| Hello again everyone, I'm [TWDEV] Franky, modeller and texture artist from the Traction Wars Team. Welcome to my second developer blog, where I'll be showcasing some of my latest work in progress. Without further ado, I present to you a piece that I created for an all new map that is still under wraps. It's a fairly straightforward model of a barbed wire fortification, which was commonly used as an improvised way of creating barriers against troops in WWII. |  |
 | Finding the right balance in polygon density during modeling was absolutely key, not only to ensure the barbed wire looked round, but also to keep the memory footprint as low as possible and the framerate as high as possible. As this asset was going to be used many times in the map, it called for aggressive LOD models that would reduce the poly count effectively, yet retain the integrity of the structure. For the non-modders and 3D artists out there, a LOD, or "Level of detail" model, is used to replace the higher poly asset when it is viewed from a farther distance as details are not visible anymore since the asset occupies much less pixel space on your screen. |
| The point of importance was to make it look like an obstacle for a soldier on foot, so that the player sees it as a barrier which must be gone around. Not as easy as it might seem, considering that the object is made up mostly of thin air. For this purpose, the barbed wire itself had to look acceptably dense, or in other words, like it would hurt if you tried to sneak through. |  |
 | So please enjoy the in-game screenshots, where the textured model has been combined with the work of my fellow artists and mappers in its actual setting, and presented with my personal take on an exterior lighting setup. If you would like to gain further insight into our development processes and what the various members of our talented team have been up to, feel free to take a look at the other entries of our developer blog series. |
The team is currently looking for talented individuals to join us on the team, so if you think you might have what it takes or if you are just curious then you can check out our recruitment page for full details.
