DDay - 5

[JMM]

Bonsoir,

D.Day - 5 ... Christmas :wink: (not for the Demo :wink: )

5 AVIs to show some animations...
HistWar : Les Grognards

http://www.lesgrognards.com/avi/chute1.avi
http://www.lesgrognards.com/avi/chute2.avi
http://www.lesgrognards.com/avi/chute3.avi

http://www.lesgrognards.com/avi/marche.avi
http://www.lesgrognards.com/avi/tir.avi
http://www.lesgrognards.com/avi/course.avi

http://www.lesgrognards.com/avi/PasHussard.avi
http://www.lesgrognards.com/avi/trotCuirassier.avi
http://www.lesgrognards.com/avi/GalopDragons.avi

http://www.lesgrognards.com/avi/ligne.avi

These AVIs are made from a tool, not from the game...

The last screenshots of the Control-Command GUI
To define a Tactical Plan, with waypoint and hour of orders...













Bonne fête à Tous
Paix dans le Monde
Peace in the World
@très bientôt
HistWar Team

[Link]

Bnjour JMM,

This may be a stupid question but have all units been changed from the early screenshots? They do look a lot different.

/Lars L.

[JMM]

Bonjour Link..

I am trying to answer to your question..
I think you mean 'the units' seems more light, and maybe bigger than in the previous screenshots...

The size of the units increases with the distance.. so I believe the Gameplay is better because it's more easy to detect them. For Les Grognards, the presentation will be a bit different...

EDITED: other thing : the organizations are different.. and we can see a very nice formation (4 files * 6 ranks at max...)

On the 'Tactical View', each unit is showed by an helmet (the same you can see in the ControlCommand zone.. 8 different helmets)

On the first Screenshots, you can see the 1805 Austerlitz french army... around 90 units!

I hope it's a good answer  :wink:
JMM

[Link]

Bonjour JMM,

Thanks for your efforts but I think I was not clear enough what I meant with units so I'll better rephrase my question:  
 
Have all soldiers been changed from the early avi files? The soldiers in the avi files looks more angular than the early avi files in the download section.

/Lars L.

[JMM]

Right Link... I haven't understand you talk about AVI.. .

There is a VERY HUGE difference... In the previous AVIs, we use 2D sprites to show the soldier. Their size was around 50 pixels...
In this new version, we use 3D soldier, with textures...

But we have to optimize the 3D meshes (a soldier is around 300 triangles, an head + helmet : 150, an horse: 600)... A infantryman is showed with 450 triangles.. There are 400 soldiers per regiment...180 000 triangles! and the FPS must be upper to 10 i/s!
For the future version -with the next PC technology-, there will be no problem to redefine the 3D soldier...

So, I have showed some high soldiers in these new AVIs... (around 200..300 pixels).. and with this size maybe the shapes aren't very smooth... When the 'soldiers' will be implemented in the engine, I'll choose the good point of view to avoid to get a rough picture...

This new process is very interesting.. because we can modify the color of some parts of uniforms, the color of the horse.. Imagine an escadron with 50 different horses.. with a very nice animation..

I hope this new system wil be better than 2D sprites

Today, I can't show another AVIs.. these ones are made with a tool, not with the engine (for example, the 4 soldiers are synchronized in this movie.. no in the game) .. I believe there'll be a difference.. Patience  patience  patience

JMM

[Link]

I hope this new system wil be better than 2D sprites  

I say that 3D is not always better than 2D.
In Cossacks II they have chosen to use 3D rendered soldiers i.e. not true 3D and they look really good:  
http://www.cossacks2-net.de/index.php?section=screens&lang=eng

Then again true 3D can also be very impressive like those in "Rome Total War":
http://www.totalwar.com/community/rome.htm

...but they can also be very toy soldier looking like "Napoleon":
http://www.gmxmedia.net/napoleon/screens/index.shtml

I dont know what the technical or artistic difference is between those two latest true 3D images but if you can make it like in  "Rome Total war" then I'll be really impressed.

P.S. The engine of Les Grognards" have already knocked my socks off and I hope the 3D units will do that to.  :wink:

/Lars L.

[JMM]

The objective is very clear.. I would like to place the wargamer on the center of the battle.. I had tried with LGAA.. but the 2D textures were not the best idea... (why : because these huge textures need a lot of memory (around 100 Mo for LGAA)

All games (Cossack, Shogun and Medieval TW, Breakaway Gettysburg or Napoleon games) use small textures (around 50 pixels)... but it's not possible to 'dive' the gamer into the melee To do that, we have to use "the true 3D soldier"... So, I don't know if I can get this objective with Les Grognards.. but I think I can do that with the next product HW:1806... (I have to spend a lot of time to improve the process of drawing.. because each soldier must be show with a lot of 'triangles'.. It's the difference between the 2 products (RTW and Napoleon's battle) By this way, I am very surprising because nobody talks about this last game

If all runs fine, I hope I can finish '1806' on the fall of 2004.. (if I can release Les Grognards on the first Q of 2004)

[Link]

If the objective is to dive the gamer in to the melee then it needs to be true 3D as you said but it also needs to be on a high detail level as in RTW.

It's cutting edge technology to combine it with the high number of different units and number of simultaneous soldiers present on the field so it's not an easy task to fulfil but well worth it if succeeded.

Imagine this pictures to be the old guard in a town fight with Prussian infantry:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/rometotalwar/screens.html?page=14

…or this as an advancing French infantry regiment:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/rometotalwar/screens.html?page=29

..or Napoleons high command looking over the battle field while French artillery bombards the enemy:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/rometotalwar/screens.html?page=28

If this would become reality then I would drivel for a year.  :silly:  

As for “Napoleon’s battles” I’m not surprised you’ve not heard much about it since not much information have been revealed and after seeing the screenshots from it it’s not gonna be a hit. The game is not on my list but “Les Grognad” and “Histwar 1806” are.  :wink:

/Lars L.

[JMM]

Hello,

2 new screenshots about the 3D soldier (without head, no animation).. Better than the poor 3D soldier you can see on the AVIs..




JMM

[Link]

Bonsoir JMM,

Now it start to look much better.     Bravo  

You must be able to distinguish the differences in the uniforms so rich detail on the uniforms is very important.  :wink:

Obviously the 3D soldiers are not ready yet so I shouldn't have jumped into conclusion to fast as I did. Sorry!

/Lars L.

[Link]

Tomorrow is Christmas eve, whish is the day we celebrate here in Sweden. Merry Christmas to you all and especially to JMM.

I hope everything will go fine with your test with the new 3D soldiers but first make sure you have a couple of days off to rest and spend time with the family.  :noel:

/Lars L.

[JMM]

Thank you very much...

Happy Christmas to you and your family...
Very nice to get your support...

Don't worry.. All is fine.. and I'll take a rest... My PCs will be off on Thursday...

Warm Regards...
JMM

[Grouchy]

Ho ho ho,

Happy holidays to you all!

[Rush]

Merry Christmas  :noel:  :noel:  :noel: and a Happy Napoleonic    :multiz:  :elephant:  :multiz: New Year everybody... :jump2:

Seasons Greetings

Martin

[Link]

Bonjour JMM,

I hope you've had a wonderful Christmas and a chance to think of something else than work.

The last couple of days I've been thinking if those latest screenshots of the 3D soldiers (the more detailed ones). I wonder if they are the ones that will be in Les Grognards or if it is for Histwar 1806.  

If it will be for Les Grognards then I think you will succeed with your objective to dive the gamer into the melee already in Les Grognards.  
Especially if the animations will be realistic too like Curassiers horse mane on their helmets will wave as they move. The same for the Hussars pelisse like they did in an early gif image on this site

I got one concern however. Is it really possible to have Les Grognards ready for Q1 2004?  I mean there are a lot of uniforms to make and none of them are ready yet. Then everything needs to be put together and tested as well etc, etc.

/Lars L