Tommy Atkins, Reporting for Duty

Hello and welcome back to another update of Forgotten Hope. Today is a special update, as we are able to reveal another player model, one of the most complicated things needed for the mod. But, before we get to the images and descriptions there are a few other items that are worth mentioning.

First, of all, the voting for the 5th annual moddb.com Annual Mod of the Year Awards has begun. Last year Forgotten Hope for Battlefield 1942™ was honored to be named #14 of the best mods of 2005 and and Forgotten Hope 2 for Battlefield 2™ was named the second most anticipated unreleased mod. If you think Forgotten Hope 2 should be honored a second year, click the moddb.com logo below, and then click the "Vote Now" button on the page that appears.

As a second bit of interesting news, Games for Windows Magazine, formerly Computer Gaming World, will have an article titled Keeping It Real: Military Mods for the True Wargamer. The article is about history and reality inspired mods in general, not just Forgotten Hope, but we anticipate that Forgotten Hope may be given a prominent place. The article will appear in issue #2 of GFW which goes on sale December 12th.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too, But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you; An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints, Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints; While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind", But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind, There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind, O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

excerpt from Tommy by Rudyard Kipling

As you can tell by glancing at any of the images below, todays update features Forgotten Hope's "Tommy" or British Soldier. The explanations of how the name Tommy Atkins came to stand for all British soldiers are too numerous to mention here, but it is safe to say that the nickname was widespread during the First World War, and was still common during the Second.

Although not always the best led, or best equipped troops of World War Two, the armies fielded by Britain and the nations of the Commonwealth included some of the most tough and resilient soldiers of any nation involved. British troops endured years of defeat and disappointment, experienced repeated losses of equipment and changes of command, yet managed to find the will to continue. Forgotten Hope 2's Tommy was created by Rad. As you can see he not only made a meticulously crafted base model, he also created three different, highly individualized faces.

We thought some fans might enjoy seeing how so much detail could be included in a game model without causing the average graphics card to burst into flames. As you can see from the wireframe and flat shaded images below, the base model is relatively simple. Most of the detail is provided by the normal map. Rad created his normal maps by modeling a much more complex "high-poly" (i.e. a high number of polygons) version of the body and of each face. He then "baked" (a kind of specialized render) a normal map, which is a texture that describes how each pixel reacts to the game engine's simulated light. The gray center render in each image shows what the simple low-poly model looks like with just the normal map applied. When the full color texture "diffuse" texture is added the combination makes the final ouput appear to have a far more detailed geometry than is truly the case.

   

We are still working out the details and accessories for each class and kit, but hopefully the images above and the screens below, will give you some insight into how much variety and effort is being included in Forgotten Hope 2 These are all still "Works in Progress" but a great deal of progress has been made, and there is more to come.

   

   

   

   

   

As a final treat, we prepared an extra large wallpaper-sized version of an image which was only seen before as part of an out-of-focus element in a prior news update. This is, of course, the Long Range Desert Group Chevy with its crew. Everything in the image was made by Rad, except the Vickers Machine gun which was made by The Jackalx2k and Rad, and the helmet worn by the standing Tommy, which was made by Zero and Rad.The wallpaper is also available in the Wallpapers section of this website.

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That's all for this week, but be sure to come back for another news update soon. And don't forget to to visit our public forums to discuss this update. Oh - and if you haven't voted yet - don't neglect to do it soon. We recommend that you vote immediately. ;)