My King Tiger attempt

Colonel Rhombus · May 29, 2002, 10:44

Greetings,

This is my first attempt at making a military unit for Civ3.

Here's a screenshot (I'd make an [img] tag but my website host doesn't seem to facilitate this; oh well).

As you can see, its still in the early phases and there's plenty of detail remaining around the hull and soforth. A finished model should be done in a couple more days.

Then I have to learn how to prep the images for Civ3 usage.

Fun.

Smoking Mirror · May 29, 2002, 13:09

Looks great! I tried to do a King tiger, but my 3d Modeling program just can't handle the shapes.

steeleshogun · May 29, 2002, 13:11

Very nice, now can you make it rock back and forth and shoot?

Colonel Rhombus · May 29, 2002, 13:27

steelshogun - Sure. Though I anticipate making it explode and die will be more of a challenge.

Colonel Rhombus · May 31, 2002, 13:08

I've added another screenshot; the link has been updated. This shot shows the finished model with some preliminary surfacing.

I've downloaded a tutorial on Civ3 unit making, so the final .flc files won't be too far away now...

Colonel Rhombus · June 2, 2002, 10:58

Okay. The tutorial didn't tell me everything I needed to know.

The colour palette for example. Is it limited to 256 colours? Can they be any 256 colours? Help me. Please.

Kuciwalker · June 2, 2002, 20:52

I like it.

Theodrik · June 3, 2002, 04:43

very well done! this will enhance the WWII mod without a doubt. Please keep up the excellent work!

Colonel Rhombus · June 3, 2002, 10:47

More additions--a fidget and attack animation prototypes.

Any news on the colour palette question would be quite handy. Also, I've noticed that animations run for different lengths (the tank's attacking animation runs for 21 frames in each direction; the modern armour's corresponding animation runs for just 11). How does the game know when it ends? I saw nothing in the .ini file that appeared to influence this.

Sorry if these are old questions; if this is the case, can somebody perhaps point me to the thread(s) where this has been discussed?

Thanks in advance.

Colonel Rhombus · June 5, 2002, 07:20

All work on the King Tiger has been postponed, for how long I don't know.

My cat died today and, for some reason, I don't much feel like doing any 3D animations.

Level · June 5, 2002, 10:56

Sorry about your cat.

For the palette they can be any color, as long as they are in the right place and used for the right things. (transperentcy, civ color)
It is best to export an existing unit with about the same colors in FLICster and cut and paste in your unit using a program that paste using nearest color not palette number, paint and paint shop pro work.

It doesn’t matter how long the animation is, as long as all the directions are the same length.

I hope this helps.

Just looked at your new previews, looks good!

A few things though most units have the shadow away from the camera.
try seting your background and floor to magenta and if you can have the floor glow about 50%, it removes the shadow circles.

Colonel Rhombus · June 6, 2002, 11:38

Hmm. See if this works.

Unless you get some silly Angelfire logo, you should see an attacking animation, in about the correct dimensions and overall appearance. (you may have to reload the page)

Now I'm off to create the rest of the animations.

Theodrik · June 7, 2002, 04:27

just the logo, no animation. Wanna try again?

Harovan · June 7, 2002, 07:13

Very good looking unit, and great animation

. But why does it rock up-down when shooting? The Tiger II, or King Tiger, was a 70-ton tank and hardly would rock like that. Better let him rock back-forth, as steeleshogun said. No offense, and keep up the good work!

Colonel Rhombus · June 7, 2002, 11:20

Sir Ralph - I agree with you about the difficulty of a 70-ton tank leaping back after firing, and I even said as much on the webpage, which I'll post again. I just think it looks nice, that's all.

The animation is also posted at the aforementioned URL, for those of you who saw only the silly Angelfire logo...

Martock · June 11, 2002, 14:27

DAMM!!

that is awesome!! i can't wait to get that tank going in my game. i hope you continue on with other tanks as well because that is one heck of a job!

Sava · June 11, 2002, 16:44

That's an awesome tank!

Colonel Rhombus · June 12, 2002, 11:58

Once this is done, I'm probably going to make a light tank of sorts, maybe a Panzer-II or something, because I'm thinking of dropping a useless unit (the Privateer, maybe) and have a Light-Tank:Heavy-Tank thing going.

Not sure when I'm going to fit it into the tech-tree though. It's still early days, however.

Also, on a sort of unrelated matter, can you make modern warships that will sink in open ocean? Because I was thinking of making a coastal patrol boat; one of those light things that are usually only armed with some torpedoes and maybe a .50-inch machine gun.

Jon Shafer · June 12, 2002, 16:09

Bah, don't add a Pzkpfw II tank. They were so light, they were useless for anything but reconaissance. Add a Pzkpfw III (ausf e, h, or j), or maybe a Panther instead.

As far as the Tiger II, spactacular work, I commend you!

TrueLight · June 12, 2002, 20:03

Very good. I tried to make a resource icon once and it look bad. Yours looks like it is ment for Civ 3. Fantastic! Two thumbs up.

klesh · June 18, 2002, 21:47

Thats quite a nice unit you've got going.

However, as a solution your rocking-while-shooting problem:

Note in these two photos the cannon on the Königstiger. You have left out the critical muzzle break on the 88 which absorbs much of the recoil. You have a break only where the cannon meets the mantlet. There should be a slight rocking backwards for the chasis of the tank whilst firing, but the muzzle should definately slide inside itself. That shouldn't be to hard to do.

-FMK.

Colonel Rhombus · June 19, 2002, 16:05

The reason I didn't include that was due to my lack of foresight when making the model--namely the entire barrel is one object. It isn't difficult to fix, but it didn't seem worth it at the time.

At this stage I just want to get it over and done with. I haven't been spending much time at all on it lately--I've been too busy actually playing Civ3.

Colonel Rhombus · June 29, 2002, 20:56

Okay. Having real difficulty in getting the Tiger into Civ3. If it doesn't crash outright, the colours are all wrong. I'm tearing my hair out here. Here is some things I think I need to know:

How many of the 256 colours are used for team colours? Are they at the beginning or the end? Do they have to be certain colours or can they just be left black?
What is the location of the transparency colour in the palette? For that matter, what is the location of the colours used for shadows, smoke, etc.? Are they fixed or does it differ from unit to unit?
The ntp##.pcx and otp##.pcx files in the Art\Units\Palettes folder: I'm pretty sure I read somewhere they're important in 1.21f, but which one corresponds to which unit? Are the otp files for Civ-specific units or something else?

That's about all I can think of for the time being. I'll keep trying in the meantime, but I think I've hit a brick wall at the moment.

Noble713 · July 3, 2002, 12:48

I'm not sure about Civ3, but I know in Civ2 I would use Paint Shop Pro and load the color palette from the default Civ2 file into the image I was working on. This way the palettes would be exactly the same and the unit wouldn't get all screwed up when I pasted it into the units.gif. Perhaps you have to do something similar?

Level · July 4, 2002, 03:37

What I do is find a unit with similar colors export it in FLICster as a story board PCX with the corect size and number of frames.
Then change what you need in a program that can edit the palette changing the last colors fading from magenta to a darker color the farther back you go the darker the shadow.
Then cut and paste each frame in a program that paste with nearest color (Paint Shop Pro works for both).
It takes a long time but it is the best I know.

64 colors are used for Civ colors in most programs the first 4 rows. (in some programs like Photo Shop it is fliped)
The transparent colors are the last 32 (two rows) in most programs, the last color is completly transparent fading back from most to least.
The PCXs in the Art\Units\Palettes folder are the Civ-specific colors for the game.

Colonel Rhombus · July 4, 2002, 08:15

Thanks heaps, Level. My brains were on the verge of leaking out my ears.

Venger · July 4, 2002, 15:46

That graphic kicks so much ass it makes my teeth rattle. Well frigging done!

When it comes time to make .wav files and assign values to the unit, let me know, we can lift some Steel Panthers sounds for it...

Venger

W.I.N.T.E.R · July 5, 2002, 09:28

Verrry Nice (!!!) and higly realistic !!!

Will you also post it at Civfanatics ???

Colonel Rhombus · July 6, 2002, 23:15

I made an interesting discovery today:

I am an idiot.

I haven't been using FLICster since I had originally thought it was an option for people who didn't have their own animation software. I've just downloaded it and all my problems, hopefully, should just melt away. Expect the finished product soon.

And yes, I'll be posting it on Civfanatics too.

Level · July 7, 2002, 02:09

Wow You got a unit in to civ with out FLICster, When I read you got it in civ I thought you had FLICster.
Yes you need it, You also need a drawing program that can change palettes and a program that paste with nearest color (it is best if it is in the same program like Paint Shop Pro).