Miscellaneous Pictures

Well theres the planes from two posts ago (my pride and joys)... But in the realm of guns?

Well, my most current gun in progress. An FN P90. Fires fast, spits smoking brass, has silencer, scope , laser and tac light attachment, as well as an optional shell baggy. Has cool muzzle flash, nice fire sound and all that jazz. Oh, and the rounds in the mag decrease as you shoot.

Meeting in world would be cool sometime if you want to see some stuff. The FN P90 is just one of my(incomplete) triumphs of SL science!

Sounds like your gun is feature-rich, but I'm afraid that it doesn't visually appeal to me. The model reminds me of certain first life sub-machine guns, with the curved grips and whatnot, but the gun does not look like it was actually meant to be held by a human. To be honest, it suffers from Futuristic Gun Syndrome. It's a relatively simple model that takes the general gun archetype, but twists its features and encrusts it with ostentatious details in order to achieve that "Hey I'm a gun... a coooool gun!" kind of flair.

A few suggestions for an appealing gun:
1. Ergonomics are key! The gun must look like it was designed to be held, not displayed. Otherwise, when people use it, they will not look nearly as coooool as they might otherwise look.
2. Textures are vital! Though shiny and blank looks good, and it's a finish I'm prone to using very frequently, it does not look as good as a well designed texture.
3. Form follows function! Ostentatious ornamentation should be kept to a minimum. People do not use guns encrusted with details in actual combat, because the weapons are too heavy. Though we are freed from the burdens of weight in this world (thus allowing me to wield an aircraft-caliber minigun), unneeded details contribute to visual clutter and decrease the aesthetic quality of the weapon.
4. Detail is key! Personally, I prefer high-detail, high-prim models that capture all of the essence of the weapon. But even these models fall flat if the accompanying effects aren't well done (or even done at all). Muzzle flash, good sounds, smoke, spent cartridges, decrementing magazines, etc. are all necessary to fully realize the gun metaphor in SL. Even a low-prim model with these effects can be appealing to people.

Don't think that I'm just pissing on futuristic guns in general. The Seburos (both original and inspired) succeed visually because they synthesize future technology and the traditional gun archetype to produce a weapon which is sumltaneously fresh and delicious but also familiar. Some people like intentionally producing weapons which shatter this archetype. Some people like to wrap Central Park with pink fabric. That doesn't mean they're right. Which of course isn't applicable to your gun, since it's definitely inspired by modern day guns. I just got carried away ranting about coooool guns I guess.

Speaking of cooooool guns, I've attached an image of Ezequal Torgeson's Minigun. There's something special about a gun that's taller than your av, non?

I love my Suburo eXploders!!

-Ghoti

Theres a lot to love. I'm just point out something I think is sub standard.

Ardith: Yeah yeah, thats all nice and good but theres a catch. It's a replica of a REAL GUN.

Anyways, a lot of times I forgo textures on guns when they simply do not have much texture to speak of. Whats the P90? A shiny black gun. Granted I could (and might -- its still unfinished and I never know what I'm going to add) add perhaps a generic plastic texture -- but it's just that, plastic.

(as a humorous note, why the FN P90 does look ike a "future gun", it was made in the latter 1980s. Go figure.)

You forgot to add the words "Say Hello to my little friend" to the picture.

Someone just poked me at this thread, sorry if I'm a little late.

Thanks for everyone's comments about the Seburos. Their design spans across all the major disciplines of SL, so I suppose one weakness isn't doing bad

I happened to be doing a couple photos of it today (I'm thinking of building them a website!) and here's one of the work-in-progress test pictures so everyone can see if they like the model or not.

I suppose it's a matter of personal taste. Personally, I don't see the visual appeal of the FN-P90. To me, it's very blocky, and inelegant. It's as if the designers only considered its function without consideration for its appearance. Other folks love the look, though.

Amusing backstory: Masamune Shirow's Seburo Compact-eXploders are partially inspired by the P90, which in turn inspired my interpretation of the CX concept. I guess this means that taste isn't transitive

I think most of the appeal comes from how outlandish it looks. Until recently the only gun that looked as strange as a p90 was the Steyr AUG. Now just about every bullpup(for some reason, they're always bullpups) have some crazy looking plastic body. The XM8, the FN F2000, the IMI TAR-21 and of course the crazy OICW all look like crazy space aged guns.

Still, the FN P90 is really the only gun that looks like it does. I dare say it's a pretty gun in the eyes of must people -- but I could be wrong, I like a lot of ugly guns. I think the G11 is the coolest assault rifle ever and I currently have a Mauser c96 strapped to my avatars belt.

I suppose a lot of my complaint stems from previous knowledge of the source material. Your Seburo CX looks like it was made from spare parts left around a shop( In a cool, steam punk kinda way), while the Shirow's Seburo CX is a shiny, streamlined polished looking piece of hardware. I suppose it's also because most of the pictures I complain about aren't fit for that sort of steampunk look.

Either way, it's only one flaw that still looks better then most SL guns.

I acknolwedged the fact that the gun was based on a real SMG in my first post. The reason why I can legitimately accuse the weapon of being "fugly futuristic" is because the 80s were notorious for products with poor industrial design. They were constantly striving to produce something with a futuristic flair, without any consideration for ergonomics or usability. I blame the popularity of Star Wars. In all fairness to you, the actual gun is far more hideous than your model. If I wanted a poorly designed gun made of matte plastic, I'd loose a bunch of kids in a hardware store, and watch as they cobbled together a weapon from the ABS stock. And it would probably be a thousand times more aesthetically appealing.

Ah, but it wouldn't kick as much ass.

Anyways, your wording left a little room for error on my part.

So, now I'm curious. What do you all consider to be good looking guns? Real ones, that is.

My apologies for being so harsh, by the way. I didn't intend to come off as a jerk. I just dislike the design of most of the weapons which the CS crowd loves so much. I love more traditional weapons, I guess. Of the weapons which you mentioned, the only ones which I actually like are the G11, c96, and the OICW. The OICW comes with a caveat: it's got an interesting general design, but the weapon looks very cluttered.

Personally, I think the DR300 is a far more attractive weapon than any of the others. The weapon combines the smooth curves of more modern weapons without totally flying off the handle and going Chewbacca on us. My main objection to the style of [the p90] is that the curves don't appear to have been positioned for any humanoid to use, but rather tentacle-armed warriors of Cthulhu.

Edit: small edit to clarify which gun (the original or your replica) I was really talking about.

Ah yes, CS gun fandom. I, fortunately, have never been a CS player my self, but I've heard of such thing.

Anyways, thing with a P-90, ergonomics wise is that you hold it differently then any other gun. You hold it against your chest. and hold it differently. Apparently the stance is very effective, but I have no first hand experience.

Heh, you like the G11 and c96? I thought I was the only one. I love them like a mom loves an ugly butter baby. Especially the c96. My heart cried with joy when I saw it loaded with a stripper clip. I'm actually thinking of making a G11 after the P90.

DR300 is pretty cool looking in a sort of strange way, I must say. It seems to morph from one sort of gun to another as it goes across.

OMG - the G11 is cool as hell.

I thought I was the only person here that would know what that was, until I went further down the thread.

If no one else makes one, I will, like... a year or two from now when I can actually build it and make it look right.

this is such a cool thread...thank you for showing me a way to do something with photoshop...

Just some things I have been playing about wif, tell me what ya think

First one takes a while to open, but I think its worth it

More pictures. Not many of them are done up. First shows my Zeppelin in comparison to another, still impressive one... Zepp2 shows an older version of the Zeppelin with a plane in comparison. As a note that plane is probably one of the bigger planes in SL.

Maybe I'll take more "Vintage" shots sometime.

Well, I just noticed this sky and had to post it.