The Real Star of CWC

[max power 21]

I'm just about done modelling the Trabant 601, and so I'm posting shots for crits.  All crits are welcome.  I'm sure there is still a bit of optimization to be done, and some details are innacurate.  Some details are inaccurate on account of the price of geometry (so the interior is a bit of a mix between a trabant 601 and a trabant p50).  That said, if you have any insights into how the Trabant actually looks (I've been piecing it together from low res photos), I'm not married to any aspect of the model.

The model weighs in at 5500 tris in this form.  This form will not be in any LOD in particular.  I will decrease the complexity of the interior for the exterior LODs, and I will delete unseen parts for the interior LODs, etc.  All that said, let me know what you think of the weight.  It's about twice as complex as the Skoda, IIRC.

edit: Not featured in these pics are most of the panes of glass.  I forgot to turn that layer on.  They are about 400 triangles or something all together IIRC, being double sided.

You can find higher res versions of these pics on the Picasa Album.

@Wolle or other CWR authorities:

Also, I thought I would check in first to see if I may post these shots on the WIP board to get broader crits.  I would like to see what Neph thinks of the model.

[rocket 9]

Looks good to me mate, Maya FTW

[max power 21]

Looks good to me mate, Maya FTW

Thanks Rocket!

I actually started the model in Max and finished it in Maya. I learned Maya in school and was using this model as a venue to learn Max, then go sick of it. I'll pick up Max again when I complete this model. I'd rather just finish it at the moment, and I'm much faster in Maya.

Updated screens of the model are now in the WIP thread in A&M:D.

[raedor 8]

Very nice!

I have been driving a Trabant already, but I can't remember how it was looking So I think the accuracy is okay, for our purposes...

[max power 21]

Alrighty, after a whole whack of computer problems, including two forced reinstalls, here's what I've got.  Additionally modelled interior, some optimizations, and a full unwrap.

UV Space

Unwrap

Interior

Front Side

Back Side

[t_d 47]

That's great. Very clean and smooth model! Will you also do the textures?

[berghoff 11]

Awesome I always loved to make roadkills with this little baby.  

[max power 21]

That's the plan. The only thing I'm worried about is getting it into the game since I've never done that before... but it can't be that hard! I'm also concerned about making the geo LODs, but I'll give them a shot and see if I run into any problems... that way I can ask intelligent questions.

[t_d 47]

You dont have to bother about bringing it ingame. Planck and I can handle that for ya.

[max power 21]

You dont have to bother about bringing it ingame. Planck and I can handle that for ya.  

What exactly will you and Planck do, so I know how to plan out my tasks?

[max power 21]

Here's some more progress.  I'm finishing up the body.. I've still got some dirt to add, and the rest of the detail objects to do (like the light clusters and stuff), and the wheels... but I think the over all thing reads pretty well!

[t_d 47]

You dont have to bother about bringing it ingame. Planck and I can handle that for ya.  

What exactly will you and Planck do, so I know how to plan out my tasks?

oops, didn't see that you replied. Well, we basically just need an O² model with all LODs present and the textures and material files. If all selections are already properly named this would save us work but is not needed because we know how to do it. Config, model.cfg, changing paths is what we can do then. We can even fix little issues in the model if we find any.

The Trabant looks great btw. Really smooth and clean work. These cars can be seen sometimes here in Ex-East-Germany, so I can tell you that they exactly look like your model.

[Planck 1]

Model looks very nice plaintiff1, good job.

I wouldn't worry about how many polygons it has, the chances of anyone making a mission with more than half a dozen trabants in it are pretty remote.

Wonder if we should have more than one colour, like the skodas?

Planck

[max power 21]

Wonder if we should have more than one colour, like the skodas?

Planck

I have planned for that, and I have made the paint colour just a 'colour' layer so that any colour may be applied to it, or the chrome layer.. so any combination of colours may be easily applied.  After I'm finished, it will literally take seconds to create textures for new Trabant colours.

oops, didn't see that you replied. Well, we basically just need an O² model with all LODs present and the textures and material files. If all selections are already properly named this would save us work but is not needed because we know how to do it. Config, model.cfg, changing paths is what we can do then. We can even fix little issues in the model if we find any.

One question I have is that the wheels are currently not 90 degrees up and down. Some references I've seen have the wheels in on a fairly harsh 5 degrees negative camber. I have this represented on my model at the moment because it makes the car look awkward, cheap, and slow. Is it possible to get the wheels spinning on this angle or must they be 90 degrees up and down?

Quote[/b] ]

The Trabant looks great btw. Really smooth and clean work. These cars can be seen sometimes here in Ex-East-Germany, so I can tell you that they exactly look like your model.

Thanks! That's a really high compliment. Every trabi I find in photos looks slightly different. Looking at some photographs, I think that my grille and the 'face' of the car is too big, but There's no changing it now!

[W0lle 1050]

I told you that already but still:

The Trabant looks really great, definitely the best looking civilian car we have so far.

Having it in more then one color would be a nice addition.

[t_d 47]

One question I have is that the wheels are currently not 90 degrees up and down.  Some references I've seen have the wheels in on a fairly harsh 5 degrees negative camber.  I have this represented on my model at the moment because it makes the car look awkward, cheap, and slow.  Is it possible to get the wheels spinning on this angle or must they be 90 degrees up and down?

Yeah thats possible. Maybe a bit tricky but definately possible.

[max power 21]

Maybe I will just make them 90 degrees for now... although wobbling wheels would probably only enhance the vehicle.

Here's some shots of the interior.  I wanted to share them because I like how cheesy they are coming out.  

You can see in the back by the vents / rear window of the exterior there's some bump map funniness going on.. this is because I was working on the rubber trim back there and I had a computer crash and lost some information.  Also note that the exterior is not finished and there's no real spec map for either interior or exterior, and no bump map for the interior yet.  But, progress is good!

[t_d 47]

Lovely. Too bad this beauty wont get much attention

[max power 21]

It will in my portfolio

[max power 21]

Given the recent activity in the CWR thread, I just wanted to let you all know that I have not disappeared, that the trabi was going swimmingly before I stopped working on it to fulfil some holiday obligations, and that it will resume once I have finished migrating all of my project files and tools over to my new machine. This machine is superior to my old one in every way, not least in the way that it does not crash every half hour with a BSOD. Unless there are some unforeseen problems with windows vista, work should recommence at many times its previous rate in the next couple of days.

[Serclaes 0]

Aye. It seems progress is slow when i expect to have much time on my hands.

[max power 21]

There's still some texture work to be done but I've done 6 LODs just reducing polycount and I've got it in O2. It should be ready to rock in no time.

[max power 21]

It's in the game now. I have custom animations for it. It's buggy, though, and will require some time to test and refine.

So far, known issues are:

Collision,

Shadow Volume,

Proxies.

[max power 21]

The Trabant is in alpha status and is available is working with no errors as a standalone addon.