[WIP] F-22 Raptor A3

[nodunit 397]

Alright so I'v downed the poly count of the main hull (grey) to about 18-19k and have done a whole lot of sharpening edges like the wing tips.

http://i.imgur.com/ru5KCRO.png (249 kB)

---------- Post added at 02:24 ---------- Previous post was at 02:21 ----------

How much smoother do you think I can get it? As you can see where the wings attach it's a bit awkward.

Hard to say, something looks as though its going the wrong way but without seeing the wireframe I can't say for sure.

[Raid 18]

Weapon Bay anyone?

[clawhammer 10]

Weapon Bay anyone?

http://i.imgur.com/P8NOypQ.png

Nice, here comes a good reference picture for the bays: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/F-22_Raptor_Internal_Weapons_Bay.jpg

[LtShadow 41]

Looking mighty fine, sir! :)

I pm'd you btw.

Also, do you know anyone who can do config work?

[Raid 18]

Also, do you know anyone who can do config work?

No i don't have anyone for the config yet.

[Degman 73]

Verdammt! Cant wait for Raptor ... I was just waiting for someone to start developing it. DON'T YOU STOP! :D

Looks great so far as I can see. :)

[nghiakhungdien 10]

i have a question:will your Raptor have the high-fidelity model and acurate?

[Raid 18]

i have a question:will your Raptor have the high-fidelity model and acurate?

Hi First of all High-Fidelity is to do with sound, in saying that I have been contacted by the creator of @RealSoundMod and he will be creating the Sound. Second of all I'm trying my best to make the model as accurate as possible but due to the fact that I am a beginner I'm not too sure if it will be 100%.

[Shazzy 17]

Hi First of all High-Fidelity is to do with sound, in saying that I have been contacted by the creator of @RealSoundMod and he will be creating the Sound. Second of all I'm trying my best to make the model as accurate as possible but due to the fact that I am a beginner I'm not too sure if it will be 100%.

Even if its not 100% accurate I'm sure the community will welcome it regardless. Either way keep up the good work. Progress so far looks great to me.

[nghiakhungdien 10]

at least dont make it look like Arma 2 F-22,so inaccurate...

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=13378

and dont worry,if you need any adjustment,feel free to ask ok ;)

[Raid 18]

About the Fidelity I just realized what you meant. High-Fidelity is sound but you were talking about High Fidelity which means accurate sorry about that.

[lincolnlou 10]

i was gonna tell u this in a PM but i forgot to tell u but have u thought about making legit missiles for this? The arma 2 version just shoots the missiles out... in real life the AA missile just launch from the plane but same missiles drop and then fire away .... check this video it will give u alot of ideas... its pretty bad ass i got half a boner watching it lol only aircraft ever made that u can flip upside down and fire a missile.... seriously this aircraft is 20 + years ahead of all aircraft only one that is close is the F-35. Russia and china new stealth jet has now chance... also i believe we have over a 1000 F-22 now... russia and china only have a few stealth fighters.

[Shazzy 17]

i was gonna tell u this in a PM but i forgot to tell u but have u thought about making legit missiles for this? The arma 2 version just shoots the missiles out... in real life the AA missile just launch from the plane but same missiles drop and then fire away .... check this video it will give u alot of ideas... its pretty bad ass i got half a boner watching it lol only aircraft ever made that u can flip upside down and fire a missile.... seriously this aircraft is 20 + years ahead of all aircraft only one that is close is the F-35. Russia and china new stealth jet has now chance... also i believe we have over a 1000 F-22 now... russia and china only have a few stealth fighters.

No.. we only have about 190ish.. WAY to costly otherwise. and I believe the arma engine cant support drop and shoot missiles. but dont quote me.

[Sirlinc 10]

No.. we only have about 190ish.. WAY to costly otherwise. and I believe the arma engine cant support drop and shoot missiles. but dont quote me.

Ah thats sad i must say.. i know with the Su mod they have somthing kinda like it but maybe arma 4 they will have somthing like that.

[Rages123 10]

Arma does support drop and fire missiles go ahead and try out spartans f35

[pulstar 55]

I don't think there's even a flight sim that supports stealth technology proper.

[babylonjoke 22]

Hi mate nice model, but it have too many vertecis! If you are using blender use the Edge split modifier to have a better shading effect and avoid artifacts, and where you need just add more edge loops. Better avoid subdivision when making aircraft if you are not planning to bake normals

Check expecially the part at 2.35

If you are using blender:

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Modifiers/Generate/Edge_Split

If you aren't check on the web some tutorials about "smoothing groups"

Cheers

[Raid 18]

Sorry guys I haven't uploaded any updates in awhile but it's due to I'v decided to fix the body model up. I have decided not to use a sub divider so now I am going along and re-doing it. If you look below the body is currently sitting at just over 1000 poly's.

http://i.imgur.com/wK00myE.png (122 kB)

Edited March 19, 2014 by Raid

[x hunter33 10]

Sorry guys I haven't uploaded any updates in awhile but it's due to I'v decided to fix the body model up. I have decided not to use a sub divider so now I am going along and re-doing it. If you look below the body is currently sitting at just over 1000 poly's.

http://i.imgur.com/wK00myE.png (122 kB)

http://i.imgur.com/BVikJ3a.png

Wow good job considering such a low amount of poly, keep it up!

[RushHour 11]

Can´t really see if this has been done but when talking about the shape of things keep in mind a lot of edges is parallel to other edges.

http://i.imgur.com/ujbyodU.jpg (156 kB)

[roshnak 41]

Sorry guys I haven't uploaded any updates in awhile but it's due to I'v decided to fix the body model up. I have decided not to use a sub divider so now I am going along and re-doing it. If you look below the body is currently sitting at just over 1000 poly's.

Did you have that many tris in your subdivided model? Because that would be what was causing all the pinching.

[Raid 18]

Did you have that many tris in your subdivided model? Because that would be what was causing all the pinching.

No no, I'm re-doing the model that's why you can see triangulation.

[nodunit 397]

Wise choice, while cleaning up a sub'd model is certainly an option, it can be a bit of a pain to clean things up and if its your first time then you definately don't want to because you may accidently remove a supporting edge around the body that you did not mean to.

Mind you that just because you've dropped the subdivision model doesn't mean you can't still have fun with edgeloops and bevels, far from it. I'm working on my post now to demonstrate how helpful these can be to influence shading but I need a few minutes to break it down so its quick and comprehensive (I kinda make things a bit difficult to understand at first)

Warning, lots of text and images, click only if you want to learn about smoothing groups, bevels, supporting edges, and how they effect shading.

Edgeloops and bevels in low poly settings allow us to either achieve a rounded edge or tighten the shading of a mesh without introducing another smoothing group to it, this is very helpful for things such as leading edges and the slats of a plane.

These cubes give an example of each shading type and method; The far left uses a standard six sided cube with all sharp faces, there is no gradient in between the seams, it just transitions straight to a new shading group. The pro of this is that the two share no data so you never have to worry about "smear shading" such as this

The second cube to the left uses supporting edges, edgeloops that sit near the original edgeloops but make no alterations in the shape, its wireframe would look like the left square shown here.

This is particular helpful on flat surfaces that require a "Buffering" edge to help sharpen the lighting, where you you don't want a change of shape but you need the edge loop to focus the gradient..I'll give an example on that later.

The 2nd to the right cube uses beveled edges, wherein you select the edges and split it into several smaller edges, smoothening the shape out the more you have- example.

This is a single bevel, you can see how the edge is now chiselled and will provide a better smooth shading gradient. The more edges you add the smoother the gradient but it is important to know how the software you are using will handle the shading...for example you could use six bevels to achieve the perfect shading gradient but the game engine would only need two, that would be tons of faces wasted...again another example on that later.

Finally the cube on the far right uses normal maps which you may get into later because that goes into a whole new section of rules and for a beginner I wouldn't recommend it.

Now for those examples, I hope you don't mind if I use something of my own as an example, it gives me the best opportunity to explain the important of bevels and supporting edges on a smooth mesh.

Here we have Mesh A, it is 65 faces, the lowest of the bunch and uses sharp edges to separate the steep angles to achieve a none smudged look, while this may be fine for background units its not something you would want close up. IF your desire is to capture lighting the best you can however then it is NOT something you want to use, the edges are too rough and offer little for the shading system to work with.

Mesh B, 101 faces. We used a single bevel to smoothen out the front of the mesh to get a gradient..only now it worse! This is because the three faces are now all sharing the same data and the angles are too steep in the transition, they are smooth but there are not enough supporting edges to "tighten" the shading around the edge so it looks messy. In other words, the larger the angle and distance between the faces, the more edges are required in the bevel or supporting edge. For example on the topmost foothold we can see a nice, smooth gradient in the angle because the distance between the vertices is so small.

We also now have an ugly triangle on the top of the mesh that wasn't there because, this is because again the sharp edges split the faces and thus the top had its own lighting properties, however now that they are joined it transitions all the way through...remember what I said about angles and edgeloops? This is what happens when you have too many vertices too close with no supporting edges to help in the transition, you get BIG ugly triangles that pop out in shading.

Mesh C, 153 faces. Going for the absolute lowest polycount is a noble cause but there is no shame in tossing in some extra if your goal is to capture lighting and shading to the best you can, for that properly edgeloops, meshflow and bevelling is paramount.

The front of the mesh now has an extra edge in the middle, shifted to round out the shape and the effect is a nice smooth gradient similar to the sharp edges and without the hideous artifacts left by the single bevel, it will also capture a change in light based on the angle of the light source to the mesh in a pleasing transition.

The edge follows through the middle of the mesh and joins a supporting edgeloop around the foothole, they have no change in height from the rest of the mesh, if you were to look at it from a side angle it would be a perfect slope but that edge tightens the shading to left us keep our smooth gradient but also achieve a form.

An example image of the different meshes at various angles from the light source.

I hope this has been a little helpful to you and any other that wanted to know about this sort of thing.

So in application to your model, say you add a supporting edge around the nose where the shape corner is and carry that to the wing just above the engine, if you keep it to the outside then you will see the highlight on the faces became smaller and take away some of the highlight artifacts such as the 'slope' of light occuring on the leading edge.

PS. Don't feel pressured to do what I'm saying here btw, I'm not saying your model is bad, in fact for a first timer its great! I just like to help educate newcommers more on the subject matter so they can get a strong grasp in quicktime and better understand the way things work so that if you like it, you can employ it.

Edited March 20, 2014 by NodUnit

[K3NI 10]

just wanna ask raid hows progress?

[Raid 18]

just wanna ask raid hows progress?

Really slow. Can't get it to look right. What ever I try just doesn't work.

Canopy Update: http://i.imgur.com/xrNQ3DO.png (147 kB)

Edited May 9, 2014 by Raid