Landram driving test in CE3

Punisher454 · April 7th, 2012, 12:51 AM

I have been working on a drivable Landram in Cryengine3. The model is currently about half finished but I recently got the suspension and tracks working and thought I'd share a little test video.

This model currently weighs in at around 40k verticies in 3dsmax. I have a limit of 64,000 vertices in cryengine for a single mesh, I'll probably be at the limit when I'm done. The version in the test video actually has about 25k verts with some smoothing errors, no texture mapping and no UVW mapping yet. The final version will have high res hand painted texture,normal, and Parallax maps.

I'm relatively satisfied with the suspension and physics settings. I have the CG set VERY low on the model to keep it stable in rough terrain, realistic settings made it a little tipsy if your were not careful.

Much thanks to Taranis for allowing me to use and abuse his excellent Landram model. I reduced the edge chamfers a lot and did quite a bit of simplifying. I kept the original shapes wherever possible. The only real changes in shape are the gun, headlights, differential and tracks.

Its not a very good quality video capture, so be sure to watch in 720p fullscreen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdReD5fngqw

martok2112 · April 7th, 2012, 08:10 AM

Very nice looking, there, Punisher.

David Kerin · April 7th, 2012, 12:58 PM

WOW!!! To hop in and drive a LandRam. That looks fantastic. Please update us as you go. Can't wait to see where this goes. Amazing stuff!!!!

Punisher454 · April 7th, 2012, 02:50 PM

There's a lot more to it than just driving a Landram. Thats just a sort of teaser I guess.
I'll be showing some more things in the future when I hit certain progress milestones.
Lets just say that most of the 3D modeling I have been doing for the last couple of years will be involved, and it will be very interactive.

Titon · April 8th, 2012, 05:27 AM

That was WAY cool!

borjis · April 10th, 2012, 05:18 PM

awesome.

the tracks react along the surface properly.

I remember a mod for x-wing vs tie where you could fly the millenium falcon and another online player could take control of the gun seat and do the shooting.

I'm guessing thats what you have in mind?

Will there be enemy cylons to shoot at?

Punisher454 · April 10th, 2012, 08:42 PM

The landram is just a small part of what I'm working on. You will be able to enter the Landram and occupy any one of six positions, which includes the driver and gunner. Only the drivers position is is set-up right now, and that still needs work. I am about 75% done with the exterior modeling, 10% with the interior and 0% with texturemapping. Driving physiscs are about 80% done.

You will have plenty of centurions to blast (centurion 10% done) as well as the familiar shuttles, vipers, raiders etc...
This is not going to be an arcade shooter style thing, This is an interactive story told through a first person perspective game. It will be broken down into multiple missions that play out like chapters in a story with cinematic cut scenes and the beginning and end of missions as well as sometimes during missions too.
You can expect to be able to explore some areas of the Galactica, as well as experience riding the Colonial Shuttle and perhaps even take a ride in a Raider. BUT this is not a flight sim, you will not be a pilot.
As soon as the landram is mostly finished I'll probably work on importing the colonial laser pistol into the game. After that I'll finish up the shuttle (I've had an earlier version working in-game before).

This is currently a solo project done only in my spare time. However once I have a few more things working and the basic game framework ironed out to a certain point I will be forming a "mod team" (although its not technically a mod its a ground up game). This will not require heavy coding, but at some point a LUA and C++ programmer may be helpfull for some tings. Mostly I'll need some asset artists, several voice actors, and a few skilled writers to make the dialog flow properly.
Once I get to the stage where I form a team releases should happen fairly quickly, since I plan to release one mission at a time. Think of them as episodes in a series.
Game creation/modding experience will not be necessary to help, for the most part basic computer artists skills and tools are used. The game editor itself (Cryengine3 Sandbox editor) works VERY much like MAX(it was deliberately made that way). Game models can be exported directly by Max, Maya, Blender and Softimage, but models made in Lightwave and other packages can be converted easily.

I dont expect to get much done this summer, I may be ready to start recruiting this fall. Anyone interested or just curious should download the Cryengine3 Free SDK from crydev.net and play around with the editor and demo level, its fun, easy and free.
BTW this is a fan project that will always be released 100% free.

David Kerin · April 11th, 2012, 07:18 AM

Can't wait to see what you do with this. Exciting! And I love to see how more people are putting some great quality programs out there for free. I've switched over to Blender for my 3d work, and each version brings something great. And for them to put Cryengine on the market for free is brilliant. What a way to get people with the drive and desire into the game designing world. I have a neighbor who's son is interested in designing video games, and I told him about this. Sadly my neighbor thinks video games are not a viable future for his son (who's starting college next year) and has discouraged his son from any of it. I tried to say there is a huge industry out there for this, but its clear he wanted to hear nothing about it. Sad to see someone's true interests not be encouraged.

Anyway, got on a soap-box in that last paragraph. May have to download that myself and take a look. Though I know I don't have time to get too deep into it. My son though may have a bit of an interest, maybe he'll be interested.

Keep it going 454! We're with you.

Punisher454 · April 11th, 2012, 09:02 AM

The thing about cryengine is that it is really just a realtime 3d environment. Its just as usefull as a training aid (lookup "realtime immersive") , architectural visualization, and Cinematics. In fact Crytek is supposed to be releasing the Cinematic version of the engine sometime this summer.
I read several years ago that the Game industry had surpassed the movie industry in gross revenue. As far as people like you neighbors son is is concerned they may get better response by saying they are interested in pursuing a career in film/telivision, which is basically the same thing, the skills and tools are the same, and the two are basically merging anyhow.

ok now I'll get off that soap box too.

David, there are quite a few users over on the Crydev forums that are using Blender, I havent followed their workflow very closely, but I believe they are using Collada (.dae) with an external converter app. It adds basically one or two more steps than Max/Maya users have to go through to export to the engine, but its workable and getting better. There are also ways to even use sketchup models and Bryce terrain. I do my landscapes in Worldmachine.

Anyhow, thanks for the interest.

Punisher454 · April 19th, 2012, 12:01 AM

A Little progress update,
I have the landram Laser Cannon mostly working now. The player can simply change seats to the gunner position and operate the gun. As soon as I have replaced the 125mm tank cannon sounds and Visual effects that I'm using right now I'll upload a new vid. The engine will allow me to use some nice particle effects as well as things like heatwaves rising from the barrels as they get hot from firing. Of course its taking a while to learn how to use these features.

If anybody has a clean sound file for the landram cannon I'd be interested. 44 or 48khz sampling preferred. The best I have right now is a clip recorded from GOIPZ. I think I have some usable landram driving sound clips, but the right cannon sounds are very important.
Crytek released the DX11 upgrade last week which includes things like realtime reflections (useful for Centurion armor) and cinematic style light rays that should do a good job of replicating the landram headlights as seen outside the Carilon Casino, may look cool for Centurion eye scanners too. I'll try to upload something this weekend.

Marvin

David Kerin · April 19th, 2012, 06:21 AM

Good sound fx are hard to get from the show. The ones I've always used are not the greatest, but in the edits they mix in with music and explosions, so they work alright. But you do need a good clean one for the turrets for sure.

Can't wait to see the next update. Have to say this is one of the most exciting BSG projects I've seen come down the pipe. The idea of driving a landram and firing the turrets! Who woulda thought?

martok2112 · April 23rd, 2012, 11:37 PM

Martinv, I have a ton of Galactica sound effects. I might be able to help you out.

And don't forget, movies and shows like Buck Rogers and Battle Beyond the Stars borrow HEAVILY from the Galactica sound pool...so you might be able to find some clean samples in running those movies.

Punisher454 · April 24th, 2012, 12:12 AM

I remember watching "Battle Beyond the Stars" at the theater as a kid in a double feature with "Star Crash" (John Boy Still seemed... out of place... to me fighting alien Attackers). Perhaps I'll acquire a copy and check out the sounds.
I suspect that some of the BR25 sounds may be the same effects, just played at different speeds.
PM me if you have some effects you may be willing to add to my library. BTW, sometime down the road I'll be looking to build a library of spoken words by Lorne Green with the hope of pasting together some audio clips. (Bonanza and even old Alpo commercials may be useful too).

Anyhow, The Landram is still progressing nicely I hope to get time to do an update video soon.

Marvin

PM

borjis · April 24th, 2012, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by martok2112

Martinv, I have a ton of Galactica sound effects. I might be able to help you out.

do you have those posted on a site somewhere?

martok2112 · April 24th, 2012, 02:23 PM

Not posted on a site...just in my HDD.... I can try to email them to whomever might need them.

David Kerin · April 24th, 2012, 03:29 PM

Good sound fx are always handy!!!!

martok2112 · April 25th, 2012, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by David Kerin

Good sound fx are always handy!!!!

Aye, and I usually end up making MP4's out of my DVD videos, so that means that when I put them in a movie editor, I get the sound straight from the source.

Punisher454 · April 27th, 2012, 12:43 AM

Decided to start UVW mapping the shuttle and landram to verify the smoothing and mapping transfers properly to the game engine. Everything's working great so far, more to come soon.

gmd3d · April 27th, 2012, 02:02 AM

Great work Marvin...... the landRAM looks great.....

Punisher454 · April 27th, 2012, 02:21 AM

I had a great model as a starting point (thanks Ger) I estimate the landram is about 60-70% finished at this point. I spent the last two weeks (my spare time, that is) working on the actual in-game functionality and will soon finish up the modeling.
The gun is fun to shoot, but I still need to give it the right sound effect and laser bolts, its using the sound and visual effects from the default Abrams tank model right now, which is kinda funny (maybe I should do a vid before fixing it), early on I even had the default 125mm cannon recoil still set and it would cause the landram to flip when fired sometimes.
I've been collecting as much reference material as I can from both screen shots and actual Thiokol snowcats (1200 series IIRC) , and I believe I will be able to do a fairly accurate interior model, which will seat 5.
Much more fun stuff to come.

Punisher454 · August 30th, 2012, 09:43 PM

I have been very busy these last few months and have not had a chance to do anything BSG related, but I did get a few hours today and uploaded a little video.

This is another test of the Landram in Cryengine3. I not have the Laser Cannon mostly working. I still dont have the gunner character model being shown, but the driver does.
The sounds are wrong, as are the projectile animation, but its a start.
I dropped in a shuttle model to help visualize the scale. The shuttle looks terrible at this stage, the model is only about 505 complete and the bitmap I have applied to it is just to test UVW mapping (which has not been done yet).

I'm planning an upgrade on my computer next month, that may be a good time to continue the modeling.

here is the you tube link, sorry for the low rez.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0qWlbdCsV8

Marvin

Senmut · August 30th, 2012, 10:05 PM

Whatever happened to the ones used in the show?

Punisher454 · August 30th, 2012, 11:57 PM

no idea what happened to it (them).
Judging by some of the photos of various props and sets I'd say it probably got scrapped. but it could be in somebody's garage or it could have burned up in a big fire they had at universal some years ago.
I was fortunate enough to get to go on a studio tour in 1980 or 81 whn I was a kid. I noticed a lot of props and set pieces just stacked up here and there. It seemed to me that they didnt really care that much about some of that stuff at the time.

September 2nd, 2012, 11:53 PM

I had a look at these before, I am dying to see a fully textured render.
Obviously a lot of homework went into that. how the suspension travels
and the tracks with it are perfect. nice work

gmd3d · September 3rd, 2012, 01:47 AM

wow. excellent work, its amazing to see this thing move around.

Punisher454 · September 3rd, 2012, 09:04 AM

I'm really anxious to get it finsihed, just havent had any time all summer.
Well I guess that isnt 100% true, I had about 4 hours last night to do some modeling (first time in 3 months) but I worked on the legs for my Centurion model. After all what good is a working laser cannon with no Cylons to blast, right?

Anyhow, the Landram model By Taranis was a really good model to start with, although it couldnt be used in a game engine as it was, it saved me countless hours by being able to just build a lower res mesh around the original. Once I have the texture mapping, which will include a parallax occlusion map (POM) it will have all the rivets and such back where they should be.
I may get a little more time in the next two weeks, and if so I'll be posting some more progress.

Thanks
Marvin

Punisher454 · September 3rd, 2012, 09:50 AM

As for the suspension and tracks, they were really easy once I figured the vehicle editor out. I did have to spend a few hours adjusting the suspension settings but that was trivial really. The coolest thing is that the vehicle system uses physics based on the model geometry itself.
The Cryengine3 SDK makes so many things really simple.

Jubal · September 8th, 2012, 05:31 AM

Looks cool!

September 9th, 2012, 06:43 AM

Will stay tuned for updates,

i'd love to see what you could do with my "mk2 battleram"

Punisher454 · September 9th, 2012, 03:22 PM

Got a picture?