SS2 Simon Pennington Protocol Droid - Edited: RocketMan/Grosnus

[665c961abda2eGrosnus]

I was curious how would it look like with colors closer to the original, so I took screenshot and repainted it, changed/added some details here and there, I hope you don't mind:

I believe those wiry bits in his torso are quite important for the whole design and I wouldn't hide them completely, I also don't like the dark areas around diferent parts of his body (I know it's suppose to be a protection, but it's just feels too uniform, and too far from the original design).

Overall it's a cool model, I don't even mind the laser that much tbh ;p, look's a little weird in motion though.

[665c961abddfbRocketMan]

That's a good effort and I see what you're talking about.  To me the most obvious difference that you've pointed out is the body wiring, which does seem to be a lot more subtle in the new model.  I'll see if the author is willing to do anything to the texture to bring that out!

Oh.. and an unfortunate side effect of just trying to rig the damn thing is exposing the dark parts on his shoulders   I didn't want to but I knew people would complain if I allowed the shoulder plates to be distorted when the game engine bends the arms from the T-Pose.  Still a valid criticism though.

Summary:

Make more yellow
Delete laser (at least as an option)
body wiring
drop arms a bit

[665c961abdf11System Shocked]

My three cents worth:

- Less bulky shoulders.
- Slimmer forearms.
- Arms closer to its sides.
- More face/head details - more like the middle bot.

[665c961abe07dvoodoo47]

yeah, the repainted model look 100% better.

also, on the video, his feet looked like they are too close together, making him walk in an awkward way (well, more awkward than the original).

[665c961abe238System]

2 options possible?

[665c961abe392RocketMan]

The walking thing might be a bit of an illusion because of the module looking things on the inside of his leg.  I already bent the legs 10 degrees out from each other (total 20 degrees) to compensate and the old model walks very much the same way but if you disagree I can have another look at it.

In order to do what I consider to be the most significant fix (the torso) I need access to someone who can do textures.  I have no hope of ever fixing that on my own.  Any volunteers?

[665c961abe488voodoo47]

the fact that I have been doing some SCP textures shows just how desperately we need a proper texture guy around here.

[665c961abe5a6Ndrake]

The middle one is vanilla right? The "face" texture there has this great sarcastically friendly quality. I think if you know the droids audio cues you'll know what I mean. It would be great if someone could capture that in a high res texture.

edit: the key is maybe that upright elliptic eye.
[eyes2.jpg expired]

[665c961abe898Olfred]

voodoo47, we should make a plan to abduct someone. I guess that's our best bet currently.

BTT: The animation system of ss2 isn't that good (imho), so you will have to make up with unpleasant behaviour.
On top of that the animations itself are kinda wonky, jitted and glitchy. Especially the feet. Some dev already mentioned it that they struggled with "not perfect" motion captures and that they weren't cleaned as much/good as they should.
All of this isn't that apparent with the low res models, but once you go high res it becomes visible more and more.

[665c961abe9a3RocketMan]

I agree.  I was amazed frankly, at how well this turned out on the first attempt.  I only tweaked it 2 more times for the feet and leg angle.

[665c961abeafbmiracle.flame]

I know Vurt is very obsessive when it comes to making new textures of bio materials into various games... that's our best hope here I guess.

[665c961abec2bRocketMan]

People I can think of who could do a good job are Vurt, Assidragon, Mercurius, Arcaniac, possibly even ZB if it just came down to editing the existing texture.  I know I'm missing others but these are who I've got knowledge and/or experience of.

[665c961abed38Grosnus]

Hmm, if it's only the matter of editing the texture file, then I feel I could do some good. I made couple of pictures for the ACC 400 houndred mod, which are obviously terrain textures but I never had any problem tinkering with models textures in the past.

[665c961abee72Kolya]

I just wanted to suggest Grosnus.

[665c961abefa6RocketMan]

Grosnus would you feel confident enough to create a separate torso texture with a similar wire pattern to the original and possibly change the tint of the main texture to be more yellow without altering the colour of features on that texture that aren't supposed to be yellow?  I think I can UV map the torso without an issue.  Basically, the current texture would need some altering and probably the best way to deal with the torso is to just make a new one.

[665c961abf110Grosnus]

I think I can figure something out, definately wouldn't just take the texture and tint the whole thing yellow, it requires a bit more work.
Ofcourse I would have to see the texture that droid uses in the video and have some means of testing it in game on the new model, but if I understood correctly you can't really distribute all the materials?
If I had access to all that stuff, then I can promise that there is very little I cannot do :-)

[665c961abf2dfRocketMan]

Well, to be honest, at the time I was given the resources, I was told in the same email that I could do whatever I wanted with the material as long as I didn't resell for profit.  While that may seem like a free pass, I feel an obligation to touch base with him again with the final product before distributing it.  Having said that, I see little harm in working with you privately while we wait for his reply.  One more person with access to the files can't hurt as long as it stays that way.  If you PM me your email I can send you the distribution.  Just don't mail bomb it to the rest of the world

[665c961abf3cfGrosnus]

Cool! I sent you a PM. I will post screenshots here as soon as I make any progress. Xerxes WILL like this 

[665c961abf4d5Ndrake]

Another thing that you could consider if you want to get closer to the original: Try to make the pelvis broader. Our manservant is quite effeminate that way.
I think this could also help with the strange walk which looks a bit like he's in desperate need of a toilet.

[665c961abf604System]

Image: http://systemshock2.ucoz.com/_fr/4/5851557.jpg

Image: http://systemshock2.ucoz.com/_fr/4/6526227.jpg

[665c961abf6efSystem]

Image: http://systemshock2.ucoz.com/_fr/4/6926169.jpg

[665c961abfa2eunn_atropos]

@RocketMan
I didn't see a droid-in-casket-version yet. I assume the creator of the model didn't do one? Could someone else do that?
He also worked on a high-poly Polito (Polyto^^), he didn't release that yet? http://mrsmo3d.blogspot.de/2014/04/jpolito.html

Also:
http://www.unrealsp.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1698&start=330 

[665c961abfb95RocketMan]

HOLY SHIT!!!!!   Look at that Polito!  I should have asked for that too damnit!

As for the casket, I do have a low poly version that I made for exactly that reason.  It's not in a casket but you could easily stick it in one.  Bear in mind, the static object limit is 2000 polygons so it's a good thing it's not highly visible because you'd notice the difference big time.  The model which started at 30000 and went to 2000???  Yeah....

[665c961abfc89RocketMan]

My god, we need this guy on our team.