Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Haswell

Vehicle Design in AW (article from PanzerSofa)

Recommended Posts

A very long, but very detailed article from PanzerSofa. Quite a good read if anyone wishes to gain some insight into one part of the dev process.

The quote here is auto-translated, so there may be some bits that got lost in translation. If there are any concerns, please consult the source material at PanzerSofa's VK page.

https://vk.com/@panzer_sofa-tank-creation-1

Quote

How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-1

Instead of a preface

I started this article a long time ago, but still could not find the time and desire to finish it off. However, in the light of recent events and the development of some of their skills, it came to the understanding that it is still worth sharing the accumulated information with the same players and opening the veil over the process of creating tanks in Armored Warfare, which is mysterious for many. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Sergey Danchenko and Evgeny, widely known in narrow circles, whose name cannot be called, for illustrative examples and advice))

Start

Suppose a task from a producer comes down from above: it is required to introduce such and such a tank into the game, let it be a prototype of "Leclerc". The collection of information begins in the form of photographs, diagrams and other materials, the more the better. Unfortunately, with prototypes of equipment, there is a problem of lack of data on the exact dimensions, characteristics, or even whole elements that do not fall into the frame. As a result, you have to resort to using elements from machines of the same series (for example, tracks or suspension). This stage is, perhaps, the simplest and it is quite capable of being mastered by any user.

Blockout creation

The next stage will already require certain skills and patience, because it's time to uncover the 3D editor (Blender, Maya or the well-known 3ds Max). The designer begins to create a blockout or draft, in other words, a draft. Personally, I got to this point and I must admit that this is still a hassle, but without it in any way, tk. further work will be carried out from her. This is where detailed tank diagrams will be extremely useful. it is very important to observe proportions and sizes, which will save time in the future.

What are we actually doing? Namely, we begin to create the base of the tank, initially in the roughest forms - the tower and the hull will represent ordinary cubes, which we will give the desired shapes, bending or cutting off certain pieces, breaking into sections, etc. After creating the main parts of the tank, we begin to adjust the size and position of the model elements, and here the diagrams will help us a lot. The process of creating a blockout is a very painstaking and dreary business and can gobble up half of the total working time that you kill for a model.

Blockout (draft), that is, draft
 
Blockout (draft), that is, draft

At this stage, we will get a relatively rough (it already depends on the skills of the designer) tank model. Subscribers with experience will notice that models of similar quality were used in old games. Today the standards are different and the player is much more finicky.

Matching with the original

Now it's time to compare the resulting draft with real photographs. To do this, you will need to use any renderer with a real image superimposed on the background. After that, we proceed to a corrosive comparison with the original, which we need to repeat: at this stage, various jambs that were allowed when creating a blockout come out - they will immediately have to be promptly corrected until the resulting model completely coincides with the original. Comparison with photographs is especially useful if there are no precise layouts and dimensions, or the images themselves are of rather poor quality. You'll have to get a bit sweaty when adjusting the viewing angles, and take into account things like suspension movements (the tank can sort of "crouch" while driving) and rotating elements.

 
In this animation, the designer compared his model to match the original.

Historical consultations

At this stage, consultants who know this armored vehicle firsthand are involved in the case. They are often engineers involved in tank building, or soldiers and officers who served in the tank forces themselves, often personnel and with extensive experience. It happens that they have direct access to modeling objects, which is generally ideal. This is where very subtle nuances come out: for example, the mesh on the exhaust should be exactly like this, or there should be more bolts (and you did not know this, because there are no corny images from the desired angle anywhere), then the wind sensor is not pleasant, then the mounts on vehicles that have already gone to the troops look and are located differently than on exhibition vehicles, etc.

High poly creation

After approval by the consultants, it is time for the next stage, the creation of a high-poly (aka high-poly) model. Here you can turn around to the fullest and not save on anything, with ecstasy sawing pieces of a tank with thousands and thousands of polygons, from which any game engine will instantly bend if someone has the mind to insert it there in a similar form. On beautiful advertising renders, we most often see just such models, which, however, the game is actually physically unable to digest.

When creating high-poly, you can and should make rollers and barrels as round as possible: for example, instead of 32 faces, use 64 or even more so that these elements look REALLY round, and you had to look for corners with a magnifying glass. Simply put, high poly is the perfect model that doesn't require any anti-aliasing.

Check out now what the trunks are made of in the game, not only in ours. Cannons from Leclerc of level 9 and the newest Object 195 will become guinea pigs. In order to save polygons and for the sake of long-suffering optimism, the bore of the left cannon ends rather quickly with a banal bottom (like a glass), and proper lighting will create the illusion of depth. But on the right gun, the bore is made as expected, but the inner polygons (those same triangles) are stretched to the limit (also in order to save money). Of course, you will see that incomprehensible resemblance of a pencil on the screen on the right in the game only in the case of an extremely rare bug, when the game suddenly decides not to show the tower from Object 195.

How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-1, image # 2
 
 

Below you can see the finished high-poly model of the tank.

How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-1, image # 3
 
 

Then I'll just quote Sergey Danchenko: “For models intended for use in games and game engines, it may be advisable to slightly exaggerate the roundness of the edges and edges of the geometry. By making corners and edges "softer" than they should be in the real world, the artist ensures that such details are baked well into a normal map at a later stage in model development. "

This remark may seem a little tricky to some, but I will show you a very clear example of how it all works, and the principle of the normal map responsible for the relief (Bump) and the shading model (Ambient Occlusion).

Clean hull and turret models
Clean hull and turret models
Now look what they look like after applying the shadow and normal map.
1 of 3
 
 

Clean hull and turret models

Clean hull and turret models
Clean hull and turret models
Now look what they look like after applying the shadow and normal map.
2 of 3
 
 
 

Clean hull and turret models

Clean hull and turret models
Clean hull and turret models
Now look what they look like after applying the shadow and normal map.
3 of 3
 
 
Now look what they look like after applying the shadow and normal map.

 

Pay attention to the edges of the turret and reactive armor along the sides of the hull and how they look with and without textures: initially they looked too rounded, but thanks to the superimposed textures, they suddenly got the right angles and shadows. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself, because I'm entering the territory of the next stage, which is directly related to the bump.

Low poly creation

Converting a model to a low-poly view is essentially adapting it for use directly in the game engine. Here we need to preserve the original appearance of the high-poly tank with the least loss, so simplifications are welcome. Detailed tracks turn into a regular tape, along the way, "losing weight" tenfold, reducing the load on your unfortunate video card; the barrel and rollers lose extra edges, which you will not look at in the heat of battle anyway; the radiator grilles turn into a flat surface (we'll talk about it later), etc.

This is approximately how tanks enter the game.
 
This is approximately how tanks enter the game.

UV mapping

Under this terrible name lies the most banal setting of polygons for the most correct and optimized texture mapping. Personally, I still have not mastered this process normally and I can hardly be able to. I'm still a lazy person, although I understand that it is extremely important and the correct texture scan can save a lot of time in the future. The unwrapping itself is the imposition of texture coordinates on certain areas of the model. Below I will give as an example the Cornet-EM and a scan of its body.

This skin is presented for example only, it is not in the game, of course
 
This skin is presented for example only, it is not in the game, of course

On the left, you can see the open pattern editor window, and on the right, I have selected the roof. In the editor window, the same sections of the texture, tied to the polygons on the roof of the tower, were highlighted in red. You can, in principle, substitute any texture, and this is how we made various custom skins of the "Dakar" series (here the "Cross" skin is selected). Of course, these UV-shells can and should be edited: zoom in and out, rotate and stretch, or shrink. In addition, it is recommended that areas that are adjacent in 3D are also made in the UV space - for example, it is also desirable to place the left side of the hull on the left relative to its roof. Of course, not all cars can see this, but in this case everything is right on the recommendation.

This is followed by the stage of baking the cards, or as it is also called baking. To be honest, this requires a separate article, but it will be too complicated and long, in addition, I myself do not rummage too much in this matter in order to explain everything correctly and easily. Briefly, this can be described as creating the necessary textures to simulate a real surface: in this case, ambient occlusion (AO) and bump maps are required, which are responsible for shading and relief, respectively. I previously showed the principle of operation of the AO and the normal map, but still I will demonstrate a couple more screenshots with the most striking example, where these chips bring the greatest profit, fitting several fps into your baggage (for the sake of optimization, of course).

The plane for the radiator grilles as you see it in the game
She is in its original form
1 of 2
 
 

The plane for the radiator grilles as you see it in the game

The plane for the radiator grilles as you see it in the game
She is in its original form
2 of 2
 
 
She is in its original form

Take a look at the radiator grilles of the BMD-4, everything seems to be normal and does not raise any suspicion that the cunning Valera is deceiving you? )) In fact, several textures work here at once - AO, bump and alpha channel (it is responsible for transparent areas). Now take a look at how, without all this joy, the grille actually looks. How do you like it? Instead of painstakingly sawing all these grids, you can (even need to) use such clever technologies that you will not even notice, having won great in terms of optimization. The trick of the normal map (bump) lies in the fact that the drawn relief casts shadows correctly at different lighting angles, so you will have to really examine and twist the model under a magnifying glass if you want to bring such cunning people out into the open.

Normal maps are used extensively when creating welds on tanks. Initially, the model does not have them, but thanks to correctly drawn and applied textures that add volume and shading, you can now see these seams without any problems. And there will be no need to manually sculpt these seams, wasting precious polygons, thus loading users' computers.

Take a look at the NLD and the tower's forehead, which previously looked completely flat.  Also look at the caterpillars
 
Take a look at the NLD and the tower's forehead, which previously looked completely flat. Also look at the caterpillars

Yes, the tracks on all tanks are especially active in the combination of AO + bump + alpha channel, representing in fact just a tape. Naturally, I will demonstrate how this sweet trinity works in action and what effect they achieve.

Caterpillar in its original form
The way you see her in the game
1 of 2
 
 

Caterpillar in its original form

Caterpillar in its original form
The way you see her in the game
2 of 2
 
 
The way you see her in the game

So on all tanks. Now live with it, sophist.

LODs and damage model

Continuing the topic of optimization, it is impossible to miss such a thing as LODs (level of detalization, level of detail). These are simplified models of various objects that the game slips onto the screen for you if they are at a certain distance from you - the further the object, the simpler the model will be. In real life and in the game at a great distance, objects merge into one mess, and you cannot even see everything thoroughly with binoculars and sights, therefore, some small details can be simplified or completely removed (for example, the bolts first turn into ordinary textures, then completely disappear). All this is done for the sake of winning in FPS. there is no point in forcing the game engine to draw the entire complex full-fledged model of the tank, standing from you at the other end of the lowland on Vista. That is why you can observe some FPS drawdowns at the start of the battle,

In the days of mammoths, developers used sprites for this purpose, but with the increase in the power of computers and the advent of new technologies, it became possible to use LODs. What are they like? Take a closer look at various parts of the subject and see how, with an increase in the level of the LOD, the previously round rollers and a barrel with smoke installations become more angular, protruding sections on the roof of the tower, glass, etc. disappear. Smoke installations behave especially eloquently from full-fledged models turning into banal rectangles, and then completely disappearing. Fortunately, you will observe such buratin only somewhere in the background or at the extremely minimum settings, and when you turn on the sniper mode, everything will quickly fall into place.

 
Animation of external tank degradation depending on the distance

The fracture model is actually a normal model, with only some damaged or removed elements and painted in the color of burnt metal. Of course, she also uses LODs.

Model of the destroyed tank.  Here it goes in the game at once in one whole piece, but without animations.
 
Model of the destroyed tank. Here it goes in the game at once in one whole piece, but without animations.

Well, I myself will do my bit by showing my own screens of LODs.

The higher the number at the end, the more simplified the model looks.
How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-1, image # 16
How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-1, image # 17
Как создать танк в Armored Warfare-1, image #18
1 of 4
 
 

The higher the number at the end, the more simplified the model looks.

The higher the number at the end, the more simplified the model looks.
How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-1, image # 16
How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-1, image # 17
Как создать танк в Armored Warfare-1, image #18
2 of 4
 
 
 
The higher the number at the end, the more simplified the model looks.
How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-1, image # 16
How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-1, image # 17
Как создать танк в Armored Warfare-1, image #18
3 of 4
 
 
 
The higher the number at the end, the more simplified the model looks.
How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-1, image # 16
How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-1, image # 17
Как создать танк в Armored Warfare-1, image #18
4 of 4
 
 
 

This completes the main work with the model by the designer (and it took about 3 months for the whole work) and it's time to get down to texturing and setting.

You need to pause here, because the following items are the largest, and VKontakte is not able to digest so much information at once. And, to be honest, it will be necessary to understand whether it is worth posting the next part of the article - suddenly it will not be interesting to anyone) In general, we are waiting for feedback.

 

  • Upvote 7

Spoiler

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

о_О :)

Perhaps this week I will finish the second part of this article. There I will talk about setting up the tank, assembling it, modules and shells.

  • Upvote 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Part 2 is up! Thank you tahax for this very detailed explanation into the dev process.  :wubseal:

https://vk.com/@panzer_sofa-tank-creation-2

Quote

How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-2

Textures

Another stage, the results of work on which after the low-floor are most often seen by the players. In the days of mammoths, Taylor and company did not bother, they used the most standard for CryEngine 3.0 texture mapping principle and the most standard shaders (you can read a whole article about shaders, but we will not dwell on this). Valera and his comrades who came brought their developments from the previous place of work, "Allods". They introduced their own shader into the game, which is called AT_LayeredPaint, which changes the way textures are applied. In addition, when checking ready-made models, an engine such as Unity is very actively used. Most likely, some of its features are also used in AW itself.

Here again you will have to delve a little into the technical side, otherwise the text below may seem like a Chinese letter. The fact is that the Obsids, led by Taylor, applied skins to the tanks in an extremely voracious way for the game engine, using 5 (five) textures, while Valera costs only 3 (three). For greater clarity, I use several screenshots from one angle, in which the hull (only its hull) of the Obsid era tank loses its textures.

All textures in stock
Disabled normal map (bump)
Disabled gloss map
A card with scratches and dirt, as well as rubber, etc.
1 of 4
 
 

All textures in stock

All textures in stock
Disabled normal map (bump)
Disabled gloss map
A card with scratches and dirt, as well as rubber, etc.
2 of 4
 
 
 

Disabled normal map (bump)

All textures in stock
Disabled normal map (bump)
Disabled gloss map
A card with scratches and dirt, as well as rubber, etc.
3 of 4
 
 
 

Disabled gloss map

All textures in stock
Disabled normal map (bump)
Disabled gloss map
A card with scratches and dirt, as well as rubber, etc.
4 of 4
 
 
A card with scratches and dirt, as well as rubber, etc.

I admit that some changes cannot be seen without a magnifying glass, but in dynamics you will still notice it. The largest contribution, as you can see, is made by the textures s (responsible for the reflections, "metallicity" of the metal) and sm (responsible for the base paint layer). Incidentally, the Obsids dyed each rubber on the screens / rollers by hand rather than using a couple of standard materials for everyone. The normal map (aka bump) is responsible for the relief, but its contribution is not so noticeable, although its importance is enormous. In fact, Taylor used single-layer materials, while Valera used multi-layer materials. Now just compare Taylor's work to Valerina's.

Taylor
Valera
1 of 2
 
 

Taylor

Taylor
Valera
2 of 2
 
 
Valera

Where do you think is the best result? I will try to explain how the developers managed to achieve this.

Tanks are now "dressed" in a different way: not textures are superimposed on each other, but the channels in them are mixed, ie. with one texture we can kill a bunch of birds with one stone. Hares can be a variety of materials: cast metal, scratches, dirt, rubber, rust, etc. etc. In this case, the game does not have to jump back and forth, referring to each individual texture, it only needs to select the necessary channel from one texture (there can be up to 4 of these channels) and paint over that one according to the prescribed settings. The experimental "Leopard-2" has all 4 channels registered at once: with dirt, base paint, scratches and traces of rust.

Ambient Occlusion, a shading map, provides huge bonuses in terms of rendering. Take a closer look at the grilles and doors at the rear of the hull, as well as the rivets on the VLD. It’s probably not worth talking about rollers and handrails, you can already see everything for yourself. The tank models are almost the same, but the difference is due to different "skins", and the rollers are located slightly differently (this was corrected in the framework of historicity).

Earlier I wrote that the developers have achieved some optimization through the use of unified materials (for example, the same rubber for tires). Therefore, while studying the textures, I was surprised to find no old pieces in the hand-painted rubber, but only dirt, scratches and others. The trick was to use the markup of unified materials - a special IDColor map was created, in which everything was marked as expected. According to it, the game engine determined what would be where, based on the so-called. scale map. A scale map is a texture that contains black and white images of dirt, rust, scuffs, scratches, and soil we need. All this saves time and simplifies the process.

How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-2, image # 7
 
 

This is one of the channels in the Leclerc track texture weights map. The developers did not have to rack their brains, spend extra time manually drawing rubber shoes, for this it was enough to use this mask - as a result, the game itself applied the necessary rubber material to the even texture. Without this mask, we would see solid metal without those characteristic shoes that are so characteristic of NATO equipment.

Do not forget about such a thing as welded seams on tanks. In the case of Aveha, they also became "victims" of optimization, since in the manner of potatoes, manually modeling the seams is not comme il faut at all, we are already ready to hang ourselves for every fps here. Therefore, the seams are simply drawn using a normal map (bump): as a result, a flat surface receives volumetric textures. Naturally, a properly baked ambient occlusion map will enhance the effect. For clarity, I will once again demonstrate how these two textures work together and what result they achieve. An example is the Leo 2A5 turret, with which I removed the camouflage for better clarity.

The tower as it is
Tower with painted welds and shading map
1 of 2
 
 

The tower as it is

The tower as it is
Tower with painted welds and shading map
2 of 2
 
 
Tower with painted welds and shading map

Tank setup

Now it's time to implement our tank in AW. The fact is that each game, depending on its engine, uses certain types of files, into which the original models and textures must be converted. In the case of CryEngine, 4 file types are used: cga for animated composite models, cgf for single static models, chr for single animated ones, and dds <number> for textures. Textures in the game are used in a rather tricky, but practical way: the game does not render them entirely at once, but in pieces, of which there may be up to 8. The trick, as I understand it, is that depending on the settings and the required level of detail, the game draws before the file we need. I assume that the lower the graphics settings and the further the model is from the player (when using LODs, which were discussed in detail earlier), all the more simple pieces from one solid texture are used. Apparently, MIP-texturing works here - a texturing method that uses several copies of the same texture with different details. The name comes from lat. multum in parvo - “much in small”.

How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-2, image # 10
 
 

Take a look at the long list of shading textures for the AMX-40 body. The higher the number, the better and less blurry the skin for the tank will be, and under the 8th number it is used for maximum settings, increasing the load on the video card along the way. This allows the game engine to be more flexible, adjusting to each configuration of the computer, unless, of course, you are not trying to twist everything ultra on a 720M video card. Enough about textures, otherwise you will soon abandon reading this article))

The tank is assembled through the standard CryEngine - Character Definition File (character description file) or cdf. It prescribes the basic animated model, the path from where the materials are taken, leading to the desired textures, and the attached pieces or attachments. They are edited in a regular notepad and open with any browser. First of all, the corpus is prescribed, since it is the foundation to which everything will be attached. Then we write the path for the materials, after which we proceed to the attachments. These same attachments play a very important role, since they are everything that does not apply to the base body and the rollers / wheels of the tank. The turret, tracks, suspension, cannon, gun mantlet, antennas, explosive reactive armor, and other attachments must be attached separately to the tank. It sounds complicated, but in fact it makes it easier for developers: you can, if you wish, change the cannon, the tower, or even add something new in the form of a camouflage net or tanks. It is in this way that new looks are created, historical and not entirely. Of course, you can remove the standard weapon in the settings and replace it with a completely different one - this is how the “Enigm” and fantasy skins are made.

How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-2, image # 11
 
 

It is not enough to register the models we need, we still need to configure them: specify the angle of rotation and coordinates, as well as what they will be attached to. Turns here are done using such a system as quaternions, the existence of which I learned a little over a year ago, and without a stack of it you cannot immediately understand. To determine the angles of rotation (Rotation), as many as 4 numbers are used, cosines and sines, square roots - in general, mathematics and boredom are deadly. Positioning is much easier, because The usual coordinate system from any 3D editor is used and it is understandable at an intuitive level. In BoneName, we write to which bone (existing) the attachment will be attached to correctly display the animation, say, a shot. This will attach the cannon to the cannon bone, and the tracks to the hull bone, etc. This is necessary in order so that when turning the turret, the cannon looks where it is necessary, and does not stick out without moving along the hull. Difficult huh?

In this way, I assembled solid tanks from ready-made models that had not yet been introduced into the game, using hangar screens or real photographs as samples. All displayed art in the form of M110 and Hyacinth-C, an early version of CATTB, XM723 and much more in the Sofa was assembled in this way. Naturally, nothing will prevent you from using completely disparate models on one machine to create a mutant. Below you can see a similar Frankenstein in the form of a T-99, assembled from a T-15, Object 490A and a gun from a T-14-152.

Tank mutant
 
Tank mutant

Now we need to set up the armor, the performance characteristics, in the end, convert the model so that the engine can calmly grab it and pull the finished textures on it, having worked on the materials. Perhaps the least studied stage will begin now. further there are only assumptions based on the author's observations, since there is no information from open (and closed) sources (or I was looking badly).

How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-2, image # 13
How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-2, image # 14
1 of 2
 
 
How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-2, image # 13
How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-2, image # 14
2 of 2
 
 
 

Opening models of different tanks from the game, I was surprised to find deep inside some incomprehensible at first glance pieces of a rather simple shape. However, they did not have any textures and were not displayed in the game, they were also not LODs. I've taken them for pieces of armor, real armor, which the game calculates when a shell hits it. Scripts buried in the files of the game prescribe, say, the lowest bent element that is located in the place of the turret ring, certain mm of armor and the conditions under which, say, a ricochet, etc. Perhaps because of the places of the curve, the installation / adjustment of such armor plates occurred, and even now there are fabulous non-penetrations that enrage everyone. Remember the whole similar pieces at the "Sphinx", with which he could tank large-caliber crowbars (oldies remember). Besides, in the folders with tanks there are files with the spaced prefixes, which are very similar to those cubes and rectangles that we see in the Armor Inspector. I'll try to assume that they are also responsible for the armor of tanks.

In theory, if everything is fine and there are no bugs, then you can almost on the fly adjust the thickness of the armor as part of the rebalance, without delving into the models. By the way, I remembered how in B1.0 they embroidered and sewn up various hatches literally at a stroke.

MB will be interesting to someone, but individual internal tank modules have their own hit points, which, of course, can be customized by developers. Below you can take a look at a piece of code for one MBT. Even basic knowledge of English is enough to understand a lot: damageMax is the maximum possible amount of damage that a module can withstand before failing (the engine costs 400hp here). Also this module belongs to the Autorepair class, i.e. automatically repaired, and in case of damage to 50 and 75%, various negative effects are prescribed, up to fire. Similarly to other modules, they have their own hitpoints and various types of dynamic defense, only the effects after they are shot down are different, of course.

How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-2, image # 15
 
 

By the way, the crew members are actually also internal modules for the tank with their own HP and bonuses that disappear as they fail. They cannot be automatically "repaired", for this you have to use first aid kits.

How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-2, image # 16
 
 

When setting up the engine, the developer has to deal with a rather large file, part of which you can see now. It is here that he adjusts understeer, engine characteristics, acceleration, in general, everything that is responsible for the dynamics of the car.

Probably, many will be interested in how the projectiles are configured for all vehicles in the game. To begin with, it is worth mentioning that each barrel is changed individually through a regular xml file (at least it was so, it is unlikely that the developers began to change the working one), and already there are the shells that the given weapon can spit with. Each shell also requires its own similar xml file, in which I also delightedly dug around and found a lot of interesting things. But let's start in order.

It is in the settings of the weapon that the evil developers apay / nerf the basic reload; make it an autocannon or a conventional cannon; prescribe the sound from a shot, reloading; also here you can adjust the number of shells in the cassette, if any, and their rate of fire. The recoil and its strength have not gone anywhere: for autocannons it is often zero, and for large-caliber guns it reaches several tens of thousands of cu. It is curious that the recoil of the arts is much lower than that of the T-90, say. Accuracy is also configured here (section Spread) - the effect on accuracy when firing, turning the hull and turret, or when moving. The higher the numbers, the less comfortable shooting will be. Autocannons and LT now have these parameters extremely low. Oh, yes, all performance characteristics for each gun and for each projectile are prescribed individually (through their own utility, of course).

How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-2, image # 17
 
 

Now let's start with the shells. The game divides them into several classes along the flight path, while this division is rather non-trivial: so if all armor-piercing projectiles have a bullet flight path (Bullet), and ATGMs are considered guided projectiles (HomingMissile), then landmines are already divided into "rockets" (Rockets ) and the bullets mentioned above (Bullet). In the "rocket" case, they fly along a conjugate trajectory, this can be observed even now, when a projectile sent into the distance flies as if along a certain parabola. Landmines of MBT and self-propelled guns behave in a similar way, only the art's trajectory parameters are twisted much more, because otherwise, she will not be able to fully throw over the folds of the terrain. A wild trajectory is achieved by the fact that the parameters of the gravity of the artillery shells are indicated in much larger negative numbers. "Bullet" land mines are used by autocannons. Oh yes, game gravity does not work on ATGMs, but they have such a Thrust thing, which, as I understand it, affects their handling, plus do not forget the acceleration, maximum speed and turning speed. By adjusting all these characteristics, Valera and his comrades from time to time greatly upset the pturoviks-entertainers, or force the inveterate sewers to lay down deposits of bricks under the chair.

How to create a tank in Armored Warfare-2, image # 18
 
 

So, we have adjusted the armor, modules, crew, shells for the tank. It remains to add text descriptions and you can start testing a new machine. During the test, funny bugs can come out in the form of curves of collision models. So, the rear ladders of the BM Oplit had a physical model much more visible, which is why the tank, when hitting a step by the stern, began to rise up as if through the air; or the tracks of the Type 99A2 crawled through the hull, etc. At this point, the supertesting department gets down to business, in which people are recruited from time to time, and news about the next recruitment appears on the game's website)

A bug with a ghusl that crawled through
 
A bug with a ghusl that crawled through

Epilogue

Well, this is the time to complete this excursion into the world of tank building. Although I tried to tell everything in as much detail as possible, many subtle points remained poorly illuminated, or even missed altogether, but there is nothing to be done about it. the author is neither a professional designer, nor a developer, nor an outsourcer, who at least indirectly took part in the creation of something tank. Everything that he wrote here is based on data found in open sources, his own observations and research, therefore errors and misconceptions are possible, but I hope that you have received a general idea of this complex and extremely painstaking process. Thanks for attention!

 


Spoiler

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 12/1/2020 at 5:51 AM, Haswell said:

This stage is, perhaps, the simplest and it is quite capable of being mastered by any user.

I wish this was the case... This section of work is very very difficult IF you don't have the physical access to a vehicle. If you do, its mainly very difficult.

The people who can do this sort of stuff tend to specialize in their research. They might for example only work on US vehicles... from WW2 to the 1970s...

For the MBT-70 and Kpz-70 multiple people with access to various resources had to be asked out of the UK, Germany, Canada and the US to get the details needed.
For Chieftain a combination of UK, German and Swedish information. Taking several trips to archives and physical vehicles to get even close to getting it right.

On top of this is a indepth knowledge of the vehicles development (for modules) and when you want multiple copies of a vehicle back to back. Say M1 and M1A1... how all of the R&D worked at the time and how all of the various systems and subsystems developed. You need all of this to give the developers a pool big enough that the players then have something to grind for, while being historically correct. Why make any mod up when you have no reason to?

Will most of it never see the light of day? Yes, very much so. But without the details the developers have to end up making stuff up or guessing... And this happened in concert with the Consultants on the Taifun II to sort out WHICH 120mm would be the most likely choice since no documentation on which model existed. Preventing such a situation rests with the hard research before things progress to the next step.

Nemo.
One of the ExpertVehicleConsultant.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Sign in to follow this  

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...