Hi guys,

I would really appreciate some help.  For almost no reason, one day I decided to try to make a plane for Flight Sim, but it turns out far more complicated than I originally thought.

Here's my situation:  I'm not very new to modeling as I've done some 3ds max projects before, the most complex of which was a flythrough of a park for my biology class.

Modeling an airplane, as you might imagine, is a bit different from a park bench though, and that's why I'm here.

My particular question this time is about level of detail.  On my fourth attempt at creating the fuselage, I think I'm finally beginning to get it, and this is what it stands at so far:


This is, obviously, an extremely unfinished nose section, but I'm wondering if it's worth doing more work on.  After opening up Il-2 Sturmovik for reference, it turns out their model has FAR fewer polygons than this thing.  Thus, my question is: Should I continue work on this, or is it going to be absolutely unplayable due to an unreasonable number of polygons?

Any other help would be greatly appreciated as well.

Thanks.

Very low poly modelling is great for multiplayer GAMES, where the emphasis is in more detail for what the "pilot" sees to control the airplane, than for the outside visual model.

For Flight Simulator, you can "get away" with a lot more visual detail - to a degree.

I'm of the minimalist philosophy - enough sections to start fooling the eye, and not just because you can.

You're starting off pretty good.  Personally, I prefer to work in quads, rather than visualize the faces, as you're doing, but that's just  matter of preference.  FS will triangulate everything.  Sometimes seeing the triangles/faces is good, though, because you may be have a slight shading problem that can be cured by rebuilding the faces...

Keep up the work.

Compile it and fly it...often.

There is no point in getting too far advanced only to realize that some small part is causing a problem in FS. It will also give you a chance to build up a portfolio of development shots that you can look at if you get discouraged.

Looks good so far though, keep it up.

Quote:
He's working with the smaller, 10-cylinder experimental model -- the standard 12-cylinder was just a little too exhausting. 8)

Congratulations!

You've just made a plane for FS. There's still a lot of work to go...but now you have proof positive of the payout at the end.

Trust me the nice feelings of accomplishment just keep rolling in after this point... along with a few lost hairs that get pulled out along the way. 

Hello everybody.

I'd like to mention that I'm still alive and slowly working away on the Il-2 project.  Right now I have a lot of work to do at school, so unfortunately I don't have much free time to work on the model, but so far I have managed to get a few minutes here and there.  This is what it looks like so far:



Comments (positive or negative) are welcome.

Quote:


Yeah, I'll definitely do that.  I'll probably end up redoing the wings completely as I'm not too happy about them at this stage.

By the way, do you know, will it be possible to texture the vertical and horizontal stabilizers and make them work as they are right now, part of the fuselage?  Or will I have to detach them?  It would definitely be quite helpful to me if I could leave them as they are instead of detaching them and having to play with the smoothing.

Thanks.