Jump to content
The Dark Mod Forums

Dave's Model Contributions


SneaksieDave

Recommended Posts

Are you seated? Prepare to be blown away. Hours and hours of work have brought to you this wonderous creation, the likes of which the world has never seen. You worried when Oddity departed? Well, worry no more. O, but do not be intidmidated, mundane one; with work, even you can hope to achieve these heights, someday. Perhaps.

 

For now, behold, and be in awe! See if you can spot the masterwork, for it so naturally blends into the image that you might think you are looking at a dream, or a photograph, stolen in time...

 

 

 

 

 

...Okay but seriously, a few things - does anyone know why it suffers a little from harsh lighting on the edges? Yes, it's just a cube. :laugh: Made in Blender and even UVmapped (I was happy about that, I'll admit). This is my first, so I don't know what considerations go into all of this. It's only 12 triangles as I figure, so does that make the lighting 'harsh', or did I leave out some vital step maybe? It's not smoothed, or anything like that. The textures are small, yes, but so is the object and it didn't warrant 2.1Mb of textures just for this, when the thing is so small you can't see the difference anyway. Oh, and on the positive side, something this simple doesn't need a handmade collision model. Just assign it to a moveable_base and you can play craps! (by picking up and dropping; don't throw or you'll be sorry!) ^_^

 

SH, let me know if I did anything wrong in submission, or if it's not working. It's ASE, so I uploaded as text, but I'm not sure that's the right thing to do... so far it seems okay. A whopping 12 polys!

post-58-1155736367_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It looks like vertex shading. Are you sure it wasn't smoothed in your 3d program? Or maybe you've converted it from another format and convertion changed the smoothing groups? Or maybe normal map is missing and doom engine smooths model by default? I'm not sure - just guessing..

 

But anyway - I was really shocked! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hm. In blender there seems to be an explicit smoothing button which I didn't use, and when I completely disable the normalmap (comment it out) in the material, it still shades "not so great." Vertex shading?

 

Now I'm trying something harder than a cube, and about to scrap my work and start over. Somehow the chainsaw and sledgehammer of DoomEd seems more forgiving. Haha ^_^

 

Edit: A general question - when modelling stuff, you can run into real difficulties trying to make every vertex be bound to another vertex within the mesh, somehow. Is this even necessary? Or can you have vertices just floatin' around in space attached to nothing but what they make up? For instance, if you were connecting some cross pieces in a window, is it necessary to have the crosspieces merge and connect to vertices within the windowframe? Or can you just stick the crosspieces in there, floating in air, and everything is fine?

 

Edit2: Ah! It seems you can. I looked at some of the LWOs (I can import, just not with materials). Well, that simplifies things a LOT. I was under the mistaken impression that everything must be interconnected, one unified object.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hrm, it seems it was not smooth shaded (you can see the difference in Blender easily) and I tried vertex painting white, but that didn't change anything either. Could it just be because of the simplicity, that is, there's only 2 tris per side, so the shading is necessarily simplistic as a result?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

it's a problem i've also seen before. You get a nastykind of shadow/smoothing near the edges of you models right? Smoothing with whatever setting (hard or soft) on ASE models doesn't seem to work that well or has no effect at all, at least what i've experienced in Maya. You still get that global smoothing thing.

 

That was one of the reasons i choose lightwave for final model format.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It makes no difference whether it is smoothed in Blender - when the ASE is loaded into Doom 3 it will be smoothed automatically unless you unweld vertices to prevent this.

 

This means in Blender you have to select each face, and press Y to "split" the face away from the mesh. To split a cube in this way you need to do this four times - top, bottom, left, right (and the last two will be split as a consequence).

 

As a hint, when modelling in Blender make sure smoothing is turned ON for the whole model, this will then simulate Doom 3's rendering and allow you to see what you need to unweld and what you don't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fixed, and much better. Thanks guys. ^_^

 

Hm, that smoothing thing is definitely a problem then; what if the model was 2000 faces instead of 6? Also, our arrows are ASE - ascottk, were you able to avoid this problem?

 

I'm going to look into seeing if I can force Blender to make use of D3 material paths, because otherwise I see no way to texture LWOs as an alternative - after an ASE export, one must manually edit it (which ASEs allow, and LWOs don't) to make it use the right material. Any further advice/tips are always welcome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hm, that smoothing thing is definitely a problem then; what if the model was 2000 faces instead of 6? Also, our arrows are ASE - ascottk, were you able to avoid this problem?

 

It's unlikely you would have a 2000 poly model that was supposed to be unsmoothed, but in this case there is a script that will help you - Mesh/Unweld as I recall, which allows you to unweld every face on the model. Normally you would select groups of faces that should remain smoothed, and unweld them from other groups if necessary.

 

I'm going to look into seeing if I can force Blender to make use of D3 material paths, because otherwise I see no way to texture LWOs as an alternative - after an ASE export, one must manually edit it (which ASEs allow, and LWOs don't) to make it use the right material. Any further advice/tips are always welcome.

 

Don't bother using LWO with Blender. There is some support for it, but it can be a right PITA trying to get things working correctly (in particular, Blender has a 19-character material name limit which isn't enough for a typical Doom 3 material name).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

(in particular, Blender has a 19-character material name limit which isn't enough for a typical Doom 3 material name)

Ugh, how stupid. Ah well, you've saved me some toil then. Good about the unweld script, and the notion that smoothing wouldn't be a problem so much for larger models (I have no perspective on much of this at this time).

 

One last thing bothers me a bit about this model. It hovers by 1/4". This seems to suggest that Doom3's smallest collision resolution is one grid unit (seems reasonable). This obviously can be a problem when items are this tiny, and/or smaller than one grid unit. So I have the following choices:

 

Make it smaller so it falls on the grid; then it's too small.

Make it larger so it falls on the grid; then it's too big.

Leave it as it is, and tolerate 1/4" of levitation.

 

:mellow:

 

 

Edit: although, about the material, I assume you could name it something short, e.g., in this case,

//base/dice

 

Edit: great tip on the unweld script. Worked. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One last thing bothers me a bit about this model. It hovers by 1/4". This seems to suggest that Doom3's smallest collision resolution is one grid unit (seems reasonable). This obviously can be a problem when items are this tiny, and/or smaller than one grid unit. So I have the following choices:

 

You could try creating a collision model manually by adding a second, identical cube textured with common/collision (or whatever it is). I find it hard to believe that there is a grid resolution in the calculations, but there may be one in the automatic generation of collision models.

 

Edit: although, about the material, I assume you could name it something short, e.g., in this case,

//base/dice

 

Yes you can, but it rules out using stock textures, collision or shadow meshes and the like.

 

Edit: great tip on the unweld script. Worked. :)

 

Excellent, I'm glad something finally worked in your Blender setup.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

*whimper* :(

 

Anyone want to try to skin a bell I made? I just can't get it looking good (obviously, see below (that's in Blender, so it doesn't have the D3 look exactly, but it's not much better, believe me)).

 

I can't find any useful materials for it; the UVmap isn't very precision-texture friendly, so I was trying a flat layout (which might look lousy no matter what); I apparently can't make use of the rather nice high poly version I made, because of stupid warping that happens around the bottom ring (among other places, but worst there). So it's this big disaster that's killing my spirit and stealing my time from doing anything more productive. Shower, for instance. (That's a joke - I mean for the mod. I'm obsessed with this damned bell! Set me free!)

 

This bell has kicked my ass for maybe two weeks now, and I've had enough of it. Rather than toss it, I thought I'd ask, because someone with the right skills might be able to make it look good in minutes. If anyone's interested, speak up.

 

Reminder to self: resize

 

 

Edit: And look at that!! Even as I submit my reply, I hear in the distance, one of my town's church bells chiming 11PM EST. It is mocking me! Damn you, bell!!! *shaking fist!*

post-58-1157165112_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heck yes. 3ds max's Unwrap UVW modifier doesn't do the unwrapping for you (at least it didn't in version 6 and I doubt that's changed); you still have to do it manually.

 

Unfold3D actually calculates the entire unwrap for you. Makes the whole process a lot quicker and the results are better than doing it by hand, provided you choose the seams well.

My games | Public Service Announcement: TDM is not set in the Thief universe. The city in which it takes place is not the City from Thief. The player character is not called Garrett. Any person who contradicts these facts will be subjected to disapproving stares.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Blender has live UV-unwrapping built-in, making Unfold3D unnecessary for Blender users.

 

Not only can you do an unwrap, move UV vertices around and watch the entire unwrapping adjust in realtime, but there is even a script which attempts to add seams automatically based on the angles between faces (as well as optimising the use of texture space by arranging the segments).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@ascottk: Okay, here it is. I think I did everything... UVmap... set up a material... scaled it up (a bit bigger than a builder guard overall). Let me know if I forgot anything. The zip contains an ASE and a UVmap. The brace part is fully unwelded, to help it look better in light of D3's automatic smoothing of ASEs, without having to subdivide like crazy. I could reweld it if you need (or I'm sure you could too). Also, if you need a better UVmap, just let me know (if you don't want to do it). This one was built with flat texturing in mind, so I understand if precision texturing needs a better setup. It currently has a single dummy material assigned. There's no CM as I don't know how to do that in a modelling app.

 

http://208.49.149.118/thedarkmod/models/bellset.zip

 

I'll probably still not give up on it completely (that OCD thing), plus I just got it to look a bit better by stealing the gold from our plate (better than this crap bronze I found online), but I'd still love to see what you can do with it. I also have a highpoly version with those ridge rings around it, if you'd like. It doesn't completely work well though.

 

Oh, and when we have something usable, we'll actually have two, because there's also a version without the wheelmount.

 

@Pinkdot: please, feel free. I'm sure it'll come out much better than mine. There's no reason we should have only one crappy bell, simply because I did it first. I'd love to see what you could make, and I'd surely learn from it.

 

@gleeful: Yep, as Orb was saying, the Blender unwrapper is quite nice. I guess my UVmap might be okay, or it might suck; I'm still learning. But the difficult thing is (and probably a good reason I shouldn't have made this an early project for me) is that a bell is both round and narrows as it goes, so it's distorted. Make the UVmap flat, and you'll need a distorted texture. Make the texture flat, and you need a distorted UVmap. Bah. I'll aim for more simple next time; it's disappointing that after I had all these grand plans for this thing, I can't get them working right. :mellow:

 

As an aside, I also have some question as to how to exactly pinch and distort a texture exactly, as the transform tools in PS seem... well, they don't do all that I'd expected they would. So either I'm ignorant of how to use them, or they kinda suck. :( If I needed to create a smooth arc of lettering (as in the above image), for instance, how the hell would I do that? I've found no way (thus, there is no detail scrolling along the rim of the bell). It seems to me there should be a tool that lets you lay one flat (or whatever) line as a reference, and then a second curved (or whatever) line, as the transform. Viola, a straight line of text is bent to a curve. If anyone knows how (or even if this exists) please throw me a clue.

 

 

Anyway. I think that's everything?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recent Status Updates

    • Ansome

      Finally got my PC back from the shop after my SSD got corrupted a week ago and damaged my motherboard. Scary stuff, but thank goodness it happened right after two months of FM development instead of wiping all my work before I could release it. New SSD, repaired Motherboard and BIOS, and we're ready to start working on my second FM with some added version control in the cloud just to be safe!
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer  »  DeTeEff

      I've updated the articles for your FMs and your author category at the wiki. Your newer nickname (DeTeEff) now comes first, and the one in parentheses is your older nickname (Fieldmedic). Just to avoid confusing people who played your FMs years ago and remember your older nickname. I've added a wiki article for your latest FM, Who Watches the Watcher?, as part of my current updating efforts. Unless I overlooked something, you have five different FMs so far.
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer

      I've finally managed to log in to The Dark Mod Wiki. I'm back in the saddle and before the holidays start in full, I'll be adding a few new FM articles and doing other updates. Written in Stone is already done.
      · 4 replies
    • nbohr1more

      TDM 15th Anniversary Contest is now active! Please declare your participation: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22413-the-dark-mod-15th-anniversary-contest-entry-thread/
       
      · 0 replies
    • JackFarmer

      @TheUnbeholden
      You cannot receive PMs. Could you please be so kind and check your mailbox if it is full (or maybe you switched off the function)?
      · 1 reply
×
×
  • Create New...