I found a cool site for WW II combat vehicles for making BZ II models.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_WWII_combat_vehicles I use the plane object primitive in GSL to paint a photograph onto it and then use the polyline tool to drawn out the model textured onto the plane object and then extrude the main parts. I did this once for an M-1 Abrams tank model I constructed a while back from several photographs scanned to file and then applied as a texture to the plane object. Afterwords the original texture can be face painted onto the extruded faces to make a nice looking textured surface. One question I have is can customized bump textures be made for things like tank tracks? Tanks...BNG 

[mrtwosheds]

Bump textures...I dunno, as far as I understand it there is/was only one type of video card that supported bump mapping in bz2. I don't have one, so I don't make bump textures. Shame, Daleks need bumps.

[Angstromicus]

I've been able to get unit models in the ~2500 - ~3000 poly range before. Maybe if you make an extremely detailed model for up close viewing .

[Nielk1]

I like looking at the list of scifi weapons on wikipedi

[General BlackDragon]

GreenHeart would probably like this link

[mrtwosheds]

Maybe if you make an extremely detailed model for up close viewing

Adding 48 half spheroids to the unit would give it a higher poly count than the whole base...

[anomaly]

Bump textures...I dunno, as far as I understand it there is/was only one type of video card that supported bump mapping in bz2. I don't have one, so I don't make bump textures. Shame, Daleks need bumps.

I think most video cards can use bump maps in 1.3. I know I can use them in 1.3 while they hadn't worked very well for me  in 1.2.

As far as how to implement them, I don't know.   I guess take a look at the textures in the bumps.pak.

[Spawn]

Adding 48 half spheroids to the unit would give it a higher poly count than the whole base...

You could just add one sphere with a billion pieces and it would have a higher poly count than all the models in bz2 combined, but that doesn't make it a good idea.

[bigbadbogie]

i never worked it out:: what do bump maps do??

[VSMIT]

I believe they add more detail to a model by simulating grooves or bumps in the mesh, but without actually editing the mesh.  To see the difference, do an IA game, turn bumpmapping off, go up to your recy, open up the options menu (while looking at the recy), and turn bumpmapping on.  There should be a noticeable difference in how the recy looks.

VSMIT.

[Spawn]

I believe it is usually bound to the C key.  I know scions have them, I think the swarm does too, not sure if lizard put them on any other races though.

[anomaly]

It's right there under graphics options.  And yes, in general they are used to simulate texture(bumps, grooves, etc.) on the skins of objects.  To do so, they use a gray scale picture, with white areas fully showing specular lighting while black areas don't show specular lighting at all.  At least that's my general understanding of bump maps and I assume they work the same in Bz2.  Unfortunately, the bump maps are in that stupid .pic form so I can't take a direct look at them.

I never really thought the bump maps looked super great but, I think that might have more to do with the actual .pic and the fact that they are all rather low resolution than the engine not displaying them properly.

To add them to your ships, I guess just try adding them when you skin your models and see if they show up in game.

[OvermindDL1]

Bump maps are a type of light map, it defines the angle the light is reflected off of a surface, thus making it seem like a flat surface, for example, could be perfectly round (at least from head-on, from edge it is still obviously flat).  Think of normal mapping as bump mapping for the polygons rather then the texture/light, they actually deform the model on the video card to add more detail there.
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[TheJamsh]

gets so damn complicated

and what on EARTH

is anistropic filtering or whateevr?!?!