[WIP] Pelican

[Rob Oplawar]

Not to steal your thunder, Hunter, but I'm damned competitive, and it just so happens I started working on a pelican some weeks ago (but school has precluded me from having the time to finish it). This one's not a "Halo 3" pelican, it's my own take on it, in the spirit of HRH.

Current tri count is 4.7k
With the interior, cargo bay doors (not currently attached to this mesh), turret, and landing gear, that soars to over 11k... I'm working on bringing down the detail on the interior, but there's just so much I wanna put in there!

http://www.spacebrick.net/pictures/gallery/peli.jpg

Sue me, I work in tris, not quads:
http://www.spacebrick.net/pictures/gallery/suemetris.jpg


My best guess is it's about 80% done- you can't see it, but the vehicle carrying section in the back is completely missing. There's also a lot of error fixing I need to do on this exterior hull mesh, as well as a ton of tweaking on the interior. Then it's off to Dane who agreed to skin this months ago, if he's still willing to do it after all this time...


e: There's a whole lot I'm not very happy with on this peli... crit is wanted, expected, and deserved. ;P
Also, for clarification, this is going in BCE, so this is the right forum.


ee:
BobaTheFett76 (9:18:43 PM): is this for HRH as well as BCE?
roboplawar (9:19:07 PM): if WoL wants it, sure

[Joshflighter]

I dont like the side thrusters. Other then that, hey, that's pretty nice looking! :)

[Rob Oplawar]

By request, here are a couple more renders revealing the unfinished state of this thingy:

http://spacebrick.net/pictures/gallery/sideview.jpg
http://spacebrick.net/pictures/gallery/sideview_stowed.jpg
http://spacebrick.net/pictures/gallery/rearview.jpg


Hm, that's three people so far who have told me they don't like the main engines (or were you talking about the rear engines, Fear?). That's weird to me, because that's my favorite modification. I always hated the flat boring shape of the engines in Halo 1, 2, and 3. The engines always had this weird shape:


____
| |
| |
| /
|_/


and just had a flat surface on the front, with some random lines on it in Halo 2 and 3.
I worked hard to improve it and to add a sensible intake structure to it, and I really like the way it turned out. But if everybody hates it, then... :/

e: regarding putting intakes on the main engines:
roboplawar (9:41:13 PM): well, it is a spaceship...
roboplawar (9:41:25 PM): but it's got all those other vents on it, rofl
roboplawar (9:42:14 PM): in my fiction the peli engines are a type of assisted ramjet that can be sealed off and fed oxygen from a tank in anaerobic mode and used as rockets

[Hotrod]

The front of the real thrusters look funny, with the vents on them, I find that they really look out of place there, and could maybe be taken off. Another thing that I find could be changed is where the wings connect to the main hull, to the right of the intake vents (or left, if you're looking at the right side). The part where it goes inwards at the top of that looks unnatural, and pretty much useless.

Besides that, it looks pretty damn good so far.

[Rob Oplawar]

@Hotrod: Yeah, I just added the vents on the rear engines, and I don't really like the way they turned out either.

The weird indentation on the main engine struts is part of the fiction about how they are supported, which is inspired by the design in Halo 3, but I agree that it does look a little funky. I may redo that.

Funny piece of trivia about this pelican: I don't think there is a single detail that I simply created and "got right the first time"- everything you see has been modeled and remodeled multiple times. That's part of why the triangulation is so bad in some areas.

e:
http://spacebrick.net/pictures/gallery/sweet.jpg[/img]
ee: [shot][/img] fail.
[shot]http://spacebrick.net/pictures/gallery/sweet.jpg
Right: Original H1 peli for comparison.
Left: My peli
Middle: My peli with smoothing groups highlighted.
Seriously, Max needs a feature to display smoothing groups that way. I've been doing it by hand by assigning materials whenever I assign smoothing groups. Without that it would have been impossible to smooth this thing well...

[jngrow]

Great silhouette you got there. Lookin good.

[BobtheGreatII]

Wow, hot. I think this would look excellent in HRH. Great model man.

EDIT: UGH Can't +rep you!

[Inferno]

Wow, hot. I think this would excellent in HRH. Great model man.

EDIT: UGH Can't +rep you!

You accidentally the word look?


Also very nice pelican. Would love to see this skinned and in game. It would be cool to put one of these on top of one of the buildings in HRH New Mombasa.

[BobtheGreatII]

You accidentally the word look?


Lol, fixed.

[rossmum]

That smoothing/materials thing is actually a really good idea, thanks for that...

[Cortexian]

I love your modification to the engines/thrusters on the main wings, don't change it much! Is this going to be tagged, animated, and put in game any time soon?

[Sever]

You already know how I feel about this, Rob. If Entropy had a space for this Pelican, it'd be in there, no doubt.

[Rob Oplawar]

I love your modification to the engines/thrusters on the main wings, don't change it much! Is this going to be tagged, animated, and put in game any time soon?

In the short term, I plan to compile the gbxmodel with the default nodes and markers from the original pelican and just stick it in the original pelican vehicle tag, but in the long run I plan to make some considerable modifications to the vehicle tag. I have no idea how the time frame is going to turn out. Hopefully I can do a lot of work on it over spring break, but I also might be, like, vacationing during that time.

[Cortexian]

In the short term, I plan to compile the gbxmodel with the default nodes and markers from the original pelican and just stick it in the original pelican vehicle tag, but in the long run I plan to make some considerable modifications to the vehicle tag. I have no idea how the time frame is going to turn out. Hopefully I can do a lot of work on it over spring break, but I also might be, like, vacationing during that time.
Heh, as long as I can throw this in my Yoyorast_Island_Test.scenario and fuck around with it eventually I'll be happy... ;)

[legionaire45]

If you get some free time, I think it would be cool to see this variant (http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Troop_Deployment_Pod_%28Pelican%29)of it in action :3.

[Rob Oplawar]

You know, a long time ago I had been planning on doing that, but I had forgotten about it until you reminded me just now.
And it occurred to me, I could just make that extension another vehicle, load it up, and attach it to the pelican like you would a warthog.
My pelican has room for 14 seats, plus pilot and gunner, and that pod could add up to 20 more, depending on how many seats halo will let you put on a vehicle. Can you imagine a pelican loaded up with 34 marines? :awesome:

[Hunter]

:O

*Turns around and runs, hides in small hole*

[TeeKup]

Why did you put an air intake in front of the engine nacelle like that? It looks way too awkward.

[Hotrod]

You know, a long time ago I had been planning on doing that, but I had forgotten about it until you reminded me just now.
And it occurred to me, I could just make that extension another vehicle, load it up, and attach it to the pelican like you would a warthog.
My pelican has room for 14 seats, plus pilot and gunner, and that pod could add up to 20 more, depending on how many seats halo will let you put on a vehicle. Can you imagine a pelican loaded up with 34 marines? :awesome:
That would be a pretty scary sight if you ask me...Which is why you should totally make it.

[Sel]

Looks sweet.

Nice shit rob.

[Sever]

Make the Heavy Weapons Pelican too - the one seen at the end of S117, but more loaded-down with weaponry.

Then let the player drive it during BCE.

[Rob Oplawar]

Why did you put an air intake in front of the engine nacelle like that? It looks way too awkward.

Another one. Am I missing something? Do air breathing engines not have air intakes on the front of them? :confused:

[Cortexian]

Another one. Am I missing something? Do air breathing engines not have air intakes on the front of them? :confused:
Leave them, they're awesome. Everyone else is obviously experiencing a shared lapse in judgment.

One thing I'd like to see improved is the camera and controls for the Pelican. The camera is way to close to the Pelican in all the current Pelican variations (hugeass/coldsnap/cityscape/etc), and the controls are to sluggish. I realize that it's a large awkward flying machine, but make the controls a little more responsive in the up/down areas, you'll know what I mean if you go flying a current Pelican variation and try to nose up or down when flying. Also, make the cockpit seat configuration vertical instead of horizontal like the H3 Pelicans (Ex: H3 Pelican had the pilot in the front middle and the copilot was sitting elevated behind his left shoulder).

[rossmum]

Another one. Am I missing something? Do air breathing engines not have air intakes on the front of them? :confused:
I always imagined that the two small intakes on the top were for the engines during atmospheric flight, but I don't really see a problem with the ones you have now

[Mass]

I like the intakes.

I think you're limited to sixteen seats on a vehicle, but if you make the pod attach like you said, well, that might work.

[Advancebo]

Arent their only 4-5 seats on each side of the pelican. And 2 in the cockpit?

[Cortexian]

Arent their only 4-5 seats on each side of the pelican. And 2 in the cockpit?
6 on each side = 12 + 2 in the cockpit = 14. Then you add on the troop carrier module for another 20 + original 14 = 34.

Math, I has it.

[Rob Oplawar]

Well, apparently the "cargo" (the marker the hog gets attached to) is a seat as well. If I want to fully load it with weapons, that means 1 pilot, 1 nose gunner, 2 missile pods, 1 rear gunner, 1 cargo, with 10 seats left over for passengers.
I threw together a mockup of the troop extension and I can only fit 14 seats in there.


I had a thought that maybe I could make the rear hatch and the cockpit door be animated scenery objects that I would link to markers on the pelican, allowing it to have deployable landing gear and functional doors that all operate independently. I played with attaching a warthog to various non-seat markers on a pelican with mixed success.

I'll mess around with this more over
SPRING BREAK YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
and let you know what I find out.


I want this pelican to be loaded.

[Cortexian]

Well, apparently the "cargo" (the marker the hog gets attached to) is a seat as well. If I want to fully load it with weapons, that means 1 pilot, 1 nose gunner, 2 missile pods, 1 rear gunner, 1 cargo, with 10 seats left over for passengers.
I threw together a mockup of the troop extension and I can only fit 14 seats in there.


I had a thought that maybe I could make the rear hatch and the cockpit door be animated scenery objects that I would link to markers on the pelican, allowing it to have deployable landing gear and functional doors that all operate independently. I played with attaching a warthog to various non-seat markers on a pelican with mixed success.

I'll mess around with this more over
SPRING BREAK YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
and let you know what I find out.


I want this pelican to be loaded.
Okay well, just make sure :iia:.

[Advancebo]

Well, apparently the "cargo" (the marker the hog gets attached to) is a seat as well. If I want to fully load it with weapons, that means 1 pilot, 1 nose gunner, 2 missile pods, 1 rear gunner, 1 cargo, with 10 seats left over for passengers.
I threw together a mockup of the troop extension and I can only fit 14 seats in there.


I had a thought that maybe I could make the rear hatch and the cockpit door be animated scenery objects that I would link to markers on the pelican, allowing it to have deployable landing gear and functional doors that all operate independently. I played with attaching a warthog to various non-seat markers on a pelican with mixed success.

I'll mess around with this more over
SPRING BREAK YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
and let you know what I find out.


I want this pelican to be loaded.

Lets add a nuke launcher while we're at it.

[Cortexian]

Lets add a nuke launcher while we're at it.
I hope that was sarcastic.

[Sever]

Knowing him, it wasn't.

[Cortexian]

Knowing him, it wasn't.
I never realized how pitiful his posts were until I reviewed a few of his more recent ones.

No nuke launcher for TWO simple reasons.
1) Nukes are way over powered.
2) Nukes are retarded.

[rossmum]

Well, apparently the "cargo" (the marker the hog gets attached to) is a seat as well. If I want to fully load it with weapons, that means 1 pilot, 1 nose gunner, 2 missile pods, 1 rear gunner, 1 cargo, with 10 seats left over for passengers.
I threw together a mockup of the troop extension and I can only fit 14 seats in there.
unless you have some tricky way around it,

hate to burst your bubble but,

only one gunner seat per vehicle bro. no exceptions.

[sdavis117]

You could always make a script so that if someone were to enter a "second gunner seat", a weapon would spawn that the actual person would be holding, and the seat itself would be a passenger seat. Give the gun infinite ammo, and give it proper 3rd person, and it would look like the weapon was on the vehicle.

Just throwing that out there, even though I know very little about scripting.

[teh lag]

...Or you could just attach the other weapons as integrated AI gunners, as was done for the covie dropship's ball turret.

Seriously, you don't need to script everything.

[Advancebo]

Do AI gunners sync in multiplayer?

[rossmum]

Isn't Bridge entirely SP?

If so, thanks for that, Lag. I'd completely forgotten :downs:

[Bad Waffle]

Heh, i might use this. Nice stuff, rob. You betta unwrap it.

[Rob Oplawar]

unless you have some tricky way around it,

hate to burst your bubble but,

only one gunner seat per vehicle bro. no exceptions.

I have some tricky way around it. ;D


@waffle: yeah, I'm sorta kinda unwrapping as I go, but I'm a terrible unwrapper. I'll do my best, but it looks like Dane will have a lot of cleanup to do (that is if he's still willing to do this)

[rossmum]

I have some tricky way around it. ;D


@waffle: yeah, I'm sorta kinda unwrapping as I go, but I'm a terrible unwrapper. I'll do my best, but it looks like Dane will have a lot of cleanup to do (that is if he's still willing to do this)
If your tricky way around it would work in MP, I could really use letting in on the secret so the Schism Pelican can be fitted up with a nose gun and a rear door MG...

[Inferno]

Well the way I'm picturing it you would have to script the turret on to the vehicle using (objects_attach) in the same way that halo 2 and 3 attach a separate turret to the back of the warthog.

[Rob Oplawar]

I can't see why it wouldn't work in mp, although I still haven't tested it yet.
I have work to do on Greeble, but I wrote 200 lines today and can take a break, so tomorrow I'll have time to do all sorts of experimenting. I'll let you know what I find at the end of the day.

[Amit]

http://spacebrick.net/pictures/gallery/sweet.jpg
Right: Original H1 peli for comparison.
Left: My peli
Middle: My peli with smoothing groups highlighted.


Your model looks amazing and I can't wait to see it ingame. However, the design seems too alien to be a human vehicle of that time frame and I'm going to have to say I prefer the simplicity of the default pelican.


You know, a long time ago I had been planning on doing that, but I had forgotten about it until you reminded me just now.
And it occurred to me, I could just make that extension another vehicle, load it up, and attach it to the pelican like you would a warthog.
My pelican has room for 14 seats, plus pilot and gunner, and that pod could add up to 20 more, depending on how many seats halo will let you put on a vehicle. Can you imagine a pelican loaded up with 34 marines? :awesome:

And then have two of those soaring over Death Island to secure the Silent Cartographer :awesome:

[KiLLa]

I never realized how pitiful his posts were until I reviewed a few of his more recent ones.

No nuke launcher for TWO simple reasons.
1) Nukes are way over powered.
2) Nukes are retarded.
Someone never played Nuke only CTF on bloodgulch...
Good times. :)
Nukes are fun, just not practicle...haha..

Anywho, I like it so far...imo, more intresting than bungies models..of course it still needs some modifications as others have pointed out, but all in all, good job!

[Rob Oplawar]

However, the design seems too alien to be a human vehicle of that time frame and I'm going to have to say I prefer the simplicity of the default pelican.

That's the sort of crit I like to hear- completely different perspectives that I hadn't even considered.

What about it looks alien to you? I agree that some elements of it don't strictly fit in with the established human tech style in Halo. Any suggestions?

[BobtheGreatII]

Is there a chance we can just get a clay render without all of the lights causing shadows to bounce everywhere? I want to crit stuff, but I'm not sure on some parts if it's just the shadows causing it to look funny...

[Boba]

What about it looks alien to you? I agree that some elements of it don't strictly fit in with the established human tech style in Halo. Any suggestions?
There's really only one part that really stands out as 'alien'.

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg319/BobaTheFett76/peli.png

Maybe make that hexagon into a cradle for an intake fan of some sort? Maybe air for the bay?

[Rob Oplawar]

Is there a chance we can just get a clay render without all of the lights causing shadows to bounce everywhere?

Your wish is my command.
http://spacebrick.net/pictures/blog_gallery/claypeli.jpg


Maybe make that hexagon into a cradle for an intake fan of some sort? Maybe air for the bay?
Innnnnteresting... *scratches chin furtively*

[n00b1n8R]

The overlaying supports just above and back a little from the cockpit seem a bit too.. complicated to fit in with the other UNSC vehicles.

[Rob Oplawar]

http://spacebrick.net/pictures/blog_gallery/these.jpg
These?

[Advancebo]

Where are the missile pods?

[rossmum]

...Not added yet?

[Joshflighter]

-Picture here-
These?


I love that.. anyways, I'm loving the entire thing now. :)

[SnaFuBAR]

The overlaying supports just above and back a little from the cockpit seem a bit too.. complicated to fit in with the other UNSC vehicles.

actually they fit in pretty damn well with the h3 scorpion, warthog and mongoose.

[Cortexian]

These "holes" in the structure don't seem to serve any purpose besides aesthetics, and they seem like they would cause a lot of unnecessary drag on the front edges of the "shoulders" of the Pelican's body. Unfortunately I don't really have any ideas on how you could eliminate those and keep it looking good.
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5/claypeliaerodyn.jpg

[Rob Oplawar]

They're there on the H3 pelican... I don't like them either. I'll try and find a better way to do that whole area.

[n00b1n8R]

actually they fit in pretty damn well with the h3 scorpion, warthog and mongoose.
FFFF you people and your h3s

[Hunter]

Seriously, that looks amazing rob. Wish I could do that.

[rossmum]

Those side reinforcements are actually starting to grow on me... fuck.

[Hunter]

http://spacebrick.net/pictures/blog_gallery/these.jpg
These?

I think they add a more stronger look to it; and more powerful look. I really like them.