Home Trending Latest threads New posts Developer diaries

New unit sprites - mechanized inf

Jump to latest Follow Reply
  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
No reply to if we'll see a french mechanized sprite soon? ;)
 
Nice work as always, BeBro. How do you get them so nice and sharp? Mine either end up looking like this:
showcase.jpg

or the pixelation kills the details.
 
Gwalcmai said:
Nice work as always, BeBro. How do you get them so nice and sharp? Mine either end up looking like this:
showcase.jpg

or the pixelation kills the details.
Click to expand...

Well, I think these look very nice as well. What exactly do you want to change on them, IMO they look cool :)

But yes, there's always some loss of detail since the sprites are rather small - there isn't much to do against it, I notice it as well on my sprites.

Then it may depend on your anti-alias setting. I render with some low anti-alias for textures and objects. This gives the sprite a better look, and prevents most annoying "pixelation" effects. However, the anti-alias also produces unwanted pixels when blending from the unit into the magenta background. I remove those pixels after rendering when converting the 24bit to 8 bit.

In some cases you also get better results when leaving some details out. To my experience it is worth a try esp. with 3d models that have lots of details which are often not rendered correctly at a small size. Then you get some "flickering" since the software may render those details in some frames, and in others not or in a different way, depending how the model moves during the anim.

For example on my ship sprites I left out all the ropes or wires between the masts of those ships, since the renderer isn't able to reproduce them correctly at sprite size.
 
Ranger mike said:
are those somewhere to get downloaded?
Click to expand...
Yeah, here, for a few months, now.

BeBro said:
But yes, there's always some loss of detail since the sprites are rather small - there isn't much to do against it, I notice it as well on my sprites.

Then it may depend on your anti-alias setting. I render with some low anti-alias for textures and objects. This gives the sprite a better look, and prevents most annoying "pixelation" effects. However, the anti-alias also produces unwanted pixels when blending from the unit into the magenta background. I remove those pixels after rendering when converting the 24bit to 8 bit.
Click to expand...
Ah, the anti-aliasing might be it. The modelling software I'm using basically has "anti-aliasing/no anti-aliasing". That ends up making the details a bit too blurry. I have to experiment with using different filters for it, maybe that will work.
 
Hello Bebro,
Thank you for your nice sprites, I use them all. However, my mechs sometimes gets very funny /when they retreat) and I think this is due to the fact that I used ZukloNuks before and didn't remove them (otherwise I don't know what it could be) before I installed yours. How do I solve this?
Thx!
 
Also, I re-read the first line post just now and it states that the sprites should move in the trucks, however mine do not (they do fight from them though) but dismounted, like ordinary sprites. SOme strange mix-up have taken place I suspect. Any ideas as to what can be causing this?
Thx
 
Just installed the mech sprites, and they look very nice, thank you. :)
A couple of additional questions:

Has anyone come up with sprites for motorized and cavalry divisions?

I've downloaded but not yet installed the other sets in this thread. (CAS, Interceptors, and ships.) Has anyone seen much of a performance hit if they add a large number of new sprites? (I don't mind a little extra time for initialization; I'm more worried about slowing down gameplay.)

Thanks very much,

Stilicho
 
Those sprites look awesome!! How come you're so good at this?

Is there a guide or template anywhere on the forum, so I can make sprites myself?
 
Yaki said:
Hello Bebro,
Thank you for your nice sprites, I use them all. However, my mechs sometimes gets very funny /when they retreat) and I think this is due to the fact that I used ZukloNuks before and didn't remove them (otherwise I don't know what it could be) before I installed yours. How do I solve this?
Thx!
Click to expand...

It's hard to say what happened from here - what does the sprite exactly?

I re-read the first line post just now and it states that the sprites should move in the trucks
Click to expand...

The guys in my mech sprites do never dismount, they are always on the vehicles. But I have no trucks, only halftracks and tracked vehicles for these mech sprites. Could be different in Zyklonuks sprites.

stilicho:

Has anyone come up with sprites for motorized and cavalry divisions?

I've downloaded but not yet installed the other sets in this thread. (CAS, Interceptors, and ships.) Has anyone seen much of a performance hit if they add a large number of new sprites? (I don't mind a little extra time for initialization; I'm more worried about slowing down gameplay.)
Click to expand...

I play on a relatively old machine (1GHz) and it plays still ok with all the additional sprites. As for mot. or cav - Zyklonuk has made some mot. sprites: http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.php?t=254486

I think someone has also made cav (with horses) but I don't remeber the thread. Gepard had a nice idea and made cav as motorbikes, these sprites are in the DMP mod, which has also tons of other sprites. You find it here:

http://www.heartsofiron.eu/frameset_en.htm

Sophia:

Is there a guide or template anywhere on the forum, so I can make sprites myself?
Click to expand...

Here's a general tutorial for sprite making in HOI2.

http://www.stonyroad.de/data/website/tutorials/sprites/tutorial_sprites.html

I use basically the same 3d method they describe there, just with other software. I work for quite some time with 3d rendering software, and so I'm quite routined in it. It took me a while before I got good results. But that shouldn't stop you, when I made gfx for Civ3 I've seen several people starting in 3d totally from scratch and they became very good at it over time. But it needs patience :)

It's basically like this:

1. In your 3d program construct a 3d model for the unit you want. This is probably the most difficult part, since it's very different from working in 2d software like Photoshop etc (most programs should come with some help and own tutorials). However, sometimes you find free models on the web on various 3d graphics sites, then you can use these.

2. Texture the model (for camo patterns, logos, symbols etc.)

3. Animate it (depends what options the 3d software you use has)

4. Render it into images for all directions and types of anims (move, stand, fire) needed for the game.

5. Implement the gfx in the game like described in the tutorial.
 
Thank you for the information. I tried it and look what I made:

firstattemptzq6.png


I know the model is crap, but I'm proud of it as it is my first attempt.
 
yxan said:
Grr, its the tiger :rofl: :rofl: :cool:
Click to expand...

hehe, it shoots enemy tanks when their tank crews are laughing about the design of the tank :cool:
 
I'm working on some sutff for minors, but currently I don#t have so much free time so it will need some time ;)

Sophianumg@mer said:
I know the model is crap, but I'm proud of it as it is my first attempt.
Click to expand...

It takes time to build a good model. Also it helps when you use good "research" material when modelling. For example when you really want to make a more accurate model find pics or better blueprints on the net and use them as help. Also try to load free models from the web into you 3d software and look how they are done. Even when they are not what you want you can learn from them.
 
Hey again,

I meant the half-tracks when I wrote trucks, sorry. The thing is when they fight and stand still they are your design, but when they move they move just like the ordinary infantry sprites, and when they flee they more or less disapear - there's a blank, greenish spot on the screen. I don't dare to mix around with those files on my own, and I tried reinstalling your sprites but it didn't solve the problem. If you could tell me the files that are affected I could perhaps check out if things are they way they should be and fix it manually?
Thx!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back