Unit of the Week #2 - Making of Mi-4AV 'Hound'

Hello, everyone!

In the next "unit of the week" post we have decided to tell you a little bit about the process of its creating. Our team pays special attention to the details and realism, that our future players will certainly appreciate.

Mi-4 (known to NATO as “Hound”) is the first Soviet military transport helicopter, also widely used by the Warsaw Pact countries. The helicopter is presented in our game in two main modifications: Mi-4A and armed Mi-4AV.

Mi-4AV is the armed version of the Mi-4A equipped with four 9М17М ATGM "Phalanga" (known to NATO as AT-2 “Swatter”) and 96 57-mm NAR S-5M. Also Mi-4AV can carry up to six 100-kg bombs or four 250-kg bombs but this option will be added later.

In our game this helicopter is versatile, it serves as a transport for the infantry and also allows you to defeat the enemy's ground equipment and infantry.


As sometimes there is no possibility to get high-quality blueprints of military equipment as it was with Mi-4AV, we decided to use the photogrammetry technology. This technology allows you to build a 3D-model based on many photos of the real object, taken from various angles.

To make photos of the Mi-4, we went to the Central Air Force Museum of the Russian Federation, where there is a great collection of unique models of aircraft of that period.


The Central Air Force Museum of the Russian Federation https://cmvvs.ru/


More than 500 photos of the Mi-4 were taken from a variety of angles.


The 3D model, which requires further refinement, was built on the base of these images.


Matching the resulting 3D model with the existing sketch drawings

HighPoly


Highly detailed HighPoly model (more than 4 000 000 polygons).

LowPoly


In game LowPoly model (34,000 polygons)

Texturing


Adding textures to the model

After setting up the animation the model is ready for integration into the game engine.

Screenshots