Content packs!

I have two months between jobs and was thinking of making some content packs for Blitz3d and the torque game engine. What im asking here is what type of content would people like.

I started some rts models but im not sure if there are meny people making rts games.

Animated people are desperately needed.

All types, but personally I (at the moment) need modern people - suits, dresses etc.

What John said, modern people.

Yes - definately people. And maybe some buildings, or vehicles. And I'd definately appreciate a pack with lots of ambient objects - boxes, chairs, etc.

Right, people it is then.

I want lots of RPG/Fantasy people and monsters. Animated ones.

I need the full works - villagers, peasants, farmers, inn keepers, shopkeepers, merchants, wizards, prostitutes, noble people, workers, etc.

Preferabally properly rigged and boned.

A ninja! hmm... maybe a samurai would be better... yes, a samurai.

Nope, he's doing models for me.

Thanks for you feed back. what i was really wanting to know was what type of games people where making.

John Blackledge : Animated people what animations would you like? and what would you like them to look like?

Puki : When you say people are they for a RTS or do you need higher poly FPS style models. Low poly models i could make these quite quickly but if you want a lot of high detail models for your rpg it could take alot of time.

Danielwooden : Psionic has a nice ninja free on his site.

I will be making a pack of objects like chairs crates bins etc as i already have alot ive done in the past.

If anyones making an rts game i do like making tanks and truck etc.

ill try and get some renders on the showcase soon.

Pete

Some people purely want stuff for test purposes. Currently, I am using meshes from Neverwinter Nights.

My eventual aim is RPG first-person stuff. I'm not after good-looking models as such - something along the lines or Neverwinter Nights or Dungeon Siege is fine - animated models that were really designed to be viewed from above and at distance (RTS style), but look okay when close up in first person.

Puki : Ok ill look into it and try a few ideas. Its hard to get a balance there because ive been doing characters for an rts where you can play first person at the click of a button so ive been making models at 3 levels of detail and switching between them but your limited for texture memery when you start having hundreds of models all in one screen. Ill see what i can do. I was hoping to make something a bit better than place holder graphics.

Ah, well if you are looking to go for a nice job on these models then I am all for it. I was more worried about hogging your time.

A few people have piped up recently with regard to Fantasy/RPG (Dungeons and Dragons) type characters - we have seen 3 Fantasy/RPG building packs arrive in quick succession. Having characters for these packs would be very welcome.

I'm undecided as to whether I will be using first person RPG or overhead/RTS type view - so, I am not bothered as to what you can produce. I will probably favour the Neverwinter Nights/Dungeon Siege/Baldur's gate overhead view as it is may turn out to be more efficient to render geometry wise.

Modern people animations obviously can be fairly simple compared with fantasy/rpg/shooter.

Idle, walk, point, talk are the crucial ones.
(Talk would be nice with a boned jaw, so that later - I hope - I can impement a proper wave file > jaw sync action, but for now just up/down cycle will do fine.)

For simplicity's sake I think the best approach would be one man, 3 skins, one woman, 3 skins. Since you're asking, that would cover my immediate needs.

If you could make them high-quality and low poly (yeah, the impossible dream) I would be happy to pay a reasonable fee for them.

Oh, the medieval pack spawned an old idea I have from long ago, took shape in some other way...will start a new thread for it for no hijaking..

ok so it looks like ive got to try to make

1. A modern man and women pack (with and without face rigging)

2. Fantasy Rpg characters (got some great ideas for this one.)

3. Put together my objects content pack (bins, phone boxes, fences, walls, streetlights etc (all modern)

That prob enough but any other suggestions?

Pete

Well, could you get away with pseudo-characters? ie a character that can be textured to look completely different, yet it is the same mesh.

With the animated meshes I extracted from Neverwinter Nights - it is one base character that has 140+ animations. I am merely texturing it with other characters to make it look like different people, yet it is the same mesh. The game has other meshes that were designed for the other textures, but I found that I could get away with bodging the textures to the same mesh.

yes this can be done but i was thinking i can have mountable objects like armor or helmets etc that you can attach to the model to make them look different. i normally have a few meshes that use the same skeleton and i can then reuse animations.

Yeah, nice one.
And for modern people, changes of hats, beards, hair styles?
Man, you'd have a fan club if you could do that!

better get my fan site ready then because ive started work ill let you have a peak soon. :OP

I must add that im using the amazing pacemaker for alot of my animations. thanks to Ricky Smith for his class program. http://www.goddysey.com

You could make some crates and ... err... barrels. there is definately a gap in the market for these items.

;-)

I want to see too

i will post shots on the forums :O) going well so far

I planned to do the same kind of generic character model pack as you, never could get my rear in gear though :/ Good luck with yours.

Thanks at the mo im working on fantasy charactors (i think you will like them) fans of the film jason and the Argonauts will love it!

Righty-ho.

I wonder if it is skeletons that come out of the ground?

got it in one ! :OP

a skeleton army complete with horses and archers. thought it would be fun and they look quite cool. just trying to get death animations right, trying to get them to fall apart is quite hard to do.

It would be nice if you could supply each model with 3 levels of detail so as to give better rendering performance...probably alot of work though.

Animations I would like to see would be

walking
running
talking
cowering from bullets
death animation

=)

I will prob have 2 levels of detail for my skeletons i will also supply bump maps so if anyone wants that extra bit of detail they have the option.

Sounds good to me - bring it on.

I've never used LOD media before, so this will be a first time for me. Bring it on.

Bring it on Large.

Pete, as you can see there's a market and enthusiasm for what you're doing.
The fact is I can model buildings, but I can't model people worth a damn. It's like proper artwork, you need a proper artist with 'the eye', else you just get obvious amateur work (me).

Looking forward to seeing the results.

*dribble*
This looks promising. I hope it doesn't end at skeletons though and we get something for them to undie against.

Damned. Missed this one. Another vote for Ninjas here! You can never have enough Ninjas. Or is that Ninji?

really i think alot of the problem with people who start try to make models is that they use the wrong programs for them because everybody seams to use the best known programs doent mean you should. I didnt like 3ds max, gamespace or my copy at lest had alot of very odd bugs, so i got into Cinema4d and really learnt about every thing it can do, even if it didnt seam useful for games. You do need a good eye for scale. but if you can get your hands on some good reference images, making the model isnt to hard. it rigging and animation thats really hard when you first start.

Flameduck : Ill stick ninjas on my list (wwhat type of game are they for? a last ninja remake?)

Becky Rose : no there will be lots of models i just had a great idea for skeletons that i just had to try out then ill get onto more normal characters.

John Blackledge : Thanks, I was quite surprised at how popular content packs seem to be here, i only hope everybody likes my stuff when it done.

A question for everyone is what number of polys would be ideal for your project? (please add what type of game you would use them for)

Pete

Something like that, but I'd like a cooler looking Ninja than just some guy in black. Maybe with a scarf or cape or something like that which can move independantly of the model.

No lower than 1200, no more than 3600 seems reasonable. It's for a platform / fighting adventure game ala. The Last Ninja tho'.