Tai Chinese Weapons Pack

Description
Even if you\'re not big on warfare, you have to admire the ancient Chinese battle arts. A big part of that is their weapon designs. Combining practicality with elegance, these weapons solidified China\'s place as a cultural goldmine for weaponsmiths and warfare enthusiasts alike.

Unfortunately, the articles in this pack don\'t quite meet the high standards of their ancient real-life counterparts. I guess I didn\'t expect them to, they are Q3 engine models after all. With that said, they\'re still good models for the swordsmen out there, not because they\'re particularly well-made or creative, but because they\'re [i]different[/i].

However, I found a few small dislikes. Most of these are minor gripes about the skinning.

First, the Tai Blade and Tai Naginata - these are bladed weapons. In game, they look like rods. This could be due to bad use of gradients when skinning, the model being too rounded, or it could just be the shader. Either way, it needs fixing.

Secondly, the black grips on the weapons are almost completely textureless. The weapons, although they would [i]feel[/i] textureless, would never [i]look[/i] textureless. If the weapon was made of wood, mahogany would be used - never ebony - and you would clearly be able to see the patterning and finish. If the weapon grip was made of rubber, then there would clearly be some ribbing/wear in the rubber. Even if it\'s just a slight texturing effect, add something into the skin to add texturing. Also, I think you should try a wood effect for the grips - it looks way better, no matter what type of wooden texture you use. But, that\'s just my opinion.

The texturing on the blades is also a little off. They look like pristine metal. These are weapons - they get wear and tear, and that, I think, should be reflected in the skin.

Thirdly, the patterning on the Tai Ultraviolet - I\'m unsure what your references were, but a Chinese weapon would certainly [i]not[/i] have Braille embedded into the blade. However, I\'ll let that slide on account of it actually looking quite cool.

Finally, tag positioning. When making weapon models it\'s important to make sure the tags or positioned properly, otherwise you have clipping, player grabbing sword/saber blades, or even the player grabbing thin air. It ain\'t gonna make your sword not work, but it looks messy. Several of these weapons have dodgy tag positioning, which I\'d suggest fixing.


While these models lose points on the aesthetic and technique aspects, they\'re still perfectly usable in game, and they\'re not bad at all - merely lacking in minor areas.

So, if you\'re a weapon collector and want something a bit different, here\'s just the thing for you.

~ Kouen