Better than Horses (No Alligators please)

[Elevatator]

But: Zombies don´t eat other Zombies. That´s rule #1 of the Zombie codex.

[ExpHP]

Spoiler

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To any potential texture artists: Please observe the new layout of the texture. The body is 2 px shorter, the breadth of the neck was reduced by 2 px. A lot was moved around to fit a smaller image.


I don't know if we've set up any sort of repository yet, so I'll just put the associated files here.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/561 ... rse-v1.zip

For testing it, I just replaced the cow model. Since Modloader support will be disappearing soon, I didn't want to spend the time to write and add a proper new entity, especially as we haven't really decided on our requirements yet.

[Sockthing]

Nice work! Excited to see how it'll be when it's finished!

[TheChinchilla]

[deleted]

[TheGatesofLogic]

Errrm... No offense man, but TBH, that looks like shit. I think a paint horse would be more fitting. I'll post it when I get home.

[ExpHP]

I will say this:

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It's no longer the alligator in the room. Those chickens, on the other hand...

[jecowa]

I made a mistake in the mane. It extended 1.5 pixels above the head before; now it only extends 1 pixel and is 1 pixel skinnier. After watching the video, I think the horse looked a little stubby, so I made the legs 1 pixel taller. I don't think the design of the horse model should be based on the texture fitting into a 64x64 square. I made the neck 1 pixel deeper and the torso 2 pixels longer.

pic

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texture sheet

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download project files: http://www.mediafire.com/download/zbko2 ... rse2.7.zip

[kilgore trout]

Errrm... No offense man, but TBH, that looks like shit. I think a paint horse would be more fitting. I'll post it when I get home.

Come on, you're being very un-Dude. No need to be an ass. Guy is trying to help out.

[ExpHP]

I will admit that the sole purpose of shortening the body was fitting a smaller texture. :P
As for the neck, that was a change I made due to technical issues before I got my hands on the model file. That issue is no longer an issue; I just left it that way afterwards because I thought it looked just as fine either way. So if you disagree that's quite alright.

The tail was originally raised on DaveYanakov's behest. The reason why I raised it by a half-pixel amount was to avoid it clipping through the body when it turns.

I will point out that ocelot's ears and tails, wolf faces and legs, and villager aprons all have half-pixel offsets relative to the rest of the body.

[jecowa]

I thought the 6-pixel neck was skinny, but after seeing the 6-pixel neck I thought the original 8-pixel neck looked too fat. So I changed it to 7 pixels.

Your tail was perfect. I didn't change the tail any. Maybe half-pixel offsets aren't so bad, but Mojang was going way overboard with boxes partially overlapping like they did with the legs overlapping the torso.

With the horses legs at 12 pixels, the horse is just as tall as the cow now (measured to the top of the torso). This also gives the horse the same-length legs as the cow.

[Rob]

Feel free to ignore this post, because, outside opinions are like pfft.

Isn't minecrafts general entity rule: no necks and k.i.s.s.?

I think that is why the horse seems so odd compared to the other animals. Has anyone tried modeling a cow with longer legs, half the body height(to make up for the legs being longer) and the head just sitting on the top front of the body? So that it is just slightly taller than the cow. Also, remove the tail? Maybe. Not sure how I feel about a farm animal with one.

Edit: Just watched ExpHP's video, the baby horse fits my description almost perfectly. Also, the mane is redundant. The mane can just be textured into the head. No need to model it.

[jecowa]

Feel free to ignore this post, because, outside opinions are like pfft.

Isn't minecrafts general entity rule: no necks and k.i.s.s.?

I think that is why the horse seems so odd compared to the other animals. Has anyone tried modeling a cow with longer legs, half the body height(to make up for the legs being longer) and the head just sitting on the top front of the body? So that it is just slightly taller than the cow. Also, remove the tail? Maybe. Not sure how I feel about a farm animal with one.

Edit: Just watched ExpHP's video, the baby horse fits my description almost perfectly. Also, the mane is redundant. The mane can just be textured into the head. No need to model it.

This is a good point. Thanks for bringing this up. Here's a couple versions of the horse with no neck:

no neck, 9-pixel torso pictures

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project files: http://www.mediafire.com/download/gme4t ... se_3.1.zip

no neck, 10-pixel torso pictures

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project files: http://www.mediafire.com/download/j32uu ... se_3.3.zip

This looks much more Minecrafty.

[FlowerChild]

Personally, I think having some kind of neck is a good idea. Most of the animals have their own defining attribute: a single extra bit of detail on the model that particularly suits the particular animal. I think in the case of horses, that a neck is definitely it, or it will wind up looking like a large dog.

[Bevanz]

Yeah, I gotta say, that no-neck horse does not look very horse-like. The other animals don't have a neck because it isn't important enough to their anatomy to make them unidentifiable without a neck.

Removing detail down to basics in this style is very important, but you can't do that to the point that it is hard to identify them.

I would like to say, though, that I am looking forward to what you guys turn out for this addon, and'll be following the thread for updates. Good luck!

[jecowa]

Personally, I think having some kind of neck is a good idea. Most of the animals have their own defining attribute: a single extra bit of detail on the model that particularly suits the particular animal. I think in the case of horses, that a neck is definitely it, or it will wind up looking like a large dog.

My friend who doesn't play Minecraft thought it looked like a dog too.

Trying to think of each animal's unique feature: Pigs have snouts, cows have udders, sheep have wool, chickens have feet, wolves have neck fur.

[DaveYanakov]

Not only is the neck one of the defining features of a horse, it is going to be vital to going without a GUI.

[jecowa]

What feature(s) of the vanilla horse utilize the GUI, and what are your plans for implementing those features without the GUI?

[Rob]

When i seen the no neck picture, I was pleased. I didn't see dog, because I know it's supposed to be a horse. But now that the idea of a dog is in my mind, I also see the dog. I think the correct texture would solve that problem. But I won't argue my suggestion any further than that. It is ultimately the coder's decision.


Edit: Using the neck as a health meter (similar to a wolf's tail) also makes sense.

Edit2: Further reflection on the health meter with the neck. This could also be accomplished with the no neck version. Just use the head tilt as presented in the pictures.

[Stormweaver]

I will say this:

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It's no longer the alligator in the room. Those chickens, on the other hand...

For what it's worth, I like that model. It looks....minecrafty.

[DaveYanakov]

What feature(s) of the vanilla horse utilize the GUI, and what are your plans for implementing those features without the GUI?

There will be no GUIs. The player will need to pay attention to visual and audio cues from the horse itself to avoid damaging it. And I never said the neck angle would be the health meter...

I think I have the behaviors for horse AI down to 5 elements. Depending on how things go I can see adding maybe two more at most. Everything else will be control scheme.

[weldaSB]

I would love to help with this project, but I am horrible at textures and not experienced at java. If you guys could pm me with some good online tutorials to easily learn java that would be wonderful. Also, I will setup a github or gitorious based on which you guys prefer.

[DaveYanakov]

Sent you a PM

[weldaSB]

I got your PM, sorry I didn't reply. I have been busy lately. I have made a repository on github, because I am more familiar with it than other solutions. If everyone who would like to help on this project could make a github account, we can move the conversation over there so we do not clutter up this thread. Jecowa, if you could send me a PM with your github username, I can give you commit access, and you can commit the textures you have. This also goes for anyone else that has anything they can provide to the project.

The Better Than Horses Repository:
https://github.com/Weldawadyathink/BetterThanHorses

[weldaSB]

DNoved1 and DaveYanakov added as collaborators, so go ahead and upload that code. If anyone else wants to help, pm me, and I will add you as a collaborator.

[Yhetti]

Just as an aside: someone on these forums really needs a crossed out alligator (or vanilla horse...either really) avatar :)

Done



Though after doing it I realized I should probably flip it backwards