The Parking Lot (occasional new vehicle props for mappers)

A while ago Stinky said how awesome it would be if some big-hearted artist did new props for mappers to use. Well, I thought "hm, why not?" and behold! the fruit of my invention. New props for mappers, specifically, new vehicle props. Why vehicle props? Because vehicles are in general the most pan-map kind of prop you can make. With the right context, you can have a vehicle in almost all the maps, whereas almost all other static props tend to be useful in 2-3 map types at most. Now, don't expect to many of these - it all depends on what I'm doing as to if I commission a new vehicle prop or not. (You never know, I may actually become good enough at drawing to do one myself!). But anyway, please enjoy!

The first vehicle prop is an excavator, made by Ibrahim Chaffardet here's his portfolio. a333 helped me a lot by cropping and resizing the work to spec. Take a look:

That's the default state. Here's damaged:

And destroyed

He made it using the same "paint-over" technique that Goldhawk uses - he created the basic shape in Maya, then painted over it.

If you're keen on using it, here's the link to the prop "pack". Linky link link.

You'll need to install it in /assets/tiles/common/vehicles/

Wow, great dedication to the community. Thanks! The model is great, but I feel the paint-over is a bit sterile and makes it look slightly toyish. I think the prop would benefit greatly from adding few small details and a bit of mud and grime. The damaged and especially the destroyed versions look perfect!

If you take requests, a full size truck would be sweet.

Also a trailer (with and without hay) to match the farm tractor would be nice.http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7jfpPh_RXxw/Ud_qoh__oRI/AAAAAAAAA_Q/H5hWx1zeSgw/s1600/DSC_0076.JPG

I was thinking the same thing; it looks great, but I'm a construction worker/electrician, and I've never seen a skidloader that spotless in my life. Otherwise sweet!

Thanks for the feedback. Skitso, when you say "truck", can you give me an indication of what a "full sized truck" would be for you? Are we talking articulated, semi, flatbed... there's lots of varations on the theme of "truck".

This looks really great. I agree with the comments above about the colour, but it's still fantastic.

Thanks for the feedback. Skitso, when you say "truck", can you give me an indication of what a "full sized truck" would be for you? Are we talking articulated, semi, flatbed... there's lots of varations on the theme of "truck".

Heh, as a non native speaker, I'll let the pictures talk:

Either like this

Or like this

Hrm. Hot Pink is soooo Eighties though. Need a more 70's vibe, but I getcha.

Uh, my second pic was broken. Fixed.

In terms of cost, I could probably afford #1 but #2 is out of my reach atm. Having done some searches, I think a 70's style dump truck would be more mack truck style... (images curtosy of hanks truck pictures)

Damn, should've put some subtle shadow under the bucket too. Looks a bit weird without it.

About trucks, red seems to be more appropriate. Level of details will match one of GH props, and it has a nice contrast color scheme.

The nice thing about such a bold yellow colour is that it should be really easy to make different coloured versions for a bit more variety.

The down side to that colour is that being spotlessly clean really does make it stand out.

I don't think any other vehicle prop has dirt though so it could actually blend in less well if it was added...

Anyway more good work from Max, looking forward to see what else you come up with.

That was something that people have picked up on all in-game assets - everything is so clean. I wonder if making things muddy would make it a bit less pleasant. Now, get using this prop! *grumble*

Hey man great work. Like you I want to do the same, however with blender.

I have a couple questinos, what is the setup to get it just right for xenonauts? What is the camera angle // pixel density for objects?

Max's excavator, while looking pretty slick, is actually a few degrees in wrong angle. It's tilted towards the camera so it doesn't sit on the ground perfectly. If you are planning on modeling props, be super sure about the camera angle you use. Setting it in even slightly wrong angle will look wrong in game.

Thank you skitso, I gues the only way to find out is to test it!

I did a small wall, nothing special. I could use it as a replacement to see if it sits right

Does it? I can't see that m'self. Is that true for all directions? Anyway, Phenakist, do you have maya, or maya LT? I have a solider model with eight orthographic camera angles set (and they should be the correct camera angles or someone is going to die horribly, I promise you). I can send you a scene or I can write down the camera settings from Maya if that would be any use to you.

Max_Caine, it's really awesome of you to commission extra assets for the community, but I can understand that it's hard to justify the cost if you are the only one paying. Maybe we could start some kind of crowdfunder for new assets? If you provide the approximate costs, then we could have a fundraiser for a single prop, with more props as stretch goals if the funding is successful. As a premium backer you could get a vote for the prop to be made as a reward. The more you back the more votes you get? I don't know if many people would support it, but it might be worth a try.

Also for the 3D views I would be willing to use Blender to render the angles, time permitting, however blender can't deal with all file types. Also I can convert sketchup models to blender renders, this would mean we could use all models that are freely available in the sketchup warehouse (there are quite a few good ones). For example see vehicles: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/search.html?backendClass=entity&q=vehicles

Max_Caine, it's really awesome of you to commission extra assets for the community, but I can understand that it's hard to justify the cost if you are the only one paying. Maybe we could start some kind of crowdfunder for new assets? If you provide the approximate costs, then we could have a fundraiser for a single prop, with more props as stretch goals if the funding is successful. As a premium backer you could get a vote for the prop to be made as a reward. The more you back the more votes you get? I don't know if many people would support it, but it might be worth a try.

Also for the 3D views I would be willing to use Blender to render the angles, time permitting, however blender can't deal with all file types. Also I can convert sketchup models to blender renders, this would mean we could use all models that are freely available in the sketchup warehouse (there are quite a few good ones). For example see vehicles: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/search.html?backendClass=entity&q=vehicles

Nice, didn't know about that.

But any model to use has to fit the 70's style and tech level or if the game time allows has to be used only in later stages.

Nice, didn't know about that.

But any model to use has to fit the 70's style and tech level or if the game time allows has to be used only in later stages.

There are a lot of models that are not really time sensitive. Also doing a search by year leads to a lot of appropriate models, see 1972 for example: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/search.html?backendClass=entity&q=1972

Also has airplanes, would be awesome if there were airport maps. Large open runways, and terminal buildings.

Subway maps could also be great: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/search.html?backendClass=entity&q=subway

I confess I'm a little uncomfortable with crowdfunding map props, especially when someone like Phenakist is doing it for free. It's true that after doing the first prop, the focus of my resources meant that as I had other projects starting, I couldn't continue with this until I had freed up time and money. I would far, far prefer to commission artists such as yourself or Phenakist to continue to do this kind of thing, as I'm certain the money would come in handy to fund the tools of the trade you use, that in turn would help improve your work.

EDIT: For example, when I thought about armours, I immediately thought of JSleezy. I'm sure the commission he made will help with his kids!