Author Topic: how much work would it take to get this in-game?  (Read 13345 times)

Almighty_gir

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how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« on: 2012-11-15 21:01:45 »
Hi guys.

            Please excuse my ignorance, i haven't visited these forums in such a long time and it seems you've all progressed amazingly in my absence! i recently made some sephiroth fan-art... i made him loosely based on various references, the head is referenced from a mix of the dissidia styles, as well as advent children and of course the original (hyper anime influence). the clothing is by and large referenced from Advent Children.

there are two versions of the model, i've made him both topless and jacketed, so if it's even possible to get him in-game, he would be suitable for the endgame encounter, as well as the earlier appearances.

so now to the questions! i don't know what tech has been implemented and by whom. would i need to make a pure, diffuse only version of the textures, or can we now use specular and/or normal map tech? what about alpha? is it test only (1-bit alpha, or "hard edged") or fully blended (8-bit, soft edged)? would i need to reduce the triangle count? as it stands at the moment the topless version is somewhere around 15k triangles, and the jacket version is around 20k.

thanks for your time. and here are the images from my portfolio site, as well as a topless shot that's not up there.






Borde

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #1 on: 2012-11-15 21:43:58 »
Diffuse texture only, I'm afraid. Also, keep in mind there is no skinning support either, so you will need to chop down the model in pieces. Alpha blending is supported, but I'm not really sure how is it handled (expect priority problems, though). The polycount shouldn't be a problem.

whitERaven

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #2 on: 2012-11-16 00:26:30 »
About time for a sephiroth of this quality, LoL I'm so excited to see this in game, Btw what is the current format of this model? this will have to be have to be cut to pieces you can view the vanilla sephiroth model as to how the cut pieces goes, also the textures may not appear the same in game, so adjustments may have to be done after porting the model.

Almighty_gir

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #3 on: 2012-11-16 08:02:32 »
Hey guys, thanks for your replys!

               I don't mind at all altering the existing diffuse map (it contains almost no shading information, as that's what the normal map is for) so that it would look decent as diffuse only. i'm confused about "what is the current format of this model"? do you mean what program it was made in? if so, 3ds max 2011... well, the final low-poly model anyway hah. other than that, it can be exported to any format you need, i would imagine.

As for cutting the mesh up to match the vanilla sephiroth, i think that's where i would probably need help. i've seen new models for cloud, tifa etc. in game, and they all appear to be fairly "seamless", as in there are no visible cuts. from what i remember the vanilla poses for most of the characters is close to their idle stances in battle mode right? so would i need to pose this model to match the vanilla one, and then make cuts in the mesh so it's segmented like the original?

cheers.

LeonhartGR

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #4 on: 2012-11-16 10:25:01 »
This is the most wonderful model I've seen if we can use it in game... But I don't know... something's weird about the face. Maybe the shadows around the eyes and the lips. I'm not sure you are willing to change anything in this level of work though...

whitERaven

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #5 on: 2012-11-17 02:55:00 »
I think it won't be easy to port this model to ff7 format w/o the overall quality suffering.. I think the face lacks the pretty boy features of sephiroth,
but other than that this model perfect, awesome details can't wait for this to usable in game

Hey guys, thanks for your replys!

              i'm confused about "what is the current format of this model"? do you mean what program it was made in? if so, 3ds max 2011... well, the final low-poly model anyway hah. other than that, it can be exported to any format you need, i would imagine.

Yep I'm asking if it's in 3ds format since I remember there are issues in porting from blender and needs more complicated steps in converting


As for cutting the mesh up to match the vanilla sephiroth, i think that's where i would probably need help. i've seen new models for cloud, tifa etc. in game, and they all appear to be fairly "seamless", as in there are no visible cuts. from what i remember the vanilla poses for most of the characters is close to their idle stances in battle mode right? so would i need to pose this model to match the vanilla one, and then make cuts in the mesh so it's segmented like the original?

cheers.

The models you mentioned are not entirely seamless, LoL cuts are visible up close, but they don't show that often.
I suggest you make the individual cut parts match those in vanilla to avoid overlapping and floating parts during some animations.

Mirrorman95

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #6 on: 2012-11-17 06:22:53 »
I think it won't be easy to port this model to ff7 format w/o the overall quality suffering.. I think the face lacks the pretty boy features of sephiroth,
but other than that this model perfect, awesome details can't wait for this to usable in game

Yep I'm asking if it's in 3ds format since I remember there are issues in porting from blender and needs more complicated steps in converting

The models you mentioned are not entirely seamless, LoL cuts are visible up close, but they don't show that often.
I suggest you make the individual cut parts match those in vanilla to avoid overlapping and floating parts during some animations.
I think the image has all of Sephiroth's facial features. Just look at:

The issue here seems to be the textures and/or lighting on the face. If that is fixed to look more accurate, the model will be complete.

Almighty_gir

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #7 on: 2012-11-21 08:42:20 »
yeah i hear you.

thing is, it was taking too long to get him finished, and i ended up just tweaking and tweaking and tweaking... there has to be a cut-off point where you just say "i'm done!", and move on to the next project.

so, sorry man but there won't be alterations to the texture outside of making it diffuse only (although i've read somewhere that somebody has made a custom driver for the game that supports normals and specular... that's pretty badass!)


Mirrorman95

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #8 on: 2012-11-21 19:58:12 »
I'm not surprised. Sephiroth was probably the hardest model the Square team made for Advent Children. They gave him inhuman features to make his looks so anatomically impossibly handsome to be godlike. And you got almost every detail accurate, except the minor facial snafu. It's still the best Sephiroth model we have.

whitERaven

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #9 on: 2012-11-21 21:44:43 »
I agree, this is the best sephiroth here, even better than the ripped ones I saw before.. Anyway goodluck with it, I guess there would be issues when cutting up the jacket parts, they are kinda messy in the vanilla, I worked on a seph model before so I can tell.. But with your skills I know it won't be hard for you, ;D ;D ;D

Almighty_gir

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #10 on: 2012-11-22 21:09:46 »
actually one of the reasons i had to make my own face, so to speak. was because there is no hard and fast reference for him.

in the original advent children movie, they went for a very square jawed, almost western appearance (well, as western as you can get for an anime). it's like they took all of the cliché things about villains in manga/anime... square jaw, high cheek bones, low brow etc. and then feminized them.

anyway, they updated the model for the crisis core game FMV's they softened him up a whole lot, even the proportions of his face are different, the distance from chin to hairline particularly is shorter.

in Dissidia they used the same model (i think) as crisis core

in Dissidia 2 they completely changed his face, it's longer than crisis core, and more slender. it's also softer and has some really strikingly anime features, the nose in particular is far slimmer than it was before.

and finally, in the blu-ray release of Advent Children, you can actually see they used TWO different models. in any scene that was present in the original DVD release, it's the original model, any of the additional Blu-Ray scenes are completely different, he has a hyper stylised face that's extremely round, femenine, and almost faerie like.

that's my observation anyway.
like i said, i appreciate the feedback, it's just not something i can act on right now.

whitERaven

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #11 on: 2012-11-22 22:36:47 »
I think you should keep it as it is, it looks awesome anyway.. instead you should  focus in porting the model to FF7 so it'll be usable ingame, any adjustments in textures should be after converting the model to ff7 format.

genesis063

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #12 on: 2012-11-22 22:53:41 »
I just hope I can use it with the Sephiroth mod or the new one coming soon.  Can't wait to see what he does with the script.

apz freak

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #13 on: 2012-12-03 01:56:28 »
I found this elsewhere on the net, and actually downloaded your pictures. Unbeknownst to me you had came here and asked how to get this in the game. It's refreshing to find a like-minded individual who studied the nuances of the different portrayals as closely as I had. And talented to boot!

I made the infamous APZ Cloud, but that's a strange thing to proudly announce considering how far I've come since then. Not embarrassing, just not to the standard of quality I'm capable of today.

I could help you out. There's not weight painting or skinning involved, and I could give you a rundown of what would work best and how to accomplish it. I'll send you a pm and we can talk.

Mirrorman95

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #14 on: 2012-12-07 18:56:29 »
If you're too busy to convert and cut up the model into a FF7-compatible form right now, you could release the model, and have us try to work on it maybe. Plus, I'd be nice to have the full high-diffuse version of the model before it is released publicly in such a cruder form.

apz freak

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Re: how much work would it take to get this in-game?
« Reply #15 on: 2012-12-07 22:04:30 »
If the diffuse has no baked in lighting then it would appear very flat with the limited lighting capabilities of FFVII pc. And although apparently Aali added normal map support... I wouldn't suggest trying it. Baked lighting on a simple mesh will just look better. The battle mode has NO lighting what-so-ever, and with that in mind, must be taken into consideration. And the 512x512 texture map limit. Really neatly packed uv's are needed