Wanted: Round Wheels

[Pak_40_Gunner[11b]]

When is someone going to mod some round wheels for wheeled veicles? Those blocky ones are not very pretty.

[MasterGoodale]

hhmmmm I may give this a shot in due time.

[Cameroon]

Well unless by mod you mean re-write the 3d model...

I assume you're referring to the fact that wheels are hexagons (or octagons, can't remember how many sides wheels have in-game), which is the 3d model not the texture on top of it. Check out the bitmaps some time, the textures are round.

[MikeyD]

Tom's Combat Mission has just promised to post my latest mod - a from-scratch redo of the Lend-Lease M3A1 Scout Car. And yes, its got round wheels! ...or as round as they're ever gonna get.

I'm waiting expectantly for the mod to show up on his site.

[Pak_40_Gunner[11b]]

sweet! I will be on the look out for it!

[Wretch]

Block wheels suit blocky German heads. It's a match made in heaven.

No disrespect meant to any of out Teutonic friends, but have you ever noticed how a lot of Germans' heads are kind of... square?

[White Phosphorus]

Isn't square head a dominant version of the gene?

[Nolloff]

I was hoping the fact that "we" wear helmets in all these games and films would prevent the outside world from discovering "our" tr00 shape ..

Nolloff

[ November 14, 2002, 04:18 PM: Message edited by: Nolloff ]

[Vanir Ausf B]

Originally posted by Wretch:

No disrespect meant to any of out Teutonic friends, but have you ever noticed how a lot of Germans' heads are kind of... square?

And strangely LARGE.

[Michael Emrys]

I was looking closely at the wheels/tires the other day and what I noticed is that they are in fact circles within octagons. What the reason for that is outside my competence, but I thought I'd pass the observation along.

Michael

[Mercury]

And what are the octagons within?

[Wretch]

Perhaps the exterior octagon is the framework for the wheel itself and the bitmap is pasted to the circle inside, so the circle...

Oh sod it, I don't know.

[Michael Emrys]

"The big wheel turn by faith

And the little wheel turn by the grace of god"

Michael

[Wretch]

Just out of curiosity, who's that a quote by, and with reference to what?

[Old Dog]

Wretch, I believe Michael's quote is from an old Spiritual, "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel". Next line is:

"It's a wheel within a wheel, way in the middle of the air."

The song in turn refers to this reference in the Bible:

"As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness round about it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming bronze." {Ezek 1:4 RSV}

Some consider it to be the first reference to a flying saucer sighting in literature.

Fun stuff, huh!

As for CM's wheels, the wheels are octagons because true curves can't be done with the 3-D graphics engine, just polygons with more and more sides. Eight sides is BFC's compromise between too many for fast rendering and too few for a reasonable look. The flat bitmaps wrapped over the models can do a better or poorer job of minimizing this slightly awkward appearance, hence mods like Mike's (wherein I presume he has done a fine job of such minimizing. )

- Old Dog

[Michael Emrys]

Old Dog got it, except in the version of the song I heard the next lines go,

"Ezekiel saw the wheel

Turnin' way up in the middle of the air"

Michael