Tech Doc | FAQ

I have compiled a pre-written questionnaire that should suffice to answer any and all potential questions regarding this document, based on questions I have received in the past.

What is Throne of Armageddon?

Throne of Armageddon is a fantasy/science fiction world I created from the ground up, starting as early as my toddler years. Due to my reclusive and anti-social nature I confided completely in my original creations and devoted all of my waking hours to them that I could. The earliest manifestations were akin to audiobooks and, later, comics. During late elementary I was introduced to computers and typing, but it wasn't until the first year of Junior High that I wrote my first novels. Shortly after I split the world and it underwent its first truly major revision, dividing it into the Lour Saga and MFTG. MFTG later died and Lour Saga underwent another major transformation before TOA as a novel was started on in ~2001-2003 and the rewrite project was started in 2009. TOA died at the dawn of 2010 at 620k words and 1350 pages in length. The world's dream and my desire to work with it died with it, though I developed some secondary content for Black Sun's arcs during 2012.

To summarize, TOA was my life's work, and an unerring testimony to my incompetence.

What tools were used to make this?

Modeling - 3ds max exclusively

Rendering - 3ds max for untextured, unreal 4 for textured, standard encode pipeline for video media.

Textures - Mindtex, modified filterforge library content, Unreal 4 stock content, hand made content

Particles - Largely hand made fumefx sprite sheets from 3ds max, and all systems are made in unreal 4.

Audio editing - Sans video-specific mixing, all of my audio is processed in Adobe Audition 1.5.

Why do all ship models lack detail, proper UV's and canon-appropriate configurations?

Most importantly, I am not an artist. Secondly, all of the meshes are direct ports from the incomplete Sins of a Solar Empire variant of Retribution (2012-2014), which had extremely restrictive poly limits and other issues with exporting. Finally, what detail they had was allocated to sections that were expected to see camera time. Since Z and moving turrets weren't a thing in Sins, their weapon arrangements (and indeed turrets themselves) were rather half-assed.

What prohibited the video variants of Retribution and the related tech document?

Not being a character modeler meant it was completely impossible to get models for my characters. Ripping assets isn't enough for a serious project, I needed something hand-crafted and this was to be no trivial task. Since I couldn't do it myself, and was never going to be able to learn how, the projects invariably died. It didn't help I had so many broken promises and misplaced trust from third parties along the way.

Why are some ships based on external concepts?

Although I have many designs in my head, I have great difficulty quantifying even the simplest things in my head into actual shapes. The base shape of a mesh is extraordinarily difficult and by far the hardest part to get right. Months could go by without attaining even acceptable results in a base shape. This is why some models were built off of existing concepts or were from base shapes created by other users I found use in. Unfortunately, I find modeling from reference equally challenging, so success in such deviations was rare, having a suitable, clean base mesh to work with was the most valuable resource. Truly, none of the models you see on this site are really "canon" to what is in my head. I just allow them to take the name of my content because there is nothing better.

What plugin did you use in 3ds max renders?

I use the default scanline (fresh scene) with no plugins at all. Default standard material with no changed settings, one omni light and one skylight. Sometimes I add supersampling in the render settings. That's it. I've been asked this question countless times and I am not really sure why, but that's my setup.

The orthographic renders can take anywhere from one to fifteen hours a piece, particularly once supersampling is added to the mix. My CPU is ancient.