Non-stretchable armour pieces?

[General Maximus]

Before anyone jumps on me, let me tell you that I am NOT complaining or anything. I am just thinking and wondering on the subject of stretching models. And I want to know the public opinion too.

I looked at the screenshots of the Greek pack more closely today. As it turns out, they are returning to Rome Total War in one aspect: the tunic and the armour stretches along with the soldiers' moves. The tunic model stretches out, making it look weird. But then the hard armour above the cloth tunic spreads out too, making it look worse.

Here, have a look:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

So far, this is not a problem. But I wonder why did they not make spreadable armour pieces when they are paying so much attention to detail in armours and clothing. They did it very well in Shogun II. The Kusazuri and Haidate armour pieces were fully functional and moving.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Open those images in new tab to see them in bigger size.

It seems to me that they are making just one model for the armour pieces in question, instead of separate plate links like in Shogun II. I wonder if this will ever be changed, because the soldiers of the ancient era had to...umm.....spread their legs .....to take proper stance. Their tunics weren't stretchable or anything. And since they are focusing so greatly on detail, CA should look into this matter at least once.

Tell me what you think of it.

[The_Last_Doge]

Since you pointed it out it does look a bit odd in the Greek screenshots, i think ill re-watch the video and see if its any better in motion. Hopefully graphics issues like this are just from alpha/beta versions of the game and will be fixed in the final product.

[GrudgeNL]

There's one giant difference though. The greek soldiers wear full cloth, while the samurai are wearing seperate plates near the legs. The texture stretching is caused by the fact that the cloth is one model, causing the texture UV's to stretch with certain animations. I highly doubt these are fixed though.

They're visible in nearly every game, even shogun 2. Look and the second shogun 2 screenshot. You can see the same texture strecthing happening at the defending samurai on foot. The texture along his upper right leg stretches as the space between polygons is increasing.

[Agent2P]

and since I haven't learned how to edit posts in the six years I've been here since I'm a tit. I meant Roman *soldier.

[GrudgeNL]

and since I haven't learned how to edit posts in the six years I've been here since I'm a tit. I meant Roman *soldier.

You can start editing posts when you hit the 25 post count. You only have 13 now

[Agent2P]

You can start editing posts when you hit the 25 post count. You only have 13 now

Damn, soon it will be mine.

Thanks for the info Jack, it's a very small detail (and I'm sure hardly noticeable detail in real time) in a otherwise gorgeous game.

[Agent2P]

I noticed this today as well, while definitely not as bad as the stretching in the first Rome which could be a laugh at times it is definitely a bit more noticeable than I thought it would be upon looking at the screenshots. Where I noticed it the most is the Epirus faction page photo with the lorica segmentata on the roman solder which looks as the the model itself is more so just a "shirt" rather than separate metal parts. I curious whether this was done to save fps with the boost in polygons in the game as a whole.

[Jack Lusted]

The real difference here is the contrasting construction styles of the armour. Japanese armour, especially around thighs and upper legs tends to consist of a few large pieces whereas with ptergues on linothorax or bronze cuirasses there are a lot more parts. The former works great with the skeleton the models are weighted to, as the number of bones works well with the different sections of the armour. So for example with the plates hanging down one might be weight to left upper leg, one in the middle to waist, one on the right to right upper leg. With the pteruges this cannot be done because there are a lot more parts and not nicely grouped together as on the Japanese armour.

[blank]

The real difference here is the contrasting construction styles of the armour. Japanese armour, especially around thighs and upper legs tends to consist of a few large pieces whereas with ptergues on linothorax or bronze cuirasses there are a lot more parts. The former works great with the skeleton the models are weighted to, as the number of bones works well with the different sections of the armour. So for example with the plates hanging down one might be weight to left upper leg, one in the middle to waist, one on the right to right upper leg. With the pteruges this cannot be done because there are a lot more parts and not nicely grouped together as on the Japanese armour.

Also, the plates of the Japanese armor are rigid in nature, and thus do not move around as much with the body. Whereas the pteryges would flap around more in line with the undercloth, thus rigging/animating them separately could prove rather difficult.

[General Maximus]

The real difference here is the contrasting construction styles of the armour. Japanese armour, especially around thighs and upper legs tends to consist of a few large pieces whereas with ptergues on linothorax or bronze cuirasses there are a lot more parts. The former works great with the skeleton the models are weighted to, as the number of bones works well with the different sections of the armour. So for example with the plates hanging down one might be weight to left upper leg, one in the middle to waist, one on the right to right upper leg. With the pteruges this cannot be done because there are a lot more parts and not nicely grouped together as on the Japanese armour.

Thanks, this was very helpful and clear.

I wonder if it is still possible to create a separate model for Pteruges, since they look like the one in RTW with cloth textures from the great game Sims 2 (especially the tunic texture). I can already see that the rest of the textures are already great, without much problems, just the stretching in tunics, Pteruges and (to some extent) main-piece armours like Lorica Segmentata and Linothorax remain.

[Jungle Rhino]

Yeah you have to draw the line somewhere and as Jack says the Samurai stuff does lend itself to seperate panels much more readily than the linothorax. I honestly don't think I'm going to notice much in game unless those Greeks have a particularly err - 'wide stance'