A small(ish) but hopefully pleasing announcement...

[TheJamsh]

^ Just did that haha. Currently the window is part of the collision. I wanted it separately destructible, but the shape would make that pretty difficult to achieve.

Lots of detail to add still, I re-worked the base of the model, pinching some ideas from Jayden's new service bay (See here: http://www.moddb.com/mods/bz2-community ... bay-remake). Just bouncing some ideas off of each other.



EDIT: More Progress

[General BlackDragon]

do want...

[Zero Angel]

How about open topside window = sniping tower?

[MrTwosheds]

Several windows, so you get a 360 degree sniping view.
I would also suggest that you avoid putting too much eyecandy type stuff, like transparencies or animations on it. The bay is often the focus of a lot of activity and is the best place to snipe from, wouldn't want to spoil peoples aim by making the game engine work really hard there.

[TheJamsh]

Several windows, so you get a 360 degree sniping view.
I would also suggest that you avoid putting too much eyecandy type stuff, like transparencies or animations on it. The bay is often the focus of a lot of activity and is the best place to snipe from, wouldn't want to spoil peoples aim by making the game engine work really hard there.

I think you're right, it is quite high on tris at the moment (Just under 4K, but there is a LOT of optimization to be done), but a hugh proportion of that detail will disappear with the first LOD. I'm going to advise people to set their 'object detail' settings to 'medium', so that the uber-high detail meshes and the interior are only visible at around 100 meters or so. The interior itself doesn't need to be shown at all if you're far away from it. Unless of course you have a monstrous graphics card.

How about open topside window = sniping tower?

Could try that, some sort of roof access hatch or something. I originally wanted a full 360 degree view, but squeezing the lift into the room and a window all around was a bit too much of a squeeze. Hmm... Maybe a balcony to take in the luscious view of Mire ?

[Red Spot]

I do suggest you place a bar in there as well, just in case we get thirsty from all that sniping

[MrTwosheds]

I don't think the static polygon count would be too much trouble, its the stuff that has to get processed "live" that causes issues. Eg a transparent bay pad with animations and moving lights underneath it, then with a few units doing idle animations and emitting dust clouds parked on top of it, would cause a major amount of real-time processing to occur from certain viewpoints, as it calculated the moving lighting through the transparency, dust clouds and moving units.
I have done quite a few experimental bay models, they benefit greatly from keeping it simple.
They also work much better (pathing/collision) when the parking area is flat. I would consider sinking the parking area detail below a flat ground level collision plane. Otherwise it will possibly trap pilots and units and cause a lot of pathing calculation overhead and player irritation too.

And some nice flowers in window boxes for snipers to hide behind

[TheJamsh]

I don't think the static polygon count would be too much trouble, its the stuff that has to get processed "live" that causes issues. Eg a transparent bay pad with animations and moving lights underneath it, then with a few units doing idle animations and emitting dust clouds parked on top of it, would cause a major amount of real-time processing to occur from certain viewpoints, as it calculated the moving lighting through the transparency, dust clouds and moving units.
I have done quite a few experimental bay models, they benefit greatly from keeping it simple.
They also work much better (pathing/collision) when the parking area is flat. I would consider sinking the parking area detail below a flat ground level collision plane. Otherwise it will possibly trap pilots and units and cause a lot of pathing calculation overhead and player irritation too.

And some nice flowers in window boxes for snipers to hide behind

There's no animations on the bay itself, QFMod and (I think) ZEMod had a fair few transparent parts (done via a texture like this one is) and they worked/looked pretty good (hell ZE was in 1.2, and QFMod had a lot of inefficient particle effects in it). The parking area is okay at the moment, I managed to get some AI assault tanks and walkers to get themselves there without any problems, it's not as high as it looks actually. I can tweak ODF pathing to make it a little stricter as well if needed, and the collision can always be slightly different to make navigation easier (plus I don't want to instantly double the poly count by duplicating it for the collision, even if it's not drawn by BZ2).

I won't really know the full implications of such high detail on everything until I have more stuff to play with. I'll just have to fill a map up with loads of crap and wage a big battle and see what happens. Thankfully I've got an out-of-date laptop I can test on too and figure out how a lower-spec system will handle it.

[Zero Angel]

You could always LOD it to omit the interior/underground stuff at x amount of meters, and maybe use the stock service bay at >200m or so.

[TheJamsh]

You could always LOD it to omit the interior/underground stuff at x amount of meters, and maybe use the stock service bay at >200m or so.

That's the plan, after 50 meters, remove all interior detail, after 250 meters or so, use a much lower poly model with smaller textures.

[General BlackDragon]

It's a Service bay, not a sniper tower...

We already have problems with people sitting on bays with snipers -.-

[Red Spot]

As long as the top doesnt actually service you I doubt it will ever become a problem. You may find the random enemy player landing there, but if they get of one shot they probably die soon after or get into the sniped ship, which doesnt really change anything as certain pilots already try to get some hight advantage at every corner they take.

[MrTwosheds]

It's a Service bay, not a sniper tower...

We already have problems with people sitting on bays with snipers -.-

Ahem...In strat a service bay has 2 Major functions, it gets you laser and makes an excellent sniper tower, its also sometimes useful, but a bit slower than a nice pile of pods, for servicing ships. Its role as a sniper tower is a very important part of the base defences. The Scion dower is fairly poor in this role as really only one Scion can balance on its pointy top.
If the top does not service you, then it might as well not be there.

[S.cavA.rmyG.en]

you need to put a com termal in the top.
use a small taped object.
some thing for those commanders that like to have a brake room.

[MrTwosheds]

you need to put a com termal in the top.

Why?