Battlezone Modeling

[Blunt Force Trauma]

Oh my, you'll find out it's an evil mix of your ability with the software, your idea of what the ship should REALLY look like, and your devotion to maintaining the feel of the game.

It's a challenge.

It's a purely graphical analog of what Dx has been trying to do for the past few years.

[Avatar]

(trying to model a Griz "right now" from in game screen snap-shots, which means a WHOLE lot of BEST GUESSES... sure would like to have a 3DS file........................ )

You need to PM me somewhere to send them, that's all...  the rest is easy. 

-Av-

[Ultraken]

sure would like to have a 3DS file........................ )

Me too...

(I only have the source code, not the original assets.)

[Avatar]

Me too...

(I only have the source code, not the original assets.)

Um, seriously?   PMing...

-Av-

[Ultraken]

Totally serious. 

[Blunt Force Trauma]

I've been known to be very serious. 

[TheWall]

Can't imagine I'm thinking this, let alone saying it.. believe it or not, there's a "lot" more triangles on that Griz than my imagination had ever dreamt there was! It's also interesting to me, that what look like symetrical, rectangular panels, are not trangulated symetrically...

To make a Grizzly "solid", it will need to be made in at least... Cannons, Turret, Lateral Engines, Engine Pod, and quite probably the Top Center two Engines on the Pod, all in seperate pieces. With that being said, if they were made with posts for assembly, it would allow for those pieces to be rotatable on those posts...

Interesting.... I can see a prototype ("solid") being done out of a high(er) density urethane board, very similar in a lot of respects to about poplar. Back in the day, we'd actually called it "plastic wood"... I have some of that too...

[TheWall]

OK, I know this doesn't look like anything remarkable to anyone that has ever played the game of Battlezone, "BUT" for me this is a first... The Grizzly has just taken its FIRST STEP into the "Real World". It is no longer "just" a Poly/Mesh Model... its a real live NURBS/CAD Model now!!! WOO-HOOO!!! With enough patience, it is now machinable.


http://i1016.photobucket.com/albums/af281/kmckenn_bucket/BZ-Album/AvTank-Rhino3D.jpg

[ssuser]

If you were going to make more than a few, it seems to me that making a good mould and then using plastic injection to make the models would be the way to go. That way, you could always make more on demand later. You could leave a hollow space in the model for for a simple voice module too, as Av suggests - with a snap on cover and a hidden button the models could be made to play the original voiceovers.

Hmm, I could see having a complete set of these in a nice box, like the Tonka Toy sets of old...

[VSMIT]

I think it would be a good idea to make a mold to provide plastic versions (read:less expensive), but offer the choice of having one made of metal, though more expensive.

[TheWall]

OK... I've been thinking about how to approach this a little too much....

#1 "problem" - The biggest problems in creating (milling) moulding CAVITIES are vertical/near-vertical surfaces, AND "sharp corners" (IE - effectively if not "zero radius"). And in looking at this project from that perspective, that almost defines the Grizzly geometry.

That being said, I think that creating a mould cavity is ultimately the best approach (makes me my own worst enemy, ehh?), and I think the cavities should be created with the intent of vacu-forming parts (for economy and relatively ease(ier) mfg.) with a nominal thickness of about 1-2 mm (.040-.080").  In order to solve the vertical/near-vertical surfaces AND the sharp-corners issue, making each of the moulding components (each "half" or there abouts) out of a approximately a handful of sub-sections with alignment pins, coming together in the sharp corners, and screwed/bolted(?) together.

Size-wise the .3ds Grizzly is 18.9mm(or about .75") long (tip of cannon to tip of engine). 2x would get us roughly Hotwheels size.. 4x roughly a typical 1/32 Scale (car) model size...

Just air'n things out for in a public forum..............

[sabrebattletank]

Life size or no size.

[Blunt Force Trauma]

Very nice Wall, I see you've chosen to follow the Grizz close to the game's version.

You're right about the polys.  I remember being stunned when Dx told me how many polys the Grizz was in the game.

By the way. . . what do you surmise the overall dimensions the Grizz is. . . in its universe?

[eddywright]

Life size or no size.

Then I vote for life size made of pewter.

[Dx]

TheWall,
If you use dummy's 3ds max importers, you can get any model in the game.
http://www.battlezoneclub.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2577