is final yet.

Edited January 26, 2012 by Pathetic_Berserker

[spooky lynx 73]

Late production version - with tail rotor on the left side?

[max power 21]

I found hidden selections to be quite simple once I got around to learning how to use them. To be honest, the hard work is all on the user's side.