modelling weapons for UT

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LP

*wants to be your friend*
Mar 2, 2001
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www.mvpb.net
well im still a relative newbie to this scene...and i use 3D studio MAXr3(not the newest but hey)
its pretty easy to use. and as far as i know its pretty hungry for ram and processor...although im not sure exactly ,Deepershade would know...
 

LP

*wants to be your friend*
Mar 2, 2001
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ive been discecting Half-Life since i got it , and wondered y all their 1st person weapon models have the bottom half missing , if u know what i mean..heres an example..
is this necessary , or is it just to speed up the skinning process??
 

LP

*wants to be your friend*
Mar 2, 2001
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i havent got my hands on BS yet , but it looks good , although i dunno if i should get it after ur comment..(DAMN U!)

back to the weapons..would it really matter if u modelled the whole weapon?
it cant be too many polys..
 

meowcat

take a chance
Jun 7, 2001
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don't model whole gun

As far as first person weapon models go I don't recommend modelling the whole gun. It is a waste of polys and processing powerif you model the whole gun. What i usually do is make an entire model, save it then make a copy of it that i use ingame in which I cut away the poly's that won't be visible (backstock of assault rifles usually) That way you can have more poly's for the detail of the gun. Infiltration 2.85 and up is a good example of some models that have perhaps too many polys (but dang they sure look good) with a lot of their models using 1200+ polys. And btw milkshape is avery good cheap way to get into 3d modelling. it is very easy to use once you learn some basics of vertex manipulation.
 

meowcat

take a chance
Jun 7, 2001
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here are some examples

here are some models I've done for my own weapons pack. a beretta and an M249 SAW.
 

meowcat

take a chance
Jun 7, 2001
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Hands

i know what you mean about the hands. I can't model hands to save my life, so how you may ask did I aquire these? Simple, just use the hands that came with UT. I used the enforcer hands for my pistols, and the sniper rifle arm for my assault rifles. To make them look good skin them using the skin they use in game also (provided you like those skins). for the saw model i did not use the correct skin so it looks kind of funny. As for importing models it is very important to understand what you are asking in the exec commands. if you post them i could take a look and see if i notice anything. Lemoni Are you using milkshape also? Make sure the textures you import with the model are named just like you named them in milkshape.
 

meowcat

take a chance
Jun 7, 2001
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Two choices

I got the models out using a program called WOTGreal. i don't remember where I got it, but you can search for it on google. Or another really useful program is UT Package Tool. The advantage of wotgreal is that it is easy to export all of the meshes in a package, but it does require a little bit of setup on your machine (2-3 minutes of filling out required fields). UT Package Tool also works pretty well with you opening a .u file and it displays all of the contents of the file and if you right click on them you can export them. One downside is that although you can get models out of files, I don't know of any program which actually allows you to view the animations of the model (the a_3d file is essentially useless for viewing purposes). This is useful to see what techniques the original modelers used for ideal poly counts in various views.
 

TableTrousers

SKELETAL BONES
Jul 20, 2001
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I LIKE OATMEAL
vanguard.zerion.com
thanks guys - I actually downloaded milkshape before any of you answered, and checked it out briefly...from what I've seen of my friend using 3DSMAX, it seems like Milkshape is a (very) toned down version...which means he could probably help me with learning it.

Thanks a lot :)

~Gwilym

P.S. My weapons will be ridiculously low-poly, but using various tricks I've picked up they should still look good.
 

meowcat

take a chance
Jun 7, 2001
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got to start somewhere

it doesn't matter if they are low poly or not the important thing is to get the hang of using milkshape, animating and using it, skinning and then importing into ut (can be very difficult at first). good luck!
 

meowcat

take a chance
Jun 7, 2001
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go to polycount

I'll see if I can find the links to some good sites, but until then go to planetquake and go to the site polycount. Although most of the tutorials deal with halflife the ones using milkshape willshow you some good techniques for making models. I'll see what else I can dig up.