Page 41 - 3D Artist 110 - 2017 UK

Players would sacriice design nearby shake their heads dutifully. We get
everything to get the a sense that there is a tension between the art
teams and those responsible for integrating the
historical pillar right… game systems, but Plociennik explains that such
a dedication to accuracy is part of the appeal of
so we have to as well the game, and all the development departments
Artur Plociennik, understand this. “We have quite a vocal
Executive producer community of players, many of whom are
interested in the historical part of warships –
they would sacriice everything to get the
historical pillar right… so we have to as well.”
WORKING WITH
working on.” gremitskiy notes that should the once the meticulous research has been
original blueprints be unavailable, the studio has completed, that’s when the real work begins. LIMITATIONS
nautical architects on-team capable of rebuilding Anatoliy nepochatov explains that once the
them from scratch using photo reference materials have been studied and assembled, an
due to the nature of World of Warships,
materials and schematics should they need to. artist will begin on what he calls the blueprint
there are some restrictions the art team
given the amount of time it takes for an artist stage. this involves setting the digital blueprints
have to be aware of as it sets about
to complete work on a ship, we wonder aloud (usually between 20 to 30 in a scene) into Maya,
building these ships
whether there is such a thing as having too many in an effort to ensure that the principal structural
references – conscious that it can be all too easy features of the ship line up and measure to the
to become lost in the annals of history. there may scans. From there, work on the model begins as one of the ways Wargaming has been able to
have been a language barrier, but it got a laugh everything always does, says nepochatov. “For ind and maintain such a success in the market
from the group. “in our line of work there is no me, it doesn’t matter what i am doing or building: is not only down to its incredible free-to-play
such thing as too many references!” gremitskiy you will always start from a box or a cylinder. if model – incentivising smart and constant
exclaims, laughing still; members of QA and we’re talking about a hull or a super-structure on purchasing from players – but because of the
huge variety of machines its games can be
played on. From World Of Tanks to World
Of Warplanes and World Of Warships, the
company is eager to bring historically accurate
vehicles across land, air and sea no matter
what type of computer a player has. in fact,
we’re told, it was only recently that Warships
left devices running Windows XP behind.
this, while impressive in its commitment to
servicing players, offers a set of challenges for
the art team, particularly when it comes to
texturing and rendering ships for live service.
“our main restrictions come from the PCs that
our games are working on,” conirms head of
art Vladimir gremitskiy. “We can make the
ships as beautiful as we want, but that doesn’t
matter if nobody can see or play the game.
this where our main poly count and texture
restrictions come from.”
When you take into account all of the
reference objects within the ship, that poly
count limit is approximately 300,000. And
that isn’t nearly as much as it sounds when
dealing with machines of this size or stature.
but there is a beneit to such a goal: it keeps
the artists focused on authenticity, stopping
them from wanting to make small visual
improvements to the vessels. After all,
anything built in real life will have laws.
“First of all we can look at any historical
photos to know that a ship isn’t as perfect as
it could be,” says senior artist Anatoliy
nepochatov. “Maybe there’s some stuff on
the deck that could be put in a perfect row…
we can do it, but it wouldn’t be accurate.
that’s why it’s good to have some restrictions
in the process.”

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