What Can I Do For You?

[PinkDot]

Hi to everybody!

 

I'm new in The Team. My job will be 3D modelling and texturing. As far as I know you always needed some objects to be textured, so I thought that could be the thing I would start with. So, are there any models waiting for theirs skins and if yes, where can I find them?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Dram]

Oh! Hello and welcome to the team

 

I missed the applicant thread. Springheel should pop in soon and give you a task or two

 

I think one of the first things you'll need is the mod itself, which is on cvs. Sparhawk can help you with that area.

[Springheel]

Ok, here are a couple models that need skins. You probably need to get the FTP login info from the Information forum first.

 

 

 

Waterpump (dark, worn metal)

http://208.49.149.118/TheDarkMod/models/pr...misc/WaterPump/

 

http://208.49.149.118/TheDarkMod/models/pr...PumpNormal.tga/

 

http://208.49.149.118/TheDarkMod/models/pr...misc/PumpUV.tga

 

 

Wide Bookshelf (check out the tall one for reference http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=346&st=25)

 

Rather than link directly I'll just give you the folder they're in--there is a highpoly model for constructing normalmaps and then the lowpoly for game use.

 

TheDarkMod/models/props/misc/furniture/Wide Bookshelf/

 

And a City Well (worn and dirty is fine)

ftp://208.49.149.126/TheDarkMod/models/props/misc/Well/

 

Those are three for starters. There are a few more after that, but those are a good start.

 

Thanks Pink! Let me know if there are any questions/problems.

[sparhawk]

Welcome to the team. Texturing some objects would definitely be a big help, because we are severly in lack of texture artists and skinners.

[Schatten]

A hello from me, too!

 

Don't mind us sound guys, we're only here to harass the other departments.

 

Dram, if you haven't checked his application thread I suggest you do so, his jaw-dropping screens made with Dark are a must-see.

[sparhawk]

They are really awesome! No wonder that Dromed choked on it.

[PinkDot]

OK, thanks for the task. Waterpump seems be nice as a starter as I have image in my mind of similar one from my garden (I was a child at that time )

 

I think one of the first things you'll need is the mod itself, which is on cvs.

Actually getting Doom 3 will be the very first thing I'll start with... My "trial" version seems to be incomplete - the editor does not even run... But it's hard to get any PC game nowadays in Dublin...

 

EDIT:

I have 2 questions:

1) what can I do with .ASE file? My 3DS Max 7.0 doesn't recognize this format...

2) what textures exactly do you need? Just diffuse and specular or height as well? I heard that doom engine combines normal map and height map into one normal map while initializing. Is that true?

[Dram]

Dram, if you haven't checked his application thread I suggest you do so, his jaw-dropping screens made with Dark are a must-see.

 

Yeah I had a look. I must say that my jaw truly did go limp for about 30 seconds. Really!

 

Excellent work on those maps Pink

[PinkDot]

Yeah I had a look. I must say that my jaw truly did go limp for about 30 seconds. Really!

 

Excellent work on those maps Pink

Thanks, Dram. And I'm glad that your jaw is fine now.

[Springheel]

1) what can I do with .ASE file? My 3DS Max 7.0 doesn't recognize this format...

 

Erm...I'm not sure what program you need to read .ASE files. Anyone?

 

what textures exactly do you need? Just diffuse and specular or height as well? I heard that doom engine combines normal map and height map into one normal map while initializing. Is that true?

 

For most textures we'd need a diffuse and normalmap. A specular is really only needed if the surface is particularly shiny, like metal or cermamics.

 

You should also check out this: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?act=announce&f=4&id=1

[Dram]

I don't know, but I think blender opens them.

[New Horizon]

You should also check out this: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?act=announce&f=4&id=1

 

Be aware though, that the texture guidelines are going to be changing when we switch to .dds texture format. For now, just create your textures as a top quality TGA and no RLE compression. Video cards don't use RLE anyway, so it's a wasted effort for us to do it.

 

Oh, and I found this thread on the subject of importing ASE files into Max 7.

 

http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=13123

[sparhawk]

There is now a script for importing ASE into Blender as well on Doom3World. Didn't test it though.

[BlackThief]

hi pinkdot welcome aboard,

 

sorry to let you stand out there in the rain without a task, but I couldn't spend much time on the computer lately - there's probably only one soccer worldcup taking place in your country during your life you know

 

the waterpump is ok for a start, but actually it's not a very important model, and I just noticed while checking the ASE file that it's quite highpoly for a simple prop (more than 1000tris) and the ASE file is missing uv-data so you would have to unwrap it yourself.

 

so if you like to i'd suggest to start with a city theme of models - the city-well, streetlamps, electronic stuff etc, just stuff like you find all around the city mission in the old thief games (everything needs to be modelled except thewell). I'll post some references for your here...

 

streetlamp

- concept by Springheel

- inspiration for detailed top

- other lamppost

- yet another one

 

walllantern

- concept of a victorian lamp

 

more will follow...

[BlackThief]

EDIT:

I have 2 questions:

1) what can I do with .ASE file? My 3DS Max 7.0 doesn't recognize this format...

2) what textures exactly do you need? Just diffuse and specular or height as well? I heard that doom engine combines normal map and height map into one normal map while initializing. Is that true?

 

1) you definitely need to get deep exploration - it's a nice little prog, that can view 3d models of almost every format and also convert them. eventhough Doom3 is able to import ASE we stick to lwo (lightwave)

 

2)this is true, however heightmaps used by id were actually just simple greyscale bumpmaps for fine details on the characters - you don't have to create a heightmap anymore, since we have the nvidia photoshop plugin for normalmaps nowadays, that does exactly the same.

work flow:

create highpoly object (go as high as you want/your computer is able to handle)

create lowpoly object (just like in any other engine - stay as low as you can, as high as you need - if it's a pretty generic prop you probably shouldn't go over 1000-1500 tris, but if you have to and it's an object with a lot of round stuff it's not too bad to go over 1500 - characters in TDM have around 3000-5000 tris)

 

uvmap lowpoly object

run doom3 renderbump --> here you get the best normalmaps for d3 in tga format - here's a short explanation by id software

 

create a highdetailed heightmap in photoshop and convert it into a normalmap using the nvidia plugin

 

merge both normal maps in photoshop

- not sure what the layer-setting is called in the english version - I've got the german PS-version and it's the 5th layer-option from top of the scroll down menu - called "Ineinanderkopieren" = copy together

 

if you have any further questions - just ask me it's a lot more complicated and more work to do, when working with a new engine I know....but the result is worth it

[PinkDot]

All right - thanks everybody for answers. Now I know, what to do. I have quite decent knowledge about normal maps - at least I think so (compared to the one demanded by dark engine... ) - but all I need is just a little more practice. But I should get it quickly.

 

@BlackThief - nVidia's NormalMapFilter - I know this. I've just checked it with some bump map and that waterpump normal map. The Overlay mode for the layer blending mode seems to work fine. I'm not sure if that's the one you've mentioned, cause I couldn't find it (the fifth in my version is Color Burn (not good...))

 

there's probably only one soccer worldcup taking place in your country during your life you know

Well, today we're in the same team, but tomorrow evening... (Wednesday)... Anyway - it's just football

[PinkDot]

It might take me a while before I start and sort out all this things....

 

BlackThief:

you definitely need to get deep exploration

The downloaded file is corrupted... (unexpected end of archive error...)

 

---

Springheel:

I managed to open the PUMP.ASE file using the method from the NH's link (asciiimp plugin for 3dsmax) but the model looks weird... It looks like all vertices are snapped to some grid (with 1 cm density I think). No snapping function was turned on while importing and changing the grid size did not matter...

 

Other two models: bookshelf and city well are not available for me. I can't get acces to ftp and access to CVS is not set up yet. (I'm waiting for Sparhawk's confirmation).

 

What might be the problem with accesing the ftp? I found some information on it (ID and password) but it hangs up while trying to open anything...

 

----

Anyway - I'll start on the lamp post's which BlackThief mentioned.

[Springheel]

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?showtopic=10

 

Have you checked this thread? The FTP is tempermental sometimes.

[BlackThief]

try this:

http://208.49.149.118/TheDarkMod/Files/DeepEx.rar

[PinkDot]

Thanks BlackThief - this link works.

 

Eventually I've got that well model - looks very well . (the problem was passive mode in accesing to ftp).

 

Few questions:

1) The high poly version has modeled bricks on the outer side but not inside. Wouldn't it look better to make bricks inside too?

 

2) If I'm going to reuse some UVW coordinates (I mean - the same part of texture on diffrent polys) - should I map them before baking the normal map or after?

 

3) There is something strange - when I use UVW Mapping modifier (just for rough mapping), whatever kind of mapping I use (sphere, box, cylindrical...) it's always stretched in Y axis? I Reset them, Fit, set equal dimensions by numbers but it's always stretched. I can correct it manually but it won't let me sleep tonight... Does anybody know what's going on? (maybe author..?)

 

4) General question - should I make new thread for each object/texture I make? Are there any guidelines or rules of posting on this forum?

 

Thanks in advance!

[BlackThief]

1) actually I think it would be most efficient to use a tileable brick texture for the whole lower part - and I think you could do that brick texture a little more rough and messy than on the highpoly model from atti (which is not bad, but would look better with not so straight and clean bricks)

I also think you could go with a tileable texture for the roof - this way we don't have to go so highres with the actual texture resolution and we're probably able to reuse the texture for some other stuff

 

2) it depends on wether you're going to mirror stuff - when you mirror stuff it's better to map the whole thing first and then generate the normalmap, otherwise you'll notice a seam on the normalmap ingame (a little seam will always remain though). in others cases it really depends - there's no rule you'll have to try what looks best in this case.

 

3) unfortunately I can't really help you with that, since I'm not using max, but is it possible that you can somehow set the size of the uvmap in max and maybe this is set on 256x512 or something similar?

 

4) you don't have to make a new thread for each object - it's enough if you create one for each kind of category or so - like Pinkdot's light objects or Pinkdot's architecture props etc - just so that we can keep track of, who's doing what and later it'll be easier to find an old WIP thread

[PinkDot]

I'm afraid this first model will takes me ages to make...

 

I'm trying to use renderbump on low poly well model but all I get is the error message "Can't load model well.ase". Could somebody explain me how exactly should I make it:

 

1) Do I need to set up all the names of models, meterials, textures and folder paths before using the Renderbump command?

 

2) I heard that names of LP model is important and it must be the same as texture (or material?) path... What paths exactly should I use? Where can I find the folder tree I need for Dark Mod to run?

 

3) Does Renderbump looks for HP version of LP model automatically or we have to specify it? What should be the name of it?

 

...and few other things.

If somebody could clarify it for me I will greatly appreciate it!

[BlackThief]

1) yes - your lowpoly model needs to be uvmapped and needs to have a material name applied to it. I've got a seperate renderbump folder in my doom3/darkmod/models directory, there I place all lowpoly and highpoly models for the renderbump process.

then you have to write a material shader - that looks like this:

models/renderbump/bed
{

 renderbump -size 1024 1024  models/renderbump/bed_local.tga models/renderbump/bed_high.lwo

}

 

models/renderbump/bed is the name of the material, and thus the material name of your lowpoly object.

 

2)the actual name of your lowpoly object isn't important at all - you specify that later when you enter the renderbump command into the console

 

3) you have to specify the name and location of the highpoly model in your material shader "models/renderbump/bed_high.lwo"

 

oh and btw don't forget to triangulate both model before renderbump - otherwise d3 will either crash or you won't get a normalmap.

 

the command is pretty simple:

renderbump models/yourfolder/yourmodel.ase or yourmodel.lwo

since I'm working with lightwave anyway I prefer lwo and I think it'd be best to keep everything in lwo - of course you can work with ASE since it's max native format, but I think it would be better to convert them to lwo later so that we have uniform file formats.

 

hope that helped

[PinkDot]

Thanks BT, it's more clear now but still I'm missing something (the same message..)

 

I have folder doom3/darkmod/models/renderbump

 

And there are files:

well.ase

well_hi.ase

well.mtr

 

material file looks like yours except the paths and filenames changed. Is it the right extension?

 

CODE

renderbump models/yourfolder/yourmodel.ase or yourmodel.lwo

shouldn't the path be "darkmod/models/yourfolder....". The same is in material file - the paths start with "models" not "darkmod/models...."?

 

The LP model has UVW mapping but I didn't create any maps yet. Is it important at this stage?

[BlackThief]

1)you have to place the well.mtr into doom3/darkmod/materials

 

2) no because when you launch the doom3 editor your shortcut should look like this:

 

D:\Games\Doom3\doom3.exe +disconnect +set r_gamma 1 +set r_brightness 1 +set r_mode 6+set r_fullscreen 0 +set r_multiSamples 0 +set fs_game DarkMod +editor

 

because of the "+set fs_game DarkMod" doom3 is already "working" in the directory "darkmod" and thus you don't have to write "darkmod/models.."