Player Model Creation - Help

[Oblivion]

Hi.

I'm Oblivion and I'm g-... er... I'm a modeler+texturer.

I have been wanting to make a player model for so long and finally I have the drive to do so.

Anyway, my problem is I work in 3dsMax and have no inclination nor patience to learn GPL tools like Blender or Milkshape. I have blender tho and can more or less navigate in it (Though I still get lost every now and then). Is there a description/tutorial somewhere where people who worked with 3dsMax have successfully imported player models into Nexuiz?

If not, any tut in blender will probably do.

Note that I have no problems with modeling or texturing since I've been doing that already. I just need specifics on rigging and exporting for Nexuiz. :S

Thanks.

Also, what models work best? Single mesh or jointed?

Also, what's the usual polycount limit?

[torus]

I have no idea about 3ds, although it would be easy enough to export/import models into Blender. We should soon have a Blender exporter, thanks to ishan.

The models right now are pretty high poly- some more than 3500 tris. This isn't optimal- you should aim for 1800- 2500. You should model really high poly, then reduce it, and make up for the difference with tangent-space normal maps (this is what they do in all the new games).

[Shoe]

afaik isn't 3DS Max a choice program since it has a fully-functional .smd exporter? Or am I confusing it with another program? I haven't exactly had a perfect record lately of Nex facts

[shaggy]

Obi, I'm pretty sure the models are free to have what ever they like...
What you need to do would be:
- Model
- Make a skeleton / Use another one
- Rig the model
- Export as smd
- Then convert to zym

To convert to a zym you need those model tools morphed always talks about... iirc
A zym exporter is in the orinal playermodel pk3s. Make sure to edit config-zym.txt.

You know what obi, ,you've inspired me to write a HOW-TO Nexuiz Modeling... Because there is all this information spread out over the forum, but not one single guide.

I hope this helped..

[KadaverJack]

afaik isn't 3DS Max a choice program since it has a fully-functional .smd exporter? Or am I confusing it with another program? I haven't exactly had a perfect record lately of Nex facts

Yes, 3ds max is pretty much the only 3d modeler with a working smd plugin, afaik.

@Oblivion: since i don't know anything about modelling, the only advice i can gice you is to have a look at the current model's source files and see if that helps you in any way...
(they can be found here: http://svn.icculus.org/nexuiz/trunk/modelsource. the web-frontend seems to be broken atm, i've mirrored that stuff here)

[Oblivion]

Torus:
Thanks And yes I know normal mapping. Doess nexuiz support it?
I'll try for low poly models first though.

Shaggy:
Good luck with the tut. Hey... rigging again. How would I rig the mesh? bone naming conventions? etc? Do I save poses? *sigh*

KadaverJack and Shoe:

YAY!
Where can I grab the smd export plugin?

btw, KadaverJack, the link returns a 500 Internal server error. EDIT: Nevermind, your mirror works fine. Thanks!

Thanks guys. I'll try to make a model first then wprry about rigging and exporting later. ~2000 will be my poly limit for now. bbl when I have screenies

EDIT: Found the exporter, Thanks.
http://www.chaosincarnate.net/cannonfodder/cftools.htm

[KadaverJack]

Thanks And yes I know normal mapping. Doess nexuiz support it?
I'll try for low poly models first though.

Of course it does
Just save your normal map as <yourtexture>_norm.tga

[iSuck]

Bumpmaps are the easiest though, just take your texture and turn it monochrome. It can look pretty cool.

Blender makes really nice tangent-space normals, you can choose the "bake normals" option and it gives you the normal texture on a silver platter.

[leileilol]

Bumpmaps are the easiest though, just take your texture and turn it monochrome. It can look pretty cool.

Blender makes really nice tangent-space normals, you can choose the "bake normals" option and it gives you the normal texture on a silver platter.

That won't look good

[shaggy]

Ok, I've written it, I'm not sure if I've added everthing... So if I've missed something please tell me.

http://www.forums.alientrap.local/viewtopic.php?t=2549