The Ultimate RTS Building - Specifications & Rules

[requiem2d]

Originally Posted by Vamediah

heh, with my current polycount id have to make a 74-poly sheep :P, but hey, its a challenge.

Well if it's of any help, you don't need any downwards facing faces at all.

[Vamediah]

Originally Posted by requiem2d

Well if it's of any help, you don't need any downwards facing faces at all.

That is an excellent point. this is the first time I've ever done that with a model, i reduced my poly-count by almost 100 poly's to initially make place for the sheep and some scraps around the house. so i might be able to make room for a 120 poly sheep witch should be enough i think... although id love to have room for about three of em, but oh well...

[requiem2d]

If you can, make two, one big, one small. Think it will add a lot to the scene.

[DooFi]

for an RTS without camera rotation you could delete everything thats not facing the camera :P
If thats allowed
Can one rotate the cam in CnC3?

[sgv3dmax]

Originally Posted by Kaskad

Well, RTS games usually require the player to use worker units to build buildings that can then be used to produce more powerful units. The challenge here is to model a building like that, that could feasibly be used in an RTS game for that purpose.

Basically, any building. Only big differences from FPS games are that the specs are generally lower and you have to keep in mind that faces that will only be seen from below aren't generally needed in RTS games (unless it's something like Company of Heroes where the player can stick his camera anywhere he wants )

Hope that helps you.

Thanks.
The screen shot from Age of empires is really fantastic. But, are all those buildings expandable "units"? Is there any specific building in there that could be studied in detail? The screen shot from 'Command and Conquer' shows a couple of buildings that look like bunkers / sheds. The third one, i don't know which game it is from, seems like a military outpost. So, what i understand is, the RTS buildings could be anythng that could be deployed, built and expanded by the player.
So, the model can be shown from above just like how the player sees in the game.

[Kaskad]

Originally Posted by DooFi

for an RTS without camera rotation you could delete everything thats not facing the camera :P
If thats allowed
Can one rotate the cam in CnC3?

I think most 3D RTS games allow you to rotate the camera.

Originally Posted by sgv3dmax

Thanks.
The screen shot from Age of empires is really fantastic. But, are all those buildings expandable "units"? Is there any specific building in there that could be studied in detail? The screen shot from 'Command and Conquer' shows a couple of buildings that look like bunkers / sheds. The third one, i don't know which game it is from, seems like a military outpost. So, what i understand is, the RTS buildings could be anythng that could be deployed, built and expanded by the player.
So, the model can be shown from above just like how the player sees in the game.

The AoE screen shows buildings that don't actually do anything, but they could conceivably be player-made (some RTS games allow you to build normal houses that increase the total number of units you can deploy, for example), so if you were to do something like that I figure it would be fair game. I've never played CnC3 (or any other one) but those are definitely player-made buildings, so that's why I included it (Off topic: I have to say the CnC buildings don't seem to read very well. I can't tell what the heck those buildings do just by looking at them, except that the second from the left probably assembles something). The last screen is from Company of Heroes, showing worker units constructing a Barracks to deploy basic fighting units from.

So I guess what you could say is that almost any building you can think of could conceivably be used in an RTS, but most interesting would be a building that serves a direct purpose: the construction or training of units, or the refinement or creation of resources.

tl;dr: Yes, RTS buildings can be any buildings that can be deployed, built and expanded by the player.

[Vamediah]

I have a texturing-related question...

Lets say that this factory ( blue) if exactly 1500 triangles and uses up the full texture space. Would i have to add the UV's and triangle-count of the ground ( pink) to the predefined texture-space and total triangle count? or can i count the ground as background and not include it on the full texture map?

to me there is a distinct difference between them. It would be nice what the rules are regarding that.

[aegix]

Originally Posted by Vamediah

to me there is a distinct difference between them. It would be nice what the rules are regarding that.

My interpretation of the rules was that the ground would fall under the 'environment' category for the purposes of the beauty render. I wouldn't include the ground in my wireframe/texture sheets shots though.

[requiem2d]

You're going to have to show us what you have, if you choose to make your own ground, cool. If not, you'll just stick it on a single color surface.

[Vamediah]

Originally Posted by requiem2d

You're going to have to show us what you have, if you choose to make your own ground, cool. If not, you'll just stick it on a single color surface.

so if i create my own ground it has to be included with polycount and the texture?