Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

3D Starship Render

cliffski

Some people have asked me if the GSB ships are sprites or 3D models. They are put together by an artist in a 3D modeller, then rendered out as sprites top-down, with some fairly neutral lighting. The game then draws them as sprites. There are additional ‘damage’ and ‘hulk’ sprites for damaged ships, and the turrets are drawn separately on top, and flashing lights and engine trails are done separately too.

As normal 3D models they look pretty good, like this in fact:

The problem is, these are VERY high poly models. You might be able to have a game with 4 or 5 of them, but not fity at once, and not with tons more going on, all on an older PC. I think space strategy games work better in 2D than 3D, unrealistic though that may be. I also think that using 3D models to do 2D sprites can give you a good compromise between high detail and decent performance.

Having real 3D models in the art pipeline opens up more possibilities for editing and doing variants of those ships too. I’ll probably do a few renders for the loading screens and the website as well.

5 thoughts on 3D Starship Render

  1. You know you could use those high-poly models to build normal-maps and use that for wonderful dynamic lightning effects, weather you stay in 2D or apply them to low-poly 3D-models.

    Now that said, dont do it (yet)! Ship the game!

  2. Commenting on the hulks and debris left over from destroyed ships made me think: I know that you can (currently) customize hardware and orders, but can you customize crew? A crew that is better with lasers, one that optimizes drive speed, one that provides more manpower than normal, etc.

    How are those connected? If a hulk section still has a turret, could a repair crew fix it and let it get off a last shot or two? I don’t know how you are doing your damage model (although I am guessing it is hit points as opposed to locational damage) but it would be interesting if there was a chance that, when one of your ships was destroyed, it could respawn as a “hulk” ship with a drastically reduced payload (representing the fact that it was not entirely destroyed, there was still a section of the ship left with weapons and power). That little chunk of a ship has a power plant and a laser turret, so it fires until it gets eradicated shortly afterwards.

    /comments from the peanut gallery

  3. Wonderful. Sprites rendered from 3d models can indeed look great, and GSB is a proof to that.

    Im very interested in how your artist makes and renders those ships, since i dabble in 3d myself and would be interested in making a few myself. Once the game ships, will there be a guide how to achieve the same style and feel so that we can make our own ships that do not clash with the already established style?

  4. I think I have watched too many star trek tos and tng series – ever since all cool looking starships look like the NCC 1701…

    That picture would make a great wallpaper if you add some fighters, laserbeams and a big “gratuitous space battles” to it – well, at least I would download and use it… ;)

  5. I know someone who can do better. In fact, I recomended him, but got no answer. meh. :)

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