Hi. I've created this thread for several reasons but the main ones is that I do not want to litter the Flags Concept thread.
This thread will serve as a frontline for me to ask questions and like a blog thing to keep you upraised on how I go about doing things and what its current status is. I will mainly talk about the current flag models, but if any questions that pop up and may help me I will ask them.

Later on, if I succeed with actually getting this flag into the game, with animations and textures and whatnot, I will create a complete guide, that even the biggest beginner can have a chance, at how to actually go about this so that no more confusion will pop up.

So to start things off. I am creating a flag model to replace the current ones. I see that the current flag models are .md3 types, but I cannot convert my .smd models into .md3 as it says I need a .qc file. The questions here is.

1. Where can I find the current .qc files for the flag models (if they have any). I want them only to see how they were made and what's in them.
2. Are these .qc files necessary or are they just necessary only if you have advanced shaders in your models?
3. How do I go about and create .qc files?
4. Where can I find the current CTF flag models? I haven't been able to locate them in the SVN. If someone could put up a link it'd be appreciated. I want to see how the other models where made.

Other questions:
5. What's the difference between a .mdl and a .md3 model? Why must for instance the flag models be .md3?
6. Why does some models need converting into .zym? Such as the player models and also some weapon models I saw.

I'm working in Maya 2008, I am using Valves .smd exporter (which seems to actually work). To get this .smd exporter to work you actually need Steam and Source SDK. I've found this info on another forum and followed it's instructions. This .smd exporter actually works a lot better than Pralls exporter. Also, the Valve exporter have different choices, export .smd for models, animations, physics and there was one more. Now I don't really know how to use these different .smds together but I will find a way.

Anyway, after exporting to a .smd with Valves exporter from Maya I import this into Milkshape. In Milkshape I actually convert this into whatever model format I need, such as .mdl, .md3 or whatever. Now of course as mentioned, I cannot export to .md3 unless I have a .qc file.

That was everything I have for now, now on to an update:
I have made the lasers and the logo blue as suggested be some other fellow and this is what I have for now.
NOTE: No texture or materials have yet been made. The texture I'm using is actually the 256x256 Nexuiz logo you can find on OUNS by Sant. This one is actually just a temp, but of course, if people like it I see why not keeping it (if so I'll need to adjust that picture a bit, make it red and blue).
That's all I had. I'll be off for a few hours, hope to have some responses by then (mainly the questions )

the currently used models are in data/models/ctf/flag_blue.md3 (red)
qc code for ctf is in data/qcsrc/server/ctf.qc but it just sets the path to the model in function spawnfunc_item_flag_team2 (1). I think stuff like shaders are purely model/texture things.. (but i do not know much about that part) .qc files are just text files.. either edit with some text editor or ide.. but it needs to be compiled with fteqcc.

mdl and md3 are just different formats.. it does not matter which you use as long as the engine can use it. But using the same name/format helps as old clients will then at least see the old model..

http://amc.planetduke.gamespy.com/smf/i ... pic=4950.0

What i know is that current flags have 200 frames.

I can't seem to make the flag work. I have exported the flag and made an .mdl model, and in theory it should be visible in Nexuiz, but I get the diamond thing. I've followed the instructions on how to create a player model and any other I found on these forums, but the model just does not want to be visible ingame. Is there some special convertion that needs to take place that I do not know of?

I even created a map in GTKRadiant, and specifically instructed it to use me .mdl model, but I still get nothing. Basically, I exported as .smd from Maya, imported it in Milkshape and from there exported as Gamestudios MDL7 (result is a .mdl file). There's another option, Gamestudio A5 MDL (result is a .mdl file), but I get an error when exporting to this one.

Doesn't Morphed have some inside info that he can share?

Try md3 or zym.

Well, I cannot even create an .md3 as I need a .qc file. No idea what it contains or how to create one from scratch.
My only choice is .zym. I'm installing SVN and gonna get those .qc files for the flags, change it to a .zym and recompile. If that doesn't work then I'm out of options. As when I try .mdl they don't even show ingame.

So if it turns out the even the .zym won't work then some other modeler that has done this need to step up, or at least explain to me how to do it.

I think you have something mixed.. md3 is a model format, .qc is game code.. what makes you think you need a .qc file? Maybe >i'm< missing something?

You both miss things. If you took a look at a link which i've posted, everything should be more clear..
qc file can also act as model reference, which defines model skin files, frames, etc... You can create it by hand.

Well, finally I actually got my flag ingame. It can use some work of course but at least I have one problem down. Thanks to Alien's link. I skimmed over the link quickly before, but only now, after getting some free time, did I follow the instructions. And whee and behold. This is a method that actually works.
The scale of course and rotation is off, but this is a very easy fix. Thanks a lot for that link Alien, you're my hero.

@Esteel, I need a .qc file to be able to export from Milkshape, but now that Milkshape creates that file for me the problem is solved. It's a simple as clicking 'Tools -> Quake III Arena -> Generate Control File' inside Milkshape.

Hmm, interesting, maybe quake3 needed that .qc file.. The scale is really way of and the textures seem like they are not found by the engine. But its a cool first step!

What I think is that ai will need to make 2 models. Another should be same flag only without pedestal/legs, cause it will look bad when flag will be attached and its legs will be sticking around. And player models might need additional bone if flags should be carried in some special manner but not glued to the back like now. There is actually space between models.

ai, you may lack skin files. q3 model might have (not necessary) these in addition to md3 file.

Take a look at:
http://icculus.org/twilight/darkplaces/ ... ngFeatures
How to make .skin files for multiple skins on a Quake3 (md3) or DarkPlacesModel (dpm) model

OK. Sorry, i found in previous thread, that the legs are lasers and will go off. So everything is nice. Nice model.

It'd be kinda cool if it could animate when picked up so that the laser legs retracted and extended when dropped. It would probably take some work but if done right it could look really good.

Ok, getting the size and position right was a lot more work than I thought. Had to export and convert several times to get it right, it's still just a tad off (hardly noticable) but I have screens on the general size and look of the flag now when someone carries it.
Thanks to Greens server I was able to check this out. The Lazy Dog server didn't work. This is a substitute for the blue flag, but the Lazy Dog still had that weird cog thing instead of my model.

Next up it to read up on how to texture the flag and make it look good.

This is definitely heading in the right direction.
And that bow can come in handy to avoid a stick-through-head-effect if you take the flag a little closer to the player's body.

I still suggest to use a special bone for flag. Flag looks unnatural sticking straight on the ground and not depending on the player's position.

Shoe wrote:It'd be kinda cool if it could animate when picked up so that the laser legs retracted and extended when dropped. It would probably take some work but if done right it could look really good.

I completely agree with this.

Looking good ai.

i didn't like that model at all, but seeing it in those screenshots surprised me how good it can look. Can't wait to try it in-game.

I'm currently UV unwrapping it and creating textures for it. Then of course how to implement those textures into the models needs reading up on.

@Alien: Yeah I agree with the bone thing for the flag/players, but that's a process that's further into the future but eventually (hopefully) will be implemented.

The Nexuiz flag have now been unwrapped (was a long and tedious process) and I've started creating texture for it. The texturing process is at the beginning so nothing all that spectacular have yet happened. There hardly isn't anything there anyway. I just wanted to give an update as where I am at the moment.

However, if someone else would step up and create a texture for it that would be cool. I'm not that good of a 2D artist and there are way better people on these forums than me.
If someone would step up I would create a detailed explanation on where these UVs go and what pieces on the model it would affect.



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Here's the UV layout along with how far along I am in the texturing process. This also explains how one goes about to create textures for UV unwrapped models for those who do not know.
Now I am texturing at 2048x2048 so there's more room for detail as well as you can size it down later if necessary. So the below images are very big.

AI- why are there two images of the flag in your UV map?

torus wrote:AI- why are there two images of the flag in your UV map?

I have two planes, one from the 'front' another from the 'back'. So that the Nexuiz character always will be in the correct manner, with other words, not mirrored.

Seems like a waste of polygons to me. You could just make the flag a separate object with a separate shader which is viewable from both sides.

I have no idea how to do that so. This is much easier, plus, not so many more polys either +32 tris.

Btw, have anyone an idea what to do with colors/textures that would change color depending on the team? For instance, how do I setup the red and blue flag and the lasers. Should they use a separate .tga for the color of the flag or should I create two different set of models?

I read that they use the pants and shirts color but don't know how it's worked out technically. I.e. if the flag and the lasers should be included in the UV texturing process or a separate file.

And to get up to speed: I've made a little more on the texture:



EDiT:
Two more screens of the progress:



If you've got any suggestions then I'm willing to hear what you have to say. Otherwise I'll just make something till I'm satisfied.

EDIT 2:
I've actually changed position of those blue lights. Instead of being above those triangle thingies it's now between them. Looks better that way, and too small of a change to actually post an image. You'll have to use your imagination for that.

Ok, so I think I'm as good as done with the texturing process of the diffuse colors for the flag. Unless anyone have any other suggestions they want to throw in here or if I see something I wanna change, but this is pretty much the final one.

I'm going to start off with showing you the actual unwrapped texture, then below is are some screens of the complete flag.
There are no glows, bumps, normal maps and such yet and didn't want to add any from Maya as the actual ingame result might differ. But it still gives a good representation of how the flag looks like.

I have now questions on how to break this unwrapped texture into different categories, so that certain parts of the flag gets the color of the team, such as the cloth and some lights. Or do I just need to change the colors to red/blue and have different models altogether?
Any help with this process and how to actually export this model with the texture is greatly appreciated, I know nothing about that, I'm just a 3D guy after all.

Enough talk, down to the pictures:

Unwrapped texture:


Flag pics:

Iirc there are flags for both red and blue, so simply duplicate the model and the textures.
And in case you want animated textures too, you'll need to re-UV map the model, to be able to use different textures/shaders for different parts.
Eg. a glowy, 50% transparent animated shader with 4-5 frames would be cool for the laser legs.

Update, I'm going to describe my steps on what I did and how I did it to anyone who might be curious:

Ok, so I experimented with exportation to an .smd. Looked bleak at first, but I didn't give up. I just tried a normal export once the texture has been applied on the model in Maya but that didn't work and have me a gray model.
However, I opened some files and changed some stuff in them, but I don't think they had anything to do with anything. What I did instead was skimming through Milkshape and on the 'Materials' tab, below the two sliders is actually the path to the texture. So I loaded the texture I wanted to use there and then right-clicking in the 3D view and choose 'Textured' (almost at the top) I could see the texture on my model.

So afterwards I created a .qc file but I had to change the path to the texture and model inside it. I used the Nexuiz path, meaning where it says '$model' I changed that path to: 'models/ctf/flag_blue.md3'
I'm using the 'flag_blue' as it is hard coded by the engine and I don't want to compile my own.
I did the same thing where it says '$skin', there I changed the path to: 'textures/nexFlag_blue_diffuse.tga'

Then, after changing these settings in the .qc-file I exported the model to a .m3. Note, Milkshape will need you to name the .qc-file exactly like the model you're exporting to. With other words my .qc-file had to be named 'flag_blue.qc' if I wanted to export the blue flag.
Once that got exported I just simply placed the model in the Nexuiz folder (described above) and same thing with the texture. And viola, it worked. I didn't actually believe it to work so well so quickly.

Now down to the goodies:











Next up I suppose will be animations and whatnot.

Standalone flags of course look nice, but, imo, they are too big/static when attached to the player (looks unatural), eg. first screenshot/

Flags are great, but ai could post his screenshots in 90 fov. That would be even better

I agree with Alien. The flag looks ok on the ground, but it looks bulky when carried by a player.

Here's with fov 90. And two with chase_active 1
Yeah ok, it looks big when carried by a player. So how would one counter that? What are you suggesting?