Military AI Works

Hi everyone,

A shot of the AI Bell 412 I am working on. I have stripped the model of all un-needed parts and kept it to the basics. Plans for this one is a low skid, high skid and high skid with emergency float gear. So far, the model has 6,983 polys and 6 LOD models. Does anyone have any tips for improving the LODs as I haven't started working on those yet? And how about poly counts? Anyways, I'll post more shots as soon as they become available.

Just referencing your wire frame model picture you could definitely use less structure in the fuselage and tail boom areas, that would save a good number of polys I think. Have you tried deleting points and drawing new polys to fill in the gaps for the fuse?

MIKE JG wrote:Just referencing your wire frame model picture you could definitely use less structure in the fuselage and tail boom areas, that would save a good number of polys I think. Have you tried deleting points and drawing new polys to fill in the gaps for the fuse?

I agree with Mike here. I know it is very difficult to redo the whole exterior of a model once it is complete but I would say that the absolute most you need for and AI model is a 12 sided fuselage. The tail boom could be done with 6 or sides to be honest.

All the best though, this is an exciting model to see keep us informed how you get on.

Nick

Fantastic work there, a much needed model for AI. well done

nickblack423 wrote:

MIKE JG wrote:Just referencing your wire frame model picture you could definitely use less structure in the fuselage and tail boom areas, that would save a good number of polys I think. Have you tried deleting points and drawing new polys to fill in the gaps for the fuse?

I agree with Mike here. I know it is very difficult to redo the whole exterior of a model once it is complete but I would say that the absolute most you need for and AI model is a 12 sided fuselage. The tail boom could be done with 6 or sides to be honest.

All the best though, this is an exciting model to see keep us informed how you get on.

Nick

Thats the one thing I would disagree with.

For a fighter I always start with 20 sides, 12 looks a little 'squared off', bare minimum would be 16.
For a larger aircraft I would go with more for the closest LOD.
It's all about how quickly you can reduce the poly count on the further LODs, you may only see 1 or 2 of the closest LOD model.

The smaller the cylinder the less sides you need, the larger the cylinder the more sides you need to make it look round.
E.g. For missiles I use 8 sides, bombs 10 sides. They are reduced fairly quickly in distant LODs by a combination of removing cross sections and/or reducing the number of sides..

I would agree that you seem to have a lot of 'structure' for an AI aircraft. You could probably half the poly count and still maintain the smooth appearence.

After I've stripped the main model down of the un-needed parts, I can get a healthy 3404 polygons. Is this a normal amount of polys for an AI aircraft? BTW...This is Jordan Moore's Bell 412 stripped down. I will eventually replace the rotorhead/blades and tail rotor for something with less polys.

3404 polys for a LOD1 sounds like you have already reached your target weight.
If you have been able to keep the original quality look and reduced the overhead to that amount I think that you have probably reached your stop point.
I believe that good AI modelers tend to aim for >4k polys for LOD1. Now the big trick is ensuring that all your scheme goes onto one texture sheet so that you only make one drawcall and reduce the graphics overhead.

Of course as a non-modeler I am saying what I believe to be true rather than actually know first hand.