NEWS

First, On behalf of the TA Team I would like to wish everyone a happy new year! The TA team is still moving fast and we are now at the stage where we have almost all of the weapons complete and most of them are textured as well, more pics later on...

The other good news that that Proto has been working like a beast over Christmas coding away and the game is really starting to take shape. In fact we can now announce that we are moving out of the alpha phase and into the beginnings of the beta build of the game.

There is still plenty of work to do though. We are now moving into the phase of bringing all assets in game. Putting in the guns and the characters and filling out the maps. This is an exciting phase for us as we can now see the game growing faster than ever

As for you guys I guess you will have to make do with all of these lovely pictures we have lined up for you.

The iconic Desert Eagle! This is the first weapon that Nizza worked on and it came on so fast we couldn't believe it. This is one of the most used guns in the game so we knew that it needed to look good and we think that it is just lovely. I can't wait to fire this thing already.

Hoorah! the MP5 a3 is completed! This is one of the guns that we already have in the game and when I first saw it I was a little dissapointed, it didn't look that great really. However this lovely new texture that Loebedoe has been working on changes everything and it now looks awesome.

The Scar-H in all its glory! So this is the Scar-H that has been beautifully modeled and textured by Sampson. I'm really liking the texture here, it really makes it stand out from the other guns. As one of the big guns we are looking to give this thing the proper feel when playing. When we get all of the guns in the game we will then be working hard to adjust the power and the kick of the gun to make it feel real.

I would thank all of the team for there hard work, and a special thanks to Sampson for helping me with the renders for this release as well as the upcoming releases that he does not know he is helping with yet

Stay tuned for more news to come,
Your TA Development Team!

This month we wanted to give you a bit of an insight into how we construct our weapons, an overview of the process from start to finish. The construction of a 3d model like this is surprisingly complex and the process has many stages. We are going to break it down a bit so you can see what goes into those shiny media shots of the weapons.

Start at the Start The first thing is to work out what weapon it is needs modelling. In this case we are looking at the Raging Bull which has been beautifully modeled by Sampson. The team decides exactly what version of the model is needed and then the modeller finds reference images. Finding references is a vital stage, you can't just make up the design for these models otherwise they don't come out looking good. This is the sort of shot that the modellers will use for reference.

Build from the Base From these reference images the modeller then builds up the base of the model, at this stage is it still quite simple. This stage is about getting the basic shape right from which all of the details are then added.

High Poly From the base model a vey detailed high polygon model is created. This means modelling all of the little screws and edges. Now ideally we would stick the model straight in the game at this point as it looks awesome. However the problem is that your computer can't cope with such a complex model - this is true for all models, not just guns. When your graphics card tries to draw the gun it tries to draw all the little details and just slows down. This results in the game turning into a slideshow and makes it no fun at all. What we need to do is try and maintain the level of detail but decrease the complexity of the model. Luckily there are some ways that we can do this.

UV Mapping UV mapping is a way of interfacing between the texture of the model and the model itself. As you can imagine the textures are 2 dimensional while the model is 3 dimensional. The problem is that you can't directly project a texture onto the model. This is where the UV map comes in; it is effectively a picture of the gun unfolded into 2 dimensions.

Making a Normal Map A Normal map is a clever technique for making models look more detailed without making them more geometrically complex. From the high poly model a Normal Map is taken. This is a 2D image of the gun where the colours represent the depth and angle of the faces. The map will then be reapplied later bringing pseudo detail to the less complex model. Normal mapping is a complex subject and I'm not the best guy to explain it, if you are interested in learning more start with http://www.bencloward.com/tutorials_normal_maps1.shtml which is an excellent explanation of the concept. This image is just part of the Raging Bull normal map showing the profiled lettering. Notice the map is actually back to front, this just depends which way up the gun is on the UV map.

Low Poly 1st and 3rd Person From the high poly model a 1st person model is made. This is the gun that you will see in the bottom right corner of your screen in game (unless you are left handed ). The model is simplified down and some of the little details are taken off. The gun is the simplified again for the third person model. The third person is the one that you will see other people holding, as there could be a fair few of these on screen at once the third person can't be too complex. This the stage where the normal map is now applied, the normal map affects the way that light reflects of the model making it look more 3D without costing performance.

Texturing Now we have a UV map the texture is painted onto the map. This is very tricky as you have to make the flat texture fit nicely onto the model. As you can see from the textures it isn't exactly intuitive. The other reason texturing is difficult is the level of detail needed. To make the gun look good it needs to be realistic so the texture has to be done carefully to make it look real. This includes things like scratches and wear marks where the gun would be held.

Final Preparation Just to get it looking as good as possible we then render it nicely and put it into our media template. There is your finished product from start to finish.

Stay tuned for our New Years Media release which is coming your way soon.

See you on the servers,
Your TA Development Team!

Hey all, hope your having a fantastic Halloween, and if you don't celebrate it, we hope your having a wicked month!

The TA Team have been hard at work again, and we are so excited to show you some AMAZING screenshots!

First off though I would like to introduce you to some new members who joined our ranks recently.

• Welcome to Sampson who is another weapons modeller and texture artist who works so fast we can show you some of his work already!
• Welcome to SteathSilver who is a character texture artist, he has started texturing our characters arms recently, and I tell you... it's AWESOME!! - we have an extra special media update planned with our new player models in the future so for now, its our worst kept secret!
• We also welcome Destruct to our ranks. Another weapons modeller who also has some sneak peek shots to show off already.
• Say welcome to Unrated, a new texture artist, who I can't seem to get any texture work for since my TA team are working their socks off, modelling and texturing things (bad bad team! )
• We welcome Defeatist to our team, he is a Concept artist who is producing some awesome concept work for us for a Jungle map... did I just give away the theme of one of our secret maps?

We love to see new guys joining the ranks, but enough about them, it's about you and our media update!!

Introducing JUNGLE Well, it started as an idea, and a lot of the team wondering if it was even possible in the unreal engine (some of us even doubted his sanity) but lets take a look at the results... Teifi has provided us with the mother of all teaser screenshots (actual in-game shot) have a drool and show your mates.

Of course no jungle is complete without an AK So we had to texture it of course, this was a real team effort and we think that it shows the best of everyone's skills.

We were looking at melee weapons and we thought "What would be really cool?" So we thought, I know lets make an axe, well actually its a hatchet to be more precise

Just show us more guns already... Ohhh alright but a mac-10 will have to do. Loebedoe skillfully modeled the MAC-10 and Disaster finished off the texturing. It might look a bit puny but this thing has some nice firepower.

Did someone say badass Raging Bull?? Say "Sampson we love you" you raggy fans

Hey they do arms as well... StealthSilver took on the big task of texturing our first character model. This is a really important job as if its done badly then it will really show. This is just the start and we are now confident of some awesome looking characters.

When you have got nearly 40 members and you want more, you must be mad. Although we sound mad we want more of you... come JOIN in the fun and contribute to what is going to be a very good game, who knows where it could lead when TA hits the big time....

If TA made level props.. they would probably be the best level props in the world Welcome to some of our Environmental Modellers who have provided some samples of the things that will make our maps look truly stunning Since he joined us Hupie has proven to be a very adaptable artist, working in all sorts of different areas. This model demonstrates the importance of good texturing, it really takes environment props to the next level.

Come on stop talking rubbish..... Hupie also made us a wheely good bin.. for the competition maybe? (NO PUN INTENDED )

Does this man ever stop working?? Well we are told that he does sleep sometimes but he does work hard, this one looks perfect for an industrial setting... in fact we might just have an industrial looking map up our sleeves (stay tuned for updates on that one)

The problem is, it is all a bit hard to visualize What do all these objects actually look like in the game?  Might be a bit like this I suppose...

What about something a bit bigger then?? Well Rooster made us a building.. and Disaster painted it for him!

Then they normal mapped it too (we didn't see that coming) We hope that this is the sort of quality that will set us apart from other mods

Bins for all! Disaster also likes making bins.. (secret bin fetish going off I fear)

What even more props?? Enjoy the crane and the smoke towers too!

OK I WANT TO PLAY IT ALREADY!! Well it isn't ready for that yet... but we know the login pass and usernames so NER!!

PSST suppose we were close to a BETA release.. what would our site look like?? TADA (but no beta yet.. boo hiss naughty TA team!)

I hope that amazing collection of media was what you were looking for (see we weren't lying when we told you we were working hard) and I hope that you will continue to support the one and only TA... yeah that's us

Download all the images here
See you on the servers,
Your TA Development Team!