European Ground Objects

[+Geezer 3,569]

Keep adding more stuff - some winter versions for Baffmeister shown below.

 

 

[+Geezer 3,569]

Another shot of rural, village, and town stuff.  Most art is 256x256 JPEG, with larger objects 512x512 JPEG.  It remains to be seen if the game engine can draw all this, but I aim to find out.

[+Geezer 3,569]

My 'Nam chopper buddy wondered how I scaled the buildings, figures, horses, etc. 

 

I make all my models in 3dsMax, the industry standard for computer game stuff - the movie Avatar was made with Max.  When working in Max, you can toggle a grid on/off at any time, and set the grid for any dimensions you want. 

I usually work with a one meter x one meter grid - you can see the faint grid in shot below.  When building something specific, like an airplane or truck, I can key in the dimensions from data found in references.  When making buildings, I use a figure as a kind of yardstick and eyeball the doors to sorta/kinda fit the figure.  Obviously, there is a lot of slop to this method but so long as the figure/door relationship looks about right, the buildings will look about right.  :o)

[jeanba 1,920]

I sent the above shot to a buddy, who liked the train station.  Its something I've had laying around for several years, and is sort of a generic station based on a French design used in the colonies and rural areas of France.  Bottom two shots are from Tunisia 1943, during the battles around Kasserine Pass.

It is actually a standard design (with some variants as the length of the "wings")

The bottom two  looks like a PLM ("Paris Lyon Marseilles") design : for Southern France

This can be seen from the windows and the color of the shutters which are light blue in southern France (typically, my home in Toulouse has light blue shutters).

In Northern France, they are darker

 

This one is better for Northern France :

 

For Lorraine :

 

Look at the windows brick frames.

The roof is also different : In southern France, you often had to let water flow, whereas in Eastern / Northern France, you had to prevent snow from falling

Edited January 27, 2017 by jeanba

[+Geezer 3,569]

Thanks for that information. 

 

It looked like they were standardized designs, but I don't read French so I could not be certain.

[jeanba 1,920]

Thanks for that information. 

 

It looked like they were standardized designs, but I don't read French so I could not be certain.

Yes

But the standardization applied to each company.

The "blue" shutter is obvious for most french people, it is typical of southern France / and Mediterranean countries

We see it less in Eastern France

Edited January 27, 2017 by jeanba

[+Geezer 3,569]

Interesting stuff about each company using the same design?  You can see I simplified the train station, but it looks authentic when flying at low level.  Also shown is a 1938 Citroen TA and Millet locomotive.

 

 

[jeanba 1,920]

Each company used slightly different designs, the shapes were basically teh same but some details differed (mainly based on regional specificities).

Your station is quite nice, except the color and the chimney, which may be a little too high.

Building colors is the first thing I notice when I fly in reality : it often tells you where you are, especially in Europe

Edited January 27, 2017 by jeanba

[+Geezer 3,569]

Each company used slightly different designs, the shapes were basically teh same but some details differed (mainly based on regional specificities).

Your station is quite nice, except the color and the chimney, which may be a little too high.

Building colors is the first thing I notice when I fly in reality : it often tells you where you are, especially in Europe

 

The "color"?  Do you mean the color of the building's plaster?  Working from an old B&W photo, I had to guess.  What color should it be?

[jeanba 1,920]

The "color"?  Do you mean the color of the building's plaster?  Working from an old B&W photo, I had to guess.  What color should it be?

Colors of the shutters mainly (as I told you, I see a beautifull South or South West french railway station, very far from where action takes place :) )

Colors of the walls are darker :

be carefull, modern pictures are "too light", check color pictures of the 60s or earlier, remember about steam engine and coal heating of this time, the dirt can eaisly be seen on b&w pictures

 

The rough is often grey or black.

https://www.google.fr/search?q=gare+lorraine+ancienne&espv=2&biw=1306&bih=791&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF4uz55eLRAhUEnRoKHSV2BHIQ_AUICCgD

Edited January 27, 2017 by jeanba

[+Geezer 3,569]

Colors of the shutters mainly (as I told you, I see a beautifull South or South West french railway station, very far from where action takes place :) )

Colors of the walls are darker :

be carefull, modern pictures are "too light", check color pictures of the 60s or earlier, remember about steam engine and coal heating of this time, the dirt can eaisly be seen on b&w pictures

 

The rough is often grey or black.

https://www.google.fr/search?q=gare+lorraine+ancienne&espv=2&biw=1306&bih=791&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjF4uz55eLRAhUEnRoKHSV2BHIQ_AUICCgD

 

Thanks!  I'll modify the station tonight. 

[+Geezer 3,569]

Shot of revised station.  The photos of lorraine ancienne train stations showed the blue in shadow, so I had to guess what the blue looked like in sunlight.  Also threw in some French soldiers and a Citroen T23.

[jeanba 1,920]

I love the french soliders and the citroen.

The station is better, some modern pictures ("too clean") :

I have seen blue shutters during my google searches, but they are mostly white

 

Etival station (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gare_d'%C3%89tival-Clairefontaine) :

 

 

 

 

Remiremont (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gare_de_Remiremont) a standard design for medium large cities:

 

Bussang then (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gare_de_Bussang) :

 

and now :

Edited February 1, 2017 by jeanba

[+Geezer 3,569]

I love the french soliders and the citroen.

The station is better, some modern pictures ("too clean") :

I have seen blue shutters during my google searches, but they are mostly white

 

 

Thanks!  I'll refer to them if I revisit the train station later.  Right now, I have to move on and make more stuff.  I appreciate your help and have another question about railroad rolling stock.  What colors were French boxcars - Quarante Hommes et Huit Chevaux?

 

Shot below of 1938 German stuff shows what MIGHT be accomplished with Gterl's excellent Vosges map.  He and I have discussed placing 3D trees around the perimeter of airfields to improve realism.  The trees shown are initial prototypes and are too complex, which is normal for 3D development.  The terrain art is a 2048x2048 JPEG on a First Eagles' sized ground tile. 

 

This is a huge project and will take a year or more.  If the TW game engine can handle the load, it will only run on recent computers with healthy graphics cards.  As I have said before, this may not work but I aim to find out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 1, 2017 by Geezer

[+Geezer 3,569]

Been busy with Real World stuff, but got a little work done on Baffmeister's Bulge vehicles.

 

 

[+Geezer 3,569]

Below are experiments with clusters of buildings - each cluster is one 3D model.  Models shown are for towns and villages, though they can also be placed on the outskirts of big cities.  Now that I have figured out how to combine several buildings together into one 3D model, I will try making entire blocks, with fences, utility poles, and maybe even civilian figures.  Depends on how much the game engine can handle.

 

[+Geezer 3,569]

Baffmeister requested two large churches - first of two shown below.

 

[Silberpfeil 363]

Great lookin' models, Geezer!  May be you covered it in another topic, but do you have any period static aircraft in the hopper for airfield "eye candy"?

[+Geezer 3,569]

Great lookin' models, Geezer!  May be you covered it in another topic, but do you have any period static aircraft in the hopper for airfield "eye candy"?

 

Thanks.  I don't have anything specific made yet, but I can probably make parked aircraft from the LOD2 models of each aircraft I release.  On the subject, Stephen1918 and I have just agreed to resume work on Spanish Civil War aircraft.

Edited February 11, 2017 by Geezer

[+Geezer 3,569]

When I get tired of making buildings, I work on vehicles.  Bulge progress shot below.

[Wrench 9,857]

an M-7 Priest would be nice, too!!  :)

[+Geezer 3,569]

an M-7 Priest would be nice, too!!  :)

 

That is doable, but depends on what Baffmeister has to say.  He's the guy who has to attribute the models so they run ingame. 

 

Progress shot of fender trash below.  I'm tinkering with the cluttered look that so many US vehicles had during WW2.  It may be more trouble than it is worth, but it doesn't hurt to experiment.

[Stratos 3,192]

I agree in the cluttered look of the vehicles, and I hope is worth cause those vehicles looked like trash trucks after a while in the frontlines.

[+Geezer 3,569]

I agree in the cluttered look of the vehicles, and I hope is worth cause those vehicles looked like trash trucks after a while in the frontlines.

 

Tank and mobile infantry units moved faster than supply units, so they often carried what they needed on their vehicles.  We'll see if the game engine can handle lots of high poly vehicles.  Update below.

Edited February 11, 2017 by Geezer

[Wrench 9,857]

reminds me of my youth, building Tamiya 1/35 scale WW2 armor!!

 

looks pretty damn good to me (and you KNOW they'll wind up in SF2 WW2 LoL!)