Progress Report 19/7

G'day again, I guess I'm a little late on the posting of this one, but I'll hope you'll forgive me, I managed to neatly clean up a whole task to report, on my end that makes things simpler for the now. 

Anyway, let's talk shop.

So first task was figuring out the GL Situation and finishing off the FN EGLM. By figuring out , I mean establishing what GLs go on what, because I know, for example, that the Mk17s in service with the 75th Rangers were originally distributed with EGLMs (FN40GL), but since then the military has largely standardised on using the M320 in that role.. and I couldn't find much evidence as to what actually is currently being used that.
Fortunately, with a little sniffing using word of mouth, I got my answer - the Rangers are using 320s if that can at all help it, and EGLMs are not staying on the guns. So, Mk17s all use the M320 in the SCAR pack. A weeks or so of  putting together the weapon configs, the P3Ds, making the animations for the EGLM. Oh, and because we're doing 320s and not AGCs, there was one bit of modelling I needed to add to upgrade the existing H&K Grenade launcher -
This Foregrip

So, anyway, there was some animation work that needed doing. Both outside Arma for the character part, and inside Arma for the weapon part. Doneskis.

Then finally we get down to the business of texturing the EGLM. Some final small details I dind;t previously know about (marking ,serial locations and such) were a last minute find on the Royal Armouries digitised archive of artefacts, which is by the way, a really neat resource to have.

Here's a shot with the rough material and normal map details down

..of the Rifling(and just the impressive array of stuff that complicates the silhouette of the front of the gun)

and here's the finished version of the textures, in tan.

So that's those done, we now move onto finishing the last major SCAR variant set: the SSR (OR SCAR-H PR or TPR if you're taking it from the FN Catalog)

So those are done now as of today, but I guess I can talk quickly about the differences in wear between various SCARs, because there is definitely method to the madness.

So, from the outset I have this general mindset to play up wear, grime and other environmental coatings acquired from use. Reasons for this are twofold: 1) it goes a significant way to adding visual interest under a variety of conditions, without greebling or overstepping plausibility
2) the amount of other material detail you can fit into a texture is finite, and to get the impression of smaller details, one of the tricks of model effects for film and just generally is to overemphasise wear and grime to compensate for it, so it's visible at the intended distances

So, that's what I start with in mind, I start trying to find references of the arms in use, to get an idea of what kind of wear they're subjected to, and where. Actually it's kind of funny because with the SCARs it was kind of hard to find stage-managed shots, which tend to be pristine as possible.

So going in with that mindset established, we start laying down the damage. So, usually I try to collect references of the stuff I'm texturing in the field, but the only shots I had on hand when I started with the SCARs were staged PR shots, usually with clean, New-in-box arms, so I started with educated guesses: most of the SCARs are frontline infantry/SF weapons, so they're going to get run hard - lots of high-point finish wear, upper rub marks, probably pretty heavy on GSR, fresh surface dirt in crevices.

As it humorously turns out, late in texturing I found some current day shots of Mk17 with 75th Rangers and, I was very conservative in my approach, because wew lass, are they beat to shit.

Generally I do finish damage first, scratches and dings in the material, then goes the GSR (gun shot residue, or just fine carbon), then dirt, then oils and hand marks. IMO, turned out really well with the SCARs.

Now, the SSRs I took the same approach but with a different twist- it's a DMR, it's not going to be run as hard, by units that are specifically more interested in care can upkeep, even in the field, as a neccesary element of doing their job. So, it's going to be cleaner, definitely less dings. 

So, that's them done too. So all that's left on the SCARs is one set of textures- the 3rd party extensions. Everything else remaining before I'm happy to do a patron-only test build is cleaning some missing textures- mostly thermal maps and a few ambient specs. I expect this to be GTG in the next fortnight.

THEN I can get on the task of building the release, which will require some work  on it's own. I'll keep you all posted.

Anyway that's it for now, for full size res images of any of the above, you can visit this Imgur album 

Take care everybody,
Toadie out.