Enhanced Tank Texturing

Bentusi Elite · Post by **Bentusi Elite** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:14 am

I posted this on Sourceforge but seeing how ancient the last bit of activity there is, I thought I'd come here too.

What do you guys think of making it so that certain sections of the tank texture images are mapped onto the tanks? With this people could make their own custom tank skins and make them look however they like instead of using the repeating army uniform pattern. Wheels, treads and turret could all look different and a lot cooler.

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:39 am

it's been discussed a number of times. just noone has done the work, or remapped the model.

If you'd like to do the work to remap it, please feel free.

custom skins are an interesting issue, as we have a number of flag effects that work on the "color" of a tank ( color blind, and the like ), so there would have to be a way to enforce the actual color of the tank. But there are probably reasonable solutions to those issues.

A start would be getting at tank with a better UV mapping. Or even a better tank.

Grace F · Post by **Grace F** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 6:13 am

If this was done, i hope it will be because it sounds like a really cool idea, would it come out in the next BZflag, 2.10... or whatever the next 1 is?

Ratatosk · Post by **Ratatosk** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 11:59 am

this ctualy sounds like a

1 possible idea

2 okay idea

Bentusi Elite · Post by **Bentusi Elite** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 12:53 pm

Thanks Jeff, I'd love to do it but I don't know the dimensions of the tank models or their size relative to the textures... So it may take a while.

Unless of course anybody here knows what they are?

ducatiwannabe · Post by **ducatiwannabe** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 2:49 pm

I think this would also be a good idea for clans and leagues, only have it done in a slightly different way. Perhaps people could attach their own logo or team logo to their tank in an area if they wanted to

Only problem then is that we have no idea what pics they'll put up.

This original idea sounds cool too...

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:55 pm

http://my.bzflag.org/w/Tank

that has the dimensions, the size to the texture is irrelevant, as you'd be replacing the texture ( you can make the texture larger if you wish ).

CannonBallGuy · Post by **CannonBallGuy** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 8:42 pm

Grace F wrote:If this was done, i hope it will be because it sounds like a really cool idea, would it come out in the next BZflag, 2.10... or whatever the next 1 is?

The next version will be 2.2.0 - assuming no huge new bug is found before then.

BinarySpike · Post by **BinarySpike** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:26 pm

Even if Bentus creates a new model, would what he says need code modifications over the tank animation in the actual source?

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:53 pm

CannonBallGuy
even if we find a bug, it'll be 2.2.0

if we find one after that then we'll have 2.2.2, but 2.2.0 would still be the 'next' release.

BinarySpike
I think your trying to say he'd need code modifications, but I'm not sure, it's worded oddly.

yes he would, or we'd convert his model into the C code used by the game. Ether way would work.

CannonBallGuy · Post by **CannonBallGuy** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:15 am

JeffM2501 wrote:CannonBallGuy
even if we find a bug, it'll be 2.2.0 if we find one after that then we'll have 2.2.2, but 2.2.0 would still be the 'next' release.

I meant, if a huge bug is found in the 2.0 branch tonight, say, and 2.2 is nowhere near ready for release...

Bentusi Elite · Post by **Bentusi Elite** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 1:02 am

Hey I'm looking at the version 2.1.11 S-P-A and it seems we're going to have each team represent a different card suit... should I do this with the tank meshes?

Also a random idea I had was if we could have a hollow diamond/arrow pointing to the location of the team base(s) in addition to the one pointing to the team flag? I want to keep my radar low when playing Pillbox but then I can't always tell where my base is!

Grace F · Post by **Grace F** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 1:45 am

You keep your radar low? You mean small? When playing Pillbox or hepcat, people usually have their radars maximized to increase their dodging capabilities. Since you cant jump, nor have any superflags, radar (in my opinion) is the only thing you need to see.

As for the arrow idea, i think that has been dicussed before

If not something similar. Try the "search" tab and if it hasn't been discussed, start a new topic.

Bentusi Elite · Post by **Bentusi Elite** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 2:12 am

By low I mean closer to the ground of course (zoomed in)...

biggeruniverse · Post by **biggeruniverse** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:18 am

What's all this about C code? What's Tupone working on then because it seems like all new, Crystal Space-based, render code to me. Wouldn't it be better to just throw a new tank model in with that?

BinarySpike · Post by **BinarySpike** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 11:17 pm

JeffM2501 wrote:I think your trying to say he'd need code modifications, but I'm not sure, it's worded oddly.

yes he would, or we'd convert his model into the C code used by the game. Ether way would work.

Yeah that's what I meant, I didn't know much about how the tank was rendered.

biggeruniverse wrote:What's all this about C code? What's Tupone working on then because it seems like all new, Crystal Space-based, render code to me. Wouldn't it be better to just throw a new tank model in with that?

BZFlag has nothing to do with crystal space O.o o.O
Crystal Space is a game engine, not a render'er. BZFlag uses OpenGL to do hardware accelerated rendering. Crystal Space also uses OpenGL.
But again Crystal Space is a game engine, has nothing to do with any underlying elements of BZFlag.

Tupone could be grabbing things from Crystal Space, or another dev for that matter.

I was asking if Bentus would need to change the source code to reflect his model. If the answer was no, then I would assume bzflag loaded a file (.obj) and displayed it as the tank model and it was... Primitive. I can tell bzflag is not "primitive" because Jeff answered Yes.

Bentus wrote:Also a random idea I had was if we could have a hollow diamond/arrow pointing to the location of the team base(s) in addition to the one pointing to the team flag? I want to keep my radar low when playing Pillbox but then I can't always tell where my base is! Neutral

That's Cake if you know OpenGL

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 11:24 pm

BinarySpike
once again you are wrong, Tupone is working on a crystal space version of bzflag, but it is still an experimental work in progress ( based on 2.0.9). We also have a an applicant for the Google Sumer of Code, that may do an ogre implementation as there project.

biggeruniverse
the CS port is not ready for "prime time", and as stated is simply an experment, but if we do go with a 3rd party engine that can read external models, then yes we will not need new models to be hard coded. The CS and other engine work has a lot to go before it's ready, I expect it to not be ready in time for 2.2, as it will take months of testing and tweaking once it's even feature complete. As for right now, we will need a model to be hardcoded ( or the model code in BZ to be changed to read from a file ), but any model made in a modeler can be converted to any number of needed formats, the art is the important bit.

Bentus
we had hud markers in a testing branch that showed the flag, like a fighter pilot lock-on marker, similar to what you are talking about I think. it would just need to be moved into the CVS head mainline.

Bentusi Elite · Post by **Bentusi Elite** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 2:37 am

Thank you Jeff.

We're clear here that I'm only redoing the texture first and not the model or coding right? I'm not as experienced at coding as I am at fooling around with Photoshop...

I might actually write code for mapping it onto the tank someday... but not for a while.

JeffM · Post by **JeffM** » Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:16 am

you can do what you wish. if you wish to redo the model, we can work it into the code. your not alone.

we are more of an open "do what you feel like doing" project. So do whatever you feel comfortable doing.