Progress Report (27/10): ....Where were we? Oh right, the modelling.

G'day everyone. It's been a little overdue that I do one of these, so without further ado, let's get into it. If you'd just like to check the images of everything - you can find an album of this post's images plus some here (I'd highly recommend you do to see the images in full res anyway).

Woof, 2020, am I right?

XM29

Starting with big chungus, the trouble-child. 

So in March we left off part way through the High-Poly build. That's done. Into April we had bakes going, and May saw the first-step manually-adjusted LOD Mesh started AND finished. To explain what I'm talking about - To keep engine performance somewhat optimised, game engines use what is called a Level of Detail system which at certain distances swaps out game meshes for less detailed versions of them. This is why sometimes at high magnification in-game, even if an object is taking up a decent amount of visible screen, it might look less than crisp  These days generally that sort of thing is handled engine-side, but it does not hurt to still do some of the work manually (and in Arma's case specifically, that's not an option, so you're building your own LODs).

Pictured: Maximum detail LOD

  I trialed this technique with C96s, because I wanted to have better looking, less messy LOD generation for the lower levels, and more efficient better looking ones at the higher. I was happy with the process and results, so I'm making that a standard part of development going forward. Expect to hear about these throughout. Oh, and they're excelllent stepping off points for building the Shadow LOD, because yes Arma does not just project the actual visual mesh for shadows, that'd be too easy. 

Pictured: First-Step LOD

So where it's all at now for the XM29s is in getting the in-game builds right and then, putting the lick of textures on, and since June that's basically where these sat.

M1941 Johnson

So, Where we left off, we were mostly done with the HP, and we were just finishing up the last pieces. That is Done, we are baked. I basically baked this and the XM29 back to back because it all came together at the same time. Then I did the First-step LOD pass in May. pretty smooth sailing with this. The Johnson is basically in the same position as the XM29 now, I guess the key difference, is it doesn't have a weird-ass FCS to work with. So there's that. 

XM8 Family

From June onward , basically I've been mainlining the XM8s they were the ones that, to me were the ones that kind I let languish while I was working on the SCARs. The other two I could keep punting along between the XM8s and the SCARs, but TBH? I can really only look at one at time on these bigger ones. Contextually fortunately for, well, work in general, Ground Branch basically put a hold on me doing stuff for them for a few months while serious under the hood work got messed with, and the I-Can't-Disclose-Specifics CDLC that I'm working on basically ran out of immediate urgent work at the same time, so I've basically had June onward to myself and .. Woo progress.

In June, I burned through most of the XM8 High polys. I then took a break from that to UV-map the XM320, because I didn't realise I hadn't UV mapped THAT, before finishing up with the 320's HP in Early July. Baking took about... a week and a half, due to some serious issues I was getting in the bakes- particularly the Ambient maps weren't playing ball, and it took a few days of banging my head against it before it resolved. 

End of the month I was importing the XM8s into the engine with all the UV mapping done, and beginning the process of in game animation configs, settling the weapon configs, and Finally - Texturing. This is where I have been since.. the 28th of August. Started with the ISM-1400-A7 (Pic rail version of the ISM) because that was a good test to make sure my materials felt right, before plowing in. Then came the AMO magnified optic, before starting on the XM8 proper. I'm making sure to give it a good dose of dust and wear where I can, because 

a) I want to give the surface more variety than otherwise plain polymer gives it

b) I also want to give them the look that, unlike most of the XM8s, considering these things will be seeing virtual battlefields, that they're suitably not new in box. 

Scene Break

So, not to drag too much of my personal life into here, but on the 18th/19th September, my mum went into Hospital with a sharp decline in her cognitive and motor function (we're talking less than a week from being fine to being in bed and unable to recall 20 seconds ago). I rode with her to the ER. She then went to a renal ward, where she lost consciousness altogether, and then moved to an ICU a few days later. She's stable now, and as of a week ago out of ICU and recovering steadily. Since the initial trip I've been taking regular trips to visit her as both advocate and next of kin, and as someone to keep her company, on top of helping with looking after the various behind the scene things, like scheduling other family members, and just regular additonal upkeep.

On top of easily taking a day out with each visit, the whole experience also has been taking a toll on my mood to work. The result is that actual work has slowed as I've made a decision to not push myself to breaking point (I'd learned that lesson the first half of this year the hard way) while I'm dealing with this. This will likely continue for at least a couple more months while mum gets to the point where she can be discharged. 

XM8 Resumed

With that caveat now marked the XM8s, at least the 3 main variants are now complete. What's left to do is the-ISM-IR, the prototype RCO, the MSWF Picatinny Rail, the XM320 Fore-grip, the texture variants of the Receiver for the "prototype" (Spiral 2, first publicly shown)models with the big "XM8" on the side, and the respective prototype hand-guards without the iron sight cutouts. 

To basically summarise all three of the projects above- all that's left to do is painting,pointing, and polish. The SCARS.. I have not touched since last mention. As said earlier, TBH I can only be working on the XM8s or SCARS at any time, not both... and they've gotta get the HP and Bake treatment still. So I guess look forward to that over.. maybe Christmas. Maybe.

So uh.. yeah, that's the general speed run through the middle of 2020 as it stands for me, where all the projects stand, and generally what the heck. 

I'm sorry I haven't written one of these earlier, but I might have alluded to it earlier, the first half of the year I was severely under the hammer, and this later half, well, I've had complications. Oh, before I leave you for time undetermined, if you didn't catch it when it happened, Bohemia's community manager interviewed me for a Community Profile back in August. It was a major honor, and you can find it here if that sort of thing interests you- https://arma3.com/news/community-profile-32-toadie 

So uh, yeah. I guess that's it for now. Thank you all for sticking with me.

Toadie Out.