Feedback: Archmage Sabre

Sabre: it's a sabre

Archmage: for Archmage Owenalacaster

The blade (I know it's strange) is based upon Proudmoore's sword

The handle and the handgrip are made from cubes.

1 Geoset
1 Texture: Proudmoore

Normal version (for small hands)


Big version (for big hands)

(This is a bit zoomed out, the blade is the same, only the handle is bigger)

Ok, I'd need a little help with the UVmap probably, well... tell me

The blade looks odd somehow. Isn't sabres thicker? This is more tube-like.

Guess I'll have to redo it, probably... it's a mess.

I'll try cutting some useless vertexes...

Update: now the blade is a f**king line, but still, the shades are unmovable... I guess I done something horrible when modifying Proudmoore's sword.

So the question now is... how do I move shades? Got it, "recalculate normals"...

Still got problems with that part, now the blade is displayed in game correctly except for...

... this point, that apparently likes to have shades on it in some positions... -.-

And don't mind that vertex a bit moved from the other screen... I just seen that now... going to fix it...

Another question, is it better to have a 2d or a 3d blade? I'm asking this also if I think the answer is 3d, 2d ingame may look bad.

For the handle, rotate the cube so it's <> rather than [ ], it'll make it look more cylindrical without actually doing anything. The finger-guard is tiny and will get lost, it looks to me like the kind of detail you'd put on an alpha texture and a plane (but I suppose there are no skins for that).

Same goes for the pommel and the bit at the other end of the handle, actually. They should just be flat planes and the pommel should be a billboarded "sphere" like the footman.

Though I'm assuming this is an in-game attachment; is there something else in mind that requires a different level of detail?

I'll rotate the handle, ok...

For the details, Archmage explicitly requested an highly detailed sabre, and the pommel is visible, the handguard not that much, but hey, this is merely a 3kBs sword, I don't think there are much reasons to cut details, maybe it will be used in cinematics too :P

BTW I'll redo the whole blade using primitives

It's not a matter of technical specs -- it's a matter of matching the right level of detail for everything else in the game. A single high-detail model in a sea of low-detail models...

If you want to go in the other direction, then, I think you need to thicken the guard and the pommel to give them more presence.

The blade itself looks much better now and the shades doesn't really matter?

Update:

Small


Big


Big one ingame

I decided to leave the big sabre hi-poly, and I'll modify the small sabre into a low-poly crystal sword :) (I'll totally change the textures and mapping... and I'll remove the fingerguards etc.)

Now you can see clearly the shade problems I was talking about...

Yeah, I definitely think you need a better texture with more definition to it. Warcraft's lighting engine is too shoddy to rely on for making your models look decent.

Open to suggestions, what ingame texture/textures would you use?

I suppose my first port of call would be the Skeleton's scimitar, it's got about the right shape and you could tint it a bit more grey with a geosetanim.

Yes, it may work for the blade... I have to change texture to the handle too in your opinion, or that's fine?

I think you do. Flat colours... They don't really cut it in this context.

I think I'll stop here, I don't have any mapping experience so I can't do better, maybe I'll try again after some time.

In other words: I don't have any more patience to continue this...