Khaydar's Projects

[(Designer)Khaydar]

Since we don't have the original ZT1 renders and can't modify the original "toys" I have decided to make my own, for future cetacean shows. Yes the original sprites were 3D models made into 2D by a company named Rapan, here's what Marine Mania looks like:

Please Rapan gives us the models.... A man can dream.
The first show toy I have made is a version of the orca stage, inspired by the ZT2 one. I already have 2 large species in mind that can use this; pilot whales and false orcas: both kept in captivity and used for shows.

Feel free to suggest show props/toys ideas.

[(Designer)Khaydar]

So turns out Blue Fang didin't used an arithmetic scaling. Scale doesn't increase proportionally with size. Small animals are oversized while big animals are downsized compared to real life. The bowhead whale is around 10m ingame, I'm not joking. Mature animals are around 16m with big ones at 20 as stated in the zoopedia. The Spermwhale is acurate for a female....which are almost half the size of males. I saying this because I'm pretty far into the grey whale remake and this really annoys me. It just feels wrong scalewise, I know understand why the original MM roster size is about 2-5 m and then jumps straight to large 15m+ whales, anything in between feels weird in size. Really don't know what to do here, I'm not re-remaking the already finished animals and yet a normal size grey whale feels wrong compared to original animals. While large animals might make the game unbalanced, this didn't stoped the devs with the Apatosaurus.


Also happy festivities for those reading my little rant

[(Admin)Savannahjan]

I've noticed that animals are not sized quite right.  I guess in order to see the smaller ones, they had to ratchet them up a bit, and same goes for shrinking the larger ones.  There is a little lemming or some such user-made arctic animal that looks like a little dot moving around.  But hey, they are actually cute and fun to use.

 

I truly appreciate animal designers, it is much more difficult than making static scenery.  Even with animation, there is, to me, no comparison in the scope of work.  Our young ZT designers have created so many wonderful new animals the last few years.

[Hawkkeye666]

On 12/24/2022 at 1:24 PM, Khaydar said:

So turns out Blue Fang didin't used an arithmetic scaling. Scale doesn't increase proportionally with size. Small animals are oversized while big animals are downsized compared to real life. The bowhead whale is around 10m ingame, I'm not joking. Mature animals are around 16m with big ones at 20 as stated in the zoopedia. The Spermwhale is acurate for a female....which are almost half the size of males. I saying this because I'm pretty far into the grey whale remake and this really annoys me. It just feels wrong scalewise, I know understand why the original MM roster size is about 2-5 m and then jumps straight to large 15m+ whales, anything in between feels weird in size. Really don't know what to do here, I'm not re-remaking the already finished animals and yet a normal size grey whale feels wrong compared to original animals. While large animals might make the game unbalanced, this didn't stoped the devs with the Apatosaurus.


Also happy festivities for those reading my little rant

When I size the animal, I generally compare it with other ingame animals - its relatives, and compatible animals, so it would look ok in mixed species exhibit, and also when put next to its relative, and final size is a mix between this. I think it quite works, even though I changed size of some animals.

About large animals, humans are not very good at guessing large sizes, so I think that sizing new large animals based on ingame animals is a good idea - to us, 10m long whale look enormous, despite being twice as large in reality.

[(Designer)Khaydar]

I think what really is broken is the bowhead size, even when compared to other whales. Would not be the first time Blue Fang did a mistake, isn't that right "Harbour" porpoise? The main issue with the grey was that it didn't looked good at all. The rendering script was having issues with the lice/barnacled patches, it looked bad, and it's a large animal so you'll assume details would be better. I also found that my 3D model badn what was I thinking when I did that ?? It had long fins like an humpback and weird proportions and mouth, plus made for a 3D game so you gaze into the werdness in first person. You would be surprised about how few good full body references you have, for an animal as common as a grey whale (which aren't even grey in real life, I have been lied).


HOWEVER..... GOOD NEWS!! Got something good looking.

I am assuming the humpback is a generous 15m (instead of the absurd 18m stated on the zoopedia), so around 13m for the grey whale, a decent size.
The game has trouble rendering the throat shown by the red arrow. Is there a way to fix it? It only shows when placed.

[(Designer)Khaydar]

The whale looks great ingame, although a bit paler for some reason.

 

 

[(Designer)Khaydar]

Pictures like these really make me wish I could go back in time and make, "My dad works at Blue Fang" jokes.... sight.


Found out all right whales are pretty much the same..... differences being very subtle and mostly on genetic level, thus I'm turning the southern right whale into a vulgar right whale, Eubalena sp.

[MarkBL20]

25 minutes ago, Khaydar said:

Pictures like these really make me wish I could go back in time and make, "My dad works at Blue Fang" jokes.... sight.


Found out all right whales are pretty much the same..... differences being very subtle and mostly on genetic level, thus I'm turning the southern right whale into a vulgar right whale, Eubalena sp.

But it still is a Southern right whale right?

 

I want to know because I don't want to lose a great species like them

[(Designer)Khaydar]

2 hours ago, MarkBL20 said:

But it still is a Southern right whale right?

 

I want to know because I don't want to lose a great species like them

The model itself is based on southern, but it will be treated as an undermined species of right whale, so you can chose to call them Southern/Atlantic/Pacific. You will lose nothing as the three species of right whale are the same visually. If I had to make them all, they would be 3 times the same model just with different names. Basically clones of each other. It's a 2 birds one stone situation, instead of birds it's 3 whales.

[MarkBL20]

2 hours ago, Khaydar said:

The model itself is based on southern, but it will be treated as an undermined species of right whale, so you can chose to call them Southern/Atlantic/Pacific. You will lose nothing as the three species of right whale are the same visually. If I had to make them all, they would be 3 times the same model just with different names. Basically clones of each other. It's a 2 birds one stone situation, instead of birds it's 3 whales.

Ok

So it not will be a problem to still treat it like a Southern right whale

I say this because RSN have a vainilla-based North Atlantic right whale

 

I also passed to Hawkeye a list of animals he can adapt to ZT1, and in there is a NA right whale thanks to Jannick's one

If you going to make a new model, I think we can use the Terrena Laxamentum Southern right whale to make a North Pacific right whale, completing the Right whale trio