Enlightened Self Interest

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               @NWN_baba yaga for a quick heads up here is the Dr. Who wikipedia page, the BBC Dr. Who page and the wikipedia entry for Dalek. Together these should bring you up to speed on the british tv show that started in November 1963 (ie it's the 50th anniversary this year) and  has been exported all over the world. I am a little surprised you know nothing of it as it is considered by many to be on a par (if not surpassing) with star trek in the history of tv science fiction. (of course you could just be teasing)

TR
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Tarot Redhand, 12 avril 2013 - 08:02 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_NWN_baba yaga]

               no really i dont know dr. who. Maybe the series didnt aired here in germany or i was just to young. The name Dr. Who is not unknown to me but no association i have with anything. But thanks for the links;)
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Asymmetric]

               Well, I never heard of Dr. Who myself, at least not until the new series started. Never watched it though and it seems to be rather unknown here in germany.

Nice model though '>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Asymmetric, 12 avril 2013 - 08:19 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               I do know Dr. Who, but not the doctors before Tom Baker because those were never on TV in Germany. Because of this the first time I heard from Dr. Who was in a book. The Doctor Who novels by Terrence Dicks have been translated to German before there ever were any episodes of Dr. Who on TV.
BTW, Tegan is super annoying '>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Zwerkules, 12 avril 2013 - 09:40 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               This is, of course, going UTTERLY off the point, but I like Tegan. It was Jo Grant and Adric who were "super annoying".
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               Someone needs to change the name of this thread. '>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               Don't you find it enlightening? ()

TR
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               I SAID it was going utterly off topic. I didn't start it!

Oh, and Tarot, thus far I have not yet achieved Complete Blissful Enlightenment and True Oneness with the Cosmos as a result of this thread.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Zwerkules]

               *whistles innocently*
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Bannor Bloodfist]

               henesua, love the look of what you have already created, but you did ask if there was a way to help reduce tri's and one idea I thought of immediately was to just remove the bottom row of those balls around the side of the dalek and adjust downwards the remaining rows to make it appear "what's the word?" balanced?  Remember, we don't have to appear exactly as they are in Dr Who episodes, just close enough to help us imagine them as being real.

Anyway, just a thought, you could also reduce the number of balls in each row by one or two and still retain the overall look/feel of what they are supposed to be.  Not sure how many tri's you would save by combining those two ideas, but every tri saved is a plus in NWN.

Again, great work so far, and any encouragement i can give is yours!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               How many poly on each ball? I was experimenting with some env mapping stuff combined with tweaking the face groups (on my drow) and I came up with some medium-quality bump-map-like shininess. You might be able to reduce the poly count of each ball to a total of 5 and just fudge it. I am currently assuming you are using a 6 sided cone which is not coming to a point, but a flat surface (square?). I also assume that would be a minimum of 12 faces per ball? So, lets see (using fingers), 6 strips per side, two sides, 4 balls per strip, what 48 balls? times 12 faces = 576, or with 5 faces and fudge you'd have 240 faces for balls. Ok, not a huge reduction...and you'd lose some shadow quality. Still something to think about.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_PLUSH HYENA of DOOM]

               There is a point practicality does start to impinge upon what actually looks good and, in my opinion at least, lessening the number of the (non) hemispheres on the Dalek skirt section and spreading them out more will look, well, crap.

I agree that, if there's a good reason - either technical or artistic - to make changes, then there's no reason to slavishly adhere to source materials. (That blue and gold Dalek in the picture I posted, for instance - There was never a blue and gold Dalek in the series, I just felt like painting it those colours and when I was building it, I deliberately made alterations such as having no slats on the shoulder section precisely because I wanted it to look a bit different - actually, of the 14 full-size Daleks I've got here, there isn't one that's COMPLETELY identical to any of the ones in the series, some of them very different indeed)... but Daleks DO have 56 hemispheres on the skirt section and they DO look daft without 'em, so this is one instance where the number, if not the exact shape, should be accurate, simply because it works that way visually.

Definitely worth keeping the poly count where it is (which is not at all horrible, considering) and thus maintaining the excellent look of the model as it stands.
Personally, I'd much rather lessen the numbers of Daleks invading any given Area by a few, if necessary, and have them look good, than be able to field a hundred crap-looking ones at once.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par PLUSH HYENA of DOOM, 17 avril 2013 - 05:11 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_MerricksDad]

               @PHoD, Love your Daleks by the way. My kid (3) is big into Dr. Who. He says he is the doctor every day, at least about 10 times. He has been watching me make monsters in gMax and just loves when I run across Who content on here. Your pic of the Daleks in the driveway was almost too much for him to handle.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               I think the poly count is fine. I'm used to modding characters at 1000 or less triangles (300 is usually my initial goal for anything I model and I was hoping to achieve that here due to its inorganic shape), but 1400 is not bad for this critter all things considered.

Anyway, sorry for the silence. I have not had any time lately. I did get the slats burned into the texture as shadows, and will photoshop magic that texture soon. But I have made no further progress.

I'm currently in survival mode trying to both keep my job and finding another one. Bit tricky in this climate. But I will have some day light in the next two weeks to finish this.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Tarot Redhand]

               @henesua didn't you read the title of this thread? If rl gets in the way, it gets in the way. Nothing anyone can do anything about. If you need to choose between rl and here then rl should win out every time. Don't stress over something that is only done for amusement when what keeps food on the table calls. It'll be done when you have time to do it and that is more than enough.

Good luck.

TR