Modeler Q&A

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shoprat
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Modeler Q&A

Post by shoprat »

Modeler Q&A

The first part of the post seems to be answered by someone at Surreal. At the end of the post it appears that Zeoc is giving advice on modding the Goblin Gun.


I've been messing with the modeler and making stuff by modifying existing models. I've pretty much got down how to use some of the tools and how to use tool references, but I can't use the add vertex/polygon tools, the align vertex tool, or the add partition tool. I don't even know what the last two are supposed to do...if anyone could help, I will be tremendously in your debt.



The norm here is that the designers use the editor and the artists the modeler...so I don't know much more about the modeler than you guys. None the less I think some of this may help "some".

One reason you might not be able to change any part of a model is because you didn't click the red button with the box on it.

There's 3 green buttons on the left side...left most of them is vertex, then face, and I guess the last is for the entire model...but ignore it for now as I've never touched it. After that there are 2 red buttons...the first means that when you start doing movements or rotations that they will alter the model...and the 2nd one pressed in by default when you start...it means movements or rotations just move your view around the model...and that's probably why you can't do anything except fly around.

So for example to move a vertex...click on the vertex button...then hit spacebar to be in selection mode and box in some vertex.Then press M for move and drag it somewhere...Where it moves depends on which mouse button you hold and how you are looking at the model.

To create a new polygon select 3 (only 3) vertices and press P ...you need to have a texture selected first.

That isn't much to go on but you should be able to play around a bit with that.


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I am new to this modeling thing, what does the icon next to the model in the database window mean? i.e. the blue box, or the little stick figure with the numbered green box, does that mean it's an animation or something?



The icon means it's a character. The difference between static models and character, is that characters have a skeleton, and must be bounded with spheres. Buildings, weapons, items are all static models, while Rynn, Wartoks, etc. are characters. If you double click on a character you'll get a window with all it's animations.

*.REO files are static models (RiotEngineObject)
*.REC files are characters (RiotEngineCharacter)

both can be loaded in the modeler.


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A couple of Quick Questions for you, if you have the time....
Well they may not be Quick but I'll try to keep them Quick and short...

First...I want to know how you adjusted the Gunbow in your DragonMech levels so that it fits nicely in Rynn's hand and so that it fires arrows the proper way...?

Secondly... Once i understand the first one how did you change the appearance of the Gunbow (Shock Cannon) in the Shock Arena levels...?

Lastly...Since you seem to know a lot about the level editor (since your levels are excellent and near flawless), is it possible to create an entirely new weapon from scratch with the 3D modeler...Say like a crossbow...?




1. The goblin gun was the base model for the Gunbow. It's already pointing in the right direction when used as a bow, and it fits in Rynn's hands, but the goblin gun model blocks the screen in first-person mode. I fixed that by using the modeler to reduce the size of the goblin gun barrel, and that's how I made the Gunbow.

2. I changed the wood textures to metal and reduced the color to give the Shock Cannon it's look in Shock Arena 2. If you look at the differences between the first texture in the SA2 database and Texture 290 in the Resources database, you'll see what I did.

3. Actually, I don't know if you can create entirely new models or not. It might be possible, but I only have experience with editing existing models.



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Sorry to bother you....

Can you explain how you went about using the modeler to reduce the size of the Gunbow and how you changed the texture of the Shock Cannon....I am lost with the modeler and I really don't want to mess something up if I do something totally wrong...
I can't even seem to open anything up with the modeler.




First you need to export the goblin gun model. To do that, open up the editor, go to Databases, load the Resources database if it isn't already, click on the models tab and select Resources---NPC Weapons---Goblin---Goblin Gun. Go to File at the top of the database window and choose Export Selection.

Now, open the goblin gun in the modeler. Rotate the camera so you're look along the main part of the weapon. Move the camera in and you'll notice each end is an octagon made of 2 trapezoids and a rectangle. Go to wireframe mode, click the vertex select tool, and select the 4 vertices on the right of each end (which is actually the top of the weapon). Move these to the left so the rectangle gets really thin. This will make the weapon squashed, but it won't block Rynn's view anymore. For a non-squashed weapon you would want to reduce the size of the octagons but keep their dimensions. Be sure that when you move one vertex, you move the corresponding one from the other end. Don't worry, if you mess up, you can always export the model again.


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I now know how to open models in the modeler and I have been fooling around with it, however, when you said that I can move the vertexes, how exactly do I move them...

Also secondly how do I change the textures in the modeler...What I mean is in the texture window I see the texture for the Goblin Gun but how can I change this texture to some other color...like the metal one you used in the Shock Arena?




To move vertices, first, you need to get the camera positioned right. Then, on the toolbar at the top of the screen, click on the first green and first red icons. Now go to the Tools box, click the arrow button, select the vertices you want to move, click the move button which is to the right of the arrow button, and click and drag to move the vertices. If you do this with the left mouse button, the vertices will go forward/back and left right, and with the right mouse button, they'll go up/down. If you want to move the camera again, you'll need to click on the second red icon at the top of the screen.

To change the goblin gun texture, just use a paint program like Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop to edit the file Texture290.bmp that was automatically created when you exported the goblin gun model. Look for it in the same directory.




Thanks......

I appreciate all that you have helped me with..!

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