modelling weapons for UT

[TableTrousers]

what type of program do you use to do this, and how much processing power do you need for it?

it's just i reckon I'd have more luck finding people to help me with a semi-realism weapons mod if I had models ready-made.

[LP]

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...

[FireSlash]

Milkshape 3D ( www.milkshape3d.com ) is only 20 bucks (with a free 30 day trial) and its alot less CPU intensive, but i still suggest you have minimal 96 meg ram for any modeling program, because you will usually have a few refrence images open, or a refrence model, and those eat memory too

[LP]

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??

[Euphoric Beaver]

It's so they save polyies because you will never see it. Some of the UT models do it.

BTW I've played all three now (Got Blue Shift last Saturday. )
I thought Blue Shift was utter pants.

Personally thought Opposing Force was best.

[LP]

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]

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]

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

[meowcat]

here is the beretta

[LP]

very good man , very good..how do u guys make the hands , i can never do that part

[Lemoni]

yo nice wep, i made 1 but i cant get it into ut properly,all i get is mesh map missing warnings any help

[FireSlash]

are your directories set correctly? with the default script, it will be assigned as an actor, with the model in /models and skins in / and classes in /classes

[meowcat]

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.

[Papapishu]

Well, how did you get the dang models OUT of the game.
I've wondered about this forever...

[meowcat]

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]

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]

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!

[TableTrousers]

yeah, could you please point me in the direction of a tutorial(s)?

a tutorials is good

[meowcat]

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.

[FireSlash]

http://www.planetquake.com/polycount...odelanim.shtml